The Mishaps and Adventures of Room 328

Home is where the heart is!

2009-11-07T12:25:00.000-08:00

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!!

2009-11-01T19:42:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-24T14:36:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-18T20:18:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-08T09:08:00.000-07:00

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....

2009-09-30T16:22:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-27T20:35:00.001-07:00

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.

An in-depth look into the mind of a college student...

2009-09-20T14:52:00.001-07:00

This past week bloggers I am sorry to inform you was not the most exciting in apartment 328. The reason for this is because it was the beginning of “h-e-double hockey stick” week, also known as testing week, when literally every single one of your classes has a test scheduled for that same week. (I don’t know if I am actually allowed to curse in this blog due to the fact that it is for a class, so I will just refer to this week as h-e-l-l from now on).

It comes without saying that this particular week at the start of the school year can be a real slap in the face for students, especially freshman, who seem to remain in “summer mode” four weeks after school begins. Classic symptoms students will normally endure during these said “h-e-l-l” weeks include; sleepless nights, countless hours in the library (with little to no human contact), stress zits, baggy eyes and random states of delirium. These states of delirium are actually the end of result from all these symptoms combined. These particular moments can include outbursts of singing/humming random songs, giddiness, uncontrollable laughter and long periods of staring off into space.

I was witness to one such moment of loopy-ness this past Wednesday night when my roommate fell victim to it. After spending all afternoon in the library and then another hour and a half in a group project meeting, I returned back to my apartment assuming I would find no relief because I still had to finish studying for my test the next day. O contray bloggers, I found quite the bit. I don’t know why I had not seen this coming prior to my return home. It so happened that during my group meeting Jessica had actually sent me a text message that stated, and I quote:
“Whatcha gonna do with all that junk…all that junk inside your trunk…”
Now for those of you that may not know, those are the infamous lines to “Baby Got Back”, a classic hit of the 90’s that seems to have defined our generation. This was only the beginning of Jessica’s state of delirium.

It seems that my arrival back into the apartment was such a relief for her because she was actually in contact with another human being. As I was sitting at my desk trying to study, I was caught off guard by a particular someone who was sitting on the floor in my doorway. She had made it to the point where as much and as hard as she tried to study nothing seemed to sink in, which was probably one of the worst feelings a student can get because it only adds to their stress level. It comes without saying that the next fifteen minutes were filled with uncontrollable laughter as Jessica attempted to study at the foot of my doorway saying the most random things and even more importantly in different accents. It seems that laying on the floor studying seemed like a logical decision for Jessica to make since she didn’t feel like she was getting anything done by sitting in a chair. Go figure, the floor is the new desk. It seems that Jessica’s exhaustion got the better of her delirium, and in a state similarly reminiscent to a zombie she sat up from my doorway and went straight to bed.

I could continue writing about other states of delirium I have seen my friends and prior roommates in, but since I am currently in the midst of my “h-e-l-l” week, I have to go finish studying for two tests I have this week. Below I have included a link that might be useful to students managing stress and time management issues. It just so happens that TCU offers Academic Workshops to deal with these particular issues and below lists the various topics and dates in which these seminars are held. Enjoy and Good luck with testing!

http://www.acs.tcu.edu/Workshops.htm

The Art of Falling Gracefully

2009-09-13T09:00:00.000-07:00

Every one of us has at least one single moment in their life that constitutes as the most embarrassing. Now, obviously since there is a “Door of Blunders” in my apartment, it is natural to assume that there has been many of these particular moments in my life. Well, bloggers, you’re in for a treat because I am going to share with you a particular moment that happened this week that shot to the top of my most embarrassing moments list.

Some of you may not know that I love to work-out, my family is very active and I like to stay fit, because who really wants to be shown up by their mom and dad. This particular afternoon I went to the TCU Campus Rec during what we students call “rush hour”, when every single cardio machine on the second floor is taken and there is lines to use the weight machines. I tend to usually warm-up around the indoor track, which for some of you they may not go to TCU, circles around the indoor basketball courts as well as the weight room. My warm-up was great, feeling good, rocking out to music, I was ready to go. As I round the last corner, the unthinkable happens, I trip and fall face forward onto the track. In literally nanoseconds, I leap up and fortunately enough for me there was another girl running behind me. I wish there was a picture of the shock and disbelief that ran across her face when I looked up at her. I popped as fast as lightning, secretly hoping that no one besides the girl behind me saw my graceful fall. As soon as I got up, I said to her, “Please just run with me,” as we ran the last corner of the track.

