119/365: Summer Foods

Mmmm...fresh strawberries. Is there any other food that screams summer like fresh strawberries? Not to me. When I saw strawberries while I was grocery shopping, I knew I had to have some even if the temperatures are less than summer-like.

Once I sliced up the strawberries, I was really in a summery mood and remembered I had pico de gallo in the fridge. Pico is another one of my favorite summer foods. I love all of the crisp flavors. It's pretty much all of my favorite vegetables all together.

Then I made the perfect summer drink: chai iced tea. which I am currently drinking.

Ahhh . . . what a great afternoon.

118/365: No More Mart

Seth sent me this text a week ago, but I couldn't say anything until today when it became official. Seth is the new on-air personality for a local radio station. We are beyond excited as 1) this job means we are officially mart free, 2) it's full time, and 3) weekends off.

The timing is perfect since he will start the same day I start my internship. We are both beyond excited for this new stage in our lives.

117/365: Ugly Dip

All I could think about on the ride home was ugly dip. I don't know what it is, but finals time makes me crave comfort foods. Ugly dip was the comfort food of choice. I definitely knew I was in comfort food mode when I went shopping for ugly dip materials and came home with ramen as well.

116/365: Instagram

I have been jealous of iPhone and 4th generation iPod owners primarily because of the Instagram App.

 Trust me, there are tons of other reasons I want an iPhone, and this is just one of the more important ones.

Let me just say I was ELATED yesterday when I discovered that I could take screenshots. That meant I could go ahead and take pictures of stuff with my iPod and edit them on instagram. My username on there is writinginpencil, but all I've posted are edited engagement photos that I could use as a profile picture.

Once I become an iPhone owner, watch out Instagram: I will overwhelm you with the number of photos I take.

115/365: Screen Shot

This post could be alternately titled, I basically think I am a technological guru now.

I realize that people have known how to take screen shots forever, how else would there be a website like DYAC?

With that, please check out DYAC. But not if you are somewhere that would discourage laughter.

114/365: Happy Easter

Happy Easter.

Christ has risen from the dead. Trampling over death by death.

113/365: Fresh Air

I love that it is actually warm enough today to open the windows.

112/365: Felix the Cat

My neighbors have a cat, whom they named Felix. I fed Felix today.

111/365: A Creamer Revolution

I've professed my love for a good coffee creamer before and this is my current favorite. La Crème.

Note: If you would like to continue enjoying any other creamer you may currently be using, stop reading here!

I don't remember how I ended up stumbling onto the La Crème website, but there I found the ugly truth about most coffee creamers out there.

Last chance to turn back before your coffee connoisseur-ing world is changed forever.




Please make this decision with great deliberation. 






I am telling you what I found has changed my coffee drinking forever.
















As it turns out most coffee creamer is just a bunch of hydrogenated oils or something or  other and is filled with trans fats. In hindsight this actually makes a lot of sense. It does say right on the bottle that it is non-dairy, so what else could it be?

I was pretty much horrified at the thought of drinking oils so I decided on the spot I was changing my ways. Unfortunately, there aren't many stores that carry La Crème, but on the bright side it is very affordable and I feel much better about what I am putting into my body.

On a final note, they only have four flavors. I tried hazelnut first and it was not great. The cinnamon vanilla is awesome though! I can't remember what the other two flavors are at the moment.

110/365: Beer of the Root Variety

Seth and I have been big fans of root beer lately. I do not know why. We just are. Don't judge.

These are our two favorites. They can be found at Friar Tuck. For those who live in central Illinois I recommend the Bloomington store over the Springfield store. Yes, we went to Friar Tuck and bought root beer.

Windy City Soda is my preferred brand -- it's very sweet and tastes like a mix of root beer and cream soda. I highly recommend it. Thomas Kemper is Seth's preferred root beer. It is a much stronger tasting root beer.

Thomas Kemper does score points for their labeling, though.

Becoming An Adult

Even though I am married and live on my own and am financially independent (so to speak) I still have moments where I do not feel like I am really an adult. Honestly, the moments I feel like an adult are rarer than the moments I do not.

Later today I am going to a visitation for the father of one of my friends. I don't know either one of her parents. I know that her dad had some type of cancer and that it this wasn't a total surprise.

When Seth told me last night that he had died, in that instant I felt about ten years older. I knew instantly that we had to go and support our friend. I think the last time I went to a visitation was five years ago when a girl I went to high school with was tragically killed in a car accident. That was different though, we all realized we were far too young to be attending the funeral of one of our peers. We knew that it wasn't natural or normal for people so young to die and we were all still kids, having just graduated from high school a few months earlier.

