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

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...

Scripps Dinners, Party Weekends, and Mystery Flowers

Last week was pretty busy, and kind of stressful too. On top of having multiple tests to take and several important assignments due, I've been conducting zillions and zillions of interviews as part of my new job, so that's been going on all week as well.

My friends and I decided to get away from campus for dinner on Friday night, mostly in an effort to get away from the junk our dining hall tends to serve on Fridays. The four of us headed up to Scripps College for food and sat there talking until the dining hall staff turned out the lights on us, which we pretty much took as a cue to leave.

David picked a cherry blossom sprig on the walk to dinner. They were rather pretty. :)

In spite of intentions to go to bed early, we ended up going for a late-night walk around campus. On Friday night, our college hosted a concert by Lupe Fiasco, and aside from that there were a lot of parties going on. Needless to say, we ran into a lot of people who were not quite at their best. We even managed to catch a glimpse of one of our drunken contemporaries laying claim a light post. With his urine. Classy moment? Not so much.

A positive outcome of the excursion, though, was the discovery these beauties growing in one of the flower beds on the quad:

I have no idea what kind of flowers these are, but if anyone out there in the void does know, I'd definitely appreciate a heads-up!

After finding the lovely specimen above, I figured I wouldn't be buying flowers from the market this week. Of course, I was wrong. How could I have possibly passed these up?

Clearly, I couldn't resist. And why would I ever want to? These orchids are sitting on my desk in the bud vase that my mom cleverly devised from a broken olive oil drizzler. They're so lovely to look at that sometimes I'm almost sorry to get up from my desk after finishing my homework for the night. Almost, but not quite, of course.

Flowers

One of my favorite things about going to school in Claremont is the fact that they have a Farmer's Market that operates throughout the year. Come rain or come shine, those troopers are out there every Sunday morning with their produce and their hand-knitted hats and their used books and whatever else they're selling. I started going for the weird novelty items--there used to be a lady who sold tote purses that she crocheted from cut-up plastic grocery bags--but I keep going for the flowers.

There are two vendors who sell cut flowers, and all of last year I gazed upon those booths with envy because, you see, my roommate last year was allergic to flowers to the point that the only plants we could have in our room were of the plastic variety. Very sad. This year, however, I live by myself and as such have made it a point to buy flowers for my room every week. I think it's a good, happy way to spend a paycheck.

This semester I've decided to keep photographic evidence of the flowers I buy. They're too much of a delight for me to not document them.

Week 1:

Red Gladiolus! They barely fit in

the vase...

Week 2:

Red, pink, and mauve tulips, courtesy

of my parents who visited

that weekend.

Beautifully arranged by my mom. :)

Week 3:

Yellow Renanculae! Simply too sun-shiney to resist!

I wonder what will catch my eye this week...