Busy bee to Lazy Sloth...

I'm just going to go ahead and pick up where I left off. Cool? Thought so. (PS...for future reference to those who ever think I'm being cheesey...shhhhhhh I don't care.)

Thursday was my first day back to school. I was very surprised to find just how unprepared I was for it. Normally, the day before I start a new quarter (especially after a long break) I am frantically getting all my school supplies in order. Pencils, black pens, blue pens, highlighters, erasers, tiny stapler, paper clips, rubber bands, flash cards, notebooks....I love school supplies, if you can't already tell. My back pack is cleaned out, packed, and set in a convenient location. I usually have what I am going to wear and eat for breakfast planned. I am showered and groomed and go to sleep at a decent hour. Well, Wednesday night, it didn't occur to me that I hadn't done any of this until I was about to turn my lights out. I have scattered supplies from the previous year, my back pack still had random stuff in it from moving and was buried under boxes, I was so unkempt I was disgusted with my own hair and felt sorry for anyone who sat behind me and had to look at it, and I had no clue as to what I was going to wear or eat or, better yet, where any of my classes were. I hadn't checked the condition of my bike, of course, it had a flat tire. I did what I could and set my alarm for 7:00 so that I could shower, cook breakfast, and still have time to go to a coffee shop to look up the location of my classes since I didn't have internet in my apartment. Thursday morning didn't exactly pan out like that, naturally. I snoozed all four alarms until 8:45. Even though I was so unprepared, I was not panicked. I have been going to school for so long now that this "first day" felt like any other day of the quarter. I slowly rolled out bed, put on some clothes, and grabbed a Luna bar. I drove due to my bike's flat tire, which is always nerve wracking because there are bikers and skaters and runners of all sorts everywhere. I managed not hit anyone...this time. My classes were fine. I love my French teacher, so sweet and naive but has been and taught everywhere (oh the perks of being a foreign language professor).  She looks like the chick from Hung but cuter:

My spanish class is awesome because my teacher strictly speaks spanish. I can understand her for the most part but still get lost at times. I hope she doesn't crack like most of my teachers have in the past. I have a good feeling about it though.

I got to hang out with a couple of my good friends on Thursday night, which is always nice. My friend moved into the Excursion Club House this year. It's pretty sweet. They have a huge backyard that has fig  and orange trees, a sweet husky mix named Bear, a jacuzzi, annnnnddd a climbing wall! So, I ended up climbing a bit. After my first top out, I was privileged enough to peer into their neighbors yard. Turns out, the neighbors own a few raccoons and skunks and grow a lot of pot. Interesting. After a while the raccoons got a little curious too:

They hung out by the sketchy, handmade latter the climbers climb down.

It was fun catching up with them, but I started to get tired and my throat started hurting so we called it a night some what early.

One thing I forgot to mention about Wednesday, I drove to Ventura and went to Target. I did a whole lot of shopping for the apartment. I also ordered the necessities online... bad news, most things wont be coming for about a month, including my desk and chair. So, my apartment will not be quite ready until November. Everyone is still welcome to visit and stay, it just wont be as cute. I did add a couple things to my kitchen though!

I'm a sucker for color. and yes, that mug does say big daddy.

I worked really hard on my apartment on Wednesday and Thursday. I am quite proud of myself for it. Unfortunately, come Friday morning, my cold came back with a vengeance. This cold is something special. It clearly does not want to leave my body. So, Friday and today have literally been spent laying around in pajamas watching Parks and Rec, finding new recipes in my new cookbook and vegetarian magazines that the previous resident of my apartment forgot to unsubscribe to :), and a whole lot of cooking. There was a window on Friday where I felt better (probably due to coffee) and I realized how beautiful it was outside. I went out and laid on the bench on my porch and took advantage of the only sun we've had for the last week. Here are some pictures to show how that moment was spent, plus, a picture of me, coffee, and my new cookbook:

What I was looking up at as I laid on the bench and read.

If you can't read that because it's small and backwards, the title of my book is Super Natural Every Day. So excited.

Speaking of cooking... I have decided that I am going to try a new recipe every sunday. It will give me a chance to see what else I can do with food. At the moment, I am only good with vegetables and olive oil, so, it will be interesting to see what other spices, oils, techniques, and foods other than veggies I can explore. Since I felt sick yesterday and it was chilly outside, I decided to try a soup recipe out of my cookbook. It was a red curry zucchini soup with tofu croutons. How was it? Well, like every other time I try to cook something out of a book, I read one of the steps wrong. So, I am not sure if it turned out the way it was supposed to. It turned out some what bland. I didn't want to add too much salt but it didn't have much of a flavor, which may or may not have been my fault.The tofu croutons turned out well though. What I really love about this is the afterthought of how I could have improved the dish. Personally, I would have added either a collard green or kale and good sized slices of white onion. I would have added more spices too to add more flavor, the problem is that I don't know a whole lot of spices... which brings me back to why I need the direction of a cookbook. Anywho, here's what it looked like and what my sautéed garlic, kale, mushrooms, and toasted pine nuts with a side of tomato soup looked like:

Today I made my rendition of bruschetta (diced tomatoes and avocados, shallots, garlic, olive oil, a little sea salt and pepper, and lemon zest....I'm learning). I toasted a whole wheat baguette and drizzled it with balsamic vinegar and sprinkled fresh basil on it. Sadly, I ate it too fast to take a picture of it for you. It was THAT good.

