Gas Station Cuisine.

Howdy. Happy Week 7 of Fall Quarter. Craz-i-ness. Just 11 days until I'm back in the 650 and I could not be more stoked to swim in a pool full of gravy (but actually). A few activities have transpired as of late so, in the spirit of blogging, allow me to reccount a few.

Let's start with Halloween. (Eek...has it been that long? Whoops). Even though I had no set plans and all of my friends were out of town, I was not about to let a perfectly good holiday pass me by uncelebrated! If you'll recall, Eric and I went as Lucy and Ricky last year though, of course, Eric just wore things he already had in his closet. Well, it was up to us (me, really), to top last years costume. Story time: in the early months of Eric and I dating, we discovered that we both spent many a morning before school eating Raisin Bran and watching Saved By the Bell re-runs (what are the chances, eh?) Since I already had the high-waisted shorts and jumped at the chance to see Eric as a blonde, we went as the two main characters, Zack and Kelly! Did I mention Eric went blonde? Of course, I practically had to duct tape his hands to the bathroom counter to get him to let me do it, but do it I did. I saw one lone can of temporary golden blonde hairspray at Target a while back...and I it was a done deal. So, if you've ever wondered what a blonde mexican looks like in light wash denim...look no further. (at my Facebook page)

Side note: that 80s telephone, though perhaps a slight exaggeration of size, was made by yours truly. Out of a saltines cracker box and tin foil.

And how did the Blonde Prince and I spend our Halloween night, you might ask? Getting Chinese takeout--which is a story in itself. We had both heard of this "legendary", "amazing", Chinese restaurant called the Four Seasons (lol) in Davis. Here's the catch; its in a gas station. No, literally in a gas station. As in, one moment your strolling the aisles for slim jims and a slurpee and the next, you are standing in a Chinese restaurant. Its fantastic. When you think about it, its a pretty genius concept; fill up yer gas, fill up yer belly! I'm telling you, keep a look out for it on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives next season.

As for the rest of my time here in CT, I've been writing papers, generally figuring out my life and avoiding poisoned salads. It looks like I'm one step closer to studying abroad next year which is quite exciting. While I have always imagined studying in the United Kingdom, I'm not too picky. As long as the cow scent ain't too strong and there's at least one English-speaker, I'm good to go!

Speaking of traveling...has anyone seen Interstellar? (Warning to my precious Nani: DO NOT SEE THIS MOVIE. I repeat. Do not see this movie). Its essentially if Apollo 13 and Inception had a baby. I saw it in imax which, at times, actually made me feel like I was on Star Tours at Disneyland. I tell you all of this because I had somewhat of a, shall we say, meltdown during my viewing experience. The movie isn't supposed to be particularly sad or emotional--but Matthew McCognahay's baby blues and my hormonal mood swings wrecked me. About halfway through the movie, everything became either so sad, so happy, or so poignant that it brought me to tears. Sobbing, blubbering tears. This didn't end when the movie was over. Oh no, I cried all the way out of the theater, all the way to the parking structure, and alllll the way back home. Yep. I believe my words were "its just soo beautiful!!" *cue uncontrollable sobbing* I felt like Chessy when she finds out that Hallie has been Annie all along and--you know what, nevermind.

I could write more for you folks but I must go give an admissions presentation to 113 high school students and parents now. Happy Saturday to me.

I will see you all very soon! The holidays are among us!

Adventures in the Orange House.

Yeah, yeah, calm down. I know its been awhile. If I had the time to sit down and write, I would!! I'm trying here, people. But due to the many texts and e-mails I have received, I suppose I can come up with something...

(This first part I actually started writing a while back but never finished)

Its been quite the week, friends and countrymen! It included medical issues up the wazoo, starting with the wonderful gift of food poisoning early this week...whoop-de-freaking-doo. I felt funny on Monday after work and decided against going to my 7 pm discussion. Turns out I have killer instincts because had I gone, I would have created what would have been the most embarrassing moment of my 20-year existence; puking in front of 23 philosophy students. Sorry, I'll stop the details from going any further. The saddest part in this whole experience was that I got sick from a bad salad. A salad. If I'm going to get poisoning, I could have at least gone out with a bang. With a food I actually enjoy eating (you know, like a hot dog or chimichanga). Confession: I don't even know nor have I tasted what a chimichanga is. I just like the way it sounds. So Monday and Tuesday I was out of commission, having no appetite and living off of saltines and free online TV streaming.

I was feeling better for about 2.7 hours, that is until I woke up on Wednesday with a plugged ear. No big deal, I thought. Happens all the time. Well folks, 2 days later and the ear was still. popped. I scoured wikepedia and scoured every solution and home remedy to popping one's ears. And I tried it all. Drinking water upside down, forcing myself to yawn continuously, chewing enormous wads of bubblegum, even something called the "Vasaca" method. (??) Nothing. Worked. This was slightly more dramatic than it should have been because I was growing nearer and nearer to my Thursday night Cru meeting (where I have been helping with worship...yeah. Thats a whole different story) and I could not hear myself sing out of one ear.

UPDATE: 2 weeks later, and the ear still goes in and out of plug-ness. Thinking I should have gone to the doctor a while ago. (2nd Confession of this Post: I have a slight, no huge, fear of going to the doctor on my own in college. So there you have it.)

Enough about my health problems, I am just 20 after all. A more light and humorous moment in my week involved a man and toilet paper (and you thought I was done talking about "health problems"...). Biking home and taking in my Davis-surroundings, I spotted a man. Dapperly dressed, suit and tie, briefcase in hand (no, it wasn't Eric). But cradled in his arm like a newborn baby, was a Costco 24-pack of Angel Soft. Toilet paper. Between his outfit and the t.p., I had no choice but to dream up what could possibly be going on in that man's life at that very moment. Perhaps he was on his way to a "Bring Your Own TP" business meeting. Maybe he was preparing himself for the end times. I'm open to your interpretations.

Another reason why I have been away from you wonderful cow-tippers, is because I was at Fall Retreat. It was a short and sweet weekend away from the cow smell and into the great outdoors. And sadly, the camp food was better than anything I've eaten all year. I did learn that I have a *slight* fear of raccoons. A few of us were huddled around a dying campfire in complete darkness, and they thought it would be fun to turn on their flashlights at random times in an effort to spot the 'coons. Well, every time they did this it elicited more and more screams from yours truly, as each time the light flashed the raccoon seemed to be closer and closer to us. Of course, all they really wanted was our leftover s'mores, but I was wholeheartedly convinced that they would have eaten me, had they the chance.

The only reason I had any wish to stay at the coon-infested campsite, was because my roommates and I knew that when we returned home, our house would be painted. And not just re-painted--painted a completely different color. Not a big deal, until we started noticing the color scheme they were going with on the rest of the apartments. Some were blue, some were gray, some were purple. And some were orange. We kept telling ourselves that as long as we didn't return home to an orange house, we would be fine with the color change. Who wants to guess what happened next?

Our house. Is. Orange.

I've never been a fan of this particular color myself, but I would have been fine with a light orange. A muted orange. A tan orange. But this is what my roommates and I have described this orange as: "a pumpkin spice latte", "cheap tanning lotion", and this gem, "someone throwing up cheap tanning lotion". Does that sound like a pleasant shade of orange to you?! It is revolting. Our coping technique is telling ourselves that they only did it as an act of festivity for Halloween. Or as a tribute to the Giants winning the World Series. (Surprised I know the Giants won? Me too).

