delicious day

I was all about making delicious food today.

After church my mom took me to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to pick out my birthday presents. I was in heaven...my mom and I wandered the kitchen section for ages, looking at everything and trying to pick the things I most needed. Wanted. Whatever.

First on my list was this little guy:

This is a Microplane zester, something I've been wanting for a long while.

My mommy was nice and let me use it this afternoon - and I'm betting she's glad I did (more on that later) - before taking it back so I can receive it properly on my birthday.

It was everything I hoped it would be though...it zested my lemons quickly and with ease, leaving the perfect-sized zest in its wake. I've been trying to zest lemons for years with the smallest grater setting on my cheese grater, which works in a pinch...but now that I've seen the light, I'm never going back.

I also picked out some custard bowls, a few tart pans, two Air Bake cookie sheets, and a complete set of both measuring cups and spoons.

I can't wait for my birthday now...so many things to bake!

Once my mom and I returned from our little jaunt, I took a quick trip to the grocery store to pick up the necessary ingredients for tonight's food.

First, I made this recipe from The Pioneer Woman. I get intimidated very easily by recipes with that many ingredients, so I've put off making it for a while. I sucked it up and went and bought all the ingredients, and it was delicious. I modified the dressing slightly, omitting a tablespoon of soy sauce and adding a tablespoon of water and an extra pinch of brown sugar, and it was perfect. I'll probably hold off on the cilantro next time (I learned that pretty much everyone in my family except for my dad and I don't like it at all), and keep it separate so I can add it on my own.

If I could marry cilantro, I would.

Not really. But that's what I told my family at dinner tonight. I was trying to make a point. Cilantro is so fantastic. It really should be married to lime forever and ever and ever...don't even get me started on that combination. Yum!

Anyway, the "salad" (I'm not sure it could be classified as that) was fantastic and can serve a crowd. We have a lot of extra in my house after having five people eat a healthy portion. Definitely a good dish for a potluck or something of the sort.

After I finished making the salad, I started on my next project, this little gem from 17 and Baking. I'm not quite sure why she named it "Lemon-Scented Pull-Apart Coffee Cake"...I think I'll probably just call it lemon bread.

Anyway, it was fantastic. Light and fluffy and delicious, and a perfect excuse to use my new zester. I doubled the frosting the recipe called for because my family likes things sweet...I put half on the bread and half in a bowl next to it, which seemed to work out quite nicely.

My family loved the recipe too - I pulled it out of the oven at about 8:15, and with five of us here, we've eaten almost all of it (it's 9:37). It will definitely be gone by this evening.

I highly recommend both of these recipes for anyone! They both reminded me of summer, whose arrival I am waiting with great anticipation...it's just around the corner now! Right?

♥ abigail

a happy post

As you all know by now, I think and write and live and breathe and exist in lists. Love them. Need them. Can't live without them.

So here is another list for you...a happy list :)

Why I'm happy right now...

1. I made not one, but two batches of delicious cookies tonight. I've been itching to bake all weekend, and today when I reached a stopping point in my homework, I decided it was time to make something delicious. Especially after last weekend's alfajores fiasco (I was making these traditional Argentinean cookies for my Spanish class, and they turned out how they were supposed to, but were far too cornstarch-y for my liking. My poor family was left with the remnants...don't worry, my Spanish class got a less traditional, far more delicious version made with these cookies plus homemade dulce de leche. Yum!). Anyway, after that I decided I should make something more edible. I made these and these tonight - both turned out well and were extremely delicious. My growing-like-a-weed little brother ate half of the thumbprint cookies already. And the chocolate chip cookies are delicious - big and chewy...the best kind of cookie.

2. It's Harry Potter weekend on ABC Family. Remember how I said I wanted to watch all of the movies since I just finished all of the books again? Well, this weekend, they've been showing all of the movies...I watched all of them over the course of last week (I watched numbers 1&2 on Friday, number 3 on Saturday, numbers 4&5 on Sunday, and number 6 on Monday. I have no life.), but I see that as no reason as to not watch them again. See? No life! Don't worry, I just watch bits and pieces while doing homework. I'm an excellent multi-tasker.

