i'm in love.

so i put this little "fortune telling fish" on my hand, and it has told me that i was in love. thinking that it was mistaken, i tried again.... so it told me that i was passionate. therefore, i am passionately in love. and, thinking about it now, i would tend to agree. i will tell you all of the things that i love on christmas:

people who i feel especially affectionate about this christmas:
i love my daddy, my mommy, my noodle (nick, my brother). i love yuko, the hamelinks, and david and summer, ellis and william vunga. (especially william, who is the most adorable baby in the world and ... well i might actually be in love with him.). i love the whole jones family, who are really my second family.
i love the people who couldn't be here, like my granny cukoo (who died this year) and my beloved sister, kerry, in germany, who was kinda with us via skype for most of the day... [sidenote: i look SO much better when i'm in an overexposed skype camera. i've decided that if i ever make a wish on a genie lamp, i will wish that i will eternally look overexposed. hahah.]

things that i have enjoyed:
i love giving presents, even if they were cheap or kinda lame. i love being completely surprised by the things that i got. i love my new black and white rain boots. i love my new fur-collared sweater. i love me new grey loafers and my socks and scarf and stamps and cards and my tremendous twenties hat. i love the christmas crackers with corney jokes and silly gifts.

i loved watching summer unwrap her present from david, her husband, because she was so completely surprised and excited and bashful at the cute little things he got her.

food that was delish:
i love making sweet potatoes. and eating them. mmmm.
i love the duck, stuffing, gravy, and...yes, mom, even the green beans.
i can't wait to eat the apple crisp sitting in the oven.

now, the men are reclining by the fire and talking about man things or sleeping, or drinking beer, or somehow managing to do all three, the women-folk are gathered at our extended dining room table drinking tea and talking about women things like babies and relatives and people's last names....
nick is upstairs sleeping after a strenuous day of cooking,
yuko is in the basement sleeping because she has a headache,
ellis (20months) is crying about going to bed,
william(3months) is being as close to an angel as is humanly possible,
and i decided to check my email for the first time in two days and got distracted with this silly thing.

oh i love christmas, yes i do.

they are calling that it's dessert time. mmmm.

so that, ladies and gents, is my christmas. it's a fairly typical christmas, too. and perfectly lovely.

best diet ever

me: hey mom, i think i should lose a couple pounds, what do you think?

mom: here, sweetie, have the stomach flu! you'll lose six pounds in one day!

me: yes!

[fictional dialogue]


i think we get sick as a reminder of how blessed we are when we're healthy.
i think that the worse you feel, the more you appreciate.

let's just say i appreciated a lot today.

oh happy day(s)

so. today and yesterday were so happy.

yesterday: i found out that my wonderful friend/art teacher/mentor, connie jimenez got engaged to chris zammett. annnnd i am out of my mind happy for her. oh my gosh. she is just one of the best and greatest and most wonderful people to be around. i can remember being in AP art and talking to kelly about how "miss jimenez" needed to get married and would make such a wonderful wife! i have known her since i was... what? 8?... and she used to come over to my house when i was a kid and then taught me logic in 8th grade and AP art in 12th. oh i love her. man, but when i read the text that she sent to kate, i was with a bunch of friends at someone's house and i freaked out and screamed for a super long time and everyone was looking at each other thinking, "what is up with her freaking out at a text message?"...... hm. i look forward to getting to know chris. he must be great, if connie will have him! :)

today: i picked up my phone and found a text from elise mays saying that she was officially engaged to garrett!! now, i LOVE elise and garbear. elise is just... aaah there are no words! she's my pocket-sized elisey, whom i love to hug and talk with. and garrett is like a weird kind of brother that i don't really see very much but when i do it makes me SO happy. and so, to see two people that you love SO much get engaged to EACH OTHER--- it is almost too much. i freaked out again and was busy screaming and jumping up and down in the hall when the concerned pastor's college kid from korea came up the stairs and said something about their family being worried that that someone was getting hurt.... hahaha :)

happy happy sigh.
literally, it just came out.


oh, and shivers. happy shivers.

i love you all and i'm so happy for you all.

i grew?!

so, after not seeing summer vunga (who is the wonderful PC wife that lived with us last year) since june, when she saw me she said "i think you've grown taller!"

i didn't believe her. well, i've been the same hight since august '07. so i figured i stopped growing.

