Once again, I am not making it back to Utah for the holidays. I know how much everyone will miss me, especially my sporadic piano playing. So in honor of the I-have-to-finish-the-song-before-the-commercial-break-ends type of music I love so much, I have brought you Turkish Rondo (on crack.)


I went shopping today for my Thanksgiving feast. As many of you know, I am a big fan of food. Thanksgiving is, by far, the best holiday ever invented. All that you are required to do is eat as much food as possible as quickly as possible. James tells me the "as quickly as possible" isn't required, but I argue that in a big family it is key. If you don't eat fast, someone else will eat what you had on your plate.

Anyway, I went shopping today. Everyone has left town to go "home" and be with their families, so I had rough luck finding a ride, as James took his car and left town. I finally broke down today, realizing that no one was around, and took the bus across town to the other grocery store. I spent more on food for this one event than I have for myself in the last three months. But this is Thanksgiving, and this will be done right.

I've had to change my dishes around a bit, because James wants to have some of his family's traditional food as well. On the menu: Turkey with homemade stuffing and fresh cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and gravy, candied yams, butternut thyme squash, green bean casserole, harvest apple pumpkin bread, and a sweet potato pie for dessert. I'm debating on whether or not I should make a pumpkin roll in addition to the pie, because there are only two of us. However, we will be eating leftovers for quite some time.

Some of the traditions, I will miss. I don't know if I can top mom's exploding turkey, melted utensils, melted cups, melted pitchers, burnt plates, and pans falling apart. I am just too good at cooking. I heard that Miranda is being allowed in the kitchen this year to take Mom's place so Mom can play with all the grandbabies. It's nice to know those traditions will live on, because Miranda is expert at kitchen disasters.

Much love to all. Happy Thanksgiving.

Pictures of My Life

I don't have much of a life right now, what with working two jobs and trying to see my boyfriend once in a while. I try to take the opportunity to snap a cell phone picture every now and again to record what's happening. The first picture is from when I went to get my driver's license photo taken. Of course, they were closed the day I went, so my license doesn't look nearly that cute. I'll probably end up getting a new one soon with how often I move anyway.



I walked in my bedroom and saw Pearl cat hanging out in my windowsill. I have no idea why my window is her favorite.



This one is a little dark, but Jacob is mauling me instead of letting me watch the movie at his house.



James, Jacob, and I went out to breakfast a few weeks ago. I went with the strawberry waffle and was very pleased.



I went to the secondhand store with Jacob to buy some new jeans for work and ended up with five pairs of high end designer jeans for cheap. I was very happy with the results.



The view from James's apartment after we got 6 inches of snow on October 15th.



The view from the back porch at my house after the 6 inches of snow on October 15th.



A very large caterpillar I found while walking home from work one morning.

Worst Weekend

NWS: 6 inches of snow in some parts of Pa.

The Associated Press

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - An autumn stormed has dumped as much as six inches of snow in parts of northern Pennsylvania.

The National Weather Service says between five and six inches fell in State College, which set a record for earliest snowfall on record. The previous earliest snow there was one-tenth of an inch on Oct. 18, 1901.

On Friday morning, I woke at 2:00 a.m. to my bedroom in complete darkness. I had left my light on, and was wondering where it had gone. I got up an flipped the switch a few times, to no avail. A quick trip around the house showed than none of our lights were working, and a look out the window revealed an entire street with no light whatsoever. It had been snowing since 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, and was up to 3 inches in my neighborhood.

I was forced to shower for work in the dark, find clothes to wear by the dim light of my cell phone, and dig out my winter boots from the very back of the closet. Talking to everyone at work, the entire Park Forest neighborhood, where I live, was out of power. Those with electric water heaters weren't able to shower in the morning, and everyone was without heat. Hoping Allegheny Power would have everything up and working by the time I got home at 10:00 a.m., I wasn't terribly worried about things. The problems were far worse than I knew.

In Park Forest alone, two transformers had blown and one power line was down. In the Downtown area, next to the University, there was another transformer blown. Down Circleville Road, between Park Forest and Downtown, there was at least one more power line down and a possible blown transformer. All this was on the north end of town, and I still have not heard how badly the south end was hit.

I hid out at my boyfriend's apartment all day, because they still had power on the east side of town. They had heat and electricity and were able to open their refrigerator. My roommate sent me a text at 7:30 p.m. that said our power was back on. Unfortunately, there are still neighborhoods that don't have electricity. At least, as of bedtime Saturday there were still crews out trying to find and restore all the downed lines and blown transformers.

