the picture post:

Here you go, as promised, various pictures of the previous adventures. Unfortunately I took this one with my phone so it's sideways, but you can see what the cup pies looked like at least. Apple was a hit. These were all that were left after the party, and there was only one after the end of the work day! :-D

I'm afraid I don't have any pictures of the English Toffee, but those who got some can verify its existence (even if it did only exist for a brief period of time - which seemed briefer still after it was given out, sorry to the spouses of my co-workers who never saw any (-; ).

Ok, so I called this the picture post and there are already a lot more words than pictures, alas, what can I saw, the blogs title is words, words, words. :-) Speaking of blog names and whatnot. I'll warn you again before and after I move, but I'll be moving blogs. It's not that I don't like this one, it's just that when Becky and I decided to name our bookstore-to-come words words words, I realized that I already had something named along those lines and I want to work, in this coming year, on the branding for that, therefore I figured keeping a blog with a similar name that isn't entirely related probably wasn't the best idea for business-to-come.

Perhaps while I'm still not posting pictures I should at least tell of some of the other things I've since crafted in the kitchen but neglected to take pictures of. The first of which being the main dish for my Christmas Eve dinner with my immediate family. I re-made a recipe I've made before from the amazing Real Simple recipe box I have. It's a pan-seared chicken dish with potatoes and I used tarragon this time instead of any of the other herbs I could have used, and this amazing dry white wine sauce! A couple days after Christmas, because I was feeling in the mood for French Onion soup, I found in my new "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" by Julia Childs, a delightful recipe for such a soup. It was phenomenal - then again, I'm a tad biased. Adria can be the judge, as she's the only other person who had some. Then, tonight, I made for my flattie, Stephen, and myself, some amazing hot chocolate straight out of my new Disney Dessert cookbook. :-) Anyway, that's it for now on my cooking escapades. I'm sure there'll be more later to tell of.

another adventure in baking! :)

so there will be pictures posted soon of the finished product for the apple cup pies (or as my friend, Beth, accidentally typed one day: cuppies!).

Last night, after searching Target for a candy thermometer and only finding a bulky one that's also for frying things, and buying 3 lbs. of Hershey's chocolate from Costco, I went home and made - drum roll goes here - the Hann Family Christmas thing which I will be giving as presents to friends and co-workers (so if you fall into one of those groups and don't want to know, stop reading! ;-) no seriously stop now if you don't want to know because if you read any further any surprise may be ruined and well, I warned you)............more continued drum roll-ing.....................................English Toffee! yay! :D This is my first year making it, and so far it's turning out just fine! Of course I've been around for the making of it for years and years and years and years, and I may have helped stir the melting chocolate before, but this is the first time I'm making it all on my own. It was kinda scary last night, too; trying to not burn the butter/sugar concoction beyond recognition, but also trying to get it to the correct temperature, all the while trying to keep my apartments smoke detector from going off, oh and watching Planet of the Dead (one of the special episodes of Doctor Who that came out this last year) and of course my pot of butter/sugar to be toffee was smoking the most during the most intense moments of the show giving me appropriately epic music!

I have one batch made - nearly- (this is the batch for all those folks I know who are allergic to nuts as it's just going to be chocolate and toffee) as it has one side covered in chocolate and tonight I'll be flipping it over to cover the other side with chocolate. So there ya go. I'll have to take some pictures to show all of you what it looks like!

another baking adventure!

Tonight was my only really free night this week as tomorrow I'm fortunate enough to get to go with my roommate to the Disneyland Cast Member Christmas Party, Wednesday night is, of course, the musical discussion group, and Thursday night is lifegroup. You're probably saying: ok, Janelle but there's still Friday night! and you'd be right if not for the facts that: a. I'm flying home on Friday night to go visit mom and dad; and b. what I needed a free night for was for the pie I'm supposed to bring to the Registrar's Office Annual Christmas Party happening on Friday! So tonight I decided I'd get things prepared!

<- these 5.5 filled cupcake molds make up the last 5.5 of 17.5 of the now-ready-to-be-filled crust I made tonight. Unfortunately (mostly because my hands were covered in flour) I didn't take pictures of the dough making or rolling out step in the process. However I have high hopes for the results of this crust as it had one of the best textures of unbaked crust I've made yet! So here's hoping! Another quick "unfortunately": unfortunately, as you can see, I didn't have quite enough dough to go around and it takes such a long time rolling out the mini-crusts to go into the cup-cake pans that by the time I realized this, it was too late for me to make more. Fortunately, someone else is also bringing pie to the Christmas party, so it's not just up to me. But I feel kinda bad because cup-pies are individual sorts of things and if I don't have enough then there will be people who miss out! Maybe I'll have to find some time to make enough more crust to fill the remaining 6.5 cup-cake molds as well as make tops for the whole lot of 'em. Ok, well onto the next part: filling.

<- I don't know if you can see her there, but right behind the apple on that marvelously torturous-looking device is my fellow baker and roommate, Laura. Tonight she was busy making gingerbread while I was working away on my apples! Ok, back to the subject. The apples. Thanks to a co-worker's generous sister I was able to borrow an apple corer, peeler, slicer and I really thing I should feel guilty for how easy it made the project. Fortunately I only feel like I should feel guilty as I had enough other things to get done there isn't much guilt slipping through. But as you can see in the photo it rather perfectly peels the apple and turns it into a happy little apple slinky! Since I'm making cup-pies I went from there and cut most of the apples into quarters, a few into eighths, so that the filling would fit into each little pie.

This is a picture of the filling in action! Just in between adding the tablespoon of flour and putting in the cinnamon! Mmmmmm! Hopefully it will taste just as good as it looks!

There's a lot involved in the beautiful process that is baking and I found out tonight that one of those things is being good at arranging spaces! The nice thing is that I have all of this done. The hard part is that now I have to wait until Thursday night to put it together and bake it. So, right now I made some interesting choices and re-arranged a whole 2 shelves in the refrigerator just to make room for the pie crusts in their cup-pie pans and the filling (which has been safely stowed in a nice little Tupperware container). I'll let you know how things go! Oh, and I need to remember to go buy the Gruyère! I intend to make these cup-pies worth of the "Pie Hole" and Charlotte Charles of Pushing Daisies! :-D. I'll leave you with that until the conclusion of this story. Until then,

Linus.

the finished product!

That, my friends, is a chocolate-earl grey cake! And it tastes amazing! Not only did it turn out wonderfully, it also was a blast to make!

I picked this recipe because it sounded like something I'd love. It's chocolate and it's tea! How can you go wrong?

The morning in question, after I signed off of the computer, I walked to my nearby Henry's Market (which is amazing) and purchased those ingredients we didn't have at home. When I got back to my apartment I began to preheat the oven and steep the tea and I was about to start melting the chocolate when I realized that although any of our pots would have worked it would be best in a double boiler. Alas, I do not have one, so I ran out to my car and zipped over to Target. From there, while standing in the aisle with a double boiler in one hand and a pyrex bowl in the other I call my mom - that source of amazing cooking wisdom - to ask her opinion on melting chocolate. With years of making English Toffee for Christmas she knows a thing or two about melting chocolate. However she informs me that she recently found out from one of San Francisco's best pastry chefs that the way to melt chocolate is in the microwave. So I go with the pyrex bowl and return home!

Upon returning home, I decide that having White Christmas on in the background would only make my cake that much better. So after hitting play, I start melting the chocolate in 10sec intervals in the microwave...for the most part everything went well. Thanks to Becky who purchased an electric hand mixer for the apartment last month I was able to get everything mixed well. When everything was mixed together, however the directions said to pour the batter into the pan...and well the batter didn't seem like it would easily pour. In fact it felt more like a mousse in texture than cake batter. The airy but slightly stiff mixture. But I spooned it into the pan and set it to bake for the requisite 50min after double and triple checking that I'd added every ingredient and not too much of one thing or another. After cleaning all of my utensils and dishes and counters, I decided that a cake like this, despite the recipe calling for just a dusting of powdered sugar, deserved a well thought out topping. So I found a recipe for a browned butter frosting and worked on that! Mmmmm! Once the cake was done, I let it cool a little while and then lightly poured the frosting on top and then I melted more chocolate to drizzle over that! It has been amazing!

