Coffee on Cold Mornings

I never drank coffee until I was a senior in high school and I did so because all my friends were doing it (in the traditional after-school special sense). Once I moved away to college, coffee became less of a social activity and more of a necessity, by Winter quarter freshman year I was hands-down addicted.

The height of my addiction was probably Fall quarter sophomore year where I would wake up extra early in the morning so I could venture out to The Front Room just to intake my daily requirement of caffeine.

When I wake in the morning, one of my first thoughts is "coffee now!" and it's nice to be at home because I seem to have an endless supply. What is spectacular about winter cups of coffee is that they not only wake you up, but they warm you up. It's like an energizing little hug every morning (or afternoon, if you're like me and you sleep until one o'clock).

I feel like I'm living in a Folger's Commercial.

anti-simple pleasures

It has been a million years since we have updated and I fear that this update is going to focus more on my anti simple pleasures. these are things that grind my gears or make me kind of sad.

ERIN'S ANTI-SIMPLE PLEASURES

1. Vomiting.
long story here, but just let you know that a.) I'm never drinking again and b.) I enjoyed my thanksgiving dinner twice

2. Loneliness
I'm home, with only my parents to keep me company. I love them dearly but I haven't been around people my own age in a week.

3. Carpal Tunnel
due to the boringness of being home, I have excessively been using the internet. perhaps I may even start living in the internet. prolonged laptop use = sore wrists. uck.

4. The Shower at Home
my shower in my apartment is so luxurious - it's always steamy and always has wonderful pressure. my shower at home is only lukewarm and the pressure is terrible. not to mention I left the good shampoo in Athens.

5. Faux Pas
of any sort. hate them.

Diet Coke

As we speak I am in the ACRN studio and I have just completed a delicious can of diet coke. I am a diet coke-head, the only drink I can honestly say i am in love with.
Diet Coke is a simple pleasure because it has been with me through thick and thin, good days and bad days. Diet coke gets me going in the morning and helps me rewind in the evening. If i could I would marry diet coke.

New Classes

Here at Ohio University, our academic year is divided into quarters which makes the joy of having all new classes come three times a year (or four times if you do summer quarters). I love having new classes because each fall, winter, and spring it is a fresh start to do something great. Each class affects me in a different and exciting way and each quarter I always seem to welcome one class that will forever change how I view the world. Although, going to class can sometimes be a drag, at least that first class can hopefully motivate you for the entire quarter.

ice cream!

Ice Cream. It's my greatest treat and my greatest vice. Each bite of this cold, sloppy goodness brings back great memories of childhood, sunday afternoon dates and gabfests at Cold Stone Creamery.
Ice Cream is the one food that can always make me so much happier as soon as it falls upons my taste buds. The sun suddenly shines brighter, the world becomes vibrant, my life becomes complete.

Honestly, if the government would pass the bill to make marrying inanimate objects legal, I would be know as Mrs. Ice Cream.


Side Note: If Cold Stone Creamery wanted to create a signature "Erin S." dish, it would be banana ice cream with brownie mixed in.

Reading!

I have been such a slacker in a number of ways this summer, updating the blog, keeping up with cleaning house, and getting myself organized for going back to school (four days now!), but most disappointingly I have been seriously slacking in my reading for the entire summer.
This is a huge shame because those hazy humid days of bad hair and sticky thighs always allow me to lock myself in my air conditioned bedroom and snuggle up with some good reading. But this summer I have been too focused on either working or losing my mind to daytime television (my guiltiest of all pleasures). Luckily, I have a boyfriend who has his own personal library and allows me to take as many books as I like. So in these last remaining days of Summer I have been trying to catch up on all the reading I have allowed to escape me. However, there will be absolutely no way I can finish up my reading list which includes:

1. Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov (a library book that I need to finish by friday)
2. Ariel by Sylvia Plath (I'm not usually a big poetry advocate but Sylvia Plath's writing is so beautifully tragic it's hard to ignore... also a library book)
3. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (I bought then when Jill and I went thrifting during my trip to Athens, a complete steal at 35 cents)
4. Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee (One of Alex's books, a play based on the Scope's Monkey Trial, I'm not exactly that keen on reading plays)
5. Stranger Than Fiction by Chuck Palahniuk (I never finished Fight Club in the Spring, blame my Sociology class)
6. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (a book I bought Spring quarter Freshman year and have yet to finish, but was around to entertain me during the most beautiful of Spring mornings after my BIOS 103 class. Ms. McCullers and I shared a few good moments in Emerti Park)
7. Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald (I've had this one for a long time, it's the time to read it!)
8. We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates (After reading Where Have you Been? Where Are You Going? in English 201, I have always wanted to read more of Oates' stuff. It's about violence and what not. big surprise)
9. Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote (a lender from Alex)
10. Euthyphro, Crito, Apology, & Symposium by Plato (an obvious borrowed book from Alex)
11. Islam (another lender from Alex)
12. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
13. Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse
14. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
15. The Plague and The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus (Existentialism! WOO!)
16. Lucky by Alice Sebold (I loved The Lovely Bones, here is another book that will freak me out so much that I won't be able to leave my house)
17. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (I began it when I was in Australia but never finished

This fall will be the perfect opportunity to lounge by the Hocking River and tackle some of these books.

Visits home...

As most college students spend their summers rotting away at bad jobs in their hometowns, I've spent this summer rotting away here at OU. You see, they pay me more to rot here.

After a stint as a popcorn bitch last winter break, I swore I'd never again spend more than a couple weeks at a time in my hometown of Hubbard, Ohio. It did, however, feel nice to head back to Hubbard for a bit last week.

My mom's cooking is always appreciated, as is the gas my dad puts in the car when he knows I'm coming home. Driving around town with the windows down and the stereo bumping feels like freedom, even if I'm just driving to get a haircut downtown. And laundry is free! It felt good to be back on my old stomping grounds, especially when I knew I'd be back in Athens, my home, in a few days.

The best part of my week at home (you know, besides the two concerts I went to) was definitely hanging around my friend Billy's digs. Casa de Billster is a place where you can find puppies with bladder problems, fat cats, video-game-playing moms, a Chinese exchange...man..? named Tang (not a student, just this Chinese guy who lives with them because he teaches little kids or something) and most importantly, brand new Mac desktops sprawled out on the dining room table (because eating is so very over-rated these days).

Billiam and I made several ridiculous YouTube videos in Photobooth, in addition to taking many ridiculous photogs. One of the videos somehow got 141 views and 1 comment overnight. Upon viewing, the Chinese man Tang seemed convinced that we were YouTube stars. Give the guy a break, he's real foreign.

Anyway, here are two of the videos. I'm warning you, they're silly as hell, especially the second one: