and it all started with a big bang, BANG!

My mom & I loove the tv show "The Big Bang Theory".


It makes me want to move into an apartment so I can have neighbors my age around. Like nerdy science guys that wear coudroy pants, and t-shirts with science and/or obscure popculture references, and blazers over sweatshirts.

Yep- quirky, funny, nerdy-but-loveable neighbors that I can be friends with. And maybe date. But I'd only date the least weird one- the one who recognizes that loving sci-fi movies, comics, role games, etc., makes him a complete dork.


My friend Ashley loves 500 Days of Summer. It reveals that the cool, hipster girl that all the guys idealize is actually a nuerotic mess of a girlfriend.

I say this because I fully realize that it would prob be reeeeally hard for me to be friends with a real-life pack of nerdy 20something professors. It takes everything I have to be present in a convo with someone talking about video games or extreme sci-fi things. We would have very little in common, none of us would be as witty as the Big Bang cast,...but a girl can dream, right? Also, I found out I am not the only girl who has this dream because of this show :)

Jottings

Here's some long overdue jottings to you, friends:

I graduated this past Friday, the 13th! so great. [just ignore the 4 credits I have left to complete before actually getting my degree]

My birthday is this Saturday, the 21st! also great. [note that this is also supposed to be the day the world ends, according to some loon]

Yep, two milestones in a row landing on arbitrarily deemed "unusual" dates. Weird or completely normal, right?

My little brother had to dig a small shard of glass outta my foot yesterday. I don't think he got it all, so I googled "glass in foot" and the world wide web said I could get an infection. Now every so often I wonder if I will have to get my foot or whole leg amputated. And I'll be an amputee that will give talks to kids in middle school about the dangers of running around without shoes on. Unless the infection gets in to my blood. Then I'd just die. Btw, remind me to tell you how I ended up stepping on glass. It's a doosie.

Some advice: DO NOT SELL YOUR BOOKS TO HALF PRICE BOOKS. You'll bring in like 10 mint condition hard-covers & history monographs, and they will give you 7 measly bucks. Yes, less than $1 per book. Then you will pay the $7 you just got + $12more to buy 3 books you found while browsing in the store you are made to wander in while they appraise the books you brought in to sell.

Tune in next time for a pictorial blog.

there might be a little dust on the bottom...

Recognize those song lyrics? I hope so, because I think I like that song. I def did when I was like eleven, but now I'm not so sure. It seems like it could be a 1990s country OR soft rock song, and I don't like that kind of musical ambiguity.

Wikipedia let me know it was on some top country chart, but still...

The reason I mention the song is because I found fruit on the bottom yogurt today.
Clearly a strong connection there.
Anyways, I looove fruit on the bottom yogurt. As a kid and adolescent I was obsessed.
In the past few years though, it seems to have come up absent from grocery coolers, no matter where I look.
...Then again, I tend to take after my father who can't find leftovers on an eye-level shelf in the 'fridgerator.

Well Safeway now carries fruit on the bottom yogurt under its Organic label.
Yes, be excited!
I am, which is why I've dedicated roughly a fith of this blog post to write about it.

Tonight, as I watched a film for class that should've ended 50 minutes before it actually did, I checked my gmail to clean out spam from my inbox. And what did I find?

???

An email from my Chinese bff, Vivian!!! [I met Vivian on my trip this past summer. DUH.]
Oh no, I'm about to cry just thinking about her. I teared up 4 times just while reading her letter and writing back.
I miss her so much and love getting to hear from and write to her!

She became my best friend there within the first hour of our arrival to the university.
We didn't have classes together nor did we room together, but we saw each other as often as we could, like 3-5 times a week.
Vivian cared for me like a big sister and was so much fun to hang out with.

Baaaahhh <----- yes, I am crying right now :/

Annnd, the possibility of meeting her again in heaven causes my heart to rejoice :}
No. No, she is not a Christian. But I pray and hold on to hope that someday she will let go of the life she has to live alongside Jesus. I can't even begin to imagine all that God wants to do in her life and through her. I say this because she is already such a hard working and caring person, so to see God use her to further the Kingdom of Heaven on earth would be so crazy cool and beautiful!

So I desperately want to see her again.
I think she wants to visit the U.S. someday; I know she would love it :)
After forming such a friendship & others and experiencing the culture, I would also love to visit China again someday.

Thinking about the relationships I was able to build in and all that I learned about cultures, myself, and God this past summer, I am incredibly excited for my friends going to China in just a few short months!!!

"A girl can't read that sort of thing without her lipstick"

As alluded to in one of my recent previous posts, I love the hit show "Parenthood". One of my favorite characters is Amber, played by Mae Whitman (who also starred on ABC family's apparently not-so-hit-show, State of Grace, one of my middle school favs.)

Anyways, on the show Amber is a moody but talented teen who has awesome style that I would like to emulate. Mostly because her style is like the rebellious version of my own, perhaps.

Her, like, signature thing is black eyeliner and red lipstick. So in similar fashion to the lame girl from Mean Girls- you know, the one who says "I saw Cady Heron wearing army pants and flip flpos, so I bought army pants and flip flops"- I used some extra time I had yesterday to paint on the black and dab on some red lipstick I have in my special/weird make-up bag gathering dust under the bathroom sink. It was a fun kind of confidence thing for me, too. I can wear red lipstick if I want to.

