If I catch on fire...

If my body is found one day burnt to a crisp, and the detectives and fire department say it was spontaneous combustion, don't believe them. Point them in the direction of the silver Vidal Sasson hair drying lying inches from my toasted hair.

I own three hairdryers. Three. One is an old compact travel hairdryer. Another is one that I used for a long time but apparently it and its diffuser attachment had a blow out (baaaahahaha, GET IT?!?!) and broke up, so now they will not stay attached when I decide to go with a curly hairstyle. So that leaves us with hairdryer number three.

Shortly after buying this one, I noticed a "clicking" noise that would happen every so often while I was drying my hair. One day I was facing the mirror while using it and saw a small flash of light go off above my head. I was a little concerned and then noticed it again. The clicks corresponded with flash of light. A spark inside the hairdryer.

Now, normal people would probably quit using theirs if this happened. Its probably not safe to have electrical sparks that close to your flammable hair. But see, this is the newest of the three hairdryers. It should be the one that works the best. So I am stubbornly refusing to quit using it.

The sparks may have something to do with the lint-y hair-y trap thing at the back of the hairdryer. In most of these appliances, you can remove the trap cover and clean it out. I have tried every possible way to do this but the cover is impossibly attached to the hairdryer so it is stuck collecting lint and strands of hair. Which probably feed directly into the fan or motor or magical electricity thingy mabobs inside the appliance, leading to sparks.

Anyway, the moral of the story is, every morning there is a slight chance I will catch myself on fire. No pain no gain. Beauty is pain. I like to live on the edge. Or something like that. If anything happens to me, I will give my hairdryer (s) to the first person to ask for it. Ready, set.......go!

What? No takers?

inked!

In honor of my amazing mother and her courageous fight against breast cancer (she kicked it's BUTT), my sister and I joined her this past weekend in getting tattoos. She wanted to cover up her scars with something, so we told her we'd get pink ribbon tattoos at the same time as a way to support her.

So when mom healed enough, she picked out a tattoo artist in Corvallis and made us appointments. For this reason, the majority of my Easter Sunday was spent in a tattoo parlor. Mom and I went right there after church and she got started a while later, after our lovely tattoo artist, Denise, drew up a beautiful stencil. Mom has been saying how the scars are numb so she didn't think she'd be able to feel anything. I thought she would still be able to feel something, but after TWO HOURS of work, she was done and didn't feel a thing! This actually made me more nervous for mine because I had no idea what to expect since she had no reaction!

Megan came by after putting Sierra down for a nap, and got there as mom was finishing up. She decided to get a tattoo on her foot and got started next. Denise again drew up a lovely stencil and got started. Megan definitely was wincing and reacting to the pain, which somehow was comforting knowing she wasn't crying or screaming out in agony. But then it was my turn....

I had been going back and forth on what exactly to get and where to get it. I had originally wanted a small pink ribbon on my ribcage kind of over my heart. But then I thought maybe I'd want it on my ankle. Then I thought maybe I'd want to incorporate something else into the tattoo...a bible verse, other images, etc. Well, right before I was set to be inked, I finally decided I'd just go with my original idea. She drew up a simple pink ribbon for me and before I knew it I was lying on the table waiting nervously to get started. She put the ink stencil on me and it looked like the size and positioning were good. So she started.

I knew it was going to hurt. She said the ribcage area is one of the most painful areas to get worked on. Basically it felt like she was taking a knife and just cutting repeatedly into my skin. Not something that is pleasant. At one point I looked down to see how far she had gotten. Bad idea. She still had a good amount of shading to do (more painful than the initial border!). I gritted my teeth, closed my eyes and focused on breathing until she was done. All in all, it took less than a half hour. I put my shirt back on and my sister and I hobbled out of the parlor to go have Easter dinner!

My mom was on the table for 2 hours. There is no way she could have had that all done in one sitting if she could have felt it! Actually, she probably would have been fine. She is hands down the toughest most amazing woman I know! Hers looks beautiful and it is just so perfect for her! Denise at High Preistess Piercing is wonderful!

My tattoo is very simple, and actually a little bigger than I was thinking it was (it looked smaller on the paper-but I'm not very big so it takes up more space than I realized!). But it is really cute and I like it! I will maybe go back in and get it spruced up a little at some point when I forget the pain :) Maybe a little heart or some words or something-something very small but just a little extra detail. Maybe I'll have her write "mom" on it ;)

It is so weird to realize I have a tattoo! I keep looking at it when I go by a mirror and its just so crazy! A good reminder of my lovely mom (and grandma, who is also a survivor!) and of the strength she has and of her faith in God to work all things together for the good of those who love Him. I would put more pictures on here, but I was in my bra so that wouldn't really be appropriate...

