Friday, December 24, 2010

Christmas Eve

Today was a truly wonderful Christmas Eve. I slept in, learned to play a new song on the piano, cooked a perfect butternut squash risotto, danced like an idiot in my kitchen with my big brother to the crappy country station he had playing on pandora, played with my little cousins at my grandma's house, and finished off the night with a blast from the past e-mail from a friend I've been missing. I couldn't have asked for more, and Santa can't top today.

Well, he could bring me Tristan, but since he's scheduled to arrive before New Year's Eve anyway, I may as well just wait patiently.

I may have lost my voice from this weird sinus infection, and I may hate cold weather, but this has been an absolutely wonderful holiday so far and I wouldn't change a thing. Thank you, Life, for being really great sometimes.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Gah, I Don't Have Time for This

Okay, like the title says, I really don't have time to be blogging right now (art major/finals week/a ton of concerts/AUGH), but I absolutely had to share this video with you. Words cannot describe how beautifully done it was, and mad props to the dancers, what they do is not easy (no matter how much they make it look that way).







Also, this is the fibers project that's been keeping me from you.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

All I Want for Christmas Is My Sanity Back.


Did I need to make a cheesy omelet on toast and hashbrowns right when I got home tonight? No. Did my skinny jeans appreciate the grease and salt? Probably not. Did that stop me from scarfing it down like I was starving and it was five-star cuisine? You bet your ass it didn't. You know why? Because the studio caught on fire tonight, I'm suddenly in a management position I didn't ask for, I have tons of concerts coming up that I don't really feel like going to, I forgot to buy butter, and I woke up this morning feeling like I'd been hit by a train. Welcome to real life, right?


Seriously, though, I'm going to lose my mind. I just finished the project of doom (see end of post) that was eating about 3-6 hours of every day on top of scheduled class time (and I even took it home with me over Thanksgiving break), and now I'm doing my final for that class: the same thing, but I get to pick my subject and I have to print all of my own fabrics. Goodbye, rest of my semester.


Tomorrow, I FINALLY get to finish the rock sculpture I've been working on all semester in my sculpture class and start (hopefully) on my glass piece that I've been looking forward to all Fall. After that, it's (theoretically) smooth sailing.


I am so ready to be done with this semester. (Or, you know, college in general.)


Project of Doom. Never again.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Thanks Giving

I never really got this holiday. I mean, being thankful is all well and good, but pilgrims and indians? That's kind of bull. There was no turkey at that dinner, we spent the next two hundred years screwing over the Native Americans at every turn, and we're one of the few coutries in the world that really, really doesn't need a few (thousand) extra calories for however long our leftovers hold out.

And I'm a vegetarian, so yeah, I'm kinda disenchanted about the whole deal.

But I am thankful. I'm thankful that I have a home to go back to over the holidays with people who love me. I'm thankful for parents with whom I can speak candidly and honestly and not be judged, even though I know they frequently disagree with me. I'm thankful for a boyfriend who treats me right and respects me. I'm thankful for dogs to wrestle with, even though there are several moments that make me want to strangle them (like when they get a bath, or a neighbor walks past the house, or I play piano and they "sing along"). I'm also really thankful that I can cook (and enjoy it), because I'll be doing a lot of that.

On a less "d'awwwww" note, I'm also thankful for food network. We don't have a working TV at school, so I really never watch TV except at home. I missed watching people cook.

Well, off to make Thanksgiving rolls to freeze and then bake on Thursday. Here's hoping that working in retail this Black Friday doesn't kill me!

Monday, November 8, 2010

I have not abandoned you!

Hello! Sorry it's been so long. This weekend was really busy and awesome and blogging completely slipped my mind. You'll totally get why.

Friday night, Jill and I hosted a Harry Potter themed costume party to celebrate her 21st birthday. The costumes were awesome, and I'm pretty sure I've never had that much butterbeer in my life before or since. Eugh, so much sugar.... Anyway, that's why that night was awesome.


Why yes, that sorting hat does look like a cake!

Neville Longbottom (of PPP) came to visit!




The next night was my friend Abby's birthday party (which was also awesome, but I probably shouldn't go into detail for the sake of my friends ;D). Sunday was spent working on an a cappella arrangement of "Baby, It's Cold Outside," from Elf. I'm pretty stoked about it.

And the spiders have called in reinforcements. Tristan found a centipede last night (thank god, 'cause my glasses were off and there's no way I would've found the little bugger without them).

