Thankful Thursday

San Francisco, I hate thee for thy weather. Seriously, the last few weeks have been nuts. I mean I guess weird weather is normal here, but I still hate it. Right now for example, it's brilliantly sunny outside as the sun gets lower in the sky. You'd never have known it wasn't warm and sunny here all day. But about 30 minutes ago it was pouring down rain, and that had been going since this morning. Yesterday was worse, because it was switching back and forth ALL DAY. I went out for coffee at one point because it stopped raining and was sunny and clear, and while CROSSING THE STREET, the clouds literally blew in and started dumping. I barely made it back to my office before it was all over. I don't understand. I will say this: I cannot WAIT to live in a place that has normal weather, has sunshine and isn't windy all the freaking time, and has actual, lovely summers. Hellooooo, Palo Alto. That is definitely something to be thankful for. Also:

1. I'm thankful for my down comforters and Milo's ability to radiate heat like a heatlamp. It's been pretty cold here again lately, and going to bed is always an adventure. I just lay there curled up for awhile trying to heat up, and even with the electric blanket on, the cold air creeps in. So I fixed it by layering my already huge bed with another down comforter. And Milo likes to curl up on my chest and purr until he falls asleep. Sweet, blissful, free heat!

2. I'm thankful for options. Options for where to live next, options for HOW to live next, to get a dog or not (I think YES), to take BART or Caltrain, to drive...

3. I'm thankful that Vegas is finally here. My flight leaves on Monday, returning on Friday, and I get to work in my jammies until the airport shuttle picks me up...and most likely get immediately into them again when I get home, hah! My suite at the Venetian(!) is SUPER cool, and our flights to/from Vegas on Virgin are basically going to be a party. Heck yes.

4. I'm thankful for Amazon and the prime membership my mom got me. What would I do without it?

5. I'm thankful Ash U is willing to try new things with me! Oh and that she takes care of my little prince while I'm traveling :)

6. I'm thankful for the talents I've been given. I feel like I'm starting to really appreciate them.

Blogging from here on out over the next week may be spotty (poker and peach bellinis, anyone?), so happy end of March to all!


Quote of the Day:
My dad, upon reading this post: "My Internet is so slow that you wasted ten minutes of my life on that sucky video"

4eva

As of today, Nolan comes home to me in 1 month. Less than 5 weeks,and it still feels like FOREVER. Hopefully my trip to Vegas next week will break things up a little :)

I'm over halfway done with my language courses that I've been studying while he's gone, I've been faithful with my workouts (for the most part), and my blanket is very slowly getting done. Now I need to work on my chess strategy some more. Oh and scrapbooking, SIGH.

Tripped out

Last night, before we began the game part of our weekly game night, some friends and I tried "taste tripping", which I've skeptically read about but never tried. Lest you be frightened, there were 2 doctors in our party so they checked the ingredients for bad things first :) Basically, we tried miracle berries (in the powdered tablet form, since the berries go bad quickly), which are these little berries that grow in West Africa, and make your taste buds heightened to sweetness. So they're tricked into tasting everything as sweet for about an hour. I didn't believe it until I tried a tomato and discovered it tasted like a sweet apple! Then my cheap, day-old red table wine...which tasted like a fine, sweet aged port! We sucked down lemons, hot sauce, and spoonfuls of balsamic vinegar, as you see Ash U doing here:

...and had many a strange thing. Here is an awesome article about it, if you're curious! Miraculin! I'd definitely recommend it, just for a fun thing to try!

Today, I got a delivery for my work on a project, as a thank you...and some of the pieces were, uh, rather large:

I didn't know there existed strawberries the size of my fist.

I also painted my bedroom this weekend to prepare for moving...I've been sleeping SO BADLY since then with the fumes and lack of curtains now, so hopefully it'll be all aired out tonight.

Friday, Friday

Has anyone else had their ears pummeled by the awfulness that is this song? Truly, I weep for future generations of Americans. Also: why is that 13-year-old driving that car? ALSO: why is that older rapper dude following them?

To make it up to you for wasting 3 minutes of your life with that video, here's one that is TOTALLY worth it. This revives the desire for children that the above video rapidly quashed.

Feeling sick still today, I worked from home to try and do nothing and recover. I'm thinking that my sedentary-ness today will be a huge benefit as I will be all rested up tomorrow, with hopefully nothing but good health!

Something that also helps, is homemade roasted butternut squash soup:

As we speak, I'm making delicate, peaky meringues made out of practically nothing, to nibble on for dessert. Here's what they look like in the oven at this moment:

Pretty!

