Halloween Fergus

German beer girl (way to go, Halloween clearance sale at Target!)

AhhhhhGunsnRosesAhhhhhh

Which one of these is not like the other ones?

NPH isn't one for getting all gussied up

Also, giant shout-out to Roomie Rachael who is apparently scrubbing the apartment clean this morning while I “look for jobs” (Facebook?) in the living room, waiting for Roomie Lauren to wake up who I will then assault until it’s pumpkin pie shake time. Don’t let me down today, Hamburg Inn.

Upon returning home, starving, after a day of work and class, I was greeted by my roommates discussing the merits of various desserts.
Lauren: “I don’t like angel food cake.”
Everyone else in the tri-county area: “WHAAAAAAA?!?!?”
Lauren: “I don’t know it, it’s just like, too… something.”
Rachael: “Dense?”
Brittney: “Spongy?”
Lauren: “Yes, I think it’s too spongy.”
I then had to laugh like a five year old because the word spongy reminds me of the sponge worthy episode of Seinfeld.
Lauren: “Doesn’t it have like, a web?”
Silence from the other two in the room.
Lauren: “You know how it looks like a tiny web on the inside? Or maybe that’s meringue I’m thinking of.”
Brittney: “It’s probably meringue since you have to beat egg whites. I don’t like meringue.”
Lauren: “Or maybe it’s coconut cream pie.”
Brittney: (vomits on the floor at the near mention) “I HATE coconut cream pie.” (And all coconut in general, if you were wondering.)
Lauren: “I just don’t like pie.”
Again, the entire world: “WHO doesn’t like pie?!”
Lauren: “I’m going to Google ‘web pie.’”

In one on my leadership classes, we were talking about different forms of motivation one might use to entice those they’re leading.
Instructor: “What are some types of things that could motivate someone?”
Classmate: “Money.”
Instructor: “Money is an excellent example. What else?”
Me: “Food.”
Long silence from the class.
Instructor: “Food. Um, ok. Are you motivated by food?”
Me: “Of course!”
Instructor: “So like, um yeah, I guess if you wanted a sandwich, you might do something for someone…”
Me: “I would definitely do something for a sandwich.”
I thought of you during the entire exchange, Kayla.

Our time at the conference is half over, and it’s been… ok so far. There have been some good speakers, some bad speakers, some really lame moments, and some meeting of pretty cool people. My favorite parts have been the times we weren’t actually in any sessions– when we went out last night with girls from Virginia Tech, when we went to lunch at a Mediterranean place yesterday where both Miller Lite and hummus were on special. Tonight NPH’s little sister took me around town since she goes to school here, and home girl literally restored my sanity. We went to dinner at a diner in the Adams Morgan area of town, then we took the Metro to the National Mall and saw all the quintessential things I needed to see to say I’d actually been in DC. The White House and other monuments were so completely different than what I ever pictured them as. There’s so much open lawn space around everything, especially the Washington Monument. We couldn’t get close to the White House, and were ever talked to by security guards because we couldn’t figure out how to leave the area to get over to the other monuments. I really like DC, as in, I could really see myself moving here. I won’t get into all the head games that have been brought on by being surrounded by 1,000 of my peers who are all just as qualified, if not more so, for the jobs we’d kill each other over. I realllllly miss Fergus, and I miss NPH more now that his sister and I had a few good laughs over him this evening. I’m ready to go back to Iowa just because I have so much for school and work that I need to get done, but I definitely want to return to DC on my own terms and really look around.

