Anna Does Sorted: Tropical knickerbocker glory

On Saturday, Peter wanted to make some kind of dessert. I immediately suggested the Nutella salted caramel cookies but he apparently doesn't like Nutella enough to want to make those, so once again my idea was shot down. (Some day I'll convince him.) Before going to work that afternoon I perused the Sorted website on my phone. Eventually he tired of my suggestions and took my phone to look for himself. He eventually found the tropical knickerbocker glory. I vaguely remembered seeing the video for it but couldn't remember anything about it otherwise, but he looked at the ingredient list and decided it sounded yummy.

So he dropped me off at work and went to the store, grocery list in hand to get various fruits, sweetened condensed milk and all the other things he didn't already have. When he picked me up at 10:30 that night, I fully expected him to regale me with the tale of how making his dessert went. But he actually hadn't made it yet and enlisted my "help" in putting it together. ("Help" being in quotation marks because it's not like he actually needed assistance.)



He decided to forgo making the caramel, something I was actually pretty bummed about. I myself was skeptical of the recipe only because I'm not a fan of avocados. They're just not my thing; feel free to leave me nasty comments but my only response will be haters gonna hate. When you combine avocado with condensed milk you've got something pretty darn tasty, I will admit. Peter isn't super fond of raspberries so he decided to get blackberries instead, something else I got bummed about because I love raspberries. It was his dessert though so I couldn't exactly make a fuss.

Armed with a blender, and not a food processor, we got to liquefying avocado, mango and blackberries.

I was the one who dolloped, poured or dropped each layer into our glasses. Always one to give me a hard time, Peter made it abundantly clear that it didn't look like the finished product in the video. I don't doubt for a second that it tasted any less delicious though!

Anna Does Sorted: Chicken tikka masala

It really is all curry all the time in my apartment these days. Tonight I tried my hand at chicken tikka masala and what a great plan that was. I miraculously found chicken breasts in the freezer so thank you to my past self for buying chicken a while back even though I had no plans for it. Peter invited himself over for dinner after I texted him asking if he had chicken (this was before I found any in my freezer) but that was fine because I don't like to pass up any chances of exposing him to new foods.

The Sorted recipe for chicken tikka masala also has the recipe to make raita, and I'm not sure exactly what that is, but I'm sure it's delicious so feel free to try that part and let me know what you think. I know there's aubergine in it, which is the British-English way to say eggplant, so that's fascinating.

 

This was Peter's second experience with a curry of sorts and I'm happy to report it turned out quite well. He did say he liked the chicken katsu curry more but I don't blame him; that was also delicious. Sadly, I started cooking before he got home from work so I actually had to cut the TWO ONIONS by myself Luckily, I found Becca's old goggles from chemistry. Wearing those helped substantially. I'll seriously be totally content with never having to cut onions ever again in my entire life. That's a good enough reason to get married, right? So someone else will have to cut onions for everything we make?

The only part of this recipe I "struggled" with was marinating the chicken in the paste long enough. It was probably just over an hour but I wish I'd looked at the recipe last night and had it marinade that whole time. I'm sure when I eat the leftovers tomorrow it'll be even tastier. Everything about this is perfectly easy, even easier than the chicken katsu curry which was already really easy. Most people probably have all the spices in their cupboards as well, except for maybe garam masala. I always borrow that from my friend Badger.

The recipe also says it serves 6 but those must be 6 pretty huge portions: Peter and I both had a big bowl and Becca and Stacy tried some as well, still leaving a significant portion to be put away until tomorrow. So that's a definite advantage of this recipe.

Anna Does Sorted: Chicken katsu curry

These days it seems like I'm constantly craving curry, so tonight when Peter asked if I wanted to make dinner together (again), I jumped on the opportunity to make some kind of curry. I searched through Sorted's curry category and eventually found chicken katsu curry. I chose this one because I already had almost all the ingredients and it had pretty short prep and cook times.

Peter never really tried curry before, of any variety, so I really wanted this dish to turn out well. I feel like someone's first curry experience affects all future curry experiences. I'd never tried this recipe either so I was kind of worried it wouldn't be his thing; after all, even I didn't know if I would like the particular flavors. But curry has become a huge thing in my life so if my best friend doesn't like . . . Well, that could be an issue.
The most difficult, or perhaps more accurately most annoying, part of this recipe, besides finding the panko at the grocery store, was cooking the chicken all the way through. One of our chicken breasts was surprisingly thick, even after cutting it in half and opening it like a book. So that was more so just unlucky and like I said before totally annoying. I probably would have said that cutting the onions was the most difficult part but I made Peter do that instead. So once we got over the hurdle of cooking the chicken longer than we thought it needed to be cooked for, the actual finished product was lovely. The panko was golden brown and the chicken was moist as ever.

