Thanksgiving/Black Friday/I Am A Terrible Blogger

It's only been a week...whoops! I'm a bad blogger (and a bad student, I'm writing this in ECON200: Microeconomics. But who needs econ anyway, right?). I just get distracted very easily! I need to make up a real schedule for this or something. Anyway.

Thanksgiving went pretty well. There were 20 of us all over at Grandma's house. My sister, two cousins, and I ended up having to sit at a table in the hallway, six more in the kitchen, and then the remaining 12 adults were in the dining room. The food was good, we had a ton of dessert. Grandma Ruth (who isn't actually my grandma - she's my uncle's mom - but I've called her Grandma Ruth my whole life) kept making fun of me because I was eating cookies before the turkey was even out of the oven. But can you blame me? Cookies are great!

It was strange, though. This is our first holiday season since Grandma died in March. She was already in the hospital by this time last year, but we all still went and visited her in shifts on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Even though she wasn't there for dinner, she was still around, still right on the other side of town. We could still go and visit her and celebrate as a whole family. This year we had to hold each other together. No one seemed really upset or anything, but I think it was hard on my mom. A lot of things have been hard on my mom over the last year.

Things looked up a little bit around midnight on Thanksgiving, when Katie, Tim and I drove to Hagerstown to go Black Friday shopping. I managed to get gifts for Mom, Jim, and Meghan for pretty cheap, so I would say it was a successful trip! People always say that Black Friday shopping isn't worth it, but it honestly is, you can get such great deals. I got Mom two gifts for $30 (total) at a store that is normally ridiculously expensive (not giving away any details, because WHAT IF she somehow sees this, hmm???). If you have a shopping problem, Black Friday will definitely be nicer to your wallet than a normal shopping day. Speaking of, I managed a nice Fossil wallet for $15, too.

It's so weird being back in school now, just knowing that the semester is almost over. My last final is on December 19, only a few weeks away. I really need to buckle down and study. I definitely need to try to do well on my econ final to bring my grade up (let's not even TALK about that number right now), and I really want to do well on my English348A final paper, too. I just need to figure out some self control...we're getting there.

19 is a Really Uneventful Birthday

Alright, I guess I should mention that my birthday was on Tuesday. I'm 19 now, bringing a close to my first full year as a legal adult. Woo!

It wasn't a very eventful day. I got up 20 minutes late, skipped econ rather than walk in 30 minutes late (but it's not the first time I've skipped anyway...), got some free birthday Starbucks, went to my English class...basically a normal day, except for the free drink, which was pretty cool. I wish we could have more than one birthday a year, so that we could get free stuff all the time.

It's kind of funny, birthdays seem to lose their significance as you get older. When you're a little kid, it's so exciting every year, getting to bring in a treat for your whole class, having parties, getting lots of presents and cake and having your whole world think that you're special for that day. As I've gotten older, birthdays mean less and less. It's still cool, my friends celebrate, I get a few gifts, whatever, but it's obviously not the same now that I'm 19 as it was when I was 9. It kind of becomes just another day. It's a day full of facebook notifications and texts from friends, but it's not a big deal anymore. Not to say that free stuff isn't a big deal - that's definitely still a big deal. But just the whole day in general.

I also think it's weird how people will go nuts and be all "oh you're a whole year older, what's it feel like to be (insert new age here)??" and you're all "uh. it feels pretty much like it did yesterday, when I was (insert new age -1 here). thanks though". My roommate Meghan did that, it was literally like 12:03am on Tuesday and she screamed and yelled "HAAAPPYYY BIRRRRRTTHHHHDAAAAYYYYY" and woke Wells up. Then she was so excited and kept saying "you're a whole year older!" but it's like. Yeah, I'm a whole year older now than I was this time last year. But I'm really only about 4 minutes older now than I was when I was 18. It's really not a big deal. Birthdays are built up to be this big deal, it's this huge milestone, blah blah, you're older and wiser and everything is great. But it's really not like that at all. You have milestones all the time, and you get wiser through experience. Growing up is more just something that happens to you. It really doesn't have much to do with your actual age.