3. I was actually productive with my homework today. I have a decent amount of it. I haven't finished any particular assignment, but I have started and gotten a great deal of it finished. I am just annoyed by the fact that I can't cross anything off my to-do list because none of it is actually completed. Oh well, progress is progress!

4. I got 10.5 hours of sleep last night. I know that's not the best for my sleep schedule...but I was so tired due to my four hours of sleep on Thursday night, that I went to bed at 11:45 (fell asleep right away) and slept soundly until 10:15. That is the best kind of sleep. As a person with a history of insomnia, I truly appreciate the gift it is to fall asleep quickly and sleep well and wake up feeling refreshed. Bliss!

5. My nails are painted a lovely shade of Chanel's Ballerina Pink. I'm not one to splurge quite that much on my nail polish (I'm an O.P.I. kind of girl, and even that is a splurge for my college-student budget), but my younger sister bought it last year in exchange for getting her make-up done at some chi-chi make-up counter, so I decided to test it out. It's very, very subtle...you can barely tell it's there, which is ideal for me, the girl who has to take all the polish off once I notice the tiniest of chips in the lacquer.

6. I'm almost finished with my sophomore year of college. This week is "dead" week (which is such an inappropriate term considering the week is completely alive and filled of homework and projects and the only thing that resembles death are us poor students) and next week is finals week, then it's time to go home for the summer.

7. My birthday is coming up. Less than two weeks now (June 11). Not gonna lie - I'm such a birthday diva. I'm better than I used to be, but I still feel like the day needs to be all about me. What can I say? I'm a middle child! Some of my favorite stores have also recognized the importance (ha!) of my birthday. Good ol' Sephora sent me a coupon remind me to pick up my free birthday gift for being a Beauty Insider (in 6-7 days I will be receiving an eye kit containing liner, shadow, and mascara. Yay!). And one of my favorite stores, American Eagle sent me my 20% coupon to use during my birth month. Advertising tricks totally work on me.

8. I was just hit with a wave of sleepiness and I don't have to put off going to bed. I love that about the weekend...no need to stay up all night to do homework. College...who needs it?! Kidding. Mostly.

And with that, good night!

♥ abigail

wish list

Let me paint you a picture.

It is currently 12:26 a.m. I am taking a study break. The first since 3:20 p.m.

Yes, you read that correctly. I have been doing homework for 9 hours straight.

Mostly. I took a 30 minute break to eat dinner, but I was reading my speech as I oversaw my boiling macaroni noodles (gotta love college meals), and the actual consumption of my dinner took place as I finished my slides for my spanish presentation.

But still. That's a whole lotta homework. And I'm still not finished.

Here I am, blogging. I'm beginning if it's even worth staying up an extra hour or two to try to finish everything considering the fact that my brain is pretty much done functioning for the evening.

I have to get up in 6-and-a-half hours to ensure that I look presentable for my speech and presentation (I am just tickled pink that both of those things fell on the same day), as well as ensure that I don't completely ruin my grade by being unprepared.

Remember what I said about needing eight hours of sleep?

Oh boy.

Here is what I wish right at this very moment...

1. That there were magic people in my house that could clean my room for me. I can't sleep when it's messy (read: if there's a single pen out of place), and it currently looks like a homework hurricane recently swept through. My bed is covered with books and notebooks, my floor is littered with pens, paper scraps, and remnants of my poster board. My desk has been taken over by a bottle of juice and a glass of water, and a box of cheez-its; as well as the drawers where I keep my office supplies, contents strewn about. I couldn't find my tape or glue. It was almost a crisis.

2. That there were magic people in my house that could finish my homework for me. Or at least ingrain my speech into my brain while I sleep. I prefer to use my note cards as little as possible, but currently it looks like I'll be using them quite a bit. Good thing my hand writing is impeccable.

3. That there was a way to paint my nails without having to wait awkwardly for them to dry before I went to bed. I'm sure there are fabulous nail polishes out there that dry that quickly, but I'm a sucker for Nicole by O.P.I., and they don't dry quickly. Which is normally okay by me. But time is really of the essence tonight.