The curry itself was so tasty! I think it had the perfect amount of spiciness and was so flavorful. I wish I had a stick blender so I could've made it smooth but I still managed to enjoy it even though the onions were just chopped up. Though the recipe says it makes 2 servings and Peter and I both ate a decent amount, there's still probably enough left for at least one more meal; I always love having leftovers. And I have plenty of panko left for the next time I want to make chicken katsu curry, or some other chicken-covered dish.

I'm thinking my next Sorted recipe will be something suitable for Super Bowl Sunday eating. Peter jokingly said I had to bake a dessert from scratch because he knows how much I dislike baking. But it's highly unlikely that will come to fruition.

Last YouTube video I watched: JacksGap for Math Nerds

Anna Does Sorted: Banoffee cupcakes

On Wednesday night Peter came over and asked me a question I've always wished someone would ask me, "Can we look at your YouTube playlist of cooking stuff and see what desserts there are?" At first I suggested we make the Nutella and salted caramel cookies but he shot that down so he opted instead for the banoffee cupcakes. I mean, we couldn't exactly go wrong with any of the Sorted Food choices but those cupcakes are DIVINE.



This was another recipe that's been around for some time that I never got around to making so even though I wanted those chocolate caramel cookies so bad I was actually pretty pleased that Peter wanted these instead. So off we went, Peter, Kelly and I, to the store to buy the ingredients. (Kelly came over so I could give her the poster I made for her Christmas present and got wrangled in to baking as well!)

As always, there was some conversion improv involved in making the cupcakes. The mix turned out quite thick so I was worried I'd messed up how much flour, brown sugar, etc. needed to be added. Kelly and Peter both put on faces of, "I don't know. I don't use the oven or bake," so I added a little water to maybe help with the consistency and hoped for the best. Turns out we did everything right, or some version of "right," and the cupcakes looked an awesome golden color on top when we took them out of the oven.

My favorite part of the banoffee cupcakes is the icing. Those who know me well know that I absolutely love frosting/icing. I always take corner pieces of cake, I lick all utensils used for frosting anything and I gladly eat chocolate frosting out of the can. The icing for these cupcakes was perhaps some of the greatest I've ever had. Using brown sugar as well as powdered sugar is definitely key.

Normally I hate baking but I've come to the conclusion that I like baking when I'm doing it with friends. Kelly and Peter made it totally bearable and infinitely more fun than if I'd done it alone. It definitely embodied what Sorted is all about: good food with good friends.

Last YouTube video I watched: Cuddling Koalas

Anna Does Sorted: Spicy corndogs

I've never been a fan of corndogs. Ever. Like, at all. They're disgusting. I don't understand why people are so obsessed with them. (Sorry, Hank Green.) I knew I needed to try this recipe though after going shopping with Ben a month or so ago. It's something we do together fairly often these days and on that particular night he found a giant box of frozen corndogs and was all excited because it was on sale. I scoffed at him and begged him not to buy it because A) frozen food is just not as good as other food you actually cook and B) corndogs are gross altogether. So a few weeks later when Sorted posted their own recipe for corndogs, I was ecstatic to give Ben an actually tasty dinner.



The ingredients were all quite cheap and the most difficult part of this whole process, I found, is dipping the hot dogs in the batter. I really don't think I did anything wrong when making the "corn" part of the corndog but it still seemed to be extra thick. I added some milk to thin it out which helped a bit but it still didn't look quite right. When it came to covering the hot dogs, wow, that was a strange struggle. I used the tip they gave in the video by covering the hot dog in cornstarch and then using a tall glass but it didn't quite work out. It's not that it didn't work at all but it just didn't work very well. The thickness of the batter definitely had something to do with it but I figured out a weird system of dipping the hot dogs on the skewers into the glass of batter and then using a spoon to make sure it was (for the most part) evenly distributed and totally covered. The frying itself was also much less intimidating than I thought it would be. I'd never submerged anything in oil before but of course I've heard any number of oil frying horror stories. Literally nothing happened besides my corndogs turning a nice golden brown.

Ben was super excited when he came in and found out I had made corndogs, plus the super simple dipping sauce of mayo, lime zest and cilantro. His face really was surprised. And even though they looked kind of weird, they were perfectly golden and perfectly cooked. Ben complimented them over and over which, coming from a corndog lover like himself, made me feel pretty good about the first attempt. He also said it was the best corndog he ever had and he loved the batter. I also found myself actually enjoying a corndog for the first time, so that was pretty exciting. I'll definitely be making them again.

