The transmission was a '53, And the motor turned out to be a '73, And when we tried to put in the bolts all the holes were gone.

So, it is 1:09 am. My sleep schedule has been insane for the last few weeks. My everything has been insane for the past few weeks.
I was just talking to Paul about the 2-weeks phenomenon. Maybe it is only me who does this, but about 2 weeks before any major change (move, graduating, new sibling, end of school year)I go completely insane. Not to say that I am not pretty insane in my normal life, but I like to take these occasions as a special time to be especially insane. I get simultaneous urges to actually appreciate everything that is SO GREAT about my life (manifested as sudden intense onset of Barnard pride, being completely enamored with every single thing my friends here do and say, spending more time walking around Riverside Park in 3 days than I have the last 2 semesters put together), and to throw everything away and take out a new lease on life (for instance, deciding--and then undeciding--to become a South Asian Studies major (whatever that means) and to quit Computer Science, amassing a huge bag of clothes I've decided I hate to take to the nearest place of donation (or trash can, if I get lazy), cleaning my wallet for the first time in months, and quite literally just throwing anything in the trash can that I feel I can get by without).
It is good, or so I have read, to take some time every once in a while to evaluate things, appreciate things, streamline things, and all that good garbage. But mostly the best part of my end-of-an-era manic episodes are the bizarre foods I end up cooking. This particular behavior is brought to you by my new-lease-on-life obsession, and has in times past spurred me to create such things as pulled pork, borscht, and cookies (I never bake). This year, the all important end-of-sophomore-year episode (mid-college crisis!) (is it painfully apparent that I have no concept whatsoever of the rules governing hyphen use in the English language?) has brought about two special dishes that I wanted to mention briefly, mostly because I felt like posting here and what else do I ever want to post (or talk, or think) about besides food?
1. Lamb curry. Any of you who live in Utah or comes to visit for the summer (which I think is pretty much everyone who reads this), be forewarned. I don't exactly know how this dish should be properly, authentically, or optimally prepared. But I'll be damned if I haven't figured it out by the end of the summer, and I'll be damned if you don't all have to try some strange (but at least marginally tasty) variations on the recipe I used tonight. This one was tomato-based (a mistake, I think, but a tasty mistake), and I used lamb chops (another tasty mistake). Next time, I think the sauce'll be yogurt-based, and I'll use whatever cut of lamb I can convince my mother to purchase for me at Buy Low.
2. Mole chicken, and further, mole chicken enchiladas. I'd been checking out this jar of mole at me and Anna's grocery store for like 3 weeks--I never took the plunge because the jar looked pretty shady and one of the first few ingredients was corn syrup. I finally bought the thing last week, and after a minor fiasco that resulted in Anna and I fishing bits of glass out of the oil floating at the top of the container (we are probably a little too cavalier about the things we are willing to ingest. I like to think of us as scrappy.), we went on to make some mole chicken quesadillas that were delicious enough to motivate us to use the remaining chicken (previously allotted half for chicken curry and half for fajitas) to make crock potted shredded mole chicken (is it better to say chicken mole since adjectives come after in Spaneesh?) (was this the longest sentence ever written? See what I mean about crazy?).
So what happened was this--I cooked the mole as directed, maybe like 3-4 cups of it, added half a can of tomato paste, a good shake of smoked paprika (I am obsessed), a little sugar, and a lot of salt. I tossed the chicken in another pan to brown it, because I am for some reason very afraid of cooking meat in a sauce, and then let the mole and the chicken hang out all night in Anna's beautiful, industrial-sized crock pot. Next morning, I layered that stuff with some crusty old tortillas we were going to throw out and a huge portion of monterey jack cheese (that we get at our grocery store for 1.70 for 8 oz.--no small feat here in NYC). I stuck it in the oven for a few minutes right before eatin time, and voila. It was ridiculous. Kind of like this post.

Rereading, I think maybe I will have to take this down come morning-time. Or maybe I will just let you all enjoy my insanity and congratulate yourselves on being more whole, rational-type human beings.

Just when I thought I'd run out of things to do on the internet...

