creative uses for a starbucks cup, part 2

In November I wrote a post detailing how we used a Starbucks cup as a funnel for radiator fluid. Well, this post is the sequel!

I am back in Wyoming, now to celebrate Christmas, and last night Mom brought home the ingredients for me to make this brocolli-bacon rigatoni that she loves that I make. We couldn't find a can or glass jar to drain the bacon fat, so we grabbed my Starbucks cup out of the trash (yes i said trash, you can't recycle here in Wyoming), and we poured the bacon fat into the Starbucks cup.

Now there is a cute little Starbucks cup on the counter full of bacon fat. Awesome.

In other news:

• In the Denver airport, the restrooms have signs on them that say "tornado shelter". how reassuring.
• Raspberry vodka, oj, sprite, and grenadine= a little slice of heaven. Maybe I should consider a second career as a bartender?
• Faulkner and I ran 2.5 miles today AND went to the dog park. We're both going to sleep well tonight.
• "The Sing Off" finale is today. Great show, but Nick Lachey is a horrible tv host...

The End!

a hilarious and slightly shocking conversation

Yesterday after church I went downstairs to fellowship, and had this lovely conversation with an elderly gentleman in my church. This story should be prefaced with the fact that it was Tracy's graduation over the weekend, so at fellowship they were doing a little party to celebrate her graduation. We'll call him "M".

"M": Hi dear. So are you in high school yet?

Me: (confused). Actually I am 24 and I am in graduate school. I am Tracy's older sister (said politely, trying to clarify).

M: (looks very confused). Oh my, I thought you were younger. (Long pause.....) But... you aren't married? (said shockingly).

Me: (trying not to say something rude). No, I am not.

M: Shame on you. You know, you have to watch out for your biological clock.

Me: (Had no idea how to respond to this...) Ummmm, ok.

M: Wow, I had no idea you were Tracy's older sister. My oh my.

**M walks away to get his coffee and cake, Jessica is left confused, startled, and speechless.**

End Scene.

SERIOUSLY?!?! Did that really just happen? I had no idea to what even to think at that moment. Up until now, I had known M as a very amiable polite man! He's 87, his wife of 60-something years recently passed away. I guess I have to chalk it up to a generational difference. My pastor thinks that M might be trying to set me up with one of his many eligible grandsons. Who knows...

This encounter got me thinking-- there is no way at this time in history that me being 24 and unmarried and childless is this horrible horrendous thing! Yes, I went to a small private Christian university where many of my friends got marrried shortly after college and are continuing to get married now. Some are even starting to have kids. And when M and his wife were married, shortly after WWII, it was a completely different situation. She was 17 and he had recently returned from the war. People were getting married left and right. And their marriages, for the most part, have lasted 50, 60, 70 years, which is definitely admirable!

The 21st Century is an entirely different climate for women and marriage! I am not angry or upset at M, mostly just suprised (especially since he has apparently thought I was 15 for the last year or so that I have known him, haha!). It's things like this, and clash/discussion between generations of people, that gets me thinking.

Now I should probably end this post because while I have been sitting here the last 15 minutes or so my biological clock has been ticking away and I have been doing nothing about it. :-) (SARCASM, for those of you who weren't sure...)

likes and dislikes

things i like:

• cold satsuma oranges fresh out of the fridge
• "hello cupcake" gingerbread cupcakes with maple icing
• alec baldwin on 30 Rock
• the feeling you get after a good run, even if the run itself sucks
• fog in the mornings

things i dislike:

• people who smoke outside my open apartment building door
• having cold hands
• alec baldwin as a human being
• when people stand awkwardly close to you in line at the grocery store
• obnoxious cell phone ringtones

creative uses for a starbucks cup

Currently I am in Wyoming for Thanksgiving, I got here yesterday. Today a guy who goes to my mom's church came to check her car radiator, because it's supposed to get into below-zero temps at night and he didn't want her car to get destroyed! He asked if I could help him, of course I said yes. The coolant that was in her car wasn't the right temperature rating for Wyoming (because how many people in the world have to have engine coolant that is rated into the negative 30/40 degrees?!?!), so we flushed and filled her radiator. After it had flushed, we realized we didn't have a funnel to pour the new fluid through.