BUT, to prove summer wrong, mommy measured me against the wall and..... i have grown about a quarter (and a little bit) of an inch!

that. is.loco.

now i am officially 5'7''. sweet.

(my)(next)(few)(days)

(study)(sleep)(test)(study)(sleep)(study)(sleep)(test)(DONE)
(joshie&tuffy)(mar'sbday)(sleep) (whateveriwant)(!)

pankayk brekfst

this morning, stacey made all of us pancakes, and we had a wonderful breakfast and laughed a lot.

and then kate scared stacey really badly in the bathroom. (more on this later)

and then stacey and i had a dance party to chris brown in my bedroom.

and then i left for school, smiling and thinking that i love my roomies.

just the two of us....

i have taken to dictating my future birthday cards to stacey, to avoid surprises.
they are as follows:

june 11, 2009
dear stacey,
happy 21st birthday! it's been great living with you this year!
love, rachel


june 11, 2015
dear stacey,
happy 27th birthday! it's been great living with you for the past 7 years! please get some milk.
love, rachel


june 11th, 2019
dear stacey,
happy 31st birthday! it's been wonderful living with you for the past 11 years... don't worry, you'll get a boyfriend soon!
love, rachel


june 11th, 2026
dear stacey,
happy 38th birthday! wow. it's been a long time here in this old house. um. i am really glad you have a boyfriend. don't worry- the age difference won't matter in the long run. 60 really isn't that old....
anyways, have a good one,
rachel


------
i also have taken to sneaking into her bedroom and starting to sing "just the two of us! we can make it if we try!", much to her disapproval.

poor stacey. i feel bad that she has to put up with me.
kinda.
:)

ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew.

i just saw our mouse!!!!! it was rustling in a bag in stacey's room. i think it's in her closet now.

aaaaaand mary was caught in the bathroom with it today!

this is getting serious.
it keeps on eating the peanut butter off the mousetraps.
ew ew ew.
we have a rodent.

at least mary says it's brown. and small. it sounds kinda cute, actually.
so. when madamouselle guillotine gets to it, we have communally decided that we'll call dan or some other man to get rid of it.

ew.

yesterday = funniest day ever

oh my. where do i begin?

so the night before, i went to chick fil a and spent the night, and didn't get a whole lot of sleep, but got a whole lot of laughs and a whole lot of coupons.
let's just say that sleeping in a tent with stacey.... and brett and robby and mike o'neal and matt woodrow and bryan aguirre and joey wilson was hilarious. i think we laughed for a good 45 minutes before we got to sleep.
def a start to a funny day.

so then i went home by myself.... i went too far on 95.. not so hilarious. but i kinda like getting lost in a weird way, because i don't really freak out like i used to... i just get un-lost and go home.

ok, so then i groggily got ready and went to school.

there's this girl in two of my classes on tuesdays and thursdays named debbie. i love her. we have so much fun together.... and, luckily, we're really good at whispering and passing notes in class, so it makes all of the classes go faster.
so anyway, when i got to school she told me some funny story... i don't know what it was... but that started me out laughing for the day. she also said "you know what i've noticed? you don't drop things." (two weeks ago i spilled the enire contents of my bag on the floor and people around me had to help me and stuff.... so i said "you know what i've noticed? you don't remember things!")

then i went to the stamp and slept on a couch for an hour and relished a chick-fil-a sandwich with an unusual (but justified) measure of satisfaction.