I did have a pretty good birthday though. Jim gave me a really pretty cameo ring, and my parents bought a new pair of boots for me. Jim and I tried to go to Denny's on Tuesday night for my free birthday Grand Slam, but they were closed between 11pm and 4:30am for some reason. Tonight we all went to Denny's as a group, because it's also my bff Kyle's birthday the day after mine, and I actually got management to give me my free birthday Grand Slam a day late, because they were closed when I got there the day before. That was pretty cool. It was actually second dinner, too. Jim joined my family for my birthday dinner tonight, steak and baked potatoes, followed by chocolate cake with caramel icing. It was all very wonderful. I'm happy to have made it to 19, and to be as luck as I have been and surrounded by the people in my life.

Tomorrow (today really) is Thanksgiving, so I'll try to post something tomorrow night about that. I might incorporate that into the Friday Five, but I'm not sure yet. Have a good night!

Friday Five

1. It's been a long week. There were some bad days and some good days, but on the whole I can't remember the last time I was so thankful for a Friday to finally come along. I think it's just the fact that the semester is winding down - only about a month left! In just a few weeks, the semester will be over, and we'll all have a month off before getting back to work. I mean, unless you're taking a winter semester class, but personally I will be taking the break as a break. Things are getting more serious, we're all having more assignments, more papers and exams. We're coming to the end of things, and it's starting to show.

2. I've been experimenting with various cake-in-a-mug recipes lately. So far I've tried two, and neither have been very successful. I think I'm just going to keep going until I find one that I really like, and then I'll make a whole post comparing the different recipes. I really like the idea of being able to make a quick cake in the microwave. I just haven't found the right recipe yet!

3. I'm really looking forward to Thanksgiving break, to be able to see my friends and family and take a break from school for a little while. It'll definitely be an interesting break, considering my current car-less state. I know, it was my own stupid fault for getting into an accident, and I'm mad at myself for it. I know I'll resent myself for not being able to go anywhere over break without borrowing a car from my parents, and just think, this break is only a few days long. Imagine winter break, when I'll be stuck at home every day while my parents are at work. That's not really the point of this though. I want to be home, with my family, with my friends, with the people who I love who love me.

4. OK this one can be about my car. I'm hoping that maybemaybemaybe my dad can find a cheap car that he believes is "trustworthy" that we can potentially buy with the insurance money and my savings. Maybe. I really don't see it as a true possibility though. Dad isn't very happy with me, considering that four days before my accident he was telling me that I drive too fast and don't stop soon enough and that I follow too closely behind other cars coming up to intersections and stuff. He was also counting on my car to be able to make it until I was out of school. It's pretty damn reasonable that he's not really too keen on buying or helping me to buy another car right now. I guess we'll just see what happens.

5. I've really been getting into reading A Game of Thrones lately. I finished the first book the other night, and I've been reading the second pretty steadily, too. I've really missed reading for fun, and I'm glad that I'm getting back into it. I think I kind of needed this.

Weekends are for Fun and Eating, not Blogging.

I know, I know, I missed Friday again! In my defense, Jim and our friend Tim were here for the weekend, so I was a bit preoccupied. It was actually a pretty fun weekend. Yesterday we went to DC and ate at Ben's Chili Bowl before seeing The Perks of Being a Wallflower (which was fantastic) at the Landmark E Street Theater. Today I made a French toast bake for breakfast, which is the real focus of this post, because of course I love talking about food.

I found the recipe for the bake on Rach's Blog, via Pinterest, and decided that it would be great with pumpkin cream cheese, using a recipe from Better Homes and Gardens.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese:
8 oz softened cream cheese
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice (I used ground cinnamon & nutmeg, and eyeballed my amounts)
1/2 tsp vanilla

1) Beat all ingredients together until smooth. 2) Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or up to 24 hours.

