What's there to be excited about?

John Green's Vlogbrothers video from yesterday was a Question Tuesday. One of the final questions was, "What are you most excited about?" And John really took that question to heart and said something about how he should ask himself that every day. Then John said he wanted us to leave in the comments what we're most excited about.

And I sat at my computer for probably five or more minutes trying to figure out what I'm excited about. I had no idea. What am I excited about? I didn't think it would be that difficult to come up with one thing. I don't think I could've come up with more than one thing without spending a ridiculous amount of time brainstorming, either. (I finally came up with starting the Doug Dorst & JJ Abrams book "S" yesterday afternoon. It's super neat.) It really was in that moment that I realized I'm not excited about things lately. 

Last night Alex Carpenter posted this on his Tumblr: 

I can’t remember the last time I talked to someone who was really happy. And that scares the crap out of me. I hope that things are better for everyone soon.

It's not that I'm unhappy, but like Alex I wouldn't say that I'm "really happy," nor do I know anyone who would call themselves "really happy." I'm pretty much just content; I'm satisfied; I'm a normal amount of happy. But after that post and John's video, I started asking myself why I'm not excited about things.

The answer is I don't know. I think some of the reason is I don't have huge things happening in my life. I've graduated and I have income and I spend lots of time doing relaxing things that I love, like reading books and watching YouTube. But that shouldn't mean I can't be excited about things! My life might be pretty uneventful now, but I should still be excited about the small things. I think it's totally fine to not be excited all the time; there's a lot to be said for being sad some times. It's important that we acknowledge when sad things happen and, you know, be sad. There's nothing wrong with that. 

When it takes me five minutes to figure out one small thing I'm excited about, though? I'd rather not be like that.

So I'm taking the time right now to legitimately think of things I should be excited about that I've maybe been indifferent about or just not even thought of.

• Tomorrow I'll probably go bowling. Last semester I bowled three or more times a week, at least two games every time I went. This year I only go about once a week so it's a real treat. I'm still looking to break 200, which is something I'll be stoked out of my mind about when it happens.
• By the end of the year there's a good chance I won't live in Provo anymore. It's possible that by the end of the summer I'll have moved somewhere else. I've been here five years so going to a new place is going to be, well, awesome.
• I've designed a lot of new posters in the past week. Also related to design is the fact that I was introduced to a new website to find fonts.
• Some time this spring I'll be going back to New York. To visit, I mean. Not to live. (At least I don't think I'll move back there.) There are some days I miss that city immensely. I left a piece of myself there, a lot of pieces probably. I'm scattered all over New York: I-House and the 125th St. subway stop, the Chipotle near Columbia, the Thai place Kelly and I went to nearly every Friday, Coney Island and the ocean, Metrotech in Brooklyn, the Met, various parts of Central Park but especially on the peninsula by the fountain and the lake, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Highline, in the theater where I saw Arthur Darvill in "Once," the tiny theater where I saw Cameron just days after getting to New York. Saying I'm excited to go back is an understatement.
• ShayCarl and his family just finished five years of daily vlogging. That's a momentous thing and I've been watching since October or November of 2009.
• I've worn my Chacos more times this winter than I ever thought I would. It's been in the 50s most days for the entirety of February and March. Plus, I got to wear them all over St. George when I went in January.
• March Madness will start next week. So much basketball.
• I started listening to Rhett and Link's podcast "Ear Biscuits" and it's amazing. They basically just have hour-long conversations with YouTubers except they're way more in-depth and get down to who these YouTubers are beyond video/content creators. So far I've listened to the one where they interview Grace Helbig and I'm part way through the second part of ShayCarl's episode. I just really love YouTube, okay?
• For my birthday I got a nice Moleskine notebook I've been using to start doing typography sketching and stuff like that. It's really fun and really relaxing to write out and design quotes, words, etc. Some of it totally sucks but other sketches I'm actually quite proud of.

Having written all that out, I can honestly say that I feel better about myself and my life. I feel genuinely happier acknowledging all this cool stuff that's going on or will be going on even in the coming months. It's weird how that works, eh? Really taking the time to think about the good things in my life not only makes me more grateful for them but also makes me excited to do more awesome things that will make me happier. It's not like I didn't already know that, that taking the time to be grateful is good for you, but it's important that we always remind ourselves of that. The phrase "happiness is a choice" comes to mind. It's a concept I've come to know and love.

But if you are always striving to choose happiness, and everyday you wake up and you say to yourself, “You know what, I am going to choose to not let the outside influences of the world affect my mood, and I am going to be in charge of how I feel because I am choosing happiness," I promise you that you will lead a lot happier life.

That's from, of course, ShayCarl. And he's so right.

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: Swedish meatballs

I actually made the Swedish meatballs before Christmas break/graduation. Whoops. But I wanted to give them a post of their own because it'd just be unfair otherwise.

