Monday, February 28, 2011

busy, not unlike a bee

It has come to this. I am so busy with schoolwork when I'm not in class that I've taken to updating this blog while in class. I don't have much to say, except that I've been applying for summer internships like a crazy woman and I've got two midterms coming up, as well as papers due and somewhere during all of this I am supposed to find a damn dress for Barrister's Ball. I think it's safe to say that was a really grammatically incorrect sentence.

So next weekend I'm heading to Utica to see my little nephew and my family. I'm super-psyched even though it means I have to kill myself doing work this week to be able to make it. I don't even mind though because the way I look at it, I will not have that many opportunities to see him because my sister and her husband and the little guy live in California. I live in Maryland and I am not exactly brimming with time and money to be flying out to the west coast, as much as I would love to be. I wish this country would get on the high-speed rail train. Ha, ha, I am cracking myself up today.

Barrister's Ball is April 9, and tickets go on sale next week. Come hell or high water, I WILL get tickets this year. Last year I did not realize that apparently Barrister's Ball is the most important event of every single law school student's year, and everyone buys their ticket at approximately 12:01 pm on the date they go on sale. They sold out practically instantly. We will be driving back from Utica on Monday so I'm a little worried, but my friend Sarah said that if I give her the money she will buy us tickets during the first block of time. I just have to talk that over with Zach and then I am sure it will be a go. I want to go SO bad and I've been lusting after dresses on Nordstrom Rack dot com during this class, especially this lovely:


I don't mean to sound full of myself, but I look really good in greenish blues, and I just think it looks super flattering and comfortable. I'm weird about buying things online though, just because I always feel the need to try things on and make sure they look absolutely perfect before I buy them. I am very particular about fit and such. I'm going to go to Nordstrom Rack in the Towson mall possibly next weekend to find out if they have it, and if not I'm sure I will find something else. Still, it's only 69 bucks and it comes in my size. We'll have to see.

I watched the Oscars last night while doing Professional Responsibility homework, so my memory of it was peppered with random rules about conflicts of interest while representing organizations. Sad to say that my memory is probably more enjoyable than the memory of someone who watched the entire thing by itself. Okay, Anne Hathaway actually tried. She gave it her damn-near all, and was almost annoyingly bubbly and smiley. I can't fault her for that. Franco, on the other hand...feh. He was totally checked out, and really un-funny. I don't know if he thought he was way too cool (in which case, come to my neighborhood and hang out with all the goddamn hipsters) or too high (which I would normally not care about but come on, man! It's the Oscars!). I was happy that Toy Story 3 won for best animated, but if I am to be perfectly honest, I haven't seen a single other movie that was nominated for an Oscar. I really want to see them all (except The Social Network. I just can't get into the idea of that movie) and after last night, I put all of 'em on my Netflix queue for when they come out on DVD.

All right, this is getting rambly. I just wish the weather would improve.

Monday, February 21, 2011

hippie water

The bottle of water I just bought from the vending machine is claiming that by purchasing it, I just gave 10 cents to a local charity protecting the environment. This is all well and good but I have my suspicions. Why, I'm sure you could get hipsters to buy anything that claims that part of its profits have gone to charity or some such thing. Where's the evidence, hmm, hippie water company?

Anyway, this week is going to be ridiculously busy if I want to go home next weekend to see The World's Cutest Baby (and the rest of my family). I have to apply for about fifty million internships by March 1, do a ton of general schoolwork, finish a draft of a paper and start another paper. Happy days are here again. I was pretty freaked out about all of it last night and couldn't sleep (while next to me, a Nyquil-zonked Zach slept soundly) but when I woke up this morning I felt totally renewed and like I could take it all on easily. I don't know, maybe it's the hippie water.

I'm applying for so many internships because I figure the more I apply for, the better chances of getting a call back from at least one of the places. I'm applying for ones in Baltimore and D.C. that I can semi-easily reach via public transportation because Zach owns the car and will probably be using it for his own purposes. Either that or we could set up some weird carpooling schedule, but either way I'm going to be waking up very early in the summertime.

We got new windows! I don't remember if I mentioned that in the last entry or not because my brain is frankly, fried but they are glorious. I also haven't been linking to recipes lately like I said I would so here's some things I've made lately:

Baked Pasta with Chicken Sausage. I liked this okay but Zach did not, mostly because of the tomato chunks. I'd give it a 6.

Pork Chops in the Slow Cooker. THIS was delicious, and so easy! That crock pot is becoming the best thirty dollars I've ever spent.

