Recently

Spring is a funny time of the year.

Scattered around my room I have both tank tops and scarves--and not those flimsy fashion ones, either, but more like those of the "do you have a torso behind that chunky knit?" variety. New England, you cray.

In other more noteworthy news, I can't get enough of this video & song lately.

The end with the NYC Ballet kills me every time and had me dancing around my room and then scurrying off to The Google to check out adult beginner ballet classes. Maybe someday, Clumsy.

The only part of their dancing that mine remotely resembles is that scarecrow move (technical term) they have going on at 4:13. My dancing generally goes something more like this:

but less coordinated and graceful than Michelle and Jimmy.

Perhaps the only redeeming quality of my general clumsiness and lack of coordination is that I figure it will someday embarrass any and all pride out of my hypothetical future children. We're pretty certain these are hereditary traits, so for their sake I hope my future spouse does not contain an ounce of klutzy. You'd better hope so too, hypothetical kiddos, or you'll be living a life marred by tripping up stairs, in front of large groups of strangers, and while standing still (stilllll not sure entirely sure how that one happened).

Still reading? Weird.

Fist-bump,
C

April Showers...

Image via (although not sure that's the original source).

...would be a freaking blessing at this point. Bring on the rain, I say! It's approximately fifteen thousand times more welcome than the blizzard/mud-slushy/blizzard/freezing rain rotation we've had going on for the last several eternities.

Although I must say Mama N is being especially kind because yesterday the forecast was calling for more frozennasty and--shock of all shocks--I was not being a Negative Nell even though a little bit of my soul died. Nothing but toothy-grin-and-bear-it over here. Are you confused? It was weird for me too.  The universe rewarded me! It's actually sunny(ish) today! And I just checked in with The weather.com and all frozen precipitation is gone from the forecast for at least five days! Hallelujah!
Perhaps hallelujahs during holy week should be reserved for...less important things. I'd say this turn of a weather forecast is a miracle, though. Too far? Thought not.

Sunny smiles,
Chey

Friends of the Imaginary Variety

I have devoted the last month or so of my life to writing a paper (basically a glorified research proposal...with no intent of actually conducting said research. win-win?) about children with imaginary companions. 

You read that correctly.

I have thee best major. The absolute best. My BCF+E (best cousin forever + ever, try to stay with it bloglings) Mich and I spent the first twenty minutes of our most recent skype sesh exuberantly discussing our  respective discoveries of certain research methods. The jury's still out on whether we are progressing or regressing from our normal routine of making weird faces at each other for a full hour. Still not sure why I'm still single.

To be fair

I came across this genius procedure 

where the child invites his or her imaginary companion to come into the lab

via toy phone. 

I would fully expect those kiddos to be not at all into it

but according to numerous studies, they are all business. 

In one instance, the researcher had to sit there waiting for eight minutes

because the imaginary friend was "coming from across town."

Eight full minutes,

can you imagine?

I hope to someday bask in the glory of a kid that awesome.

When I recently met with my professor to talk about this particular project he said, 

"So at this point you're more of an expert on imaginary companions than I am."

I managed to hold back my snort-laugh

and my comment about being thisclose to developing one of my very own

and just chuckled instead.

My life's a party.

And for those of you who were looking for a little treat, you're in luck! Who can think of imaginary companions without thinking of this little one? What's that? You never watched 7th Heaven? I don't know how you missed out on such high quality writing and acting. Much like this blog, it was the top of the top...of something. Lorrie and I once watched through the better portion of the first season in one week. Only because of its addictive qualities. And because we had to see if there was a single episode that did not conclude with Eric crying. As far as we can tell, that would be a big giant no.

If you'd like to waste less of your time, you can skip ahead to 0:35.
Regardless, you're also probably going to want to turn the volume waaay down.

Grin,
C

Technology Tuesday* Vol. 2

Sixteen hour days that conclude with battle with technology are my favorite. I just spent more time that I care to think about battling with two separate word processors in an attempt to correctly format a paper. Perfectionist who?

Technology won. I gave up and submitted it as is. Merry senior year, Cheryl.

My standards just keep going up.

Drain bread,
C

*I'm aware that it's not quite yet Tuesday. But Technology Monday just isn't happening. In more ways than one.