The flavors within one bite are many and amazing. It's moist and although you'd expect the chocolate to be strong it's nicely soft with the earl grey notes playing throughout! And then with the almost toffee-ish flavored frosting and dark chocolate on top it's one fun mix of flavors! I wish I could send you a slice so you could try it yourself! In lieu of that I'll just post another picture.

Inspiration?

I just watched Julie & Julia tonight! It was so fun! And now I want to cook, blog, write...go to France (oh wait, I've wanted to do that for a very long time). My mom had been bugging me to see it for a while, and so Hannah and I decided that when it got the dollar theater we'd go see it together. So tonight we finally did. It made me miss Caitlin who's in Paris right now. It made me want to be more adventurous with my cooking. And it reminded me to come back to my blog. I want to get better about remembering to post on here. Anything, everything. Maybe I'll start cooking and blogging like Julie...Or at least I can plan to do so this month!

For today (because I finished writing this blog post at a different juncture - Nov. 28th) I intend to try my hand at cake! And not just any cake! I'm using a recipe I found on Real Simple's website (I love that magazine) for Chocolate-Early Grey Cake. Sounds interesting, huh? I thought so, too! Ok, well now I'm off to buy the ingredients I don't have! Have a wonderful day and I'll tell you how it went when it's done!

NaNoWriMo

I'm doing it. I'm writing something for NaNoWriMo. I don't know what will happen or how it will end, however, I'm writing. And that's the whole point. By the end I probably won't have more than a page of good story with the rest of it being worthless drivel, but I'm writing. :) Just thought I'd let you know! I'm not yet to 3,000 words, and by today I should have closer to 10,000...alas, I'll hopefully have time to get caught up over the weekend.

hahahaha funny, but probably true

http://mrtea.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/mr-tea-episode-18-all-you-need-to-know-about-tea-to-get-girls/

2,000 words a day

That's what I need to do everyday from November 1st to November 30th with maybe a day off here or there...if I want to make it to (and perhaps a bit past) the 50,000 word count for NaNoWriMo! This is gonna be exciting! :-D We'll see what happens.

whoa...I snapped...

Ok, so it wasn't a big snap, I've snapped big before, but it certainly wasn't a good snap. I've already apologized to the people involved (thanks for understanding, Beth)...but it put a certain amount of reality to something I'd already seen coming. I'm a people person...I love my friends and I love hanging out with them, but beyond that and above that, I'm an introvert (which more than anything else just means that I draw my energy from my time alone...for me it's usually time alone with a book). Despite all the time I get to spend on my own in my cubicle at work every day, it's not the sort of reviving alone-time that I need to recharge. When I started all of the things I'm involved in right now I was coming off of a serious recharge (which I hadn't really wanted by the end of that time). So I was ready to go! I was more than ok with coming home all but one night a week and having a 15-30min turn around to be wherever it was my friends were, doing whatever it was we'd planned on doing (always fun things)! I craved that time with people. But I also wasn't thinking about the fact that a lot of these things wouldn't slow down or taper off when I ran out of energy.

The last couple of weeks I've been trying to figure out a way to create more time for me. Time when I can finally finish a book that it's taken me more than a month to read (that never happens, especially with a book I'm interested in, like this one - I should have been done within a week, maybe 2). But being a people person, and even more so a people-pleaser, I haven't been able to figure out a way to say "no" to things. Maybe that's it...maybe I'm just being forced to learn to say no. The hard part comes when you're a people-pleaser and you'd rather wear yourself ragged than let your friends down. I guess this is all to say that A.) I'm going to be saying "no" more often, if I can; B.) I'd really love help in saying "no", I don't know what that means, maybe it means just give me the option/freedom to say it, don't make me feel like a jerk for saying it; C.) know that even if I am saying "no" right now it doesn't mean "never", or that I don't want to hang out with you, rather it means, I know I'm not going to be fun to be around until I can recharge, and I'm afraid I'm only going to keep snapping and it may only get bigger, if I don't learn to say "no".

this is fun!

so, this year at Convocation Chapel the Dean of Students read this "mindset" list, which was evidently borrowed from Beloit College and they've been doing it now for years... and it was interesting hearing all of that for those who are starting college this year, but it's even more fun reading about what my class' own "mindset is supposed to be (find below). The funny thing is that because of who I am (and who raised me) I know about a lot of these things that they say we'd missed out on. Obviously I didn't live through them...but still... Enjoy!

1. Most students entering college this fall were born in 1986.
2. Desi Arnaz, Orson Welles, Roy Orbison, Ted Bundy, Ayatollah Khomeini and Cary Grant have always been dead.
3. "Here's Johnny!" is a scary greeting from Jack Nicholson, not a warm welcome from Ed McMahon.
4. The Energizer bunny has always been going, and going, and going.
5. Large fine-print ads for prescription drugs have always appeared in magazines.
6. Photographs have always been processed in an hour or less.
7. They never got a chance to drink 7-Up Gold, Crystal Pepsi, or Apple Slice.
8. Baby Jessica could be a classmate.
9. Parents may have been reading The Bourne Supremacy or It as they rocked them in their cradles.
10. Alan Greenspan has always been setting the nation's financial direction.
11. The U.S. has always been a Prozac nation.
12. They have always enjoyed the comfort of pleather.
13. Harry has always known Sally.
14. They never saw Roseanne Rosannadanna live on Saturday Night Live.
15. There has always been a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
16. They never ate a McSub at McD's.
17. There has always been a Comedy Channel.
18. Bill and Ted have always been on an excellent adventure.
19. They were never tempted by smokeless cigarettes.
20. Robert Downey, Jr. has always been in trouble.
21. Martha Stewart has always been cooking up something with someone.
22. They have always been comfortable with gay characters on television.
23. Mike Tyson has always been a contender.
24. The government has always been proposing we go to Mars, and it has always been deemed too expensive.
25. There have never been any Playboy Clubs.
26. There have always been night games at Wrigley Field.
27. Rogaine has always been available for the follicularly challenged.
28. They never saw USA Today or the Christian Science Monitor as a TV news program.
29. Computers have always suffered from viruses.
30. We have always been mapping the human genome.
31. Politicians have always used rock music for theme songs.
32. Network television has always struggled to keep up with cable.
33. O'Hare has always been the most delay-plagued airport in the U.S.
34. Ivan Boesky has never sold stock.
35. Toll-free 800 phone numbers have always spelled out catchy phrases.
36. Bethlehem has never been a place of peace at Christmas.
37. Episcopal women bishops have always threatened the foundation of the Anglican Church.
38. Svelte Oprah has always dominated afternoon television; who was Phil Donahue anyway?
39. They never flew on People Express.
40. AZT has always been used to treat AIDS.
41. The international community has always been installing or removing the leader of Haiti.
42. Oliver North has always been a talk show host and news commentator.
43. They have suffered through airport security systems since they were in strollers.
44. They have done most of their search for the right college online.
45. Aspirin has always been used to reduce the risk of a heart attack.
46. They were spared the TV ads for Zamfir and his panpipes.
47. Castro has always been an aging politician in a suit.
48. There have always been non-stop flights around the world without refueling.
49. Cher hasn't aged a day.
50. M.A.S.H. was a game: Mansion, Apartment, Shelter, House.

ok, so it's only August...

however, I've decided to be a participant in this year's nanowrimo! I have tried once to participate, but during school the month of November is so bogged down with papers and tests, etc. it was difficult to spend the time needed on actually getting anywhere with the writing. Oh, for those of you who don't know (and who didn't follow the link provided above) NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month; it's in the month of November and from 12:o1am on November first to 11:59pm on November 30th the goal is to write 50,000 words (approx. 175 pages)! So from here until November first I intend to start playing with ideas and hopefully get an outline lined out for the novel I'll be undertaking! If you have any desire to join me in this endeavor, you should! Even if we don't make it to the full 50k word-mark at least we will have tried, yes? Yes!

Well, now you know! That's the plan and I'm gonna do this thing!

All in the Family

So, I know that a few of you who read this will be present on July 11th, and so I can't give too much away, but I will say that those of you who are missing it, are really missing out! This event promises to be another good one. Should be rather interesting, to say the least. Again, like last time, we're eliminating the paper clues. However there are a few other major changes/new things we're trying out.

