sometimes I keysmash

I'll get to things I've loved from this past week in a moment, but first I must ask - do you ever have moments where you remember something that's happened to you previously and you realize how much you've changed since that occasion?  I'm not sure why, but my brain's been bringing up so many old (and even recent) memories that have just been making me think about how different I am from my childhood, my mid-teens, a year ago, even just a few months ago, and it's kind of surreal and strange to realize that even though you don't necessarily realize it, every day that you wake up, you're a different person.  It's so weird, but it's kind of cool, honestly.

Mini-ramble over, now, onto things that make sense outside of my brain...well, okay the first is sort of linked to the ramble a little bit!

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Admittedly, the first two lines are the most important.  My mind likes to wander, and when I'm loneliest, it likes to wander to my (so far only) relationship and all the things that could have made it actually last.  Being a hopeless romantic is both a good and bad thing - good, because you trust and hope that something amazing will come around, and absolutely awful because you hope so much that each person you fall for will be It and The Only.  At least I know that I need failed or wrong relationships to actually understand what I want - granted, I only understood that completely when I realized yesterday that if my first meeting with my ex had occurred today, I wouldn't have dated her even without knowing her as well as I do now, and yet I wouldn't have recognized a whole host of traits that are actually kind of toxic to be around.  I wonder what the boy I'm currently interested in might teach me...and I know I'll just have to live the adventure to find out.

This video is from 1926, and I do recommend clicking through to vimeo to see the story behind it.  It's such a lovely video, and the music is quite nice!

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Sharmadean Reid sounds like a pretty interesting person from this Refinery29 story, and she's definitely got a cool house!

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People spend a lot of time obsessing over models, celebrities, designers' labels...well, I won't say we should start obsessing over designers (obsessing over anything is kinda unhealthy, yes, I'll even concede that my shoe obsession is kinda unhealthy...) I do, however, think people should, with some designers at least, spend a bit more time listening to them on not-wholly-fashion subjects. This interview with Miuccia Prada is absolutely fascinating.  My favorite part of it is this: "The investigation of ugliness is, to me, more interesting than the bourgeois idea of beauty. And why? Because ugly is human. It touches the bad and the dirty side of people."

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This is basically what I have to do a lot of in order to convince myself to do most things...

What are your favorite things from the past week?

I Can't Believe

I can't believe...that after tomorrow, I'll have been working for three weeks.  How did this 'being vaguely adult' thing happen?

I can't believe...that I actually worked out yesterday, and that I'll be working out again tomorrow and again on Saturday (well, maybe on that one, depends on when I get back from grocery shopping and the mall...or I could stick to my schedule and wake up even earlier to do that...bleh).

I can't believe...that my hair's finally long enough to get into a ponytail that'll stay!

I can't believe...that I spent half my lunch break yesterday taking really weird selfies with the vending machines/my Dr. Pepper.  I'm not kidding...

I can't believe...that I've been managing to do this 'regular updating' thing for multiple months now.  And I'm really happy I have been!

What can't you believe right now?

Pepperoni Bread

A while ago, I was on a blog where someone had asked for recipes (ps shameless plug you guys should tell me recipes to try making as I try to figure out this cooking thing) and I recommended, as I always do, pepperoni bread, before realizing that a) nobody knows what the hell that is (I'd think it'd be obvious, but maybe that's just because I've grown up with it) and b) I haven't found an actual recipe for it anywhere online.  I've found similar things, yes, but not "my" pepperoni bread.  And so, you're about to read my first recipe on her, and see how messy a cook I am.  These are not perfect.  Or pretty.  Or even done quite the same as I make pepperoni bread at home, since the closest grocery stop is slightly...lacking.

Ingredients:

1 Pillsbury bread package-thing (I like French bread loaf, but Crescents, like I use here, works too)

1 package of cheese (sliced is better, shredded is cheaper)

1 package or roll of pepperoni

1 egg

some flour or other thing to keep the bread from sticking

a tray to bake this stuff on

a mug, whisk, and frondy baster-y thingy help too

So, first, heat the oven to 350° and then go on and break your egg into your mug or w/e and mix it.  Coat the pan with whatever "please don't stick to the pan" solution you've got going, roll out your dough, and use that weird little frondy thing to coat the visible part of the dough...