then, at the end of psych class (which was kinda funny, in itself), debbie and i were talking as people were leaving and i totally dropped my phone on the ground. "AAAAH!!!! I dropped my phone! I dropped my phone! I dropped my phone!!!!!!!!" i yelled, jumping up and down enthusiastically, proving that i DO drop things. Debbie just looked at me and burst out laughing.... i was standing there joyously yelling "i dropped my phone!" at the top or my lungs as the crowded class bustled past. everyone must have been thinking "whaaaat the heck is wrong with her?"

ok so i was already laughing when i left the class. as i made my way to the bus, i almost ran into this tubby, 40 year old man on the phone. the part of his conversation that i heard was: "mom! mom! what?! i'm halfway down the hill, mom! geez!"
so i burst out laughing at that. and texted debbie to tell her.

then, i was walking down my street with a huge smile on my face, laughing inside at all the funny things that had happened, when i saw a little chinese man squatting on his sidewalk, facing away from me and gardening.
"oh that's cute," i thought. everything was making me smile.
so then, right when i was walking past him and thought i would call out a "good afternoon!", this old chinese man just let one rip. it was SO LOUD and it lasted a good 15 seconds. so, for the entire time that i was walking past him, he was farting, loudly and with a very high and squeaky pitch, blissfully unaware of my presence. i almost died.
somehow i managed to hold my laughter in until i was past him, and then i burst out laughing and laughed literally the whole way home. i laughed and laughed and laughed. i laughed as i walked past the park, and climbed the hill, and stumbled up the stairs, and opened the door, and tripped in the door, and fell on the couch, and fell off the couch, and i laughed as stacey stood there asking me "what was so funny, what was so funny, rachel?".

and then laughed as i texted debbie.

oh that was a funny, funny day.

these loco days

last night i filled up my gas tank for 19 dollars.

19 dollars....
for an entire tank.

ay caramba.

three words:

we
have
mice



!

what not to eat...

i have learned that the combination of....

two-day-old suchi,
leftover ham,
green pepper jelly,
toast,
chocolate chip cake,
pumkin pie,
melon,
grapes,
carrots,
brocoli,
yellow peppers,
celery,
more carrots,
fruit-topped cheesecake,
mini sausage things,
chips,
cheesy beefy chip dip,
hot wings,
fries,
cole slaw,
ketchup,
6 reece's penut butter cups and
a strawberry shortcake ice cream popsicle

....does not agree with my stomach very much.


(i was sick all last night.)

thanksgiving.

"these pinapples were hand-chosen by my butler in an island in the carribbean. they were then flash-frozen and loaded onto my ocean-liner. once here, they were taken and placed upon two silken pillows and transported to my home. then they were slowly defrosted by means of babies breathing on them. then i crushed them with a mace that is said to have been owned by gangis kahn. and now, i serve them to you."
-nick


love him.

don't go there.

you went there.
-stacey


()()
\_/

josh's visit

josh coop came to bless us with his presence yesterday. we had so much fun.

i got to eat lunch with him, and then make mac-n-cheese for him for dinner, later, after he and stacey had played music for a long time in cspac. (while they were doing that, i was learning how to sign "lean on me" in american sign language. ha. here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ez6a_pGdwlY )

i was sad that i had a ticket for the basketball game, because i wanted to stay and hang out. but i went to the basketball game, anyway.
i was almost to the comcast center with robby and brett, when i remembered (much to my secret relief) that i had forgotten to print out my ticket. ("oh... darn! i forgot my ticket!.... guess i'll have to go home!" (in my head: "yes!")).

so i went home to find itallian opera playing off josh's computer,

a fire blazing,

and three of my favorite people in the world playing an intensive round of speed uno.

(kate smugly winning:)

and so i contented myself with roasting marshmallows on a hanger and feeding them to the very intense players. it was so fun.

and then we all watched the new indiana jones.
and afterwards i fell asleep on the couch until 1:30. and then i got up and went to bed.

last night was one of the most enjoyable, quite and cozy nights in my recent history.
thanks for coming down, joshua.
thanks for being the best of roommates, stace and kate.

sigh.

thursday morning...

