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.