Next up, layer some cheese and pepperoni on all that dough!  If you have a bigger thing of dough, you can do much better layering.  Same thing if you're using sliced cheese.

Then you just roll them up, coat the outsides with more egg, and stick them in the oven for whatever time it says on the package/till they start to look nice and brown.

Truly, beautiful... And then they come out brown and yummy and you let them cool or burn your mouth.  Either way, it's delicious, even if it isn't pretty to make.

(they should look browner than this, but the light in my kitchen is messed up :C )

And the egg isn't really necessary, btw, it's just something that makes it look nice and taste better.  You can also use other meats, or none at all, or just put in whatever the hell you want and I'm pretty sure it'll still work.

...in retrospect this is a really horrible way to try to demonstrate a recipe that my family and I've whittled down to the minimum of effort possible, but oh well.  I don't think anyone really has the time to make dough from scratch most of the time, so...

Hope you like this!  (Also you should definitely give me recipe ideas I need to attempt to learn this whole cooking thing beyond things in boxes and pepperoni bread, please).

Tuesday Tunes

Anyone who knows me for more than a day or two tends to wind up knowing that I did not grow up around TV very much - I wasn't allowed to watch TV until I was six, or movies until I was eight, and then only on very rare occasions, and we completely rid ourselves of TV when I was thirteen - so I don't really watch TV shows.  Like.  Ever.  I sometimes see things on tumblr for, say, Elementary or Doctor Who and think 'I should try watching that', but I never do.  Somehow, though, last night I wound up watching the premier of The Bachelorette.  It was pretty much ALL the second-hand embarrassment, naturally, but I think I'll probably be sucked into watching it again with my suitemates next week...  I can't claim that it's relevant to my song choices for today, unfortunately, but I guess it's kind of interesting.

Also, this first song...yeah.  I keep hearing this EVERYWHERE and it's gotten almost permanently stuck in my head.

The second is an old favorite of mine from when I had a very abrupt and very serious country music phase.  Hey, I'm Texan, so at least it's expected.

Any good music you've heard recently?  (Also, should you feel motivated, you should totally suggest recipes for me to attempt cooking in my quest to learn how to cook...  I'll be soliciting y'all a lot for this, just a warning).

moving: this kills the woman

You might have noticed the distinct lack of posts for the better part of last week.  If you're paying attention to my twitter, you know that the chaos of moving suddenly and abruptly took over my life.  I moved in on Thursday (the 23rd), and spent basically all of Friday after work on unpacking.  I'm still not entirely done, honestly.  I also, unfortunately, accidentally took a bunch of my friend's stuff that she was intending someone else to temporarily store.  On the other hand, what else was I supposed to think when I saw her boxes standing there with a note scrawled on them saying "Thank you Sue"?  I'm still not entirely sure how else I was supposed to take that...  Oh well.  Hopefully she'll come by for them once she gets back from Chi-town and my room will get even neater.  (And hopefully she'll be more specific with things next time...)  In the meantime, some pics of the room!

 

 

It's definitely not completely done on the unpacking front, but I'm pretty pleased with the room...other than the fact that I don't have any full-size sheets.  Oops?  Guess that'll be one of the first things I buy with my first paycheck.

Obviously, with work, and packing-moving-unpacking chaos, there wasn't much time to bother with dressing nicely (seriously, I moved someone into their new place on Monday night, and then I moved into my new dorm on Thursday...) I did bother with something other than short-shorts and a tank top on Saturday, though, since that was basically my errands day. Probably fancier than grocery shopping and picking up packages merited, but whatever.

Shirt/rings/shoes - F21 | Shorts - Kate Spade Saturday | Tights - Walmart

Hopefully I'll have figured out our common area lighting by the time next week rolls around...it's kind of a special setup, and nobody's really bothering to actually do anything in the common area. My suite doesn't seem too interested in socializing with each other, which is kind of sad. Hopefully that'll also start happening soon!

