Finals Forts

Finals forts are forts that you make in your apartment to take finals in because a fort is magical and nothing bad happens in a fort. Therefore, if you take a final in a finals fort you will get an A because everything inside the fort is magical. I made a sort of finals fort this year, more of a finals nest. I think it worked mostly well. Basically there's no make-up allowed, though you are encouraged to shower before nesting, you have to be distracted with some kind of boy problem, and you have to be mostly "productive" while updating Facebook statii, cursing various problems in your life at random intervals, ask every passing roommate to fill up your glass of water, and you also have to wear some kind of loungewear, buttons are sooo not allowed.

No faces are allowed in this picture because of the no make-up rule. 

Everything I need to know I learned in Kindergarten

So. My old elementary school is going to be demolished and the kids are all moving to this new location. But let me tell you, the old location is AWESOME. Imagine waking from a dreamy sleep, getting ready for school, the driving down the windey canyon road while you try to spot the horses and cows grazing on the hills. Emerge into a small opening and take a turn up the hill onto Lilac Lane (what a name right?), then jump out of the car with the backpack over one shoulder as you race the bell to class. This quaint school gives the only pocket of small town feel left in Orange County. Today I went back and visited my teachers and took pictures at the school. They all marveled at how much we'd grown (It's been like 8 years. . . do they really expect me to still look like a 6th grader?). But wow, what a beautiful school. This elementary school is the foundation for so much of my life; it's here that I heard my first Harry Potter book, perfected my 2'n'boot skills, and learned what being kind to everyone means. I can walk through that school and recall experiences that I still draw from today. Whatever. It's always going to be a dream from my past, never tainted by overcrowding, portable classrooms over my dodgeball court, or the alarmingly smaller size I witnessed today. Bless my miniature self that saw a bigger world. 

Forgive the wind blown hair. It was like a tornado out there. Now my hair smells like wind. CAN YOU IMAGINE GOING TO SCHOOL HERE? It's literally something from a dream.

Ironic Names

So my family got two new dogs. Their names are Shyla and Bella. Josiah was introducing them to me and he was like, "This is Shyla, she's the darker one. This is Bella, she's the helpless one." Oh how perfect. It reminds me of another Bella I've heard of. Josiah said they threw a treat to her and she just let it hit her face. Even Princess Brookie calls Bella a diva. We were all petting Shyla and ignoring Bella on purpose and Bella got all crazy and was licking our legs and putting her head all over us and was jumping on us and was super jell that we weren't giving her any attention LOL love it when dogs have personality. We once had two dogs named Cooper and Maverick named after the father and son pair in the movie Maverick. Those dogs were quite the pair. Cooper turned out to be quite the daredevil and Maverick was just the prettiest dog and was the biggest tease and the easiest to love. This is his crazy picture: 

I love my puppies. 

My dog Chip

This is my dog, Chip. 

He recently left us and went to what my mom called the happy lizard hunting grounds in the heavens above. Bless him.

This dog was talented. He could hold up to 3 tennis balls in his mouth and still let out an intimidating bark. He could carry a wide range of long stick like things from small saplings to palm fronds or banana tree leaves.

It was difficult to find a picture of him standing up because every time someone gets close to him he lays down and waits for you to scratch his stomach. Then when you rub his tummy his leg starts kick and he could literally dig a hole in the ground if you rubbed long enough.

One of his favorite pastimes was trying to catch lizards that crawled into little holes in the dirt. He would dig with his paws and then bite the dirt with his mouth and would stick his nose down inside and get all dusty.

Bless Chip.

Yes, I'm Literally Hanging Off a Cliff

I despise cliffhangers. A whole lot. They mess up my whole internal system of right, wrong, shifts in moods, resolution, anxiety intensity apprehension conclusion resiliency rest and endings! I can't even believe the nerve if these writers. Here I am, investing time and emotion into this tv series, probably like 10 hours of my life, and they go through all these episodes with some common conflict and they make progress to solving the issue the whole season. Then my blood pressure spikes during the last Two Part Finale (seriously? two parts? let's be for real). So I have to wait for two videos to buffer because there's no way I'm leaving the damsel in distress. It goes against everything I've ever known. So I start the second one and try not to hide my eyes from the scary parts. Then it gets resolved, cue gentle music and montage of memorable moments with the dead main character. Then, before the last commercial break, they briefly introduce a new character then BAM! New conflict. Can I not have like 10 minutes to believe that the world is good and right!?! Can I not mourn for another character lost before I am thrown into the heaping pile of problems that comes with the next episode!?! It's appalling. I'm appalled. Then! In the next season! The very first episode before the first commercial break, the conflict is resolved and the hours I spent speculating and reasoning and arguing and defending over the summer are wasted by one writers sorry yet effective effort to draw me in for another season.

