I blither like a magpie.

It's not particularly early, but I'm not particularly awake, either. I got up a few minutes ago, went and found the newspaper, and read the section of readers' letters- about the only part I read. Our city is fairly large, and our paper goes to a lot of people, I guess. They are apparently experiencing financial problems like every other newspaper. It doesn't help that in the past year, dozens of people have had letters published stating they were canceling their subscriptions (one guy called the paper a "urinal". It was awesome), if they indeed followed through with those promises, and surely more followed suit, as our paper is infuriatingly biased. Really. It's disturbing and oftentimes gives me a headache. I could have sworn journalism was supposed to be objective, not subjective.
Anyway. A month or two ago they started shifting things around in the newspaper, making the print smaller, eliminating some sections on some days (like the classifieds) and some sections altogether. Our paper has gone from a sizable stack of news to a few pages one might think came from a small town. Maybe a newsletter. My university's paper has more pages than our newspaper sometimes.
Despite the fact that they appear to be in dire straits, that nearly everyone in the country is feeling some kind of financial pinch, they continue to publish something that the readers have been complaining about for as long as I remember. On Fridays, I think it is, our paper publishes three pages on a big fancy home in town. They divulge information like square footage, number of workout rooms and home theaters, and where so-and-so had their fancy bathtubs and columns imported from. What is the point? Honestly! I don't understand why this kind of information is being printed. I don't know what purpose it serves, other than to say "hey, this person lives in town. They must have some money, huh?" If we did a special on an annual design showcase, or something, that would be different. This is EVERY WEEK. I don't understand it. It doesn't make me jealous (well, the family whose kid had a really awesome Star Wars room made me a tiny bit envious. Maybe.) And readers continue to write in about this feature. Some are offended, some are saddened, others are just confused, like the writer today. If the paper doesn't want to spend money to publish a section of classifieds on Mondays- which includes bargains, help wanted ads, and available employment- why on earth would they think they HAD to publish this section? Wouldn't it make more sense to maybe profile a family who is making do with a little less, like the rest of us? A family who has recently lost some income but manages to make a small home (like the majority of us has) beautiful? Cost-saving advice wouldn't be too bad either. Really, how does it benefit me, and everyone else like me, to read about what I don't have, what I will never have? I don't get it. I'm sure that the people being profiled aren't all selfish braggarts, but the fact that they submitted their names for this kind of feature in a dying newspaper that refuses to get with the program, as it were, doesn't really make me have the best opinion of them.

How is your newspaper doing? Has it made any ridiculous decisions lately?

By the way, while I am wasting time to wake myself up, I feel the need to acknowledge the end of the season for one of my favorite television shows- Top Chef. If I was disciplined enough, I would have written posts about each episode, as some other people do on their personal blogs for their favorite shows. I was going to write last week, too, but I forgot.
Hosea won Top Chef. I did not like Hosea too much. Fabio and Carla were my favorites, Fabio lost last week and Carla just lost it. Carla's style is very individual and her dishes are inspired. She seems like she doesn't want to cook something if it doesn't come from her heart. She talks a lot about sending love through her food to the diner. I liked that. She was really sweet. For the finale, the judges brought back three runners-up from previous seasons. Richard, who was extremely talented and likable, and had some crazy skills with molecular gastronomy; Marcel, who was difficult to work with and had an obsession with foams, but was a hard worker and nearly always put out fantastic food; and Kasey (or Casey?). Kasey had talent, but I never really found her dishes or personality to be memorable. One time for a quickfire challenge Kasey lost her team's considerable lead by taking insanely long to chop an onion. That bothered me. I was kind of worried when Carla got Kasey for the finale as her sous chef. I was right to do so. Kasey ended up talking agreeable and personable Carla into changing two of her three dishes. The meat in one was pronounced to be texturally unappealing, and everyone- even her fellow chefs- was shocked when Carla announced what exactly that dish was. Then, for her last course, Carla was going to make a cheese tart. Carla had made tarts maybe three other times in the competition, and every time the judges fawned over them. I think that at least once her tart was pronounced the best and most memorable part of a team's meal. Kasey, I think, put doubts into Carla's mind about the authenticity of a tart at a French meal (which it wasn't, but they were in New Orleans) and convinced her a souffle would be a better idea. The souffles curdled in the oven, Carla couldn't bring herself to serve them, and she lost. In a big way. The judges didn't even really consider her at the last Judges' Table. And she cried, and Stefan, the evil European comforted her, which was surprising. Anyway. It made me sad. It was a really good season, though, and I look forward to it starting up again. I wish I could be Top Chef. Or at least be a guest judge. And if I ever have to have anything catered in D.C., I'm definitely calling Carla. ^_^