So here's a pic I snapped on my compie :) I don't look like a complete clown, huh?

Oh, btw- I did, however, become a giant woman trapped in an office building. Plz look past my growth spurt to still be my friend.

Okie dokes, off to find the perfect shade for my ruby reds so I can dump the tube I have from my 7th grade Halloween costume. Also, I have a paper to finish before 5:30. Happy first Friday, peeps!

Stay gangsta,

J.Rice

Someone plzzz save us, us college kids!

[Relient K, so good]

I can't make any promises, but due to popular demand I am seriously gonna crack down and blog regularly. Once a week. we'll see how this goes.

I have homework to do before making bread dough and going to class, so this bloggie's coming from something I've already wrote.

The following is a list I compiled over the weekend of things I want to do before graduating...

(in no particular order):

1. take a picture with the Sinclair gas station dinosaur

2. visit the Museum of Northern Az

3. make ice cream from snow

4. have a picnic on the lawn of the Flagstaff courthouse

5. one last Friday invasion of E. Hart's with Jade (which was a weekly occurence our sophmore year)

6. go to Bearizona

7. build a fort city like on Community

8. go to Bedrock, Az and eat gravelberry pie

9. go to Prom (the movie) with Aziel as my "date".

only "couples" can go.

dress up in semi-formal attire... or ballgowns.

10. have a slumber party at a hotel

11. find out if the Monte Vista Hotel serves monte cristo sandwhiches. if they don't, find a place in Flg that does

12. play the best April fools' joke evahhhh

13. visit Locket Meadow- bring glitter lotion, pretend to be a vampire)

14. take a photo of every significant place in Flg/ at NAU for nostalgia's sake

15. play at the park by juvie

16. visit the dove chapel place on the way to the Grand Canyon

17. visit the cemetary by Target

18. have a great birthday bash with my birthday twin, ash b.

Hopefully finances will not be a killer hinderance for these things.

Do you have any suggestions to add to my list? Wanna help me complete some of these? Comment & let me know! :}

Enjoying Today with a little "some day"s

one of my fav past times with friends is to talk about what our future kiddos, spouses, jobs, marriages, and lives in general might be like.

the convos sound something like this:

AG: my kids will say 'i can't play with youuuu today, i have sailing practice', and they will only wear things from J.crew.
JR: my kids will longboard or rollerblade while wearing bows& mary janes and tiny sweaters over tiny oxford shirts. also, they will love hymns.
CS: my kids will be best friends with each other because they will be weird but i'll tell them they're special everyday.
JF: my kids will ask to read in their prayer languages. or refuse to go to church.
AK: my kids will play in dirt all day and hit all yo' kids.

Perhaps this is what watching parenthood leads to or at least encourages.

Sorry I haven't posted in forevah, I'm sure reading my blog is enjoyable procrastination time for someone out there.

Tonight I got called a catfish by one of my close friends. It's cooler than it sounds- there's some deep meaning to it where being called a catfish is a sweet compliment. It has to do with that thriller movie that came out this past fall.
The one about a man & facebook; not The SocialNetwork, but the other one- Catfish. You know, the one I wanted to see and then forgot about.

Some people won't read blogs unless they have pictures, so here's one from my week:





22 strawberries, 1 1/3 bananas & 1 3/4 apples???
HOW DiD they fit all that fruit into one medium-sized bottle?!

tomorrow I get to go post-Valentine's Day shopping at Targie with Adriane in btwn my lame-o classes. and maybe I'll find the perfect fitting sweatpants with elastic @ the ankles to be cool like my friend Jade. and perfect fitting tshirts like my friend steph b.

Fungi, a Man, and Reclusive Women

This past weekend I spent an above average amount of time (for myself, probably a below average amount of time for most college students,) working on homework.

While working on online anthropolgy homework, I learned about astounding fungi.
*Disclaimer: this is super sick, so avoid reading the following while eating.

A fungus in the Amazonian forest lays on plants and the forest floor, in waiting.
Once an insect or spider crawls by, the fungus attatches itself to the unfortunate creature.
The fungus sticks to the bug's exoskeleton & dissolves a part of it.
Through this opening, the fungus reaches the insect's insides and eats the non-vital organs.
The spider or whatever remains alive and functioning.
After the non-vital organs have been devoured, the fungus eats a part of the bug's BRAIN.
At this point, the fungus has basically created a SPIDER ZOMBIE (!!!); with the brain piece gone, the bug climbs to a high leaf in the forest canopy.
The fungus eats the rest of the insect and then causes it to explode(!!!), sending the fungus spore things to be dispersed throughout the rainforest to lay in waiting again!

...this same fungus has some sort of chemical in it that supresses the human immune system & therefore makes it a great med for transplant patients (of which my daddy was one,) so that their body does not reject the foriegn organ placed in them.
neat, huh???

During my laborious weekend, I also researched other things on the internet:
-C.S. Lewis. I concluded I do indeed want to read all he ever wrote, or most of his works anyways. [Chronicles of Narn, check-dunzo!]
- the Edies Bealeses, of whom Grey Gardens Documentary was of, as well as the 2009 'Grey Gardens' was based on.