*Oh, for those who don't know what in the world I'm talking about: I am half of a two-woman team that writes, plans, and hosts murder mystery parties/events. We've been playing around with the idea of actually becoming a business. Right now we call ourselves Nichelle Mysteries. When the craziness of this upcoming event has passed we'll begin work on a website, but for now you can reach us at Nichelle.Mysteries@gmail.com.

Ok, now back to some of the new things we're trying out with this upcoming party! Like I said above, we've cut out the paper clues, and again most of the clues will be verbally shared and there will be a board of a few pertinent pieces of information. Which reminds me, I need to go work on a few of those...But another new development is that we're not telling the muderer(s) that he/she/they did it. And finally, unlike most of our mysteries the guests aren't receiving individual character sketchs, and unlike the mafia ones where they've gotten "family" sketches with no individual information; we're going somewhere in between for this one. It's a bunch of familiy sketches, but each family is made up of individuals. We'll see how these changes work. That's the nice thing about having willing test subjects (friends) to try some of these things out on! We're also only doing dessert and drinks this time around. But that's more for practicality's sake than anything else. Well, I'll leave it there for now. When I get a chance, after Saturday of course, I'll post pictures.

I found this and thought that it...

...did a much better job of describing me than I usually do. I'm posting it for my own benefit. So I can come back later and not have to go searching forever to find it the next time around. Found it at: http://www.personalitypage.com/INFJ.html

Portrait of an INFJ - Introverted iNtuitive Feeling Judging

(Introverted Intuition with Extraverted Feeling)

The Protector

As an INFJ, your primary mode of living is focused internally, where you take things in primarily via intuition. Your secondary mode is external, where you deal with things according to how you feel about them, or how they fit with your personal value system.

INFJs are gentle, caring, complex and highly intuitive individuals. Artistic and creative, they live in a world of hidden meanings and possibilities. Only one percent of the population has an INFJ Personality Type, making it the most rare of all the types.

INFJs place great importance on havings things orderly and systematic in their outer world. They put a lot of energy into identifying the best system for getting things done, and constantly define and re-define the priorities in their lives. On the other hand, INFJs operate within themselves on an intuitive basis which is entirely spontaneous. They know things intuitively, without being able to pinpoint why, and without detailed knowledge of the subject at hand. They are usually right, and they usually know it. Consequently, INFJs put a tremendous amount of faith into their instincts and intuitions. This is something of a conflict between the inner and outer worlds, and may result in the INFJ not being as organized as other Judging types tend to be. Or we may see some signs of disarray in an otherwise orderly tendency, such as a consistently messy desk.

INFJs have uncanny insight into people and situations. They get "feelings" about things and intuitively understand them. As an extreme example, some INFJs report experiences of a psychic nature, such as getting strong feelings about there being a problem with a loved one, and discovering later that they were in a car accident. This is the sort of thing that other types may scorn and scoff at, and the INFJ themself does not really understand their intuition at a level which can be verbalized. Consequently, most INFJs are protective of their inner selves, sharing only what they choose to share when they choose to share it. They are deep, complex individuals, who are quite private and typically difficult to understand. INFJs hold back part of themselves, and can be secretive.

But the INFJ is as genuinely warm as they are complex. INFJs hold a special place in the heart of people who they are close to, who are able to see their special gifts and depth of caring. INFJs are concerned for people's feelings, and try to be gentle to avoid hurting anyone. They are very sensitive to conflict, and cannot tolerate it very well. Situations which are charged with conflict may drive the normally peaceful INFJ into a state of agitation or charged anger. They may tend to internalize conflict into their bodies, and experience health problems when under a lot of stress.

Because the INFJ has such strong intuitive capabilities, they trust their own instincts above all else. This may result in an INFJ stubborness and tendency to ignore other people's opinions. They believe that they're right. On the other hand, INFJ is a perfectionist who doubts that they are living up to their full potential. INFJs are rarely at complete peace with themselves - there's always something else they should be doing to improve themselves and the world around them. They believe in constant growth, and don't often take time to revel in their accomplishments. They have strong value systems, and need to live their lives in accordance with what they feel is right. In deference to the Feeling aspect of their personalities, INFJs are in some ways gentle and easy going. Conversely, they have very high expectations of themselves, and frequently of their families. They don't believe in compromising their ideals.

INFJ is a natural nurturer; patient, devoted and protective. They make loving parents and usually have strong bonds with their offspring. They have high expectations of their children, and push them to be the best that they can be. This can sometimes manifest itself in the INFJ being hard-nosed and stubborn. But generally, children of an INFJ get devoted and sincere parental guidance, combined with deep caring.

In the workplace, the INFJ usually shows up in areas where they can be creative and somewhat independent. They have a natural affinity for art, and many excel in the sciences, where they make use of their intuition. INFJs can also be found in service-oriented professions. They are not good at dealing with minutia or very detailed tasks. The INFJ will either avoid such things, or else go to the other extreme and become enveloped in the details to the extent that they can no longer see the big picture. An INFJ who has gone the route of becoming meticulous about details may be highly critical of other individuals who are not.

The INFJ individual is gifted in ways that other types are not. Life is not necessarily easy for the INFJ, but they are capable of great depth of feeling and personal achievement.

Jungian functional preference ordering:

Dominant: Introverted Intuition
Auxilliary: Extraverted Feeling
Tertiary: Introverted Thinking
Inferior: Extraverted Sensing

...a year...

It's been a year. I really don't know how that could be the case. There are moments that feel as if the events of this last year all happened no more than a couple of months ago. On the opposite side of things in the way the world works, it feels as though that was a lifetime ago. Now that I have the distance I think I can more easily put words to what has happened. To warn you, the below isn't just a recounting of what's happened...it's a message of gratitude to God for bringing me through, and for all of the people He's used to bless my life during that time, and it's a bit of an explanation of what's been happening in my life. 

Upon graduating, I enjoyed a moment of revelry in having accomplished so much. But that moment passed away all too quickly and was overshadowed by the daunting shadow that was the future. As much as I wanted to look at it in my usually optimistic and sunny way, I couldn't. I had just spent the last 17, or so, years of my life as a student. For various reasons it was through the school year and, over the years, the ways in which school changed that I used as my marker of time passing. I think to an extent a lot of people do that. (and I'll always admit openly that I'm weird) But, in many ways, college, especially, was always where I was going. Meaning, from a ride young age of 4 or 5 I started saying that I was going to Biola (just like Lorraine ;-) ). By the time I'd graduated junior high (and Dani can vouch for me on this) that my life goals hadn't changed much. I was still "Biola-Bound". So when I started going to Biola, I started living out my big life goal up until that point. When graduation came and that was over...as some of you well know...I had a hard problem coming to grips with the fact that beyond going to Biola and graduating I hadn't really done more than dream about what was next. Those dreams were all grand and amazing, and a couple are fairly practical. However, completing A MAJOR life goal left me feeling useless. I've done what I set out to do, the story should end here; right? If only it were that easy. 

Thanks to my folks and some great friends, who's shoulders were more than soaked, I chose to set out to find whatever it is that's next. The story is not over yet, and although the road ahead looked rough and dark, I had to move forward. So, I moved. Thanks to my family I was blessed with a place to live, rent-free, while I tried to get on my feet. This time was fun. It was strange, and I can honestly say that a lot of what happened in those months are foggy as I know I was on auto-pilot, simply existing and not actively living. In September/October the fog turns into a blur because of an amazing job I found with the same person who 1st put Biola on my radar! (Thanks!) It was also in this time that I re-found/re-forged some friendships that honestly made a world of difference. I had still spending what time I had with friends around, but these guys really helped me realize that I wasn't alone any longer. So, thanks to you too. When the fog lifted I found that the loneliness I'd been experiencing was common amongst a large number of us who had graduated together and at this point in the last year, despite the fact that we were headed into winter, the sun came back out in my life! God is faithful, God is so good, it may take a little while to see what's happening, but He's always been there and always will be there! 

I still don't know what's next! I'd love to hope that it's Words Words Words (the bookstore, not this blog) or that it's more Nichelle, or both! But it's all in God's hands, and so am I! So for those of you who have been on this journey with me (either in person or in prayer) thank you so much for your support, thank you for your friendship! I wish there was a better word to express my gratitude, but I hope that thanks is enough for now! Know that I love you all and you've been a huge blessing! 

all of my nerdiness all in one place

here ya go: Neil Gaiman writing a soliloquy for David Tennant as the Doctor as Hamlet...