...started with a "plink".

i keep my contact case in the mirrored cabinet above the sink.
so then, when i put something back into the cabinet, i accidentally knocked the contact case out.
it dropped into the side of the sink, and was re-directed by the curve of the sink, which consequently caused my little contact container to FLY out of the other side of the sink, high up into the air, and land neatly in the toilet.

i laughed for a good ten minutes while trying to fish it out with the toilet cleaner brush. it was just crazy how it did that.

needless to say, i threw it away. but that pretty much made my morning.

this is what happens when i study.

so i had a huge psyc test on thursday. this is how i study:

i make the hugest study guide ever, and pretty much re-write all of my notes.
then i get really bored.
and my brain gets fried.
and so i need an artistic outlet.
so i just go over and grab my camera and take pictures of myself and everything around me for an hour.
and then i sit down and start studying.

so i end up with a lot of pictures like this:

and this:

(chairs are really interesting after reading about pavlov's dogs and skinner's pigeons for two or three hours)

drawing day

i had to spend an entire sunday afternoon drawing this:

let's just say that sitting on concrete for 5 hours was not a comfortable experience.

i, however, discovered that i like the stairwells in the art building. they are lit in a very nice way.

so what if i have a thing for silhouettes?

mary and i were raking the back yard. and i looked up. and freaked out. and got my camera.

this tree has amazing branches. and HUGE leaves.

i didn't even know this was possible

kate and i broke a mug. how? we just poured hot water into it... and it cracked clear down the middle, and boiling water started bubbling out and spilling over the counter....
so... what did i do? i wanted to see if i could just pull the whole thing apart. and i did. it was exhilarating.

now it is a sculpture exhibit in our house.

this does not make me happy.

you see that "feels like" column. that's what it's going to "feel like" at the game tonight. i'm frightened of the cold.

this makes me happy.

i've never met you before... let's talk about the weather.

i have a mild obsession with weather.
namely, knowing what the weather is or will be at any given moment.
on most mornings, i will obtain a weather report, including the sun/lack thereof, temperature AND the direction and speed of the wind.
all of these are essential to how i prepare myself for the day.
i cannot imagine getting dressed without knowing the temperature for the day.
but somehow, i think people do it...
freaks.

i will usually also inform my roommates of these things, and offer any suggestions to them about how they could better prepare themselves for the elements.

alright. now an example from my life. this is how i think about things:

[sidenote: i am going to a game on friday (basketball) and on saturday (football). my brother and dad and yuko are coming to the saturday game. it will be my first football game. ever.]

on saturday the estimated high is
38 degrees for the daytime... but it's a night game.
it will be about 30 degrees, i think.

i will need to wear leggings under my sweatpants and approximately 7 layers on the top of me.

maybe another pair of sweatpants.
and a very warm hat.
and a cat blanket?

ha.

and now we ask ourselves-

what is the difference between mostly sunny and partly cloudy?
and which one involves more sun?


i haven't taken many pictures recently. i will take more. and put them up.

you are the clouds in my heart...

so. last summer i came upon a question to which i did not know the answer:
do i have music in my dreams?

it would seem odd that i didn't, because i spend the majority of my day either singing out loud or singing in my head. the problem was that i could not remember EVER having a song in a dream!

my mystery was solved the other day, when i woke up singing a song from a commercial on the tv that my mom was watching in my dream. it went like this:

"you are the clouds in my heart
that makes my world happy
you are the clouds in my heart
that makes my soul gay"

so. not only do i hear music in my sleep, i also compose really creepy little ditties.

well, that's one less thing to worry about.

now i have a test to study for...

i am very skeptical...

