A Multi-Purposed Post

Firstly, I'm posting to show you this. I made it on Wordle today and I'm excessively proud of myself. Really, it's a little ridiculous.

Secondarily, I'm leaving Blogger. I have many reasons for this, and I will expound approximately none of them here. But I am leaving Blogger for WordPress. My new blog can be found here. I am still going to call it "A Large Cup of Tea and a Long Book."
That's all...

How to Read Victor Hugo

So I just finished reading Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. It only took me seven days. How did I do it?

1. I took advice from people who had read it before. It really is 50% social commentary and history that you don't really need to know to understand the story.
   
2. Find someone to mock you. I got my friend, Susanna, to mock me. I didn't ask her for it. But she'd read it before and she knew that I was reading it. So she teased me and mocked me. And it motivated me.
3. Find someone to cheer you on. For me, that was my friend's little sister. She thought it was the most impressive thing ever how fast I was reading the book. So she was basically my personal cheering section.
   
4. I was listening to the musical soundtrack.
   
5. And I skimmed through the history stuff. It was boring and dry and unnecessary.
   

And I finished the book quickly.

Daylight Savings Time is Going to Kill Me

Last night, my roommate went to a concert and a friend drove her. Thusly, she didn't take her keys with her. But I didn't know this. So I locked the door before I went to bed at 11pm. Around 11pm, I also set my alarm for 7:45 am so I could shower before my favorite brother picked me up for church at 8:50am.
Then, my phone started ringing at 12:51am because the roommate was home and needed me to unlock the door. But my ringtone and the alarm sound enough alike that I opened my phone, hit clear, and then closed the phone again. "I'll go back to sleep," I thought. "I'm tired and I can get like five more minutes of sleep. Then I'll get up and shower."
Then she started knocking on the door. And I thought, "If my alarm just went off, why is Greg here already? I'll go tell him I need to get dressed before we can go to church."
So I went to the front door and opened it. There was my roommate. Then I went back to my room and realized that it was 12:51 am...not 7:45am.
I went back to sleep for another six hours and fifty-four minutes. Then I got up.

And then the USA lost to Canada in hockey. Go back to preschool and learn how to grow a beard, Sidney Crosby.

Never Trust a Man Wearing a Beaded Snood

Theoretically speaking, I am currently sitting in my school's Language Resource Center watching Mozart's opera Don Giovanni as the title character wears a beaded snood in his hair and seduces 2,065 women. The music is lovely. And I wish I owned his snood. But the point remains...c'mon ladies! Never, never, never trust a man wearing a beaded snood.

I really am watching it. It's just kind of weird that he's wearing a beaded snood. I want a beaded snood. I don't want to be seduced. And I don't like reading 90 million different adaptations of Don Juan. The guy's a jerk; I got that in adaptation #1...and now I'm on #4. Admittedly, watching an opera is more fun than reading a book.

I'm also knitting my Slouchy Cardigan. I finished the back piece last night and cast on the right front. I have to finish that piece, make the left front, make the sleeves and the hood, and then it'll be done. I think I should have it done by Easter. (Knock on wood. *Rap, rap*)

January Lady Sweater-Pt. 2

It needs buttons but it's technically done.
However, there are two problems with it:
1) one of the sleeves needs to be fixed.
2) It's too small for me. I made a mistake and made it too small. In March, I'm going to fix that messed up sleeve, give the sweater buttons, and then find a young child to give this to.
Then, I plan on remaking this sweater (possibly in a different color) so that I can actually wear it.

The reason I'm waiting until March to deal with this is that I have three other projects lined up for the month of February, which I'm committed to working on during February. I'm doing a Knit-a-long/Read-a-long on Ravelry where we're reading "Sense and Sensibility" and I'm working on a cardigan (in dark plum) for that. I'm also (starting February 12) doing the Ravelympics and making a scarf and a pair of mittens. That goes until February 28. And then I'll still be working on the KAL/RAL cardigan. And then I'll fix the JLS and then I can start a March Lady Sweater.

January Lady Sweater-Pt. 1

The real name of the pattern from which I'm working is the "February Lady Sweater." But since I started making this project on 12/31/09 and am aiming to finish it by 1/31/10, I'm calling it my "January Lady Sweater."
It's about 50% done. Well, the body is completely done and I just need to make the sleeves. I've never knit sleeves before. I've knit in the round only once before and that was when I made a pair of fingerless mittens. So...we'll see what happens. I'll update y'all on the progress-hopefully before 1/31/10.

