Sunday, February 26, 2006

In my mind...

...I'm going to Carolina?

I visited NCSU (what we will call "State") and UNC-Chapel Hill (or, "Carolina") this weekend. It made me more excited about grad school. I drove the three hours to Raleigh and met with the director of the Public History program at State, then two current students showed me around and talked for a long time, which was great. I liked the school and the area seems nice. I learned that I will basically go to State for two years to get my history degree, then spend the third year over at Chapel Hill for the library degree.

I spent Friday night with my friend Allison from college. She goes to Duke. It was fun to see her apartment and get excited for one of my own in the area soon. And she took me to this amazing market/restaurant/cafe/wine store called Foster's that I will want to visit again. I had French toast with apples and walnuts.

I also went and impulsively got a haircut in Chapel Hill Saturday morning. Locks of Love is going to get all of my hair, because it's short now.

Finally, I must begin to prepare myself to be a member of the Wolf Pack and get excited about sports. Things are pretty intense down there I think, and I should probably try not to miss out on all the fun.

Southside Fun

Saturday after I got back from Raleigh Justin took me out for exciting times South of the James. First we had barbecue and beer at this random but good place off of Genito (I think?) and then we went bowling. I always like bowling. I think I am also slightly good at it for a girl. I hate to qualify it this way, but whenever I'm in mixed groups I always beat the other girls but maybe not all of the boys. This time I did beat the boy though. All four games. And once he even got four strikes in a row, which I was totally impressed by, but which was apparently not good enough to beat my amazing score.

Also, we played Ms. Packman. I love her. It brought back all of my Nintendo memories. Justin said I beat him at this, too, but he had never played it before so I will not boast.

Monday, February 20, 2006

Some Updates

First I will update you on the chocolate milk situation. I have gotten through most of the gross packets in the variety pack, so that is good. I think there is only one chocolate malt left. My parents did send some more in a nice little Valentine package. However, even though my dad went to Sam's Club and bought a whole box of 20 packets my mom forgot to actually include those and only sent the NINE packets that she found lying around the house from my last visit. I will forgive her though.

Next I will tell you about my grad school status. So far all the news has been good, but I still have a couple programs to hear from. I'm pretty sure I will end up in North Carolina. I will get a Library degree from UNC Chapel Hill and a Public History degree from NCSU. I'm going down there this weekend to meet with a professor about the program, and to simply check out the schools since I've never been there before.

And finally, I must tell you that my guinea pig at home has died. I can't tell you exactly when he died. Apparently my family let him sit dead in his cage for a while before they decided to investigate the foul odor emanating from his cold and stiff little body. Poor Bear.

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

A Truth About Me

I am going to let you in on a little truth about me. Some might think it embarrassing, but I quite frankly do not, or I wouldn't be posting this. I drink Carnation Instant Breakfast's chocolate milk for breakfast most days of the week, and I have done so for many, many years. I love it. You take a packet of powder, pour it in a tall glass, add some milk, stir, and drink. Growing up my parents told me I couldn't have it every day, so I had it on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, usually without fail. If we were ever out of milk I was crushed, and had to scramble to find something else to eat. Even worse, if we were out of the chocolate milk it could be days before my parents got to the store and actually remembered it for me. And perhaps even worse than that, I hate to say it, was when they brought home the variety pack. I hated the variety pack. Variety packs meant drinking gross flavors like malted chocolate and vanilla, and they meant it would be a few weeks before a box of pure milk chocolate would come because a. I drank the variety packs more slowly and b. my parents said I had to finish them before they would buy any more. It was awful.

When I went to college my chocolate milk drinking days didn't end. Even in my dorm room I always had a quart of skim milk to mix myself a drink in the morning. And if I was ever out of milk I would simply take my packet down to the SUB and buy two pints of milk to go with it. I would mix it up and drink it with a straw on my way to class.

Sophomore year my girlfriends and I always made each other birthday cakes that were uniquely decorated for the honoree. For example, Amy's had a cactus on it, since she collected cactuses, or cacti. Jamie's was decorated to look like a big animal cell, with a huge jawbreaker for the nucleus, because she loved being a biology major. Well when my birthday came I was honestly a little worried that they wouldn't think of something exciting to put on my cake. I couldn't think of anything good that was unique to me. I'm sure you all know where this is going. Let me tell you how excited I was to see my cake, decorated exactly like a Carnation Instant Breakfast box. It was the perfect shade of yellow and instead of "Breakfast" running across the front it said "Birthday." I loved it. I thought it was beautiful. And technically it was because Melissa did an excellent job with it.

Now let me tell you the part I have left out of this story so far. To this day, I have my parents buy me my chocolate milk. If you don't know, they live many states away from me. They get it at Sam's Club because you can get the big box with 20 packets and it's a lot less expensive than at the grocery store. So they buy it and send it to me, or if I happen to be visiting home I will stuff two boxes worth into my luggage. "Don't we have Sam's Club here in Richmond?" you ask. And the answer is yes, we do, but I don't have a membership and neither do my grandparents. I searched high and low in Costco once, but couldn't find it. But let's be honest. Somewhere deep inside me I like relying on my parents to provide my favorite breakfast drink, as they have done for my entire life. I don't mind asking, and I think they secretly like it as well.

Well this afternoon I walked into the pantry. I looked up, and there I saw something I've never seen before. It was a box of Carnation Instant Breakfast, but it was the normal kind from the grocery store, AND they have changed the box. It's a different size. My grandparents really do love me, because they noticed I was low and went ahead and got me some. The unfortunate part, however, is they got the variety pack. And you know how I feel about those. I am still grateful though, and will try to drink the malted chocolate and vanilla with a smile.

But parents, if you're reading, please don't forget to send more! Thanks!

Monday, February 06, 2006

My Weekend

It was a pretty good weekend I would say. On Friday I learned that I got into a grad school, so I don't have to make cappuccinos for the rest of my life. Then on Friday night Justin took me to Zuppa's, where I got a delicious grilled cheese sandwich and some black bean soup. Sometimes I have trouble resisting black bean soup.
Saturday Justin and I went to DC with James and Jennifer to see Damn Yankees. It's a musical, and if you didn't already know, I really love musicals. My favorite part was at the begining when all the husbands were dancing around with colorful TVs.
After the show we headed to Chinatown to look for the restaurant my Grandpa recommended as having the best Chinese food he's had outside of China. And he's been to China. His instructions were something like "Find the big Chinese gate that goes over the street, go a block, turn on a side street, and look for the Chinese man making noodles." For some starving theater-goers who were unsure about the hazy directions, we were pretty darned excited when we really did see the affectionately named Noodle Man. We had some of his fresh noodles with seafood, which was amazing, though I'll admit I'm glad I didn't end up with one of the little whole squids on my plate. Those things scare me.
Sunday I watched the Extra Large Super Bowl. I was going for the Seahawks, out of my loyalty to Seattle and the Pacific Northwest, but let's me honest, I don't really care about football and I therefore was not torn apart when they lost. I will, however, say that I hated the Full Throttle and Blockbuster commercials.