A Good Winter? Perhaps.

Hello Hello and Good Morning,

It's quite late (or early if you're the optimistic type) and I'd promised myself to go to bed somewhat early tonight/last night.

I asked my mother if she'd be so kind as to walk me to Walgreens tomorrow/later today since last time I went alone, I spent too much of my own money. With my mother tagging along, it's a guarantee she'll pitch in a bit for me. And how can one possibly spend too much of their own money at a drug store? Along with arts and crafts stores, dollar stores, and office supplies stores, pharmacies that have a large stock of useless stuff for purchasing while one waits for bottled remedies are all guilty pleasures of mine. I could spend hours at each.

The point being: for tomorrow/later today, I have planned for myself a grand excursion to the local Walgreens. The nearest CVS is in Rye (a.k.a. too far away to walk to) and I'd much rather be friendly to my environment and promenade to the next best thing down the street.

I was planning on purchasing, among other things, a Snuggie.

Now, if you are reading this and are unaware of what a Snuggie is:

1. I hope you've been enjoying the time you've been spending under a rock.

2. Please watch this before reading on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLXXCzvHzcI

and 3. Feel free to watch any of the parodies. "The WTF Blanket" is a pretty good one.

Anyway, assuming that everyone here now knows what a Snuggie is, I have only this to say:

I KNOW.

I am already aware that I will look like part of a cult

I am already aware that a Snuggie is simply a backwards robe

I am already aware that I could get the same effect by putting on a sweater and cozy pants

But they're just so tantalizing...

AND! They come in an awesome zebra design. Really, who could turn down an animal printed and sleeved blanket? Not I. So that's why I'm heading down to Walgreens tomorrow. If they don't have zebra print, I will not rest until I find a store that does. Also tomorrow, I'm hoping to rent a few good movies. And as much as I hate to admit this, I have recently realized my passion for romantic comedies. Or chick flicks. I simply don't care; they just tickle me pink.

So this very well deserved and anticipated Christmas break will be filled with movie-watching, Snuggie-wearing and hot-chocolate-drinking goodness. I don't even like hot chocolate. I just feel that it's very seasonal, and I'm in the mood for being seasonal. For some reason.

On a different note, I would love to share with you the GREATNESS that is Bon Iver.

If you already know who Bon Iver are, I congratulate you and allow you to skip ahead to the end of this entry. If not: again, that rock you've been living under, well, it must be cozy.

A while back, I urged my friend to listen to Bon Iver and alas, she never did. UNTIL, I sent her this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5Swa9CYgRk. Turns out she loves it and I couldn't be happier. It's a bit different than anything you'd hear on the radio, but that's what makes Bon Iver's music so special. One thing that did disgruntle me a bit, though, was that Bon Iver shared a track with St. Vincent on the New Moon (of the Twilight Saga) soundtrack. What scared me is not that they share a track with St. Vincent, but the fact that the track is on the New Moon soundtrack. Although the soundtrack is VERY VERY good, I'm scared of what kind of publicity artists like Bon Iver and Grizzly Bear will receive from this soundtrack. Since the Twilight soundtrack's release. Artists such as Muse, Paramore, and Iron & Wine have become way too - dare I say it - mainstream for me. Although, out of those three I just mentioned, I only really like Iron & Wine. Muse never quite had me in its grasp and frankly, I have no interest in Paramore; I never did.

But anyway, Bon Iver does deserve to be well known, though I'm scared of what will happen to them if and when they finally become well known. And so ends my music rant. By the by, here is the Bon Iver and St. Vicent track from the New Moon soundtrack: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXp4gB-bgjs. It really is very good; I just don't appreciate all those who claim they are fans of Bon Iver when this is the only song they know by Bon Iver. This and Skinny Love. IT'S NOT ENOUGH, PEOPLE. So I'll leave it at that.

Good day.

A New Epidemic

Now that the new school year's started, my already exhausted mind and lack of creativity leave little to write about. The workload is hard enough. Add onto that the stress of being away from home, being at a new school and finding it very hard to fit in. Transitions like these are never easy.