... of anything that tells me that "oprah's new diet" will make me lose 27 pounds.

i mean... it IS oprah.

mom+nick+me+food=dinner at home

my mother had childhood friends whose last name was Ramsbottom.

today at dinner we threw around the perposterous idea that i was under the very real threat of marrying someone with such a perposterous last name.

needless to say, the words "Rachel Ramsbottom" have taken on new meaning.

sigh.

lady in the mall with a dwarf son

ok, so i'm sitting in montgomery mall at a coffee shop table, waiting for my partner from my special ed class to arrive, so that we could do an exercise in the mall. this elderly lady comes over, puts her stuff down on the chair opposite me, smiles and says "hello! i'll be back!", and then leaves to go get a drink.
i sit there in semi-shock. do i know her? is she delusional? does she think she knows me? why was she so cheerful? what is she going to do when she comes back? should i leave? what do i say?
she comes back and sits down. oh gosh... now what do i do.

r: sooo.... what brings you to the mall on this fine fall day?

ol(old lady): oh i was just checking out the sale at nordstrom's. i didn't find anything i wanted that was on sale, but i almost bought a pair of shoes that wasn't on sale. i also checked out the land's end part of sears. i was very disappointed. but i did buy a coat.

r: oh yeah?... do you life around here?

ol: yes, in bethesda.

r: oh.... that's great. [long silence] i, um, am just waiting for my friend to get here.... we're doing a project for school about sensitivity to people with disabilities. we're going to have to go all around the mall in a wheelchair to see what it's like.

ol: OH! yeah, disabilities... are hard. my son is a dwarf. he's not bad though- 4'11". the coat that i just bought in sears is for him, actually. my son has a normal sized torso but just tiny little legs and arms- you know, like the dwarves in snow white! .. i am going to get the taylor to shorten the arms....

r:[what the heck do i say to that?!] oh wow. um. wow. yeah that must be hard... we, um, don't really know what people with disabilities go though, do we?

[short, but very awkward silence]

ol: so what class is that for?

r: it's for a special education class that i'm taking at university of maryland.

ol: oh, my son went through special education- my dwarf, i mean. he's retarded. actually both my boys went through special education.

r: [ohmygosh. WHAT?] yeah, well it's kinda cool to see all the great ways that teachers are able to help kids with disabilities.

ol: hm... [forced smile. she doesn't agree.] [long silence] my dwarf has a job now, though. he works at a bank in minesota.

r: oh that's great. OH look! it's my friend!

friend: hi! (i texted her about the weird lady putting down her bags)

r: well i guess we should get going.... um, my name is rachel, by the way.

ol: um.... uh... my name is... um... uh... bathesda! [sheepish smile]

r: ok, well it was great meeting you! have a great day!


yeah. that was the highlight of my friday. so awkward. all of the references to "her dwarf"... and the fact that she volunteered all this information and yet didn't want to tell me her first name, but, instead, said her name was bethesda! bethesda? she already told me that was where she lived...

poor lady. she must need someone to talk to... :(

it was just really, really funny.

one of my greatest pleasures in life

is lighting matches and then putting them out in water.

i suppose i love the hiss of the flame being extinguished.

in all honesty, though, it gives me an irrationally ridiculous amount of pleasure.

stacey says

that she runs to her car in high heels every morning.




BUT. does she do so gracefully? THAT is the question.


i just thought i'd add that in there...

[and there's my "exploitation of stacey's life for the furtherance of this blog" for the week]

i have become an expert...

... at running to my car at night in high heels.


actually i just added in the bit about high heels.
when i think of a woman running to her car in high heels, if she does so gracefully, i think she must be a very elegant woman. hence, adding the bit about high heels. but i haven't worn high heels in a long time, though i did just watch angelina jolie run to cars whilst wearing high heels and one of those cute little twenties hats. and red lipstick.