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

This Is Getting Ridiculous

Dear spider who bathroom crashed my morning,

I apologize for ending what I'm sure was going to be a long and fulfilling life for you, but we take trespassing very seriously in my house. I would have thought you'd learned that by now when all of your friends disappeared after entering.

I see that your colony has now declared war. This is a very brave decision your brothers have made on your account, but not a particularly intelligent one. I will win. I will carpet a nation with your mangled corpses. And then I will laugh.

You have been warned. Call off your siege or suffer the consequences.

I'll be waiting.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

My Friends Are Awesome!

Okay, so as an art major, I hang out with a bunch of other art majors, some of whom are in the visual communications department (hereafter referred to as viscom). Anyway, they this project where they had to design a magazine cover and some inside page spreads. My friend Reina needed models for hers and I was bored and interested, so we worked together on a photoshoot, and then she made this:

Holy crap my friends are awesome!! Of course it's not a real magazine or a real tattoo, but maybe it will be someday (the magazine, not the tattoo; only henna for me). But yeah, here's to my 15 minutes of fame! (I think by the end of college, I'll have a solid hour and a half of fame at this rate. I dig it.)


UPDATE: She's finished the table of contents, too! That's me again in the blue column.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Rehearsal Is Silly.

In rehearsal tonight (for that a cappella group I talk about sometimes) we held auditions for two medleys, so naturally no work got done. Unfortuantely, everyone also lost their minds during auditions and it was horrendously silly and many people (myself included) tried out for things as jokes and now have that solo. I am now a white, female rapper. This will likely not end well. ^^()

Anyway, sorry about the earlier rant and how ridiculously angst-y it was. It's just that I can count on one hand the number of times in the last two weeks that I haven't been woken up in the middle of the night by my phone. And yeah, some of those texts/calls were actually super important and I was happy to answer them, but the majority just make me want to buy a real alarm clock so I can turn my phone off at night and never deal with it again.

Anyway anyway, boyfriend is now here and I have better things to do than blog. Adios!

WHO GAVE YOU THIS IDEA?

Dear WHOLE FREAKIN WORLD,

I am not a panacea to anyone's problems. Texting me at two in the morning will not solve anything, but it will make me really, really tired and angry. If you are looking for advice from me, DON'T DO IT AT 2 AM. If you have a real problem, I can try really hard to be there for you. If you want to whine to me or just inform me of something totally unimportant, don't. Just don't. Should the aim of this post ever read it, I'd like you to know that this isn't directed at one person. There are multiple people who think it's okay to text me in the middle of the night about nothing. I'm sorry that your sleep cycle is screwed up, but MINE ISN'T. Or at least it wasn't and I'd like that back, thanks.

If things are going really wrong and I can actually do something about it (ei, we live in the same town/state/time zone), that's fine. Go ahead and reach out to me. If something is really wrong and I can't do something about it, find someone else who can and text them at 2am. If things aren't horribly wrong but just kind of suck, regardless of where you live, DON'T TEXT ME THAT LATE. I will be much more helpful and much less bitter about your problem when I'm not exhausted.

Let me reiterate that this isn't directed at one person. Hell, it's not even directed at two people. This is for everyone who can't figure out that darkness=sleeping to most people.

Do.
Not.
Text.
Me.
After.
10pm.

Ever.
(unless it's really super important and I can actually do something about it)

K, thanks!

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Yet Another Update Tonight (w/o pictures)

I also want to talk about windows, but I didn't think about it til after I posted that last update and it's also completely unrelated to the cold (unless you associate "dark" with "cold," which I sometimes do).

This house is turning me into a paranoid wreck. I wasn't an arachnophobe until I lived here. Then one fell out of the freaking cold water knob in my shower onto my hand and I had to use the other shower for a week. When Heather didn't die from using that shower as a result of me "accidentally" not telling her about the incident, I felt safe to go back.

I was also not afraid of centipedes, but then I realized I hadn't actually seen a live centipede before. Things are much less scary in pictures and books.

I have sometimes been afraid of the dark, but I've never had a stompy upstairs neighbor who makes the kind of noises I associate with dying at the hand of someone who's breaking into my apartment simply by wandering through her kitchen, so that kind of adds to the experience, I guess.

But windows. I have never been afraid of windows until now. You know how when it's dark outside, you can't see out your window if a light is on, but everyone outside can totally see you? Couple this with the fact that I caught some guy lurking underneath my stairs yesterday (he was stealing water from our outside spigot), and you've got a recipe for full-on, bat shit crazy paranoia. I've just gone around locking all my doors and switching on and off the lights in each room to ensure that no one is already lurking within. It's kind of terrifying. I wish my kitchen had blinds.