As I walk from my last class to my empty room, as I awaken my dormant laptop, as I surf my way to Blogger, as I click on the familiar tab marked "Posting", my mind is itching to be read. The blank box springs before me and the cursor blinks condescendingly: "You don't have anything to write about, do you?" Most times the cursor is right; my feeble mind trudges away in embarrassment.

Not this time, cursor!

It has been a while, I know, but here I am again. It feels good to be back.

I spend a bit of my time on the internet and that might be an understatement. Yesterday I was looking at the Featured Videos on YouTube and clicked on one that caught my eye. It was about using algae as biofuel. It was one of many videos posted by GOODMagazine. Here's their description:

GOOD - a platform for people who want to do well by doing good. We engage and challenge the people, ideas and institutions driving change in the world.

I took some time to look through some of their other videos and found this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3Q4vIm7YXg

Although it's highly far-fetched, it's a novel idea. If you skim through the string of comments that were posted on the video, though, you'll notice that most people say that this sort of thing already exists; it's called marijuana. The comments suggest that marijuana has the same effects on people that this virus would. They're probably right. Still, let it be clear: I am not advocating the use of drugs. But really, if something like this were to exist, the world would be a better place.

Excuse me while I head off to write about other corny subjects.

I don't plan on making grilled cheese sandwiches again any time soon

The simplest things make me angry.

 

Earlier, my mom told me to make grilled cheese sandwiches, one for me and one for her. Reluctantly, I agreed. This is a list of the things that made me angry:

 

1.     I looked all over the kitchen for the bread bag only to find that it had been on the table right in front of me.

2.     After a heated battle between me and the bread bag, I finally managed to get it open. The bread inside was smushed, and there wasn’t an even number of slices.

3.     I couldn’t find the cheese in the refrigerator. It managed to find a good hiding place behind giant bottles and containers at the very back of the fridge.

4.     I took out the butter in the fridge and noticed that it had been frozen, probably to preserve it. How was I going to spread frozen butter on crumpled bread?

5.     Instead of melting the butter somehow, I decided to wait for it to melt itself. 2 minutes and 9 seconds was enough.

6.     I SCRAPED the butter and hastily separated pieces of it over the bread.

7.     Our stove’s flame would NOT light so I had to go through a special maneuver to get it to do so.

8.     I placed the side with butter on the skillet and waited for it to cook. My impatience steered me away from the stove. As I began to close my eyes to shy away from my quickly growing anger, I heard my mom yell that my sandwich was burning. I went to check… the bread hadn’t even browned.

9.     I can’t cook. This was probably the reason why small pieces of bread and cheese kept sticking to the skillet. Each burned piece made it harder to flip the sandwich with my spatula.

10. Then I tried putting butter in the pan to melt instead of placing pieces of it over the bread. This didn’t work either.

11. I came to the last “sandwich”. I only had one piece of bread

 for it. I had to wrap a piece of smushed bread around a slice of cheese. It didn’t work out too well. The only good thing, though, was that the butter was a bit more thawed by then, so I spread it on the bread.

12. After I made 3 ½ sandwiches. I realized that my mom had only asked for one. She’d asked me to finish all the bread. So I ended up having to eat 2 ½ sandwiches (1 ½ sandwiches too many for my small stomach). Then I realized that I didn’t have any bread left for the sandwich I’d have to make for tomorrow’s lunch.

 

The end result was a pile of badly cooked grilled cheese sandwiches, burned pieces of bread and cheese in my pan, an overstuffed stomach, and a concern about what I’d be having for lunch tomorrow. I know it probably won’t be a sandwich anymore. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches comfort me. What else am I supposed to have for lunch?