So because I am super creative, I got my tall-sized Starbucks cup from this morning's pumpkin spice americano, cut a hole in the bottom, and we used that as a funnel. And because we had to do 50/50 coolant/water, we used my mom's used iced passion tea lemonade cup to measure the coolant and water. As we were doing this all I could think to myself is, "wow, I wish i had a video camera to record this and send it to Starbucks." I guarantee that has to be one of the top 10 creative uses for a Starbucks cup ever!! Maybe I could have gotten a free cup of coffee or something?! And to top it off, after we were done Jay said, "well you are pretty good, for a girl."

Haaaha, totally made my day. I have to thank Tim Verellen, who helped me fix my car many-a-time when I was in high school, and who taught me how to flush a radiator!

What a day. I wonder what tomorrow will bring?

so far so good...

Three blogs in the last two weeks. I am doing well i think!

In the last 4 days i have written 6 complete papers and/or reflections which amounts to about 20 pages of writing. Then I have also written 10 pages of my literature review for my capstone, which at this point is looking like it might be about 35-40 pages long... Currently the wind is howling so loud I can't really concentrate and the lights are flickering, so I have maybe taken that as a sign that I need to take a break from writing academic things and maybe write a blog.

A few weeks ago I thought that if I wrote a to-do list of everything I had to do for the rest of the quarter it would help alleviate the stress. On the contrary, after finishing writing down an 8 1/2x11 sheet of paper full of tasks with little check boxes, I felt super overwhelmed. How was I possibly going to finish it all? Well I buckled down and got to work and last weekend I wrote out a whole new to-do list and took off everything I have done... Right now as of this moment my "to-do" list between now and December 10th has only 9 items on it, which is starting to make me feel like there is a dim light at the end of the tunnel.

I will be in Wyoming in less than 6 days (in 2 hours it will be 5 days... but who is counting?!)! I am suuuper excited, and in between now and going there I will get to cross another 2 (maybe 3!) things off of my list.

Right now I am sipping on some hot cocoa with peppermint schnapps and many many marshmallows! This is one of my favorite fall/holiday drinks. Gotta love a hint of peppermint and warm feeling in your tummy. mmmm... I probably should stop writing this blog and get back to writing about PTSD experiences of women who have experienced trauma.

what's the antonym of superficial?

Some have accused me of being a bit superficial in my previous post. After a two-month hiatus from blogging, I may have neglected a few details of things that have happened in the previous months. However, it seemed easier to blog about my love of soy pumpkin spice lattes than to attempt to compose a blog that accurately portrayed the ups and downs and ups of the previous months. I am going to try and remedy that a little bit in this blog, however I am not going to use the internet as a toilet for my "life vomit" (don't you love that analogy?!).

I have new favorite saying: "we plan, God laughs." Most of you know I was quite upset about my mom's move to Wyoming. In my head it was completely irrational and crazy and I had no idea how she could just pick up and move to a state so far away. Most of you know I am a pretty (some might say severely) independent person, but there was something about having her here at least within driving distance, "just in case" (or J.I.C., one of my life mottos), that was comforting. Wyoming seemed crazy. Driving there is an 18 hour adventure over at least 4 mountain ranges. Flying there is expensive. My entire life was changing before my eyes. Gone was the easy access to Mom, when I needed a bit of home. Forever changed were family holidays and our many Cato traditions that surround them. What if I met someone, when would he meet my Mom? What if I had a life crisis, how would she get here? Or how would I get there? In my mind this was devastating and overwhelming and I just couldn't handle it. I refused to see how this could be a part of any plan that God could possibly have up his sleeve. God wouldn't do something this crazy, or ask us to take this big of a leap of faith.