Red Book

TGIT

There is this song by Darius Rucker called Hold On and it says:
She works all day to put herself through school
Cus financial aid doesn't seem to cover food!

Darn right. Not that I necessarily work ALL DAY.
But my point is, Who cares if country is cheesy? I don't.

You're So D*mn Hot

It's hard to generate witty things to say. In blogs, to people. But I think I'm over wittiness, for now.
It's because I've been reading this book called Goodbye, I Love You. And there's a picture of a rose on the front, with a dying bud attached to it.
Except I just wanted to say that one of my professors is named Shlomo. Does anyone know what that's all about?
So far, the New Year's Resolution (be friendly to people in my classes, even if I'm having a crappy day) is not happening. It makes me really sad to think that maybe being here so long has made me lose my will or ability to just be nice to people. I'm so over anyone trying to be aloof and thinking maybe someone will make the effort to get past their tough exterior. What has TV done to us all?!
But. I slept through my first class this morning (I guess I just wouldn't be me if I didn't do stuff like that.) and pretty much the same people are in all of my classes by now, so I asked a crowded elevator if anyone was in the morning class I'd missed and whether we had homework. So that was something. Now instead of scowly iPod girl I can be sleepy elevator girl.
At least I'm listening to some new music these days. Liza, the Monster Of Folk song you gave me is really growin on me. Emily, if you read this, I've been listening to the Staple Singers, Architecture in Helsinki, and Run-D.M.C. I'll get through the other stuff evench.
Anyone have any new suggestions? Any new obscure stuff I can blast in my ear buds on the elevator so a cute hipster physics boy will ask for my number?
Are there any cute hipster physics boys?
OK. That's all for now.

P.S. I just wiki'd Shlomo. Solomon. Duh.

Procrastinating!!!

Liza and I just started this blog, and were thinking of maybe adapting it a little to be a Mormon feminist blog. I was wondering if any of the 3 people who read this (one of whom is Liza, the rest of whom, I believe, identify as Mormon feminists) would be interested in participating.
It wouldn't necessarily have to be all about LDS issues as they pertain to feminism (although that would obviously also be a worthy cause), but maybe just a feminist blog written by people who identify as Mormon or whatever. And then, hopefully, those issues would be discussed along with other things...
I dunno. I just thought it might be fun and stuff.
Thoughts? Questions?

Shows I have loved:

Futurama
The Simpsons
That Seventies Show
Friends
Seinfeld
West Wing
30 Rock
House

Shows I wish to love someday:

Dirty Sexy Money. Only because it has Dick Van Dyke. Remember when he was in Diagnosis Murder? Talk about sexy...
Simon Schama's History of Britain. I loved the art history show he did, but I've never been able to get into history. A personal failing. Perhaps if I rewatch this show, Simon will coach me to a more perfect sort of existence and I will finally be ready to fulfill my 9 Ways of Knowing history reqmt.
How I Met Your Mother. Everyone and their moms love this show. Will it be another sexist but hi-larious exploration into how men and women these days get along a la Friends? Or just another boring CBS sitcom? Only time will tell.

Until then--I just started watching Firefly. The accents are a little goofy and the dialogue's a little too clever for me, but I'm enjoying it. I love watching Nathan Fillion act. He, by the way, was born in Edmonton Alberta.

When, oh when will someone offer me a job in the television-watching industry?