AND i did run to my car tonight, when i was exiting the movie theater.

i can, with all humility say, that i have indeed become very good at running to cars at night, clutching my mace in one hand, and my intuition in the other.

don't ask me what that means. i really don't know.

anyway, movies leave me in odd moods. i have mixed feelings right now: on one hand, i feel like wearing a dress and hat and bright red lipstick tomorrow, on the other, i have a new suspicion of police officers.
aaaaand that will only make sense if you've seen the movie changeling.

ok. so, completely new topic starts..... NOW.
there have been a lot of radical women traipseing around the house recently. in the past two days, i have caught two of them, who shall remain nameless, reading their little freshly printed, carolyn mccully bestsellers. and there has been a stark increace in members of this household purchasing red high heels. coincidence? i think not.
i personally have not picked up the book, although from what i have seen, it might be risky. for one, i don't have 30 bucks to spend on shiney red high heels. (aahh- high heels again.... a theme, methinks?!) for two,


i can't think of a second reason not to read the book.
i will come up with it shortly.

in the meantime, let me tell you about a funny story. oh just kidding. i want to go to bed.
but remind me to tell you about the lady in the mall with a son who's a dwarf and who lived in bethesda.

um. but kate and i just had a moment.
we were just yelling keith green songs at the top of our lungs in our bathroom. if you have never experienced this phenomenon, you cannot possibly know how exhilarated i feel at this moment.

as you can see, my first complete day wearing my new skinny jeans was a roaring success.

dinner=fishsticks

a little known fact is that fish sticks are not, in fact, made of fish.

they are composed of little pieces of heaven.
with a breaded coating.

rachel has me hostage

hello

my name is stacey.

my life is being exploited for the purposes of the furthering the fame of this blog.


we are having a car wash to raise money in support of my cause, which
has yet to be determined.

ramen and i are back together again.

and so, after a long separation, ramen and i have decided to give it a go again.

he promised to never, ever betray me again, and i accepted hesitantly.

we had lunch, and it was amazing. he looked so hot. we just clicked.
there was just the old spark back in the relationship.

it was beautiful.

oh look! it's barry...
oh, no! barry! DON'T JUMP, barry! you can get help!

barry bunches

introducing: barry bunches.

he is a small red bear, who has been my desk-friend for many a year.
i believe, however, that we could make a delightful little game out of finding barry bunches in pictures.

SO, if you find barry in a picture, you will get a small reward. i have not yet decided what that reward shall be.

also, barry is slightly suicidal, so if you ever see barry doing anything dangerous, please catch him!

birds on telephone wires....

it's a theme in my life.



i see them everywhere and every time i do, i am so delighted.
i almost freak out because i'm so happy.




except if they are right above me. then i freak out because i'm scared of getting pooped on.

chatty chat and walky walk with stacey face by the lakey lake

wow. that is not a good picture of either of us.
but i want to remember that lovely walk and chat.

trip to ikea with yuko

going to ikea is always an adventure, but this trip was especially fun.

you see, yuko had an empty apartment.
and had to get furniture to fill it....
and kitchen utensils and pictures and vases and stuffed animals.

so we had an awesome time just pointing to things and saying "i'll take that one and that one and that one..... and THAT one!"

and we found hats that looked like cakes and flower pots....

oooh i love ikea.
and yuko.
she's in japan right now and i miss her :(
yuko, come home soon so we can watch blueberry nights together!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, lyd love!

ok, so i have this friend.
her name is lydia.
and she's the best.
and it was her birthday.

so she had a little party.
the best part
was getting to tell her
what we loved about her.
i wish i could record what everyone said
but i left the party wanting to love Jesus more
and be more like lydia.

love you, lyd.

i love this.^

and these goofy ones are just because it's fun making faces with her....

aaaaand two random pictures that made me laugh:

hahaha. you wish.

way to talk with your hands, dan man.

kate the hippie

kate picked up her guitar again after a year and a half....

... let's just say that "mighty to save" got really old after a while

danny's mini bday celebration

[and aim & chav's visit]

poor chavia got this huge splinter in her foot, so she spent the whole night soaking her foot in the cooler. :(

i think she had fun anyway- she's come back again.

i got a haircut.

this shows how far behind i am on this. i got a haircut on october 2nd or 3rd. wow. haha. but here it is (can anyone say "fake smile"):

and i dyed it darker.