Birthd-hey

My birthday was a couple weeks ago and lucky me got to be with the fam because I was on break (my! last! one! ever!) from school. I awoke to sn*w. Curses. I probably cried. And by probably, I mean I absolutely did. Thrice. It's my birthday and I'll cry if I want to. After a little shoveling sesh and some frustrated storming about the house, I got over it. maybe. the jury's still out on that one. don't ask my mom about it because she probably wouldn't have nice things to say.

The day got exponentially better when we went out to dinner. Why? Other than the obvious. (food, duh. I know this blog is always super life-changing/profound/insightful but I really hope I don't insult your intelligence that much). I got to meet my long-lost surrogate cousin for the first time! What's that? You don't have one of those? weird.

All I can say is that it's a good thing she doesn't take first impressions too seriously because we actually first met via skype about a year ago. My best cousin Mich and I were in the middle of one of our marathon skype sessions in which we partake in your standard video chat activities such as making weird faces Quick, imitate a giraffe/komodo dragon hybrid! with accompanying weird noises. About forty-five minutes into our usual notatallstrange routine, she started talking to someone out of the frame.

"Oh, is your mom there?" My aunt knows just how normal the two of us are, but still.

"Oh, no, Kelly's here." Oh, good. 45 minutes of making weird faces and noises to introduce me to your BFF. No, that's not a bad idea at all.

Although inviting a near-stranger do they count as strangers if they are bffs with your best cousin and have met your entire extended family?  go with me on this one to partake in your birthday festivities is on the riskier side of risky, we fortunately hit it off at least I thought so. let's hope the feeling was mutual and she wasn't being nice solely on account of the whole birthday thing which was good because a bad second impression would have been a surefire disaster. Sitting here wondering why it took us eight years to finally meet in the flesh. Watch yo'self, Mich. I'mma steal yo' bestie. 

As you can see, we took lots and lots of pictures to document such a momentous occasion. I'm just such a great photographer. and blogger. and long-lost surrogate cousin.

That's all, I suppose.
C

Eff

Eight to thirteen inches of snow in the next 24 hours? Hadn't really been paying much attention to the forecast, but overheard that and got a little bit lightheaded. nononononooooo. No. stopit. I was blissfully unaware and welcoming the slightly above freezing temps, waltzing around and shunning off hats for the rest of the year like it ain't no thang. I'm not wearing another hat until at least December. Don't make me regret this, Mother Nature.

Mama N, you have two days--two days--to get your ish together for spring. I expect t-shirt weather and leaves on trees. Make it happen.

Stern look,
C

Community Conversations

These conversations are probably definitely only amusing to me, but these gems crop up too frequently for me to not document somewhere. Most of them occur in the context of my super classy and wonderful community, hence the incredibly cryptic title. {quick, go find your decoder ring! make haste, make haste!*}

***

My friend and pastor recently mentioned that upon seeing that people are dressed waaaay down on Sundays, new people at our church frequently claim
"This is just like my church back in Alabama!"
His response? (Every time) 
{Big smile} "F#ck yeah, Jesus!"

We're a classy, classy bunch.

***

We've been gathering every day during Lent from 7-8 in the a.m. to pray. Usually we start with twenty minutes of silence to pray or meditate or to sometimes drift off to sleep. what? Around the third or fourth day of this, I suddenly turned into a twelve year-old girl and was overcome with an inexplicable and uncontrollable case of the giggles. And then it became A Thing. As in, every morning I disrupt everyone's peaceful twenty minutes of silence with my twenty minutes of stifled laughter. Today was particularly bad. After about four failed attempts at being silent, my friend Eric interrupted with this goldmine 

Eric: Just out of curiosity, are you laughing at the pipes banging?
Chey: Nope. I'm actually not laughing about anything even remotely funny.
Eric: Okay  l o n g  p a u s e  because I always imagine cockroaches banging on the pipes like they are playing a giant xylophone.

At that point, pretty much all hope of taking our silent time even slightly seriously was lost. And for once that was not my fault. 

I will now never not think of that when I hear pipes making a racket in old buildings.