Tribute to my fave cliffhanger: RAB. Brilliant. And I found out what it was before Harry did. Just thought you should all know. Great thanks bye.

Ho Cho

The Hot Chocolate Count is up to 2. Accompanied with a total of 3 timmie tammies. Christmas music is in full force. Don't tell me to celebrate Thanksgiving first, I choose to celebrate two holidays simultaneously. And with the rise in use of social networking sights more and more people just want to complain about something. I, however, choose to do it just a little more discretely through my blog. An obvious step up. It's still too early to start a paper chain for when I get to go home.

The First Cup

Hot chocolate is like the best midnight or anytime snack limited to the winter season. It takes a total of 2 seconds to prepare, as long as you want to devour, and is often paired with a tim tam cookie, or two, because the serving size is two cookies for a total of 190 calories who knew? But if you have more than two cookies then there will be so much sugar in your brain that you won't be able to sleep let alone role your lethargic body out of bed the next morning. Hot chocolate is the best thing about winter. Possibly the only good thing. Except for the snow and how it canceles out all other sound. How? I don't know. But we need a sound engineer (I just learned they exist tonight) to figure it out for us. I just had my first cup of hot chocolate for the season and it was heavenly. Anyone wanna have hot chocolate with me, ehhh lemme know because I am so down to celebrate, acknowledge, tolerate, the winter season? No, wait for snow with you. But if we have hot chocolate together know that I will also call you to help me make a snowman. But I'll give you a tim tam therefore making it worth your while. Glad we had that talk.

Adele's Contributions to the World

This is the time of year to reflect on entering people's houses uninvited. I think you could enter any house uninvited, totally randomly, and with no really connection to the persons residing there if you sing, in a smooth strong voice, "I hate to show up out of the blue uninvited but I couldn't stay away, I couldn't fight it." So then you get one of two reactions: You're right, you should not have come, you don't even have any connection to anyone in this house, and though your voice is like cream mixing with hot chocolate, get off my lawn, you're a little cracy. OR: Wow, I don't need to know anything else about you after hearing that short ditty falling from the mandibles of an angel, welcome to my home, eat anything you want. I wish for you the latter.

Halloween and it's Potentially Awkward Genesis

This is my question. For the first few years of Halloween, when the traditions weren't so set in stone, was it awkward to go to other peoples' houses and ask for candy? It's the first year some crazy man had the idea to trick or treat so he puts something in the newspaper so hopefully the whole city will read it and be prepared. And everyone knows about it but some people are like, "No way, I'm not doing that. That's lame."And nobody really knows if it's a good idea or not, nobody knows if it will catch on, nobody knows who will look stupid, the people who do it or the people who abstain. Maybe it took a few years for the tradition to catch on? Maybe it's still a little weird? Yes. It's still a little weird. Maybe that guy should be honored for pushing the city to do something it really didn't want to do then spreading it through the whole of the United States and now we're all out $40 for candy each October. No, should not be honored.

ENFJ

So I've taken a couple personality tests recently and they tell me I am a good people person. I guess I should really be asking all of you, the people, if I'm a good people person rather then taking some test through my computer. . . We can discuss the results and their statistical predictability later. But if I am indeed a people person then I should be good at certain things after so many years of life. Like being able to say hi to someone who I pass who says hi to me rather than be surprised and only have enough time to warm up my vocal cords and choke out a grunt that says I am an idiot and never learned how to pronounce my words. Or I say some combination of hello and hi, like hei. Or hilo. So I'll work on that and get back to you.

Pie

So my dear mother has a pie blog. This means she makes a lot of pie. Is this the worst time to be living away from home? Yes. Do I wish she would come here and make me a pie? Yes. Did I have a dream the other night that she sent me a pie in the mail and it was the best day of my life? Yes. Did she let me post about my very own pie experience on her very own blog? YES! So honored. Soooooooo check it out: Jongewaard's Bake N Broil.

Appalling

I have a couple friends. I know some cool people. These people follow the normal curve of normalcy where 2 standard deviations away from the mean percent of the time they do the craziest things or say the weirdest things or are just so not normal that I find myself saying, "I can't even believe you are doing this right now." They often respond with, "Uhh, ya you can."And then I follow up with, "You're right. I can believe that YOU are doing this right now. I'm not even surprised. I'm just appalled. You would do this. And I can believe it. But you're crazy." That happened again tonight. Actually, I think it happened twice today. . . I will not reveal the names or specific circumstances to protect the names of the guilty.