This time, it's not a peer, it's the father of a friend. Instead of making me realize the fragility of my own life, it makes me realize that this is part of becoming an adult, part of getting older.

I can't help but be reminded of how my own mom died from leukemia almost fourteen years ago. I can't help but remember how alone I felt when none of my friends came to the visitation. I can't help but think of how their silence around me was so offensive to me. I can't help but think that I don't want any friend of mine to have to go through that.

I instinctively wanted to go to the visitation when I heard the news. And that is how I know I am growing up. Instead of having an internal battle with myself, I just knew I had to go and there was nothing more to think about. I know it will be awkward and uncomfortable, but my decision has been made. I know that I need to go because there's a hurting person who is probably hoping that her friends will show up, if for no other reason than to take her mind off of all the hurt she is surrounded by.

109/365: Live & Learn

Unfortunately, these did not taste as good as they look. 

They were burnt on the bottom. Such a cruel world we live in.

Stupid oven with the numbers worn off of the temperature dial.

Live and learn, live and learn.

108/365: Big Red

In just a few short weeks my contract with AT&T will be no more. It is so weird to be old enough to have my own phone contract, let alone actually stick with it the entire contract. Anyway, I could renew but it's in my maiden name, and it's kind of weird to consistently get mail with the wrong name on it.

Speaking of marriage, I'm married to a man who is obsessed with gadgets of the electronic variety. He's been scoping out all of the different phones that are out there and knows exactly what he wants. Not only that, but he knows the ins and outs of every phone contract that has ever existed.

This is why we are moving over to Big Red, Verizon, the wireless company that Rules the Air. We've been set on getting smart phones for quite a while, which requires a data plan. Verizon still offers an unlimited data plan. Also, there isn't the necessity for an unlimited texting package because when we buy one of the smaller ones we get unlimited texting to any Verizon customer, which is pretty awesome since most of my family is with Verizon and many of my friends too.

107/365: The Changing of Seasons

Today I decided it was time to switch out my cold weather clothes for warm weather clothes. Despite the fact that the high for this week is 50° or some ridiculously low number.

When will Mother Nature get the memo that it is the middle of April for crying out loud?!

I didn't let Mother Nature stop my motivation to organize the closet and switch out clothes though. The pile on the right are clothes that are strictly for summer, like swimsuits and shorts. The pile on the left is getting donated. Pretty much everything in that pile I haven't worn in years and all of it is in really good condition. 

And then there is my still sad bamboo way off to the far left. Here's hoping he/she/it can be nursed back to life.

106/365: Neglect

My name is Jessica and I am a neglectful plant owner. Here is the proof:

I can't remember the last time I watered my poor bamboo. Please don't call DCFS on me. I promise it was a mistake.

105/365: FIRE!

This morning started out with a bang. Well, to be more correct it started out with surges of electricity.


Seth got up and I was still laying in bed. This is what I hear: really, really strong gusts of wind, random "grinding" noises, and people outside talking. I was tuning most of it out until I heard these two words: electrical fire. The first thing I saw when I looked out my window was my landlord running away from the building and talking about sparks. Then everyone who was there (except for the firefighters, of course) kept saying someone needs to call the fire department. Funny thing is- none of them were calling.

Well, I guess since the fire department is two blocks away, they must have heard the commotion and decided to come on over. Actually, I knew the second that the call had been made because I immediately heard the siren. There wasn't the typical siren wailing though because it took them all of ten seconds to get here.

The most humorous thing was after four firefighters went into the basement, our landlord follows them in. Seriously? If four firefighters can't handle it, I'm not going to follow behind. What was alarming was that the building could go up in flames at any minute and our landlord wasn't doing a darn thing to notify us.

Turns out there was a lot of electricity coming into the basement of the building we live in and the power had nowhere to go, hence the sparks and smoke. Apparently an electrician came by later to rectify the matter, but I still won't be surprised if when the building goes up in flames.

Mental Disorders

Currently, I think I meet the criteria for more than one diagnosis in the DSM-IV-TR.

Off the top of my head I am sure I meet almost all of the criteria for two. Almost.

The good news is all of my symptoms will disappear in exactly one month.

The day I take my last final. Ever. (I hope.)

But for now, Microsoft Office is my (only) friend and sadly my camera is not.