***

I was looking at an apartment** with a few of my friends. We were pretty excited about it because some of our other friends live on the third floor of this particular house. Our neighborhood consists largely of old triple-decker victorian homes in which more or less each floor is a separate apartment. In our neighborhood, there are two houses that our community have completely taken over. A commune, if you will. only less hippie-ish? maybe not. Basically they are entirely leased out by people in our community. Community living at its finest. Anyways. We were pretty stoked about potentially starting another one. Let's see how many more times I can use the word "community" in one paragraph. 

Riah: Oh, I think we actually met you before! At Scout's*** first birthday party!

Landlord (who happens to live on the first floor): Oh, I seem to remember something about walking outside and being really confused by a dog piñata. 

Ash: Haha, yeah, we're pretty excited to live in community like this. There are two other houses around here where we've sort of taken over.

Sarah: Communes, basically.

Landlord: p a u s e Just no animal sacrifices in the kitchen.

Noted. We'll be sure to perform those outside. 

I love these people.

C


*A la Mr. Collins. If you do not understand that reference, I don't know that we can be friends anymore. 
** There is actually a decent chance that I will not be living here and instead will be living overseas for a year. Exclamation points!! Future plans! Excitement! That I can't quite talk about here yet because internet jinxing is a real thing.
***Scout the cat. Any reason for a party around here.

Technology Tuesday*

My grandpa is super tech-savvy. He had an iPod while I was still figuring out that I didn't have to flip  over my cd to hear the rest of the music. He has all sorts of gadgets and knows all about the latest and greatest while the rest of us are still bumbling around trying to keep up with the jargon.

The Social Media, on the other hand, is an entirely different story. I fully appreciate that he has succumbed to The Facebook. I also fully appreciate that he uses it solely to stalk us. He has it set so that anytime we do anything--a n y t h i n g--on the 'book he gets an email. Some folks might get their undies in a bundle over such a development, but I think we allllll would benefit if everyone had a grandparent keeping such tabs. not that I would otherwise post anything scando on the 'book, because yikes. ha. like I do anything  worthy of being deemed scandalous. what's that? you're crocheting up a storm before hitting the hay at the latelate hour of 10 after a night out drinking tea with your gal pals? betta watch yaself, you're going to be the talk of the town tomorrow! 

One of the special benefits of such an arrangement is that we get to discuss the always thrilling details of my social life, as self-conveyed via the blackest of black internet holes (sometimes weeks after the fact if I'm extra lucky)! We get to have fun telephone conversations, like the following:

(on my birthday)

Grandpa: So, I'm looking at your facebook page.

Cheryl: Oh, yeah?

Grandpa: Yes. l o n g  p a u s e heh heh. Interesting.

Cheryl: ????

or all-time my personal fave from last September.

Thee best fast-food burrito joint in all of the land had a college night in which they offered up a free burrito that contained enough matter to sustain a family of four for several days to anyone with a  valid college i.d. YES. Ari and I took full advantage of that. and then the following occurred.

profound well-written Facebook posts, always.

much like this blog.

Fast forward to three weeks later.

Grandma calls, and while we're catching up, Grandpa starts saying something in the background. I could hear Grandma roll her eyes as she said, "I don't know, you ask her." 

There was a lot of hustle-and-bustle going on during the phone transfer. And then this gem.

Grandpa: How's Leo doing?

Cheryl: What?

Grandpa: Leo. How's Leo doing?

Cheryl: What are you talking about? I don't know anyone named Leo.

Grandpa: Oh, is that not what it's called?

Cheryl: ....huh?

Grandpa: That restaurant with the free stuff.

Ladies and gentl Lady (once again, record-breaking readership over here. this blog is the most popular), my grandfather just asked me about my food baby. Three weeks after the fact. 

Be jealous.

Warmest of regards,

C

*I am aware that today is Thursday. But Technology Thursday doesn't have quite the same charm. Deal with it in your heart.

Spring Breeeaaak!

So far I've been making maple syrup! From the giant sugar maple in my parents' backyard! Exclamation points! If we're being honest with ourselves, what this really amounts to is watching pots boil for days on end. Glamorous. I'm such a party animal.

This has been my view:

 For days and days and days.

This house smells amazing.

This is the end result of one batch.
We're not entirely sure why these turned out so light in color.
Hopefully it's just that it was early in the season?
...and not something bad?
Time will tell.
We live dangerously.

