If Diet Pepsi and brownies for breakfast is wrong, I don’t want to be right… especially these homemade brownies with walnuts that NPH’s mom sent for his birthday on Monday.  His blessed 21st will be properly celebrated on Friday evening following the culmination of finals week.  The Facebook event calls for classy dress, and most of the house is headed to Goodwill this week to find the perfect fancy attire– English gentlemen’s outfits, suits, fedoras, two-tone shoes, etc.  I am way too excited to be on official birthday cake duty.

So far, being back in America has been… uneventful.  This past weekend was a blur of jet lag, unpacking, and odd amounts of cake (Mother’s Day and Kayla’s graduation party <– because my best friend is officially a college graduate weird.)  One of my 713ers commented that Germany had been kind to my girlish figure, but I can assure him that one week in Iowa City can pretty much undo whatever four months of heavy beer drinking and daily pastry eating magically didn’t.  My less than 72 hours in this wonderful land of the Hawkeyes could so far be summed up as The Care and Feeding of NPH (who, for those of you who live under a rock/ DIDN’T subscribe to my study abroad blog, somehow became Boyfriend instead of just Bestie during my time away.)  Not that the kid isn’t fully functioning on his own, but he has four finals this week and works two jobs, not to mention what do I really have else to do but make sure he’s getting three square meals a day?  Playing House is actually insanely boring, and I can only make so many pepperoni and cheese omelettes before I want to take the pan and beat him over the head with it.   Luckily I have a Mesa date with Natalie for lunch today (if the weather wanted to stop being so PMS-y by then, that’d be much appreciated) and other girl friends to keep me sane when I just can’t take anymore gratuitous junk-grabbing/ unnecessary outbursts in the throes of video game playing passion/ Sun Chip inhaling.

Speaking of, Sun Chips were on sale.  What is your favorite flavor?  Choose wisely.  There is a divide in the house (Original is not even a contender in this race– it’s between Cheddar and Peppercorn Ranch.  Does anyone even buy French Onion?  I suppose you can vote for Garden Salsa if those are your true feelings, but I’d appreciate your help in deciding the Cheddar/ Peppercorn Ranch final round.)

My 21st birthday is three weeks from yesterday.