I hope that helped my deprived faithful followers. I'm trying trying to be more consistent! Oh, and Happy Halloween Eve!! Tomorrow is Halloween and you know that must mean I have some tricks up my sleeve...I'm going to see an Improv show on campus--either it will be good and I will laugh, or it will fail miserably and I'll still laugh. A win-win.

Back with Sass.

Its meeee, its really meeee! Back in the town of cows and ready to kick some "bottom" this Junior year! Wait, what. Junior? Eek. Strap on your seatbelts, ladies and gents. This one's gonna be a doozy.

I know you all have missed my mushy mentions of the Prince, so this one's for you. We celebrated an "official" whole year together last month! We played hooky from church (shhh, don't tell Pastor John) and each planned half of the day to surprise one another. Well, if you know anything about us, we seem to always have the inability to pull off a successful surprise...this day was no exception. Part of my plan worked, taking him to brunch at a historic spot in downtown Sac. Well, that is after the 40-minute wait that I didn't anticipate. I also planned to rent kayaks on a lake at the Sac State Aquatic Center, envisioning a scene right of the Notebook.. alas, the weather had other plans. It was cold and windy that morning, and due to a lack of communication Eric's "event" had to start at 3:00. Well shoot. So we scraped my second half of the date and moved on to Erics--horse back riding! It was great fun, riding our new bffs Jimmy and Pistol. We had a private ride that went through old gold mining land and along a lake which we learned was-oh wait-the Sacramento Aquatic Center! So as we were trotting along, happy couples were kayaking 2 feet away from us. Ohhh the irony. We ended our day with a delightful dinner on the water with a view of the Sacramento Tower bridge.

I came back from that blissful day of adventure to find that all the new Freshman are officially back in town.  I know I shouldn't judge seeing as  how I was that Freshman with the U-Haul truck on move in day. But I think I've earned the right as an upperclassman to be slightly irritated when parents are walking in the middle of bike lanes and freshman walk through a round-a-bout the wrong way. Maybe I'll have to join the clan of upperclassman who set up couches on the first day of school to watch Freshman crash...

School is in full-swing (one week in) and I have a quiz tomorrow...the joys of the quarter system. I have been adjusting to a new 2-story apartment that, may I mention, has a nice hefty staircase. At first I was excited, seeing as how I have never lived in a 2-story anything. Now, a few weeks in...I'm trying hard to find the excitement in a nice hefty staircase. Its beginning to be somewhat pathetic how I now strategize and meticulously plan what I need to bring going up and down, heaven forbid I forget something and have to make another trip up or down. I feel my calves taking shape already.

Oh yeah, I'm 2 0 now. Everyone has been telling me that its "such a boring age" and "nothing cool happens when you turn 20". Welp, if you ask me, being two decades down is pretty darn cool. Then I started thinking, in one more decade I'll be 30. As in, appropriate-child bearing-age appropriate. *insert wide-eyed face here* So yeah, I guess 20 isn't that momentous.

My birthday was more like a birthend (birthday weekend, get it?) I made the drive to the utopia that is Reno, Nevada to see my sis! Moose gave me my first present of the weekend, a giant bite out of my chin. Its okay, his cuddles all weekend made up for it! After  fun girls weekend doing fun girl things, I trekked back to cowtown early Sunday morning, only to find the Prince himself cooking me a feast breakfast. After chowing down on some bacon and my second cup of coffe for the day, we went to church. Me and some of my best gal pals went out for crepes and accepted the fact that we were all turning into balls of sweat in Davis heat. But hey, at least I got presents. Coffee, candles and sock monkies--they know the way to my heart!! Eric took me out for a birthday date (sushi, per my request) and surprised me with a completely unexpected gift, a very nice big girl watch. Gotta love a man who knows a thing or two about good taste. I should also mention that my fave yogurt joint gives out free froyo on one's birthday. Obviously, I was not about to pass that up that bowl of sugar and artificial flavors. My friends advised me to overflow it, so I could save half for later.  Taking their advice, I jam packed that sucker with the heaviest and yummiest toppings I could find. And you want to know something? I ate the whole cup right then and there.

But alas, all good things must come to an end, and I was ready the next morning for my "philosophy of science" class. Sounds riveting, right? I was getting the impression that it would be an easy A class; that is until I went to my discussion section. We were going around the room introducing ourselves and sharing an interesting fact. "I like tennis", "I play guitar", some said. One girl, however, states her name, year and major then shares in the most menacing voice, "My fun fact? I'm a snake in a can." Crickets could be heard in the halls of Wellman. Unless someone can enlighten me as to what this strange statement may mean, my hopes of a piece of cake class has turned into a fear for my life.

Of course, no blog post would be complete without a Shelly update. Basket: 0 Bike Lights: 2. Sadly, the basket made its final departure this week. I'm sure I've provided entertainment for onlookers as I find a way to jerry-rig my waterbottle, keys, and bike lock to my handlebars as I pedal. The basket has been chilling on our porch where the mailman keeps mistaking it for a mailbox, proving the notion that one man's trash is another man's treasure. But! I finally got bike lights. Using a certain someone's employee discount, I got a pair of 175 dollar bike lights for 40! Yes. People actually pay that much for bike lights. Personally I'd be fine duct taping a flashlight to my handle bars, but one does not date a bike mechanic and not get the best lights in the biz. They have the same watt power as a car or something, and come with a USB that plugs into the computer. They fancy.

That is about as much as my little hands sausage fingers can type at the moment. Much has gone on these past few weeks that I missed, but I will begin my "regular" posts starting now! Hugs to you all!

My last and saddest post...literally.

Sometimes, I'm not in the writing mood. But you better check your gutters for golden tickets because today is your lucky day!

Thought I'd start with one of my favorite things; when people completely misuse the word literally. I literally could write an entire blog post--no, an entire blog, about how ridiculously often I hear it used in the wrong context. I don't always write them down, but when I do....they go in my blog.

Girl in Sociology class: "Yeah, we were really close, like I literally and physically stuck my back out for them". Okay soc girl, let's start with your first mistake; how does one literally stick their back out for someone else? Did they use you as a foot bridge? Were you offering your back for sunscreen to be applied? I don't get it. Secondly; if you are, in fact, literally sticking your back out for someone, then you are also physically doing it. I can't think of a scenario in which literally sticking your back out for someone wouldn't require some physical movement of the spine. But apparently in at least two different situations, you literally and physically stuck your back out for your friends. You go girl!

Alright, we've dealt with that. Now I can literally delete it from my list and sleep in peace tonight. I try to keep my blog lighthearted, but I must update you all on a recent sad day in my life. On Wednesday, June 4th, Eric and I lost our little Louie the Tortoise. :( I won't spend time reccounting the details of his death, but its safe to say he had some disease/bacterial infection. Guys. It was Ginger the Hamster all over again. I cried and I cried, we got Chipotle and I cried some more. He was just a little guy! Supposed to outlive me! I had gotten so used to having him around, singing "Honey Honey" from Mama Mia and replacing it with his name, and saying goodnight and good morning. My very first pet. The night after he passed away I insisted to Eric that something sweet would make us both feel better. Well naturally his death fell right in the midst of my beautiful cold, so anything dairy was out of the picture. Do you know how hard it is to find a decent desert that doesn't have dairy?!  Trader Joes Jo-Jos was the answer.

Louie will be missed dearly, which is saying a lot because I (though not as bad as my sister) am not the biggest animal lover out there. But Louie was my perfect pet. His only job was to sit there and look cute.