I also wish I'd had the presence of mind to nap at 5:30 so I wouldn't be so tired now (as I usually stay until midnight on Wednesdays to say hello to Boyfriend when he and my roommate get home from dance practice). But I did not nap, and it's too late to nap now, so I think I'll chug some orange juice and sugar high until they get back.

I probably should stop buying hashbrowns.

I'm Cold and Bored, and That's Not Good

My apartment is an icy chunk of hell. To clarify that, there was an interpretation of Hell at some point that portrayed it as frozen which I honestly think would be worse than burning, but whatever. The point is that I am cold.


My house (and you should note that when I say "my apartment," what I mean is "my floor of a house") is really old and drafty and the floorboard heaters sometimes fall off the wall. It's a bit of a problem. I have my own space heater because this happened my freshman year:





Yeah, that mug of water is frozen solid. Inside my room. Right over the heater.


Anyway, despite my bedroom being about 10 degrees warmer than the rest of the house, I'm wearing socks with my fleece-lined moccasins and a faux-fur-lined coat over my two shirts. There are also pants involved. And I am cold. But I'm also making hashbrowns, so I guess that's okay.


Also, I should never be allowed to play with makeup when I'm bored. Stupid things happen. Like this:


I also own photoshop.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Facebook Ads Are Dumb

First my day was awesome, then it was okay, then I stressed out a whole bunch, and then I saw this ad on facebook:



It's a little hard to read, so let me translate exactly for you: "Boyfrined is hot hey yall if you like someone els he will broke up with u like me on facebook"


I do not understand this ad. What is a boy fri ned? How can someone broke up with you? What is an "els"? To the best of my knowledge, it's a shortening of the internet phenomenon known as "Erroneous Linguistic Shit." The writer of this ad is clearly an expert on the subject. It almost seems wrong that "like" was spelled correctly in both instances.


My point is that dumb people can sometimes confuse me to the point that I stop stressing out about things. So, thanks, I guess.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

I Tried to Be a Stereotype and Failed

I realized earlier today that I'm a junior in college and still hadn't had beer and pizza. I thought to myself, "My, that's awfully unusual, and it would be such a shame to never do this simple, tasty thing." So I had beer and pizza for dinner. Except I failed at being a normal college student because it was homemade pizza (dough and everything) and the beer was Amber Bock dark lager, and I made it with a side of steamed asparagus with lemon-butter sauce. If for some reason I should ever wear one of those shirts that says "COLLEGE" on it, slap me and call me a failure of the American Dream.

On an unrelated note, look what I made!




Yeah, it's a golden snitch. Oh, and you see that hole at the bottom? Yeah, it's actually an ocarina. Bask in my awesomeness. (By that, I mean "Look at the dork!")

Well, now that the week from Hell is over (sorry for never posting), I'm off to go study for a chem test and finish my beer. Ciao!



UPDATE: Instead of studying for chem, I did this to my living room wall:








Yeah, I probably should have studied. Well, the night is young and the test isn't until Wednesday!

Monday, October 4, 2010

Advice

So far I haven't had any response to these posts and I don't really expect to now (nor am I really looking for responses/vindication), but I need to vent/ask for advice anyway. How do you convince someone that they're a good person? What reason for living can you give to a person who is determined not to see one? I so want to have the answers for everything but the more I try the more I feel like a little kid dressed up as Superman. I can't run faster than a speeding bullet or fly through the air or stop a train or fight monsters. Sometimes I can't even walk down the block without tripping over my own feet.

I feel so much need to do something and my hands are tied.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Oh, for the love of God...

SIX. That's how many spider's I (or Tristan at my request) have dealt with today. SIX! It's starting to get ridiculous. The centipedes haven't come around for a few days, but the spiders just popped up everywhere! Four of them were in my bathroom at my house (I seriously need to do something about that), and the other two were in my fibers class. Apparently that was good luck for the weavers, but I'd really, really like to be done with unnecessary bugs, okay?

I'm so glad this week is over. I need this weekend to recoup, but the weekend isn't really going to start until about 8 because I need to leave in just a few minutes for a show with my a cappella group. I'm hosting a party after the show, so I've spent a good portion of my day cleaning and baking. Everywhere I go smells like cinnamon and pumpkin. ^_^

All right, I'm headed out for now. Pray that I find no more spiders this weekend!

Thursday, September 16, 2010

My Day Was Better Than Yours

Okay, I know I complain a lot (mostly about sucky internet and centipedes), but let me recap real quick for you my day so you wonder at how awesome my life is sometimes.

