Spring Fever

Such an exciting past few weeks!

Let's start by saying, It's March!! Spring, Spring, Spring! I love Spring! Last year I remember at this time I was walking to class and saw a bee and freaked out because it meant Spring was so close it could sting me and the past few weeks have been just as exciting...

(Also the fact that I've been listening to country music ALL day has helped. I always forget how much I love it.)

Last weekend it was beautiful weather and my schedule included a baby shower (best excuse to buy baby clothes!) It was super fun and there was an amazing fruit and quinoa salad that I want to try to recreate sometime. Last weekend was also the first Husky home baseball games! It was a weekend series and it was so nice out I sat on those bleachers at Chaffey Field without a care in the world! (Side note: We won! Whose house? Dawg's House! Woof!) Last week was also the last week of classes. Which means finals are next week. Which is completely fine with me because it means Spring Break is the week after! Yayyy!

This weekend I was also able to keep the fun schedule of the previous week. First off (and not as 'fun') was my hunt for two things. Popsicle molds and culinary lavender. Literally eleven stores later I had no such luck. My endeavors took me to Target, K Mart, the Dollar Store, a spice shop, a specialty cake shop, among others. All I wanted to do was try a great new popsicle recipe I found and make lavender lemon cookies for a church function tomorrow (I hate baking so I figured I'd hate it whether I was baking box chocolate chip cookies or home made gourmet cookies, so mine as well go big or go home.) Quite disconcerted I called my sister Hayley on the way home (my sister Whitney who I live with is in L.A. visiting her bff so I couldn't call and complain to her.) To my disdain/elation she informed me that she had at her house both popsicle molds AND baking lavender. Saveddddd.

Feeling a little bit better about my endeavors to adventure out in the baking realm, and the reality it was once again, I got to go to something awesome last night in a fabulous mood. My dad is a graphic designer. And he's legit. He volunteered his expertise recently to something called the Little Red School House. For those of you who know Children's Village in Yakima (and if you don't you should) it is a similar organization. He designed these great labels for a featured wine that Little Red was selling as a fundraiser. Last night was the fundraiser event at the Little Red School House. It was really fun to get to be my dad's plus one now that I'm 21! There was a silent auction with things like a weeks stay in Puerto Rico and $500 wine. The food was delicious and they had my favorite blackberry Izze drinks for those who either didn't drink wine (my dad and I were the only ones there) or need a break in between their glasses of wine. It was so cool to see his designs in the public eye again and everyone was so happy with the way they turned out. I was beaming. He kept being introduced to all of these high-up people so it was fun to see him in that atmosphere. I think sometimes we forget that our parents are cool and hip and have lives outside of caring for us kids. All in all, a great night was had!

This morning I attended a Spring Brunch/favorite things party which is also contributing to my excitement in the change of seasons. My sister Hayley hosted and everyone brought delicious, fun, fabulous food. Grapes rolled in goat cheese and crushed almonds, basil mozarella tomato skewers, quiche, apple cinnamon muffins, pineapple cupcakes, punch, fruit salad, pasta salad, cheese, etc. We decorated her house very Springy and we both tried to channel our inner Spring fairies by wearing (theoretical) season appropriate clothing. I wore teal jeans and she wore pastel flats. All I can say is that it's a good thing we were inside because it was raining. The. Entire. Time. Along with good food, we had great company and a favorite things exchange. Each person chooses their favorite item under $7 and buys three of that item to bring. You put your name in a jar three times and then take turns going around the room after everyone's name is in the jar three times. Each person picks three names out of the jar and explains the favorite thing they brought and the three names they drew get their favorite item. I took my favorite dish soap everrrr (Meyer's basil scent) and Abuelita's hot chocolate. Someone brought sparkling cider and girl scout cookies, one person brought a magazine and dry shampoo, etc. Anything flies. A favorite kitchen gadget, a favorite snack, anything, you just have to explain why it's your favorite. And everyone leaves with a belly full of yummy food and three new favorite things to try!

After the Spring Brunch I went to my dad's to get some gardening stuff and then came home and made my lemon lavender cookies (I barely remembered to get the lavender from Hayley's this morning and turns out she didn't actually have popsicle molds so I'll just have to use dixie cups and craft sticks.) I vacuumed and folded laundry, cleaned the bathroom, and am supposed to be studying for finals now... oops.

All in all, I had a great weekend and it was completely Spring themed!! It was all about new starts, refreshing your mind, and getting things cleaned and in order. I tried new things, I got new things, and I met new people. I also started a map of an anthropological study I'm thinking about doing for my senior dissertation next year (or just for funsies) that can be tied into the theme of 'newness'. New ways of thinking and new ways of constructing imagined spaces.