As for the next up recipe, I'm really interested to try the tandoori chicken burger. Does that not look amazing?! And while I practically despise baking, I'm also quite enamored with the idea chocolate caramel cookies.

I suppose a mini-life update might also be in order so here goes:

• A super long time ago now, Becca, Stacy and I went to Stacy's house to go boating and spend the night. It was awesome.
• I've significantly improved at bowling in the last few weeks.
• In the last month or so Peter and I have gone mini-golfing, almost finished "The Office," hit the streets longboarding a bunch, celebrated his birthday with lots of delicious food, gone to soccer and football games and there's definitely other stuff we've done as well.
• Ben and I had a Friday movie night w/ just us a few weeks back. We watched Schindler's List, which neither of us had seen before. It was fun in so much as watching a movie about the Holocaust can be considered a "fun" Friday night activity.
• My new thing for my friends' birthdays is making posters. So Ben's had a Lion King quote, Ryan's was from HottieBoombaLottie and Peter's had one from How I Met Your Mother. Becca's poster is up next and it's Doctor Who inspired.
• I found my Flip cam! I thought I'd forgotten it in Wisconsin when I went home for Christmas.
• I bought a plane ticket home for the BYU/Wisconsin football game. #gobadgers

Last YouTube video I watched: The Art Assignment

Anna Does Sorted: Key lime pie

This recipe came out while I was in New York, aka living without a kitchen, and I've been stoked to try it ever since then. My good friend Peter really likes key lime pie and I'm an awesome friend so I made it with the intent of sharing. At this time, the pie is in the refrigerator setting. I'm not going to lie: it doesn't look very good right now. Like, the filling just looks like I did something wrong. But when I was pouring it into the crust, I did taste some of it and it was DELICIOUS so I'm hoping it sets by the time Peter comes over.


I had to do some improv with this recipe, more than ever before.

• I didn't have caster sugar so I just put a bunch of regular sugar in the food processor.
• I also had to guess/Google on how much whatever amount of grams certain things were. I've done that plenty in the past but today I was unsure of my guesses because of how weird it looks.
• The biggest improv moment came with not having a loose bottom pan. So instead I put parchment paper in the bottom of a cake pan and pushed the crust into it. Technically I think my pan is too big in diameter but we didn't have a smaller one. This is one reason I suspect my filling looks so weird sitting in the fridge right now.

I'm still plenty hopeful though! I mean, Peter can't exactly get mad at me if it doesn't look nice because I made him a freaking pie.

The biggest recommendation I have for anyone looking to make this recipe is make sure you don't have any paper cuts! Because when you're zesting/juicing the limes . . . What the freak it stung so bad. Out of no where the ring finger on my right hand felt like it was burning. Turns out there's a tiny, tiny cut on it.
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Well, the pie was not set by 5 when Peter came over. That was a shame. (Instead we went to the store to buy batteries so we could play Super Smash Bros. Brawl on the Wii.) We re-scheduled pie eating time for later that night.

Well, around 10:30 that night I brought the pie to his house, ever hopeful it would be ready. But alas! Only some of the pie was set. It was pretty disappointing presentation-wise. Peter described it as crust with a lime soup on top, which did make me laugh. Just as I expected though, it tasted awesome.

I'm not quite sure what I screwed up but I'll definitely be making it again; it's a recipe I want to perfect. My favorite part of the pie was the crust made with ginger snap cookies. I quite like ginger snaps so to me it was the obvious choice for the crust on such a pie. Using the parchment paper in the pan actually worked great too!

Last YouTube video I watched: Best Teenage Magician

I live in New York now

I've been in this state/city since 4:30 this afternoon and thus far I'm quite pleased. I woke up at 4:30 in the morning to get here but it was well worth it. (Thanks to the beautiful Benjamin for the ride to the airport!)

So far adventures have included exploring the Denver airport to find Starbucks for Kelly and finding a Jamba Juice for me, wandering around the housing complex just for kicks, directing everyone else to Chipotle for DELICIOUS burritos, and buying a metro card and using it for the first time.

My last days in Provo until June were pretty adventurous as well. So they weren't really adventurous at all but they were super awesome.

Thursday night, since Stacy graduated, her parents were kind enough to invite me to dinner with them, as well as Stacy's boyfriend. It was a really fun dinner and we ate delicious Chinese food! After dinner, I headed over to Lava Lounge for Ryan's little going away party. He's actually in Wisconsin doing an internship, which makes me so happy since he gets to experience my brilliant home state. A bunch of us ate ice cream and talked, relishing in the fact that exams were DONE.