I bought a wool coat. It has snowed 6 inches in the middle of October, and I am miserable. I want to go back to the desert, please.

Chipmunks, Pumpkins, and Fall Festivities

What an exciting week! I don't really know where to start, so we will do this chronologically.

On Sunday morning, I was doing my normal groggy routine; wake up, stumble to the bathroom in the dark, do my bid-ness, hop in the shower. I got to the "hop in the shower" part, and my routine was severely thrown off track. When I reached down to turn on the water, something small and brown scuttled behind the curtain. "Oh, God!" I screamed and ran to the other side of the room. I inched back over to the tub and lifted the curtain ever so slightly. A small chipmunk shivered in the corner. I laughed, put on my robe, and went to ask Jamie what to do about him. She said to catch him with a blanket or towel. Armed with a fleece blanket and the desire to shower before work, I went to catch the chipmunk. He was just a little guy who couldn't even get back out of the tub. I chased him around and around with the blanket, trying to get him into a corner of a generally round tub. He skittled and scuttled, not wanting to be trapped. I finally got a firm hold on him and whisked him off to the back door. There are two cats living at my house, so I was very careful to close the door behind me. The second I released the little fella, Mr. Kitty appeared out of nowhere. I'm sure the neighbors think I am a crazy person, out on my deck in the early morning, wearing a robe, screaming at the cat and carrying on. Luckily, my chipmunk made it up a tree first. Mr. Kitty kept watch for ten minutes before getting bored and stalking after something else.

Don't know if I've said it before, but my roommate Hanna is on the Woman's National Rugby Team here at Penn State. Last Wednesday, she came home from practice with a swollen black eye. I hadn't seen her since, because she had the Big 10 Tournament over the weekend. She came home on crutches, but Penn State won so she is happy. The sprained ankle and black eye make her look like a battered girlfriend. Jacob likes to go out in public and tell people she talked back to him if they ask what happened.

Yesterday, Jacob came to my house with a giant pumpkin. Last year, we baked and pureed a pumpkin that gave us no less than 5 tupperware containers full of puree. It lasted us clear through December. I believe this gourd is larger than the last one. We got 5 and a quarter, but I don't think that is accurate. Once this pumpkin was out of the oven and semi-cool, my roommates, Jacob, and I started picking at it and eating with our fingers. Even with nothing on it or mixed in, it was the best tasting thing I have eaten in weeks. I snacked the entire time I pureed. Last year, we were using a blender and a spatula, in much the same way my dear mother used to do it. And in much the same way as my mother, I ended up getting the spatula caught in the blades and had to pick plastic chunks out of the puree. I am so happy to have my current roommate, Hanna, who came fully equipped with a food processor. Not only did it take a quarter of the time than with a blender, there was no need to push the pulp from the top to the bottom with a spatula. Between Hanna and me, we probably ate an entire container worth of pumpkin. After everything was pureed, we broke out her jar of raw honey and ate the quarter-container of pumpkin like it was our dessert after eating straight pumpkin for dinner. So delicious. Tonight, we feast on vegan pumpkin soup and pumpkin cake rolls. I feel like, with my roommates also cooking with this puree, this pumpkin will not last until December.

Special thanks to my crazy vegan sister, Leah, for helping me make more of my recipes vegan-friendly so I can feed my crazy vegan roommate, Hanna.

Labor Day Weekend

For Labor Day weekend, I was really hoping to go down to Pittsburgh to visit Chelcy and meet her new husband. Unfortunately, Chelcy has lost her cell phone telephone and did not check her internets until Saturday night. A bit too late to plan a weekend, I believe. Both of us are greatly disappointed. Jacob and James did their part to cheer up the whole event, though.

After I got off work on Saturday, the three of us made chili and watched the Penn State vs. who-cares-what-team-we're-playing game. Penn State totally dominated. I think our score was in the high 30's, and their score was 7.


Jacob has a great recipe, which he keeps to himself, for making chili. It's becoming sort of a game-day tradition for him to make. I help where I can, with the peeling or chopping.
James, for some reason, gets to watch the game while Jacob and I slave away in the kitchen. He kept flipping back and forth between the Penn State game and the Naval Academy game. Both his teams won, and he was happy.
It was rather odd to only have the three of us on a weekend. There was leftover food, there were things to drink, we could actually hear the game. I may be saddened if people start coming over to watch it at the boys' house.