French Toast Bake:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup melted butter (1 stick)

1 cup brown sugar

1 loaf Texas toast
4 eggs

1 1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Powdered sugar for sprinkling (I didn't use this)

1) Melt butter in microwave, add brown sugar and stir until mixed. 2) Pour butter & brown sugar mix into a 9x13 pan, make sure it covers the bottom. 3) Beat eggs, milk, and vanilla. 4) Lay first layer of Texas toast in pan. 5) Spread pumpkin cream cheese over the first layer of bread. 6) Cover first layer of bread with half of egg mixture (I think next time I might pour the egg mixture first, and then put the pumpkin cream cheese on the bottom of the second layer, if I use the pumpkin in the next batch). 7) Add second layer of Texas toast. 8) Coat second layer with remaining egg mixture (I also sprinkled cinnamon sugar over the top layer after pouring the egg mixture). 9) Cover and refrigerate overnight. 10) Bake at 350 for 45 minutes, covered for the first 30 minutes.  

It was great! My only problem was that for most of the pan, the brown sugar & butter base burned. I'm not sure if it's just my oven, because we've had some problems with it before, but either way, I think next time I might just melt the butter into the bottom of the pan and skip the brown sugar. Beyond that, it was definitely a hit with everyone here who ate it, and I'd recommend it to everyone who loves breakfast.

And here's a picture of Tim and me while we were waiting for the metro:

The Weekend in Review

Alright, I guess I should fill in the gaps in my life for the last few days. I always get in the mood to blog when I need to be studying.

My family and I spent this past weekend in Indiana, at the Notre Dame v. Pitt game (GO FIGHTING IRISH). Thursday, my cousin Will and I were supposed to drive back to Cumberland, meet our families, and then everyone was going to Ohio. However, this plan was kind of tripped up when I rear-ended another car before even making it onto the beltway. I wasn't texting and driving or doing anything stupid - I was driving behind a big truck and turned to check my blind spot to see if I could merge onto the beltway ramp. While I was looking out the back, the truck in front of me merged over, revealing a stopped car directly in my path, and I couldn't stop in time. No one was hurt and I didn't get a citation or anything, but I don't know how my car is faring as of yet. The front was pretty smashed up, but it could still move. I'm worried that it might be totaled, simply because it's a 2002 Toyota Camry, and insurance companies don't usually put effort into helping out older model cars. Hopefully it'll be fixable though, and I'll soon have Neville back in my possession. Yes, my car is named Neville, as in Longbottom, because it's accident-prone. Appropriate, right? We got everything sorted out, both cars towed away, and then my dad heroically drove 2 hours here to pick up my cousin and me and then drove back, picked up my mom and sister, and drove all the way to Cleveland. We got to our hotel by 4 am, and were back on the road to Indiana by 7.

Besides my accident, it was actually a pretty great weekend. We had a ton of fun at ND, despite the fact that my dad insisted on taking pictures of Claire and me all over the campus even though he's never done anything like that here at Maryland where he actually went to school. We attended a luncheon and a pep rally on Friday, and then the game on Saturday. The band was phenomenal, and their football team is so good this year (9-0!). It felt really weird to be getting so excited over a team that wasn't made up of Terrapins, but I've been a Notre Dame fan for literally as long as I can remember, and I can't just turn my back on that. It was a really intense game, and my whole family was saying that it was Grandma that gave the Irish the push for the win.

I've spent the last few days trying to get back on track, it was strange being away for four days. I really need to buckle down with my school work, there are only about five weeks left in the semester, and things aren't going to be getting any easier. I'm honestly considering quitting Tumblr for a while, because it provides a huge distraction for me. I guess we'll see how that goes, maybe I just won't use it much next semester. Either way, I need to do some serious reevaluating of my life and my priorities right now, I need to get myself back in line and on the ball.

Whoops

I've been really bad at this for the last few days, but please allow me to excuse myself because my life has been fucking hectic as shit lately and I'm tired as hell.

Here are some pictures from this weekend.

Touchdown Jesus

I am tired as hell right now and I'll definitely make a week/weekend post sometime before Monday but for now just enjoy this picture of the Touchdown Jesus (by the way I'm in Indiana).