Friday was super chill. All I really did was pack. That evening I decided to longboard since I hadn't gone all spring yet and I wouldn't be doing it until June. On my way back I stopped by Jeffrey's apartment. We ended up talking for at least 2 hours, as is customary with us. It was so good talking with him. Jeff has this incredible ability to give me awesome advice/counsel while slightly making fun of me at the same time; I absolutely love it.

When I left Jeff's around 10:30, I ended up at Peter's again. I wanted to make a Taco Bell run but Peter and his roommates had gone out to dinner so he wasn't hungry. But I found myself there nonetheless. I honestly don't even remember what we did. Well, besides watch Community because we always do that. Really we just talked and enjoyed each other's company.

Saturday afternoon turned into a time of goodbyes as Peter and I hung out for the last time until June. We ate Chick-Fil-A, my last free meal for a long while I suspect, hung out at the park since it was an absolutely gorgeous day and watched some Doctor Who. I have no complaints about how we spent that time. It was the kind of afternoon I truly love.

Saturday night I watched the BYU men's volleyball team win the MPSF Championship, or something like that, I don't quite remember the official name. But BYU won and it was awesome. The only other exciting part of the night was a last minute chat with Cameron. He's a gem of a person if there ever was one. It's always a good time when he sits me down to talk.

And that pretty much gets us to present day/night. I'm here in New York till the end of June. And it should be awesome.

life is good.

Good-bye senior year (kind of)

Yesterday was the last day of finals for my (technical) senior year. Technically I should be graduating today but that's not really how college goes when you have to apply to get into your program. Regardless, finals are over and that means it's time for FUN.

After I finished my Spanish final yesterday morning, I went to lunch at Cafe Rio with Margaret. In June Margaret leaves for her mission to Japan. She and I grew up together and it seems like our families have known each other forever. It's weird to think about going home and not having Margaret there. She's one of those people that always makes Utah feel a bit more like home.

I also started packing for New York. The biggest problem I'm running into is, of course, shoes. I'm trying to be reasonable about what I'll actually want to wear for the 2 months I'm there but the thing is I really do wear  almost all of the shoes I own on a fairly regular basis. I'm only bringing one suitcase with me for 2 months away. I'm really not all that worried about not having enough clothes; though I do really like options for shirts, it's all about shoes for me.

Bronwyn's mission call opening was the highlight of the night, though. It was hilarious to watch her start reading her call out loud, stop a little bit to cry, keep reading and then finally read where she's called to serve only to have her stop AGAIN before she actually said it out loud. She's going to Salem, Oregon. It seems to be an perfect fit for her. I'm super excited to write her letters.

Peter and I then spent the rest of the night together. Finals kept us both terribly busy so we only saw each other at church on Sunday. It was great to finally sit down together with literally no responsibilities or stress left to bother either of us. After Bronwyn's mission call opening he and I went to In and Out. While there I ran into my friends Will and Braden! I've known them almost 4 years now. They're absolute gems, two people I  love talking with and who constantly make me smile. And while I'm not a crazy In and Out fan, I realized it's been quite long while since I had a cheeseburger and it sure was delicious, more so than usual I think. After eating we spent the rest of the night mostly talking.

Every now and then Peter and I try to come up with an "activity," something to actually do together, but when it comes down to it we're both more than happy to just sit on his couch talking for hours on end. And sometimes we throw in watching some TV show. Last night we watched an episode of Psych, a show I used to watch all the time but haven't seen in quite some time. I forgot how much I loved it! I laughed more watching that show than I have watching anything else in a long while. But like always, we went back to talking about life. Kirk and Kyle eventually showed up, at which point we eventually got on the topic of science jokes and Kyle told some joke he made up which I did not understand in the slightest but he thought was hilarious. That was the best part, the fact that he laughed so much at his own joke.

I'M THE WINNER

I WON THE 2013 FLUHMAN BRACKET CHALLENGE.

THIS IS THE MOST AWESOME MOMENT OF MY COLLEGIATE CAREER.

I'M NOT EVEN KIDDING.

So my history professor holds a bracket challenge between all his classes and his family every winter semester. I've taken five classes from J. Spencer Fluhman and this is my third time participating in the bracket challenge.

AND I WON.

It feels quite surreal. I can hardly believe I did it. But I'm thoroughly excited about this victory. I also won the bracket challenge Peter started. All I win for that is bragging rights and it's probably pretty sad how happy it makes me that I beat Peter; he tried not to sound too disappointed about it when we hung out last night but I can tell it definitely bugged him that I won.

Basically, I can't wait to use the line, "Hey, remember that time my bracket won your competition?" in an argument with him.

Somebody, somewhere

(Once again I failed to post on a given day!) This April seems busier than all previous collegiate Aprils. I'm spending more time doing schoolwork, more time with friends and more time preparing to leave for New York.

