Home is where the heart is!

After this crazy week of celebrating my birthday, I made the decision to spend the weekend at home in Houston. It’s also my mom’s birthday next week so it worked out that I would be able to celebrate it with her. After the long four hour drive, I get home to the most glorious thing in the world, our refrigerator. It was completely stocked with fruit, capanata, salmon and a huge turkey breast bigger than the size of my head! It was great to be home and eating my moms cooking. There really is nothing like it in the world.
This morning my dad and I went on a twenty mile bike ride at a place called Hershey Park. Lets just say it got a little dirty. A portion of the trail had been flooded over. Now like true Fawcetts we decided not to turn back, but just to bike straight through. I was actually the one encouraging my dad to bike through the mud because he was apprehensive of getting his bike dirty. We had already gotten wet so we figured we didn’t really have much to lose. There were four areas in this one particular stretch of trail that we’re extremely deep. I’m talking at least two and a half feet here. It was such a thrill because as you biked threw mud and water got all over your. I think that the amount of water in my shoes probably added about two or three pounds. We were both covered in mud; from our legs to on our necks and all up in our hair. There was actually one point when we were going through the deepest area that I actually thought I was going to fall in because there was to much tension on my bike. Lucky enough for me I quickly realized what I was doing and got myself out of the situation by changing the tension on my pedals. When we got home, it took us about forty five minutes to clean both of our bikes, sprockets, tires, handlebars and all. Tonight our plan is to go to one of our favorite restaurants in Houston called Carmelos. They make an extraordinary plate called Pepe Niro, which is basically pepper steak, mushrooms and fettuccine. The best part is that the restaurant flambés the meal right next to your table. Even better is what we always get for dessert. It is called crepe suzette, which is a French delicacy. It consists of a crepe with a hot sauce of caramelized sugar, organge juice, lightly grated orange peel and liquer. This is also flambéed next to the table, and tastes like heaven in your mouth. Literally, I'm not joking!
Leaving home is always bitter sweet for me; I love being home with my parents and I absolutely love college, but like the saying goes “there is no place but home.”

Its my BIRFDAYY!!

Today is my 21st birthday and I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect weekend. These last few nights have been filled with late nights and Halloween parties. Jessica and I decided to dress up as dominos this year for Halloween. We thought it was a brilliant idea and the outfits actually came out really well. We wore black leggings and boots with a large black t-shirt. On the t-shirt we had cut out felt white circles and strategically placed them to look like dominos. As clever as this idea was, it seems that many people at TCU think that dice are black with white dots because most people who saw Jessica and I thought that was what we were. The few intellectual friends that we have were able to figure out what we were, but all in all Halloween was a success because there were no lost phones or cameras, and most importantly no drama.
Today a few girlfriends and I went to Blue Mesa for brunch, and let me tell you, if you have not been there before for brunch you need to as soon as you can. Blue Mesa offers an indescribably delicious buffet with everything from waffles and do-buts to enchiladas and fajitas. Needless to say, I’m still full nine hours later. The weather today was so incredibly beautiful that it almost seemed like a sin not to be outside enjoying the weather. Jessica and I decided to head down to the Botanic Gardens to do homework and relax. In my almost two and a half years at TCU, I have not yet made it to the gardens, and I was in awe. The place is absolutely beautiful! The ponds, areas to lay and the leaves on all the trees had changed for fall. It was amazing! This time was supposed to be allocated for doing homework, I on the other hand read one of my favorite books, “Eat, Pray, Love,” and slept, while also trying to fend off psychotic bees that thought me and Jessica’s bags and towels were flowers. Afterwards, I continued to enjoy my day of relaxation and went on an hour long bike ride through the neighborhoods around TCU and onto Trinity Trails for a little bit. As hard as it has been, ever since I got home around 6:30, I have been procrastinating doing my work. What’s new though?
I am currently in my bed watching The Devil Wears Prada, and plan on sleeping till Thursday. I couldn’t have asked for a better weekend and birthday! Thanks to everyone who made it great! And especially Shannon for calling me about something completely off the chart and not remembering it was my birthday till an hour later!!! You’re still my favorite!