Cheesesteak

It's 10:55 pm on Monday night and all I want is a Philly Cheesesteak from Pat's King of Steaks. I want one really bad. Too bad it's actually located in Philadelphia. It all started when I read the article about the new temple in Philly then I remembered when I went to Philly then I looked through my pictures then I saw me sitting on a stoop eating a cheesesteak then I remembered the faint grilled onion and cheese whiz aroma and then I just wanted to eat a cheesesteak because IT WAS SO GOOD. I still can't even believe how good it was. Possibly the most stress I've ever experienced while ordering food but it was worth it.

To get to this place we first walked to Edgar Allan Poe's house, which he actually only lived there for like a month. We got some vague directions from the museum lady and got on a bus hoping it would take us to the right place. We told the driver where we were going and he was like ya, I'll let you know when to get off. Bless. Then we got off in a sketchy part of innercity Philly and walked half a block staying really close together to avoid mugging, yes in the middle of the day have you ever even been to Philly, and then we turned the corner and beheld the great cultural, culinary, and family feud landmark. After we downed some delectable cheesesteaks we walked in a direction, still not sure which, and found a playground concert from a local band called the Bumblebees or something. Then we continued walking and found a cool outdoor market, feared for our lives again, never found the waterfront, but saw some cool art. 

This is Geno's. He is the other brother. They made a hotdog stand then expanded and split up on two opposing street corners. When you walk in between them you can feel the tension of lingering resentment and can feel the steak dilemma: chopped or sliced. 

Innercity park concert w/ the world renowned Bumblebees. Those pictured are not the Bumblebees but are locally renowned best D.C. friends and Philly adventure extraordinaires. 

Cheese up the wazoo.

Chocolate house? Yes, please. Like it's my hometown. 

Probably funded by some earmark on a defense bill or something. 

So this wall is just all glass and shells or beads and it's just in this random alleyway. I obviously had to take a picture and tilt my head. 

Cheesesteak #FTW

Quote Wall Origins

Roommate bonding. Are there two sweeter words in the english language? Probably. But, these two words burst dams of emotions that overflow our minds with vivid memories of late night ramblings and stressings and laughings and yellings and teasings. For those who have not yet had the joyous pleasure of roommate bonding, I implore you to bake a dozen cookies, put on your pajamas, and talk. Just talk. You could even do this in the middle of the day, it's fine, as long as there are one or more roommates present. I don't really know what boys do, probably not the cookies, probably like get out your dumbbell set and grunt then say something deep and nod approval. . . I can only assume it's just as effective and therapeutic, whatever you dodo. As for topics of discussion for my girls, it's probably boys. I fact, I would postulate that any roommate bonding has some kind of connection to a story about a boy. It is just so necessary, this roommate bonding. SO cathartic. The very definition of cathartic, in fact:

1. providing psychological relief through the open expression of strong emotions; causing catharsis : crying is a cathartic release.

New mattress. Whaaaaaaaaaaa??????????

Surreptitious

Noise canceling headphones, or any headphones for that matter, are awesome because you can listen to music and nobody can hear it. You can be having the hugest party in your head and NOBODY KNOWS. They don't even know that they should be super jealous of you and the the GREAT time you're having. In your head. #JustinBieber #JohnMayer #LOL

Ehhh Ze Warm

We are fortunate enough to live in an apartment with roommates who are ok with a queen mattress sized love sac nick named "the worm" inhabiting our front room. This is one piece of furniture that demands attention and I feel, in my heart, that it will be the subject matter of many a post to follow simply because it is large and in charge and we may not actually be able to remove it from our apartment. We picked it up from across town in this pickup and had to maneuver it up 4 half flights of stairs and through 3 doorways. It was like trying to move a gelatinous blob weighing about the same as 5 4th graders that can't really keep one shape. If I were to classify it at room temperature I think I would call it jello. Jello can't committ to go through a doorway, it's always trying to come back out and roll down the stairs and pick up all the nasty from outside. I'm sure you have all experienced this before. SO. Then we take off the cover to wash it because "you never know where that's been" and though there was an encasing inside, we still got little foam bits everywhere. Now to the future tenets: don't worry about the ever present pink dust, it's fine. Just be cool.

