Done

At the end of my first semester at Mills, I was in the library during finals week when i heard a woman across the library announce (in a fairly loud voice for a library) “I’m done with my thesis.”

I looked up and watched her as she stood up from her computer, walked toward the printer, and came back to her computer with her papers in hand and repeated slowly, “I’m done with my thesis.”

I remember wishing that I had known her, so I could give her the kind of celebration that moment deserved. And now, years later I have just finished my own thesis, and I wish I could find that woman so we could celebrate together.

I’m done with my thesis.

favorite

This is my favorite place on campus, and where I spent most of my weekend.
I hope your weekend was swell :]

4 simple goals

I've been inspired by Elsie of A Beautiful Mess [who isn't, everything she does is amazing] to write four simple goals for the rest of the semester. So here they are:

1. Make a soup from scratch.

I have so many recipes pinned to my soup board and I'm determined to try one out as soon as the weather cools down, immersion blender or no immersion blender.

2. Go on a hike.

I've lived in Oakland for a few years now and I always hear people talk about hiking/outdoorsy things. I think it's time for me to try it out for myself.

3. Write a blog post with pictures.

Self-explanatory.

4. Go to a museum.

I haven't been to a museum since I left London! Unacceptable.

Do you have any goals this season?

what you eat

I haven't mentioned that I'm living in on-campus apartments this year instead of the dorms. The only thing I was hesitant about before moving in was having to cook for myself. I had to make my own food in London, but I had no pots/pans/kitchenware of any kind so I basically had to rely on there being a dirty pot in the sink that I could wash and use and put back before it's owner noticed. All I knew how to make at that point was pasta, so it worked out fine but I was aware that a diet that was 95% pasta was probably not the best idea. So when I got back I decided I was going to try to really cook this year, and luckily for me my roommates already know how to cook, so I figured it wouldn't be so bad.

But seriously, I can't even believe how amazing the stuff we've made is. In the last 2 weeks we've made pumpkin risotto, tofu stirfrys, broccoli fritters, and eggplant parmesean. Last night everything on my dinner plate was green! I'm so proud of us, and I really don't think I've ever eaten this healthy. I'm going to start taking pictures so I can share what we're making. [I promise there are going to be pictures here soon, and regular updates]

Do you have any favorite recipes?

<3

Moving [again]!

So, summer is ending and I find myself about to make another move from LA to Oakland to start my final year of college. I was telling my friend the other day that I wish someone would have told me that going to school far away from home would mean that I'd be in a constant state of transition. It wouldn't have stopped me, but a little heads up would have been nice. In the past 4 years I have not stayed in any one location longer than 5 months; I'm a packing pro now.  Part of me loves this, because it makes every year a fresh start. When I'm moving into a new room every few months it keeps things exciting, but the grumpy old man part of me wishes that I could just stay in one place for awhile.

Also, this year comes with a lot of general unease about what's going to happen after I graduate. I'm a planner, I like knowing where I'm headed. I can already tell that the fact that I have no idea what I'll be doing this time next year is going to stress me out more and more as the year goes on. Hopefully I'll find some answers soon to silence the plethora of questions about my future keeping me up at night so that I can actually enjoy my senior year. 

And so it begins...

I just got back from London a little over a month ago, and while I was there I kept a travel blog so that my friends and family would know what I was up to. It worked really well for me because knowing that I had an audience gave me more incentive to keep up with my writing, whereas I often leave my journals without entries for months at a time. During the five months that I was gone, I got kind of attached to the whole idea of blogging. So here I am trying my hand at it for realsies. I'm not sure what direction I'll be taking this in, the blogs I like to read offer a lot of DIYs and such so I might throw in a few here and there but for now I think this is mostly going to be a personal blog where I talk about what I'm up to.

Stay tuned!