How was your past week?

Tuesday Tunes

I completely forgot to write this. You might have noticed it didn't go up at midnight. Also I'm writing this in a rush before work. Go me? But yeah, helped someone move more things than they could possibly use, and indeed, they haven't touched most of it (here's looking at the skis, the broken wall decoration, etc). Just a couple of songs for y'all today, and not much commentary...

This is a gorgeous AMV someone did with Homestuck and a Florence and the Machine song. Basically love at first watching for me...

Heard this a day or so ago, kind of love the sound...

What music do you currently love?

adult in training

I actually had a really good week and weekend (other than getting locked out of my suite twice but...we'll get to that). This is probably because working was the only truly responsible thing I did. I spent WAY too much time playing Skyrim. And if you've been following a while, you know this isn't unusual, but it was actually beyond ridiculous, especially on Sunday. I played almost non-stop from 11am to a little before 11pm. Yes, it was that bad. At least I did laundry at some point and had the excuse of being locked out of my suite? It was still ridiculous...but I finished one of the main questlines, which had been seriously impeding me in dealing effectively with the others, so I can't call it too bad a waste of time considering I couldn't actually do anything else for a little over half the time I was playing... Ramble aside, I swear I did actually do more than work and play Skyrim. Just...not that much. I spent a lot of time talking to one guy who lives in my building and lacks people on his floor, and I went to Theta Chi and played pool once. I even managed to pack most of my clothes and books.

Basically, other than that exodus to Theta Chi on Wednesday night, though, the first part of the week was pretty boring. Thursday saw me wearing something other than...no, it was still shorts and a tank top, like every previous day. But the tank top was cooler!

Top - H&M | Shorts - F21 | Shoes - Payless | Bracelets - DIY | Necklace - present

Thursday and Friday were more work, buuuuut Saturday was fantastic! I went to MOCA, which is absolutely beautiful, and it was tons of fun. Fun fact about my necklaces, though I'm not sure you can see them: I had on an eagle necklace, a scorpion necklace, and a phoenix one. I'm a Scorpio, via astrology, and three of the big symbols for that sign are scorpions, eagles, and phoenixes. They're supposed to be a sort of hierarchy of personalities, and it amused me the entire day.

Shirt - JC Penny's | Skirt - Charlotte Russe | Necklaces - F21, gifted

How was your weekend? Did you get to do anything fun?

my knees keep finding tables

Just take that title at face value, folks. Considering that I managed to whack my knee on the table about five times immediately before I began to write this, it's basically the only thing I can think about...

This has been an exhausting week, but definitely an interesting one. For anyone who doesn't know, I began my first job this week (and by first, I mean first "regular AND paid", because there's been irregular babysitting and regular running of sites for free). I'm working with the custodial staff at my university, and it's been an absolute education already, both on people (it's illustrated some of the things my Accounting teacher talked about, actually, like how rules should be carefully considered because of their unintended consequences) and on actual cleaning. Also, it's really made my desire to smack all the idiots that dismiss custodian types of people as "morons" who "don't know anything" rather more fervid, but y'know... I work with some incredibly intelligent and interesting people, and anyone that thinks poor English grammar or doing a physically demanding job somehow makes a person less intelligent should seriously reconsider their lives.

...soapbox over, though, this post is actually to talk about things I've loved from this past week (besides Taco Thursday, our second-to-last lunch of Training Week). Despite exhaustion, I've managed to be online enough to discover quite a few things I absolutely love, so!

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Obviously, I love shoes. These kind of hit everything I love - the larger heel, the rounded toe, ANKLE STRAPS, they remind me of the saddle shoes I was cruelly denied as a small child. (Okay, it wasn't cruel, but it's so upsetting to be told you can't have something you love just because your mom hated wearing them as a kid...) Basically, I want these a lot. (Sidenote, I will someday actually buy myself saddle shoes and take great pleasure in wearing them around my mother. Someday I will also sound less crazy because I won't still be upset at not getting a pair of shoes I wanted like eleven years ago... Sadly, today is not someday...)