Stacks of Books

Barring any unfortunate and unforeseeable circumstances, I have started my last Fall semester of my last senior year. Bless. It was so easy to get into a routine this time. I knew exactly what stairs I was going to take, knew where I was going to take my bathroom breaks, knew where to find friends, knew where I was going to warm up my lunch, knew what areas to avoid, knew where I was going to eat my lunch, knew where to go to get a short study stint in. It feels like I never left. Except that I haven't had to pay attention to anything longer than an hour for the last 3 months. Sooooo the last 4 hours of school today I was super fidgety. I couldn't hold still. This will take practice. Give me to the end of the semester and I will be able to focus for like 5 hours straight and be totally productive. What a monster. So this evening I couldn't take it anymore and I went on a run around campus. Whilst running through the housing areas I had 2 groups of freshmen boys yell at me, saw like a MILLION budding romances, and 2 people practicing some kind of martial arts but not together. Then it was too hot in my apartment so I walked around outside and waited for it to start raining.

Smells Like Summer

These people are really getting me with the cucumber scent. Don't ask me who "these people" are. I don't know. But what I do know is that cucumber smells like SUMMMMMMMMMER. When Sarah and I went to Circa and got a TON of free food one of them was a drank made of cucumber and rosemary and some other inconsequential stuff. But! It was so good. Really really good. Really really really good. Really really really really good. You get the really good idea. Then Rachel and I went to Founding Farmers again and I got the cucumber strawberry cooler. Also wonderful. It was after that experience that I decided cucumber is like putting summer in a drink. Cucumber tastes like summer. But wait! There's more. I bought new deodorant. I bet you can guess the scent. That's right. Cucumber alo. Oh buddy. Just set me on a beach chair anywhere on the pacific coast between longitudes 117 and 119 degrees. Then I had to restock my soaps/lotions etc and I got another cucumber alo lotion. Same brand. Just buy me the box set. And now I have suspicions that I smelled some cologne today with a cucumber scented base. I can nail cucumber scent anywhere now. Just send me to the state fair as a cucumber smelling spectacle.

Tribute

Cody is my older brother and it's his birthday today and I can count on him for anything anytime. Tonight we went to dinner a las Texas Roadhouse because BBQ sounded good to the 20 something year old man. So he got this steak and could not believe how good it was. I think he almost cried. He gave this great soliloquy about how really good food is good to the last bite, no diminishing marginal returns to speak of. He is also super passionate about fresh powder. The pow pow. Shreddin' up the sickie sickie gnar gnar. Whatevs. But Cody will weep at the sight of freshly falling snow if it means he'll be up on the mountain the next day riding through it. I think that's pretty cool. And he laughs at my jokes. AND I think he's pretty cool. So happy birthday to my older brother, Cody. Love you!

The Peanut Gallery

Tonight we had family home evening. I love this time with my family most times we do it. We have so much fun together. But tonight it was hot and I had something in my eye and the newly appearancedededed bug bites were making sure I didn't forget about them. But I forgot how FHE is actually a wrestling match, no matter how hard we fight it. And I mostly love that. Tonight was harder. But they are just SO funny. I told Eli to get off my bed today and then he was like, "It's not your bed, you sleep in the corner." Then I laughed and he said, "You know the rule is that if I do something bad then you laugh then I'm not in trouble." Huh. Ok. Maybe. Yes. True. You're right. So when we tell Josiah to sit down for like the 8th time then Dad calls for any lessons and Josiah stands up and says, "I have a lesson on self defense. Eli, come here," I'm not even mad that they are wrestling again, I'm mostly just impressed and laughing. So they're not in trouble.

Global Warming

So after the east coast humidity and heat any other weather feels like heaven. Like right now, this very second, I feel like I'm in Hawaii. It's evening time and it's August and a little cold so I have my snuggie on but no socks and I feel GREAT. It's blowing my mind right now! And it may be a little humid here but it's not the sticky weigh you down like your last ex-love kind of nasty. It's a, "Oh, hey. It's kinda wet out here. Must be because we're in a cloud, or maybe the water is blowing from off the crashing waves at the ocean." Like, who decided to build D.C. on the east coast?

La Playa

Oh man. I could be content, for the rest of my life, if I just napped on the beach all day. I just need a cute swim suit, a big towel, a cool ocean breeze, the hot sun warming my skin, and the sound of the waves to lull me to an unparalleled state of relaxation. I did some of that today. And I would be content with that unless I knew there was something more. . . and I do! S'mores! Maybe not better than sun warmed skin but a definite rival. But the bane of my existence is 3 perfectly roasted marshmallows that cool down too quickly and do not sufficiently melt the chocolate bar. Killing me. It's like I know perfection is out there and I just can't grasp it. Someday. But today, I'll just bundle up at the beach and watch the sun set behind the Pacific Ocean while I remember the great base tan I got just a few hours earlier.