Now bloggers, this moment might not seem as mortifying if you have never been to our universities recreational facilities. Half of the cardio machines on the second floor face forward toward the entrance of the rec. My trip, or gracefully falling to the floor as I like to call it, occurred exactly in the spot that was directly in front of every single person on the cardio machine. (I have enclosed a picture in my post to help provide a better visual). I don’t know about you during your workouts, but come on who actually watches the itty-bitty TV screen in front of the machine, admit it your eyes will and do wander. Imagine now bloggers that you’re getting your heart-rate up on a stationary machine and FLASH in the corner of your eye you see a bright blue shirt stumble onto the track. You’re going to look!!

Now back to the story, as the girl run besides me I literally run past the cardio machines with my head hung as low as I possibly could. Not only had my ego been badly badly bruised, but I had a rug burn from the track on the top of my right knee. Yes, I had a boo-boo on my knee that stung for the entire rest of my workout. What’s that? Oh yes, I did not shy away from finishing my work-out, one little fall could never keep me from pumping iron.

The best part of it all was the girl who so generously ran beside me praised me for how quickly I got back up from the fall. Well, I told her, if I had stayed on the floor for any longer people would have thought there had been something seriously wrong with me. In hindsight, maybe I should have, said I twisted an ankle or something, but it is my philosophy to always laugh over the embarrassing things in life. No one is perfect and it is these types of moments in life that just make you sit back and smile.

Above I have enclosed a picture of the TCU Rec from the floor of the weight room. I hope this helps give a better visual of the horrific ordeal I endoured. That’s all for now bloggers! Have a good week!

Blackened "Smoked" Salmon

2009-09-02T12:15:00.000-07:00

Hello Bloggers! I have spent countless hours these last two days trying to figure out what on earth I could possibly blog about for an entire semester, and suddenly it struck me as fast as a bug hits a car windshield. My roommate Jessica and I have a door in our apartment where we stick post-it notes with little excerpts of, in lameness terms, ‘idiotic’ things we do. It suddenly occurred to me that I could write my blog about all the nonsense that my roommate and I have gotten into in the past week as well as the future mishaps that will most definitely occur in the coming months.
Let me preface this blog by saying that by no means am I nor my roommate ‘stupid’ girls, we are actually quite brilliant if I do say so myself. I mean we did get into college, wooh Go Frogs! Our brilliantness aside, I am notorious for being clumsy; whether it comes to running into stationary objects or accidentally smoking out our apartment (more details to come). My roommate is an angel for putting up with me, but she is infamous for locking herself out of our room and even better getting lost in the crazy maze of an apartment complex we live in called the GrandMarc. The lives of my roommate and I are by no means mundane and average, we keep ourselves pretty entertained, and I hope that our stories will keep you entertained as well.
Our adventure this week began on Monday when I had the brilliant idea of cooking blackened salmon for dinner. This past summer I lived on my own and became quite a decent chef, I am by no means saying I am the best but I do love to cook. Cooking requires a variety of skills, most important of all is patience. Well to be completely honest, I haven’t yet quite fully developed this particular skill.

Blackened salmon seems easy enough to cook right? Just defrost the salmon, sprinkle some different spices on the fish, plop it into the cooking pan and wop bam boom in two to three minutes your salmon is done!

Just my luck it took me probably about 20 minutes to cook this piece of fish.

The problem began with of course my impatience at waiting for the fish to defrost. (I was starving can you honestly blame a person for being impatient). After about five to seven minutes the fish “felt” seemingly defrosted except that the two pieces of fish were still frozen together. You’d think that would have been a sure fire sign that they had not been defrosted enough. Ingeniously, I decided to use a knife to split apart the two pieces of fish. Future cooks out there, note to self, when working with frozen meat do not do this. In the process of separating the fish, the knife somehow got stuck in the fish and woops it sliced my right handed pinky finger (which currently is swollen and looks like the Michelin tire mascot.) When I say ‘sliced’ bloggers, I don’t mean that my finger was sliced off just cut pretty badly with profuse bleeding that took about five minutes to stop.

Once my pinky finger was properly attended to, I set back to working on cooking my dinner.
During the small crisis of finger cutting, the fish still had not defrosted quite so well, but with my impatience I decided what the heck I might as well just cook it as is. What should have taken me minutes to cook took ten times the amount of time. The prolonged cooking process led to me ultimately smoking out me and my roommate’s apartment. I should have realized this when my roommate and I both started coughing hysterically, but I assumed it was just the mass amount of spices I had used to marinate the fish. Long story short, the entire apartment filled up with smoke and I had to prop open the apartment door, open all the windows, turn on all the fans and gradually the smoke started to ease out of our apartment.

On the positive side, my roommate and I both had quite a laugh, in between coughing, and had another story to put on the ‘Door of Blunders.’