Finals Week Positivity

exam time + heat broken = dance party

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Song of the Month - October/November '10

We have a new Song of the Month here at the Stanford House.

We've been listening to & singing this one non-stop.

John Mayer (and some random dude he's singing with) "Celebration"

Thank you for listening with us.

"Please don't make fun of me,

I came home to a rotten squash!"

- Joanna

Funding

It is time for us to once again start collecting charitable donations for the "Stanford House Heating Fund." Please consider what the Lord might be calling you to give up today, this week, or this month, in order to keep us warm and healthy. The testimonials below, from some of last year's generous givers, provides a flavor as to what can be expected in the donation process.

I gave up my daily pumpkin spice latte. It was a no brainer when I really thought about it. Why drink pumpkin spice latte when there are beautiful girls suffering from the cold?

[Anonymous Donor]

For me the decision making words were definitely "future" and "investment." I remember hearing about the need, and just being so sure that I wanted to act on behalf of this cause. Youth like the Stanford House girls will be pillars of our society in years to come. I can think of no better fund in which to place one's dollars and plan to give to it annually.

[Gertrude Foxter - 5 time donor]

All donations are tax deductible.

We hope you will consider investing your finances in this worthy cause.

Please contact us with donations and any further inquiries.

Sincerely,

The Management

Time for Fall with Butternut Squash!!!

this delicious butternut squash was made by my own two hands.

well, technically i didn't make it…

but i DID cook it!!

and with the delicious smell wafting through the house, we were certainly reminded that it is the beginning of fall here in college park!! Time for leggings, huge sweaters, cups of tea, warm food and heartwarming wrestling sessions with Rachel (hint--if you're ever cold, this IS the thing to do; it warms you up in minutes!).

In celebration of Fall, Rachel is going to build a life-size scarecrow of herself to decorate our front yard!

Catch ya soon!

-J

PSYCHO DAY

hello.

i'm back.

i don't even remember the last time i've posted... but you know what? i'm not apologizing.

this is a fresh start from a fresh rachel.

today. was a psycho day.

actually, it wasn't psycho until i picked up joanna and lorena [our newwwww roooooooooommate!!!!!] from CSPAC (the clarice smith performing arts center, i.e. joanna + lorena's HOME).

when i brought them home, i was a little mopey.

so i was glad they were there.

and we were all hungry.

so, then we decided to create a FEAST!

FEAST!

and then joanna and i were making loud noises!!! and describing everything with large exaggerations!!

figure 1:

"Mandarin oranges are sooo good that i want to pounce on them like a tiger on a small child!!!!" - joanna

the menu was as follows:

sesame cabbage salad&

chicken lettuce salad&

rice.

and we were laughing and making louuuud noises while we made the salads. and lorena was a little creeped out. this is only her second week here, so she hasn't seen joanna and i like this yet.

then we made this video.

and it was good.

during the dinner, we mostly randomly shouted the name of my korean statistics professor, because it sounds like a kind of food (yung mi cho!) and then joanna and i would make straaange faces at one another while lorena wasn't looking and we'd make each other laugh, then lorena would look up and we'd both be looking at her laughing, and she'd think she did something wrong...

and then we settled down. now homework.

Cute. Yellow. Bike.

My cute vintage bike has proven to be quite the conversation starter. 

Almost every day i'll have multiple people come up and talk to me about it, i'll try to give some recent scenarios:

Scenario 1) Guy walking past: dude, cool bike. ....i think it's actually a guys bike though... Me: yeah, my Dad bought it for me; kinda explains a lot. Guy: Well it's pretty awesome anyways.

Scenario 2) Girl parking her bike next to mine: OMG OMG i LOVE your bike!! It's so cute! Love the yellow! Me: Aww thanks! actually my Dad bought this for me because he thought it was so ugly no one would want to steal it. Girl: Well i would totally steal it if i got the chance. Just sayin... 

Scenario 4) Dude waiting at the same light as me: Sooo how do you like the gears on your bike? Me: uhh, they're...ok... [Dude rambles on about how he  loves my bike but thought it would be more effective with more gears. etc. Light turns green] Dude: Well have fuuuun on that bike!! Bye! Me: Oh i WILL. 

Quite a charmer, that bike of mine. 

a day in the life of us

hi. it's exam week. this is what our house is like: silent, but for brielle's softly playing music.

in other news, brielle and i blew the fuse to our kitchen. soo... no refrigerator, no microwave, no light.

our landlady doesn't know when the electrician is coming.

sigh.

i hope the milk doesn't go bad.

anticipating friday

my recommendation is to just watch lauren's face the entire time.

aaaand my painting looks much better in real life.

Tonight

... was a strange night. But a good one.

There were several reasons why this night was strange.

#1. I made a casserole.

I have never made a casserole. Hence, the creation of said rachel-made tuna noodle casserole was quite unique.

#2. Courtney came over!

Courtney has only been to our house once. So, her second coming (to use a biblical term!) was an event to be remembered. It was oh, so wonderful to see her pretty face :). I don't get to hang out with her enough.

#3. Our neighbors arrived demanding cookies.

Our neighbors are a bunch of boys living two houses down. We opened the door to our calm and peaceful house, and about 7 boys traipsed in, requesting cookies that had evidently been promised to them at a previous time. Apparently Lauren had told them that I was going to make cookies, and they came expectantly. So, we whipped up some good ol' chocolate chip cookies and fed those boys. It was a little bit of an odd atmosphere though... because they brought a couple guys with them that half of the girls here had never met before... So everyone didn't know everyone and there was a lot of nervous laughter and phone-checking. And so, we sat: 13 people in our tiny living room, laughing at nothing. [don't get me wrong, though. i loved having them over :) I thrive off slightly awkward situations. THRIVE. Hah.]