Weekend

A.) My throat hurts

B.) I don't know if school is going to happen today

C.) Yesterday I went to Brandon's game

D.) They lost

E.)When we tried to leave, my car wouldn't start

F.) It was really cold

G.) Eventually Pappaw and Uncle Brian came out and fiddled with it. It is fixed, I guess.

H.) I didn't really get to spend time with Brandon, because I went home after that.

I.)My fish is still dying.

J.) While cleaning my room, I found a box of all this old stuff from school.

K.)I am saving it for when Kelli comes over so we can reminisce about something that happened just a few years ago.

L.) People are so different now it seems like it's been a lot longer.

M.) I'm different, too.

I am out of things to say but I feel kind of bad not finishing the alphabet. I don't know why I didn't just use numbers but I don't feel like changing it now. I have "hot eye" (that weird feeling you get in your eyes when you have a fever) and my one wisdom tooth is KILLING me, so I'm going to take some Tylenol and try to take a nap. Remind me to tell you sometime about the fact that Disney now has a cost estimator on their wedding website and how depressing some of the numbers are. Really. $25k for a ceremony with 18 guests in front of Cinderella's castle. Oh yeah. I said I'd tell you later.

Babies! (not mine!)

Well, I had hoped to have a lovely story to share with you about taking our baby stuff to A Woman's Choice today. The story is short. Google gave us bad directions, and when we found the place we laughed at the fact that it shares a building with the Okolona Planned Parenthood. Ha! Take that, baby haters! And the sign for AWC was way bigger than Planned Parenthood's.
The place was tiny, and they had to open the door from the inside (the blinds were drawn at Planned Parenthood, too). For some reason I don't think that this was how the building was originally designed. It was an odd reminder of exactly how divisive the issue of abortion is in our country. I wonder if they have had any incidents there? I kind of doubt it, just because of the way the building and parking lot were situated, and the fact that there were hardly any cars around.
We were welcomed into the tiny waiting room and asked to place our boxes on the floor, and we were told we were "awesome" and that was that. It made me smile and I'm excited to start putting together more boxes of stuff to take over there again. Hopefully one of these days I will have some free time and be able to volunteer over there. This particular location (there are two in my city) is only open about 15 hours a week. Part of this may have to do with the fact that it seems it's more urgent to have the other location open more often, as it is across the street from the last abortion clinic in our fairly large metropolitan area. Anyway. I want to help out. Hopefully I will be able to someday soon.


Speaking of babies, our friend Rachel just updated her blog to announce that she and her husband are expecting! They just had their first child, Averi, about ten months ago, I guess. It's pretty exciting. Congratulations!

What's for breakfast? Answer: Nothing.