Well family, I think its safe to say that I am ready to. go. home. I had two finals last Saturday at the generous hour of 8am, which means one more for me to slaughter! Boy am I counting down the days. (there's 4. In case you wanted to know.) I'm trying my best to muster up the motivation to study for this last one--but you want to know one of the worst things that can happen during finals week? Your roommate discovering a new TV show on Netflix. No, no, that's not the bad part. What makes it miserable is when its a show about London midwifes. When they aren't speaking in British accents to each other (which I personally can't stand), loud screams and moans are coming from the mothers giving birth. And those screams echo. Throughout my entire apartment.

Cheers to surviving finals week.

Mountains and Meatballs.

Why hello there, my cow herd! I must really love you guys (or really love to procrastinate-you decide), because although I have not one, but TWO finals this Saturday...its been 2 weeks and I think I owe you some post-ige.

Where shall we begin? I face planted on the stairs this week. Whats better, is that I started to fall but caught myself. In a moment of pride, strutting up the stairs and grinning to myself that I had escaped embarrassment, I fell again; but this time, it was a full-on face plant. Don't worry guys, my body made up for it later this week by rewarding me with a nice couple days of illness! Yeah!! Wednesday morning I woke up with the intention to spend all day in the library studying epigenetics and DNA transversion. What a dream, right? But I promptly woke up with a nasty head cold and sore throat, leaving me bed-ridden for a day. As I told my mother, there's not much that reminds me I'm now a grown-up more than having to drive myself (in my sickly state) to the drugstore to pick up medicine. And then go home to an empty apartment and make myself my own food. And tuck myself into my own bed--sorry, this is getting weird. Of course, Eric eventually responded to my pathetic plea for company. I'm feeling better day by day, although my solo trip to Target yesterday left me absolutely pooped. Something that never happens; put me in a Target on any other occassion and I will literally run laps around the store all with a smile on my face. Its my happy place.

Sickness aside, I have managed to try and squeeze in some festivities during my last few weeks of school. Sunday afternoon all of my roommates ditched me to spend time with their families (lame) so I ever-so-humbly invited myself to crashed my two friends' pre-planned IKEA date. When I heard that they were really just going for the meatballs, I was completely on board and shouted, "I'm driving!!!" Who knew there could exist a place with cheap pieces of furniture, $1 picture frames and $4.95 meatballs?! Whatta business venture! Here's to hoping there will be a section of heaven devoted to IKEA-like showrooms and meatballs.

Memorial Day itself could warrant its own blog post. Quite the adventure was had. Playing mini golf a while back, our bet was that the loser had to plan a date. Though I lost by one point I decided Memorial Day would be the perfect opportunity to fulfill my end of the bargain. (Even though I'm still waiting for Eric's "homemade cookies"--game of pool). I had the idea to go on an easy daytime hike, you know, working off the meatballs and all. We figured Lake Berryessa would have the most trail variety and picked out which route we wanted to take. Naturally, we chose the path that was not only the longest, but was described as "EXTREMELY TREACHEROUS AND STRENUOUS". And naturally, we both figured the website was exaggerating.

The website was not exaggerating.

I must first mention a moment even before the hike started, when Eric showed up in kahki pants and a button down shirt.
"Umm, where are your hiking clothes?"
"These are my hiking clothes".
*cue an erruption of cackles from Cameron*
"Whats with the bags?"
"I brought us two Camelback backpacks".
*I peer into the backpacks* [There were about 10 Cliff Bars and Energy Jellies filling them.]
*Cue more laughter*
I gave Eric such a hard time for taking this hike so seriously but let me tell you, my words came back to bite me. In a big way.

I won't even talk about how we drove 45 minutes before realizing that we were driving in the completely wrong direction. Once we found the trail, we started off overly-ambitious and were practically sprinting up a steep incline. (that didn't last long). Out of breath and panting after 3 minutes, we trekked and we trekked, up and up, with no end in sight. Just when you thought you were going to turn a corner and see a beautiful view of the lake below, all you saw was another slope that was steeper than the rest. But let me tell you, the view was stunning. We took a little break and ate our thousandth power bar and drank from our strange water jug-backpack-contraptions. What really kept me going through the hike (aside from chanting the song, "The Climb" in my head), was the promise that the entire 5 miles back would all be glorious downhill. What we didn't realize, was that once you got to the top there was about a mile of uphill ridges on the tip of the mountain for us to tackle. Needless to say, Eric saw me at my worst. With the trail getting more and more narrow, we came to a point where we were literally rock-climbing with our bare hands and knees on an unmarked "trail" 1200 feet high on the the top of a mountain. Told you it was an adventure.

Now, rest assured, we are back in one peice (well, two peices). Overall it was quite the...bonding experience. Lesson learned: always trust a website. And always trust a man who hikes in kahkis.

It looks like my all too familiar hand cramp is creeping up once again, so I will end there. Things I need to include in my next, and perhaps final!, blog post for the quarter: Caila's visit <3, my new job, and whatever shennigans I get myself into while settling into the finals state of mind.

Story Times.

Hello, hello? Is anyone out there? I've noticed a lacking (as in no) response to my blogs recently. You and I both know that my these tales are really just a poor man's adventure and I never claimed to have anything exciting to say whatsoever. But come on, I thought for sure a ginger with a Marilyn Monroe tie hitting on me in front of a bathroom would elicit some buzz. Perhaps an e-mail from Nani full of horror at the situation. This is juicy stuff, guys.

But alas, if no one is reading I will keep on writing! I have a full list of items on my phone and there's nothing you can do about it! Although I must insert a disclaimer here; earlier this week I accidentally deleted everything I was going to write about in this post-the terror!!!! So what I'm recalling is straight from the ol' cranium. Just a good old fashioned stream of consciousness from yours truly. (And because I'm waiting for Eric to pick me up to go to Spring Retreat. And he is never on time.)

Earlier this week I took a little gander to the Farmer's Market downtown. Sometimes I forget its there, and then I go and regret ever stepping foot in Trader Joes and Safeway. We got a deliciously fresh dinner (where else can you buy Afghan food?! So good), and I supported our local farmers with a hefty bag of peaches. And homemade rosemary salt bread. (my first choice was a mult-grain walnut raisin bread. I couldn't stop "MMMM"ing over it, but with the Prince being just a little deathly allergic, that was a no go). Of course in our usual wonderful luck it started getting a little chilly. Then chillier. We left.

I didn't think this next story anyone would get a kick out of, but Miss Andi requested that I include it; so here goes. It all starts Freshman Year. Andi and I were enjoying the sunshine (probably eating hummus or Thin Mints), when we see a peculiar man stride in on his bike. You may now scroll down for photographs. This man was wearing what appeared to be womens yoga pants, witch boots (eerily similar to the ones I made my Mom get rid of), neon socks on his chicken legs and a cap on his head. On the back of his bike he had strapped a full-size broom with bungee chords, confirming our suspicions that he actually was a witch. It was a comical moment, but quickly forgotten (after I snapped a creeper picture, of course). Fast forward to last week at the Farmer's Market. I see something. Something that makes me scream and jump up and down and squeal. Eric thought I was choking but I quickly stopped him from give me the Heimlich and simply pointed.  It was the witch. Wearing the exact. same. outfit. Again, see picture below. (Broom and bike were unfortunately not spotted). I told Andi I had a surprise for her and of course I had her rolling on the ground when I showed her the picture. I swear, this stuff only happens to me.

How can I follow that story up? With a deaf tour, of course!! Yep, you heard me right. (Ooh...bad choice of words?) I had to lead a school for the deaf on a tour around campus. The translator tried to sign while walking backwards, but it took her all of 10 seconds to realize that walking backwards is for professionals, onllllaayyyyy! I felt bad, but what could I do? I talked using as many hand motions as possible. I think this trumps being called a tall midget by 6th graders.