The Sleepless Night

This week went a lot smoother than the last few for Jessica and I. Although we seemed to be suffering from severe lack of sleep because this Friday night we were real cool and stayed home to watch a movie. Well, by about 8 o’clock we were both passed out on the furniture in our living room. We both agreed that it was very “senior citizenesk” of us.
I think what might have attributed to our tiredness was from the night before when the fire alarm at our apartment complex went off at three in the morning. Ironically enough when the fire alarm goes off here, no one takes it seriously. It is usually caused by some inebriated students who don’t know what they are doing. This alarm lasted for an entire hour. It lasted for at least twenty minutes continuously and then off and on for another forty. Once the alarm had continuously stopped ringing, we were hoping that that was the end of it, and we could go back to sleep. Unfortunately, we were wrong…dead wrong. As we both tried to fall back asleep the alarm would go off, but it would last for maybe a minute or even a few seconds. It was so loud that you could here it coming even before it started ringing in our room. Fortunately, by four someone had been able to fix the alarm system, but the damage had already been done. I think I can distinctly remember having a loud ringing noise in my dreams for the rest of the night.
Another dilemma that has come up in the apartment that is only natural this time of year is Halloween costume ideas. Now I take Halloween very seriously. My birthday is the day after Halloween so I like to go full throttle so that I can celebrate at midnight. This year I have come into a little dilemma because I have to top one of the most ingenious, at least in my opinion, costume ideas ever. Last year I dressed up like a Post-It. How you may ask? I wore yellow shirt, shorts and hat, wrote Memo on the back of my shorts and had a “To Do List” written on the front of my shirt. I brought a long with me sharpies and throughout the night all my friends wrote on me. It was fantastic! This year I am stuck between dressing up as graffiti, white shirt and just painting over it, or possibly a birthday suit. This would involve buying Happy Birthday napkins, plates, banner signs and hot gluing them onto a plain white t-shirt, as well as a Happy Birthday top hat. I love the idea, but I am still a bit skeptical on how it will all play out. Don’t worry though, I will make sure to keep you posted on what I come up with.

Oh YouTube

One evening this past week, Jessica and I decided to entertain ourselves for a bit by looking up random YouTube videos online. I am surprisingly amazed at how many videos you can find on the most random of subjects. There are videos for learning how to braid hair, learning how to dance, music videos and to be even more specific remixes of a popular rap song sung in children voices about dogs. Let me explain a little more.

As we were searching through videos online, Jessica randomly starts humming,
“Do your ears hang low, do they wobble to the floor?”
Bewildered by this random outburst, I question her as to where she had heard that. I automatically assumed she had gotten the lyrics of the song wrong because there had been a rap song entitled “Does your chain hang low” that came out a few years back that dominated the air. Jessica insisted that she had heard this before and typed into the YouTube search engine, “Do your ears hang low”, and low and behold there was a “child-friendly” remake of the song centered on dogs and their wobbly ears. Do Your Ears Hang Low?

Even better was a clip we found about a little boy named David who had just gone to the dentist’s office and was in lameness terms “high” on laughing gas.
I don’t think I have ever laughed harder than I did when watching this video clip. My dad is a cosmetic dentist, and it just seemed to fit to pass this video onto him. He said he had stitches he was laughing so hard. David at the Dentist


The last video that Jessica and I searched for was of this professional ventriloquist named Jeff Dunham, whom Jessica had actually seen live at American Airlines in Dallas this past summer. This man is a genius. He has various puppet characters named Peanut, Jose the Jalapeno and Achmed. The different voices that Jeff Dunham is able to create are unbelievable. He can sing at various pitches and in different accents. Jessica and I have both agreed that when he comes back in town from his world tour that we are going to be first in line to buy tickets. One video we watched was of the character Achmed, a skeleton Taliban terrorist sing his version of ‘Jingle Bells’ entitled ‘Jingle Bombs’. The level of inappropriateness this ventriloquist gets a way with is unreal, but is probably one of the funniest videos I have seen on YouTube. Achmed, "Jingle Bombs"

Fro Yo Adventure

Unfortunatetly, college has gotten the best of Jessica and me these past two weeks because we have been so busy that even though we live together we have barely seen each other! This week I did not see her from about late Monday afternoon to midday on Wednesday. She has been working on a group project for her fashion merchandising classes that has literally taken up any free time she might otherwise have had. We decided that because of how busy we both were that we would set aside time once a week to do something just her and I. We agreed that no matter how chaotic our lives got we would have at least one meal a week where we would go out together for either dinner or desert, or preferably both.

Last week we decided to go to this new frozen yogurt (also known as “fro yo”) place called Yogalait, that is located right next to Chick Fil A and Central Market. (I strongly recommend trying this place out). A little word of advice, those of you out there who loving toppings be warned. I myself was completely overwhelmed with the copious amounts of toppings to choose from. Yogalait charges by the ounce, so customers can get as much yogurt or in my case toppings as they want! I guess you can say I went a little topping crazy because in my yogurt I decided to get a combination of raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, graham cracker and cheesecake bites and it was only three dollars!!!! Now for all the penny pinching college students out there, this place is a gold mine!

North Texas is infamous for having crazy thunderstorms, and the night of our “fro yo” adventure there was a “lightning” storm above Fort Worth. On the drive back from Yogalait, Jessica and I were so dumbfounded by the storm that we pulled over off of Hulen into a random parking lot to try and watch the storm. This ingenious idea of mine was not quite successful because unfortunately when we pulled over the direction in which the storm was covered by trees. It seemed that the only place where we could properly see the storm was on Hulen itself. We ended up driving on Hulen between 25 and 30 miles an hour on the overpass between West Vickery and the Walgreens off of Hulen. Now because this was later at night I felt no qualms about doing this. I know it was not the safest thing to do, but honestly if you had seen this storm you would have done the same thing. (Plus I looked and was being very cautious there were no cars behind me or next to me). Oh, and do not worry I had already finished my frozen yogurt before I started driving, no dining and driving for me.