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/05/not-really-about-anything.html

p.s. I'd love to have been able to see David Tennant as Hamlet! 

while I'm at it

you can expect a few more posts about what life sorts of things are happening around here; now that the story has been moved to a different location. 

1st bit of info: just an update on the ACRG. We've met now both primarily to figure out our 1st two books and other ideas of how we want to go about it all; and we've met after reading our first book. Our numbers were down for that meeting, but that's alright. Discussion went well. It's interesting discussing mysteries (which have been my favorite genre since long before I knew what the word genre meant...well I guess you can't really say long before I knew "genre" because I wasn't alive for too many years before I started understanding and using "genre") with people who haven't been as well acquainted with them.

The first meeting (post-book) was hosted by yours truly and we had tea and discussion on The Mysterious Affair at Styles. It is the first Agatha Christie to feature her most famous detective: Hercule Poirot and it is the first novel she published. It was my first time reading it and, although there were times I felt it was certainly her first novel, it was an enjoyable, strychnine-filled introduction to the great Belgian detective and his "leetle grey cells". 

I'm afraid I can't really describe to you the way I read a mystery. There's a part of me that just enjoys being taken along for the ride. In fact, I think I would be able to honestly say that as I'm reading, especially one of Christie's works, I'm doing that, just enjoying the story. Or at least that's what I thought I was doing, but I found out that all the while my "little grey cells" are working, themselves. I blame (and thank) my mother for that, for teaching me about foreshadowing and how to look for it and not just how to look for it but to look for it. I'm certainly glad that even though this was Christie's 1st work, I was not able to pin it down. It shows that even from her early work, although it may have been a bit rough, she was and will remain the "queen of crime"! I can only hope to attain some of the ability she held! 

All that said, I look forward to hearing the thoughts from my fellow readers on our next book: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd! As I've alread read it I am trying my best not to say anything about it. It's hard to not slip and start mentioning it at the wrong moment, though....Well, that's it for now...until then (then being the next time we're together again dear readers)!

just because I can!

I'm going to cancel the rules I created not long about about the story writing I've been trying to do on here. I need to be able to work on it elsewhere....so, when I get more written I will update this and/or facebook respectively....actually, maybe not...(sorry, but I'm beginning to think I need to keep this to myself for a little while...)wow, I've used a lot of ellipses already...I guess I'm thinking a lot while I'm typing this up, that's waht the ellipses usually mean in my text, it's punctuated "ummm", except for in these instances it might not be an umm, just a silence while thought happens...I'll keep you updated on the progress, but....ah! I just had a flash of inspiration! See, breaking rules does work! Now I'm off to work on this story! :-D

stuck!

ok...so I've hit a bit of a block...therefore the lack of posts in a while...I apologize to leave you all hanging, but I've discovered it's time for me to go do some research before I can keep working on this story. 

Call It Ishmael's

In the coming scene we will find ourselves in Ishmael's. It's a little coffee shop on Main street. Only a few blocks from the high school, it's a popular after school hang out. You might be wondering about a place called Ishmael's well, you see, it came out of a love of literature and coffee. Bohemia is the type of town that would (and has) continually fight big chain stores coming into town. That's all well and good for the small shop owners, but what about the folks who wanted a better cup of coffee than what was available at Mal's Diner? Well, a few years back now, when one of Bohemia's own, Tracy Presperoa, came back to town she decided to open up a coffee shop, similar to the one you'll find on every corner of any other town in California. In homage to the great work of literature from which that other coffee shop got its name, and being a lover of literature herself, Tracy named her place: Ishamael's.

Ishmael's has that familiar but new and exotic feel. Always smelling like a cup of coffee laced with comfort, happiness, and adventure, Ishmael's had the power to draw even the anti-coffee people from two blocks away. And once you stepped through those doors, you never wanted to leave again. The walls were painted in dark hues of burgundy and blue, the floor could have been seen as simple and concrete, if you could ever peel your eyes away from the intricately detailed rugs the were strewn about. None of the chairs were uncomfortable and most were the well-worn sort that, if they were feeling particularly meddlesome, could eat you up and never let you go. Those darkly painted walls were covered with a collection of paintings and photography, most of which had been crafted by Tracy herself of people and places, things and ideas, both real and fantastic. From the way she talked about them though, you'd have a hard time knowing whether or not she did, indeed, meet some of the more fantastic looking, places, people, ideas and things in her travels (she swears each story the art tells is true). In one corner of this marvelous place was a wall covered with books, not for sale. No, they were Tracy's personal library; there for others to enjoy while they were around. Above all else, there always seemed to be a bit of what one could only call magic hanging about.

lunch pt. 3

ok, so plans have changed...for lunch pt. 3 go check out my facebook notes.

Originally I was planning on writing 3 parts of lunch time from each different perspective, however, when I realized that this POV could do something I hadn't realized, the number of parts needed for lunch was cut in half. Be aware that this story is going to be a. very rough, and b. changing as things go.

lunch time pt. 2

Audrey and Jenny made it quickly through the lunch lines and headed off to eat lunch in the theatre classroom, as is their habit.

However, we're staying in the cafeteria for now. In a few minutes, oh wait, it's starting: see Ronnie Bertram there walking boldly (as boldly as he can) toward the Davis twins' usual table? It seems we're not the only ones caught off guard by it as a small number of students have turned their gaze that direction as well. Let's move in to find out what's going on.

With a quiet "ah-hem" Ronnie tried to catch the attention of Ethan, being too afraid to touch him and risk possible physical injury, to start a conversation. However with the years of practice most people at Bohemia High have of ignoring Ronnie, the small cough didn't do much to catch anyone's ear.

"mʀ[χ]xʷ’m"* Said Ronnie, more matter-of-fact-ly this time. When IPA is thrown in, with a nice link, it makes it more difficult to ignore. So, with a rather confused look, Ethan turned to see who was throwing IPA around to get his attention.

"Hey Dan, check out Berty over here! Hey Berty," as that's how they always referred to Ronnie, "where'd you learn to do that?"

"Oh, that? I've been talking in IPA for years!" Replied Berty, I mean Ronnie, with such enthusiasm about someone noticing the IPA that he almost forgot what he came over to talk about.

"Neat trick" said Dan. "Did you need something?"

"Right, straight to business" fidgeted Ronnie. "Well, you see...ummm...uh, you know", he couldn't say it here, not with all of these witnesses. "CanIbuyyouacupofcoffeeatIshmael'stodayafterschool?Ihaveabusinesspropositionforyou" Ronnie blurted out as one word.

Ethan responded in his usual quip-ish nature, "Sure, but no caffeine for you or I doubt we'll be able to understand the proposition!"

Dan confirmed "3:30 at Ishmael's?" with a vigourusly nodding, but silent (because he was afraid he might toss his cookies as the attention from the surrounding students and the aquiescense from the twins was more than he could take at once) Ronnie.


More to come probably tomorrow since I was bad at updating this week.

*to those of you who know IPA and may actually be able to correctly transcribe an attention getting cough, please let me know what it looks like, I'd like to be accurate!

lunch time at Bohemia High

(this is the 1st 3rd of lunch, more will be coming either later today or tomorrow)

While the class filed excitedly from the classroom towards the cafeteria sundry side conversations were shared by various pairings of students. If the topic of the conversation was still on the assignment that had just been dropped in their laps, the sound accompanying it seems mostly to be grumbling. However, there appears to be a pair that's not as disappointed.

Wondering aloud, Jenny Jordan asked her long-time best friend Audrey, "Do you think we can choose any scene we want, and any scene partner?". Audrey's eyes followed the direction Jenny was so longingly staring and found, as she suspected, Ethan Wallace walking and scheming away with his twin, Dan. Despite Jenny's ability to become anyone and anything on a stage, when it came to talking to Ethan Wallace, her words got as tangled as pantyhose in a dryer.

In a rather mockingly wistful, falsetto retort, Audrey replied, "Who knows, maybe this will be your big break to tell Ethan how you really feel!"

To busy lost in her thoughts about performing Sylvia to Ethan's Valentine, or maybe Hero and Claudio...Jenny didn't bother responding to Audrey's veiled jab.