Perfect Popcorn. I know, popcorn? Who needs a recipe for popcorn? Well apparently I did, because every time I made it on the stove top I always burnt the bottom of the pan and it was just gross. Alton's method changed my life. Using a big aluminum bowl and covering it with foil made PERFECT popcorn, for realsies. So tasty and almost every single kernel popped.

Stuffed Peppers. I had never had stuffed peppers before, and neither had Zach, so we were slightly skeptical of these but they were very tasty and quite easy to make. This also solidified Bethenny as my very favorite NY Real Housewife.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

sick boyfriend, sore shins.

My poor boyfriend is ill. This happens at least once a semester; he comes down with a debilitating cold for about three days and is totally miserable the entire time, and then goes back to being perfectly healthy.  Right now he is snuggled up on the couch with the heating pad, a cup of tea and a big blanket and I am stuck in here doing homework blogging. I keep trying to get him to drink lots of liquids because for some reason I am fixated on the idea that lots of liquids = get healthy faster, which I'm pretty sure is residual of what my mom did when we were sick as kids.

I should be doing my reading for administrative law, but I'm far too busy looking at cute bikinis on Victorias Secret dot com and thinking that if I do go to the gym at least three or four times a week from now until summer, I will purchase one of those bikinis (I really want THIS one, but in the hot pink color) and wear it out and about on the beach and whatnot. Unfortunately, I had to skip the gym tonight because I ran last night and as a result my shins are screaming in pain and have been all day. I forgot why I hate running. It's not because I get winded too easily (which I do, but that's just because I'm grossly out of shape), it's because my shins apparently don't enjoy it. That's generally why I stick to the elliptical, but last night the gym was ridiculously busy and all were taken.

We are getting new windows in our apartment tomorrow! Our building is pretty old and our windows pretty much blow, they are drafty and rattle and just ugh. So we complained to the leasing office a couple of weeks ago and because our building manager is just the best (I'm not being sarcastic, he's great) the window installers are coming here tomorrow to install brand spanking new windows in our apartment. Very exciting. The windows right now are also ridiculously hard to open without breaking your fingers, so hopefully the new ones will be better in that respect as well. Tonight we have to do some furniture rearranging, though, because the workers need a clear path to the windows and right now our mattress and an end table are in the way. Because Zach is sickly, I'll probably end up doing most of the rearranging myself. Which is fine, because I have been lifting weights at the gym and am now probably grossly overestimating my strength.

PSA: This salsa is the most amazing thing I've ever tasted, and I do not mess around with salsa. It's my favorite snack accompaniment and I am quite discerning, or at least I like to think so. It's all I can do to not eat the entire jar in one sitting. Currently, an unopened jar sits in my refrigerator, mocking me with its tastiness.  Sidenote: I almost always spell refrigerator incorrectly. I'm convinced there should be a 'd' in there.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

baked potatoes for lunch.

Imagine my surprise when I got a postcard in the mail from my close personal friends the Obama family, wishing me a happy new year!

Really, though, I donated to Obama's campaign back in aught eight and since then I have received the odd thing in the mail, to make it seem like he really appreciated that fifteen dollars. I think it's really kind of funny and I plan on sticking this up on my fridge once I get some magnets, which my uber-conservative Bill O'Reilly-watching father will just love. 


Today, I came home with an inexplicable craving for a baked potato. Zach and I only have one class on Tuesdays from 10:30 - 11:45, and then it's free all day. I knew I had potatoes, so I came on home and threw one in the oven. It was delicious. Man, my blog is just chock-full of interesting stories and events, isn't it? I'd be better off if I had kept up with that story about the Obamas being my close personal friends.

This blog is not interesting. I don't really lead an interesting life. The majority of the blogs I read are 'mommy/daddy' blogs about people with children. This is weird to me, considering I don't particularly want children and the only little one I really love is my nephew, John. He's the cutest, smartest baby in the world, don't you know? Anyway, it's really strange to me that I enjoy the blogs of parents so much. I have almost nothing in common with any of them except for the fact that I have changed a diaper in my life, and yet I find myself reading pages and pages of blogs like DooceMimi SmartypantsDaddy Scratches and Kelle Hampton. I have no explanation for this.

I might be getting a little internship soon. I'm nervous. I don't want to say too many details just in case it doesn't pan out, but I'm looking forward to it.

I don't really know how to end this blog, so here's a picture of O.J. Simpson offering up some Christmas ham.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

this blog entry is gonna make me seem like a real alchy.

