24

I can’t believe I’m a year older. Twenty-four seemed pretty scary to me at first, but I’m warming up to the idea. I safely made it through 23 without continuing the trend of my mother and grandmother who had their daughters at that age. (So glad to escape that tradition haha.) I had a great birthday thanks to my friends and family. Thank you to everyone who sent well wishes, cards, and an adorable cupcake flower arrangement my way! (Ally, that was so perfect that I still can’t get over it!). I even had a call from my brother, Keith, which was quite surprising and highly entertaining ☺ . One of the best presents ever was that Chevie arrived in PHX. It was so good to have her back in the valley of the sun if even for a short time. We only had a weekend but we managed to cram our favorite things in. Here’s a breakdown of my birthday weekend.


Thursday:
Chevie & I celebrated with Champaign and Happy Meals ☺. After staying up talking, giggling and dancing around the kitchen we reluctantly turned in for bed because I had to work the next day.





Friday:
Jordan and Chevie met me for lunch at Sacks. When I got off work, Chevie and I went shopping and then to dinner with Jordan. We decided to make a quick stop at the Coach House to admire the lights and have a drink. When we arrived we noticed lots of Ohio State fans and the idea of leaving soon was out the window. It was so nice to hear everyone doing the O-H cheer or randomly busting out into “We don’t give a damn for the whole state of Michigan…”. It definitely felt like home!...I don’t think the Michigan fan enjoyed that as much haha.


Saturday:
We watched the Buckeye win (yay!), did a little more shopping, and then hurried to go to my birthday party. Everyone dressed up in their little black dresses and I wore my new blue cocktail dress. We ate at Grazie Pizzeria, which was super cute. It was so nice to have everyone out together. I realized I have more friends than I thought because we took up a whole long table. Not to bad considering I joke about only having 2 friends. After dinner we walked over to (non other than) the Coach House where we met up with a few more Fiesta Bowlers. We eventually left the Coach to head to the Sand Bar so we could do some dancing. Although the dj apparently had a liking for older songs that weren't even good in their day, we made the best of it. I think I must have belted out every song on the way home because my voice was scratchy for a few days. From the way 24 started out, I’d say this is going to be a very good year! Thanks to everyone who helped make it great!

Revelations While Cleaning My Room

1) I own way more t-shirts than one human possibly needs. I try to get rid of some t-shirts to no avail. Each t-shirt I have is attached to some memory whether it be from a college event, high school team, or freebie. It just seems like I’d be throwing away a memory.
2) I have the most amazing friends…no I didn’t find friends hidden in my room…but I did find all the cards from all the special people in my life. Tears were shed. Thank you friends.
3) I’m indecisive (ok not a new finding!). I can’t even decide which drawer in my dresser to designate for each type of clothing. I need help.
4) I want my own house fast so I don’t have to keep putting a giant puzzle together every time I get something new or want to put something in my room. I thought when I graduated college I wouldn’t have to live out of one room anymore. So for my birthday if anyone is wondering what to get me, I’d like my own place, please.
5) When I clean my room I always end up at Target. It never fails, really. I usually think of some item that would make my room much more organized and head out to fulfill my quest of obtaining said item. Unfortunately, I tend to add a couple additional non organizational items in my cart…oops.

Halloween

Three Blind Mice...

Three Blind Mice...

See How They Run...err bump into things

Our Halloween costumes were so much fun! We stayed in character all night. We even kept our glasses on inside the bar and used our stick to feel our way down the packed sidewalks of Mill. There were a lot of good creative costumes out there, but ours was definitely at the top.

Tigerland

After being stuck in the city for 8 months, I was finally able to take a mini vacation. It was only for a weekend, but it was one heck of a first southern experience. I have only been to the Carolinas and Florida (which may be further south but it doesn’t count in this sense), but never to the deep south.

Veronica took me back to Baton Rouge for the LSU vs. Georgia game. Our friend Dave flew in from Chicago to join in the fun and we invaded Veronica's twin brother’s apt. We got to hang out with some friends, have a few drinks, and watch football. There were a lot of laughs, impromptu dance moves from Dave, tons of walking / standing during the game, and not a lot of sleep.

Everyone I know in Louisiana. Cheers to being in the South!

Together again!

We could have totally made their Golden Girl Squad.

Needless to say it was exhausting since we arrived at midnight Friday and left by 4:00pm Sunday. I had such a good time and wish we could have stayed a little longer. There was so much more I wanted to do and see. I’m not done with the South and think a trip to New Orleans is next on the agenda ☺


Disclaimer: Although I enjoyed my time in Tigerland and even wore the color purple, I am and will always be a Buckeye's fan!

