Photo-Heavy

I've been busy and, on top of that, I've been feeling lazy so I haven't posted in a while.

So here's a quick catch-up on what's been going on...through pictures~

1. Saw Sandra Day O'Conner speak. It was interesting, but it sounded more like an infomercial for her new KID-FRIENDLY INTERACTIVE website than a talk to be given to college students.

2. Did some delicious cooking with my friends. We had an adventure finding ingredients, and eventually we didn't even get all the stuff we needed, so it was a lesson in improvisation. The food came out quite deliciously though... Fusilli in tomato cream sauce and a pizza with roasted garlic, fresh tomato, and gorgonzola & feta cheese. Tasty.

3. The Red Cross Club, which I'm part of, held a CPR/First Aid Training event that went really well. We got to play with dummies and bandage people up. Good times! We got a bunch of people certified.

4. My sponsor was babysitting an adorable little puppy named Meryl. We went and played with her. Those of us on campus who have dogs back home tend to go into withdrawal, so it was awesome to actually have a puppy all to ourselves for a couple hours.

5. My fellow Red Cross Club VP, Gabi, brought a delicious cake in to our meeting last week! And she even had the bakery personalize it. So. Pretty.

6. Last week I decided to make the great leap and buy a mixed bouquet. It was rewarding. They were pretty (and stayed fresh for most of the week, too!). Orange/red Gerber daisies, azaleas, some unknown pretty purple-and-white things, and fern fronds. Love it.

7. I started making pretty hair clip things with all the scrap yarn I have sitting around. They're fun and easy to make, even though crochet isn't really my thing.

8. I saved the best part for last. My little brother came and visited me this weekend and we went and saw Russell Peters perform on campus. It was FANTASTIC. We had great seats--super-close to the stage, but just far enough that he couldn't pick on us. I haven't laughed that much in ages.

Photography was ultra-prohibited, so I didn't risk taking any pictures.

I put the boy on a plane back home this morning, and I'm already feeling the family withdrawal. It was a wonderful weekend. My brother brought me a vase from home, so now I don't have to do the sad thing where I arrange beautiful flowers in an unsightly water bottle.

This week, my brother paid for my flowers so I bought ten bucks worth of what I'm pretty sure are tiger lillies (Mr. Florist's nephew wasn't 100% sure, but I like lillies in general so I'm pretty sure it's worth the risk).

Sunday Flowers

I have no idea what these are called, but they caught my eye as I was walking through the market this Sunday and I just had to have them. The Mr. Florist who I usually go to had an unusually small selection, so I went to the other guy and picked up these beauties

I still don't have a legit vase, so I'm still doing a terrible injustice to these by storing them in the Arrowhead bottle. Sad...

To be fair, I've trimmed the stems since taking this picture, so they fit better in the...vase...but still. Yuck.

Sunday Flowers

Today I bought what Mr. Florist calls "fragrancy lilacs". I'm absolutely delighted by them. They smell lovely. :)

The process of getting them into a vase was pretty involved. Mr. Florist's assistant told me that I should crush the stems of the flowers so they'd pick up water better, and he said to use a hammer to do so because the stems are pretty woody. Unfortunately I don't have a hammer here at school so I just used the wrong end of a screwdriver. I've never made use of such an involved kit of tools in arranging a bouquet of flowers before...

There's also the snag that the friend of mine who lent me his vase needed it back, so I'm currently out one vase. Luckily for me a freshman of mine was kind enough to donate a giant water bottle to my cause. Thanks, Marco!

The only unfortunate thing is that apparently the ants think that these flowers smell delightful too, so they invaded my room this evening to take a whiff. Happily, my RA has sprays of death and destruction readily available outside of her room. Needless to say, the invaders have been routed. Woo!

Such lovely color contrast! Thanks, Mr. Florist! Now my next mission is to get a real vase...

Sunday

Yesterday, I woke up and it looked like this outside my window:

So I was pretty surprised when I woke up this morning and saw the following:

Pretty startling, right? I spent all of yesterday indoors avoiding the rain, and would've been sad if my Sunday morning ritual had been interrupted by the rain.

On Sundays, I get up by about 8 o'clock, and do homework until 10, at which point I suit up and go for a run around Claremont. The circuit usually takes me about a half an hour, and after I'm done I head to the Village, which is tiny Claremont's idea of a Downtown area. Timing on Sunday mornings is key, and this is because Donny, the Bubble Tea Man, only ever has his boba ready by 10:30 AM.

Every Sunday morning, I show up at CK's Cafe and order the same thing--a small Thai iced tea with boba. It's a beloved weekly indulgence, which I know I'm supposed to savor but can never find the self-control to drink slowly. I reduced this puppy from full to just about empty in under five minutes today. I think that might be a new record.

Donny is often the first person I talk to on Sundays. I actually just learned his name today and was, to be perfectly honest, kind of surprised. He's an adorable old Asian man with a pushy, stuffy wife. I don't know what I was expecting his name to be, but I definitely wasn't expecting "Donny". It's a pretty neat name, though.

After getting my tea, I walk around the Farmer's Market, and sometimes I check out the produce booths (which I buy much less often than I should; I'm a sucker for samples, though). Generally, though, I make a bee-line straight for the flower vendor.

Today there were way too many options to choose from--mini gerber daisies, orchids, roses, snapdragons, tulips, sunflowers... But then I saw these and I just had to have them.

Irises remind me of my dad (they're his favorites). You really can't go wrong with them. I've always been a fan of their gorgeous color-contrast.

Notice, though, the gimpy petal on this flower! Sad! Wish I'd noticed it and picked out a different bouquet...

Irises are a snap to arrange, mostly because there isn't much arranging to do. You just cut off the extra leaves, cut them to the right height, and pop them into the vase.

There sure were a lot of extra leaves on this bouquet, though...

They're so pretty and green! It was definitely a shame to have to throw them away. I sort of feel like they belonged in a vase of their own!

Well, that was my Sunday morning. What did you do today?