I don't know why each sentence is it's own paragraph. (Perhaps I'm a little OCD?)

Anyhow, I'm taking a break from project 365 and from blogging. Unless I get really stressed and need to vent.

98/365: Townie, Part 2

As if I needed further proof that I was becoming a townie, I give you this.

Church. Directory. Photos.

Today, Seth and I got portraits done for the church directory. Which I think is a good indication that we are probably going to stick around awhile.

97/365: Official

Remember how I questioned if I had truly been accepted in Alpha Delta Mu?

Today, my proof arrived in the mail. An official acceptance letter.

And an official invitation to the School of Social Work's award ceremony.

96/365: A Triumph of the Human Spirit

Today almost got me down. I had a massive headache early in the afternoon. I realized that the headache was likely brought on by the lack of caffeine I had consumed (none). I had some extra time before I caught the bus, so I did what any caffeine-desperate person would do: I bought coffee.

Moments after leaving Espresso Royale I realized that I probably should have used the restroom. Coffee is a diuretic and I had over two hours to spend in vehicles, and more importantly, not near a toilet.

I am committed to conserving fuel (because I am poor, not because I am green), so I refused to drive faster than 55 mph or to stop. Although, I must say, stops are few and far between.


So there I was on Route 10, driving slow as molasses and about to pee my pants.

Was that too much information?

Sorry.

I am here to report that I triumphed. I made it home! I even had coffee left because I realized that if I continued to drink it was only going to make my predicament worse. Double triumph: I didn't wet myself and I was able to make my boughten coffee last a very long time.

The Problem With Advising

Is that I don't feel like I am being advised.

I barely know my advisor and I am quite sure that if she saw me outside of our advising appointments, she wouldn't know me from Adam.

Well....she might know me from Adam, but not from Eve.

I have been in her office the grand total of two times, totaling less than thirty minutes altogether. I must say I am really disappointed. I found my advising relationship to be very helpful when I was an undergrad.

Of course, graduate students are probably expected to have their act together and not need advising in the same sense that undergrads do. I guess my big beef with the system is that I can't use my advisor as a resource because she doesn't even know who I am. Unfortunately, I don't even have classes with her. Most of my classes are with adjunct professors who teach only a class here and there.

The two advising appointments I did have were simply another step in the process of registration. Since I did my program so quickly, I don't have many choices about what classes to take. Since the program is stuffed to the gills I didn't have much choice about what section of classes I could be in either. I just prayed that I was able to get into all of my classes without having a conflict, let alone actually trying to plan the ideal schedule.

All I have left is the internship, so my meeting today was nothing more than her signing a piece of paper and me going on my merry way.

And of course, the obligatory "good luck."

95/365: Lists

I'd be lost without lists. Lists give me direction.

Lists make me feel accomplished. Lists also make me feel overwhelmed.

It's a love-hate relationship.

94/365: Carpal Tunnel

My poor wrist has been aching nonstop since saturday. I've noticed that it happens right after midterms and lasts until finals are over. I have about ten minutes of relief every morning before it begins to ache again.

Typing, incidentally, is not very helpful to the aching of my wrist.

Even when I am doing absolutely nothing, like driving to school my wrist hurts. I have tried like every possible position that my wrist can be in and nothing helps. Any other time I would be more than happy to oblige and cease all typing for a week. From midterms through finals this is not an option. Not. An. Option. I've got to write papers! And blog!

93/365: Schmixer Mixer

I have been plotting about how to get my hands on a KitchenAid Stand Mixer. Everyone swears by them. They last forever. They also cost A LOT of money. Which is why I don't have one.

No more. My grandma gave me hers. I didn't even know she had one. Turns out they weigh a ton and she only used her once because it was so bulky and difficult for her to maneuver by herself.

Of course, this thing is ginormus and takes up literally half of my kitchen counter.

It's totally worth it though. It saved me a ton of money and maybe it will just mysteriously pass on some of her cooking skills to me.

Sounds like a plan.

92/365: Matchy Matchy

After only seven months of marriage, Seth and I have reached a new threshold of marriage....matching shoes. Must be true love.

91/365: Uncle Seth

Uncle Seth.

The man who in one breath claims he hates babies and in the next says that babies are the cutest beings on earth. The one who says, "what a cute little tongue." Or, "look at those cute little fingers."

Ah, Uncle Seth. He's a fickle man. He has baby fever, he just doesn't know it. Yet.