4. That I didn't have homework. I miss the days when you came home from school and left school where it was - 15 minutes away - while you basked in the happiness of childhood and not having grades to worry about.

5. That I didn't worry about my grades so much. Honestly, I'm doing well in all of my classes. I have an A in everything as of right now, so a B on one speech or an A- on one presentation really wouldn't be the end of the world. I always think I do worse than I actually do (not as an attention-seeking mechanism, I just always end up second-guessing myself at the last second), and it causes extra stress, which leads to less sleep.

6. That I could go to bed right now. But, as previously mentioned, there is homework to finish and a room to tidy up.

7. That I had a pack of gum. I am a stress gum-chewer. When I start to feel overwhelmed by homework, I chew a piece until it runs out of flavor. I continue this process until (1) I finish my homework, (2) my jaw hurts, or (3) I'm out of gum. I ran out of gum this afternoon. It was an unhappy moment.

I wish more things, but my brain is done for the night.

Hopefully it will grace me with its presence for tomorrow's speech and presentation...

Thank goodness the long weekend is almost here!

♥ abigail

out of character

I'm usually an optimistic person. Which is why it's weird that today I feel like writing a "things that bug me about today" list rather than my usual "happy" list. It's kind of out of character for me, but it's what I need. I think.

I'm blaming it on the weather, among other things. Today I've been irritated by many little things, so instead of dwelling on them for the rest of the day, I'm going to immortalize them here forever. That makes sense, right?

Anyway, here's the "things that bugged me today list":

1. People who walk slowly. In packs that take up the entire sidewalk, making them impossible to pass.

2. People who walk on the wrong side of the sidewalk, refusing to move to the correct (and vacant) side of our little tiny square of cement we're trying to coexist in...it results in an odd version of chicken that I always lose (meaning I always am the polite one who steps aside, despite the fact that it lands me on the wrong side of the sidewalk).

3. Headaches that won't go away.

4. A dishwasher that remained full of clean dishes until I finally gave in and unloaded it this evening. Of course that is when my roommate realizes she can unload it too. Resulting in stepping around each other to empty it, making it take twice as long.

I'm not annoyed.

5. Deadlines that all fall within hours of each other.

6. People sniffling. Loudly. To the point where you can almost hear the snot dripping down their throat. Gross.

7. Walking a mile-and-a-half in the rain while my jeans decided they didn't want to stay cuffed. This resulted in jeans soaked up to my knees.

8. Hair that won't cooperate due to my refusal to straighten it when it's this darn rainy, as well as my inability to remain still while sleeping.

9. The obnoxious girls who were cackling (I swear) on the ellipticals behind me while I tried to bike in peace. They were so loud, not even my iPod could drown them out. There was no way they were exerting themselves in any way, so they should have just walked home together and cackled all they wanted.

10. Not having a free moment to breathe, read, relax, sleep, exercise, or just sit. I am on my allotted 20 minute break I give myself after doing homework for four hours straight. Aren't I considerate?

11. Going to bed at 2:30 because of homework, then getting up at 7:30 to do more before class. I need eight hours of sleep to function like a real human being. You do the math...I'm only 62% human right now.

I feel like there were more things that have bugged me recently...I am a very petty person when sleep-deprived and cranky.

This 62% human being is off to do another few hours of homework before hopefully logging eight hours of sleep tonight....

Wish me luck.

♥ abigail

brain damage myth busted

This post's sole purpose to release a bit of tension. This week has been extremely busy, and it isn't showing signs of letting up any time soon. Numerous things are ruining my mood (a post on that later), but this is something that keeps occurring...

This weekend while babysitting I saw a sign in the bathroom very similar to this one:

("Changing the toilet paper roll does not cause brain damage.")

I love it.

I want my own - not for changing the toilet paper roll. For emptying the dishwasher.

We fill it over the course of a week. I run it. Two days later, it still sits, filled with clean dishes. My dirty dishes remain the sink, rinsed and ready to be loaded, crying out for a new home in the walls of the sweet dish washing machine.