I hope you all don't mind the excess photos that I share in my blogs. It is my way of letting you all into my life. I enjoy it. Also, if you are all bored with the cooking speeches just go ahead and skim over them, I wont be offended. Also if you are bored of them...sorry, because I am going to give a detailed report on Sundays about my experiments. Again, you don't have to read it.
I am going to leave you all with a couple of weird cards I found at Target and Bed, Bath, and Beyond.
Card #1:

Card #2

Love.

Round 2...

Here I am, once again, getting ready for a new school year. Round 2. I think I'm ready for it. Now that I have had several mishaps that have cost me my GPA, credibility, and pride, I feel that I know what to prepare and ask for. It does ease my pain a bit to know that most of this was not my fault. A miscommunication with the director of the biology department and my counselor added an extra year at UCSB to my schedule. Not to mention my extremely condescending and painful meeting with a counselor I had been avoiding. Well, now, I am ready to go back to him and tell him how rude he was, tell him about the mistakes that were made by employees of the school, not by me, and show him the good grades that I received last quarter that he doubted were going to happen.

Sorry for the vengeful speech. Note, I am not unhappy or upset. I just have a mess to clean up. I am actually ecstatic at the moment. I am currently getting settled in my new studio apartment that I am living all on my own in. I moved in on Sunday thanks to my loving uncle Marty, aunt Anita, and cousin Tiny Marty. They moved me in and set up my bed, which does not take up nearly as much room as I thought...which is dangerous because it puts more decorating ideas in this little brain of mine. Though, I do not have a desk, bookcases, tables or anywhere to sit yet it's starting to come together. I have been working so hard the last few days and, let me tell you, washing all of my clothes and getting my tiny closet set up has been a two day adventure. I have far too many clothes and far too little closet space for them. Fortunately, I have amazing friends who surprised me with a cute, vintage dresser for my birthday. Here are some pictures of my laundry/closet adventure over the last few days:

This was my attempt at drying my delicate clothes, it went perfectly at first and I was very proud of my self for it. Alas, after some odd hours, it failed. So....

I moved it to my shower haha. That too eventually failed, so I ended up draping them over my shower doors.

Tiny closet. Photo #1 is the right side and photo #2 is the left.













Apparently, all UC's are providing health care (including dental) for all full time students now. When I got an email regarding the activation date and realizing I no longer have a roommate that knows Goleta/ Santa Barbara better than I do, I thought it would be best to start looking for local doctors, hospitals, dentists and urgent care just in case. Well, nothing like a good case of conjunctivitis on your first day back to force you to the closest Med Center. Needless to say, I have been using this time to stay in my apartment and work while avoiding friends and eye contact with strangers. It looks like the left half of me is a sweet, innocent 16 year old, while the right side is a stoned, evil 60 year old about to morph into a green muscular monster with torn purple shorts. It's not pretty:

eewwwwww.











On a less disgusting note... I am beyond excited about cooking once again. I can easily say that I did not cook at all this summer except for a few fried eggs, quesadillas and top ramen, which I do not constitute as cooking. I have cooked every meal since I've been back and I love it. The other night I was looking up recipes for a tofu stir fry but decided I can do it my self. I did. It turned out fantastic. My delicious stir fry consisted of tofu, broccoli, white onion, garlic, red bell peppers, snow peas, mushrooms, bok choy, low-sodium soy sauce and a splash of low-sodium teriyaki sauce. Bomb! So happy I have found this love for cooking. Here is my cute little kitchen. Of course, it is not yet complete but it's getting cuter everyday:

:)













Anywho, I must get back to work on my humble abode. I am so excited to watch my place come together and am also excited to share it with all of you as it happens. Surprisingly, I am happy to start school again. This quarter is going to be slow and steady. I have a physics class and lab and two languages on my plate this quarter.... so, being me, I am taking more on. I am going to start looking for a job once my eye clears up and I will be taking guitar lessons. I am trying not to be too stubborn about it. If I can see that I am struggling, then I will quit my job or drop the lessons... no big deal. School comes first. Although I am thrilled to start school again, I am sad to say goodbye to my summer. Most of you know it is my favorite time of year not just because of the weather, but because of the friends and family I get to spend time with. This summer in particular was a memorable one. I went to South Africa and lived a dream I have had since I was very young, I went to the beach and Joshua Tree with loved ones, went out with friends, was lazy with friends, swam a lot, went to Maui with a couple of the most important people to me, got to play with my nieces and nephews, got to watch my pregnant bestie grow, and enjoyed every second of it. Want to see pictures? If you haven't seen the pictures on my facebook already, check it out: Summer Breeeeze

Thanks to all my friends and family for amazing times and all the encouragement you give me! It does not go unnoticed. Hopefully, I will write again soon. Much love.