New England Adventures part 1

Good Morning!

It is about 9am in Massachusettes. It's rainy and foggy, but still about 45 degrees.
I've been getting up at 7am or earlier every morning since I've been out here.

On Saturday, Cat and I got up at 6am. We stayed at the Harring's house in New Hampshire so that we could get up early and climb Mt. Washington up to Tuckerman's Ravine. The New Hampshire house is high up in the mountains, so we got to throw wide the curtains on the wall to wall windows and watch the sunrise over the mountains. Gorgeous.

We made it to Pinkham's Notch, the entrance to the Tuckerman Trail, at about 7:30am. The weather was absolutely perfect. Sunny, clear skies and about 45 degrees the whole day. The hike was difficult since it was entirely uphill, but we managed to make it the nearly 4 miles in only about 2 hours. The hike down only took us about an hour. It was absolutely amazing though. I've never been in mountains like that before and it was breathtaking. You could just see mountains all around for miles and miles and miles. Amazing.

We made it back to the car and were on the road back to MA by about 11:30. We were pretty pleased with ourselves. And I wasn't even sore the next day! High fives!

That night we just tried to relax. We drove into Concord for dinner and just came back to the house, had a beer and went to bed.

Sunday we got up early with the girls and had a big breakfast of blueberry pancakes and bacon with the whole family. It was rainy and yucky yesterday, so we took the T into Boston and went to the Harlem Globetrotters game. It was everything I thought it would be. Kitschy, hillariously stupid and pretty sweet all at the same time. We only stayed until half time because Cat wasn't feeling well, but that's really all the Globetrotters you need.

When we got back, the girls decided that it was time to make cupcakes. Reiley and Alden picked out a recipe for Coconut Cupcakes with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting. They did a really good job following the recipe and working together. I was really impressed. I decided to add some lime zest to the frosting to kick it up a bit and the results were, of course, delicious.

Heidi and Vaughn made steak, roasted potatoes and steamed broccoli for dinner and it was phenomonal. We all sat around and had a few glasses of wine, then Cat and I played a card game called Garbage for a few hours and we hit the hay.

Now I'm just sitting in the play room. The girls are all at school. Cat is showering. We decided today since it is still rainy that we're going to go to the Concord Museum and the Orchard House, which is where Louisa May Alcott wrote Little Women. Exciting! Hopefully we'll be hot tubbing sometime this afternoon as well.

I'm having such a lovely time. It's been relaxing and fun. Heidi and Vaughn keep telling me what a good sport I am for hanging around with the girls, but really I'm having a wonderful time with them. Cat has one of the best jobs ever.

Now it's my turn to shower. I'll have pictures soon I hope.

Rain.

Rainy days are good thinking days.

I've had too many long empty days lately. Too many laying in bed all day in and out of sleep because I'm so sick I feel like I could check out at any minute days.

I realized I don't really have a lot to say lately. Not anything important anyways.

I sometimes wish I could mediate. I mean sure I CAN, but effectively. Instead of wasting my down time emptying my mind, I wish I could be learning to open it. There is so much still that I have yet to discover within me. It's frustrating that what is outside takes over.

I'm ready to get away. I'm ready for a new adventure in Boston. I'm ready for the familiar arms of my best friend.

I will do anything to be able to take Japanese this summer and study abroad at Temple next year. ANYTHING. That is all I need. That is the change that I need. It's a part of me and I need to be free again. I'm so tired of being restless. I'd love to yearn for this place again, but all I feel is the inability to leave holding me down. It's going to take a lot for me to say "I wish I were in Minneapolis." Probably a month away at least. We'll see how this little excursion into the unknown goes next week.

I envy all of my friends that don't have to work and can just focus on school. No one knows how badly I wish that could be me.

Sunshine.

I slept all day yesterday, waking only to visit the doctor, eat and shower. I'm luck to have 4 good friends living just 5 blocks away. Bill, Jay and Max took care of me all day, going so far as going to the grocery store for me and driving me home in my car and walking back to their house. Sometimes you really just need someone to take care of you to help you feel better. I'm grateful, because I feel much much better today. So thank you boys for being good friends.

I've been having a lot of strange dreams lately. I hope that some of them mean something.

It's nice to not feel anxious about anything for once. Decisions are just decisions. Life always takes different courses, but what really matters never disappears. This can easily be demonstrated by my friendship with Joe Zimmer. We met almost 12 years ago, right before I entered the 6th grade. He and his family moved in a few blocks away from me. Ever since then he's been in and out of my life, sometimes in bigger ways than others. Not to mention my friendship with Catherine. She's been in and out of my life for 5 or 6 years now, and we're still very close. In fact, I'm flying to Boston to visit her in a week! So I think I just need to understand that the important relationships will never completely disappear. Life is funny that way.

I'm going home at 2, cleaning and making cake. Hopefully I can bust it out rather quickly. I really wanted to make it yesterday but as previously stated I wasn't really up to it.

The next two weeks will be so busy. Then when I get home I expect to see Natalie! YOU HEAR ME!?! Haha.
Fuck it. I miss everyone.

FOODFOODFOOD

As many of you may already know, I am obsessed with baking and food.

That being said, my very good friend Mike has recently decided to experiment with veganism and in doing so has become very interested in cooking. So the other night, we decided to make MOCHI!!!



Now if you're unfamiliar with Mochi, it's a traditional japanese dessert made basically from sweet rice flour and sugar. We found a recipe on Vegan Yum Yum, my favorite new vegan food blog, that literally took us 10 minutes to make. I'm sure it's one of the newest posts, but it was a very lucky discovery since I had to make something for class and was having a hard time deciding what I wanted to experiment with.