turkey time

So I've resolved to start posting again. Because... You know. Some things are happening. Because I feel my thoughts and experiences are important and valuable to the world. Because I read a lot of blogs and think, I have something to say about that too. Because I need more stuff to do that is not doing homework.
Anyway, I've been gargling a lot of salt water recently. I've had a sore throat on and off for a couple of weeks, and it's one of those things I know I'm supposed to do but don't know why or who told me. It's really gross. But, my Urdu professor tells us gargling things will help us think about how to correctly pronounce the letter that is transliterated usually, i think, as an aspirated g "gh" and in hindi is just a regular g with a dot under it. If you ask me the "guh" sound and this letter have next to nothing in common. But apparently this pronouncing this letter and gargling things are pretty much the same thing.
Some other things have been happening:
Yesterday was Thanksgiving. I had dinner with Auntie Em and friends, brought Marshall along. I love hanging out with grown ups sometimes. They were all clever and nice and well-dressed. And the food--
Highlights were brussel sprouts, Emmy's mashed potatoes with caramelized onions, and her bacon stuffing. Yummy cranberry sauce. Clear cream soda (creme soda?). Great gravy--sweet and a little translucent, almost. That's the kind I like.
I was glad to have a real turkey, even though I didn't eat much of it. Glad to say grace before a meal for the first time in a long time.
Today I met up with her and Nathaniel and we went together to the Museum of Natural History. We spent a lot of time looking at the gem collection--some really excellent colors going on. I kept remembering lines from mom's poetry.
I loved the ocean exhibit--I'm always fascinated by fish and water and all that jazz. Even though in reality they freak me out.
I couldn't stop thinking about how much the 2 year old baby I watch in the mornings would love the museum. I can never do anything by myself for some reason, but going places with him--getting a bagel, walking in the park, feeding the ducks--is great. Babies that age are just perfect little parcels of humanity or something. I get the meditative benefits of walking alone, but all of a sudden a turtle sunning itself on a rock is a huge event. And getting mud all over yourself is no big deal.
I guess it's cheesy, but I love it.
More soon!
Lovest.

Give me this for my birthday,

or just because you love me.

Also, this.

'nic!

Anyone who doubts the glory of UT mountains, look no further...

Went on a rainy-day picnic with D Cut, Tay, and Deej.

Tay made focaccia and salad, I made vinaigrette, Deej brought water, and Danny boy chased down the plastic bags when they flew away.

It's good to be home!

Schedule for next fall

03227 PSYC BC1001 02 3.00 Introduction To Psychology Patricia Stokes MW 16:10 17:25
05885 DNCE BC1135 04 0.00 Ballet I Allegra Kent F 12:30 14:30
26030 L MUSI V1002 02 3.00 L Fundamentals Of Western Music Susser, Peter M TTH 16:10 17:25
81296 COMS W1007 01 3.00 Object-Oriented Prog/Des(Java Kender, John R TTH 13:10 14:25
83547 L MDES W1612 02 5.00 L Intermediate Hindi-Urdu I Rajpurohit, Dalpa MTWTH 14:40 15:45

Let's talk about the weather.

Linda!!!



This was the soccer field the kids played at when I was babysitting Saturday. The parks are ridiculously beautiful right now.




Little girl I babysit took this picture.


Also this one.



Linda and Joanie. We are at a hookah bar so that Joanie can show off her belly-dancing skills, and Linda can show off her Arabic/Egyptian-speaking skills, and I can show off my baklava-eating skills.



Me and Joanie. This photo looks like it was very well planned but actually it was the only way we could both squeeze into the picture. We had a very cramped little corner table, which we only managed to get in the first place with our various skills. Actually, though, the last time we went to this place, Joanie got up and danced with one of the waiters. They were so impressed that this time they gave us a table even though they were technically not seating anyone, and on our way out one of the managers offered Joanie a paid gig on one of their performance nights. It's cool to have awesome friends.




BAKLAVA! We ate the cherries before anyone could take a picture, or else it would be even prettier. But really, who puts cherries and whipped cream on the same plate as baklava?



Little boy and girl I babysit at the Morningside duck pond.



Joanie dancing. It was hard to get a good shot because the view through my camera was pitch dark.



Fish we ended up feeding when the duck and goose weren't interested.


Formatting is too hard on this thing, hopefully the juxtaposition will be interesting for all of you and mentally challenging so as to prevent Alzheimer.

Loooooooooooove,
Eva

pixpixpixpixpixpix

Joanie, Anna and I (future suite mates--Joanie and I will be in a double togeth) went to Rigoletto at the Metropolitan Opera House last night with our English class.