AAAAAAAAAAnd I'm back

If you'd like to see what I've been doing the past 3 months please check out mindblowingdcadventures.blogspot.com. I. Loved. DC. The Barlow center was a madhouse sometimes but there's something to be said for living in a building modeled after a stake center. . . I don't know what that something is. . . I'd rather not think about it. The last morning I got up and had to go to Trader's to get some stuff and it was kinda cool outside and I couldn't help but swing my hands dramatically back and forth as I sauntered on over. When our shuttle was driving away I couldn't help but soak in all the greenery as we drove alongside the Potomac river. If there is anything called Potomac fever, I have it. And it's not a disease you get from drinking the water while kayaking around Roosevelt Island; it's a certain nostalgia for the bums that play trumpets, the restaurant on every corner, the plethora of food trucks, and the exciting political climate. It will bring me back. That's why I still have my metro card.

Ionic Columns

I have made a development in my internal battle. I will now describe to you my progressive enlightenment: The very fact that these buildings are open to the public, that they are widely used by the public, and that they are not seen as works of art but as ways to preserve history is a good thing. It is the history within the walls that makes each painting and ornate ceiling beautiful. Both old and young people walking through the halls are equally enriched and enlivened to our wondrous history. Hopefully they are infused with the notion that our government is a miracle.

Corinthian Columns

Antiquated is the word of the first two weeks, and it gives me the chills. I am struck by the beauty and grandeur of these edifices. I understand the history and symbolism. But when I tell people that a statue symbolizes freedom, what does that really mean? We can have as many symbols as one portrait will contain, but if they are not reflected in our world then what good are they?

I don’t want our ideals to turn into antiquated buildings that house statues and paintings with placards telling a historical story with such abhorrent bias. We can’t forget those stories and leave them in the past or their lessons will have no place in our lives today.

How can such noble ideas of the founding trickle down to every day-to-day action of the people who represent that founding? I look up and see paintings and statues of our great history then look down at each letter that passes through my hands. Maybe it’s unproductive to compare a universal to an individual unit of analysis. Maybe that will leave more room for exploration?

In any case, my former stance as an inactive participant won’t fly here. And yet, how can you quantify success when it is measured in terms of spreading an idea? Another question. This topic is one of musings and no conclusions. How frustrating.

The Groove

“Dude, you threw off my groove.” Not as farfetched as one may think. Grooves make me feel comfortable and in CONTROL of my life. Life means you don’t have as much control as you thought you did. And living out of the groove means that I can get hit from the most unlikely of directions from any variety of curve balls. It means that if I don’t pick up my feet when I walk then I WILL trip. It means that if I want to wipe off my cart at the grocery store with the complimentary Clorox wipes then I won’t be able to because I can’t get it out of the bottle (even though it’s right there). Also, it means that squash does not belong on a shish kebob skewer (who knew).

“Did I miss something? This seems neurotic.”

What? I’m fine. But here’s what’s really up. When life gives you a bump or a secret ingredient you have no idea what to do with then you throw it into the mix and make that interruption the best part about you life. Some may say, “What’s the huge dent in you car?” Then I say, “Not only did I mean to do that, but I can now fit into the teensiest of dark allies because of the 1 inch now absent from the right side of my car.” And I’m on my way to reaching my life long goal of becoming a spy. Conclusion: Grooves, though comfortably, are entirely unnecessary and may even be a hindrance to a happy and full life.

“Wonder what the chances are you’re right . . ..”

Dindale, Mark. 2000. The emperor’s new groove. Walt Disney Pictures.

Sometimes I Feel Like a Little Kid

Sometimes I feel like a little kid. Especially when my pants are just a little too short and the pant leg gets stuck behind my double knot of my sneakers. It’s a big knot because I don’t know how to tie that one special knot that doesn’t come untied. I also feel like a little kid when I call my mom and tell her every part of my body that aches. Generally these pains are the result of some inconsequential bump or the ramifications of an increased lack of movement. I also feel like a little kid when I make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch and then put in my backpack with my apple. But it’s not the sandwich that makes me feel like a little kid; it’s the inevitable circumstances to follow. When I get the sandwich out for lunch it’s super squished with an apple shape in the middle and jelly leaks all through the bread. That makes me feel like I’m in elementary school and I need the lunch lady to come over and help me put my straw in my Capri Sun so I don’t squirt it everywhere.