After cutting it pretty close to make our flight from Moline to Detroit, I am now typing 30,000 miles above ground and hurtling towards our nation’s capital through quite a bit of turbulence (but let’s be honest, I’m posting while firmly on the ground probably somewhere in the Marriott lobby—I’m certainly not paying for in-flight wireless, though for the first time in my life it is available.) Going from Concourse C to A in Detroit, I was freaked out by how eerily familiar it seemed. Chalking it up to 14 years of flying finally blurring into one ball of indiscernible travel experience, I then remembered that I had stalked a senator through that very underground passage back in January. Le sigh. As if I weren’t already having trouble with the Germany flashbacks.
Outside our gate there was a small food court where—get this—there was a restaurant dedicated to PB&J. They carried other variations including my favorite, peanut butter and banana, or PB & Chocolate, or even PB, banana, honey & bacon on cinnamon swirl bread. I opted for a fruit cup from a bakery instead, because after reading Skinny Bitch (very eye-opening) and finally completely crossing the boundary from toying with vegetarianism to committing to vegetarianism, I was just really craving some fruit. Yes, I realize I just announced my not eating meat in what must seem like a very flippant “Oh, maybe I’ll wear a T-shirt today” kind of way, but I assure you I’d been consuming it sparingly anyway, and the stats, experiences, and descriptions in the aforementioned book made me realize I just need to go ahead and give it up.
I’m already completely exhausted (dammit, Fergus) and will want to just fall into bed as soon as we get to the hotel, but who knows what kind of second wind DC will bring me. Speaking of my little floppy-eared love, he had his first vet visit yesterday. Not only did he pass, but he’s gained a pound since we got him on Saturday, and he charmed everyone in the office who assured me he’s the cutest basset they may have ever seen. Wtf, flight attendants—they haven’t even begun the in-flight beverage service. This is only an hour long flight; if I don’t see some pretzels before reaching our destination, heads will roll.

I’m not going to go all cooking blog on you, but I need to talk about my culinary undertakings in the past three hours for a bit. Inspired by Iowa Girl Eats, perhaps my favorite person on the Internet, I made homemade mac ‘n cheese for NPH with– wait for it– bacon and caramelized jalapenos. I know. I KNOW. My first solo attempt at any sort of homemade sauce went decently, and when I dipped in a finger even I was like, “Oh damn!” The jalapenos my mama gives me from her garden are spicy, so I cooked ‘em down in some of the bacon grease. The dish wasn’t spicy, but there was just enough bacon and jalapeno to give it a great flavor. NPH was licking the sauce out of the bowl with his finger, and his roomies later heaped on the same praise.

But that’s not all! After the mac was in the oven, I made some zucchini bread. It took a while to shred/dice the zucchini since I don’t have any sort of vegetable shredder, but it was definitely worth it. The majority of the loaf was gone 10 minutes after bringing it to 713 (while it’s true they’re kinda like goats, even this is a new record.) NPH declared “your cooking is creating a following, your Fan Club will now be demanding it.” I’ve always been generous with them on the cupcakes/ brownie mix front, but now we’ve stepped it up and are getting gourmet. I’m thinking chicken and dumplings next, though as NPH has pointed out, I’ll be out of state next weekend, thus he will most likely starve until my return. What can I say, it’s nice to be needed.

On this day, one year ago, I wrote my first post about absolutely nothing. Happy one year blogiversary to my myself! There have been 154 posts in 365 days, not too shabby considering I took a few months off to blog elsewhere about my study abroad adventures. Am I doing anything to celebrate this glorious occasion? Well it’s four-meeting Friday (it’s exactly at it sounds– even though I don’t have class on Fridays, I consistently have to be more on my game than any other day of the week) and then later I’m going to get real domestic around 713 with some bacon mac ‘n cheese for NPH and deep cleaning sparked by Bryce’s amazing job on getting the upstairs bathroom to sparkle. One of my meetings this morning was about trip to DC in six days, and it got me really excited. I’m probably more excited, however, to go shopping tomorrow for super professional clothes to wear while I’m there. I suppose you could say I celebrated this morning with a FREE bagel at Bruegger’s (the ridiculously friendly register lady hooked me up with some coupons) and Roomie Lauren said something about a pumpkin pie shake at Hamburg Inn before the weekend’s over. Ahem.

Recent discovery: While I like both peanut butter and celery, I do not enjoy them together.

The grade for my midterm has been posted, and while I won’t reveal it here, let’s just say I’ve at least left myself room for dire improvement.