Our first “fro yo” outing was very successful if I do say so myself. We witnessed one of nature’s greatest phenomena’s, as well as satiated our taste buds with delicious frozen yogurt (and toppings). The weekly outing continued this week with another trip to Yogalait, unfortunately there was no lightning storm, but just some much needed quality time between roomies and friends.

Shimmy to the left if your having a good time....

Any average college student knows that listening to great music before going out is probably one of the most important things to do. (Even more important than what you’re wearing, honestly!) It sets the tone for the entire night. I will be honest and admit that my roommate and mines artists of choice are the Spice Girls and Hannah Montana.

Last week, Jessica and I were both getting ready for a night out on the town when one particular song, “Wannabe” by the Spice Girls came on my Ipod. It was done! We both began dancing, singing and basically going crazy, needless to say we looked absolutely ridiculous. We both began reminiscing about our adolescent, “tween” years when the Spice Girls movie, Spice World, had come out. Needless to say we wanted to see the movie so bad that on one of Jessica’s trips home to Colleyville the number one “to bring back” item on her list was the Spice World movie. Sad, I know.

The Spice Girls, to this day are still one of me and my roommates favorite bands, obviously. I am not ashamed to admit that I still do love this band, or group of girls. Today’s current “tween” generation has a similar international superstar in Disney star Hannah Montana, otherwise known as Miley Cyrus, whom both my roommate and I have a certain fondness for.
About three years ago, I was babysitting a young eleven year old when I was introduced to a particular Disney TV program called Hannah Montana. I will admittedly say that I began to have a certain fondness for this show, and would secretly watch it in my spare time. Luck would have it, that my roommate felt the exact same way I did, and this past week we dedicated an entire night to renting and the newest movie to come out based upon her TV show.

For those of you that may not know who “Hannah Montana” or Miley Cyrus is then I’m sorry you have been living under a rock for the past few years. She has become an international superstar for the current “tween” generation, as well as dare I say the current collegiate demographic. Well bloggers I am not ashamed to say it was surprisingly very good; it had an oh so attractive guy playing Hannah’s “male interest” as well as very catchy songs, if you haven't already heard it download 'Hoedown Throwdown'.

The next time your getting ready for a night out don’t be afraid to crank up the volume and blast the Spice Girls and Hannah Montana, your girlfriends and roommates will be certainly glad you did, and the boys well they will just have to get over it.

College Cooking 101: What NOT to do

Now that Jessica and I are living on our own and have a decent kitchen to use, we are becoming or trying to become chefs. Our moms are both great cooks so naturally we wanted to carry on the family tradition. During the first weeks in our kitchen, we literally looked like chickens running around with our heads cut off. Maybe it was a mother’s instinct but our moms always seemed to answer their cell phones when we needed them to help bail us out of our cooking disasters. Luckily for us they did answer because we may not have had an apartment if they hadn’t.

I don’t want to brag or anything, but I think I have become quite a good chef within the last couple of months. I make a mean guacamole and an utterly delightful pomodoro sauce. Out of all the food items in the world to mess up on my story involves trying to boil eggs. Boiling eggs seems easy enough, let the eggs boil for about five to ten minutes let them cool in the water for about another fifteen minutes. Well, I don’t know what was going on in my mind at the time, but for some reason the eggs didn’t boil quite the right way. I called my mom to see if there was any way to “re-boil” the eggs and she suggested putting them in the microwave for about twenty or so seconds. I take the eggs out of the microwave and I try to peak into the egg to see if the yolk had been cooked. As I peer into the egg all of a sudden there is this huge “pop” sound and the next thing I know there is half cooked yolk all over my face, my hair and on my counter-top. Needless to say, my face had been quite close to the egg when it exploded. Oh, and I had been on the phone with my mom during the whole debacle and the funny thing was she didn’t seem the least bit concerned when she heard me yelp through the other end of the phone.

Jessica’s infamous cooking moments involved her attempting to make pasta salad. Apparently she did not know to keep the lid off of the pot while the pasta was cooking, which ultimately led to the water boiling over. One of the main reasons this happened was because she did not realize that after the water began to boil she was supposed to turn the burner down to medium, and because there are no “medium” labels on our oven she was completely perplexed as to what number constituted as medium. Fortunately enough Jessica had been on the phone with her mom as well when this started happening. As Jessica was screaming “Oh my gosh what do I do!? What do I do?!” her mom calmly told her to “pour some of the water out of the pot” while Jess continued to freak out.

Needless to say, we overcame our cooking disasters with the help of our mothers, and today I can now proudly say that I can make mean guacamole, an utterly delightful pomodoro sauce and cook non exploding boiled eggs.