One last little gem (I realize this post is more of a collection of stories, because lets face it; nothing exciting is happening to little old me). I decided that it would be a good idea to eat CREAM at 10pm. Then see Spider Man at 10:30pm (on a Wednesday). Then uncontrollably sob (I'm talking uggggly tears) for the duration of the film-but that's a different story. Sitting in front of CREAM (for those not familiar, it stands for "Cookies Rule Everything Around Me". 2 cookies of your choice with a heaping scoop of ice cream in between. Yes. Please.), I see a couple get into their car. The man proceeds to finish off his ice cream sandwich, violently throw his wrapper on the ground, and even more violently turn around and flip off CREAM. ...... Really don't know what that was about, but I wasn't sure if I should crack up or run for my life. I'm telling myself that he was so angry at them because they made him break his diet. Or something. Sigh, Davis on a Wednesday.

I just knew I would be able to write this before Eric got here. Too predictable, my friend :) Oh, I went to Reno last weekend and shot guns, but I'll save that for next week when I'm in the midst of Week 8!! Summer is so close I can taste it!


Update: as it turns out, I will have to post this after spring retreat. I have to upload the pictures from my phone and really, what is this blog post without pictures of witch man?

 

Spring '13

 

Spring '14

Sweet but not Short.

You probably thought I was going to stick with my posting once a month routine…jokes on you, people! This one will likely be brief. But you all know that I am, what my professors call, “overly eloquent”. I like words. So we’ll see how this goes.

I only have a few quick nuggets to tell you about this week. Though I was determined to write a post free of any tour guide tales…I just can’t contain my excitement about being an undergraduate campus ambassador!!! No. The only thing I want to mention in this week’s installment is the tour 5 fellow guides and I gave to a little group of just 200 6^th graders. Obviously my script went out the window when the very first question I got was, “are you a tall midget?” *commence an eruption of giggles* I knew it was going to be a “fun” group. What I didn’t expect, was one little black boy dressed up in a suit and tie, carrying an iPad that was about the size of his face. Eric?  Nope. Just a little 6^th grader who asked endless questions about our “financial aid package” and “undergraduate research opportunities”. I ain’t making this stuff up, folks! I felt I fulfilled my duty when after showing them our indoor rock-climbing wall, a girl in the group shouted; “I want to go to college!!!”

In the middle of my week while walking up the parking lot, I was greeted by a middle-aged man traveling down the parking structure wearing roller blades. Who knows why I find roller blades so hilarious, but it kinda made my week.

This weekend was a dandy one, starting with prom nightttttt on Friday! No, really! It was the first annual Undergraduate Admission Staff Prom…(and no, I have no extravagant “prom-posal” to report from Eric). We got all dressed up; well, I did. Eric just came straight from work where he was already wearing a suit and tie. It was a fun night seeing my fellow tour guides out of their blue polos and breaking loose on the dance floor. If only our prospective families could see us now. Davis would surely become their first choice.

One rather strange moment of my night came when I was hit on by a ginger while in line for the bathroom. (It was a good thing Eric was on the dance floor). To give you an idea of what this young man was like, all you need to know was that he had a blown up picture of Marilyn Monroe’s face on his tie. Stay classy. He asked if I liked his tie, and I replied in the most sarcastic tone I could muster, “yeah, I’m really enjoying Marilyn Monroe’s face starring at me all night”. To which he responded, “Well I’m really enjoying you in that dress tonight”………..smooth.  I wanted to laugh in his face/run far away, but we had to awkwardly continue standing side by side in front of the bathroom door. I was praying that whomever was occupying the restroom would hurry up; especially when the ginge started suggesting that we “explore” the rest of the basement where the bathroom was located. Ericccc!!! Thankfully right at that moment the door opened and I escaped. Work is sure going to be awkward on Monday.

After dancing the night away late into the night, I remembered that I had signed up for an 8am shift at work Saturday morn.  I was commanded to stand in a parking lot and direct people to our visitor center. Easy peasy. What I didn’t anticipate, was that there were about 351 other events happening on campus on the same day; a run for Autism, a vegetable competition, an engineering conference, a protest, a baseball game, a gobal health event, campus tours, and oh; the President of the UC’s was coming. So while I hoped I would just be directing people to the tours, I ended up having to answer copious questions about events that I knew nothing about. For 5 hours straight. Thankfully my friends brought me Dutch Bros just in time, otherwise I don’t know if I would have been able to stay upright. After a 3 ½ hour nap after my shift, I settled in at home enjoying a game of Yahtzee and a viewing of one of my faves (not Parent Trap this time); Les Mis. I always cry 3 separate times throughout without fail.

As predicted this was much more than a short and sweet post. There goes my title. 5 weeks left until upperclassman-ship!

Stress & Surprises.

The cows have not eaten me, nor did I get run over by a herd of bicycles. I am alive and must extend my apologies for the delay in posting. It has certainly not been by choice! Believe it or not, I keep a running list of weird/interesting/mundane experiences I encounter on my phone. Well, I have watched the list grow longer everyday and have been itching to tell you all about it! So HERE I AM!

It must come with some irony to all of you that I left you on a bit of a cliffhanger with "Part I". And now, Part II. I'm sorry to let you down, but it really isn't too exciting. Well, it is for me. But then again I find excitement in buying a new toothbrush. It was the official "Decision Day" for incoming Freshman (personally everyday feels like decision day to me with the hoards of students I lead around campus everyday....where do they all come from??). We had about 20,000x the amount of visitors we normally have; as if walking backwards wasn't enough, I had to be extra careful not to step on all of the freshman that were running around. A few tours down, I was so ready to bike on home and not answer any more questions about meal plans and class sizes. But wait. I forgot that I had signed up to attned an open house for the Anthropology department. I figured I would mingle with families and steal some finger food. So you can imagine my terror when I got there and learned that I was one of three students on a student PANEL presentation. It was intimidating and I really couldn't tell you what presumabley misinformation I relayed to the poor students, but I survived. (biggest disappointment was that there were no hors d'oevures).

You could say the tour guiding biz is keeping me busy. So let's go ahead and throw another job in the mix. I met a family in the area and am now a babysitter to 3. (At this point I'm wondering if I will ever retire from babysitting). But a little extra cash doesn't hurt, and it is refreshing to be around little ones who don't even know what the word "college" means (I tell them I'm in "14th grade". You can imagine their faces).

Davis had another exciting event this month; Picnic Day! The largest student run open house in the country! According to my script, that is. And what did I do to enjoy the festivities?? I stood by a door in my little blue polo and told people where the bathroom was. Saw more booty shorts and bro tanks than any person should ever have to see, then I went home. Twas an exhilarating day.

In the midst of my crazy schedule this quarter, trying to balance tough classes, jobs, leading bible study and dance classes, I was met with the most pleasant surprise at my door step last week. A fun and festive package from my lovely seester! (I know I'd be in deep doo-doo if I didn't give her a shout out...) It was filled with all the little things that make me happy; glitter, nail polish and brownies. And even some crayzee socks for Mr. Eric! A much needed little brown box of happiness!

Some more happiness came my way recently in a surprise outing with Eric. We went on the ever-chliche first date we should have gone months ago; mini golf! No game between the two of us can go down without a bet; this time, the loser had to plan the next date. Well, I lost. By one point. Haven't planned a date yet...but then again, I'm still waiting for the homemade cookies we shook on during a game of pool a while back.