I made these for a work Christmas party, the theme of which was "Christmas Around the World," and people brought food from places they've lived or their family's heritage. You're probably thinking that my family is Swedish so that's why I made these. On the contrary, my family is not Swedish. But my family is YouTube, so I felt it plenty appropriate.



I cheated a little bit in that I didn't actually make the meatballs from scratch, mostly because of time/money constraints. I promise next time I will though because the whole process really isn't that labor intensive otherwise. I also didn't make any potatoes for a small side, mostly because we'd have so much food at the party it would almost be overkill. The sauce for these meatballs is absolutely amazing and nothing about it is tricky either. It might not be the "most traditional" Swedish meatballs recipe ever but it certainly is plenty tasty so if you're some kind of Swedish meatball purist I still hope you'll give this one a chance. You won't be disappointed.

Everyone at my work party loved the dish and asked all about the recipe. I'm glad I could direct them to the Sorted website and/or YouTube channel. Because if anyone deserves all the viewers in the world it's the Sorted crew.

Last YouTube video I watched: Hulu Plus (Means you plus me)

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

2013: The Best Of

Not all of these films/books/YouTube channels etc. came out in 2013 nor did I first get exposed to them that year, obviously. But they made an important appearance in my life this past year, ergo their inclusion on this list.

Films:

Monsters University

Star Trek: Into Darkness

Desolation of Smaug

Scott Pilgrim

Catching Fire

YouTube videos/channels:

Vlogumentary trailer

Louis Cole

Sorted Food
CTFxC
Video Game High School
Rickshaw Run series
Our Fun Family Vacation

Books:

The Madness Underneath
Geektastic

Twitter pages:

Kelly Haight

Court Mann
Reasons My Son Is Crying

Charles Trippy

Musical artists:

We The Kings

The Killers

The Head And The Heart

Imagine Dragons
Smoke Signals
Watsky

Television shows:

Chuck

Teen Wolf

The Office

30 Rock
LOST
Community

Road trips:
St. George

Yellowstone

Other events:

Going to the Imagine Dragons concert with Stacy and Lorraine before Lorraine left on her mission



Living in New York for a few months






 
  

Talking with Cameron literally hours before I flew to New York

Sitting by a small lake in Yellowstone one Sunday afternoon










Talking with Peter one Saturday evening after work and him buying me Taco Bell for dinner

Kelly and I spending 12+ hours a day together and never getting tired of each other

Visiting the Atlantic Ocean for the first time

Being sent by my editor to Coney Island to ride the Cyclone
















Cameron sending me on a quest to a specific part of Central Park and then to buy cookies




































Writing a huge article for my capstone class

Realizing I not only love graphic design but that I'm also good at it

Making a new friend because of my VPLCT jersey

Getting Peter into longboarding and helping him buy his own

Being opinion editor for the summer

Going to lunch with my all-time favorite professor and his awesome wife

Flying home to Wisconsin for the BYU/Wisconsin football game

Seeing Arthur Darvill perform in Once on Broadway




















Cameron and Angela's wedding

Fake graduating in August & real graduating in December

















Spending the rest of summer in Utah after living in New York
    

Taking Stock

My friend Lindsey posted this neato list to her Tumblr ages ago and it looked like the perfect way for me to update this blog now that I'm graduated from college. It's called "Taking Stock."

• Making: lots of potential plans

• Cooking: anything and everything from Sorted Food, as always

• Drinking: water, water and more water. Also, Naked juice.

• Reading: Veronica Roth's Insurgent if I decide to cough up the money to buy it for my Kindle

• Wanting: a consistent flow of income

• Looking: forward to potentially spending all day tomorrow in a parking lot

• Playing: lots of Spelltower on my phone

• Wasting: electricity by forgetting to turn off the light in my bedroom

• Wishing: it would snow again

• Enjoying: watching lots of YouTube

• Waiting: for my blankets to be done in the washer so I can put them in the dryer

• Liking: how cozy my Nordic one piece is

• Wondering: why some people are so much better than others at following through

• Loving: all the free time I have

• Hoping: I get more free Chick-Fil-A

• Marveling: at how good my friend Ben looks with a beard

• Needing: to make some kind of curry this week

• Smelling: the baked potato my roommate Stacy just made (at least I think it's a potato that I smell)

• Wearing: thermal socks, green H&M jeans, a White Sox jersey, a Nike track jacket for the Hood to Coast Relay, aka a race I never ran and never will run

• Following: Charles Trippy's battle with brain cancer on CTFxC

• Noticing: how bare the living room looks without all the Christmas decorations up

• Knowing: how awesome it is that while we're unemployed Peter and I get to hang out and go grocery shopping and watch Community

• Thinking: that once my complex gets Google Fiber I'll cry tears of joy

• Feeling: very emotional over the 1000 day ApprenticeEh montage video

• Bookmarking: new recipes and colorful sneakers

• Giggling: at how awkward and inventive and awesome Grace Helbig is