ALSO. i have become a hearing and speech science major. basically, i think i'm wanna be a speech-language pathologist (aka speech therapist) when i grow up. so, we'll see how that goes.

so i actually do work...

so. a week in the life of rachel:

monday- call my mommy for her birthday, go to art class, try studying for a quiz, fall asleep for two hours and wake with just enough time to get to special ed class, call my mommy for her birthday again.

tuesday- take quiz that i didn't study for. (got 100. good job, God), go to psychology class, rush home and try to make my art portfolio. go to the BIG meeting. get home late (11:30?) and finish making my art portfolio late into the noche.

wednesday-inaugurate the new season of the fur bomber hat. turn art portfolio in, spend the class drawing in the atrium of the art building which has concrete floors that get really hard after sitting on them for 2 hours. go to diner with kate to talk to people. get home. make lunch, take out trash. sit on bed to study (BAD idea). fall asleep for an hour. freak out because i have a test tomorrow. ruin another pot (the second in two weeks) by trying to boil water in it, but forgetting about it. go to sam and james' house to print something, go to CSPAC library to study with james, go back to their house to study more. go home at 1:30-ish.

thursday (today!)-wake up late, make it to hearing and speech science on time, take the test (it went well, much to my surprise), get a paper back, go to the stamp, borrow this laptop, and sit here typing my boring life into a blog post.

week highlight: studying and laughing with james last night. definitely.

now, wasn't that boring and a pain to read? see, my life isn't all fun and games. it's boring sometimes, too.

i just had to clarify that i actually do school work, and that i accomplish some things down here at cp.

THIS WEEKEND is going to be FUN though! harvest party with the admin (yay!) and then babysitting for the purswells on saturday morning, and then 10:31 meeting.

BASICALLY THE MORAL TO THIS BORING THING IS:
i have a whole bunch of fun and funny things to write but the pictures take a long time to upload. and i just haven't had time.

our heater is broken.

so i sit here.

sweatered, vested, hatted and blanketted,
drinking tea (out of our famed shih tzu mug), and eating overcooked saltine crackers (which has absolutely nothing to do with the temperature).

there is only one redeemable aspect of this sudden domestic cold snap: i have the urge to do dishes: my dishes, kate's dishes... anyone's dishes, really.
water, you see, is the only heat-emitting thing in this house, at present.

thus, all the dishes are done.


oh, ok, and my blanket. well it's covered in the most hideous collection of cats that you have ever seen. but i don't have another fleece blanket, so it's almost constantly wrapped around my waist (since i am the coldest person alive). so the quote of the day is from a certain roommate who will (ahem!) remain unnamed:

"rachel! how can you be cold?! you have like a thousand cats wrapped around your butt!"

hahahhaaaha.

(i will add a picture to this later)

what's that again, stacey?

woena;sv;alsdnf asldkj fa;sldkf jaosid slkdfj asoin vwkej fs uuh huh laskjdofnas; dfoas lkj ;lskf i alksdf and... OH MY. you don't say.... aowenov;;lhag oaisdj;f ksd fjoain belk soib kle w . well i'll be... aosd;in;boinea ;dgajd ll kdfj aodk klsd foiyoiuw e,asdf asdfjoiwen,bcvnwerui a. d wekj alsd ... well isn't that so interesting... asoasn ;fakls9ibntoigng sd akweoibne akb ewoiwlknb wemsnd;oibnbelksmnag;kjd asadl;lkadoibn lkasd oians sdj onasldkjf oiasn g.oh and that, too. tell me more of your secrets....

stacey says i blog too much. and that i'm gonna start blogging every conversation i have with her. and not tell her about it. that i'll just be typing away while she's pouring out her life.

hm.