Sunday was basically like Saturday, though. Becca and I spent our day at the Lava Lounge again, complete with more head-to-shoulder leaning, though this time I took the initiative and stole Ben's shoulder before he could steal mine. Our break between sessions of General Conference was spent at Badger's. He held a nice little barbecue for friends in the neighborhood. It was delicious; he's kind of a master chef.

In the afternoon I caught up on some YouTube and other shows I watch on occasion while working on stuff for my InDesign class. When I got bored with my homework I switched over to designing something for fun. This is what I came up with.

 

I feel pretty proud of myself considering it's the first thing I've ever done just because I wanted to do it. My design class has easily become my favorite class of the semester. It turns out I actually have a really interesting sense of design, one that isn't bad in the slightest.

The rest of the night was spent relaxing watching Doctor Who at Lava Lounge and then Community at Peter's. It's awesome to have new episodes of "Who" to watch at Doctor Who night. There's a pretty big group of us who get together which makes it really fun. It's definitely a show that's more entertaining to watch in a group. And watching Community with Peter was great since we hadn't seen each other in almost 5 days which is a lot considering we live right across the street from each other and have all the same friends. But as always, a 20 minute episode of Community always turns into at least another two hours of talking. It seems quite impossible for us to spend less than two or three hours together whenever we see each other, which is going to make for an interesting couple of months while I'm in New York and he's still in Provo. I predict some long phone calls will be happening.

In which my day starts (and ends) happy

I totally forgot to blog on Wednesday and it was only the third day of April! I'm still putting up the post from the 3rd, even though it is the 4th, because I can't just gloss over such a nice day.

I woke up feeling pretty, well, sad and did a great job moping on the way to work at 9. It was a beautiful morning, absolutely perfect really. It was hard to enjoy because all I could think about was how I wouldn't see my Lorraine for 18 months.

As I moped my way to the library, I ran into Peter, almost quite literally as he came up beside me and slightly shoved me. I'm not sure if my moping was just that obvious or if Peter just knows me that well but whatever the case he knew something was up. So I moped to him a little bit about being sad and he gave me some cheesy lines about smiling and being happy and hugged me a couple times before sending me on my way.

It was a small thing for him to stop me and really ask how I was doing. It made my day infinitely better. The rest of the day was spent in class or working on projects. Most days I have very little down time between classes and Wednesdays are no different. I got home from my Utah history class just after 6:30, made some dinner and then hunkered down in my room to get all my homework done. Thursdays are by far my busiest day and there much to get done.

But, of course, the Internet wasn't working! I needed it to finish an InDesign project so I went to the Lava Lounge for a couple hours to finish all my work. I left around 10:15 but I wasn't quite ready to go home yet because I knew I would just mope more if I went to my apartment. Instead I called Peter and spent time with him and his lovely roommates.

As we are prone to doing, Peter and I ended up talking for a long while and stayed up far too late. Kirk and Kyle were a party to this talking/not sleeping as well but they went to bed well before Peter and I. The four of us talked about dreams, their anatomy class, organ donation, medical school, happiness and our weekend plans. I even convinced Kyle to come with me to my friend Chelsea's senior piano recital on Friday night. Ever since freshman year I've been telling Chelsea I would bring a date to her senior recital and I'm actually going to follow through on it. It doesn't really count as a date since it's with Kyle and Peter and I had to do use some persuasion tactics to get him to agree but she'll think it's hilarious no matter what. And as much as I love talking with Kirk and Kyle, talking with Peter alone was even better.

It ended up being a really relaxing night, which is not something I expected. Spending a weeknight with some of my dearest friends was something I needed though I didn't quite realize it at the time. I slept great that night and even though I woke up pretty tired, it was worth it. There are some days when staying up late and talking with friends is worth the hassle the next morning.

Zelda & slacklining

My last few weekends have been super quality, all worth blogging about. (At least to me they're worth blogging about.) Let it be known that this post was started around the first week of March, meaning all of this information is now WAY OLD. I'm finally posting a lot of things that I started writing but never finished.

Friday

All my Friday classes were cancelled and the only thing I had to do was stop by the newsroom at 10 to lay out some pages for the paper. It took me all of 30 minutes and I enjoyed doing it as well. Then I worked on my publication graphics feature page project. I'm really proud of it so far. I've come to really enjoy working with InDesign and apparently I'm not as terrible at designing things as I once thought. (This is what my feature page ended up looking like though at the time of this writing it looked NOTHING like this.)