Chicken and Mashed Potatoes: A Recipe

Betty Crocker and Julia Child and Erma What's-Her-Face-From-the-Joy-of-Cooking probably all have their own variations on this. But seeing as I came up with this today, I thought I'd share. This is part of my quest to find more lactose-free meals for myself (and future roommates and family) to eat.
The way I made this it feeds two but I'm sure that with some very simple math, it could be made to serve more.

Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
2 cups chicken broth
1 small onion-diced
1 clove of garlic-crushed/sliced/pressed
2 tbsp parsley

3-4 medium sized potatoes
2 tbsp margarine

Boil the potatoes until they are soft. Drain the water and mash them. Mix in the margarine.
At the same time, heat the broth and mix in the onion, garlic, and parsley. When it's come to a boil, turn the heat down a little and put in the chicken breasts. Cook them thoroughly and then remove them from the broth. Put them on a plate to serve.
Take the excess broth and pour it into the potatoes. Mix the potatoes well.

Serve the meal.

Total prep time: 25-30 minutes

Please do not participate

So, I have now gone to all of my classes once. (Yesterday was the first day of Winter 2010 semester for me.)
Here's how this semester is looking for me: three Spanish classes, one English class; two pedagogy classes; one class that will kick my a**; one class that will probably be a breeze.
I have friends in all of my classes.

My first class of the week is Monday at 6pm; it's Spanish pedagogy. It won't be easy but it shouldn't kill me. I know the professor; that helps.
My next class is on Tuesday (and Thursday) afternoons; that's English pedagogy. It will be difficult but it will be good.
Later on Tuesday (and Thursday) afternoons I have Spanish Reading and Storytelling. This is Spanish 300. I've taken 11 or 12 Spanish classes over my academic career and I've been studying Spanish since age 12. We went around the classroom this afternoon and introduced ourselves. It quickly became clear that my friend Kaylin and I are more advanced than the other students in the class-and significantly so. So the professor told us that we will be called upon less frequently and our participation will be less important because we don't need to practice vocabulary etc as much as the other students. Fun times...
And then I have my Don Juan class. The name is not a joke. The course is genuinely called SPA 495: Capstone, Don Juan. It's being team-taught by two professors. I've had one before and we get along; I'm not really familiar with the other but they both seem nice and good.
I often knit before/during classes and Profesora P, one of my Don Juan professors, is familiar with this. I wasn't doing it today and she came up to me and asked me if I had stopped knitting before classes. I said no, my knitting was in my bag; I just was a bit tired. We then engaged in a discussion of why I knit/crochet. It was fun. And I was glad to see that she noticed that about me and considered it to be of value/a cool thing.

In sad news, I'm getting sick. I'm coming down with a cold. So I'm drinking lots of tea to soothe my throat and try to calm the congestion. I also need to sleep more.

In pressing news, I bought a French press (press pot for coffee) and a garlic press today. I used a Target gift card I received from one of my aunts for Christmas. I've been wanting a garlic press for a while and looked at different ones in various places. I ended up deciding that while I'll probably get what I pay for, I'm a college student and all I really need is a cheap garlic press for now. I can get a nicer one when I'm a real adult. So I paid $2.99. And then I spent $19.99 on a French press. That will be expected to last a bit longer.

Now I want a flowering teapot. Barb H. has one and she let Kyle and I play with it during the UCO end of the year party last year. (By play, I mean she put the flower in the infuser, put the infuser in the teapot, and put the boiling water in the teapot. Then she let the two of us creepily hunch around her kitchen counter for 15-20 minutes watching the flower bloom.) It was so cool. And now I want one.

Just an interlude...

The following are a few random quotations from my interactions with various wonderful small children in my life.

"Did you know that I'm grown up? I used to be a lot smaller." -Damien, age 4

"Dolls don't have names. They can't talk so they don't need names." -Cosie, age 3
(I disagree with the implications of the above statement.)