The woman whose hair is in the bottom right corner of the photo is my English professor who took us all. The seats were pretty serious, but there were little subtitle screens on the backs of all of the chairs which was fun and made things a lot easier. The libretto was not necessarily enjoyable, however (in the program they defended it by saying that Verdi, the composer, had insisted on the librettist choosing words based on their sound on stage rather than any literary qualities, so it makes sense that what little there was would be lost in translation. Lots of nice irony, though, which is how I like it.)



Anna, Joanie, and Gigi--all on my floor and in my class. We got yelled at by the usher, but continued to take photos. How could we not?!



Anna and Joanie had great outfits.



You can't see anything in this pic, but I promise I did as well.




Linda wanted credit for these pics. I'll post one of her one of these days.




This was the Seder that I'm sure I've already told all of you about--it was excellent to be able to socialize with grown ups, eat delicious food ("Hillel Sandwich = apple-nut mortar + Matzah, Matzah ball soup = DELICIOUS.), and of course learn about Passover. And when it was all over I got to take home a Trader Joe's bag full of hand-me-downs home. Love Julie.



Jane and Julia, on our way to Julia's Aunt and Uncle's apartment for delicious scallop pasta, avocado and tomato salad, chips with Guacamole and bean dip (gotta capitalize guac as it is the most important part of any meal), and chocolate AND banana cake for dessert (they let us take the remainders of the dessert home with us, and needless to say they disappeared within a night.) I also still managed to squeeze in some moo shu pork and cold sesame noodles later on that night (a favorite on our floor--thanks to mom for introducing me to Empire Szechuan).



Marshall and JC! Ventured across the street to come see us.



Marsh and Joolia being adorable. Also, Anna's room being adorable.



JC and Dominique (other future suite mate). Adorbs.





Yasmeen being gorgeous as usual.

Aaaand that's all!

whining

I'm sick. I think the babies transferred their cold to me, except it's so much more intense for me because all they have to do with their lives is watch Maisey and eat cereal and I have 2 programming assignments to get done this weekend as well as cleaning my room (we're hosting an accepted Bnard student Sunday) and I was going to go to the Bronx Botanical Garden, but clearly that will no longer happen...
But here are 2 pics of the lovely ladies in my life. We sat out on the lawn by college walk to do homework (work on our tans) the other day when it was warm.

Roomie:



She's got fabulous bone structure and fabulous hair, as you can see. She's also a fabulous room mate. I'm honestly not sure how I could have made this transition w/out her.


Future Roommie:



Also don't know what I would've done here with out her.

In a nutshell: Strong, beautiful Barnard women.

stuff

-Housing is over and I have a kitchen and a window in my bedroom. Plus apparently, parquet floors. All is well. I just hope Yasmeen finds somewhere good to live as well.
-The fam I babysit for is moving in 2 weeks = longer commute for yours truly = waking up at an insane hour (like 7:30) 2x a week.
-Saw excerpts of Toni Morrison opera. Can't say I really liked it, but I've now offish seen her in person twice. She is my roommate for next semester.
-Still don't know what I'm doing for Summer, or for life.
-The weather's great. I know no one's supposed to talk about weather because it means your a boring person who has nothing else to say, but I think this is notable. It's been sunny and pleasant, or foggy and pleasant, or rainy and pleasant for almost a whole week now. I went out with the kids for the second time since spring break and hung out with them on the lawn outside of Lehman Library at the Nard. Little girl took this pic:





She's pretty talented if you ask me. I'm almost equally talented, as you can see:




See you all soon. I can't believe how quickly this year has gone.
Love you!

Me!!!!!

Shopping list for when I get my fat paycheck Friday:

-mammory card and cord for camera (finally)
-new razor (i think my current one is a serious tetanus risk)
-crazy high-waisted faded denim garage-worker jeans from h&m
-mu shu pork

Here are like a million pictures of your number one favorite gal!!! just so y'all don't forget how cute I am...



At "Anna's favorite lesbian cafe", Diesel, in Cambridge. This was on St Patty's day/Bam's b-day.



Snakeskin bag AND skirt. Yup.



We tried on outfits at "Poor Little Rich Girl", a vintage shop near Anna's house. I don't think they would have approved of us snapping pics in the dressing room.



Fer Cute!!!