On Sunday, Jacob decided we should drive the 40 miles down to Altoona to check out their shopping center. He wasn't quite sure what exit to take, as there are three exits. Needless to say, we ended up missing the one we wanted which happened to be the last one to Altoona. We took the next exit instead, but there ended up being nowhere to turn around and no other connection between the two highways. 20 minutes later, we found an exit that allowed us to turn around so we could get back to I-99, so we could take the exit to the mall. Quite an adventure.
After going through all the stores, I ended up with a belt and a new green sweater for the upcoming cold months. Jacob got a belt buckle, a jacket, and a new pair of shoes. On our way home, we decided to take the exit before our usual N. Atherton St exit, which is marked with a simple "Waddle." Assuming it meant Waddle Road, the road parallel to Atherton Street, we took the exit. 15 minutes and a winding road later, Jacob called James to figure out what road we were on and where we ended up. Turns out Waddle is also the name of a neighboring town. I had told Jacob at least three times that we should turn around and take the N. Atherton St exit. He was having a great time driving and was enjoying the road we were on, though. We ended up near Bellefonte, which is 15 miles away from State College. Another great adventure and a lot of fun.

On Monday, James decided to go to the Rothrock State Park. Neither of us has been, neither knew the way, but James knows the roads and the general directions. We were really hoping for a road sign to tell us where to turn to get there. Indeed, there was a sign, and we got onto a small gravel road which told us the picnic area and campgrounds were 6 miles away. 6 miles takes an awfully long time when the car is only traveling 15 mph. We eventually made it there, in one piece.

It was a lovely little spot, and we decided our friends need to go up and have an afternoon barbecue before the weather gets to cold. There was a sign for that, too. No alcohol. Maybe this isn't the place for all our friends.

We ended up near a small pond, and nowhere near the lake/reservoir on the map. It was cute and quiet and full of foresty charm. There was a beaten path that went a little way down the stream.James and I walked down the little path along the little stream. The quiet of the forest was only broken by my childlike squeals of delight at finding an entire nest of water-skeeters with more little bugs than I have ever seen in my life. I love water-skeeters.

The sign told us there is no camping allowed in the picnic area, but this spot is too perfect! There is a mossy bank protected by trees that was super soft and rock/branch/root free. I shake my fist at that sign and declare that I will pitch my tent on that bank someday.


We tried to walk the whole way around the pond, but the north end proved to be the water source and therefore very muddy. Instead, we walked halfway around. It started raining a bit while we were on the other side of the pond. Not wanting to be caught in the rain on a winding gravel road, our little adventure was cut short. Totally worth it, though.

Bring Him Home

As many of you may have heard, I received a free piano from a lady who was moving and didn't want to take it with her if her son was no longer going to play. She had received it free from an elementary school, so she passed it on in much the same way. It's missing some keys, pretty dinged up, old as the dirt itself, and in desperate need of a good tune. But it's mine, and I'm happy to have a piano.

This is for my mom.

Progress of the New Bedroom

I finally was able to locate an affordable secondhand bed on Craigslist, so I am no longer sleeping on the floor. My sister wanted a picture of the wall color with the comforter, so here it is in all it's glory. That may be a lie, because it is quite wrinkled from the move. I bought a 2 inch pillowtop mattress topper and two new pillows. I didn't realize how old, flat, lumpy, and just plain shabby my old pillows were until I put the new ones on. Laying on this bed is like sleeping in a spoonful of mashed potatoes. As my mom says, "Life can be wonderful sometimes. Today, it is. Soon, I will have furniture and will take pictures of the rest of the house... when it is clean...

As for me, I am off to bed to nap for a few hours until I go to work.

Painting the New Bedroom

A week ago, I moved into my new "apartment." Really, I am renting the corner bedroom of a house with three other girls my age. I took a big hit on space and privacy for lower rent. Instead of a private bathroom, I share one with two of the roommates. Instead of a private den, I hang out in the small all-purpose living room. Instead of a kitchen that could host a Broadway production, I am cooking on less counter space than my mom has in her kitchen. I sacrificed a lot, but it may be worth it because my landlord allowed me to paint my bedroom. Actually, my landlord vaguely encouraged me to paint the bedroom.

These pictures do no justice to the atrocity of the pink color of the room. My camera is packed somewhere at the bottom of a box, so I had to settle with my poor quality cell phone telephone pictures. The original color, and I don't know who in their right mind would paint a living space this color, was a very obnoxious Barbie pink. There is no way I will spend even a year of my life in a bedroom that color.