Before venturing on home to celebrate Easter with the fam, I made my way to San Fran for a spontaneous Switchfoot concert! Yes, I've already seen them live. Yes, it was an hour and a half away. And yes, I bought my ticket 3 days before. I couldn't resist! I went with a few girlfriends and proved that I am a good luck charm at concerts. Last time I saw them, Jon Foreman walked through the audience right in front of me (I touched his back). This time, Jon Foreman walked through the audience right in front of me again (I touched his forearm).

Whew. That was a doozy and I now have a wrist cramp. To be honest, I didnt even cover half of the items of my list. But perhaps that can wait until Part 3 ;)

Before I go I must mention my wonderful weekend! With sweets every which way I turned, it was nothing short of a grand ol' time! Nothing like waking up to Nubbins slobber and going to bed hearing flatulence coming from the brother in law down the hall. How I love home!

Tour Guide Tales Pt 1

Hello my faithful blogees! I am back in action after a restful spring break that was far too short. There's nothing quite like some good food and family time to get you feeling ready to take on the new quarter! 3 days in and I'm settling into the familiar feeling of business. Classes include Anthropology, Molecular Biology and Sociology; oh my!! Though I was most terrified of my Molecular and Cellular Biology class (anyone want to guess what the heck that is? not me.), my nerves were instantly calmed when I saw that the professor had written the power points in Comic Sans. Comic Sans; the font of Kindergarten teachers around the world. I don't think I've got anything to worry about.

You and I both know that my life became even more eventful after beginning my job as a tour guide. In the spirit of Tour Guide Tales, I must tell you about a few recent experiences.  Though it feels like I am a non-stop walking and talking machine, my first tour was just a few weeks ago. Thankfully it wasn't raining (more on that later), and I had a fairly small group. All I will say is that there was a 4-year-old Indian toddler who insisted at walking right in front of my toes, looking up at me and beaming like I was a magical sugar plum fairy.  I'm flattered, little girl, but your constant stepping on my toes is making me trip like no one's business. I let her hold my water bottle for a portion of the tour (which she of course held like it was baby Jesus himself) and practically followed me into the staff room when the tour was over.  She's lucky she was cute, but I have to ask myself; what does a 4-year-old Indian toddler want with a tour of a University? Starting them reeeal early, I suppose.

I figured with a fairly harmless first tour out of the way, things could only get better (though I left with a hefty sore throat). Wrong. The other day I gave a tour; your average, run of the mill tour. The sky seemed gloomy as we left, but I figured an hour wouldn't kill us.

It killed us. About halfway into my Biological Sciences shpeel (is that a real word? It is now) I felt the first couple of raindrops.  Definitely bearable, so I carried on. One by one, these drops began to fall harder and harder until out of nowhere came I complete storm. People were stepping in puddles and thrusting their jackets over their heads and trying to hide under trees. I for one had come prepared with my handy unisex tour guide rain jacket-until I realized that putting the hood on only completely covered my eyes. As it was rainning so hard that there were literally puddles in my shoes, I didn't know whether I should stop, laugh cry, crack a good ol' corny joke.  I personally just wanted to clench my hands into fists, look into the heavens and shout, "WHYYYYYY???" But I did what any good tour guide would do; I simply talked through the entire script without hesitating. We made it back safe and sound (barely) and I made my way to the bathroom mirror. My hair was completely soaked and dripping down my face. I'm talking fresh out of the shower, major drenchage. I had random bits of leaf on my cheek that quite honestly made me feel pretty cool. Like I was part of an Amazonian tribe.

So there you go. Just a day in the life in this crazy, monsoon of a cowtown.

P.S. I label this "Part 1" because Decision Day is this Saturday. The day where every admitted student comes to campus. At once. We were trained at our staff meeting tonight on how to use a megaphone and how to walk the route in a backwards direction (as if walking backwards wasn't difficult enough) because we will have 50-60 people per group. Did I mention I'm doing tours back to back and we have to wear slacks to look important? So thats why "Part 1". Excitement is sure to come.

The Vocabulary of Agnus.

Tuesday Salutations to you all! Look at that, a post less than a week after the last! And during finals week, not to mention! You all are spoiled ;) I should start this off by stating that it is 1:33 in the afternoon and I have not showered nor changed out of my pajamas nor gotten off the couch. I wish I could say I'm enjoying a lazy lounging day...but alas, I have been studying for finals. Mine are in the very last time slots of Friday and Saturday, so as you can imagine it has been very difficult not to procrastinate. I'm also going to have the apartment to myself over the weekend, which means throwing a DEEP CLEANING PARTY!!!...with me myself and I.

I apologize if this post is a bit of a doozy. An unexpected event occured that I thought you might get a kick out of.

A box of Safeway brownies have found their way to my line of sight on the coffee table next to me. And I'm eating them like its my day job. How did they get there, you may ask? Well, its a story. It all started yesterday as I was leaving class...

I had already spent the morning irritated that I had to drive around the parking structure for 23 minutes; which, by the way, forced me to park in a compact-only spot. I was happy to have finally found a free space, but not so happy when I rammed my front bumper into a pole in an effort to squeeze into a space my car was much to small for. Sigh. Anyways, after class I was hungry and more than ready to go home. Eric told me he woke up sick, so I decided to delay my lunch and be a nice girlfriend, bringing him tissues and make him lunch. I mention this, because he asked me if I could drop off a form on campus for him. No biggie, I thought. It will take 5 minutes, I thought. Because of my wrong thinking, I parked at a meter parking spot and gave myself 20 minutes. I rummaged around my backseat to get the darn form, closed the door, and went on my merry way. Crap. I stopped in my tracks. I had locked my keys in my car. Being the prime peice of alumminum that he is, Wuzzy's doors lock manually. I had set my keys down (to grab the darn form), and locked the doors too early. Whoooopsies.

Of course I didn't know what to do, so I called the Faj. Thankfully I had taken my wallet and phone out of the car so I was able to call StateFarm. A lovely lady named Susan assured me that someone would be there in 30 minutes. I was hoping to leave for a bit to get some food and kill time-but wait! The ticking of the meter reminded me that I had 7 minutes left. And I was NOT about to get a ticket on TOP of the key situation. So there I sat, cursing Eric's darn form, for 30 minutes. Then 40 minutes. Then 50. Finally after an hour, he calls saying he'll "be there in 10".....bear in mind, I have not eaten since breakfast and it is past 4 oclock. Mama Bear is not happy. 15 minutes later, he calls me; "Where are you? I don't see you"; as it turns out, he was in the completely wrong parking lot. I re-directed him to find me, and next thing I know a crumby Honda civic pulls up with the words "Road Side Assistance" written on its door with window paint. Out walks a tough Mexican with tattoos and some jenky looking tools in his hands. Within 2 seconds my door was unlocked and off he went. The whole thing was just sketch. But in the end, I retrieved Wuzzy's keys and yes; finally ate lunch.

Back to the brownies. In my grumpy-state I may or may have not blamed Eric for the car situation; "If you hadn't made me turn in your form this never would have happened!!!" Ahh, aren't girlfriends just the best? So how does Eric respond? He pulls his sick self out of bed and shows up at my apartment with flowers and BROWNIES. (And strawberries. I was kinda most excited about that). Nani recently questioned our relationship, as in my last post I didn't bring Mr E up until "the seventh paragraph". Here ya go, Nans; he has bumped up to paragraph 4! And he is as sweet as ever!

So that was yesterday. Oh right, and it was finals week AND St. Patricks Day. I'm Irish!! I experienced no luck whatsoever!! Maybe its because the only green I was wearing was a necklace...