Since it was fairly warm out, especially for February, I decided to go for a run that afternoon. I got only a few blocks before my contact lens in my right eye got all fuzzy so I took it out and walked home. Luckily, I have this awesome app on my phone called the Nike Training Club. They have 30 and 45 minute workouts based on all different things, whether that be strength training, cardio or anything else you might want to do. The majority of them don't require equipment either. I did a 30 minute cardio workout in the comfort of my own home.

After showering and eating a quick, though late, lunch, it was time to watch Community with Peter. After that was over, he and I ended up, as usual, spending the whole night together. Any time we spend together is usually punctuated by the arrivals and departures of his roommates Kirk and Kyle. I've hardly seen the two of them this semester so it was really nice to hang out with the three of them. Kirk even decided to be domestic that night and made this apple pie type dessert, except for the crust he used dough for dinner rolls. It turned out spectacular.

What really took up most of our time was playing the N64 version of Zelda on Peter's computer. I'm not sure what it is about me but I have no problem watching other people play video games. It was most interesting because Kyle basically has the game memorized and would occasionally drop hints to Peter about what to do but he would never give him the entire answer of where to go/what to do; it's frustrating for Peter but great entertainment for the rest of us. By the end of the night, Kyle and Peter insisted I learn to play the game on account of how I never played it as a child. And so Peter started my own quest. I'm not terrible at video games but I'm pretty close. As entertaining as it was for Peter to play the game himself, I definitely think he had a lot more fun watching me struggle through the first two levels. Around 1 o'clock I finally called it quits.

Saturday

In the morning I did Peter a favor and kept score at his intramural basketball game. I'd never seen him play before so I enjoyed myself a lot. Peter loves basketball more than anything else in life so to see him actually doing what he constantly talks about was awesome. He's kind of really legitimately good at basketball as well.

I worked out again on Saturday and spent the rest of the day studying.

That evening a bunch of people went to this ice skating show that Lorraine was in. Mostly we went because there was free skating after it was over! Only Ben and I ended up skating but it was still quite fun. Since we were skating on the non-public rink, there was hardly anyone there and we could goof off a little more without worrying about bumping into people.

After skating Ben and I met up with our friends again and decided to go slacklining on campus. That was perhaps one of the best Saturday night activities I've ever been a part of. I've always been pretty terrible at slacklining but I actually made it all the way across that night.

After an hour of that we watched "Skyfall" at the Lava Lounge. I'd seen it before, back when it first came out in November, but was still hoping to enjoy it a second time; but alas, I fell asleep, something that hardly ever happens to me during movies. Luckily Ben was there to let me borrow his shoulder. You know you've got a good life when your friends let you fall asleep on them like that.

Comfortable silence

In my book, one of the biggest indicators of a good relationship, whether that be with a friend or a romantic interest, is “talking” on the phone for an extended period of time.

Before getting ready for bed last night, I spent nearly 20 minutes on the phone with Peter. I'd seen him just the night before, but some times there are some friends you need to talk to more regularly than that. Probably less than 10 minutes of the time we spent on the phone together was us actually talking. The rest was us just sitting in silence.

That he was willing to sit on the phone with me in almost complete silence for 20 minutes? That’s pretty telling. And that it wasn’t the least bit rushed or awkward? That's even better. He didn't mind that I didn't have all that much to say. At no point did he say anything along the lines of, "That's it? That's all you've got?" and he easily could have.

The luxury of sitting in comfortable silence with another person, especially when you're talking on the phone, is one of my all-time favorite things. With some people the comfortable silence comes after getting to know each other a little bit. But with others it's quite inherent. The fact that you can spend time with someone else and just . . . be. There's no other word to describe that feeling besides awesome.

22 (and counting)

This weekend was a whirlwind of fun. I decided on Thursday it would be an entire weekend of birthday celebration and excitement. That meant no homework/studying. (I managed to get everything done before the weekend, actually.)

Friday
I went on my first run of 2013! It felt so good to get out in the 36 degree air and just run. I only went a mile but it sure was a nice mile. Between my own sickness and Utah's terribly cold winter this run was much needed. After the run I didn't have too much time before I had to leave, though. Peter and I spent our afternoon/evening together per our new tradition of watching Community. It's easily one of the best traditions I've ever been a part of.

I didn't have time to eat much before or after my run so by the time Community was over I was quite hungry. Peter and I hit up Chick-Fil-A for dinner and then we watched the movie Hoosiers. Nothing quite beats waffle fries on a Friday night with one of your closest friends. And it's quite the experience, watching a movie with Peter, especially when it's a movie he really likes. He quotes his favorite movies like I quote The Office. (For those who don't know, that means he does it and he does it perfectly.) I haven't had a Friday night so nice since . . . I guess last Friday. But two great Fridays in a row is a big deal this semester.


