Frozen Fields and Chicken Strips

Living in California all my life, I've never known this was possible. But apparently, when grass freezes over and had enough water in it - as far as I can tell, at least - it creates these sheets of smooth ice. Me and ice don't really mix. But one of the girls in my dorm used to ice skate and brought her skates back from home and found out that she could ice skate on these large patches of ice. So yesterday, she found this pig patch on one of the fields and we all trekked out there to watch her skate - and take pictures. I got out there after it'd already gone dark, so we're planning on going back out today while it's still light out for better pictures. These are the best I've got so far though.

coat-Forever21, gloves & beret-Target (gift for Christmas), tights-American Apparel, scarf-handmade gift from my mum for Christmas, cutoff shorts (not visible)-self-made, top (not visible)-some little store in Mexico, blue clip (pictured later)-owned since I was five or so


It was freezing out! My fingers were numb after five minutes and I was wearing gloves! Right after, we ran over to the cafeteria for dinner where it was warm. I ate a whole plate of broccoli!!!!!
And then later that night, around 10:00 or so, a few of us went out to eat again at Red Robin. Hayley and I split food. It was so good! It's great to take breaks from cafeteria food and eat something real for once!






Then we went back to the dorm to hang out. We ended up watching Wall-E and then the boys decided to rearrange the Man Cave at 3:00am. Needless to say, we stayed up until 6:30 talking and moving furniture around. I went to sleep around 7:00 and now we're going to make chocolate chip pancakes! It was a very busy day. And quite tiring. But the first week of Jan Term is over and it's the weekend! I'm so happy!

a family affair

Today was about 10-15 degrees colder than yesterday. But the sun was out. It was like the world was apologizing for making it so cold by having the sun come out. But after I got back to class, we went to Walmart to stock up on supplies for the rest of the month and decided to make dinner for a change. So we made dinner and put on A Knight's Tale and toasted to Heath Ledger with apple cider before we started eating. It was Family Dinner. And quite good. We still have to eat dessert, but that might happen much later tonight after Pirates of the Caribbean Onesie Wednesday (the first of the month!). It's been a good day.

It's a Penguin cake!!!! I named it Hermie.



I really need to trim my bangs....








Hayley took these two because she wanted to play with Marcus.




jeans-PacSun, top-JCPenny, cardigan-Forever21, scarf-Alloy

"and rip out his favorite pages"

The beauty of Jan Term is all the down time that springs from taking only up to 5 credits. There's quite a bit one can do with so much uncommitted time. Like, I can sleep as much as I want to now because of my only class in the afternoon. Or I can watch dozens upon dozens of movies with friends. TV shows are starting up again this week and the next so I can watch those on line if I so desire. When it stops being so grey and rainy and actually starts snowing, I can build snowmen and take pictures outside. I like keeping busy. Heck, I might even start crocheting again.

But what I really want to do is read. I haven't done much reading just to read in a long time. And when I do, it normally takes me a long time because schoolwork gets in the way or I have to go do something else and I don't get hours to just sit by myself in a little nook and just read. I miss reading a lot. And since I'm not currently taking a literature class, I can read whatever I want. So that's what I'm going to do. I guess you could call it a New Years' Resolution of sorts, at least for this month. Hopefully, I'll manage to get to a bookstore in the near future and just spend a bit perusing the shelves and breathing in the smell of paper and ink and fresh words on pages. I already know what I'm going to get. But I love bookstores. So I'll dawdle a little.

Here's my hopeful reading list if anyone's interested:

• Atonement by Ian McEwan (I have to finish it! I started it at the end of the summer and haven't gotten very far because school started up not that long after I got it....)
• Ulysses by James Joyce (It's one of those books that I've been wanting to read and know that I should read because of my major and will probably read in some future class, but haven't gotten around to and am now determined to make it happen!)
• The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (I love Oscar Wilde and I've read some of his other stuff and every time I'm in a bookstore, I always see something by him. And one of my room mates was raving about it a few months ago. And I happened upon the movie from the 1940s back during Thanksgiving but I'd come in when it was almost over and didn't want to ruin the ending for myself.)
• Orlando by Virginia Woolf (I don't know if I'll be able to get around to it, but my English professor mentioned this early on last semester and it sounded really interesting. I've also been meaning to read some of her works for a while but just never got around to it....)

I'm on a tight budget because of school and saving up for a trip for Spring Break, so I don't know if I'll be able to buy all of them. And there's some books lying around at home that I bought towards the end of my junior year of high school that I never got around to reading too that I can probably get the next time I'm home to keep up my reading. I'd have my mum send them to me, but I think they're buried somewhere in my room or in boxes in the garage. So I'll just find them myself. I might read some Shakespeare before Spring too in case I finish all of those or can't get some of them. I have lots of options. I'm quite proud of myself now. This month (and hopefully the rest of the year if I can find time between classes and assigned books....) should be really good. I'm quite looking forward to it.

where the sky is grey

Well, I'm back at school and on the verge of beginning another set of classes. I kind of feel like the cool kid in the group since my don't go to class until 1:00 in the afternoon and almost all of my friends start at 8:00 or 9:00. The only bad thing is that most of them are done around noon-ish and I finish at 4:00. But I get to sleep in! So I'm okay with this situation.

Traveling yesterday went fairly well. There were a few hitches and misunderstandings on my part. The only bad thing is that I lost my ID card that lets me into everything around campus at home.... Oops. But my sister found it today and it's in the mail. I just have to wait a few days....
It's been raining all day and so the sun hasn't shown up at all. I have to get used to this again after sunny days for two weeks. And then it started snowing during my class and I definitely wasn't wearing the right sort of shoes for slush. But this should be a very relaxed month with just one class. Good things.

beginning of the end

A bit late, but yesterday was spent sleeping on the couch after the Rose Parade. I still have to sift through all the pictures I took of the parade. I filled up a memory card in about two hours.... I think there were too many marching band pictures....

So I went to a small New Years Eve Party with my family. It was kinda cold so I actually broke out my new coat! I had fun. Not crazy fun, but it was okay. And there was a trampoline! Awesome.

Hope everyone's year started out well! I leave for school tomorrow morning so I'm spending most of today with friends and packing. Hopefully I'll have pictures from the parade up later today. It'll be good to be back at school.

coat-Forever21, cardigan & top-Alloy, jeans-PacSun, shoes & purse-Target