It went over really well in class and we were pretty pleased with ourselves as well. It was our first time every making mochi, and we made our own Anko for the filling too (a filling made of sugary adzuki beans that is commonly used in a lot of japanese baked goods). Overall it was a good experiment.

I just wish that I had way more time, because I absolutely love baking and trying new things. This summer will be baking all the time, I promise!

This week is Peanut Butter birthday cake for Nick Dahl's birthday! Yay!

Still a 15 year old Boy.

Mike bought the Avatar Trading Card Game for us to start playing. Mike is 23. I am 21. We play Pokemon cards. We make Japanese food together. We watch Avatar. Now we will play Avatar. I have a Pokemon half sleeve tattoo. I buy toys on a regular basis. I work at a toy store in fact. I never grew up past 15. But like 15 year old boy 15, not 15 year old girl 15. This is one of my favorite things about myself.

I'm feeling very content lately. Being sick gave me a lot of time to reflect. I have a small plan I want to implement over the next few semesters here to make my life really sweet. We'll see if it actually happens, but I feel like I have nothing holding me back anymore. I've shed all of my fear. I'm ready to take on life.

I'd really like to take Japanese this summer. And study abroad in Tokyo next spring semester. I can do it. Why not? What better time than now? Before I decide to have a real life and settle somewhere. I feel like I've already been settled for so long. I don't like that.

I've been having some fucking strange dreams lately. I have no idea what any of it means. But I like to remember them because they make good stories. I should really start keeping a dream journal. I could write a mess of short stories with the fucked up lucid dreams I have.

The exhibition is over in 2 weeks. I get to see my BFF Cat in 2 weeks. I get to explore Boston and the east coast in 2 weeks. My life will be sweet in 2 weeks.

Also I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that I was recently compared to Che Guevara by one of my teachers. Um. Thanks?

I am a conquerer.

Designar?

I made a book for my class this morning. I sort of decided to do it last night on a whim. I had all the content but I didn't have a nice visual way to present it. I decided to make a little book to make the information a little more tactile. It felt really good to do. It was just a little extra work and it made the presentation of my material much more exciting than a word document. I decided that I want to do more assignments like that. It made me feel really accomplished and I was actually proud of what I had to show. Yay books!

I still can't stop fucking coughing today. It sucks big time. I'm so done with this stupid sickness. Quit it!

I could seriously listen to Billie Holiday all day every day forever. So good.

Only 3 more weeks til the exhibition is over and I'm off to Boston FUCK YES.

Lists.

Kitten gets twitchy when she sleeps.
I write stories about a photograph from 4 different perspectives.
I listen to Billie Holiday all day.
I miss Natalie.
I make pizza from scratch.
I don't feel like cleaning my house.
I'm lonelynotlonely.
I don't like washing my hair, but I do twice a week.
Kitten always steps on my laptop while it's open.
I wish I had a beautiful kitchen and lots of money to experiment with food.
I need to read some books.
I need to buy a book.
I should probably brush my teeth because I need to leave soon and I ate pizza.
I should probably finish my homework.
Let's call the whole thing off!
I love Billie Holiday.
My mom things that's weird.
I'm going to give Max a hair cut I guess.
I just want to hang out with Natalie.
I don't really know about anything I decided.
I forgot to close my window and it's been open for like 3 or 4 days now, but it hasn't been cold. It's been rather pleasant.
I can't find my travel mug.
Mike and I made vegan casserole and vegan banana chocolate chip bread last night. It was delicious.
I love cooking.
I need to work.
I tweet too much.
I don't really like ginger ale I don't think.
I need to be a good student.
I don't really know what I need.

I think I'm done blogging now.

Go back to the start.

I love the new Lilly Allen album. It's fucking fantastic. I keep listening to it over and over again at work. I'm pretty sure people are going to start getting real sick of me real quick.

Last night was silly. Alison's 21st birthday. We kicked ass at beer pong. I met some cool people. Had a good time. And people seemed to like the cake. I of course could find nothing but problems with it, but that's how I am with anything I bake. I'm just like my Grandma that way.

I'm feeling pretty alright today. Things are sort of just floating lately. But I'm kind of alright with that. I'm just going to be whatever I am. John Paul Sarte would high five me right now.

There's a new version of Pokemon coming out on the 22nd. Anyone want to buy it for me? Thx.

Tired eyes

I just drank a travel mug full of french press and my eyes are heavy and my head feels light. I've only been sick for a week and it already feels like an eternity. All I want to do is go back to sleep.

I would really like to snap out of my funk and become a fully functioning human being again. I feel like I've been a zombie at work and school and I'm not really doing a good enough job of things. I feel like I've been extra flakey and letting my friends down. I'm just so tired. I'm so so tired.

It was my Grandma Marlus' birthday yesterday. My brother and I went and visited her grave. It was strange. I still remember what she smells like. I still remember how she used to laugh. And call me skinny minnie. And baby girl. And hug me so tight whenever I came home to visit. And the way she would get so frustrated about everything and point her finger at you.
I remember holding her hand and telling her "I'm not worried Grandma. You're a fighter." That was the last time I got to see her.

It really doesn't seem like it's been almost 3 years. I miss her so much still. I feel like next time I go home she'll just be there with cookies and kisses and everything will be okay. I wish. I wish so hard.

Ugh. I want to be back in my bed with my kitten plz.