Considering that most humans struggle with trying to be liked by other people, I think this is a good reminder for everyone. I know I was linked to the article I found this quote in by a blogger I follow, though I've forgotten who, unfortunately. (Ivana of Macarons and Pearls, maybe? I've noticed that she tends to be responsible for a lot of things I wind up pinning...)

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I debated on leaving this to you guys to figure out, but I'll be honest, probably 50% of the reason I love this picture as much as I do is that I have a bit of a celebrity crush on Miley Cyrus... The other 50% would be that dress. But yeah. It looks like Elle made an interesting shoot.

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This=the way I would like to look when I wear pigtails, rather than slightly insane young adult.

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...I have very strong emotions about chickens. I don't honestly know why. They're one of the most ridiculous things I could possibly be obsessed with...and yet, here I sit, age nineteen, looking at this picture and thinking "I could totally take over the world if I had an army of giant mutant chickens on jet-powered skateboards." I don't know what I'd do once I'd conquered the world, I just want the giant mutant chickens. ...yeah, moving on.

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I'll be honest, I don't care that much about Duchess Kate. She seems like a cool person, but I'm just not that interested in seeing every single outfit she's ever worn since she and William were married or started dating or her maternity style. I think the obsession with her is beyond ridiculous (but then again, I'm obsessed with chickens, so am I really allowed to talk?) Probably the main times I get excited to see things pertaining to Kate are things like this - designers designing hypothetical outfits for her. (I was more interested in the concept art some designers made despite not being hired for her wedding dress than I was interested in the dress, so...) Karl Lagerfeld's is probably my favorite, because of that dramatic neckline.

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Four words: I want this dress.

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Another fun fact about me for the day: I've always wanted to wear ridiculously heavy, ornate earrings. My childhood aspiration, before I decided I couldn't be interested in fashion because of stupid stuff, was to have massive hoop earrings down to my shoulders. Alas, my ears don't like to be pierced, so I'm stuck with clip-ons. These. Are clip-ons. Too expensive, and yet, I keep looking at them and wanting them.

What were your favorite things this week? Any interesting obsessions that beat chickens?

I Can't Believe...

Well, today is Thursday, and I'm officially tired enough to not really be able to write a decent introduction or lead-in to this. Not that it really needs one exactly, but y'know. First week of work will be done after Friday. It's definitely been interesting thus far...

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I can't believe...that I'm working. Better than last summer, though, when I couldn't get a job...

I can't believe...that people are doing AP exams around now. Where did high school go?

I can't believe...that recycle bins can get so dirty. You'd think it would be trash cans, but dorm recycle bins can get pretty nasty, often they're nastier than the trash bins. It's so weird!

I can't believe that...Cleveland decided to be nice-ish today, weatherwise.

What can't you believe this week?

No Wednesday Post

While I do have a video that could technically work for my Wednesday post, thanks to upload issues, it doesn't. I'm switching to midnight upload times, as that's more convenient to my job than the noon upload times. (Also might be more conducive to my paying attention in class...eep). So, today there's no post, that way I can easily join the "I Can't Believe" linkups when I post on Thursday. I hope everyone has a lovely day and that they all appreciate this majestic work of art that was on facebook yesterday!

Fifty Shades of Bread (Source Unknown)

Tuesday Tunes

Work is exhausting, and I've only done one day. Here's to hoping it gets easier!

I'm on a real Florence and the Machine kick right now. I don't think I've managed to find a song from her that I don't like. Some of my current favorites...

What are some of your current favorite songs?

it's not feeling like summer

Cleveland's spent the past three days raining and being cold. Upside - the winter clothes I was about to pack don't have to be packed, thus saving my effort. Downside - it's cold, so I can't run around like an idiot in the rain, because COLD.

The outfits today include one from the week before last. I know, yeah...

That outfit was worn on a day when Cleveland was being so nice to spite all of us who had finals. April 30th. I had an event party thing to go to for some graduating seniors, so I dressed up for it (and I was just happy to be fancy...)

