After Fast

I'm amazed at how my mental abilities just shut down while I was fasting.  I literally couldn't concentrate on anything.  It wasn't because all I could think about was food either.  Without energy, my body was just all lethargic and my mind completely unfocussed.  I guess I understand now why they say eating is important and not eating is a bad way to lose weight.  Aside from being irritable and otherwise feeling unpleasant, you literally have problems functioning.

I did eat at midnight.  I'm not sure if that's ok, or if you're not supposed to eat until you wake up afterwards, but I couldn't go to bed hungry.  I've done that before.  I wake up feeling more lethargic and can't function all day.  Tomorrow I need to do homework, so not being awake all day was not a possibility.  But at least I did it!  A lent fast!  One day was totally enough for me too, I can't imagine doing this every friday for lent.

Two posts left for me.  I'm going to post on Sunday since I've been doing that all along.  Woo!  Then I can have soda again...I'm just not sure I want to anymore.  Giving it up was probably good for me.

Day 39: Crispies

Yesterday I rewarded myself for finishing my homework by making Rice Crispies.... with Oreos!  I found a recipe on Pinterest and have been waiting to make it when I could find time.  And guess what?  I found it!

I modified the recipe slightly.  I replaced the plain boring oreos with super delicious mint oreos because they're my favorite.  It made them taste 50% more awesome than it would have if I had used regular ones. 

Yum

This is a piece I photographed right before I ate it.  Doesn't it look scared?  It should because it's seconds from death.  Delicious crispy death. 

I just realized, I only have ONE MORE DAY of blogging after this!  I guess we're gonna have to figure out our weekly topics soon. 

Hunger Games

Friday is our usual gaming day.  Friday also happens to be "Good Friday" this week.  This means that while I try to fast, I will also be around people who are eating.  I'm starting to think this was a bad idea.

It's only 11 but I'm sooooo hungry.  This is kind of funny to me because I've been playing Skyrim religiously and missing meals without even noticing.  Without distraction, however, it's rather hard to ignore.  But at least I can have water!  I'll probably be going through a lot of water today.

My concentration is also crap right now, so I'll probably write more about this tomorrow.

Day 38: Six Flags!

Crazy random thing happened today: John won ticket to Six Flags.  We were pulling into the parking lot at Sac State to go to the gym and we were listening to the Eagle.  The announcer said to text a keyword to the number so I did it and John did it because we have unlimited texting so what have we got to loose?  Afterward I even said "What were those tickets for? Some kind of amusement park?" and John said "They were for Disneyland." and I was like "Oh, cool."  But then our confirmation text informed us they were for Six Flags which is actually better because its closer so we can make it there and back in a day without staying overnight.  So we get out of the car and go to the gym and just as I'm starting on my treadmill, I get a text saying that I didn't win and a second later I get a tap on the shoulder and hear "Baby!  I won!" 

It was pretty sweet and I think it's God's way of making sure we go on a honeymoon.  He's like "They're free!  Now you HAVE to go!"  Maybe we can work in a trip to San Francisco to make it more honeymoonish. 

BINDERS

What is up with instructors and binders?  Every one of my instructors this semester want me to do a particular binder for their class.  Every one of them have different expectations for these binders too.  What this means is that I had to go buy a bunch of binders which I will never use.  They tell us they want us to have them to use as instructors, but let's be honest here:  a teacher is going to do things their way, not someone else's.

This is actually becoming a source of irritation for me.  Granted, I'm coming up with some ideas that I probably wouldn't have thought to implement in my class right away, but ultimately I don't appreciate being treated like a child when I'm in a Master level program.  So far it seems like all of the classes that teach you to teach classes are going to be this way.  It's rediculous repetative redundancy that I could do without.

And when I'm an instructor, I have every belief my students will probably feel the same way.  It's a vicious cycle...but at least they can be secure in knowing I won't be assigning them binders.

Day 37: PicSay

So I've had this app on my phone pretty much since I got it called PicSay.  It's a photo editing/enhancing/sillifying program.  Sillifying is when you make something silly just in case that wasn't clear.  Anyway, I've only just started using this program recently.  For example this morning when I wanted John to get out of bed and join me in the living room I sent him this picture...

It's so much easier to manipulate someone's emotions with kittens.  Then later when John went to take the trash out and talk to the manager and I somehow completely forgot that he had left the apartment and was wondering what the heck he was doing, I sent him this...

For the record, this is a realistic picture because she likes to sleep underneath his desk when he's in it.  Since he was not there, she had no reason to be under the desk and was starting to feel lonely. 

I'm going to send him this one later because he's off working on a project...

I may never send a regular text message again

Contemplation

One thing I remember from my youth about the last few days of lent is my grandmother fasting.  Unfortunately, I don't remember which days she used to fast for lent.  I think it was Thursday or Friday because Jesus was "dead" and therefore you fast.  Either way, I'm considering doing this this year.  I've never fasted before and I get the feeling it's not an entirely pleasant experience.  However, I feel the need for a change in my life and culminating my lent experience by steeping it in tradition sounds like the first step.  Either way I'll have to look into this a bit more.  I can't remember whether this is a three day thing or not.  Like...Thursday through Saturday.  With a paper to write and people coming over this weekend on top of school, this may not happen.  If it does, I will surely log it into the blog.