I woke up at 8:30. This is "sleeping in" for me. I made breakfast, showered, read, had lunch, napped until I had to leave for my 1:30 class during which my professor's wife brought us brownies, went to my education class (which is about teaching art to elementary school kids) and because it's a Thursday, it's project day, so I spent half of that class making a papier-mache fantasy animal (mine's half walrus, half giraffe), and then I came home. I'm going to go grocery shopping, have dinner, and go to choir rehearsal for my a cappella group and then come home and go to bed because I don't have anything due in my two classes tomorrow.

Tomorrow, I'm going to go to my two favorite classes (one of which celebrates "Food Friday" every week with baked goods). When I get home, my roommates and I will celebrate "Cocktail Friday" (which is very similar to food friday, but with booze) with strawberry daquiris, and then I'm going to hang out with my boyfriend and probably watch movies at our friend's apartment. Saturday, we'll celebrate our one year anniversary.

I don't want to think about the work I'll have to do on Sunday, but I'm going to have a hell of a lot of fun getting there.

World, thank you for being awesome sometimes.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Broadway Would Love Me

Oooooh what a centipede MOOOOOOOrning!

Pleeease not a centipede daaaaaaaaaaaaaay...

I've got a horrible FEEEEEling

More bugs are comin' my way.


Worst. Musical. Ever.


I found another one of them in my shower this morning when I opened the curtain. At first I thought it was a silver fish, but by the time I'd grabbed a kleenex and closed in on the little bastard, I'd discovered the truth: a house centipede. See? That's how much I hate them; I'm willing to figure out species so I know what I'm up against. I mean, if i see a spider in my house, I just sqaush the little bugger. I don't care what kind of spider it is. This one is a special case. Here's a picture of one, and I've made it as small as possible, just to keep from creeping y'all out too badly.

I really hate them. Eugh. I blame you, Last Night's Rainstorm! I'm gonna go drown my sorrows in coffee and cookies and hashbrowns, because I'm a responsible, healthy adult. Yeah.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Monday Monday

You know what's great about having internet in your house that works? Not having to listen to the kid next to you in the library who doesn't realize that his music is way too freaking loud and that we can all hear it. Also, desktop computers have weird keyboards. Thankfully, we'll be getting real internet installed this week and we can stop using a server that takes 45 minutes to load a single page. Yeah, that's how dedicated I am to this blog (and/or the reason I've only updated, what, 10 times in a month?).

The wedding went really well this weekend! I was afraid that I'd be way too bitter to totally enjoy myself, but I managed to get past my neurosis and have a good time and everything was beautiful and the rest of the weekend at home was great, too.

All right, I'd love to be continuing this post now that I actually can with internet that doesn't suck, but I have work to do and should actually do it. Maybe I'll get back to this later. Ciao!

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

I love you, Labor Day

This weekend was fantastic, I so wish it could have continued for another day or two. Friday night, our friend Laura was in town and full of stories from spending her summer travelling solo across Europe. I think my favorite people were the Italian army captain who took her out for kebobs and gelato and the German tourist her friend met who was full of weird and awkward humor. I still get a kick out of thinking of that kid. To cap the night off right, we made apple crisp and watched Princess Bride. (Jill, Laura, and I ate the entire apple crisp by ourselves in the space of two hours. Never again. Eugh.)

The next morning, we threw a small breakfast party with our friend Dixie who'd had to leave early the night before and with Tristan, the aforementioned beau of mine. I have such a dnagerous addiction of hasbrowns. Dear whoever invented hashbrowns, thank you for making it socially acceptable for me to eat crumbly french fries for breakfast. You're my hero.

The rest of Saturday was spent lazing about with Tristan and playing videogames. Unfortuantely, I didn't think to pack my memory card with my PS2, so those many hours of Chrono Trigger are now lost to all time. But that's okay, it's not like I haven't gotten through the game a hundred times and it's not like I won't a hundred more. Hey, guess what my favorite videogame is!

Sunday was supposed to the "productive day." I ended up baking cookies, watching two movies at my house, making really, really yummy butternut squash risotto for dinner with Tristan, and then going to Jeremy's to watch Whose Line Is It Anyway? and the entire works of Shakespeare in about an hour and a half. The Shakespeare thing was hilarious and I urge all of you (especially those who don't enjoy his work) to watch it. At some point during Whose Line, Tristan and I decided that we should out for pancakes and other breakfast foods that night, but the only late-night diner in town was closed. =( It was very sad.

