Terrible pancakes, paintings and good music.

Well, I've been [officially] snowed in for two days. But keep in mind that I was sick all weekend, so technically... I've been a hermit since Saturday afternoon, minus a stretch at work on Tuesday. School's canceled again for today, but I'm going to try and get to work this afternoon. Wish me luck! I don't want to get stranded again!!

Anyway, being home alone, I decided to make the most of it. I started off by making myself blueberry cheesecake pancakes. It sounds like heaven, and it LOOKED like heaven. It was gross. I took one bite and spit it out, and then I threw it all away. 

In my defense, I didn't make it from scratch. I had a mix leftover from this summer, and I figured this would be as good a time as any to try it out. FailFailFAIL.

Luckily, my friend "Smeather Freelman" asked me to make her a painting for her dorm room wall that was empty. 

"You should paint a picture for me while you're home. My roommate and i rearranged our room and we have a wall with nothing on it. Have any canvases sittin around?? I'll pay you for it. ;) Black, brown, burgundy-ish/maroon... "

Ha- thanks for the description.

Well anyway, I painted her this anchor-like thing because she's obsessed with anchors. I should have left the "chain" off of it.. I think it's too bright. And it's not very... realistic. I'd like to htink that it looks better in person, but quite frankly, I am not an artist. 

She's going to like it, though. I will make her like it.

         

After that, I cleaned my entire house and did laundry. I feel so accomplished! I also finished Burn by Ted Dekker and Erin Healy. It was excellent, much like their other books. AND, I started The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I'm so excited! Like I said in an earlier post, the movies were superb and I'm sure the books will be more so.

I also watched The Chaos Theory, which is one of my favorite movies. You should all go watch it! I also watched When in Rome and started a ton of other movies on my free-trial of Netflix! (not to mention an assortment of 15 tv episodes)

Like I said... I've been snowed in. I have had an entire week without classes.

Moving right along, in another post, I talked about how I listened to Mumford & Sons in excess and it kinda put me in a not-so-happy mood. (This is only because their lyrics are insanely powerful and their music is rather mellow... and I take things way too seriously.) ANYWAY, I have found some "happy" music. Enjoy!

Cheers!

Snowpocalypse

Snowpocalypse: Intense, "the sky is falling" reaction to predictions of a winter storm, frequently used in areas not accustomed to snow.
[thank you, urban dictionary]


Well, it's crazy out there. San Antonio person speaking, here. "Little me" in Chicago was used to it, but "grown-up me" is absolutely not.
Yes, I love snow! It's pretty! It tastes good! Sledding is fun! 
But I detest driving in it. 


Today I went to work. It was icy this morning, but it wasn't too terribly awful. But after being at work about an hour and a half, the courtyard looked like this:

                    

In the middle of work, my supervisor spins around in her twirl-y chair and shouts, "Liz, do you want to make snow ice cream?!?!" I'm pretty sure I just stared at her for a couple of minutes, but eventually, we (she) made some snow ice cream. Maybe I'm dumb, but I'd never really heard about this other than in books as a kid... It seems like something we'd do as kids with my mom, but I'm pretty sure we never did. My sister and I used to pack snow into mugs and then pour maple syrup over it, but that's not quite the same thing...

We just used milk, sugar and vanilla. I have no idea how much.. we just made it to taste. Stir it up, and eat!

Please stay away from brown, yellow, anyothercolor of snow. White is the way to go. ;)

Anyway, so I worked for about seven hours before I got sent home because of the weather. They offered to let me sleep in one of the rooms in the nursing home, but honestly, that didn't sound like an awesome time to me. Especially because school is canceled again tomorrow!! Yay! I can finally clean my house after being sick!


So... driving home, the road looked like this:

SCAAARRYYYYY!

Quick story:


I'm almost home and my car stops. No moving. I put my hazard lights on and got out of the car with my ice-scraper. Again, I'm from TEXAS. I have no idea what I'm doing. So I walked around my car and kinda kicked at the snow... did some other stuff... got back in my car, and it was still a no-go. 
Out of nowhere, this chick shows up and asks if I need help pushing. I offered her a ride home in exchange for some manpower. We both failed.
But then out of NOWHERE, these two beautiful men showed up asking if I needed help. Well, duh, I need help! So one of the beautiful guys got in my front seat (at this point I'm too desperate to really care about him stealing it...) and reversed a bit and then drove forward. Simple! So I thanked them and Random Chick and I went on our way.
I dropped her off at her house and all was well!


So I'm turning onto MY street, aka an alley, and I notice that the snow is over a foot deep. BUT, I now have the knowledge of reverse and try again!! So I decide that my car is an amazing piece of machinery and I braved it. 
Guess who got stuck again? Me.
But I know everything now! 
So I get out of the car with my ice-scraper and do my kicking action, get back in the car, try to reverse, and.... nothing. NOTHING. (except the smell of burning rubber) So, awesome!
But then out of nowhere these two guys on some kind of snow-thing show up! "A damsel in distress?" Yes! Yes! Me, me!!
So they and three other girls pushed my car into my parking spot. 


Thank you, seven random Good Samaritans! You all saved me a lot of trouble.


Now, I'm sitting on my couch with my candles and hot cocoa watching the beaaauutiful snow. 


Cheers, friends.

I've got snow up my nose and a harp on my back.

Really, I do. Or rather, I did.

Happy winter!

I missed the snow over Christmas, so despite my initial irritation with the snowfall on the first day of classes, it was kinda nice. 

Right outside of my door is this bush-like thing. It actually looked pretty today. 

Then I went out to my car, and I noticed the leaves. Something about having a decent camera on this phone is making me notice things more, and I think it's a good thing. I get a little happy every time I see something worth taking a picture of.

I went to my evening class after a two-hour break, and the trees looked like this:

It was still kinda exciting to be walking around in the snow on campus, since the sidewalks were close to vacant. That's a rare occurrence, but I guess since it's at night there are less people. (It also meant that I wouldn't get any weird looks for freezing my bum off trying to take a picture with gloves on.)

When I got back to my car and realized that I didn't have an ice-scraper, I was more irritated with the weather than I was pleased. 

Anyway, my first class of the day was Music for Healing. The topic can be controversial, but the essence of the class is to study the emotional/physical/etc. connection that people have to music and how we can channel that connection in a positive way to possibly allow for healing, whether it be spiritual, emotional, or other. I'm really excited about it, since I love music, anyway, but also because it'll give me a chance to branch out a little bit, learn a new clef, and play for people on hospice. This is right up my alley. Yay!

I got out of class this evening and tuned the harp. Just so you know, it's much more difficult than tuning a violin. Hands down. Anyway, I messed around with it for a little while and kinda learned how to play a very simple version of "Amazing Grace." I just played by ear, but hopefully it's the same general concept for class, so that I'm not screwing myself over in advance.. Haha.

Oh, and last night I painted this picture frame thing that I got at work. All of the edges were smashed-ish and the paint was chipping. (It's a fairly typical black frame from Walmart, I think.) They were just going to throw it away, but I thought that maybe I could do something with it-- so, I painted it! I like it, I think.

Okay, it's been a good day. I am happy for the new beginning that the semester is sure to bring. 

Cheers!