Long day's journey into night

This day has been so long! I've only been up for 9 hours though, so I really shouldn't complain.

Jalene made me get out of bed this afternoon... I'm snuggling a manatee, if you were wondering.


We went to Coffee News to study. We both ordered the same things (16 oz dark chocolate with 3 shots of espresso), but she ordered whole milk and I got my usual skim. Well the barista forgot which was which, and would you believe that we couldn't even tell the difference?! I think it was because there was so much cocoa in it. So, I may or may not have consumed a milkshake... oh well.


A little later I ordered the Ahi tuna salad, made with lettuce, caramelized onions, tomato, pineapple, blue cheese and balsamic on the side. It was pretty good, but the tuna was a little too well done for my taste. I only ate about 2/3 of it... it was so filling! So I'll have leftovers.


A trail mix bar:

Some of Sarah's scrumptious garlic fries:


I finished my paper around 7:30, thanks to RefWorks (take that, MLA!) and went home for dinner by Chef Amy:


I had some steamed veggies on the side:


Here's what the gooey insides look like. I ate it with black bean and corn salsa. It was pretty good for a frozen burrito. The corn part was more like cornmeal, which I liked. I feel inspired to make a superior burrito from scratch.



My Bear Naked sample came in the mail, so I had about 1/3...
...mixed into 1/3 container of Oikos with 1/2 banana and honey. (Those fractions are making my head hurt.)


I'm headed over to Sarah's to watch Mad Men with Sarah and Carlye... it's our last tv night for six weeks! They're both going to Russia though, so I don't think they'll miss it too much :-)

OH. BIG NEWS. Sarah and I got tickets to see BRITNEY SPEARS in April. I AM SO EXCITED. There will be animals (and PETA) and the Pussycat Dolls. Sweet Lordy, I can hardly wait.

Have a great night!

Not in the cards

Remember this song? 'Cuz I sure do... I had so much energy today that I just had to dance around the apartment singing all my old favorites. Apparently I forgot to close the windows, however, because as soon as I unpacked my computer at Cahoots "Oops! I Did It Again" started blasting through the coffee shop. Whoopsies!

Anyway... here's a wonderfully awkward picture (and look at those eye baggies!) of me in the library with a dried mango slice:


I really wanted to cook... but I lacked time and energy so I heated up one of my frozen dinners. This was my first time having this Amy's meal:



I served it on a bed of lettuce. I know it doesn't look like the prettiest dinner...



It needed a little something extra, so I added a chopped tomato, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and chili flakes. Has anyone else ever noticed that no matter how much sodium (a lot!) there is in a frozen dinner, it's never quite salty enough?


It wasn't bad, and I'd probably buy it again. It did remind me how much I love real Mexican food; Kalle and I were just talking last week about how we need to go back to one of our old high school haunts, Mama Mexico. Another restaurant to add to the ever-growing list...

At Cahoots I got a 16 oz skim au lait with a shot of espresso and hazelnut syrup. Not as good as I thought it would be... I think I'll stick to the two drinks as separate entities. Max described it as "thick sludge." Yum.


I came home craving a sweet treat and had this Silver Moon chocolate chip monster cookie with a glass of milk. Heated up, it was gooey and delicious, and tasted fresh-from-the-oven good.


I didn't end up having time to make it to the gym tonight, but I'm hoping to get there in the morning to work off that bad boy and get a much-needed endorphin kick!

Have a great night!

Also, David Byrne & Brian Eno together might just be the best thing to ever happen.

Edited to add: please visit Heather's blog and leave a comment on this post; each comment contributes a $.05 donation to the Rhode Island Community Food Bank.

Invasion of the lazy girl

I took another whopper of a nap today... I don't know what's going on with me. Hopefully a little R&R at home will do me some good, and if that's not home, I'll be home for 6 weeks in another 3. I need a job!

I was too groggy to want to worry about what to eat, so I just popped this guy into the microwave.


A "broccoli bouquet" to hold me over during the long cook time (ha not really, it took 4 minutes):



I served it on a bed of spinach with Newman's Own (sniff) Lighten Up! Sundried Tomato Vinaigrette, and added some extra lemon juice to the fish and rice.



I watched last Thursday's episode of Grey's Anatomy while I ate; I'm glad they took off the supernatural sub-plot, I was worried it was going in the Lost direction.

My grandmother made this Raspberry- Glazed Chocolate Torte for a dinner party last week and gave me a piece to take home. In the words of Veggie Girl, Holy Yum! She gave me the recipe and it looks pretty easy, so I may make that soon.


I still have quite a bit of work to do before I can go home. Doesn't that always make it seem like the hardest to get done?

Raise the funds!

Good evening! Tonight we had a Senior gift fundraiser at school. Before I left, I was a little hungry, and had half a banana with Smart Balance.


The fundraiser was pretty fun; it was nice to see people I haven't gotten to for the most part of the semester. The only thing that was a little weird was that all the speeches talked about how the future gift drives would have alcohol... like they have to ply us with liquor to give them money. Strange...

Max is holding my white wine in his left hand...


Fruit plate #1:


Carlye is holding fruit plate #2:


I was going to (I swear) make a nice dinner for myself, but it got way too late so I just made a Kashi frozen dinner...



...and added 5-6 shrimp.


Jalene made brownies, so I had one with some pumpkin ice cream and a little chocolate syrup.


I'm hoping to get up and go to the gym tomorrow morning before class, but judging from my recent sleep patterns I don't want to put too much pressure on myself.

Hope you've all had nice weeks. Happy almost weekend!

Words will set us free

I went to a reading by Ben Percy at the Minneapolis Club this evening. It was hosted by Graywolf Press, and there were a lot of interesting writers and publishing folks floating around. He read a short story called "Refresh, Refresh" (from a collection of the same name) about a small town in Oregon that's destroyed when all the fathers go away to fight in Iraq. When he signed my copy, Ben Percy asked if I was also a writer (he heard me talking about my English classes to another guest) and I just mumbled something awkward. He said that when he was in grad school (grad school!) he was told he wouldn't "make it," and that I shouldn't give up. I don't even know if that's something I want, but it was certainly inspiring.


I had a grapefruit in the car before the reading...




A glass of white wine (two hours before I drove away, don't worry), a vegetarian spring roll and a piece of tuna on a crisp (x 2):



I came back and was L-A-Z-Y. I couldn't decide what I wanted, and didn't feel like standing over the stove for half an hour. So, thank you Ethnic Gourmet! I know I've been terrible about cooking recently, what with studying (and said laziness) but I'm going to try to do a bunch in the next few days.







I had a coupon for this chocolate a while ago and have had the bar in my snack drawer for over a month.

Look at my sad broken watch- this was the first real thing I bought for myself in Paris, at my favorite store Zadig & Voltaire. I think it'll be easy enough to fix, but my arm felt naked all day!


A little chocolate...

... and a rice pudding while I watched Gossip Girl (yes, you know this about me by now, and I am not ashamed).


I'm going to get in bed and read, and hopefully fall asleep before ten. Is that a luxury or what?!