"Damian says his fingers are going to fall off so we need to go home." -Thea, age 6

Half a Birthday

So today is New Year's Day and my half-birthday. Last night, my parents and I went to Divine Liturgy and then out to dinner. We were joining by our long-time family friends-the S family. It was Mr. and Mrs. S, their son (Mark), his wife (Susanna), and infant daughter; and their younger daughter (Clare). At dinner, Mrs. S asked me if it was indeed the night before my half-birthday and I said yes. Clare S then told me that her mother is really bad at cutting things in half.
And then Mark reaches down and pulls out a bottle of Sprite and a Snickers bar. He hands them to me and says "Happy Half-Birthday!"
And then Susanna jokingly told me that I should give her the other half of my Snickers bar when she comes over for dinner this evening because her half-birthday was last week. I think I will.

But I got my first half-birthday present ever!
Happy 2010 to all!

Boldog Karácsonyt!

Last night after Christmas Eve Liturgy, I asked Gyorgy, who is from Hungary, how to say "Merry Christmas" in Hungarian.
The answer? Boldog Karácsonyt!

So may I wish all of you Boldog Karácsonyt!
Or Feliz Navidad...or Buon Natale...or Joyeux Noël...or Bon Nadal...or Zorionak Zuri...or Boas Navidades...or Natale Hilare...
or a very, very Merry and Blessed Christmas!

Book Review: The Idiot

It's actually been almost two weeks since I finished it-but I recently finished reading Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Idiot. I started reading this book around October 15 and it took me until December 8 to finish it. It is the second work by Dostoevsky that I've read (my first being The Brothers Karamazov when I was in my late teens at the recommendation of my brother's friend, Mark) and it will not be the last. I do enjoy Dostoevsky-even if my friend Katie calls him "The Russian Virginia Woolf."
My reading of this book was born out of a conversation with my friend, Kyle, while looking at classic literature at Barnes & Noble back in August. He had just finished The Brothers Karamazov and had loved it-like I had a few years earlier-and was looking for more works of classic literature to read. And we saw The Idiot on the shelves. Neither of us had read it but since I had more experience with Russian Lit (Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Pasternak) I told him I would (eventually) read The Idiot and let him know what I thought of it. Well, it took me forever to read it (mostly because I was busy with school) but I finished it and I'm ready to say what I thought of it.

To best explain my reaction to this book, I have to explain how I evaluate a book:

1. Is this book interesting?
2. What is the author's main theme/message?
   
3. Was the main character likable?
4. Do I agree/accept the message the author is trying to get across?
   
5. How does the author's background/historical context affect this novel?

So to review this book, I'm simply going to answer those five questions.

1. Yes, this book was interesting; as most Russian novels are, the plot dragged at times but for the most part it was pretty great.
   
2. Beauty will save the world; the main character (Prince Lev Nikolayovich Myshkin) actually says this at one point.
   
3. Yes and no-Prince Myshkin (aka The Idiot) was likable sometimes but other times I wanted to punch the guy in the face for making (what I deemed to be) dumb decisions.
4. Yes, I believe that beauty (if we identify Christ as the source of all beauty) will save the world. Dostoevsky was a Christian, as I recall.
5. Dostoevsky strongly disliked Roman Catholicism, the Jesuits, and the European nations and their inhabitants. And this leads to my main gripe with the book. I was loving and enjoying the book until shortly before the end when Prince Myshkin goes off on a rant against Catholicism, the Jesuits, and the Pope. And later on, Madame Yepanchina rants against how horrible and uncivilized Europe and Europeans are. I find some of this logical due to Russian history. But a lot of this is Dostoevsky's personal opinions/dislikes/grievances/biases. For me, these rants kept the book from becoming a personal favorite.
   

So I give this book four out of five stars. It was good but it could have been better.

But I DON'T want a snow day

So it's snowy out here in West Michigan. And we're under a winter weather advisory. So all the freshmen and sophomores (and some upperclassmen too) are clambering "SNOW DAY! SNOW DAY!" for tomorrow or Thursday or Friday...since we're expecting a lake effect blizzard indefinitely.
I don't want a snow day. I'm a senior. I have several large papers/projects due between now and this coming Monday. One of them is due tomorrow. In two other classes, tomorrow is the last chance I really have to see/talk to my professors before large papers (and a final exam) are due. I need classes tomorrow.
Plus, there's this whole momentum thing. I'm basically done writing the papers; I just need to turn them in...and in one case finish writing once I get the edits from the professor-some time tonight. But I'm on a roll. I'm ready to deal with that paper and just push through until Thursday when I get the exam question bank for my American Lit final and then turn in a final and a paper on Friday. And then I have the weekend to relax and study for American Lit and put the finishing touches on my Spanish Lit paper due on Monday. I'm on a roll; I'm ready.
But a snow day? All I'd do tomorrow is lie around, watching movies and reading books. Trust me; I do not need or want a snow day.