Alright Alright, now on to what I promised; the infamous tales of my Design professor. We'll call her Agnus, just to be safe. Like I said, I have collected some of the things she has said and crammed them into the margin of my notes during class. Enjoy some of Agnus's made of vocabulary:

-Witholden (this might be a word...it just sounded strange)
-Engine-it-y (supposed to be "Ingenuity")
-Ingeniousity
-Flying Buttress (okay, this was just some architecture thing...but I thought it'd be a pretty killer band name.)
-Pantheonistic
-Or some combination thereof.
-This was good for the horses, much less cut off their air supply.
-Where the metal meets the road (pretty sure thats not the phrase)
-My order's too quickly done for being in a different order....(huh?)
-Intelligentable
-I want to spend a couple of times talking about this. (said twice in the quarter)
-Its a work in process.
-I looked today and they didn't weren't there.
-Fanciful idea.
-I'm sorry guys, I just don't know enough about this topic.
-Watch the whole process from start to scratch. (my personal fave)
- Volume-us (supposed to be "voluminious")
-This machine is super more powerful.
...And the grand finale for the quarter; "I don't know how to say that". Story of your life, Agnus.

Bus Insanity & Queen.

Well hello there! Welcome back! Kick off your shoes, stay a while.

Busy has been my middle name for this past week! The weather seems to be matching the state of mind; frantic and all over the place. I went from rain jacket to tank top in the matter of two days! I have been excited to finally have an appropiate climate to wear my rainboots, because I am definitely that girl who wears them even when its not raining.

As I mentioned previously, its about that time of the month....no, people. My time came to certify as an "official" tour guide. I've had 3 weeks to memorize the script(s); piece of cake, right? Ha. After begrudgingly recruiting friends and significant others to practice the whole route with me, I scheduled to certify on the rainiest day of the week. Awesome.  I was wearing a hood and a scarf that covered half my face so I'm pretty certain she had no idea what I was saying. I felt good the entire time; but alas, she calculated up my "points" and I was one short. What mistakes did I make, you may ask? One. Juuuust one. I finished 8 minutes early. Yes, you heard me right; apparently promptness is of most importance (I was clearly not aware of this). I should have known, as this is kind of becoming the story of my life. i.e. missing zero mistakes on my driving test, but automatically failing because my tire hit the curb as I was parallel parking. 

So then I got to try again.  With my trusty stopwatch by my side, nothing was going to get in my way! Not so fast there, Cameron. Bam, I get sick with a sore throat. AWESOME. First go around its pouring, and the second I am sick. By some miracle I whispered my way through the tour and finally certified (on time)! My first solo tour will be this Friday! I celebrated with a little adventure to Fentons, where single scoops come in the form of triples. Probably the best thing to cure my sore throat, right?? Eh, no regrets. Moving on from that experience(s), I enjoyed some good ol' rainy day essentials.  Namely, taking a wack at Nani's Chicken Noodle Soup recipe. I know, chicken noodle soup on  rainy sick day; I'm a walking cliche. The only thing I forgot was the parsley so I consider that quite the success.

As you know, I tend to be the victim of strange and odd behaviors and situations. How about this little mid-week nugget for ya'll: I am tranquilly sitting on the bus engrossed in a game of soduku on my phone. On walks a fellow college student and shouts, at the top of her lungs "oh my GOSH!!!!" I'm talking bus-shaking loud. I glance back to make sure she didn't get her head caught in the window or something, and she's just sitting there, completely calm. "Oh, sorry." she mumbles back to me. Feeling perplexed but not thinking much of it, I sit for a few more moments before I hear "I HATE MY LIIIIFE!!!!" Again, look back and she stares blankly as though nothing has happened. I had no idea if I should try to console her or run for my life, but the bus started moving so there I was, stuck with the crazy. As the wheels on the bus went round and round I braced myself for her next statement. But there was nothing. Just chilling silence. We finally stopped and she ran; no, sprinted off the bus wearing a completely different outfit. Um. I'm just going to chalk this one up to mad cow or something.

The past two weeks have been cray-flipping-zy for me otherwise. Between "staff meetings" (aka getting paid to eat free food), and finals quickly approaching I find myself in the midst of a group research project on chalkboard paint.  I have had the misfortune of working with a group that has been nothing but miserable, as I have tried and tried to meet up but they are always no-shows. Well, the other day the teacher asked to talk to me after class (what I call getting called to the Principle's office) and informed me that my group has been complaining that I  have not tried to meet up with them. Me!! Ugh. This is what dreams are made of.

In other school news I am officially, officailly, declared as Human Development. Took long enough, right?! I had to get a whole lot of signatures but I am finally in the system. Let's pray I don't try to change now.

I did manage to squeeze in one fun social event before the end of the quarter. I attended Mock Rock, a lipsyncing competition. Has there ever been an event more perfect for me?!?! I think not. I knew I was in the perfect group when one member had the idea of "Bohemiem Rhapsody". ONLY MY FAVORITE SONG. I somehow found myself nominated to be the "lead singer" and have no idea why. I mean, I know every lyric to the 9-minute song. But still. I had a lot of fun performing in my tutu and fairy wand and became visually blinded after witnessing Eric be the only male dancing on stage to "The Climb".

I hope to end the quarter with at least one more blog post, and you should definitely get pumped. From day one, I have recorded all of the grammatically incorrect and messed-up phrases my professor has said, and I intend to record them all for you to enjoy. I'm waiting until the very last day of class, just to be sure I catch all of the gems. But until then, my faithful followers, adu.

Wuzzy Woes

Woahhh there, familia. You thought you had lost me for good, eh? N E V E R . *cue evil laugh* But really. I have been all over California for the past 2 weeks so my apologies for not writing sooner. I know the question on everyone's mind; "What grand, romantic, over-the-top gesture did Prince Eric whip up for Valentine's Day?!?!?!" That would be leaving me by myself at my apartment to eat a free cupcake from my leasing office, pink pancakes for dinner, an episode of American Idol and going to bed at 8pm. In his defense, we were leaving for the Happiest Place on Earth the next day, so there was that. We found it ironic that the two cheesiest and pro-Valentines day advocates didn't even see each other on the Day of lurrrve. But I mean...Disneyland!!!

We had our fair share of adventures on the way, but since they didn't take place in Cowtown I am not permitted to share them on this blog. Sorry. Okayfine. We experienced some car troubles that I have since named the "Wuzzy Woes". Poor fellah got a little frog in his throat (otherwise known as metal shavings in his compressor). I wasn't about to go act like an adult and talk to a car mechanic, so I handed the reigns over to Eric on that one. Wuzzy is all bettah now, and we made it home safe and sound! Plus, bonus point; we even got away with not worrying Nani, which is always a great thing! ;)

We provided third-wheel entertainment to Eric's twin brother, who we also drove to LA. It was all fun and games until someone gave him control of the music; crooning country for 5 hours, people. Wasn't expecting that when I have become so accustomed to Eric's Sinatra playlists. They aren't identical twins, so what can ya do. Disneyland itself was as magical as ever! I had warned Eric that Disneyland turns me into a 5-year-old girl...I was giddy to say the least.  I was pleased to find that Eric shared my distain for Its a Small World and my love for cotton candy. We frolicked to our heart's desire and left with one too many cliche Disneyland pictures.