10 THINGS I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO THE REST OF THE YEAR

( in chronological order):

1. Trip to Baton Rogue and New Orleans with Veronica & Dave tomorrow
2. My favorite Holiday...Halloween!
3. The ballet opens with a world premier of A Midsummer Night's Dream
4. Dad and Patty's visit Nov. 5th
5. My birthday (November 20th in case you were wondering)
6. Chevie's visit on my birthday
7. The Nutcracker all December long
8. Going home for Christmas
9. Getting to see family and friends back in OH
10. Brandi comes out for New Years Eve!

I'm thinking the rest of the year is going to be good and fly by. I guess I can't complain about my life right now.

Bakefest 2008

For the past week I've had the house all to myself. My family took a trip home to Ohio so I took full advantage of having full range of the house. I even skipped choir and ballet. I can't tell you how nice it was to have my own place without having to worry about anyone else or their rules.
I was really looking forward to this freedom week so I could enjoy the kitchen. They left for the airport last Fiday morning and by Friday night I had transformed the kitchen into Rachel Bakefest 2008. I might have been a little too ambitious with my list, but I figured I had to squeeze a year's worth of baking into a short time frame. Over the weekend I went to the grocery store 4 times (3 different stores) and baked the following :

1 loaf banana bread with chocolate chunks
1 batch of linzer tarts
2 pumpkin rolls
2 pans of homemade cinnamon rolls
6 apple dumplings

My list was originally a little longer but I forgot what a pain it was to peel apples so I decided to skip the pies and apple cake. It's probably a good thing because by Sunday I was exhausted. Everything turned out fairly well. It doesn't feel like fall out here so I had to trick myself by baking all my fall favorites. Here are a few photos of some of the finished products.

The rest of the week I enjoyed cooking for myself, cleaning (or not cleaning) as I pleased, and having control of the television. It was a much needed break and I enjoyed every minute of it. The family returned Sunday night and I must say that as much as I didn't want to give up the house, it was good to see them again. Richie is as cute as ever and I missed his hugs and babbles. I guess if I have to go back to living out of one tiny room, it's worth it to have him back in the house.

If you like pumpkin, I highly suggest you give this recipe a try. I remember getting so excited when my mom would make this. It's definitely a family favorite.

Pumpkin Roll: (shown above)

3 eggs, 2/3 cup canned pumpkin, 1c. sugar, 1t. baking soda, 1/2 t. cinnamon, 3/4 c. flour. Mix together. Bake in jelly roll pan on wax paper sprayed with Pam. Bake at 350 for 15 min. Place on tea towel sprinkled with pwd. sugar. Roll up with towel. Place in refrigerator for 2 hours.

Filling: 8 oz. softened cream cheese, 1/4 c. soft butter, 3/4 c. powdered sugar, 1t. vanilla. Refrigerate until needed.

Unroll cake. Spread filling then reroll. Sprinkle with pwd. sugar. Wrap in wax paper and refrigerate for 1 hour. Slice when ready to serve.

A Love Confession

I’ve always known this deep down in my heart, but I suddenly feel the need to confess my love. I am in madly deeply love with bookstores and cafes. There is just something about the way they make me feel. They can instantly calm my nerves when I’m stressed, make me feel smart, organized, and aware of what’s going on in the world. All is right when in a bookstore or café.

I think my love for bookstores stems from my early days in grade school when my mom would let us order books from the book order program or from the book fair. We never had money to splurge on new toys, but she couldn’t tell us no when it came to books “because it was educational”. Unfortunately that mind frame has created trouble for me because my mom’s motto rings through my mind as I run my hands across all the bright colored books so conveniently placed on the bargain or suggested reading table. If I put it on my credit card, it’s not a bad thing “because it’s educational!” Last night I confessed to Jordan that I loved being in B&N and would be so happy and peaceful to sleep in an aisle surrounded by so many books. Weird, yes, but so true.

Café’s are similar to bookstores in the way they make me feel. Maybe it’s all a false pretense and I’m just being a poser sitting in a café writing letters to far away friends or blogging about silly love confessions, but I’m a sucker. I will gladly buy that latte to use your free wireless internet and have the brief sense of peace with myself. It’s not often that I’m content with who I am, but for some reason, sitting there I’m alright. And what could be better than a bookstore with a café in it? Nothing (ok maybe there are a few other fabulous and important things in the world, but right now I’m blinded by love).

Whenever I’m running into a café for my break at work, I instantly get jealous of the people lounging in the chairs sipping on their coffee and reading the paper or the latest book. How do these people get the privilege to do this during the day? I would love to be afforded that luxury in life. Until then, I’ll have to be content with my late night visits to escape from my living situation. I guess I have my living arrangements to thank for reuniting me with my love so frequently J

P.S. Even though I have a pile of books I need to read, if you have a suggestion to add to my list please let me know!