The things that made me happy:

1.     The sandwiches were actually pretty delicious.

 

My one piece of advice:

1.     Never make a grilled cheese sandwich if you get stressed easily… unless you’re into that sort of thing.

Harmony

Although Jason Mraz has been around for a while, he wasn't as popular as he is now until his song "I'm Yours" starting playing on the radio. At first I loved the song, but one can only a hear a song so many times before getting sick of it. Anyway, this video made me cry the first time I saw it. I can't describe how amazing it was to watch an indigent person's simple and monotonous playing serve as the impetus for Mraz's musical genius. It's so great to see how two totally different people can bond over something as simple and beautiful as music. One last thing: notice Mraz's shirt. Irony. If anyone finds that on the internet or something, please tell me! I'd love to get one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKaTF_1MG-A&feature=channel_page

It's Never Too Early to Talk to Your Kids...

Sex is a heavy topic, and there is always a certain time and place that's more appropriate than others for its discussion. But my mom is such an exception that talking about sex at a Dunkin' Donuts seems normal and is maybe even expected of her.

As I walked into the Dunkin' Donuts with my parents at either side of me, the familiar fried-dough scent quickly made its way to my nose and brought back memories of when I was younger and would have to sit there for hours listening to my parents argue and ramble about who knows what.

I played with the sprinkles on my strawberry frosted donut and sipped at my Orangina when my thumbs weren't frantically stroking the keys on my phone. My friend did the same from the West Coast. My phone chimes every time I receive a new text message and after about the 30th chime that same hour, my mom asked me who I was "chatting" with so much. I told her it was my friend and she asked me if it was the curly haired boy that kept hugging me at my graduation. It wasn't, but my mom saw this as the PERFECT opportunity to talk about sex. Of course, she didn't directly ask me if I was still a virgin (which she has tried before) but we drifted from talking about serious relationships that would or could lead to marriage to accidental pregnancies.

If you could picture a bird's eye view of the scene: my mom, my dad, and me all at one small table with crumbs strewn all around us. My mother and me gesticulating wildly, faces red in disagreement. My dad's face red with embarrassment, staring frantically out the window as if a reason for changing the subject was just past the glass. Hours passed like this. We got nowhere.

The only thing I took away from our conversation was that my mother and I disagree greatly on almost everything, and sex was no exception. The only thing that made her proud of me today was that "yes" was my answer when she asked me if I wanted to wear a white dress to my wedding. I don't think she understood, though, when she asked me if I would be having sex every night at college and I replied "not every night...". But, if I were to be deflowered before the day of my wedding, I would still wear white. I look good in white.

Granny Panties: Do or Don't?

Being at a boarding school is totally hard! You hardly see your family, and it's hard to get adjusted to a new place. Well, I went home this past weekend, and my mom surprised me with a gift!

 

Mom - "Hey! Guess what I brought you?"

Abi - "What, mom, what?!"

Mom - "THESE!"

 

To my surprise/disgust she pulled out three pairs of GRANNY PANTIES! Each one was a different color: sky blue, pink, and lavender (Woohoo). I said, "Mom, those are totally granny panties!” and she said, "What? These aren't for your grandma, silly, they're for you!" Oh, mother. I had to explain that granny panties are TOTALLY not stylish. Then she got upset! She said, "Whoa, girl, what do you want... THONGS?!” and sarcastically I said, "Yes, mom, def." So of course, since my mom is Spanish speaking, the conversation went like this:

 

Mom – “Que quieres, tangas?!”

Abi – “Si, mama”

Mom – “Oh, entonces quieres hilo dental*?”

Abi – “Si!”

Mom – “Pues lo puedes encontrar en el baño.”

*(“hilo dental” is slang for “thong” and it also means dental floss in Spanish)

 

 

Haha, if you didn’t get that, here is a translation:

 

Mom -  “What do you want… THONGS?!”

Abi – “Yes, mom.”

Mom – “Oh, so you want floss?”

Abi – “Duh!”

Mom – “Well, you can find some in the bathroom”

 

Anyways, she angrily took the granny panties back, and I do admit feeling bad about making her feel bad. I tried to make her feel better by telling her that I would wear them on weekends since they are comfortable (they really are!), but she refused, taking her elderly undergarments with her. I don’t feel too bad about it all, and it was totally a funny experience.

Self-Welcome

I'm Abi!

I have never blogged before.