Mom moved to Wyoming, and summer passed, and in fact it was a great summer! I spent my time riding tons of horses and going to tons of horse shows. I won a High Point at a jumping show in August and it was great! Then the end of August rolled around, and summer came to a close. I was headed for my first visit to Wyoming and to see Mom since she'd moved. I hate to admit this, but I had knots in my stomach for days before going. Every fiber of my being didn't want to go; I felt a gravitational pull to not going. Even the morning my flight departed, driving to Barb's at 4:30am, I desperately wanted to turn my car around and crawl back into bed where I was safe and I could ignore the fact that Wyoming existed. During my layover in Salt Lake a brief thought entered my head, "what if i just didn't get on the plane?"

Well I did get on the plane, and spent my first few days in Wyoming sulking and being immature. Maybe if I had a miserable time it would all just go away. Then my third day in Wyoming my mom invited her landlord (a.k.a. Chris) over for dinner. And we hit it off, and long-story short, spent the rest of my time in Wyoming hanging out and started the beginnings of a long-distance relationship. He came out to visit me in mid-October for 5 days, which was wonderful! I didn't expect to have fun in Wyoming, let alone meet someone that I connected with at all.

Now, it wasn't meeting Chris that made me change my perspective on Wyoming. I think it was God's big huge way of showing me that I don't have any control! He's made the plans, he's the author, and we are just the pawns in his big chess game of life. Despite my doubt and faithlessness God gave me a blessing that I didn't deserve. This is where the "we plan, God laughs" saying comes into play... i have learned in the last two months or so that doubt and worry are pointless, however we spent much too much time dwelling on our doubt. We are lucky to have a heavenely Father that loves us and has orchestrated a plan for our lives. Not saying that this plan doesn't involve heartbreak and sadness and change. Those are the times that make us stronger and teach us that the only real way to live is to rely on God 100%. We have to trust Him with everything, not just the parts of our life that we are willing to give away to his control.

Now i'm not saying a long-distance relationship is easy, because it isn't. It is super tough at times, because I miss Chris a whole heck of a lot, and seeing him on Skype sometimes just isn't enough. However I have to keep reminding myself that I am immensely blessed. All we have is right now and sometimes it's easiest to take one day at a time (and take lots of deep breaths, and when in doubt have another cup of coffee!)

I hope this blog satisfies those of you who complained about my last post. Hopefully it wasn't too much to post online and no one is offended or angry at things I have said (Mom... this means you!). But it's all the truth, and I didn't mince any words.

Maybe my next post will be a little less verbose.... :-)

i love fall

It's been far too long since my last post. So much has happened, but I don't have time to go into immense details. However I must say that I love fall! Here in Washington we had a pretty amazing fall, the weather was generally very sunny and wonderful, the trees were more GORGEOUS than i've seen in years. Now it's kind of rainy again, but Halloween is over and now just under 3 weeks until Thanksgiving, and we know what that means.....

STARBUCKS HOLIDAY CUPS!

And to be more specific, my favorite holiday coffee drink. Now most of you know I am your standard drip coffee that I make at home or Americano kind of girl. Gotta save your pocketbook. But when Pumpkin Spice comes out, I am so there. Today before class (yuck, school on Saturdays), I went down to Starbucks to get me a cup of heaven, which specifically means a "triple grande soy pumpkin spice latte with no whip." Which to you non-coffee lovers (i.e. fanatics) means-- soy milk with 3 shots of coffee and pumpkin spice syrup. You wouldn't think it would be that expensive. When the barista told me how much it was I literally almost threw up. I am ashamed to post on the internet that I spent $5.36 on that latte today. And it was worth every cent, it was soooo heavenly. But HOLY COW! Let's just say I might get to induldge in one or two more of those this holiday season but that is it. Wow. Who in their right mind spends that much on coffee on a daily basis? Or even several times a week...?!

In other news, two weeks from tomorrow I am headed to Casper for Thanksgiving break. I am super super excited, these next two weeks cannot pass soon enough. However I have a ridiculous amount of things to accomplish before I get to go, which is stressing me out just a bit. I made a list of everything I have to do before the end of this quarter, which I thought would alleviate the stress a bit.. but no. It just laid it all out there for me, black and white, a full page full of tiny check boxes of all the work I must get done in the next 4 weeks.

I can't believe I was gone from blogging for almost 2 months. Note to self... don't let that happen again!