Saturday
The morning/afternoon was spent lounging around in my Nike running pants. I watched some YouTube, read parts of a few books and looked up a lot of John Green quotes. Around 3 o'clock, Stacy, Becca and I went to Kohl's so I could spend a $50 gift card I have from Christmas. I ended up buying a chambray that was on sale, but that's it. Of course what I really wanted was shoes but there was nothing particularly enticing. Soon after that we hurried to the grocery store to buy things for Sunday's breakfast for dinner birthday shindig.

I quickly changed when we got back so I could meet Peter for dinner and then the basketball game. We went to Sammy's most especially because I wanted a mint Oreo pie shake and sweet potato fries. BYU played Portland which didn't make for a particularly close game because Portland is not all that good, but neither is BYU lately. It was still plenty enjoyable, though. Basketball is Peter's first, and possibly only, love so I had a great time listening to him explain certain nuances of the game. Like different zone defenses. There's something incredibly fascinating about listening to someone explain something they love and understand like the back of their hand. I've always had a general understanding of the rules of basketball but the more technical/strategic aspects of the game are often lost on me. It got to the point where Peter could say to me, "Okay, do you see the 2-3 zone?" and I could answer with a definitive yes.

After the game we played Super Mario Bros. Wii. I've always enjoyed video games even though I've never been very good at them. Peter was definitely way better than me but that's not saying much . . . To make a long story short, I have a lot more respect for Hank and Katherine Green after playing that game for an hour. There was definitely a lot of yelling going on between the two of us but even more laughing, especially after I failed to jump on the flag pole in time for two straight levels. I did, however, learn that I am a master at hitting that A button to bubble.

To get over how terrible we were at the game, I suggested we watch Arrested Development. Somehow he has never seen it before! That was quite unbelievable. My goal for the rest of the semester is to make sure he sees all of it before the new season comes out in May.


Sunday
And so I turned 22 on Sunday. Becca, Stacy and I all wore different items of Lorraine's clothing since she was gone this weekend at home w/ her family. Going to church on your birthday is pretty cool. Bronwyn and I even matched!

After church I went over to Lava Lounge, ate pizza and watched Planet Earth. Soon enough it was time to start prepping all the delicious breakfast food. We had traditional waffles w/ blue food coloring, funfetti cake waffles, chocolate cake waffles, Reese's Puffs, breakfast corn dogs, Swedish pancakes and  brownies. Friends from all 3 1/2 years of my schooling came. I love when my groups of friends collide in situations like that. Perhaps the best part of the night was my freshmen friends Alex, Warren and Westen staying around longer than anyone else. Stacy and Justin also did a shoe swap, so that was pretty great.

Oh, and once everyone was gone Becca, Stacy and I put up Becca's tent in the living room and watched a couple episodes of Arrested Development. You know, because we're all mature and stuff.

My only regret from Saturday, and from during my party on Sunday, is not taking any pictures. I originally had this grand scheme of documenting everything from my birthday weekend. That went downhill quickly. Even without the pictures, it still might have been my best collegiate birthday to date. You can't exactly go wrong with Community, Chick-Fil-A, basketball, Wii, Arrested Development, breakfast food, tents and plenty of attractive friends.

A weekend to change it all

Everything about this past weekend was exactly how I once imagined the whole semester would be. It was a perfect 2 1/2 days of relaxation and productivity. If that weekend is any indication of how the rest of the semester will go, I'm in for a real treat.

Friday started off at the gorgeous winter temperature of 42 degrees. I was stoked to finally go running that afternoon once my class ended at 3. But alas, it snowed instead. It was coming down pretty hard and my pants and shoes got nearly soaked just walking home. I put off my run till this week which was a bit of a shame at the time but the rest of the afternoon was still plenty lovely. Peter and I made plans earlier in the week to watch Community together since I'm the one that got him into the show back in December. I have late class Thursday nights so we figured watching it the next afternoon would be perfect. It's only a half hour long but we ended up sitting on his couch talking for another 2 1/2 hours after the show was over. It's now our Friday thing to watch Community together. (Is it just me or is it really nice to have "a thing" you share with someone else? It's one of my favorite concepts, sharing a TV show with someone else.)

Once I left his house there was a slightly frantic rush to get people together to go to the gymnastics meet. I loved going to the meets when I wrote for the Universe last January-April and I hadn't been to any this season. It ended up being Becca, Stacy, Lorraine, Steve, Ben, Trent and myself. It was kind of strange to be considered the expert on the sport among my group of friends that night. The meet was as fun as ever, though. I did find it weird to be sitting up in the stands instead of down on the floor.