Good morning. I don't know how today is going to go. I was feeling kind of grumpy earlier this week, and then Tuesday night was awesome. Kelli came over and we watched videos of high school on my computer. And we had Applebee's, and it was all lovely lovely. Yesterday was kind of warm for a little while and people on the radio must have known I was listening because they played like, four awesome songs in a row. I felt quite a bit better.
And then there's this morning. Apparently I, or someone else, reset my alarm clock in the middle of the night, as it never went off this morning. Brandon called at 8:30. I was supposed to get up at 7. All I did was set my alarm forward one hour from yesterday, when I set it for 6. Upon closer inspection, I found that the alarm was set for 7 PM. What is up with that?
Now I am slightly discombobulated, thrown off my schedule, and trying to convince myself to get to work. I have a paper due tonight that I must write today. My presentation on the Quiverfull movement for my IDC class is tomorrow morning (I am prepared, just nervous because there are a lot of people at my school who apparently hate Christians and the things they do, and at least one of the vocal ones is in my class, and I just don't want to deal with her). And Fernald, my fish, is dying again. It's very distracting to have a fish experiencing death throes on the shelf above one's computer. Just so you know. I wish I could have him put to sleep. This is kind of bothering me...
Anyway. Today Kelli and I are supposed to venture over to A Woman's Choice, the crisis pregnancy center I've mentioned. I'm really excited. We have a ton of stuff for them and it's really cute! There's a box full of just bottles and pacifiers, one full of clothes, and one full of baby blankets and crib sheets and stuff. It's all really cute and it will be put to good use.

Maybe I will have more interesting and/or relevant things to say on spring break. I'm looking forward to it, even though it's not really going to be spring when we're off school (the first week of March!). I'm hoping we can go to the zoo, and take an afternoon to work on one of our wedding registries, because there are birthdays coming up and some people will want to get us stuff for our house, should we ever finally get one. I know Brandon will not be looking forward to that (he told me to just do it myself) but he's going to be living there too, and should have a say in things like...sheets...and measuring cups. Brandon absolutely hates shopping, though. It visibly exhausts him. One time we went to the mall to look for a birthday present for one of my friends. I was looking for a stuffed animal. We walked in the mall, walked straight to one store that is mostly earrings and purses and stuff, but they have some stuffed animals. It didn't take long to look through them all, and Brandon was already shifting his weight from one foot to the other. Then we walked to the second and last store, the toy store. As soon as we reached the plush toy section, he seemed to be wiped out. I find this hilarious and occasionally annoying. He hates it so much! But he'll just have to deal with it.

I should probably get to work on my paper, huh?

I write these like mass emails.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Brandon and I had Valentine's Day yesterday because we both have to work today. It was nice. Netflix was maybe late sending our move so all we had to watch was the Office (I've seen them all but we're almost through the third season together) and I didn't mind. We used our Applebee's gift card we got for Christmas and brought the food home. I had that fiesta lime chicken that three people have told me was amazing, and it really was. I'm proud of myself for trying something new (I love new food but not always at familiar restaurants. If it's bad I would spend them meal thinking "I knew I should have ordered such-and-such"). Brandon got a ginormous burger and I had a bite of that and it was good, too. Next Valentine's Day we will be married! And we will probably spend it the same way- at home watching movies or whatever. I don't mind that at all.

I have tons of homework to do this weekend- essays and studying for two midterms- but I am trying to keep a happy face about it. I haven't decided what to do about school yet...so I won't say anything about it.

I hope everyone has a fun weekend!

^_^ <-- happy me. If I had no nose.

Thing I learned today:

If your city has recently been covered in ice (no exaggeration), it will make you really appreciate the first day of the year when it's warm enough to drive with the moon roof of your snow-dirty car open and the windows rolled down.



I meant to mention this last week but Brandon's mom is in the Philippines, for some unknown work related reason, and she will be gone several weeks. If you find yourself thinking about the Philippines any time in the next month and a half, could you send up a prayer for her safety?

I have lots of homework to do and shouldn't even be updating this, but the warm weather (temporary though it may be) has put me in a good mood and I felt like sharing it.

Oh. My. Gosh.

I've been feeling pretty down lately, set off last night by the fact that I cannot do math. Really. I hate it. I was frustrated while studying chemistry and it was a downward spiral after that. So while checking my email and favorite websites this afternoon I stumbled across this gem, completely by coincidence, and I feel so much better about myself. I'm sure that's horrible, but I don't care. I needed a mood-booster.