Dirty dishes in the sink cause me to stress out. To get gray hair. To lose sleep. To have silent moments of panic and anger. (Maybe I'm exaggerating a bit.)

I have been home very little this week and haven't had time to empty the lovely dishwasher...and I wish it would get emptied. I really do.

I'm tired of emptying it. I do it 95% of the time. That's a lot of percent.

I really need a sign that says this:

"Emptying the dishwasher will not cause brain damage."

That's all for now.

♥ abigail

midnight musings

My mind is running wild right now, so I thought writing down my thoughts might help me calm down and get to sleep - which is much needed since I have a busy day ahead of me, beginning with getting up at 6:55 a.m. (that's early, okay?) to register for classes.

Without further ado, here are the things that are on my mind at this very moment...

1. The Harry Potter series might be the best book series in existence. I've read them all before, some multiple times (just not as much as my HP-obsessed sister, Kendall. Seriously, she cried when she got the seventh book. Not read it, not opened it...just held it and BOOM: waterworks), but I just finished reading the entire series consecutively. When I first started reading this books this wasn't possible, and once it was possible I suppose I just wasn't interested enough.

I just finished the seventh book (which is impressive considering I started it yesterday. And impressive considering I started the sixth book on Sunday, and haven't really had time to read it since I've been in school and at work and whatnot), and all I can say is that it was beautiful.

Obviously I can say more than that - it's me we're talking about, isn't it? But really, it was so beautiful. I'd read it four times previously, so I knew what was going to happen, but I honestly could not put it down.

Did I say put it down? I mean "quit" it. I finished the sixth book sooner than I had anticipated and was left stranded at school without my copy of the seventh book. Thanks to Google magic, I found a PDF version that allowed me to enter full Harry Potter bliss.

I laughed, I cried (really), I rediscovered my favorite quotes, one of them being said by the wise Kingsley:

"Every human life is worth the same, and worth saving."

Goodness gracious, J.K. Rowling really knows how to speak to a girls soul.

What about Dumbledore's words of wisdom (always my favorite parts of the books):

"Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and above all, those who live without love."

J.K. Rowling may as well have stabbed me with a basilisk fang. That line gets me every time. Without fail. Whenever I read it, I want to write it down and put it on my quote board before I realize that it's already there. Twice.

...

I started this post saying I was going to make a list of what was going on in my mind, but apparently all other thoughts left it in order to let me release my pent-up love for my favorite book series...

Just so you don't think I'm completely off my rocker for loving books that some consider to be ridiculous, I'll leave you with a few of my other favorites...just to prove I'm normal.

1. A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving.

Love love love. I had to read it in high school, and ended up falling in love with sweet little Owen Meany. I fell in love with Holden Caulfied too when I read The Catcher In the Rye, so I don't really know what that says about me. I tend to fall in love with book characters, as demonstrated in...

2. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.

Rhett Butler, anyone? Oh boy, I was a goner once I met him. I just love the story. Love it. Love Scarlett. Am naming my first daughter after her (only if it goes with my husband's last name. There might be a screening process before I start dating anyone, just to make sure their name goes with it. You laugh, but I'm serious. No, really. I am). She's conniving and deceitful and smart and cunning and wonderful. And I love Rhett. So there.

3. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

Upon reading this book, I thought it should be a movie. The movie was decent, but books-turned-movies never live up to the original...I have learned to deal with the disappointment. This book is fabulous though. I didn't fall in love with anyone in it though. Which might surprise you.

So, as you can see, despite my love of Harry Potter, I can appreciate other books too.

Next mission: I plan to watch all the Harry Potter movies (I've only seen the first three). Obviously I can't watch all of them, but you know what I mean.

I really need to get a life.

♥ abigail

My role in Disney movies

I have been doing a great deal of thinking about my personality lately.

Some people have forgettable personalities - nothing really stands out about them as unique or odd or exceptional.

I am not one of those people. (I don't think.)

My younger sister and I made this executive decision months ago after realizing that if you have a strong enough personality, you will find yourself in movies.