Day 36: School

You know, it's not just lent that went by fast, this whole semester is speeding by.  I only have a little over a month until summer.  In grade school that would make me feel happy and joyful but in college, it just makes me go "OH SHIT I ONLY HAVE A MONTH TO GET ALL MY SHIT DONE!"  That is how I will feel until I finish my final paper.  Then I will feel like my happy joyful young self who is done with school for a whole summer.  UNLESS I take summer school which might happen.  I'm actually planning on talking to the head of department today to find out if that is a possibility.  That's the nice (and annoying) thing about grad school.  It's not a straight forward system.  If I want to take undergrad courses (which I'm totally allowed to do) I have to get approval from the department head and the professor teaching the course so that they can both make sure I'm doing more work than an undergraduate.  However, there's a class I want to take next fall that doesn't have a professor listed yet.  This could put a wrench in my whole plan.  Or force me to take another class.  Both equality as horrible. 

Counter Point

Of course I agreed to write on a weekly topic with Angela.  While this began as a "Lent blog" it would be foolish only to update once a year for 40 days.  While this has been a great way to get me to write down thoughts about random things every day for weeks on end, I did like the idea of being able to slow down and consider posts ahead of time.  I've written a couple in preparation for this blog that I look forward to posting at some point in the future, finding them unsuitable for Lent posty goodness.  Lent posts are a time for rediculocity and randomness.  All other blog posts are serious business.

That being said, Angela is at my mercy for what I choose to post.  Commence with the wailing and gnashing of teeth!

Day 35: The Countdown

It's the last week of Lent!  This lent went by pretty fast.  Probably because I'm in school now and time in school goes faster because their is always homework to do and its always due before you're ready.  Then summers and breaks go fast because you don't want to go back to school.  Time is just mean like that.  I was out of school for two years.  Longest years of my life. 

Anyway, after lent, Kris has agreed to do a weekly topic with me.  She can't back down now cause I've put it in writing.  It's legally binding. 

I have a fever...

And the only cure is more Skyrim.

Spring break is finished and I'm back in school for another quarter.  I can already tell this is going to be even more obnoxious than the last quarter.  So the only solution is to get as much work done as humanly possible and drown my sorrows in Skyrim...or writing.  Writing works too.

But for now, Skyrim!  I don't know what it is about this particular game over the other Elder Scroll series, but it stands out as one of the best in my opinion.  I am completely absorbed into this game in a way that Morrowind and Oblivion failed to do.  I think the reason why has a lot to do with the different way they changed character creation and the CRAP TON OF QUESTS YOU TRIP OVER OMG.

Seriously, you cannot walk out your front door without someone running up to you and telling you that they need you to trim their toe-nails because you are the world's grunt.  Congratulations on being Dragonborn, now go out into the world and do menial tasks for everyone.  Apparently no one else in the world is motivated enough.  I'm hours into the game and dubious about whether or not I can take over the world.  It seems like it should be easy, since you're the only one in existence who can be bothered to do anything.  But I somehow get the sneaking suspicion that when the game ends, I won't be anything more than a very powerful thane of Whiterun...and Solitude...and um...how many thaneships can one have?

Anyway, the game is addictive and engaging and I highly recommend it to anyone lucky enough to have the time to devote to it.  Someday maybe I will have the time to devote to it, but today is not that day...anymore...because I already mostly did...*cough*.

Palm Sunday

One week and counting!

I actually wanted to talk about Palm Sunday today because it has a special place in my heart.  Around this time of year, my Mom, sisters, and sometimes my Dad and I would go to visit our Grandmother in Tennessee.  Since she passed two years ago, we haven't gone to her house or anything since.  I actually really miss it.  Every year, my Grandmother's church has a ceremony with fire.  I don't really know what the significance of it is, but I remember it because it was like having a bonfire at the church.  We would also get palms which we would sometimes braid into neat patterns during the palm service.

One time, when we were supposed to go up and get blessed by the priest, my sister accidentally decided to take communion instead.  She drained the entire wine glass as well, proving my sister is my mother's daughter when it comes to having a taste for wine.  I remember how mad and embarrassed my mom was about it, but it's pretty funny in retrospect...from a certain view point.

Our church sometimes did a pagent of sorts with someone playing Jesus and riding in on the paper mache donkey they stored up in the attic.  This didn't happen every year.  I remember it happening at least once...like, the one year we weren't in Tennessee for palm sunday.  So maybe it did happen every year.  It definitely could have!

Either way, the getting of palms and the celebration of the last week of Jesus before he became crossed is one of my favorite celebrations for some reason.  Have a picture to celebrate!