I wish I would have gotten actual before and after pictures. These were taken after I had already scrubbed the carpet and walls sterile. Apparently, one of the old roommates kept two dogs in this room and left their smell behind. The carpet was dingy, stained, and had a funky odor that I can't quite describe. First thing I did was scrub the carpet and wash the walls/ windows. That took care of the smell and the dingy feeling. Next, I chose a color at the hardware store, picked up some primer, grabbed a pint of white, and bought a painting kit. I took a stack of free newspaper from the bin on campus, because I neither wanted to buy anything to put down nor pay for replacing the carpet lest I paint all over it as well.




Even having the primer on the wall felt a lot better than that deplorable pink color. The room instantly felt twice the size with a brighter color. Not to mention, it looked three times more clean. I swear, I scrubbed as hard as I could with Pinesol and it never felt like I was getting anything off the walls.

This whole painting process would have gone a lot more quickly had I done everything linearly. I didn't have a solid weekend to just get it all done. I had to work, which greatly limited the time I had to hunker down. Fortunately, my roommates were really great about me leaving my mess in the living room while I tried to finish this project. They understood that it took me two coats of primer and two coats of paint just to disguise all traces of the old room.

Normally I reserve all shades of yellow as a kitchen color only, but had to make an exception this time. I wanted to match the paint to my comforter set, but the room is far too small to put up a blue or green. Yellow is the only other color in the comforter, so rather than risk a bad accenting color, I took the easy way out and went with a bright yellow. "Sun Burst" is the actual name. All things done, I'm very pleased with the way things turned out.




The only problem I have now is how dingy the rest of the house looks now that my bedroom is fresh and clean. I know I'm going to end up scrubbing carpets later this week. The hallway is disgusting. OCD OCD OCD OCD.

My new roommates are great. Night and day personalities compared to my old roommates, who were great as well. So far I'm liking this place, and Mr. Kitty has not yet begun to randomly attack me like so many other cats tend to do. If I could just find some cheap/free furniture, I would be set.

A haircut

As I was trying to sleep on Thursday night, my hair was tickling my back and shoulders and arms and neck and ears and face. I was going insane. Any time I brushed it off one area, it would start tickling another. When I woke up on Friday, I decided it was time to get rid of all the hair. After work, I walked over to Supercuts. I said to the lady, "I really don't know what I want, but cut it all off."

When I saw James, I didn't say anything. I wanted him to say something first. After an hour and increasingly obvious hints, he said, "I'd be an idiot if I didn't notice when you first walked in."
So frustrating.

But for some reason, I still love him.

Best Boyfriend Ever

James has taken a job for the rest of the summer in Philadelphia doing construction. When he weighed all the pros/cons, he decided it was better for him to leave town for another month this summer. Unfortunately, that means I have been once again abandoned in State College. All my friends have moved back with their parents or gone on internships, with the exception of very few. This time, James has also taken his car with him, leaving me confined to my bus route. It's not all bad, sometimes my bus stop on campus can be quite beautiful, case in point:
That's the bus stop on Shortlidge Road just south of the theatre I work at. Quite lovely on a sunny afternoon.

James was able to come home to visit me this past weekend, and it was beautiful. He at least feels badly about leaving me, as Philadelphia has it's own tribulations; an unpleasant roommate, long working hours, sleeping on a couch, etc. His puppy, Porter, went to visit him on Friday and made James very happy. Fortunately he still decided to drive down to see me on Saturday.

Like I said, James is feeling badly about leaving me again. He used his paycheck to take me on a sweet little date. We ate dinner at the Texas Roadhouse, which James loves due to the free rolls with cinnamon butter (unlimited, of course). Our waitress was very good and quite attentive. Our drinks were always filled, with one minor exception, rolls were always on our table, our food came to us hot and fresh, and our check and to-go boxes were given to us at the perfect time. We've had trouble with waitresses there before, including once when a girl forgot to take my order and I didn't see her again until she brought James his food. Positive experience this time, though. We talked a lot over dinner, laughed many times, and smiled always.

After dinner, we rented a couple movies. They went altogether unwatched, though, as James fell asleep on my couch not but five minutes into the first one. I had already seen it, and highly recommend the film to pretty much everyone. It's called "The Nines," and is an independent film made in 2007. It's three stories of an out of luck actor, a writer trying to launch a t.v. series, and a video game creator stuck in the forest with his wife and daughter. James ended up taking both movies with him so he can watch them in Philadelphia.