Some Like It Hot

So today I was bored. I have at least one major assignment due every school day this week except Thursday. And I was bored. Go figure. This boredom led me to decide that I would make my own pasta sauce. This way I would have something to do that had nothing to do with "the Christian family as social foundation in Uncle Tom's Cabin" or my ten-minute play or philosophy AND I would have yummy pasta sauce for the next couple of days.
I went to the grocery store and bought sausage, tomato paste, and diced tomatoes (and cereal and tricuits but those are irrelevant). I went home, did more homework, and went into the kitchen to cook. I diced garlic and onions and cooked them up with the sausage. Then I opened the can of diced tomatoes and smelled something spicy. So I looked at the can. I had bought diced tomatoes WITH GREEN CHILIES. Crap. But I poured them into the saucepan on the stove, added tomato paste and water, and then turned on the heat. Then I liberally added parsley and fresh basil (from the basil plants growing in my window sill). When the meat, garlic, and onion were done cooking, I mixed them in with the tomatoes and spices. Then I cooked up my spaghetti and mixed some pasta and some sauce together.
It was spicy. But it was good.
Verdict? I never would have thought of this on my own. But it was good. I'd probably do it again-on purpose.

Are you being served?

Are You Being Served? was a 1970s BBC comedy show set in a department show. It is now in reruns on late-night PBS.
It's also a question to which I can answer "yes."
My left knee has been bothering me a lot lately. So this morning I was on crutches. I'm actually using them in general except when going to class and to work right now.
This morning, I went to UCO Foundations with my crutches. I drove to the women's household and then drove to the class with them. They helped me carry my things around and blessed me with their willingness to help me. Lauren even helped me take my shoes off when we went inside the house.
Service is a huge part of being a Christian. We are called to serve our neighbors and put their needs ahead of ourselves. But learning to be served is also a part of our calling. This past August, I spent four days on crutches and spent that time learning to ask for help and to accept service even when it required admission of weakness on my own part and allowing myself to be humbled.
But I'm getting better at asking for help and accepting it when it's offered. This morning, I trusted someone else to pour me a cup of coffee and put creamer in it. And I let someone else get my breakfast for me.
I think that I'm not the only one who has trouble with this. But I think it's important to allow ourselves both to serve and be served. We have to be able to both humbly serve others and accept service humbly.
It's not about us. It never was. It's about Him. And He lived humility in action.

No, seriously, take the cranberry sauce

So last night after UCO, we went out to a restaurant called Uccello's which has great drink and appetizer specials after 9pm. Needless to say, our merry gang is often found there on a Wednesday night. Somehow, we didn't end up leaving until after midnight-due to some issues with waitresses and general craziness on the restaurant's part...it was busy there.
So, I didn't get to bed until like 12:45am and didn't fall asleep until around 2am. But without fail, as it always does on Thursday mornings, my cell phone alarm went off at 6:40am telling me to take a prayer time, eat breakfast, shower, and head to work. So I did.
Today was Thanksgiving Dinner Day at GVSU Campus Dining's Main Location...aka my place of employ. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, "jewel vegetable medley," mashed sweet potatoes, and vegetarian shepherd's pie...and that was just at one of the stations; there are three entree stations in all.
I told my supervisor that I was running on about five hours of sleep and that if I was being crazy...well, I hadn't gotten enough sleep. Well, I did all of my work as requested and seemed to be doing well considering how tired I should have been...and wasn't.
So then, at 11am, we started serving food. (My Thursday shift is from 8am to 12pm.) And I was in charge of carving the turkey. (I was apparently cutting the pieces too large; I could care less.) The woman I was working with was serving the cranberry sauce, the potatoes, and the veggie medley. Most people just wanted turkey and taters.
Now I love cranberry sauce. I know my mom makes it using real cranberries and doesn't just use the canned stuff. But I love cranberry sauce and cranberry juice and dried cranberries...and pretty much all things cranberry. (I blame Grandma Jo for this; she always has had cranberry juice at her house for as long as I can remember.) And cranberries are good for your kidneys; I read my juice bottles.
Well, these kids didn't want the cranberry sauce; admittedly, it was the canned stuff, which is no where near as good as the real stuff. So I started telling people that they wanted cranberry sauce. I told them it was good for their kidneys. I told them that I love it. And most of them just laughed at me.
They probably thought I was crazy. Here is this hyper, perky, happy girl encouraging them to eat cranberry juice for the sake of their kidneys. What is her problem?
Answer: God gave me joy in the cranberry sauce. I'm not a morning person. But when God gives me joy, I can peel parsnips, de-leaf thyme sprigs, clean a massive soup pot that holds over 1,000 servings of soup, and serve turkey dinner to complete strangers who rarely say "thank-you" or acknowledge my existence. And I can do it all with a smile and a "you really do want the cranberry sauce" thrown in for free.

