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.

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!

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.