I also saw these videos today and couldn't help posting, because I feel like they help communicate why I hate the muni so much...this will all go away once I start taking BART (yippee!):


I was actually THERE for this particular fail:

Thankful Thursday

The day finally arrived...and this morning at 9am, Nolan and I found out that we're going to...
STANFORD!
I know, surprise, right? But an awesome one! This means a lot of good things for us...like me getting to keep my job, living in a more rural area (!), a 3-year program instead of 4, staying in NorCal, etc.
When they called out the countdown, I was eagerly waiting with the envelope in my hands, and my friend Heidi (who was there for support, since she gets her envelope next year) was gracious enough to capture the action with possibly the best ever accidental photobomb in the background of the second picture:

With that...
1. I am SO FREAKING THANKFUL that we know where we're going. The suspense has been absolutely unbearable. Now we can get excited about a particular place, and plan our move and our new life for the next 3 years! WOOHOO!!!
2. I'm thankful I get to keep my job. I love my job, and don't want to leave it to move elsewhere.
3. I'm thankful it's St. Patrick's Day! It means I've been working from home all day to the smell of my corned beef simmering away in a brew of garlic, spices, and beer! The cabbage smells pretty out-of-this-world too!
4. I'm thankful for the many times I've been able to talk to Nolan this week. It makes the loneliness at home more bearable.
5. I'm thankful it's almost the weekend, because I'm definitely getting sick and feel kind of awful already. Amazing: it's been coming on slowly for about 2 days but really AMPED UP about an hour after I found out our match at Stanford. It's like my body has been storing up all the stress and anxiety and finally the release is making me sick. Blech.
6. I'm thankful for the classes at my gym! This is the first time in a long time that I've actually started to SEE results. Weird.
7. I'm so thankful for Ash U, who comes over to keep me company all the time, puts up with my foul moods, and likes to watch stupid movies with me. Cheers to that.

Happy Thursday!

Countdowns:
7 days until my parents come to visit!
9 days until Vegas!
5 weeks until Nolan comes home!

ALSKDJFOIWE

You can always tell when I'm out of sorts, because my weekday posts are either super short, or nonexistent. The state of my nerves as we creep up on the 9am revelation of our future tomorrow is chaos. Therefore, I've not blogged as much this week because I have nothing to say except NLSDAASLFOIREJFRWEJLKFJDSFLKSJDF


So. I'll leave you with that until tomorrow when, surely one of my Thankful Thursday items will be not lurking in suspense any longer. Phew.

Love

"They will know you by your love." (John 13:35, paraphrased)

The other day as I left for work, I saw two snails on the sidewalk, crawling along next to each other with their shells touching. It reminded me that love is a universal thing (though I realize those snails had nothing themselves to do with love...derrr). It's been on my mind a lot, as I'm challenged to be a better person. I am often very spiteful towards those I get frustrated with, or don't even know. So I'm trying to develop patience.

I saw this picture the other day, and was so moved by it that not only am I going to ask Nolan to frame it, but I wanted to share it with you. I can't help feeling like this is how we were intended to be - loving our fellow man in the most tangible way possible. Jesus never called us to love only those we knew, or only those who believed the same things as we do, or only those who are x, y, and z...we are supposed to love everyone. Maybe hippies had something right after all. This picture was taken during the riots in Egypt. It's a picture of Christians protecting Muslims during their prayer-time:

photo credit

I guess you have to start small, and work your way up. I wish more of the world (including myself) put a bigger priority on loving people they didn't know. But it's so easy to only favour those you know. This gas station sign (thanks, Nate) has more love in it than most people out there:



Speaking of love, I went to visit my parents this weekend (Love!) and took Milo (Love!). But...he doesn't like the car ride so much, and he LOVES his pet friends up there. So each time he knows I'm packing up to come home, he hides. He's gotten better and better at it too, but I think this time was by far the best. Even better than when he hid under the covers, perfectly flat.

He even blends with the wall behind him, and didn't even disturb the cobwebs when he crept in there. I'm pretty sure he wasn't breathing, in case that gave him away. It took us a good hour to find him here. Sneaky thing.

On a totally related note, speaking of my need for patience: I'm no longer allowed to work out in the morning, even though I do pilates usually, which doesn't involve jumping or running or anything. I'm usually standing or sitting in place while doing moves. So...what the heck?

Apparently I've been living in an apartment made of paper, because I guess the walls vibrate when I do a situp.