Yeah, that made a lot of sense.

Let me try to explain a little better - think of your favorite movie characters. They tend to have distinct personalities, right? Mine tend to follow this pattern, but maybe that'd because I'm drawn to characters in movies (and books as well) who I can relate to.

Upon further though, we decided that my personality can most distinctly be found in Disney movies. I find this to be a good thing. Everyone loves Disney movies, so everyone must love me, right? (Gotta love when what you learn about deductive reasoning in COMM class can apply to your daily life!)

Anyway. Due to my cautious, OCD, bossy, worry-wart, overly-analytical, control freak and neat freak nature, I have

found my personality in several movies...

Observe:

1. C-3PO, Star Wars

If I had to pick one character that most accurately represents me, C-3PO would be a dead-ringer for first place. Cautious to a fault, he rarely takes risks. He's a know-it-all who has the tendency to overanalyze every situation. Lucky for him, he has an excuse, being a protocol droid and all. C-3PO and I also both hate conflict and try to maintain the good relationships of those around us.

2. Hermione Granger, Harry Potter

As it turns out, C-3PO might not be a dead-ringer for first place after all. The similarities between Hermione and I are uncanny. While I may not boast her brilliance, I have always considered myself (and been considered) intelligent. I am a stickler for rules and am not afraid of calling people out on it. I found myself confused when people laughed at her now-famous line "We could have been killed! Or worse - expelled" - it seemed to be a legitimate concern to me.

3. Cogsworth, Beauty and the Beast

Cogsworth will forever be one of my favorite Disney characters. While I wish I were more like Belle (our only similarities include our brown hair and our love of reading), I find I can relate to the worrisome clock who craves rules (and following them).

4. Timon, The Lion King

Obnoxious, loud, and bossy. While I try to emphasize other more favorable elements of my personality in my day-to-day life, I tend to acknowledge these ones. I often find myself informing people that I'm obnoxious - typically they laugh as if they don't believe me. I'm really just trying to warn them. Characters like myself (or Timon) aren't usually the easiest to live with. I have always loved Timon, even before I realized I was like him. Plus he knows how to hula...something I could do back in the day. As in, when I was three. But still - similarities are similarities!

5. Sebastian, The Little Mermaid

I love Sebastian. Love him! He is such a rule-follower and has such trouble arguing with authority figures...oh hey Abbie, what are you doing under the sea? I'm not even kidding. Not that I ever really need to argue with authority figures. But, like Sebastian, I really hate conflict. Like, despise it beyond good sense. Like, start getting overwhelmed and stressed out and panicky when someone merely has a heated conversation with another person in the same vicinity as me.

As you can see, I'm an issue.

If you hadn't picked up on it before now, this post just gave you two new reasons why:

1. I look for myself in Disney movies.

2. Then I blog about it.

See? Told ya!

♥ abigail

this. is. major.

Excuse the pun, but I really have made a huge (*ahem* major) breakthrough in regards to my chosen major.

You see, most college students enter college with some idea of what they want to do with their lives. I was one of those students - I was going to be an high school English teacher. It only made sense. I love reading and writing and school, and I've always done well in my English classes.

Enter college, when I realized that English classes are a big ol' load of hooey. (See how eloquent I am? I just have "English Teacher" written all over me!)

I still loved to read, but once we got into the discussions, my frustration began to grow. I just could never see why certain aspects of stories represented the author's struggle with coping with loss or whatever random baloney my professors and peers were so convinced of.

I started to wonder if it ever crossed anyone's mind that the author might just have been writing whatever thoughts entered their brain without giving a second though to what literary device they were using. Or that the author may not really have a hidden meaning behind everything. Maybe they liked the color black and weren't drawing a connection to the veil of death that was draped over society. (Please note that all examples I am using are completely fictional. I retained nothing from my classes and couldn't tell you what we actually talked about. Something similar, I'm sure.)

Slowly but surely, I ruled English teacher out. Then I ruled English major out. If I wasn't going to be a teacher, what would I do? Work at Barnes and Noble while blogging? No thank you.

