the internet needs my thoughts

Instead of studying for a physics exam, I'm going to make a list of awesome and hilarious things

-listening to emo music in order to make yourself cry

-c-team meetings

-babies

-chalk board paint

That's all I can really think of now. That's a pretty shabby list at the moment, but I will blame it on a long day of having to sit through a volunteer orientation for the hospital. And unloading the dishwasher.

--

edit at 2:09 pm on Tuesday

-hanging upside down

-trees

-coffee

-being home alone

it's been a while

I'm really tired.

how to not make twix bars

I had some leftover caramel from cupcake wars. Amelia suggested Twix bars. BRILLIANT IDEA! I looked up a recipe, gathered the ingredients, and we set to work.

It was a disaster.

Here are some guidelines we should have followed:

We probably should have let the first layer, the "shortbread cookie" cool entirely. Instead, being impatient college students, we rushed on after only a few short minutes in the fridge.

We probably should have followed the recipe for the caramel layer. Instead of cooking some condensed milk for an hour and a half like it said, we just melted the caramel candy I had and poured that on.

We definitely should have kept it all in the pan, rather than flipping it onto a cutting board (multiple times) and pouring the caramel all over it.

This is what happens when you don't do these things:

Shortbread cookie crumbling everywhere. Caramel sticking to wax paper, cutting boards, every knife we own, counters, hands, etc.

Not exactly what we were going for.

The next step was supposed to be covering it in chocolate. We had already melted a whole bag of chocolate chips, so naturally we had to proceed. Amelia had a stroke of genius.

"When in doubt, balls."

So we took handfuls of cookie and caramel and shaped them into balls (which was actually quite difficult due to the crumbly nature of the cookie and the affinity of caramel to hands.)

We rolled the balls in chocolate and voila! Twix balls.

Some of them decided to get creative and spread out, which was fine with me.

They actually turned out to be very delicious despite their appearance. And it can only get better from here.

being a hipster

After doing some research, I'm going to label myself a quasi-hipster. Sort of a suburban hipster, maybe? Here are my indie cred points:

1. Music. Even though I listen to mainstream music when working out or driving, I mostly enjoy random indie stuff. The more artists with strange names in my iTunes that no one has heard of, the better. Weaknesses include more popular ones like Coldplay and Death Cab for Cutie... although I can boost my cred by claiming that I like their earlier stuff and have EPs (oh yes, this is true).

2. Drinking a lot of coffee, because coffee is cool. Going to Shenandoah Joe and Para over Starbucks.

3. My room... black board paint, random vintage furniture, "cool" homemade artwork, mismatched sheets and pillows, etc.

4. Majoring in sociology...

5. Wes Anderson movies. Knowing the names of cool indie film directors.

6. Humor. Sarcasm and wit are key. Good use of abbrevs

7. Shopping at the farmer's market, making strange food creations.

8. "Female hipsters love to use Tumblr, Blogspot or Wordpress taking photos with their Holga cameras of cross-processed and "dreamy-like" pictures of themselves in a field, by the ocean, in forests, in their hipster rooms. Usually it is to express their desire for beautiful and soft vintage things that is reflected in their photography. A lot of them have pictures of their feet for some odd reason." ... so having a blog makes me a hipster!

9. Watching MTV, VH1, and other trashy TV shows just to be ironic

10. Working in an art museum, having an appreciation for art, searching the internet for cool photography and art

11. Reading William Faulkner and other classics for fun.

There are also plenty of things that make me not-so-hipster, such as:

1. Sperry's and Rainbow sandals

2. Having goals and plans for a "real" job, as well as a savings account (and retirement fund, haha)

3. Dressing pretty mainstreamish (with the exception of cool over the shoulder purses and vintage clothes from thrift stores and my grandmother.)

4. Driving a pt cruiser (SO uncool)

5. "You teach Sunday school"

6. I go to the gym

Stay deck, kids

fads that shaped my childhood

Today I received my first Silly Band. I'm not sure if that's the proper way to say it, if one is asilly band and many are silly bandz? Or is just one also a silly bandz? I don't know, but I hopethat the letter Z is slowly replacing S to make thingz plural.

This sudden fad of random crap rubber bracelets got me thinking about all the [material] thingsthat shaped my childhood, like these Silly Bandz are affecting kids today. So here's my list:

1. Beanie Babies

Beanie babies are great! I mean, they're an actual toy that you can play with. However, I think it's a bit obsessive to have about 200 (what were my parents thinking?!) My brother, sister and I had extensive lists where we determined which beanie babies were married to each other, and every once and a while there was a mass divorce and everyone got new spouses. I distinctly remember being fond of throwing them against the wall because I liked the sound the "beans" made. Some of them had those special plastic cases around the little cardboard heart nametag thing, to "protect" it.... how else would you remember its original name (Pinkie the flamingo, Quackers the duck, etc).

2. Crazy Bones

Who doesn't love little bits of plastic with weird faces?! I'm not sure what exactly I did with them, but I remember I had a prized glittery one, and my brother had one that was a whistle.

3. Pokemon

I know it's a game or whatever, but I just collected pokemon cards because I liked the pictures. Yes, I had the plastic pages to store them in. Favorites included Jigglypuff, Eevee, Vulpix, and my halographic Nidoqueen.

4. Power beads

Pretty much normal bracelets, but each of them had different meanings and characteristics that you were magically embued with when worn. I still have some, if you want any "courage", "love", or "friendship".

5. Slap bracelets

Pretty simple concept: you slap them on your arm and they wrap around it like a bracelet. Mine was zebra print. I remember I got yelled at and put in the "hot seat" during band in 6th grade because I slapped Andy Nadel with one. Clearly the band teacher didn't know that this was proper usage. It was very embarrassing.

There's so many more things I can think of, which might have to wait until a later date. I'm going peach picking tomorrow... aka making a peach pie tomorrow. So I need my beauty sleep.

things that are peculiar

Is it just me, or is it strange to go up to a complete stranger in the gym and ask them if they know any good 'inner thigh exercises'? Because this happened to me today. I'm not sure which I feel more unsettled about, being approached by a strange girl in the gym, or not actually knowing any good inner thigh exercises.

I also find it very odd that they call it "The Real World." Maybe I'm old fashioned and naive, but I had no idea the real world involved going out every night, hooking up with randos, living in a ludicrously decorated house with an array of roommates characterized by every stereotype, and not having a job. Despite this, I've always wanted to be on The Real World, but I know I'd never get picked because I'm too boring. Although Frances says I am a drama queen attract drama.

I think the producers at MTV also need to branch out. They're already repeating cities, why not pick somewhere new? How crazy would it be to see the cast of The Real World: Charlottesville hitting up the corner and then streaking the lawn... every night?!

And just so everyone is clear, I'm on a "my only follower just left his first comment" high.

lists

I really like making lists. There's something so organized about it. And it's so fulfilling to have a list and cross things off of it.

(This is where I insert a quote from my favorite movie that I related to, when Summer Finn says they used to call her "anal girl" in college... because she was very neat and organized.)

I've been accused of not actually "doing things," so here is a list of several things I am going to set out to accomplish in the near future:

1. Go peach-picking on Saturday morning and make a peach pie

2. Watch the rest of season 3 of Mad Men by Sunday (8 episodes)

3. Participate in a cupcake war on Tuesday

That's kind of a measly list, I thought it would be much longer but I excluded some less important goals (or intangible, such as 'raise iron levels'). Interesting how two of three involve baking. I'm just a regular Betty Draper.

Later, homeslice.