This weekend, NPH and I ventured outside of our normal home football routine and traveled to North Liberty for a bit of a pre-game soiree hosted by my former supervisor. She’s also a close family friend, thus NPH had the privilege of meeting more of my blood relatives. Unfortunately there are no entertaining stories to report, though it was very reminiscent of My Big Fat Greek Wedding in that from the moment we entered, food was (quite willingly) forced down NPH’s throat, not to mention we were loaded down with leftovers before leaving. Those have had to wait in the fridge though because I got all domestic Friday night and made homemade chili. I wouldn’t even say I’m a fan of chili, but after the boyfriend requested and then badgered me about it for weeks, I turned out a bomb-skitty (yes, a real adjective) meal. Spicy, two kinds of meat, beans. Cornbread. Oh, am I gloating? It was that yummy.

Triscuits are my favorite cracker, followed closely by Wheat Thins and Ritz. My father is a large fan of Chicken in a Biskit. These have confused me to no end since childhood– WHAT is a biskit and WHY are they called that because they definitely don’t taste like chicken. They are damn delicious, however. I especially like the little scalloped edges.

In the final bit of news before I go back to working on a scholarship application, 713 has two new important additions. One is thankfully temporary– Taco, a very small kitten that’s currently under the watchful cat-sitting eye of one shorter, more intelligent member of the house. The other arrived after all four residents went on a spontaneous, shenanigans-filled run to Wal-Mart Saturday afternoon. The second amendment is being exercised (no really, as I type this, it’s laying across NPH’s lap) in the form of a BB gun… that looks like a .22 rifle. Because THAT has “great idea” written all over it. I don’t like the idea of firearms in any capacity, though watching the boyfriend find his inner 10-year-old and make shooting sounds while guarding us from imaginary house predators is one of the more adorable things I’ve seen.

“Well now I’m just embarrassed– you’re clearly blogging about this.” Puts down gun. He knows me too well.

For absolutely despising mayonnaise and being generally afraid of everything that’s completely based on saturated fats, I love chicken salad. I realize you can make it sans mayo and instead with Greek yogurt or low fat sour cream, but I’ve never gone as far as making chicken salad myself. If I did, I’m afraid I’d then be destined for a profile on TLC’s “Freaky Eaters”. The more stuff slammed (my favorite verb) into a chicken salad, the better. I’m talking celery, walnuts, cranberries– today I tried some curried chicken salad on my regular bed of greens at the River Room. I’ve never been able to take a definitive stance on curry, whether I love it or loathe it. I realize the IMU isn’t really the best indicator of Iowa City’s curry options, just like how I hope no one judges if they like sushi or not by what they’re serving up in those plastic packages here. I prefer Takanami, though you can’t beat Happy Sundays at Three Samurai in Coralville.
…completely random tangent on food is now concluded. Back to procrastinating on my 3-4 page literature review, due in an hour and a half, yet to be started.

Day Nine: Two smileys that describe your life right now
…are you kidding me. I refuse to do this one, mostly because I’m not sure they’ve invented an emoticon with the gun-to-head motion (it’s been that kind of week.) Thus, hold onto your pants, readers because YOU are getting to the END of this damn thing one day early (rejoicing, dancing in the streets, tears of unadulterated happiness– I get it.)

Day Ten: One confession
…this could be dangerous ground, though. I feel I don’t have much to confess seeing as this is a forum for my stream of consciousness anyway. The things I do have to confess have remained secret for good reason and thus I will now confess something mostly for accountability’s sake:
I haven’t run for like a month. And it’s not like I’ve taken up cycling or Zumba instead. Basically, I am an unmotivated lazy ass who has taken up far too much beer drinking and fried food-consumption all in the name of Hawkeye football. I don’t exactly have the metabolism of a 15-year-old boy, thus am getting– and I’m just gonna put it bluntly– kinda chunky. Or chunkier. Either way, it’s high time I get my act in gear because, quite frankly, it’s just not attractive.