Sister's tattoo, so cute!

Lamb. Its what's for dinner.

When my roommate Megan said that she wanted to celebrate Passover, I immediately began looking for Passover-approved recipes. She invited some friends over and we settled on a semi-Kosher menu for the evening, which included lamb as the main course, of course.

I'm not really a big fan of lamb. I've had it a couple times and just didn't really enjoy it. But you can't have a Passover seder and not have lamb. I found a recipe for lamb kebabs with tzatziki that looked pretty good so we decided to go with that. But the first step was to buy some lamb. We started at Winco, where we didn't find any. Then we went to Trader Joe's. Then to a Halal market across from Joe's, where we walked in to hear the sounds of meat being hacked into edible portions. The guy said, "uh...can I help you?" When we told him what we were looking for, he told us to come back the next day. Well, we didn't want to have to make another trip so we went to Safeway as a last resort. We finally found some lamb, but not the cut we were looking for. We got it anyway and decided it would just have to do.



The recipe called to marinate the cubed lamb overnight, so we got to work preparing it. The cut we bought was basically like a boneless leg of lamb. With plenty of fat and gross things still attached. So Megan and I had to figure out how to cut it into cubes. This was nearly impossible, but we eventually got enough semi-cube meat shapes out of the hunk of meat that we bought. I thought I was going to have to make Megan do this all by herself as it kind of seemed gross. But I did it just fine, in fact had to do most of it after Megan left for a soccer game (which her team won). Although I had to wash my hands about 50 times and went afterwards to the Plaid Pantry to buy bleach to sanitize every surface, the job was done.



Because of the mess we made of the meat, I was afraid it was going to not only taste gross (as I thought all lamb did), but that it would also be tough. I started cooking it with little hope of it turning out well. After making sure it was thoroughly cooked, I tried a tiny bite. It was tender. And it tasted GOOD! Since we have no barbeque or kebab skewers, we just cooked it in a pan. And cooked some potatoes and peppers as well so it would still kind of resemble a kebab. We also made the tzatziki, a traditional Passover fruit-ish salad and some brownies...extra-Kosher brownies.





It was a pretty fun night! There were six of us girls here and Rabbi Megan led us in the seder, reading the script-type thing she got from a friend of hers. It was geared towards families, so that made it kind of funny since there were no children in our group! But we went through the ceremony, prayed and ate the meal! Everything turned out really well, I was happy!



AND no one got food poisoning. Success!

sorry, more food....

I apologize for my food obsession. But I just love it so, so here is another food post!

Here are some delicious things I have made recently:

Chicken Pineapple Quesadillas. This combination, and how easy it was to make, made my roommate Megan and I decide we need to open a Quesadilla Food Cart in Portland. It would be amazing.

We had a giant box of Oreos leftover from an event my roommate went to. I wanted to use them to make something since they weren't getting eaten. These Cookies and Cream Cupcakes are amaaaaazing (frosting recipe here). I just need to get a muffin tin that will cook more than 6 at a time...

White Chicken Enchiladas. I'm not a huge fan of normal red enchilada sauce. But this was soooo good and cheesy and amazing. So amazing that I made them twice in the span of a week and shared them with about 10 people.

White Chili. A long cooking process (2 hours + to cook the dry chili beans), but sooo worth the time. The process involved boiling a whole cut-up chicken, which was quite interesting (and gross-looking), but ended up producing some homemade chicken stock! And the chicken was nice and easy to shred after boiling.

My roommates and I also made Mole recently. If you have never had Mole (which I hadn't tried until this fateful night), just imagine chocolate and peanut butter with chicken. I take that back, don't imagine that, it sounds disgusting. But those are crucial ingredients in Mole, and it is amaaaaazing. This is another dish that was made two times within a week. Shredded chicken, tomato, cocoa powder, peanut butter, green chiles...served over rice with corn tortillas and/or Juanita's chips (no other chips will do. ever.). So easy to make (although a bit messy), and sooooo good!

Michelle's (a dental student) practice skull ate dinner with us. He loved it too.

Aaaaand dessert: cupcakes (leftover from my after-school class) and Girl Scout cookies.

Besides cooking, I have been trying to try out some food carts lately. My roommate and I have been on a few food cart adventures, but I have only photographed one of them. Food carts are fantastic. Expect to pay from $5-8 on your meal, but it will be well worth it.