It was closed again on Monday night (after I spent nearly four hours playing FFIV with no possibility of saving), so we went to Walmart and just got stuff to make our own breakfast party and stayed up till 1 making pancakes and eggs and hashbrowns. Best. Night. Ever. (Did I mention I love hashbrowns?)

But now it's back to real life and classes and being covered in rock dust and reading books with big words in them and glancing wistfully at the PS2. But now, I'm off! My a cappella group is having an info meeting tonight about auditions, and an insane number of people have signed up for info already. This could turn out to be an interesting season. Ciao!

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Don't Talk About Rock Carving

I have discovered the first rule of rock carving: Don't wear a low cut shirt. Do have any idea how frustrating and awkward it is to sit through a two hour lecture while you've got sand and tiny rocks in your bra? Holy freaking crap. Never again.

Also, homemade apple sauce is the best. Unfortuantely, I didn't really get to eat it. I promised my fibers class (like printing on fabric and learning to draw with a sewing machine) that I would bring cookies for Food Friday, and I went to the grocery store to get the stuff I'd need to bake, and realized when I got home that I'm out of butter. It was even on the stupid list. Augh. I didn't feel like going all the way back to the store just for butter, so I dug out my one cookie recipe that doesn't call for butter. It does, however, call for applesauce. I did not have applesauce, but I had apples and cinnamon and a whole night to kill, so I made some crazy delicious applesauce and then amazing moist apple-y cookies. Then I helped Jill and our friend Jer paint a huge poster for the swing dancing team.

Also also, I am horrendously domestic. It's 10:30 at night, and I've just finished sweeping and washing all the floors in my house. Just because. Well, they were dirty (especially the kitchen), but that activity always struck me more as a "I'm going to spend all of Saturday morning cleaning this dump" kind of thing rather than a "it's Thursday night and I have nothing better to do while I watch Elf" type thing. Whatevs.

Also also also, my a cappella group is going to be putting out a new CD (hopefully!)!!! I'm pretty darn stoked to start recording.

I (almost completely) apologize for the moroseness of yesterday's post. It was just one of those days, you know?

It's not me, it's definitely you

You know what, Life? Sometimes, you suck. First, you gank my major and I have to find a new one, then you fill my house with spiders and centipedes that I have to kill (there have been more bugs than days this week), then that stupid rat of a dog is pooping in my yard again, and THEN, you planetary tramp, you leave my dad without the job he's ALREADY BEEN TRAINING FOR with NO warning whatsoever.

We're not friends anymore. Don't bother calling me.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Homelessness

It's strange to not always have someone around. I think this is the most difficult part of living in a house. My roomates and I all have different things that we do, so occassionally one of us is home alone. I always thought that didn't bother me, but I'm realizing that I've never really had a chance to notice. At my house back in Saint Louis, we have dogs, so a person's never really alone there; Bosco and Sugar see to that personally. In the dorms, there's always someone you know a few doors away. Yeah, I hated dorm life, and I didn't always like my floormates, but the point here is that they weren't strangers. The only people around right now are the guys across the street who spend half the evening revving their engines or drinking on their front porch. Extremely not interested in making their acquaintance.

I needed the dryer this afternoon and it was full of my sleeping roommate's towels. I was halfway through folding them when I realized that I miss being part of a family. I think that's why I take on the motherly role here, folding towels and doing dishes and making sure we're not out of neosporin and cooking dinner and worrying when roomies haven't shown up by 11am. I guess I really am a mama bear (and for the love of God, do not try to draw a line between me and that Palin woman. I am not that kind of mama bear).

Maybe the point is that home is where the heart is and I've left mine in too many different places.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Lisa the Lobster

I love the farmer's market here. Saturday morning, Jill and I got up early to have a nice long breakfast before meeting my boyfriend to head up to the farmer's market on the square. I hadn't been to a farmer's market in years (though we do have one in my home town every other week of summer). There were at least 10 stalls all selling different things. From one woman I bought a big jar of blackberry jam, and another man sold me a dozen free range eggs. Apparently, he doesn't even have a fence on his property. The chickens just do whatever they feel like. I've also heard that he has a campus delivery service twice a month, so I might see if I can sign up for once a month or something like that.


The produce there was amazing. I've never seen eggplants of that size in my entire life (even on tv), and the zucchini we bought were at least double the size of the ones we find in my grocery store back home. I'm seriously in love with this market. Also, Jill bought 13 ears of corn for two dollars. I cannot describe how much I love grilled corn on the cob. Om nom nom.