As we've been following these ladies, who are following the Wallace twins, to lunch, it might be a good idea to look over our shoulders and see that not far behind is Ronald "Ronnie" Bertram, the boy with eyes only for Jenny, has been hoping that he might get to do a scene with her.

Just as we have noticed Ronnie, pinning away for Jenny, so has Audrey. "Maybe this will be Ronnie's big chance with you!" She pointed out while discreetly signaling that Ronnie wasn't far behind.

"Ew! Don't even joke about that" whispered Jenny so that Ronnie couldn't hear, as she really doesn't like being rude to him, but honestly when will the boy catch a hint! To stop Audrey from her ridiculous suggesting, Jenny punctuated the last remark with a smack to Audrey's arm.

"Ow! ok, ok, I'll stop" said Audrey, while a visible "for now" flitted across her face. Audrey would probably have continued on in this strain except for the fact that they'd reached the cafeteria. With more than half of the school about, she resigned herself to mocking her friend later.

....lunch will be continued later...

just to clarify

So as to clear up any confusion: the last 3 posts have been part of a story I decided to write. I'm coming up with some rules of the writing as I go along:
1. it can only be written/worked on/edited, etc. while a blog-post-editing window is open!
2. thoughts about it are allowed to happen during other times, but that's it!
3. unless for some strange reason I have time or feel the absolute need to write over the weekend, posts and additions to the story will only be added during the Monday-Friday week!
4. there really isn't a 4th rule yet, but I just thought I should let you know about the above 3

Also, in case you're wondering the general story idea is one I've been playing around with for a while, thanks to a comment Ashley made one day about events in my own life. That doesn't mean, however that these situations come from my own life.

and finally: as an experiment, I've started to write this story from Audrey's 1st person perspective on my facebook notes. So, if you're interested in seeing how this 3rd person telling differs, or if you'd rather read it from Audrey's POV, feel free to go check it out. Some days I'll be writing this part first, some days I'll be writing that part first. Either way, each day, each post will have about equal amounts of the story (so as not to give something more away here or there).

Now you know: also if a post is started/ended with a line or two of text regarding where to find other information and or "to be continued" those are notes from me, they are not meant to be read as part of the story itself. From this point on, any notes about the story and not of the story (like this entire post) will be blue instead of purple.

It all started with Ms. StClaire....

so as not to read and be confused, I suggest you go read the two posts below this, starting with the lowest one.

It's that time of year when no matter how interesting the lesson may be, even the best students in class have a hard time paying attention. This season of time comes every year and to everyone from the kindergartners to the graduate students, and on occasion even to the teachers themselves. Everyone in any one of these situations feels as if no one else could possibly imagine this torture they are enduring; none of this is more true than in the case of high school seniors. But yet, of a sudden, from one classroom in one high school the whole world over uproarious laughter is heard; it appears that a someone has finally found the antidote to these horrible springtime doldrums. As Ms. StClaire (the senior English teacher and head of the theatre club at Bohemia High - home of the Bears. She's of a more eccentric/free-spirited nature that would fit a good Theatre/English teacher) has been made head of the entertainment for the Summertide Upon Bohemia Festival, she decided to proverbially kill the two proverbial birds with a single project, I mean stone. She has just announced to her 3rd period English class:

"You are going to be selecting a scene from a good rolicking, Shakespeare comedy to perform in a compilation of scenes at the Summertide Upon Bohemia Festival." The laughter heard in earlier an earlier paragraph was the response, from that wonderful class of seniors, to this announcement. When Ms. StClaire went on, the class' laughter was quickly overtaken by the silence of courtroom at the reading of the verdict. "Now, during your tenure"; Ms. StClaire used words like tenure all the time, it's the way she works, "here at Bohemia High you've read a good number of Shakespeare's plays including the usual dramas: Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet. Many of you have also read Much Ado About Nothing, the next three we've read in the last year, so they should be fresh in your minds: Twelfth Night, Midsummer Night's Dream, and Taming of the Shrew".

"Ms. StClaire!" Complained two voices from the back of the classroom, accompanied by two identically and indignantly raised hands belonging to Ethan and Dan Wallace. But before they could voice their many objections to such an assignment, they were rudely interrupted by Chad Davis.
"Excuse me, but Summertide Upon Bohemia takes place the day after graduation which means that you, Ms. StClaire, have no right or authority to assign such a project as it falls outside your jurisdiction."
"Excuse you indeed, Mr. Davis," replied Ms. StClaire, "as you should not be speaking out of turn; it is out of your jurisdiction. Class, however rudely he may put it, Mr. Davis would have a point that I see many of you are agreeing with. To put your minds at ease, I've already made allowances for that". Slowly, the twins hands returned to their desks from the air along with their hopes of getting out of this assignment. Ms. StClaire went on. "Last week I talked to all of your parents as well as Principal Barrie and they all seemed pleased with the idea..."
Just as she finished this sentence (or as the students saw it, sentencing) the bell rang for the class to go to lunch.

....more to come...

Dramatis Personae & Milieu

So far we have: Audrey Adrianna Arden (yes, she hates her parents for naming her that way)
Gertrude Jennifer Jordan (goes by Jenny)
Ethan and Dan Wallace - twins, sons of the mayor - trouble makers
Chad Davis (sort of a "big man on campus", mostly a jerk, but smart, and sometimes useful)
Aaron Arden (Audrey's little brother - a freshman and all that implies)
it's been decided that as far as characters go, those are the only one's you really should be allowed to know. I mean, honestly they don't know anything about you and to make things more fair, that's all you'll get. As you run into other characters you will be introduced to them.

There's a little town, nestled in the toes of the foothills of the Sierra-Nevada mountain range, it's only a short trip from there to California's state capitol-Sacramento and if you were ask any of the inhabitants of this town from whence they came, they'd answer "Sacramento" knowing that you would probably think they were joking if they said Bohemia. It's a small community right between Loomis and Auburn (places about which most of you are probably still saying "where?!?"). It's there, an unincorporated piece of Placer County that has as much history as the state of California itself. That history has little to do with the lives about which this story revolves; except in the instance of an annual beginning of summer festival which is a long standing town tradition called Summertide Upon Bohemia

To be continued

something different

unlike many stories that begin with a "once upon a time" or an "a long long time ago" or something similar this story begins with a simple, welcoming, and heartfelt "hello". Not from the writer, no, nor from any of the characters, but from the story itself. It wants to be trusted by you as it is read by you and therefore it starts as any good introduction between people should start. But from there it continues on in a more usual sort of way. For now it begins to introduce you to the people involved in the action of this story:
Audrey Arden (she's 17, hates her parents for loving alliteration so much that her middle name is Adrianna, and she's about to graduate high school)
Gertrude Jennifer Jordan (hasn't gone by her first name since 2nd grade and therefore everyone knows her as: Jenny Jordan...which is actually how she and Audrey became such good friends when they met in 5th grade as Audrey thought she has a fellow sufferer in the problem of parents with above-average affection for alliteration...also about to finish high school)
Ethan Wallace
Dan Wallace (these two are twins, the Wallace boys, their father is the mayor and they're frequently narrowly escaping trouble. Rarely seen apart, the boys are facing separation as they prepare to go away to school)

there'll be more later...promise....just need to spend some more time thinking...

ACRG

It stands for Agatha Christie Reading Group. We had the first meeting on Saturday. It was at this meeting where we decided that the first book would be Christie's first book: The Mysterious Affair at Styles and that our 2nd book would be The Murder of Roger Ackroyd we also decided that having it on Saturday's for sharing tea-time together while discussing would both be grand fun and also extremely appropriate. All in all, I'm really excited to be reading these great books with these fun people. If you're interested in what we're reading as we move along, just keep watching. I'll update this as we decide each month.

did you know....

that if you make the left-turn from MacArthur Blvd. onto the Pacific Coast Highway around 7pm on a Tuesday night and your car's vents are open to get outside air, the unmistakable smell of hot dogs roasting on beach-pit fires will begin to waft into the vehicle?