The first involved Peanut Butter and Jelly. I can't tell you how amazing this was. If I tell you what was on the sandwich (bacon, anyone?), you might be grossed out. But you just have to try it! PBJs Grilled, on NW 23rd-try the Good Morning or the Sun Up. Or anything else, I'm sure.

I also tried some Korean food one day as I was craving teriyaki chicken. Dosirak's (near PSU campus on SW 4th) lunchbox came with chicken, rice, salad and a spring roll. I ate alllll of it. And then almost died because I was so full. But oh so happy.

I also tried some Thai food near PSU. I love pad thai. One of my favorite all-time dishes. I had such high hopes from this food cart, as there was an adorable little Thai lady working all by herself making each order from scratch. I had to wait a while for my order, but didn't mind too much as she was fun to watch cooking and tasting the dishes occasionally. But then I got my pad thai. I am used to more Americanized versions I think, as this was too fish sauce-y for me. Quite disappointing. If you like fish sauce, you'd love this. But I like mine a little less authentic...

The other day, my roommate Megan and I were both home around lunchtime on a Friday (very unusual at our apartment), so we decided to food-cart it up. We went to the carts on Alder near 9th. We walked around for quite a while looking at the menus and figuring out what we wanted. We finally settled on Hawaiian and Southern BBQ. We each got one order, then shared our delicious meals. Besides being a beautiful day outside, the food was sooo amazing. From 808 Grinds, we got the Combo Plate, which included pork and Shoyu chicken. Along with rice and macaroni salad. The chicken was to die for. The pork was good too, but next time I'd definitely just get the chicken. We also got a pulled pork sandwich, which came with some sort of stew, from A Little Bit of Smoke. I love a good pulled pork sandwich and this one did not let me down. When I first looked at it, I told Megan, "It looks a little bit dry..." to which she responded, "just take a bite." And I did, and then I almost cried it was so good. No gloppy sauce was needed, just amazing smokey pork and some coleslaw. But then there was also the stew. Pork, potatoes, carrots, plus many other things, in a tomatoe-y sauce. It was sweet and tangy and smokey. Oh just amazing. This little meal came with a Moon Pie treat...banana flavored. We couldn't eat it. So instead we went to Ben & Jerry's for dessert.











Well all this made me hungry. So I'm going to go eat lunch, then go to work for a "mandatory" group exercise class (a new class the gym is launching). I need it after all this food...

But next time I go food carting, I'm going to have to try this Spanish Tapas cart!

livin la vida loca

When is spring break? Wait, you're telling me its already over?! How did that happen?!?!?!?!

Well, I somehow managed to get a 4.0 last term. Even after failing a midterm in one class. I'll take it! Not so sure how this term will turn out though...Its the second day of spring term and I already feel overwhelmed with the amount of work looming on the horizon. Just because I'm sure you're dying to know, this is what I have in store for me this term.

On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, I have Fundamentals of Spanish Literature from 9-10am. This is my only class on MWF, and of course it has to be at 9 am. Oh well, guess it could be earlier! The first assignment for this class involves reading a poem and answering questions like "What is an example of parallelism in this poem?" Or "Where is the decisive point? What is the climax, the conclusion, etc?" Yuck. At least the poem wasn't too bad. This class was held in the "Fourth Avenue Building" on PSU campus. Which is not marked. The outside of the building is called the Something Engineering Building. So after wandering around for a good 5 minutes, I just walked into the building and then found a sign which showed that this was in fact the Fourth Avenue Building. For this reason, half of the class was like half an hour late. And of course they've moved the class since then, so now we'll be meeting in a different building entirely.

Tuesdays and Thursdays start at 8am with a Communication class about Children and Violence. At PSU, you have to take these "junior cluster" courses, and can choose from a list of approved classes. Two of the three cluster classes have been pre-selected because of my Elementary Ed minor. The third was up to me. For some reason I decided to choose this one. The instructor seems like she's in her own little world, but I would probably have to be too if I taught classes about abuse and violence in/towards children. We watched this video today in class. Only watch it if you have no heart. Otherwise you will cryyyyy. Not only is it a really difficult topic, but looks like its gonna be a lot of work. In two weeks time, we have to read a book, write a report on it, plus do a research paper. Thanks, Gisele. I should mention that the book is A Child Called It. I'm not going to lie to you, I couldn't read the whole thing word for word. I had to kind of skim it because it made me sick to read. This is certainly not a book to read for pleasure. It is the story of the third worst child abuse case in California history. (Written by the abused boy himself-when he grew up and was rescued from it). He has since written two sequels, about his life after he was rescued from his abusive mother. I might have to read those so I can read the happily ever after ending to this heartbreaking story.