James had to leave rather early in the morning. He had to find a Radioshak that was open, because his dog chewed up his phone charger and ingested the specific adapter needed to plug his phone into it. No other place sells accessories for his obscure brand phone, so he had to rush up to his mom's house before the Radioshak there closed for the day.

It was a nice weekend while he was around. I miss my love, and can't wait for his next paycheck in two weeks so he can come visit me again. Exciting news, the rose plant he gave me has decided to stop trying to die on me and even has a beautiful yellow bud beginning to bloom. There are two other buds just starting, but they haven't opened yet. The herb garden he gave me is also taking off. Some of the herbs are finally big enough to start picking, and I ate like royalty today. Life is good.

Easter

James's sister, Katie, came to visit me for Easter Weekend. It was "Spring Break" at her high school, so she took the long weekend to hang out with James, me, our neighbor-friends, and relax away from her parents. I had to work, unfortunately, but they gave me bunny ears and I was delighted.

I am the sexiest Easter bunny known to man.


I tried to kiss James hello, and his reply was, "I don't want to have a picture of kissing. That's gross." For refusing to kiss me, James had to wear the bunny ears.


"But I do not want to be a bunny," he said.


I think he was a very cute bunny, though. His sister laughed at him, and for her punishment, she had to wear the ear. Not a happy bunny.


"I look gross today. Don't take a picture of me."

It wasn't the most exciting weekend, I am sure. We bowled and went to a movie, and I made lots of food. Katie just liked being out of the house and not having any rules. *There are no rules at my house.*

I'm getting more caught up on the pictures from my camera. I will have them all soon.

All-Nighter Project

These are some old pictures from Fall '08 semester. James had a project he was doing on the production curve versus something or another, and he chose to do his research on all-nighters for the College kid. Of course, he wanted to involve me in this and I got to spend an all-nighter in the computer lab with him. As you can clearly see, I was not happy. James wasn't exactly thrilled either.


We started out strong, actually doing homework and putting together presentations. It all went down from there. James was a-chuggin' those energy drinks to keep focused. I was not.
Right around the time the sleep deprivation kicked in, so did the junk food and the energy drinks. James was quickly tanking. His product-something-curve-versus-whatnot was doing exactly what he expected it to. I have no idea, because this was not my project.Energy drinks make James feel very sick. We know this; we knew this all along.

Sooner or later, he ended up just sleeping in the computer lab while I went on with my homework.
It's just one more typical all-nighter for two crazy college kid. Only, this time was for science, dang-it!

Lonesome

Lonely Factor: 4. I have scrubbed my shower and bathtub until they shine. Working on the bedroom.

Super Cute Date Night

Hello, my name is Natalie and I am a very attractive woman. Being a very attractive woman, I have attracted myself a very attractive man.

His name is James. A lot of times during the academic year, I don't get to see him very much because he is too busy with classes and Navy ROTC and studying and general school related stuffs. Even when I do get to see him, he is usually so tired and stressed and absent-minded that we don't get to spend much time together just being in love, as we should be. Well, James is finished with finals and out of school for the summer. To celebrate this and take a nice relaxing break, he and I gathered all the change in my spare change jar (which mostly belonged to him, anyway) and went on a super cute date together.

We started with bowling, in which he trumped me by at least 20 pins each game. We played four games total, and he hustled me in two of them, waiting until the last two or three frames to bowl straight strikes. What a bum.

After bowling, we headed to the local YMCA for their Friday Night rock climbing.
I had a lot of fun, because I grew up in the cliff filled canyons of southern Utah. I used to go rock climbing every weekend almost with Shantel, Oliver, Brad, and Dayve. James was a little hesitant to climb with me because he has never gone and wasn't sure he'd have any fun at all. The instructor started him out on the easy wall, and we worked our way up. I even tried one of the slanty walls that juts out backwards. I did not make it very far on account of these week girly arms.

The highlight of my night was the corner challenge. The corner where the two walls meet is fairly easy to climb, so the challenge is to go up it without putting one's hands on the grips at all. You are meant to palm your hands right against the wall and press into one foot while moving the other. The first time I tried, when I went climbing my my friend Jacob, I took a half hour to get from bottom to top and had to stop twice because I got too tired. This time, it only took me ten minutes, but I was just as tired at the end.

After our adventure in climbing, where James had way more fun than he thought he would, we went to the dollar movies and spent too much on consessions.

I was very delighted to have my boyfriend all to myself for one night, and we had a terrific time. But my heart still belongs to Shantel, apparently...