Well I don't know if all of those conditions have to be there, but it was certainly true of last night's drive down to the ThinkinBig office! :D

a real post

It's already March! I don't know if I believe that! Another 2 months and I can celebrate the 1st anniversary of my college graduation (not that I'll celebrate that sort of thing) but wow! It's so strange to think about everything that's happened in the last year. I mean this time last year I had been working at Common Grounds for nearing 2 months, I was in a bunch of amazing classes from ASL to British Mystery to Israeli-Palestinian Conflict...wow. Of course I was doing more than just school and work, I was actively involved in running the events of the Guild of English Scholars and attempting to find people to continue that work in the following year. I was busy worrying about what life after graduation would be like and I was busy spending time with friends trying to make our time together last longer than it would. If someone told me then all the things that would transpire in the next year I would hardly have believed them. For example, how in the world would I have believed that I'd have had my first official relationship and then end it within 6mos. or that I would be working, full-time, within a year after graduation and living on my own! It's hard to believe even now that those two major things aren't even a fraction of everything that's happened in the last year. It really makes me wonder what I'll be doing in another year from now. Part of me hopes I'm still at Biola because I am enjoying what I do and because honestly it is such a blessing to be in this great position at a time when most of the country is facing major financial issues. But, there's a part of me that wants to be on my way to a bookstore by then. A year is a short amount of time for any business, so I know it probably won't happen like that, but I'm actively dreaming for this bookstore! I also wouldn't mind seeing Nichelle Murdery Mysteries,etc. get off the ground in another year or so, but that's up to God! Well, I'll just hit publish for now and I'll write more later.

I really want the chance to use.....

I have a laundry in the oven, cookies, I mean....shampoo? Ummm...going to wash the umm....dinner...and uhh....stove in the shower is on...and ummm...can't. Sorry. Leaving. Bye.


LOL! Only Rusty really knows what I'm talking about here and I think that's great! :D






ok, ok... I'll write a real post sometime soon.

breaking lent...oops

this morning, without thinking, I bought myself a tall coffee from Starbucks and now my brain is whirring noisily like a spinning top...I'm having a problem writing about anything because my mind can't sit still long enough for me to think about something to write! It's really weird...The hard part is that it's not anything coherent that my mind is jumping around doing, it's just going going going and I can't even discern what it's bouncing around between....I think spinning top analogy is appropriate because it feels like it's moving too quickly for me to see what design is on the top, if that makes sense...everything is just a blur or motion, sounds, and emotions...e-motions...what is that? e-motions, electronic motions...a dancing robot, or really machinery that runs on electricity and moves? that's strange if you think about "e" like that...like in e-mail or whatever...speaking of which it's funny that you can buy tickets online to shows and they are e-tickets, but they aren't E-ticket shows or rides, necessarily...strange...well I'm going to stop trying to follow this dizzying spin of thoughts, etc. I'll post again when the caffeine has worn off, a bit.

"lose your dreams...

and you will lose your mind..."

Ruby Tuesday
The Rolling Stones

dollhouse...

another episode and another fairytale reference...

Still the Happiest Place!

On Monday of this week one of my friends whom I had not seen in a while posted as her facebook status that she wanted to go to Disneyland. This friend, Sarah, I met at Hume the summer I worked there. It was her 2nd summer and we lived right across the hall from each other. We became fast friends and have stayed in contact over the almost two years since we met. Being the Disneyland lover that I am added to the fact that I really miss her as she's been working full time at Hume since just before this last summer, I jumped at the chance to convince her to come! It didn't take too much to convince her and we planned that on Tuesday night she'd crash at my place and we'd go to the Park on Wednesday. I told my manager that I was going to take a personal day on Wednesday to meet up with friend at Disneyland, and we were set! We both left it open for other to join us, but I wasn't quite as active in inviting others as she was, part of me wishes I had, but part of me really liked the small number we had. The day started with breakfast at La Brea Bakery and then we met up with 4 other Hume Staffers and started our day at the park by waiting in our longest lines of the day - ticket lines. Once we were all ticketed we went into Disneyland and started an anti-clockwise circuit in Tomorrowland and then around. We got a good number or rides in and when the first bit of rain came, got a big damp, but not bad. The whole while we were at the park everyone, but especially Sarah and I were just ecstatic. I don't think I've ever not gotten excited to be at Disneyland, to me it is my happy-place. We sat (and sang) through the Tiki Room, which is always a blast! Later on in the day we were joined by Dani and by one of the friends of one of the guys in the group. At this point we had ridden most of the rides we'd really wanted to ride so we decided to do some of them over again! After our 2nd time on Space Mountain the clouds started to look particularly ominous and when we got off of Astro Blasters (for the 2nd time) we headed towards Indiana Jones. Seeing as though the line had a 25min. wait we chose to get fast passes and do a few other things before we came back. As we walked over to Thunder Mountain the clouds started to drip ever so lightly, but by the time we sat down in our run-away mine train the clouds let loose! We were drenched before we even started moving. As soon as we started moving the rain felt like a poweful shower. It was the first time I closed my eyes on that ride and it was only because I couldn't see much with water pelting my face! IT WAS AWESOME!! Once we were off Thunder we decided that since we weren't going to get much wetter, we'd go ride Splash Mountain! When we got to the entrance of the barn part, we were the only people in line and we helped them figure out the line time. Splash Mountain was amazing and because no one else in the park wanted to do a ride that was so wet on such a wet evening, we got to go around twice! If we hadn't already been looking like drowned rats, we surely would have after both of those times through! Sloshing as we got out of the logs, we squished our way back to Indiana Jones and peeled our soaked fast-passes from our pockets and tried to dry ourselves using the darts (of air) ...it didn't work too well. Oh well, it was fun. We then sloshed our way through Downtown Disney and back to our cars in the structure. Not until I got home and had a chance to look in the mirror did I realize that along with the soaking I'd gotten yesterday, I also received a nice bit of sun on my cheeks from when the sun did show up! It was amazing! I'm glad I went and I'm glad I got to hang out with Sarah and meet some new people and I'm glad the rain only made it more fun!

movie reaction (as opposed to review)

Ok, so...I went to see He's Just Not That Into You tonight and I really enjoyed it. It was different from your average chick flick in that it was not ALL happy-ending. The tough part is that it was still primarily happy ending and I think that fact undermines a lot of what it's trying to say about real life relationships. If you're going to set out to, at least in part, blame things like movies for ruining expectations and affecting the way girls interact with guys, you can't go tell "exceptions to the rules" stories! That's what you're complaining about in the first place, all those exceptions to the rules that we hear about and hope for! Oi!  To those who haven't seen the film, I suppose this is going to be moderately confusing. Sorry. I suggest giving it a view, even if you wait to do so until it gets to the $-theater or is available on netflix of at blockbuster. If nothing else it will give a bit of insight into how people think. I will completely admit to being similar to Gigi's character, by over-analyzing every little thing said or done. It's not healthy, and I guess I can say it's a good thing that I'm not quite as bad as she is, but then again, she's fictional, right? So there's definitely hyperbole involved in her situations for the sake of telling the story...anyway...I'll leave it there. I liked the movie, but at the same time disliked how accurate it was at times. 

dollhouse?

So, I've only been able to watch a little bit of it so far, but Joss Whedon's new show: Dollhouse is intriguing! 20min in and he's already mentioned fairytales at least twice and done some good Shakespeare quoting! :D

...thoughts...

It is truly amazing how quickly the feeling of loss fills the place of accomplishment. I hosted the much anticipated (if only by me and my co-writer/co-host) murder mystery dinner party - 2049 this Saturday night. It went amazingly well, despite a few large issues like venue size, etc. I had such a great time with my friends and everyone who came. It was amazing watching these characters we spent so much time working on, come to life through the interpretations of people we know well. However, now that it's Monday, I feel, well, sad. It's done. It's been finished, they figured out the mystery and despite some of the smaller details that we always through in to create the world, all has been revealed. Now that it's over, I feel like there's something missing. Maybe this just proves the things I've heard for years: that I should write...maybe I should...I don't know whenever I try it doesn't come out the way I want it to. I get mixed up and lost in the ideas constantly growing in my head, so much so that I cannot untangle myself to get much further than the, occasionally intriguing, opening. I'm going to force myself to take a bit of a break after working for over a month on this last one and then maybe I'll start getting these ideas on paper...the funny thing is most of my ideas, even for what I know of how the murder mysteries work never reach paper...the intricacies of Metro 686 in the year 2049 are locked away in our heads, Rusty's and mine. I've lost all knowledge of where this post is going, so I'm going to stop here and work on something else. Until later!

on a caffeine buzz

warning: this will be random and rather stream of consciousness...just so you're aware before you dive in. To my English major friends and grammar Nazi readers, please excuse this post as it will most definitely upset you.