This past weekend I took a gander back to the Bay. Its no Disneyland, but it sure is up there ;) I stopped in Berkeley on my way; it was my first time and I had only heard about how "butt ugly" the campus was. As much as it kills me to admit it, Berkley is beautiful!! My friend lives in a sorority house and my horrific visions of what Greek houses looked like were completely dispelled. They had granite counter tops in the bathroom....I gotta get me in one of those. Back in the SC I got my first good night's sleep in oh, I don't know, all year, and I was reunited with my love affair: Costco free samples. I greatly enjoyed cable and free laundry and showers with good water pressure.  But Monday afternoon classes beckoned, so it was back to Cowtown for me. Today my writing class spent 45 minutes coming up with a formal definition for the term "fast food". Ah, its good to be back.

In Tour Guide news, I successfully led an tour in it's entirety this afternoon! Alright, I was practicing with a friend. But I still did it and I am SO ready to be done memorizing that gosh darn script! I edited it and added my own jokes, which personally I think are pretty fan-freaking-tastic. But I'll let the parents be the judge of that.

Well folks, in the spirit of honesty, I was hoping for something a little more thrilling to occur before posting this one. But alas, the annoying older sister has nagged me once again for a new entry, so this will have to do. 3 weeks until finals! GET PUMPED!

[insert title here]

I couldn't tell you why, but I feel a little anxious sitting down to write this post. I think its because some of my family members (not going to point fingers, of course) decided to publicly announce this little blog o' mine to the whole free world. Now I won't lie to you, I let myself get excited thinking about my increase in readers; but once I found myself daydreaming about quitting school and becoming a paid, full-time blogger, I knew I needed to hold my horses! So, whoever out there is a "first-time" reader; welcome! Please join the others in a weekly 7 minute reading regimine.  But please remember, those are 7 minutes that you will never get back.

I realize that I have an impending disownment from my sister at the moment. I committed the atrocity of all atrocities. I forgot to include my adventure with her on my Cowtown blog. *face palm* Now, to be fair, it didn't take place in Cowtown. I'm talking about good ol' Sparks, Nevada. Quite possibly more fun than Disneyland. A few Sundays back I woke up to 3 texts from Taylor (who has a severe case of lonelyphobia), insisting begging me to come visit her. I made up excuses until I heard the words "Bachelor" and "chocolate meringues".  I packed my bag and Wuzzy and I took off on a great adventure to Renoland! Tay and I stayed inside baking & cooking (mkay, she baked; I watched), cuddling with the Nubster, chit-chatting and switching the TV between the Grammy's and the Bachelor wedding. A much harder choice than you may think. So there you go, Taylor; a shout-out! As much as I wish she still lived just 30 minutes away, what's another 2 hours? ;) I plan on coming back for more cozies!

Alright, let's move on to the fun stuff. ;)
I don't even know the who/what/when/wheres and whys of the super bowl but I can't say that I care to. All I know is that someone's upset with something over something and some team didn't win something. Though I did watch my Bruno kill the halftime show, wishing on a star that I had Nani's fried artichoke hearts to keep me company.

The past week's event haven't been anything too exhilarating.  Perhaps the most entertaining thing to happen to me was overhearring to grown men in a coffee shop discussing Justin Beiber's latest antics.  "I think they otta deport him..." "No, I don't believe in deportation under any circumstances." "Well," *lowers his voice* you know if he was brown they would have deported him" ............well then. Try as they might, these fellahs couldn't talk quiet enough to keep me from recording their every word on my phone. A creeper picture or two might have also been taken. (Photo(s) available upon request).

Aside from a political discussion over the Beibs, I have spent my time trying to memorize this darn script.  I have learned more statistics about UC Davis than I ever wanted to know.  And I'm pretty sure the visitors don't want to know them either. BUT WAIT, did you know we have a wine cellar that holds over 60,000 bottles of wine?! Not sure what parent would want to hear that on a college tour, but I gotta stick to the script! I have memorzied about 11 pages and have already lost my voice and motivation. Just a few more weeks until I have to certify!

And now, for the cute Eric moment of the week! (Who have I become?) Eric and I are planning on leaving for a good ol' fashioned road trip to LA this weekend for Valetine's Day; we'll be staying with his sister and going to Disney! (presh, I know). Since Valentine's Day itself will be spent packing and going to bed at 6pm for our 5am departure the next morning, Eric wanted to still give me a little Valentines Day experience of my own (after all, its my favorite holiday and we are all about the cheese). Long story short...I walk into my room and he had set up a picnic on my floor (it was raining out), complete with candles, a picnic basket (melt my flipping heart), and food set up italian-style. Loaves of bread, olive oil and vinagrettes, prosciutto and cheeses, and perier water-which we felt pretty cool saying over and over in a French accent. It was just too much to handle! I was kinda most excited about eating actual food. We decided to go all out and watch the Notebook as well; and on February 7, 2014, I saw Eric Smith cry for the first time.

I am now realizing the excess of parenthesis in that last paragraph. Deal with it.

Alright folks, my hand hurts and I am falling asleep. Our power has been going out off and on all day (wait...now that I think about it, why do they say that power goes "out"?...), so I'm using it as an excuse to not do anything that I should be doing on this Monday evening. In other words, Pinterest-ing and eating cookies.

New Job & New Home.

Mid-week greetings to you all! Believe it or not, I am coming at you with a new post, *gasp* not even a week after my last! I guess I'm feeling generous on this Thursday evening. Having said that, let's keep this short and sweet, shall we? ;)

I should start by informing you all that I no longer go by Cami/Cammy/Cammie. My title has changed to, ahem, "UC Davis Campus Ambassador Tour Guide"! That's right folks, its time for me to shimmy into my bright blue polo and prepare to answer copious questions from concerned parents (you know who you are)-I got chosen to be a tour guide! Truth be told, I've coveted this job since I myself was a wee little Senior in high school. I've tried in the past applying (rejection followed), but this quarter I got an interview! Hey, if at first you can't succeed...And boy, what an interview it was. I was joined by 150 other prospective "campus ambassadors" and participated in a 3-hour, one-on-one/video/group interview. Yep, I'm still not sure what a video interview is either. I figured I had it in the bag as long as I slapped on my biggest Disney Princess smile and cheesy voice I've adopted after too many rides on the Jungle Cruise. But then I got there and was slapped in the face with the realization that every single other student was trying to do the same thing. It was an extrovert convention! Everyone so perky and peppy and smiley and "passionate about what UC Davis has to offer!!!!!" After 3 draining hours (and I thought I was a people-person?), I left feeling like I didn't give enough Cameron "shine!" to get the job. Well, I was proved wrong a few days later! I am very excited to get back into the campus environment that I have missed since moving out of the dorms. What's next for this ambassador? Tomorrow I have orientation, where I will reicieve the 20 page script I am to memorize. In 3 weeks. Its a good thing I spent all those months memorizing my one line for Grease in the 6th grade! ("Popcorn!")

Speaking of moving out of the dorms, I am also signing a lease this week! As much as I have loved my cozy little apartment in Davis, I am re-locating and re-roomateing a little closer to campus. I'll be living with 4 other girls, aaaaand one shower. Gulp. Its a 2-story townhouse so plenty of room for the grandparents to unexpectedly drop by! (Which I have been anxiously anticipating ever since Omi and Gramps got back from Prague, by the way).

For those wondering, the orchestra last weekend was wonderful! Eric and I got in our most dapper little outfits and spent the night pretending we were one of the old rich couples that we were surrounded by. Literally. It was a sea of grey. Although we did feel pretty good when the usher took a look at us and said "Wow, you two are looking nice! We could use some more class around here!" Then we ended the night at In N Out. So that cancels that out.