Also a plus to my day, I painted my fingernails hot pink. I've been smiling the entire time I've been typing this. Just seeing the hot pink patches glide across my black key board makes me happy. And my plants are starting to bud!!

Happy Spring everyone! Don't forget to turn your clocks ahead an hour!

Gazpacho, a Box, and a Dead Fish Named Benjerman.

Six Months Later...

Yes, I'm a terrible person and yes it's been over six months since I last blogged. And this week was so eventful, I'm not even going to backtrack, so try to keep up.

So we all remember that I'm obsessed with anything Latin correct? So last August (also a story for it's own post) I went to Spain. Yeah. I went to Spain. And it blew my mind. What mostly blew my mind? The grandma of a Spanish family my friend used to nanny in Belgium. Yeah. Abuela Eva. She's literally thee greatest. Mostly because she taught us how to make gazpacho. I haven't made it since I've been back and I didn't have a recipe so I tried to recreate the soup from what memories I had. And it turned out Legit!! Cucumbers, tomatoes, cilantro, onion, garlic, green peppers, soggy bread, vinegar, and a tiny splash of olive oil. Who knew it could be so delicious!?!? We had it with fish and roasted zucchini. It was super good for remembering it from six months ago and off the top of my head if I do say so myself. Aside from accidentally dumping a bunch out of the blender onto my phone it turned out quite well and we still have a pitcher full in the fridge! Gazpacho for dayssss.


Next, there's a box. My sister just ordered two of these chairs for our craft room/loungy area (new since my last blog) which came in Wednesday. (How badly she wanted them and how 'long' the wait for them to be shipped to us is a different story.) So Wednesday they get here and now we have this box sitting around while we wait for our recycle to be picked up so we can then refill it with a single box. Life of the city dwellers I guess. So as we're wrapping up dinner the other night (See Gazpacho above) we start talking about how it's so big that we could fit in it. We then came to an agreement that we are actually going to keep it around for a few days to play with it.

If only people had been here to see it. Two twenty somethings (I'm 21 now!! Holla!!) acting like children with this wonderfully huge box. Also, we named it. Rodger. Rodger the box. So first we experimented with the box going on top of us and hiding underneath it. We explored different ideas on how we could invite someone over and then jump out from under it to scare them. Then we started gettin' crazy and decided to try getting in the box. We pulled up a chair and I jumped in. It comes up to my chest but I made the leap of faith. Socks on fox, Tayler in a box. I felt like I was in a Dr. Seuss book. Until it was time to get out that is. Whitney started tipping me which seemed like a good idea. So I leaned into it... and came crashing down. Now Whitney claims that I made the best 'Oh Crap' face she's ever seen and I believe it. I thought I was going to die when I realized that I was free-falling over because she had ceased helping me. I thought I was going to die (okay, I didn't think I was going to die, but I did think the fall was going to hurt mega.) But that good old Rodger broke my fall. His cardboard walls were just thick enough to absorb some of the shock and alas, I didn't get hurt. Box playing success! So, if in the next few days you have the nagging desire to play in a huge box like you're six again, our door is wide open... you may want to bring some elbow and knee pads though, just in case.

My dead fish named Benjerman. First I'll set the scene. A friend was throwing a surprise birthday party for another friend and in the spirit of surprise birthdays we thought it would be a fantastic idea to have fish races. We've done it before and it turned out quite well. You get two rain gutters, duct tape each end to seal it and fill them with water. Each person chooses a gold fish from the pitcher and puts it in their cup and names it. You then set up a bracket and race each other by putting your fish in the filled gutter and blowing on the water surface with a straw to try to encourage it to the finish line.

Out of all twenty fish that I could have chosen, I chose the one dead one...on purpose. Yes, he was dead when I chose him to be my own personal Seabiscuit (minus the Great Depression part... and the horse part... and the whole being alive thing.) I saw a star in the making. I figured if he was dead he wouldn't be able to swim in the opposite direction at least (a common problem in past fish racing experiences.) Let me just say Benjerman (named so because until I was a freshman in high school I thought Benjamin was spelled and pronounced with an 'r' so I name everything I can Benjerman to make fun of myself) was a fantastic novice. People made fun of me and laughed but at the count down, I put him in the water and started blowing. It took a ton of lung power (on my part) but we pulled through.

Benjerman won!! A dead fish actually beat an alive one. My first technique was to blow hard behind him to try to get a current going to carry him to the other side. That worked okay but it was no winning strategy. So about half way down the raceway a started to blow gently so he would stay on the surface and I would just urge him along with a light wind. Benjerman gracefully danced past the finish line and I had myself a winner. We kept this momentum up until he got knocked out in the round before the final bracket. That's right. We almost made it to the finals and only one of us was alive. And we did it with more poise than any other fish there.

Turns out thinking outside the box (fish bowl) pays off. Pictures to come later because someone else was taking them.