Seven Quick Takes: Mostly Cooking and Cleaning

~~ 1 ~~

I take back what I said about next semester being easy. I just put it all into an actual weekly calendar with colored in blocks (the only way schedules make sense to me) and there's a LOT of color and not very much white space. (Well, right now there's a lot of white space, but I know most of that is going to be colored in once I finish scheduling lab and work hours.) I guess I'll buy a crock pot and learn how to make crock pot meals that last for a week! Just kidding.

~~ 2 ~~

Actually, speaking of cooking, I'm going to try going gluten free this summer and see what happens. My sister has just gone gluten free and it's made a big difference to her overall health. That kind of stuff tends to run in families, we are (suspected identical) twins, and I have a lot of the same symptoms. For the record, I hope the experiment totally fails because I LOVE NOODLES and I don't want to stop eating them.

~~ 3 ~~

I'm also on the lookout for recipes that are easy to make ahead of time and then pack. I'm lactose intolerant, so combined with the gluten experiment, my old strategy of cheese sandwich is going to need to be rethought, as will my "noodles and cheese" strategy. Suggestions welcome. Easy and cheap suggestions very welcome.

~~ 4 ~~

I'm in the middle of tidying for move-out. For some reason that I don't quite get, our rooms are supposed to be ready for inspection (i.e., reasonably tidy and posters down) by Sunday night. Inspections are on Thursday. Are they just trying to make sure we get things done in time? I don't know. Whatever! Saves me some of the last minute rush to turn my disaster of a room into neatly stacked boxes. (Of course, I'll create a different last minute rush. That's just how I roll.)

~~ 5 ~~

Speaking of mess, packing, and rushing, what's the best organization book you've ever read? I have trouble staying organized and I finally figured out one big reason why: I like to have things where I can see them. If I can't see something, I won't remember it. So things that I need to remember to use on a regular basis, such as medication and toothbrushes, need to be visible. Something can only stay hidden if I only need it when I know I need it (e.g., Tylenol, spoons). But if I just set things around on top of tables and shelves, I start putting everything I have on there until my horizontal surfaces are piles of mess. Is anyone else like this? What do you do about it?

~~ 6 ~~

Did you see that the Boy Scouts now allow gay boys to be scouts? They still require leaders to be heterosexual. I will write a more in-depth post about this later, but I think this was a wise move pastorally.

~~ 7 ~~

Lastly, in orphan news (you thought I would have a SQT without orphans, didn't you? Ha, not likely): Recent negotiations with Russia have not yielded any results, and Russia will not reopen to American adoption in the foreseeable future. (Of course, with international adoption, the future is always uncertain.) Because of this, Reece's Rainbow decided to give the grants of waiting Russian children to children in other countries. Because she was my Christmas child, I got to decide which child would receive Aisha's grant. I was asked to give her grant to a child with DS who was in greater need, and I chose Mark in Latin America. He already had a significant grant, so his adoption is now nearly half paid for. He needs a family quickly--he is an older boy, and he has leukemia as well as Down syndrome. I have absolutely no idea what conditions are like in his country; I hope he is getting treatment for his cancer. But he still needs a family.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

I'm not so good at this blogging regularly thing....

Today is A's birthday, so we had a party for him yesterday. For some reason, I've become the unofficial cake-baker in our group of friends. I compromise on my moral values by buying cake mixes, because come on, I'm in a dorm. I'm not happy about this really, but the campus store does not have a good supply of baking ingredients. (I know this because I once made Valentine's Day cookies from scratch. Yeah....)

This year our kitchen has been restocked with things like cake pans, spoons, and mixing bowls. In an attempt to keep these things from being stolen, they live in a locked cabinet. There is one key to this cabinet, and a girl in the dorm has it. Unfortunately, at the time that I went to get it, she was gone. So I couldn't get at the cake pan. Luckily, someone had left the cupcake trays in the drying rack. Now I hate cupcakes for birthday parties. They are, in my opinion, too individualistic. The whole point of a birthday cake is that you share it. With cupcakes, everybody takes their own and you lose all the communality. (As A put it, "They're so American.") Am I overthinking this? Probably. Anyway, I did make them, against my better judgment. Cupcakes from a cake mix. What happened to my morals?

A's party was fun. We watched Les Mis and listened to music. His presents were a set of picture books that we had written for him and a parody video of Friday that some of the others in the group made. He thought they were hilarious. (They were.)

One of the priests in A and P's dorm gives homilies that I really like. I'm considering asking him to be my spiritual director. The only thing that makes me hesitate is that A doesn't think Father V would be very good at dealing with a crying girl, and that is going to happen at some time or other. A suggested having him hear my confession, so that will probably be step one. Also then I guess we can see how he handles crying, because apparently this priest is good at asking the questions that you don't want to hear.

Speaking of which, I had an upsetting dream last night in which I got into an argument with R that developed into one with B. It wasn't even that big of a deal originally, just us harassing each other a bit and then it got out of hand, with me telling him not to do something to one of my things, which he then did deliberately, at which point I punched him and ran away (leaving behind coat, keys, ID, and phone). In the dream it was snowing and I ran around to the other side of one of our campus lakes, to where there is a crucifix on a hill. I sat down in the snow and cried, and then I woke up angry and upset. I don't believe that dreams tell the future, but I do believe that mine provide insight to current stresses in my life, and I do have some B-related issues that I need to work through. And yes, R is (indirectly) the cause of some of them.

Keep praying for Kurt! Someone has donated $5.00 to him--thank you so much!