#4. We played spoons. With 13 people.

Self-explanatory. All the boys cheated badly. All the girls lost. It was bad. There were several spoon fights and we all discovered a new viciousness in Lauren.

#5. All of the boys threw cards around for about half an hour.

John, one of our neighbors, knows how to throw cards really hard. It's some kind of mutant gift. Soooo him and his buddies literally threw cards at each other across the room for a looong time.

#6. I told them the troll story.

I'll have to blog about this later. It is quality.

#7. Whitney and Josh arrived.

Bearing expensive instruments! Yaaaaaaay! We had a short, quality time with them.

#8. Everyone left.

And we picked up cards and did dishes.

#9. I sent an email to my boyfriend.

It is still a novel idea to me. :)

#10. I'm actually using correct capitalization in this blog post.

The strangeness of this day is complete.

bubble tea

It's been a while

Hello Readers,

I am sitting here and pretending to do work while I listen to the joyful laughter of my little roommates. We have all gotten our little dinners. Rach and Ellen had fishsticks. Delectable. Brielle made Parm Chicken. Even more delectable. I snagged some of all the delectableness. Anyhow. So this is just another normal life. Rachel is reading Ellen her pride and joy of all her past blog posts. While Ellen listens, while thinking all along about how she should be studying for a test. But Rach enjoys reading about tooting Asian men and dwarf sons at the mall. So she sits and listens and says, "that is amazing Rachel." Brielle is contemplating doing pushups. I can just tell. Oh Joanna. She has not moved houses. But she is practicing piano. And I am making a literacy center for all the little children in my class tomorrow. A sink full of dishes. Food everywhere because we all like to eat. Books out as if we are actually getting work done. Throwing out a whole trashcan of old food we found in the fridge. And then silence as we all do our little tasks. This is the life we live. The day to day. Wonderful life. And we enjoy EVERY moment of it... no matter how simple.

TODAY IS BRIELLE'S 18th BIRTHDAY. We love birthdays. You will see the sign I made for her this morning. She loves it. We all love Brielle here at the house. Today, I was at the gym with her. She JUST got her ID replaced TODAY from loosing it a month ago. And in the matter of a few minutes, she lost it again! Oh Brielley. A nice girl fbed her and found it. But really, Brielle has brought much joy to us all. I can honestly say I cannot imagine life without her.


Oh. And our kitchen table and chairs are getting taken away. No comment about how we feel about this point. We are saddened. Deeply saddened. This table has been the center of much fellowship and fun. We love our table. Donations are welcome for a new table. Because we are all poor college students.

Я очень рад, ведь я, наконец, возвращаюсь домой

lydia brought my attention to this gem of modern musical videography.
it is worth every second and is HIlarious.

computer snatcher

i am presently seated at footnotes cafe, reading psalm 52.

a guy just ran up to where i'm sitting, said "oh man, i'm such a jack***. i can't believe i left it here" and promptly folds up my computer and starts to take it away.

seeing my confused expression, he said "oh... oh.. is this yours?! oh i thought it was mine. i just lost mine. oh. ah." and ran away.

that's just a snapshot of my day today.

the rest of my day shall consist of class and studying.

Stacey is getting MARRIED TODAY!!!!

and so.

stacey is getting married today.

wow.

:)

and we're all getting ready at her house, listening to pandora's love songs station, and singing at the top of our lungs.

dang i love that girl. and she's gonna be a wife by the end of today. aaaaah happy.

Hi,

Andrew.

told you. :)

INTRODUCING.....

... JOANNA the AMAZING!!

ladies and gents, we have a new contributor. her name is joanna.

she is my cute little sister.

and, i believe that the little stories and parables about her life will add greatly to the completeness of our blog.

you see, we have only really been capturing life from my and lauren's perspectives. now i have invited briellega AND joanna to join.

while i have yet to hear back from briellega, joanna has obliged my fancy and agreed to come on board.

on the blogger board, that is.

so, please join me in welcoming....

JOANNAAAAAA!

Why hello there...

So.... in celebration of my commencement of becoming a blogger on this here blog, i have decided to share a very delightful and inspiring story...

So in my geog class (that's what i prefer to call it.... geog... mmm i just love the sound of that resonating on my vocal chords. well actually i am just thinking it, but i am thinking that the sound of it resonating on my vocal chords would be a very good sound..... BUT this is besides the point).... where was I? Oh yes, so i'm in this geog class which has a lecture of several hundred students, and every so often a student will send an email out to everyone, literally EVERYONE in our class asking them to give them our notes. This young fella had a particularly inspiring excuse...

And i quote,

"Im sorry to bother you guys but I couldnt attend last lecture cuz I had a major case of diarrhea which lead to overflooding my whole hall, so I was wondering if someone was willing to email the notes. Thamk You

P.S Also I just wanted to notify you guys to sit away from me in class for a few weeks since I now tend to let out nasty gas"

ewwwwwww.

I hope i don't accidentally sit next to this guy in class...

Well, hope that story edified and inspired you!! :) I sincerely hope you and I never have to use this excuse.

That being said, I feel I should go.

Goodbye dear readers.

(p.s. are you really out there....?)