Other activities (just in case you aren't thoroughly convinced of my party animal status) have included family rivalry in the form of recreational hockey* and most of all wasting my life on the internet. shameful.  

College, you're so good to me. 

Especially when I have four day weekends, every weekend. Yes. (and three five-days weekends in a row thrown in there at the beginning of the semester. yes, you read that correctly). Go ahead and judge me for not contributing to society. I certainly do. doesn't mean I'm also not going to enjoy it while it lasts... 

Hope your life's as much of a party as mine!

xo,

C

P.S. If you happen to be of college age, or a college professor, or some other profession where you happen to get a spring break (?? tell me your secrets) and happened to go somewhere (or live somewhere?) where the sun doesn't shun you, I don't want hear about it. Unless you're willing to fly me to whatever warm locale where you currently reside. Please and thank you.

*Dad's team creamed my brother's team, in case you were extra bored and wondering. It has been the talk of the household this week.

Peanut Butter Cups

I succumbed to The Pinterest this summer after staying with my friend Joy for a week. Girlfriend is an addict, and she got me hooked. Sort of. Fear not, unlike blog reading, I am in no way addicted and usually forget it exists.  As I'm on my (last! ever!) spring break (which means that I'm bumming it at my parents' house, with their niiicely stocked pantry, and have ample amounts of time to do...nothing) I decided to try out some recipes (for desserts, duh) that I had been stockpiling there for just such an occasion.

YOU GUYS.

These are SO SIMPLE. AND DELICIOUS.  annnnd my parents had all of the ingredients on hand (let's be real... I avoid the grocery store like Michael Scott avoids working). Actually, they didn't have sea salt*, so I substituted coarse kosher salt. Sorry for shouting at you. I just get a leeetle bit tooexcited when chocolate is involved.

Yes, those are Christmas muffin tin liners. From 1981. I exaggerateth not.

I think I'm going to try another pb cup recipe this week.** Because, do I really need a reason?

Yoouuuu're welcome,

C

*One time (in my middle school days? I don't even really remember when...) a teacher (probably an earth science one) told us that sea salt get its flavor from...pollution. Not 100% sure this is true but it has basically ruined sea salt for me forever.

**Update: tried them. Loved them more than the first recipe and the fam agreed. So much so that there is no photographic evidence that they were ever in existence in this house.

Mitch the Microwave

We have a microwave. It has been dubbed Mitch. That's all you really need to know.

We're generally not in the habit of naming appliances, but the microwave has just a dab too much personality (beeping loudly and obnoxiously at obnoxious intervals "and there's nothing you can do to stop me!", not heating food up until it's allofasudden third-degree-burn hot, etc. etc.) to avoid it. But, Mitch mostly functions as intended so we can't be too mad about his... less attractive traits.

The toaster oven is another story entirely. It could also be called names, but none of them are PG. That tends to be the case when you nearly catch the home on fire. Thrice. side eye.

Me vs. Winter, part zillion and three

For my birthday subtle, Cheryl today Mother Nature decided to gift us with a nice snowstorm. That B. We had two whole days where it was starting to look like spring was coming and in one fell swoop, we're back to everything being covered in frozennasty.

I would like to curl up in a hole and sleep until it's 85 and sunny. 

Off to go shovel. diediediewinterdie. 

See you in mid-July.

If you have sunshine wherever you are, I fully expect you to be sending me some. I'm going through serious withdrawal over here in case that wasn't crystal clear. 

Bright forced smile,

C

Runner's high

Yesterday, as part of my once bimonthly exercise regimen, I went for a run... for the first time in approximately (give or take) eight months I'm so in shape.

You could say that I'm feeling it today. You could also say that I've been hobbling everywhere. But, um, excuse you. Actually, no, that would be pretty accurate. Generous, even.

Funny things happen when I go running. I start having allll sorts of meandering/profound/philosophical thoughts. (Everything's a metaphor!) In between the ones about my feet hurting and not being able to breathe and being 96% sure that I'm dying, that is.  Hopefully you're experiencing all kinds of second-hand embarrassment right now. Basically I turn into Ash you met her here on any sort of weak over-the-counter med.