I must also mention (because I know the grandparents will just eat this up), that Mr. Eric got Employee of the Month for November! I was pretty proud. I was hoping he would get a golden bicycle with mother of pearl handlebars or something. No such luck.

Well, that's about all the exciting updates one could possibly have in one week. Maybe I'll even chat with you all a few days from now-I'm a new woman, who knows what could happen?? I knew this New Years Resolution thing would be a piece of cake ;)

Heaps of Freshman and Undercooked Artichokes.

I refrained from telling you that one of my New Year's Resolutions was to keep up with this blog more...because, well, I had a feeling this would happen. Weeks have gone by and I'm sure my family is ripping their hair out, worrying that I'm not experiencing enough adventure in Cowtown!! Well, I am. I just keep forgetting to record them.  And I have 9% battery left on my computer. So this should be fun.

A few weekends back (has it really been that long??) my roommates decided to host a sleepover for alllll the Freshman girls at our apartment. Knowing that 30+ girls in our house would no doubt peak my claustrophobia to an all time high, I made plans to go line dancing. (duh). Trevor was in town so it worked out perfectly, as you all know we are still soaking in our sweet 7th grade dancing victory. I came back to the apartment around 2 am, assuming that the girls would be giggling and painting nails in the living room (or something). I could quickly escape to my back bedroom, close the door and rest my barkin' dogs. Well, I certainly wasn't prepared for what I walked into. 1) All the girls were asleep. 2) All the lights were off. 3) Starting from the threshold of the front door, through the hallway, up to the foot of my bed...were girls squished like sardines in their sleeping bags. Really, you would have thought our house was a bomb shelter in the 50s. There was even one girl curled up on the kitchen floor mat. I stood there for a solid minute trying to work up some strategy to maneuver my way through the landmine of bodies. After hoping on my tippy-toes to my room (not as easy as it sounds, people..) I made it to my room. Just as I was long-jumping to my closet to change, I found another body, wedged between my hamper and shoe rack. Well, that did it for me. I called it quits, leaping into my bed (over approximately 7 bodies) and falling asleep with my dancing shoes still on. And I fell asleep feeling like a ninja.

Understandably so, we've been taking it a little easier around the house since then. I swear I'm still finding random articles of clothing in strange places, but it sounds like they all had fun so its no big thaaang. Although on her way out, one of the girls uttered to no one in particular, "we should do this every month!" Oy. Excuse me while I stick my head in a blender.

My cooking attempt of the week was artichokes. Yes, artichokes. Just when I thought I was doing so well....these little guys disappointed me. I decided to go with some jenky recipe I found about wrapping them in foil, shoving a garlic clove inside, something like that. They tasted...just okay. And I also got impatient with the hour and 40 minute cook time, so alas the wings-what are they actually called?-were still a little firm. Ugh. I should have done the logical thing and called my Mama/Nans/Omile/Sissy for advice. But hey, sometimes one must learn the hard way. After that defeat I went with something a little closer to my heart. I had heard that chocolate chip cookies can be made extra fluffy with applesauce-and extra fluffy they were!! Rather tasty, if I do say so myself. At least I can do something right.

How is Louie doing? Just dandy, thank you very much. Brianna was convinced that he was "dying" this past week, as he was not drinking a ton of his water...I came home and she had already researched a list of possible things wrong with him. Being the concerned parent that I am, I called Petco. They assured me he is just "hibernating"; so ha!, animal science major Brianna!

I must be going, as I have the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to attend to tonight! Because I am extremely spoiled. And Eric will take any excuse to wear a suit. Speaking of entertainment, probably only exciting to me is my pursuit to see all of the Oscar-nominated films before the awards show. So far I have seen quite a few and am thoroughly enjoying this process. (Captain Phillips is my front runner so far, in case you care). Still want to see Gravity, although I'm waiting for Nani to take me to that one ;)

Muffins and Turltles.

Greetings from the future! 2014. I feel all futuristic saying it. Man, how time flies when you're having fun! Regarding this blog, I feel as though I got off the hook last quarter when a certain family member was temporarily out of the country... meaning I didn't get, how should I say, harassed every day I didn't blog. But here I am, Grandpa! Back and ready to blog!


I figured I would crank out a little post for you all before I really get into the thick of classes. Today was my first day and you know what that means-midterms are just a few weeks away! Remind me again why I chose the quarter system? Anyways, I do have a "lighter" schedule this go around.  Meaning more time to fulfill all of my resolutions get a job and do homework.

Ahh, New Years Resolutions. The promises humans across the world make to themselves on the 1st, but are rarely still enforcing through the next day. I take a more specific approach to my resolutions in hopes that I may actually take a teeny tiny step towards achieving them. It should come to no surprise to you that the bulk of my resolutions revolve around cooking. The bane of my existence, however something that I am desperately hoping to practice more of. For starters, I want to attempt cooking something new once a week. Be it a particular recipe or simply something like "hard-boil eggs" (yup...still failing at this one). Well folks, I can check this one off the list (for this week, at least). As I type, I have hearty and healthy banana flax seed muffins baking in the oven! Nope, never even made muffins. (Baby steps)

In the same vein, I am also hoping to cook more for others, namely Mr. Eric. My Nani always told me a way to a man's heart is through his stomach...which is why I find it comical that Eric, a food-loving guy, is with this girl. It must be that "Dente Charm" ;) Shocker, everybody; this item has already been put into effect! A few nights ago I acted on my craving for falafals and Greek cole slaw in pita pockets. So, in what must have been a stroke of insanity, I made it! And whats more, I didn't burn the apartment down! Success never tasted so good. Just as I was dusting off my shoulders in pride, I realized in horror that the meal Eric had just consumed contained pine nuts. Which he is deathly allergic to. GIRLFRIEND FAIL. (He is alive and well, everybody. Thank you for your deep concern).

If you've been a long-time reader of mine (grandparents and Andi, I'm talking to you), you'll know that I was on quite the running kick last year. With goals of a 12k I began to even think I was, *gasp* enjoying running? (Emphasis on the question mark). This year I'm taking a different approach to getting back into this activity. No lofty or long-term goals; just a simple commitment to at least one early morning run a week. Oh, how I have always longed to be an individual who jumps out of bed grinning ear to ear, slaps on her tennis shoes and runs to her heart's desire. Those who know me are chuckling to themselves right now, because you and I both know that in the morning, I turn into someone straight from Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video. Quite pleasant. So that's why once a week. I figure if I can do just that, the number may be able to increase! (Though today will be a night run on the treadmill. I don't have cable, the gym has a TV, and the Bachelor premiere is tonight. 'Nuff said.)

I also must mention to you all perhaps the most exciting thing to happen as of late-I became a parent!! To a Russian Tortoise whom I have named Louie. (Lew-E). He is quite possibly the most adorable creature on God's green earth.  I have wanted a turtle of my own for a while, and Christmas morning there it was, under the tree! (Well not actually. It was just a pamphlet. But still.) The moment I got back to Davis we rushed to Petco and picked him out. I must admit I am a tad terrified to be a first-time pet-owner, but I thought I needed to start small before I moved on to bigger things. Like a little pug. I have already found myself talking and singing to Louie throughout the day and while we eat bananas together at breakfast. I know you all must be dying to meet him but have no fear; they are supposed to live for 50+ years! I think we've got some time. *I am still accepting applications for the role of god parent*

Mufffin Update: I just took them out of the oven and they smell divine. Don't look too bad, either. I'll have to give you my thoughts on the taste next time; but until then, adios! I miss you all and am so grateful for the holly jolly holiday season I had with you!