This year (my sophomore year) has been a major-quest. I took random classes that weren't required of me, much to the chagrin of my more career-focused friends. I had a mini-meltdown when I realized I might want a career in journalism and that if that were the case, I should have gone to the University of Oregon.

I talked to anyone who would listen about my problem. Friends. Family. The women I met at The Pioneer Woman's book signing. And then the meltdown continued because everyone had fantastic advice - the worst part was that almost everyone told me to make the right decision for me. This was lovely, but not really helpful because if I knew the right decision, I would have made it, wouldn't I?

Whew. Sorry for that little outburst. Pent up stress isn't good for me.

Somewhere in the midst of the meltdown, I had to put money down on the house I'd be living in next year. Talk about stress. After a moment of panic, I ended up putting the money down and decided to stick it out at Oregon State for one more term before making a decision.

And now, a month later, I have made a decision.

I have decided to major in Liberal Studies. At Oregon State, this means you create your own major, picking and choosing programs from the Liberal Arts department to compile your own unique course of study based on a theme you select.

My theme will be "Written and Spoken Communication" and I plan on taking Writing and Communications classes. I don't know exactly what I want to get into, but I know that this theme is something that I love and will be able to do something with in the future.

I'm also planning on minoring in Spanish. But I already had that figured out.

My next move is to design my major, then write a paper in which I will explain what courses I want to take and why, then get approved, then I will officially have a major and be able to get on with the rest of my life.

What a relief, right?

I told you - this is major.

♥ abigail

on my way

I could often write a post about having a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad week.

This isn't one of those weeks.

Despite the fact that it's been rather dull, it has also been rather enjoyable. Maybe it's been enjoyable due to the fact that it has been so eventful - sometimes I just need weeks like this, which isn't to say I'm not being lazy this week. Quite the opposite, in fact.

This week has consisted of getting ahead on homework, working, relaxing, and making this delicious pound cake.

The best part of this week occurred when I went to my writing instructor's office hours on Tuesday afternoon. This week I have a "Job Packet" due, which consists of my résumé, a cover letter, and a field study on my job of choice.

This seems like a simple assignment from the outside looking in, but when it was assigned to me, I panicked.

The first piece we had to turn in was the field study, a nine-page document outlining every aspect of our dream job. The only problem? At that point, I had no idea what to do with my life (I still don't really know what I want to do with my life, but I'm not as lost as before). This made the field study extremely challenging. After deciding I would pretend to want to be a teacher, I put together a decent field study and managed to get an A.

After the initial panic of the field study (it took me around 14 hours of work to research and write it), everything got a lot easier.

The next piece was the résumé, something that I already knew how to do. I tweaked mine a bit, and called it good. The final piece was my cover letter, which I will be turning in with the other two assignments tomorrow afternoon.

To make sure my assignments were submission-worthy, I decided to go to my instructor's office hours. After reviewing my résumé and cover letter, he made a few small changes and sent me on my way with A-quality work.

As I was leaving, he started talking to me about my chosen career. I informed him I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, but that I was leaning toward something in the writing and communications field.

This was the moment when he was going to bestow some teacherly advice upon me - career advice. He began to tell me about a job I would be perfect for, a job that would be right up my alley. I was intrigued by his introduction of this job that I would be so perfect for - I am looking for a summer job, and I would love to do something that could potentially further my career.

When he finally reached the point and told me what job I would be perfect for, I was disappointed and pleased with what he said.

"Have you ever considered a job with the sports information department?"

Why, yes. Yes, I have.

What my dear ol' instructor didn't know was that my current internship is in that very department. While I was disappointed that I wouldn't be able to find another job to help me on my way to finding a career, it was nice to hear that someone thinks that what I am doing is perfect for me.

(***EDIT: This isn't to say I dislike my current internship - I love it. I've made a few good friends and I've learned a lot of valuable things that could help me in my career one day. The only thing I dislike about it is the fact that it follows sports...while I can appreciate sports, they aren't my favorite thing in the world, and it's more of a chore for me to follow them than it is for a lot of other people. Give me cooking blogs, celebrity gossip blogs, blogs about babies, and I'm a happy camper. I could follow those things if my life depended on it, but sports? Not so much!