A little anecdote for you:
Our sophomore year of college, one evening Ash was s t r u g g l i n g through a nasty chest cold. So she took some nyquil, along with her asthma inhaler. Twenty minutes later the girl was highasakite. Natch, we had a little heart-to-heart. Quite possibly my favorite of all time, with anyone, ever.
It culminated in this little exchange:
Ash:       l o n g    p a u s e     Cheryl?
Cheryl: Yeah?
Ash {dead-as-a-doornail serious}: Do you think that me putting my bed in the corner...is like me putting myself in the corner?
Cheryl: ....
Ash: I feel like I'm really limiting myself.
Cheryl: .... I'm going to go, and you're going to go to bed now.

I left and she proceeded to write and submit an important paper for one of her classes. I later read it. Pure gold. That poor, poor professor. She also moved her bed into the center of her room that night. She may or may not have still been feeling the effects of that one dose of nyquil well into the next three days.

Woo-cation Twenty-Thirteen.

I told you about two decades ago that I would update you on my escape to the woods with a bunch of friends. Fiiinally getting around to it. I've probably forgotten most of what I wanted to remember. Whatever. Giving you some photos (alllll of which are stolen from The Facebook because, really, I'm such a top-notch blogger that I forgot to even bring my camera. and I'm a geriatric college student (I'm broke and prefer snail mail over email...the latest and greatest technology is clearly a top priority over here right along with a blog design that is easy on the eyes and blog content that is inspirational. Form and function, just for you wonderful little bloglings) and therefore have a non-smart phone, so no instagramming to speak of over here) to make up for it.

Started out by roadtripping up to NH with Ash and Riah. 

 Me, Riah, Ash.

You could say that we were excited.

you could also say we're an attractive bunch, but you wouldn't.

 not sure, so don't ask.

but if you were to ask (nosey) I would probably say

1) pretty. freaking. stoked. and/or

2) just being myself 

I would not say that the coffee was too hot,

as two of my aunts guessed on the Facebook.

We spent the car ride having some heart-to-hearts, potentially getting lost in the back roads of the White Mountains, and (perhaps most importantly) bumping to Macklemore. annnnd to quote Ash, "If the only song you've heard off The Heist is Thrift Shop, you need to rethink your life decisions." Noted.

We were running a solid two hours behind schedule and (this is telling of our community) still managed to be the first people (aside from the few people organizing the weekend) there.
<3 my slightly dysfunctional (in more ways than one) woo family.

Every. Single. Time. someone arrived, and on a select few other occasions, we sang "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow," followed by three cheers. There were roughly forty of us. No, that didn't ever get old, why would you ask?

We stayed at a baptist summer camp that hosts retreats and such for the other three seasons of the year. I would place a large sum of money on the fact that we are the... most lively putting it nicely group they get coming through. 

Exhibit A: they bend their no alcohol policy for us.

Exhibit B: there were plenty of board and card games and such to be played. The one that was played allllll weekend long? Cards Against Humanity. I do not endorse. If you don't know what that is, come join the 21st century and meander over to the Google. Be forewarned, though, that it was so raunchy it even made me blush (that takes a lot). (annnd thank you, roomie, for arriving to the camp at such an opportune moment that I could conveniently and not-so-subtly duck out of the game after only two rounds).

Exhibit C: My friend and pastor managed to set up an epic That's What She Said joke. In the middle of the Sunday service.

What can I say, we're a classy bunch.

For the most part, though, the weekend looked something like this:

Lots of

 music (and crocheting. would you expect anything less from my geriatric ways?)

also, we were having waaay more fun than the story our faces our telling

sitting in front of this massive fireplace (heavenly)

 cuddling

shooting the breeze and more cuddling

bananagrams

sexy barn. so approp.

 and sunset hikes.

this pic doesn't even begin to do it justice

I can't imagine how gorgeous this must be in spring/summer/fall

be still, my heart. 

 ...where we happened upon a small four-legged friend.

 who happened to be donning a sweater

that is more stylin' than about 98% of my wardrobe.

excellent.

His name is Oliver (or maybe just Ollie? I might be senile) 

and we mayyybe, maybe not wanted to steal him.
please disregard the death grip I have on him.

Not pictured?

All the amazing food we consumed (and there was a LOT of it).

