I should be writing my story right now, but the rain stopped and the weather is getting pretty and that makes my mind wander.

Today is freshmen move-in day at App. I can remember mine so clearly, it doesn’t seem right that it was almost five years ago. In all honesty I picked this university on a whim. I was miserable at the end of high school and couldn’t see how life would ever be good. College was just the next step- something I had to do. I knew I wanted to get away, but that was about it. A lot of people told me I’d do well up here so I applied, literally on the last day they were still accepting applications. When I took the tour up here there was something about the mountains that made me feel good about myself again, so when I got in I immediately enrolled. Moving in was crazy and the dorms turned out to be a nightmare, but I made a few friends and was content with that.

Now I’m a 5th year senior and will be graduating in about 8 months. That blows my mind. I have no idea what I’ll be doing this time next year, and that’s a little terrifying for me. I like to know what’s happening next. College, like I said, was the next step, but now there aren’t anymore steps. I could do pretty much anything I wanted. I could do nothing at all. I hope I don’t end up doing nothing at all.

I want a puppy. That puts a few steps in place: Job, new apartment that allows puppies, puppy. Even having that makes me feel better.

Good morning, Internet. I don’t know why I’m up this early during my last week I can really sleep in -.-

I keep trying to decide which recipe I’ll put up next- probably one of my go-to’s. I have several of those that I don’t even really need a recipe for anymore that I use when I want X but don’t want to work too hard to get it.

I started cleaning yesterday! My closet is almost organized and I threw out a TON of old papers, most of them from my freshman year that I never bothered sorting through after I moved out of the dorms. I know, I’m a hoarder. It’s neat what you find when you finally clean out stuff, though. I found some old poems I wrote and concluded that I should never be allowed to write poetry again. I also found some oil pastels I need to use and like 50 pens.

What I didn’t find was my passport, which is why I cleaned out my closet in the first place. It’s at my parents’ house in my room, I’m positive, and I’ve told them this many many times but they don’t believe me and insist I keep looking. IF we find it in time and IF the dates work out, my mom and I are going to Japan this year! My uncle is in the navy and has been stationed there with my aunt and cousins for the past few years, so we’d get free boarding which is the only way we could ever swing this trip. I’m in no way looking forward to the plane ride over there, but I still hope everything works out so we can go. After this year they’re moving to Italy. I’m sorta jealous but maybe we’ll get to go there too! Living in a military family would drive me crazy, I think. Especially marrying into one. It’s been sort of hard on my mom’s family since my aunt has literally been on the other side of the planet for the past few years and crazy stuff has been happening over here. I do not envy military wives, but I have loads of respect for them.

Every so often I’ll decide it’s time for something new. So here’s what I picked up the other day.

In other news, I got a new digital camera. The lighting in my apartment is awful.

But anyway, I got some zucchini. Maybe as an attempt to be healthier. Except one of them is about to be turned into oven baked chips.

Anytime I want to try something new, my first resource is a blog called Foodgawker. It’s pages upon pages of beautiful food pictures that usually link to their recipes. I look at it all the time. The search option lets you check out particular ingredients and I’m sure if they could track who views their website they’d think all I do is stuff my face. So today I searched for zucchini. Then I learned how to spell “zucchini” correctly (two C’s, not two N’s) and searched again.

So many possibilities. Zucchini in pasta, zucchini in rice. Baked, fried, grilled. Healthy recipes and not-so-healthy ones. Chocolate zucchini cake. How do I choose? What sounds good?

Less than two weeks before classes start. Summer work ended and I don’t want to bother with another job until I know what my workload will be, so I  have very little to do. Hence, a post! I seriously doubt I’ll do daily posts once the semester rolls in, since as an English major all of my classes are very writing-intensive and the last thing I’ll want to do during my free time is WRITE MORE. Or maybe I will, who knows.

So I have a few issues with this semester. First off, all of my classes are on the same two days each week. Lots of free time should be nice, and everyone I’ve told who has had a similar schedule says it’s awesome, but I’m worried I’ll get lazy with all those days off. I need to be better about doing my work earlier than the morning before it’s due this year. It’s hit me that this is my last year at college, last chance to get my grades up. Grades honestly don’t matter to me, but I want a good job and I feel like graduating with honors of some sort would look very nice on a resume.
Second: My major requires me to take Oral Interpretations. This is a theater class. I am not a theater major. I generally believe that a lot of writers write because they want to write. Not act. I don’t like to act. I don’t like to read stuff aloud. This class is about acting and reading stuff aloud. That is all.

On another note, I believe that a lot of interpretations of what people write is complete nonsense. For example, say my character is wearing a blue shirt. Suddenly everyone goes into this whole discussion about the significance of the blue shirt- how it symbolizes the character’s feelings about blah blah blah.

No. The shirt is blue because he likes blue. The end. I’m all for symbolism in stories and use it quite often, but every single detail does not have some deep meaning that I spent hours thinking about.

Despite the fact that I’ll be ranting about all the assignments in a few weeks, I actually like having all these writing classes. It’s a ton of work, yes, but it’s also good practice and I think it helps me to have a deadline so I actually get stuff done. I’m terrible about doing things on my own, and lose motivation very easily. The only thing I take initiative in is cooking- trying new recipes, different ingredients, etc. It doesn’t matter if I’m just cooking for one. I guess it’s because I get immediate gratification because food is delicious. I’m a good cook, and I don’t feel like I’m being arrogant when I say that. I’m proud of my cooking. It’s amazing I don’t weigh twice as much- if my metabolism ever slows down I’m doomed.

With more than one sentence!

So this is my new blog. It won’t be about anything in particular, though I expect a lot of posts about things I’ve cooked. I heard keeping a blog is good practice for writers, and my friend Jaime inspired me because she keeps a wonderful blog. I hope I’ll stay motivated enough to keep posting on this one. WordPress seems to  be a good site so far, though it’ll take me a few days to get used to the layout and all the features. In a day or two I’ll have a brand new camera so I’ll have even more to try out! Yay!

I think I’ll keep this theme, for now. The wintery photo will serve as a reminder that Boone winter is well on its way. It’s been so hot this summer that I’m convinced we’ll pay dearly for ever being warm because mountain weather is cruel and  spiteful. It’s hard to believe that I used to get really excited over snow flurries, considering in a few months I’ll be disappointed for anything below a foot of snow because that will mean I still have class. Thank anything this is my last year of walking to class in the snow (Uphill, both ways- it really  is possible.)

So there’s my first blog post. Maybe the next one will be interesting!