Rantings of a Disgruntled and Unmotivated College Student

"'November is the most disagreeable month in the whole year,' said Margaret, standing at the window one dull afternoon, looking out at the frostbitten garden."

-Louisa May Alcott's Little Women

It's like 58 degrees and sunshine today. And it's about half-way through November. That's not what I call disagreeable. And I've got a problem with that. November feels like September or October. I know that finals are less than a month away. But I don't feel like it. And it is keeping me from actually buckling down and getting motivated about school.

This rant would have been a lot longer but I got distracted and am going to do homework instead like a good kid.

Rooibos

Last fall while in Spain, my friend Kayleigh and I frequented a small store called Tea Shop. It is a chain and it is fabulous. They are similar to Teavana in the States selling tea and accessories and offering free samples. Behold how good and pleasant it is to offer poor college students free samples of delicious teas.
Tea Shop sold only loose-leaf teas. (Ah, delightful!) And for Christmas, they made special teas with cinnamon and orange peel and vanilla and deliciousness. This came in four varieties: black, white, green, and red. Red? Huh? What is this red tea of which you speak?
That was basically my reaction to it. Well, Kayleigh told me that it was rooibos.
Ah! said I. Then a puzzled look overtook my face. What's rooibos?

Rooibos is: " a member of the legume family of plants. The rooibos shrub can grow up to 2 meter in height. The erects red coloured rooibos stems contain many dark green needle shaped leaves. The rooibos shrub produces small yellow flowers in spring through early summer. Each flower produces a one seeded small bean. Roobos has a long tap root, sometimes up to 2 m in length, enabling the plant to survive periods of drought." And it is from South Africa and can only be grown there. (Source)

So I bought some cinnamon Rooibos tea from Arbor Teas recently. And it smelled like wood-chips. No me gusta. I brewed a cup but made it too strong and didn't like it.
Then I made another cup today. But I didn't fill my tea ball as full and I didn't let it steep as long.
Now, I recommend it.
I also recommend cinnamon black tea from Arbor Teas. And the chamomile tea I was drinking while blogging the other night, that's also delicious.

Basically: drink more tea.

Tea and Knitting

Tea is drunk to forget the din of the world. ~T'ien Yiheng

I'm currently sipping some chamomile tea at the end of a long day. I could just go to bed and let it end. But I think that first some tea and a bit of Gipsy Kings will make everything go down much more smoothly. Chamomile tea, this a bit of loose leaf from Arbor Teas, soothes me and helps me sleep. But it also reminds me of Spain. My first morning in Spain I got sick and my host mom made me chamomile (or manazanilla) tea to soothe me. It really worked. And now I find this pale golden liquid one of the most soothing things in life.

I'm actually crocheting right now. But earlier today, I finished my first cabled knitting project: The Irish Hiking Scarf. Please see photo:


The color is lovely, the texture is fantastic, and I'm just plain happy with the thing. And I can cable! I'm really very proud of myself for completing this pattern.
I'm actually planning to start this scarf again-probably tomorrow-to send a to friend who is living in Northern Ireland for a year. It won't be the same color but it will still be fabulous.

And if you're wondering, the tea is helping me forget the din of the world. It's also my fourth cup today. This (and the name of the blog) might tell you something about my affection for tea. (And only two of the cups were caffeinated.)
Tea soothes me, calms me. And it does help me get going in the morning and close off my day as it ends.

I CAN CABLE!!!!!!!

I learned to cable knit yesterday.
Well, okay a couple of weeks ago, I figured out how to do it from a YouTube video. Go YouTube!
Then I found this pattern on Ravelry.
So Wednesday, I bought yarn and needles for it. And I cast on yesterday.














And now, I have a little scarf growing. And it has cables. I'm freaking proud of myself.