Tonight, I'm enjoying a cold can of the glorious National Bohemian beer and basically being a homebody on a Saturday night. Zach just bought Dead Space 2 and it is very loud and very scary, so I've retired to my bed with my beer and computer. Thank god for wifi.

I don't know if it's super appropriate to be drinking a beer at 6:30 pm on a Saturday (uh, why wouldn't it be? stupid old Catholic guilt residue!), but here I am.

Recap of the weekend time! Okay, so, on Thursday night I had to attend Phi Alpha Delta initiation with Zach, which ended up at the 13th floor bar at the Belvedere. I had a couple of gin and tonics with the dinner afterward, and then it was JERSDAY! Yes, I, an educated lady who has skin the color of plain yogurt and who has exactly zero animal print articles of clothing, LOVE Jersey Shore. I can't explain it. It's a guilty pleasure that I have seriously come to enjoy over the past year or so. So, Zach, Ellyn and I walked to the liquor store on the way home from the 13th floor and what do our eyes spy in the refrigerated section but...

Yes, the dreaded and ...banned?! Four Loko. Not sure what the specifications of the ban are or whether or not this unnamed liquor store was breaking the law, but we suddenly had the compulsion to purchase four cans (one for each of us including Lindsay, who had class until 9:30 and would meet us at our apartment). Oh, this was truly a terrible idea. But it seemed fabulous at the time. So, Jersey Shore commenced and my boo DJ Pauly D was extraordinarily funny the entire episode. I drank about half of my "Lemonade" Four Loko and apparently this was impressive. I think it just tasted so bad that I wanted to get it over with quickly. I would soon regret this decision. 

Four Loko doesn't give you a normal drunk feeling. It makes you feel crazy. At one point I was interpretive dancing with Lindsay to the Age of Aquarius song by the 5th Dimension. Then, we played the Michael Jackson experience Wii game and I'm not sure, but I think I gave it 110%. I was convinced that it would help me burn off the calories from the Chinese food we ordered earlier in the evening.

So, I think it goes without saying that I remember exactly nothing from that night after we watched 30 Rock and that my head felt like it was in a vise the following morning. Never shall you tempt me with your bright colors and good-sounding flavors again, Four Loko! Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...shame on me.

The rest of the weekend has been pretty inconsequential. Zach got his Macbook keyboard replaced for free by the kind folks at the Apple Store (the details of the breaking of the keyboard are fuzzy. I maintain my innocence in the matter). I made a nice pasta dish for dinner. I absolutely scrubbed the bathroom and kitchen and did all the laundry, and now there is nothing keeping me from doing homework. Except for blogging, and listening to random music on Pandora radio, and possibly drinking more beer. But we'll see. 

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

oh how I wish I was going to dollar taco night at Holy Frijoles.

So, I just got a text before I sat down for my last class of the day, from my law school pal Zac. Not my boyfriend Zach, my friend Zac. Yes, it is confusing. Anyway, he wanted to know if we wanted to join him for dollar taco night at Holy Frijoles, a Mexican restaurant in Hampden. We went after the end of last semester, and it was absolutely delicious and cheap (well, would have been cheap had I not splurged on a cucumber gin martini. mmm..gin), and I really wanted to go tonight. Sadly, I'm in class until 7:35 p.m. and I swore I would go to the gym after class. I'm also trying to eat significantly healthier, and that does not generally involve gorging on delicious tacos.

I'm in class right now and the lecture is boring me to tears, and my headache is ridiculous. This class always gives me a headache and it's not because of the subject matter, it's because the girl in front of me wears the world's strongest perfume. I know I've ranted about this on twitter and facebook but honestly, it's getting really bad. I never thought I was very sensitive to smells, either. I can walk through a Bath and Body Works or a Yankee Candle Store without any problem, and I do wear perfume, it's just very light and you can't really smell it unless you're RIGHT NEXT TO MY NECK. I narrowed it down to the culprit today because she was late to class and the smell was not present until she sat down. I can't even describe it...it's very harsh and strong, but not particularly flowery..ah. I don't know. Anyway, this class is basically me being surrounded by annoying sounds and smells. The guy next to me chews his gum loudly, and the girl next to me and the guy behind me both clear their throats 2000 times per class session. My senses, they are assaulted.

I'm wearing my contacts today. I hate working out with my glasses on, and I didn't want to shove my contacts in in the gym locker room, so I put them in at home around 1pm during my break. So far my eyes aren't red, but I am going to keep wearing them very sparingly because I don't want to look like the Black Swan poster every day of my life again. Although, if they do have the same effect on my eyes, I could probably be Natalie Portman in that scene for next Halloween, as long as I lose about sixty pounds.