When we got home, I made my very first chickpea burgers! My friend Katie is coming over for lunch on Tuesday and I thought they'd be good to have, so I experimented and they were AMAZING. I am not ashamed to admit that I ate all of them throughout the course of the day. I messed up while reading the ingredient list, so instead of having onion in the burgers, I had garlic and black olives (which I realize isn't even close to "onion," but whatever, it was like eating greek hummus!) and garnished with some herbs I brought from my garden back home. It's killing me to wait until Tuesday to bake the rest of burgers.


Believe it or not, my roommates and I never really hang out. They are two of my best friends, but we only ever see each other at our house or by coincidence on campus. Also, I've never been to the beach here in town, even though I've already lived here for two years. Both of these wrongs were righted yesterday, and it was insanely fun. I really missed the feel of sand under my feet. Jill and I even built a sandcastle (before the waves got it) and then some kids asked us if we'd help them build a sandcastle for the frog that they caught. Frogger lived happily ever after in his castle for about twenty minutes before one kid stole him and another demolished the building, but it was good while it lasted.


The day was wrapped up with cooking dinner with my beau (Zucchini and Black Bean Chilaquiles, yeah, I didn't know what the heck that meant either, but it was damn tasty) and then watching a movie at my apartment. I can now say that I've seen a Clint Eastwood film, and I'm a little in love with Gran Torino. It was insanly good, and if you haven't seen it, you should go do it right now. Go. Seriously.


And then after the movie, I discovered that I am now a lobster because I was a moron at the beach and did not wear sunscreen. I'm off to nurse my back and do some reading for Monday's classes. Ciao!

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Scramble My Life

Okay, as of right now I have no major. The sculpture department is being closed after this semester, and I just found out today that I can no longer be a sculpture major. I have no major, and my kitchen houses centipedes. I hate today. I'm off to bake cookies and drown my sorrows. Blargh.

Moving in and on

I could not begin to describe how sick I was of living in the dorms. My roommates were awesome, my hall advisor was insanely cool and hung out with us all the time, and my boyfriend lived a few staircases away, but the power outages, water shut-offs, screaming frat boys, awful floor mates, lack of a kitchen, and midnight fire drills really start to take a toll on you after a while. We were only one month into our sophomore year of college when two of my roommates and I decided that something had to be done. We went apartment hunting.

After about a hundred answering machines, two apartments that reeked of cat urine, and somethat had questionable plumbing, we found it: Our New Home. It's a block and a half from campus, another block and a half from the town square, has three bedrooms and a huge kitchen and two full baths, and the rent is reasonable. We were in love.

We (Jill, Heather, and I) moved in on August 20th. We put our rooms together, discovered that we own three can openers and four sets of silverware, and met the girl upstairs. We're soon learning that there's always trouble in paradise.

To start with, our bathrooms: the smaller of the two bathrooms is haunted. The door opens and closes on its own. Sure, it might be wind and an old house, but it gives it more character to say "haunted." It's also kind of ugly. The bigger bathroom (and the one we all use) is gorgeous, but I'm pretty sure the shower was built for gnomes. Now, I'm kind of tall at 5'9", but the showerhead is lower than my face. My neck gets really wet, but I have to start doing gymnastics to wash my hair. It's a little odd, but it's totally something I can live with.

Somethings I cannot live with would be the centipedes. I have found two in under a week in my new home. The first was tiny (barely larger than a sewing needle) and I got rid of it with no problem. The second one isn't as simple. It's bigger. Much bigger. I have this thing with bugs where I can approach and dispose of anything with 8 legs or fewer. That's why centipedes are such a problem. The creepy crawlie was discovered around 11:45 the night before classes start, right after my a capella group had rehearsed in my house. I was getting ready for bed and almost stepped on it while walking to the (gnome) bathroom. I spent fifteen minutes staring it down and wishing we had bug spray before I had to whip off my glasses so I couldn't see the legs and trapped it under a small trash can. I left a note for my roommates in the morning warning them why they shouldn't move the trash can.

If you're currently laughing at what a wuss I am, let it be known that neither of my roommates has taken it upon herself to dispose of it. My boyfriend is coming over for dinner, so I might have to bribe him with mac n cheese in return for killing it for me.

But besides the acrobatics and bugs, the house is pretty darn awesome. I'm not enjoying being woken up by the maintenance guys and their power washers every morning, but it sure beats techno music and drunken yelling at 3am.

It might not be Utopia, but at least it's Utopi-ish.