We were too busy shoveling it in to bother with cameras.

They were some pretty freaking gracious hosts, considering our level of...class.

I came home and was instantly thrust into a post-vacation depression. You know the type. 

Sigh. We all left wondering why this is not a weekly occurrence. 

I love these people so freaking much it hurts.

C

Nemo photo dump

I probably had a whole slew of fun little tidbits about snowvom Nemo, but a broken computer, school work, life, and a whole bunch of procrastination got in the way. So I'm just going to leave you with these beautiful photos. You're welcome.

I managed to say indoors for the entirety of the blizzard (thanks to all of my foresight and preparation). After about 36 hours, it would be fair to say I had a mild case of cabin fever. 

My roomie Lorrie 

(not to be confused with my other roomie Ari) 

and I ventured out to have dinner with a friend.

we came across excessively large snow banks

we were blessed with 28.5 inches of snow.

in one day.

my dear cousin Mich referred to that as "shizznits."

perhaps you live somewhere 

where you get much much more snow than we do.

if so, I am so sorry

and also don't want to hear about it, m'kay?

because that thought is outright depressing.

and then we attempted to take pictures together.

we've got mad skills.

This is about as good as it got:

fortunately, things got better.

((the part you have all been waiting for))

this particular day I felt the need to be wearing all stretchy clothing.

it needed to happen, you know?

so I donned my favorite super soft and stretchy dress,

leggings, and thick socks.

when we headed out to Shelby's

I knew I would need something a tad warmer
to brave the...conditions.

so I threw on some sweats.

over my dress.

I know you're all dying to try that one out.

please feel free to use the pic as a reference

for the best way to style that.

I would recommend dress tucked in

because then it can notreally pass for a tee.

whereas with the dress over the pants

you have allll sorts of fun bunching going on.

clearly that is your main concern in such a situation.

Fun was had, however.

We had dinner and watched a movie with Shelbs.

Not saying which one.

But it might have been Sleepless in Seattle.

That fact may or may not have been related

to the aforementioned dress-under-sweatpants situation.

There also might have been an emergency trip to my local grocer 

for chocolate the next morning.

Maybe.

Priorities, people.

Thaaaat's all* for now,

C

*don't get excited. with that month-long unintentional hiatus, there are sure to be plenty more blog posts where this came from...

Campus mailbox

That thing is so unpredictable.

Riiight around V-Day, I received this little gem

from the senior class gift committee. A Valentine's Day gift. and not at all a "give us your money" gift. So sweet of them. Yes, that is a plastic baggie of loose candy. Yes, it's as sketchy as it looks. Yes, I absolutely did peer into the windows of other mailboxes to ensure that I wasn't the only one who was graced with such a sketchy "free candy van" treat. No, the fact that others also had these does not make it any less sketchy/gross. And no, it did not stop me from consuming them. Because, swedish fish.

They must have known that I would not be receiving any treats on this particular love holiday. ((I felt a little like Michael Scott when I typed that.)) Because, um, lifetime res of SingleTown over here. I feel like I deserve a badge. Although probably not necessary when it's practically tattooed on your forehead? yikes. this blog is taking a turn for the worse, which is unfortunate considering its previous status...

Hope your Valentine's Day was a love-filled as mine! ...if you were extra lucky it had a dash of Sketch City thrown in for good measure! The spice of life! #no

Love,
C

Damn hippies

Today a friend referred to me as "our resident tie-dye expert" and asked me for directions ...apparently this is my life now. perfect.

You spend one week teaching some kids to tie-dye and suddenly you're the expert.

I have nothing to say for myself, except I spent a significant portion of the day typing out tie-dye instructions in excruciating detail. OCPD who?

Another barrel of fun blog post. You lucky bloglings. I know you've been wondering where I've been you haven't and missing my inspiring posts. again, no. Computer problems and life (let's be real, I'm unemployed and taking two whole classes.) wasting my life on the internet kept me away. so sorry for your distress and overall panic. you were worried, I know. So naturally I'm coming at you with some top-notch content to knock your socks off, now that I'm back.

Some day I will catch you up on alllll the thrilling details of my life. Might even break my promise to you and throw in another notfashion post. Because apparently having one person other than myself read this blog regularly is one too many.