So while I was sick I decided that I wouldn't have coffee, mostly because I only drink coffee with milk or creamer in it and the milk and creamer doesn't help much with the whole being congested part of being sick. So I've been without coffee for a little while. Not without caffeine, but there's nothing like espresso to give you concentrated caffeine! So this morning I stop by Starbucks as usual to grab something to drink and I decide to get a soy latte...well maybe it's the fact that I haven't had much espresso in a while, but right now I'm really jittery and really random...it's like I'm hyper, but without being physically antsy, it's a mental hyper-ness, if that makes any sense. Anyway...I have work to get done this morning, but I really can't focus on it right now because I keep jumping around between ideas for this weekend: huge murder mystery dinner party I'm planning and a variety of other things including, but not limited to: how I'm going to get to Ashland this summer to see Music Man and Much Ado, how I'm going to get to Nor Cal for the wedding I'm in/how much time I need to take off in order to do that...speaking of which I just realized checking my "job timeline" would be good! But beyond that I'm bouncing everywhere! Ahhh!

About this Saturday, I'm really excited because this is going to be one of our best stories yet. The cast which has been assembled will be a good mix of people, too. The time is interesting b/c we've chosen to set it in the future, but it's sort of an alternate dimension future....it's more like how things could have happened....sorta....there's some strange things that brought about the city which is where everything is set, but at the same time the world that surrounds that city is a complete mystery, even to me. It could be very advanced, it could be a wasteland, it could be no different than it would be 40 years from now, it's just that Metro 686 is different...technology has regressed a lot, well, the technology that people use on a regular basis, there's no phones, no computers, we're back to telegrams, but there's films, and detection/crime fighting technologies are more advanced. Outside of the city, if there is a world out there, they're fairly normal...or at least the governing forces have more up-to-date technologies at their disposal. Of course because of this strange situation we've gotten a lot of questions about why we didn't just set it in the past, but really I think it was an arbitrary decision when we chose the date. It seemed fitting...it's a utilitarian "utopia" I use quotations for rather obvious reasons, there's no way in which humans, on their own and by their own devices could have a true utopia. Of course we can all pretend. That's what most of the city does, I believe, they pretend that everything is fine, especially when it looks that way, there are those who have stopped pretending, though. One such person, who stopped pretending, is dead...that's why we're all gathering...this murder could shock everyone back to more pretending or it could pull down the scrims (for those of you not involved in staged stuff, scrims are useful things, they're like curtains but depending on lighting they can be seen through, they can provide backdrops, they can provide false-backdrops...etc...)...Oh goodness....once again I see the ways in which my theory classes have taken over my mind...this isn't healthy, maybe I should change topics...We probably should have actually set it just in the 40's but the tough part with the 40's is that you have to factor in the war that's going on. That could be fun, it would make for some interesting character possibilities, like Nazi spies, but then you have to get more global and there's also the risk of getting a little too much like the films we've seen of that time period. If we go with a society where they have based their ideas of culture and style on films they've seen, then we're allowed to go there! wow...this is getting long...maybe I should actually get to work, or maybe I should...no...I'll get back to work and let you do similarly. If you've read to this point you're more brave than I am because I'm not going to even re-read this for fear of editing it all down to a sentence or two...there ya go! Til the next time!

One Word

1. Where is your cell phone? Pocket

2. Your significant other? huh?

3. Your hair? up

4. Your mother? Janet

5. Your father? Rick

6. Your favorite fruit? apple

7. Your dream last night? forgotten

8. Your favorite drink? OJ

9. Your dream/goal? Bookstore

10. What room you are in? cubicle

11. Your hobby? many

12. Your fear? alone

13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? bookstore

14. Where were you last night? friends

15. Something that you are not? sane

16. Muffins? sure

17. Wish list item? Paris

18. Where you grew up? home

19. Last thing you did? work

20. What are you wearing? clothes

21. Your TV? roommate's

22. Your pets? gone

23. Friends? awesome

24. Your life? weird

25. Your mood? pensive

26. Missing some one? always

27. Car? Scout

28. Something you're not wearing? boots

29. Your favorite store? Barnes&Noble

30. Your favorite color? teal

33. When is the last time you really laughed? yesterday?

34. Last time you cried? yesterday?

35. Who will resend this? don't care

36. One place that I go to over and over? dreamland

37. One person who texts you regularly? Becky

38. My favorite place to eat? Gypsy Den

39. My favorite food? tomatoes

40. Favorite time of day? morning

Valentine's Day

So...it's almost Valentine's Day...
I remember back in Elementary school when you'd buy a pack of valentines (or two depending on the size of your class) and you'd give the best ones to your friends and hope that you'd get something nice from someone in class.
I have always hoped for a secret admirer...maybe it has something to do with my love of mystery etc. but I really liked the idea of getting secret messages from someone who thought you special but was either equally into anonymity or perhaps they were a little too shy to reveal their identity, but at least they'd be brave enough to announce their feelings, even if from behind pencil and paper. ....That might also have something to do with it, I love getting mail, letters, notes, etc. That sort of thing just makes my day. I buy things online so I can get mail. That's probably why I love the story of Cyrano de Bergerac so much...
Well, despite the fact that I've yet to have a secret admirer, I do believe this Valentine's Day will be amazing because I'm going to spend it with amazing girls watching amazing movies eating amazing food! It's almost more like a "Single Awareness Day" celebration b/c we're keeping it to only a bunch of wonderful single ladies and we're indulging in both romantic and action/adventure films! I plan, for the sake of tradition (of the SAD days in years past) to wear black! Fortunately b/c of work I have a good amount of it! That's if for now. Sorry about the randomness of this post....it's almost stream of consciousness, kinda...well until next time.

A Brief Update!

Hello Friends and Folks,

I just wanted to share a spot of good news with everyone!

Some background:
Since early October I've been working at Biola University in a part-time capacity as a "casual employee" which, here at Biola, means temp. This job I've been temp-ing in is the Graduate Special and Off-Campus Program Coordinator, in the Office of the Registrar. I took the job when the previous holder of it went on maternity leave. Last month she was due to come back to work, however due to the fact that her baby was born prematurely she really shouldn't leave her yet. So, after a bit of negotiating to try to figure out a goog balance, the former holder of this job resigned. Well it didn't take me very long to realize that I would kick myself later if I didn't apply for the position I'd already been filling. So I applied and I "interviewed" it was more like a meeting with the people I've been working with already, anyway and on Saturday (the last day of January) I was offered the full-time position. Of course, I accepted. So today, Monday, February 2nd, 2009 I spent my morning in Human Resources going through training since it is my official 1st day as the full-time Graduate Special and Off-Campus Program Coordinator! So now, when I get off work today (a couple of hours later than usual) I will have to sit down with all of this insurance paperwork and figure it all out! :D
Thanks for the prayers all of you who had been praying for a job for me! This is amazing and I am truly grateful for the way in which God works in my life!

...reading...

I am happy to say that I just finished two books in about 2 weeks! This may sound odd, but this is such a relief! All throughout college I gained this strange feeling that I shouldn't just sit and read fun books (and for me fun books aren't always book candy, fun books can be full literary meals). I think it started from a place of I have homework to do, therefore get that done and then enjoy yourself. Of course once I got done with the homework, or even before then, another impulse (the social one) took over. It told me to take the time to invest in friendships. So this summer, when school was finally over, I had every intention to start checking books off my reading list right and left! But, it didn't happen that easily. At first I had to work on finding a job and so just sitting and reading was being lazy and I couldn't let myself do that. Then, once I had a job, I didn't feel like I had a place to just sit and read...beyond not having a place I was seriously lacking in personal contact. As much as I am an introvert and I enjoy sitting on my own and reading, when I've had too much time on my own, I can't stand it any longer. Unlike an extrovert though, it doesn't mean that I'll feel better by being in a crowd or hanging out with lots of people at once. What I prefer is one-on-one, face-to-face interaction. The funny thing is that there are times that my "people" quota can be filled by just one or two of my good friends sitting in the same room as me while we're all reading with the occasional comment about our stories. I know, I'm a strange one. But the simple fact that I have been able to read, read like I used to, read with or without others around tells me soo much about my state of mind! Mind you I still miss my doppelganger and I still need more time with my friends, but this has been so telling for me that it just makes me excited!
Oh, ever extensive and growing book list! Here I come! :D

in the year 2049!