....
And Anna



Wearing my (actually Ing's) fur coat and her shamrock sweater.




....
And a lady with cat ears



Anna didn't think she was that cool, but I really appreciated how her bag matched the inside of her cat ears.
Gotta study compound verbs for a few minutes before I go to bed now. Looking forward to the Indian dance showcase on Fri!

Canterbridgia

I've only been here 4 days and I love it already. The streets are narrow, the houses are old and the wood paneling on the outside is painted green or purple or yellow. There are parks every 5 blocks or so, and Anna lives blocks away from Davis square (cafes, second hand stores, an amazing taqueria), an amazing Greek restaurant, and an adorable old bakery (pics will come later).
Some highlights:
1. Stuie and Big D/Donna (Anna's parents). Donna is so thoughtful and interesting--she works in a hospital training young and at-risk mothers read behavioral signals and take care of their babies for when they return from the hospital. Stuie is hilarious, and constantly tells stories of his past in "the movement" at Columbia.
2. St. Patty's day feast--steamed cabbage (I've always been skeptical when dad made this in the past, but I felt obligated to eat it this time and was very glad I did. Dad, I will never poke fun at your penchant for cabbage ever again. But I still won't like Kim Chee), corned beef with mustard, etc.
3. Cranberry nut bread with brie melted on top. I've had approximately one million slices of this. Also, strawberries with gruyere.
4. Meeting Anna's friends and their crazy families. Waffles with her friend Eliza and her friend's dad, introduced to me as "DFic" and her aunt, cousin, sister, and mother.
5. Walks around Cambridge--almost everywhere we've gone so far in Cambridge we've walked to. It's been pretty nice out, and the houses and buildings are so quaint.
6. The luscious bed I've been sleeping in--it's a struggle every morning (or, to be quite honest, every afternoon) to get out of it.

I will post pictures later. Hope you all are enjoying your spring breaks (or lack thereof) as much as I am. Just kidding--love you all.

Things

1. Even though I'm really sad not to be seeing the fam over break, I'm ecstatic to be going to Cambridge with Anna and Julia.
2. Attempting to place Truth in the friend zone.
3. Saw Yasmeen in a student-directed play today. Love that lady.
4. Didn't change out of my pajamas until I got dressed to see said play (still went to class...)
5. Watched Made of Honor. Hated it.
6. Hated the sour-cream-and-onion pringles that I ate anyway.
7. Loved the "deep chocolate peanut butter" haagen dazs.
8. The room is a mess again.
9. Still don't know what I want to do with my life.

To Do/I Heart

Mama Locust did this on her blog, and I need a break from paper editing, so:
2 Lists

To Do:
*Visit Museum of the City of New York, Museum of the Tenement, Museum of Natty Hist
*Revisit the Noodle Bar
*Bring extra clothes to Salvation Army
*Take solitary walk in Central Park
*Lose 10-15

I Heart:
*Pump-up music
*Stir-fry station at Hewitt
*Studying at Butler Library (who knew?)
*Elastic waistbands
*My new computer!!!
*The photos I got developed the day before I left for college that are now taped up on my wall
*Writing lists

I don't heart MLA format or in-text citations.

Will add captions later--the mu shu is here!

Anna (in her coat Rabby), me, and Dominique on our way to Winter Wonderland...



Julia wearing Anna's coat and me wearing Julia's. We were going for Euro-trashy which didn't work out a. because we don't know what euro-trash is exactly, and b. because we didn't end up even going to the euro-trash party.




I have long since learned not to wear anything involving black when Anna is wearing Rabby--He sheds more than any coat I've ever met.



So fresh and so clean after a cheap harlem wax...



Elevator pics are always a good idea, except when you forget to press a button first and find yourself on the 16th floor instead of the first.



Marshall.



Anna and Marshall's lil brother who was up to visit last weekend.



Anna and Julia before Winter Wonderland.



Adorable!



The wood paneling is even worse than the stuff in my old bedroom!
Good thing ours is a lovely shade of robin's egg blue now.

P.S.

I have 90% mastered the subway system. As long as I have access to 2 maps and an MTA official.