Next up, Linguistics. The study of language: phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, etc. This class is only 10 minutes after the Communications class. Fortunately its in the same building, otherwise it would be quite difficult! This class is full of what I'm pretty sure are the weirdest students at PSU. Maybe I shouldn't say that since I am in the class...? But let me give you two examples. First, there's the girl who feels the need to share her every thought and comment and opinion on everything. She won't quit talking. Even the professor was annoyed. At one point, she said, "Oh, this reminds me of something I learned in ASL class." And she proceeded to sign something. Uhhh, none of us know sign language. Plus it had nothing to do with what we were talking about. Anyway, then there's example two: We all went around and introduced ourselves. It came to this lady's turn and she says, "My name is so-and-so, but I go by Starlight. I was born in Maryland but my life started here." Okey dokey, Starlight, nice to meet you. Then, later, we are reading an example of a nonsense sentence to show that even if it has no meaning, you still understand the parts of speech. It reads, "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously." The professor is laughing, saying, no one knows what that means!! Starlight says, "I do." Fortunately, the professor ignored her and moved on. Okay, I'm sure these are really lovely people and that they are super nice and great. Maybe they think I'm totally obnoxious.

Last up, Passions and Emotions in Poetry of the 16th Century. Funny story, when I registered for this class, it shows up as "Spanish Literature: Women Writers" (that sounded bad enough). So profesora walks in and says, well, this isn't Women Writers. Soooorry! So, here I am analyzing (I don't like having to analyze anything) poetry (which I don't really get in the first place), from the "Golden Age" (I don't even know when that was), and its all in Spanish (at least that part is okay...until I start reading Looking At Talents for Science...or something like that. The words in the title of this book could all mean like three different things. I don't even know what the title means.....).

So, all that, plus working 20-ish hours a week, will be my life for the next ten weeks. What, I'm supposed to have some semblance of a social life, too?! Well, this should be fun. (?)






P.S. Costa Rica is out, Korea is IN (maybe)! I'm applying for this 5-week program since I turned the Costa Rica one down. Its $400 versus $3000+, and is 5 weeks, twice as long as Costa Rica.

Excited. (?) UPDATED

So I applied for the Costa Rica program even though I really don't have the money for it. Mostly because my professor from Spain wrote a letter of recommendation for me (the second one he's done for me) and I didn't want to not apply after he'd done that. I'm not gonna lie, I was literally praying that I wouldn't get accepted into the program. I showed up for the interview but just didn't really try that hard. Must have tried harder than at least 10 other people though, cuz I got accepted.

Ughhhh what to do now? I have a couple more scholarships I can apply for, but wouldn't know if I got them or not until after the deadline to confirm my participation.

Aaaanyway. That's the scoop. I only have until April 8th to make my decision...!

UPDATE: So I just sent an email to the director of the program withdrawing myself as a participant. I did a lot of thinking and praying. And more thinking. And then more praying. I just feel like it would be an unwise financial decision. There are other Capstone programs available this summer that will be just as rewarding (almost...minus the travel) but will be like 10 times less. Plus, I can always just go to Costa Rica on vacation for cheap. Plane tickets are only like $600 round trip.......

Spain: 1. USA: 0.

There are some things that Spain does better than the USA. To prove my point, some evidence:

Greek yogurt, Spain-Style. Possibly the best thing I've ever eaten.

Greek yogurt, America-style. Nothing special at all.
(not that that stopped me from buying 8 of them since they were on sale...)

I fell in love with Dannon Greek Yogurt when I was in Spain. For the first couple months, my host mom would give it to me for dinner every night. So. GOOD. Then she eventually stopped and moved to (probably much cheaper) weird other kinds of yogurt. But I will never forget the Greek stuff. When I got back to the USA, I was sure I'd be able to find it here. Buuuut I couldn't...until now! I found it at Safeway today and was sooooo excited; not only did they have the Dannon stuff, it was on sale! AND there was a COUPON!! I bought a couple to try them out.

They are both made by Dannon. They are both simple Greek Yogurt. But there is no contest. Spain wins, hands-down. I don't know what it is about yogurt in Europe that is so amazing. I remember absolutely loving it in Italy and buying tubs and tubs of it. But this is a brand that is sold in the US! I figured they'd be the same. So, so disappointed.

The cows in Europe must be just so much better.