Saturday was spent doing laundry and studying. I got a lot done, so that was great. I also watched the new episode of The Office. The best part of Saturday was my pseudo-date. My friend Austin, who I've known since my freshman year, and I have been trying to set up a time to hang out and get Chick-Fil-A for a long while now. We ended up getting our beloved chicken dinner and then went to the BYU/San Francisco basketball game. The Cougars ended up losing pretty big but it was still great to spend time with Austin. I call it a pseudo-date since neither of us really thought about whether it was a date before we went. We went back to my apartment after the game and my roommates were like, "What did you guys do on your date?" and we both looked at each other for a second and asked, "Wait, was this a date?" We decided it was since it was planned, paired off and though technically not paid for by either of us two out of the three isn't bad.

Austin ended up sticking around a while and the apartment turned into an exciting place. Besides my roommates, Badger was there and eventually Trent, Ryan, Nathan and Erica showed up as well. Our apartment is hardly ever that filled, especially on weekends. We get visitors fairly often but they usually don't all stick around. It's always interesting to let different groups of friends interact and Austin fit in perfectly with the Lava Lounge boys.

Sunday was just as great as the other days. Church was awesome and once again I was quite productive in grading papers and doing my own work. Becca and I explored cooking tilapia in this random garlic and herb marinade we found in the refrigerator. Along with that we had a spinach salad with some kind of cheese dressing and we added some grated Parmesan cheese for good measure. It turned out delicious, much to Becca's surprise. The rest of the night was incredibly relaxing and the perfect way to prepare for a tough week of school.

This next weekend should also be fantastic since my birthday is in SIX DAYS. I'll be 22 on the 17th. The plan right now is to enjoy the three day weekend camping in Moab so basically I'll be spending my birthday in a tent. The next weekend I'll probably have a birthday party to spend some time with all my lovely Provo friends. It's going to be a breakfast for dinner birthday, meaning cake waffles, Reese's Puffs, breakfast corn dogs and basically any other delicious birthday treat you could think of. Yes, I love breakfast foods that much.

Friends who love

Last semester and already this semester I've had some pretty lovely experiences with friends who just do things for me when I ask them to and even friends who just do things for me because they decide to.

The first Monday back at school was fine until nightfall. I went to bed super early but couldn't fall asleep for a long time. I was just feeling too sick. So as I'm sitting there on my bed, wondering what to do, my dear friend Peter texted me, apologizing for not responding to a message I sent him that afternoon. Before I knew it, I was talking on the phone with him and explaining everything that was wrong. And because he's so wonderful, he decided to go buy me NyQuil. It wasn't particularly late at night, maybe only 10, but for someone who was sick it sure felt like it was super late. After bringing me the medicine he stayed for a little while, just talking with me and making sure I was okay. When he left he said if I wanted he'd come over the next morning to see if I was feeling any better. And that's exactly what he did.

The Saturday after that was just not a very good day. I wasn't really sick anymore but the day was just . . . off. I was sitting on the couch with Stacy moping and feeling so hungry. I hadn't gone grocery shopping yet and any food left over from before the break was gone. Becca came to the rescue that day. She herself needed food and she took it upon herself to buy things we could share and other things just for me, like Curious George fruit snacks and sweet potato fries. (She knows me far too well.)

No story of service would be complete without Jeff, though. The number of times over the past 2 1/2 years he's come through for me in a tight spot? So many. Jeff is my go-to guy in a sticky situation. He does everything he can to talk with me as soon as he can. He comes over whenever I ask him to. He lets me bum around his basement apartment in those rare moments when I get locked out of my apartment. (It just happened last week actually.) Jeff and I don't get to see each other nearly as often as we probably should but we're really good at stepping into each other's lives when we need to.

In general the boys of the Lava Lounge treat all of us pretty well. In recent weeks they've been especially great, though. They help convince me to go on trips to St. George and then make sure it's a fabulous time. They skip parts of church to talk with me in the hallway instead. They leave awesome parties to spend a little time with me and then go back to the parties to get me snacks. And every single thing they do ends with at least one great hug.

Margaret, however, wins the prize for greatest surprise. Just last week she dropped by the desk at work, leaving me a new CD and homemade chocolate chip cookies. That morning she sent me a message asking if I was working that day; I thought nothing of it since Margaret often drops by the desk. I was off doing something else when she actually came by but that almost made it even sweeter. It absolutely made my week.

These little moments of kindness happen all the time when I really think about it. Last week Stacy made banana bread for the apartment. Lorraine made pudding to share and then we watched The Office. Badger invites us all over for dinner a few times a month. I am blessed with an incredible family here at school. So if anyone I've mentioned happens to be reading this post: thank you for everything you do for me. And even if you weren't mentioned specifically: thank you as well.

Last YouTube video I watched: Photoshop Song