When talking to my professor, I was hopeful that he would know about another opportunity for me to continue learning while going down a different path. Right now I'm all about figuring out what I love and why, because I think those two things are going to help me find a career I will love in the future.

I wasn't disappointed that he didn't have anything new for me in the sense that I have to begrudgingly stay with my internship another year - like I said, I love my job. I was more pleased than anything to know that a person who doesn't know me that well knows enough of me to realize that I'm headed in the right direction.)

I may not be any closer to finding a career to pursue, but it sure is nice to know that someone things I have a bright future (my instructor told me that, I'm not just reading into things, I promise) and that I'm well on my way...to what, I don't know, but I know I'm headed in the right direction.

♥ abigail

Sunday musings

I love and loathe Sundays at the same time.

Love them because they're simply the most relaxing day of my week, loathe them because it means Monday is looming in the very near future.

Sunday evenings are the last bit of pure contentment before the busy week begins. It may seem dramatic, but it really is a bittersweet feeling for me.

It is currently 11:20 p.m., I have about 40 minutes left of my blissful Sunday...minutes I will spend writing this, then reading before bed.

So here I have another happy list...mostly because I am dealing with a strong bout of writer's block, and lists are the only things I can seem to write these days.

1. Mom's Weekend was lovely. I got to spend time with my momma and my older sister, and it was really nice. We mostly just hung out together, eating and talking, but that's all that the women in my family need to have a good time. Plus, there were some yummy drinks involved. (Side note: I am never turning 21. That's how I feel anyway. Maybe I'll write about that later to break my writer's block.)

2. My room is ridiculously clean. We're talking vacuumed and dusted, with all the clothes hanging in their assigned spots in the closets, all the books lined up neatly on the shelves, all my page-a-day calendars on the right date. It is really a thing of beauty.

3. I watched The Blind Side this weekend. I forgot how good that movie is. If you haven't seen it, you really should. Sandra Bullock definitely earned that Oscar.

4. Trashy magazines. I have two magazines (People and Us Weekly) waiting for me to read. I've had them since early this afternoon but have refrained from reading either one so I can have something to read at the gym this week. I can honestly (and pathetically) say I'm really looking forward to it.

5. It's May. More specifically, May 2. Which means it is almost June. Which means summer. Which means much happier times. Hopefully.

6. It's week SIX. Six! (I'd say it again, but that would just be satanic. Or something.) This term was really dragging, but it has started to pick up the pace quite significantly, which has been a welcome change from the sluggishness of weeks one through five.

7. This week's weather calls for sun. That really is all I need to be happy.

8. I made three Pioneer Woman recipes this weekend. I started on Friday night with Ree's Baked Lemon Pasta for dinner with my mom and roomie. Yum. On Saturday morning I made her French Breakfast Puffs, which are absolutely delicious. And today I made her Buttermilk Biscuits. Next time, I'm using way less salt than the recipe called for...still okay, but required a lot of water to down. Still, I was very happy to be using my kitchen up here - three separate times, no less.

9. Freshly painted fingernails. I just painted mine with a lovely shade of Sally Hansen's Complete Manicure "All Fired Up". It's delicious.

10. My hair is going to be curly tomorrow. Hopefully. I've been missing my perm lately, and wanting to get it redone, but it's a little too short for that right now. My hair has absolutely no wave or curl to it, but it looks gross if I don't dry and straighten it every time I wash it. I don't like to style it everyday, so I decided to attempt curls by using a lot of twisting and pinning...we'll see how it goes.

11. It was a lovely Sunday. I went to church with my mom and sister, then out to breakfast. My mom went home and then I spent my day doing laundry and homework, and mentally psyching myself up for the week ahead of me.

12. Bedtime. I love my bed. It is insanely comfortable, and features five pillows and two extra blankets for optimum warmth and comfort. So now, it's off to bed and off to dreamland (which has been a weird place these days...more on that later.)

♥ abigail