I'm currently working on another murder mystery party that I'm really excited about! :D It's set in the future...the year 2049...but there's a good number of similarities between 2049 and 1949. Well that's all I'm going to say for now about it, except for the fact that I sent out the invites today! This one is going to be rather large, if everyone comes. Rusty and I limited ourselves to a total of around 70 (we currently have 71, but one more won't kill us). Fortunately we have experience with 100+ groups, so 70 of our friends should not be too bad. Oh I guess I can say it here since all of the people who have received their invites now know: the victim is Frank T. Peabody, esq.

fun game!

RULES
1. Pick 15 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDB, find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them in a note for everyone to guess.
4. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
5. NO GOOGLING/using IMDB search functions. That's cheating and it ruins the fun. Boo yah.
(I'm adapting this from my facebook version in that I'm removing the quotations already guess and replacing them with other quotations from the same films in different spots.)

1. "When I figure out what that means I'll come up with a crushing reply."

2."You know that place between sleep and awake? That place where you still remember dreaming? That's where I'll always love you..."

3. "Look at that. I have Africa all over my hand."

4. "See me. See me now."

5. "How extravagant you are, throwing away women like that. Some day they may be scarce."

6. "I like this Hugo Boss, he cuts a nice suit!"

7."Look, it's not in my nature to be mysterious. But I can't talk about it and I can't talk about why."
"Oooooooo"

8. "I could yell "Fire" into the intercom and we could call it a night."

9. "Well, you may not get hurt, but huff puff, you won't get loved either."

10. "Prepare to die that we may learn the identity of The Laughing Bandit!"
"Why wait?"
"Good heavens, it's Sir Reginald!"
"None other!"

11. "I need to call a phone. Do you mind if I use your cab?"
"There's a cab in the office."

12. "They come over here to take their third year and lap up a little culture...They're officious and dull. They're always making profound observations they've overheard."

13. "Yes. I saw him. I saw him with my own eyes."

14. "Tain't what you do it's the way that you do it. Tain't what you do it's the way that you do it. Tain't what you do it's the way that you do it. That's what gets me through."

15. "Talking between men and women never solves anything. Where we think, they feel. They are creatures of the heart.

An Exciting Weekend!

Well last weekend sure was a lot of fun! There's a nice kind of quiet that settles on the campus during interterm, whether that's because there are significantly fewer students around or because it's just that time of year, I'm not sure. It's probably both. Well last week was the beginning of that and it's nice! This last week ended with a half-day on Friday and so I went and met up with my good friend Ash for lunch! It was a blast hanging out and chatting and she bought lunch for me which was awesome! But the weekend only continued to get better from there! Friday evening I joined a group of friends to watch The Fall (a film I'd been wanting to see for a while, starring the amazing Lee Pace) and then we played Apples to Apples! Of course Friday night only got better because I got to go pick up Becky (my doppelganger) from the trainstation! Then, after staying up way to late and singing in Newsies Time ;) we got up early-ish and went to have breakfast before spending a most marvelous day in the Happiest Place on Earth! We met up with Ash and the three of us painted the town purple (in honor of Becky's birthday of course) doing so many rides! Then around 3 or 4 ish Dani showed up and we spent most of the rest of the night doing the rides in Fantasyland! To wrap it up we went and had celebretory desserts at the Napa Rose Lounge. For some strange reason though we seemed to be bad luck for three of the rides we were trying to get on. When we first went to Indiana Jones, it was down, then it opened back up but once on it stopped for a while...then when we were part way into Alice and Wonderland it stopped and we had to be walked out by a Castmember and then as we were in line for Snow White's Scary Adventure the ride stopped for a few minutes but started again and didn't have problems again while we were around it. It was a fun evening, to say the least!
Sunday morning Becky and I went to RH and the message must have been directed at me! I know it was! But more on that later. After that we went to lunch at Gypsy Den Cafe and then off to double-feature Sunday! It was such a fun weekend, all told! Besides that I found out this weekend that I was given the spot in an apartment that I'd been looking at! Yay! So I'm going to be moving closer to work and friends into the little town of Fullerton! Fullerton is technically my first home and it has always been a place I've liked. I'm excited about what this move will mean for my time here in So.Cal! Well, that's it for now. Until next time!

Adventures on a Tuesday

Well, I've had an interesting last 20 hours or so! I was here at work, like any other Tuesday, until noon when I would have usually left to head down to my job in Corona Del Mar, but I found out that I wasn't needed yesterday, so when I got off and got a call from a couple of friends about going to lunch I was definitely down for that! After lunch I went to Starbucks to work on getting my time-sheet together for the job that I wasn't going to that day. I spent a while there getting caught up in chatting with friends, catching up on my blogs I read and things of that nature. Around 4pm, I decided to leave Starbucks and go do something else for an hour and a half until I went to watch Rear Window, back on campus. Well, while I was trying to figure out what to do with my time, I drove over and get some gas in my car. When I was getting out of my car, I had my keys, wallet, and cell-phone in hand, then I realized that my keys wouldn't fit in my pocket and I set them on the seat, intending to leave the door open or unlocked but then I remembered that I hadn't popped the door to the gas take yet and so by the time I did that I was in normal leave the car mode and locked the door as usual and closed it behind me. Not thinking about what I'd done, but moving automatically, I pumped my gas and then after getting my receipt, I walked back to my car door and...thinking ok, my wallet's here, my cell phone's here, my keys are....oh no! my keys are on the seat! Taunting me through the window! So I immediately call the people who have copies of my car key and although they're both out near Pasadena, one of them comes to my rescue. Of course, by the time I've called it's pushing 4:30 and traffic has started, so I was stuck outside, without my coat, as the sun is slowly setting around me at a gas station. I went and wandered around the convenience store, which wasn't that much warmer than outside was getting and I avoided curious stares from the people around me. There were a few kind bystanders who asked what the matter was, but they couldn't help much. There was one of the gas station employees who was a sweet older gentleman who chatted with me a bit and I got some time to talk to some friends on the phone while I waited. As my friend got slowly closer to me I really started to get cold, it was nearing 6pm and the sun had been set for a while and so I walked over to Little Caesars on the opposite corner to be able to bring some food with me to the movie viewing for the people I was watching with. When I got back, I was standing there for a while when a kind stranger pulled up on the opposite side of the pump and he asked: "how's it going?"
"oh, alright....I locked my keys in the car"
"sorry, can't help ya much with that"
"that happens. I have a friend who's coming to help, she's just been tied up in traffic"
"does she have AAA?"
"no, she has a spare key for my car"
"that's good"
"yeah, I'm glad I did that"
.....here the conversation paused for a while and he was getting back into his truck to leave...I noticed that he looked like he was looking for something in his car.....a moment or two later he came back out of the cab of the truck and asked if I was cold, of course I responded "YES!" or at least in my head that's how I responded, but I just said, "oh, yes". And he offered me this new company shirt he had which was still in it's packaging it was a long sleeve, XL, shirt, but as soon as I pulled it on over my arms, I felt warmer. I thanked him profusely as he drove off and fortunately I only had another couple of minutes to wait before my rescuer showed up! Then it was off to the movie and then eventually off towards home and bed.

Well...the night went smoothly enough, but this morning when I was getting ready, I pulled out my hair straightener to start warming up while I was blow-drying my hair. At some point while I was blow drying, the straightener and a bag that I keep them both in, with a few bottles of hair stuff, etc. decided to jump off the counter and onto my foot! When they landed on my foot, I thought that the pain that I was experiencing was simply from the the heavy bag landing on it. But as I took my time, to move the bag, I realized that the straightener was what was actually causing what I was feeling. So, removing it quickly, I placed it in an area that would prevent it from falling again and put my foot in the sink to run water over it. So as I'm using the evil tool that burnt my foot on my hair, said foot is being soothed by the running water. All I can say is thank God that I'm tall enough and limber enough to not have an issue with putting my foot in the sink! Well, there' my last few hours for ya! I hope you're laughing at/with/near me at this interesting turn of events! Have a great Wednesday!