Dress/hairthings/bracelets - F21 | Belt - DEB | Shoes - Payless | Necklace - gifted

A week later, after a lot of stress, I

Shirt/bracelets - F21 | Belt - Papaya | Skirt - TJ Maxx? | Necklace - thrifted

Then, sadness occurred as friends left, I might've had a meltdown, basically ALL THE SADNESS happened in the span of a few short days (I am still dealing with the sadness... Don't go to college only to realize that one of the reasons you've been unhappy all your life is that you're an extrovert who's been trying to force yourself to be an introvert... Well, DO realize it, but realize it before college so you can relearn how to function, don't be me...)

Saturday was crazy busy, and I ran all over the place doing things on errands. (And I watched My Neighbor Totoro!) It was tiring enough that I went to bed at 9PM on Sunday, still tired.

Chambray - JC Penny's | Shirt - found (it's college, don't ask questions) | Skirt/boots - F21 | Socks - Gap

Also, does anyone else ever find themselves rushing to get a post done before work? Or is today just a first-timer's thing for me? At least my work is very close...

How was your past week?

I Guess I'm a Sophomore

Well...the year's over, I know some of my grades, almost everyone I live with has moved out and gone home, and the rest will follow shortly, and... Yeah. I'm in a rather melancholic sort of mood, and I might have spent significant portions of the past two days crying at how long it's going to be before I see my friends again. (I also have a somewhat irrational fear that there'll be a repeat of what happened at the end of last semester, which I am desperately hoping will be proven as irrational, since, you know, I'd like to not melt down after each time I hug a friend goodbye. At least I have a ticket to go to one of the museums that requires a ticket, and there's a festival in University Circle today, so I'll have a bit of a distraction. And I'm going to either Target or the mall area at some point this weekend to get some storage containers. At this point, I think getting off the floor as much as possible is going to be the only way I stay a functional human being. There's far too much temptation to just sit on the couch and cry or just stare at the wall, which is even worse than playing Skyrim for eight hours on end because I don't even want to do it. Bluh.

I'll quit rambling now - not that I'm much in the mood for it - and show you things that have made this week sort of better.

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I don't think you can understand my reaction to these shoes. It was over-the-top dramatic. I gasped really loudly and started fanning myself. It was actually probably hilarious, but no one witnessed it.

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Earring magnets = perfect way for me to deal with my intense lust for earrings.

So...after finals, my planned reward was a pair of sandals. And then these shorts happened. $75 is now the most I've ever spent on a piece of clothing. And I actually don't regret it. Kate Spade Saturday is kind of my new favorite thing. And also may eventually kill me because it's all so expensive but I want it all so much. (Also, the package came with this adorable bright yellow card that said "Make Every Day a Saturday", or something like that, which my roomie happily relieved me of, because she LOVES  yellow). Good purchase? Hell yes. Just don't be like me and order it and realize three days later that you also have to feed yourself until your first paycheck. Thank goodness I have parents who find it funny when I do stupid shit... I'm adjusting to this adult thing, I guess.

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I'm the custodian of my friends' xbox, tv, and computer over the summer (along with a dozen other things), and it's all going to be in a single room. I'm going to have to become a boss at organization. Step one is cords, because god only knows how awful a room is when it's already small and then has cords everywhere. I'd imagine it would be worst when coming home from work and not wanting to deal with shit... So cord control is step one.

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Can someone just turn me into Emma Watson or something? Please?

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This is such a cute idea, and I'm motivated to try it primarily by the idea of being able to make my own cards and stuff for people's birthdays and still have them be sorta unique and interesting and distinct from one another. (Also monetarily motivated...) I already tend to make my own cards (or I did, until I stumbled upon the five things of stationary I had leftover from middle school and decided to put all those dolphins to use...) and so having some sort of vague idea of what I want to do with them is always a boon.

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Hello English language, how ya doin'? Stuff like this is why I giggle when someone says that learning Arabic must be so hard for me. I speak English, which doesn't follow any of its rules in the slightest. While I don't know if the numbers on this are true, I don't doubt that it's a close ratio, because please, English.

What are your favorites for the week?