"goodnight george, see you next thursday!"

oh, and p.s. next week = a two tests and a paper.

so i'm probably going to be studying and not putting up pictures.

beauty

i just got home from a womens' meeting at church that was centered around the topic of true beauty. whenever i attend womens' meetings at church, i am reminded of two things:

1. how uncomfortable i feel in a room full of high-pitched feminine voices singing songs.

2. how much i hate the words "beauty regimin"

[seriously, every meeting we go to has those two words contained therein. they just make me feel strange inside. like the words "chum", "undulate" and "nuptual". i feel like such a loser when i think about what i do in the morning as a "beauty regimin". ew ew ew ew ew ew ew.]

anyways, i just thought i'd share those.




oh, but i don't want you to think that i didn't enjoy the meeting today. it was very encouraging, provoking and inspiring.

man, but it's hard to apply beauty messages. the practical stuff about how much to eat or work out, or trying to uncover the motivation behind wearing makeup is confusing. geez.
one thing i do know, that i can solidly apply from the message today, however, is to "adorn myself with good works". that's pretty clear. maybe i'll concentrate on that part.

ok. i'm sleepy.

oh, and P.S. my mommy got home todaaaaaaaay! need i say more?

a flying phobia.

there is a rather interesting fact about me that few of you know:


I have an irrational fear of birds pooping on me.



I do.

I mean, I don't mind birds in general. in fact, I love them when they sing, and when they are quite poetically sitting on telephone wires in bunches.
I do hate pigeons in cities, though. they just seem so likely to poop on me.



ANYWAY, this morning I was walking to school and there was a lone bird sitting on the telephone wire above me. I walked to the other side of the street so that I wouldn't walk underneath it, for fear that it would poop on me. I was kinda laughing at myself, knowing that I was being completely irrational and silly.

SO, after I walked up the street and got to a crosswalk, I pushed the pedestrian button. I was standing there waiting for it to change when i see something drop SIX inches in front of my face. below me there is a white splat on a rock right next to my foot. when I lifted up my eyes, lo and behold, I observed a smug little bird, hopping around on the wires above with obvious disappointment.


I suppose that my fear is not so irrational after all.

joel is a sick-o-phobic

so, sickness struck again last week.

kate and i were coughing and sneezing and wheezing and sleeping.
i think it's that this house is damp and cold all the time. we're gonna look for a dehumidifier.

ANYway, joel came over and spent the entire time with his shirt over his mouth and nose.
it was funny.

why is admin is like the olive garden?

because when you're here, you're family!!

seriously. admin is like my second family. last weekend i was feeling a little homesick and missing my parents, but when i got to dave's house for admin, i breathed a sigh of relief.

it's hard to describe. it's like a place where they already know how dumb i am, so i'm never afraid to say something ridiculous. i gladly tell them my most embarrassing moments, because i love to see them laugh. they are the biggest group of goofy and hard-working people ever.

it's an honor to work with them. i love learning from them and just hanging out. most of all, i love laughing with them.

these pictures are horrible because i was trying to take them inconspicuously.

elise is like the admin mom. garrett's kinda the dad. ha.

dave is definitely the random funny uncle, who oversees everything.
but we all know that elise really runs it. ;)

and the rest of us? we're pretty much just minions.
hahaha.

lessons from a crab feast

the friday before last, i went to a crab feast with yuko in baltimore. it was so great. i love crabs so much, and i had not eaten them all summer.

not only did i get all-you-can-eat crabs for $8, but i learned two very important lessons for the future:

1. put up your hair before you start eating. or else it will be very crabby by the end of the feast.

2. don't wear a white shirt. that's just dumb.

yuko is great. such an unexpected friend. she came to be a grad student in my dad's lab, but i'm pretty sure she's on a secret mission to be one of the best friends in the world. she is so sweet and beautiful and funny and, overall, amazing. i love hanging out with her.
:)

oooh! so cute!

and this is baltimore:
(it was so beautiful that day)
(aren't the clouds surreal? beat that, salvador dali)