weekend stats

thanksgiving dinners eaten: 3
scarves knitted, only to be dismantled as a result: 2
episodes of the duggars watched (a little bit strangely obsessed? nbd): at least 19
verbal exchanges in a 24 hour time period while home alone: 4 (to my sunflower market cashier: hello, here you go, thank you, have a good day)
redboxes rented: 3
hours spent black friday shopping between shifts at work: 2
trips to the craft store for more yarn: 2
containers of various alternative milks in my fridge: 3 (coconut, almond, and pumpkin spice soy thankyouverymuch)
tree branches yanked off bushes at the neighboring apartment complex in an attempt to make a crafty pinterest inspired christmas tree: 1
times i've listened to the new she & him christmas album: countless. listen. december soundtrack. you're welcome.
times i've put these shoes and these moc boots in my online shopping cart: 4
days until i get to go home: 24.

happy monday

good feeling 24

my aunt sent this to me tonight. i laughed.
so my thanksgiving was pretty good. and yours? i seriously never cease to amaze myself with the amounts of food i can stuff into my body. its ridiculous.

times 3?

my galette. it was.... meh. the pecan pie was where it was AT.

window shopping sans windows

the "i just ate my body's weight in sweet potatoes" face

just some friendly family competition. jan is grandma. grandma is really good at dice.

because no holiday can be complete without a deep drama about the holocaust

but i lit the christmas tree... and all that jolly counteracts the depressing movie, right? 

day twenty four- i loved today. thanksgiving is great. i got to hang out with the family, eat eat eat, and just relax. it would have been even better if i could have been at home in boise, but saying here just makes me anticipate going home for christmas that much more. i'm so grateful to have family here to take me under their wing in the meantime! the time has come to turn up pandora's peaeeful holiday, cook up some gingerbread men, and make a certain infamous paper chain.

christmas 2011. its on. 

(and thanks for hanging in with me while i posted all these ramblings every day this month... back to your regularly scheduled programming!)

good feeling 23

provo is wonderful when 5/6 of the students leave. TONS OF PARKING!! it is a legitimate ghost town here! i tell you what- i think i shaved at least 10 minutes off of my commute home from work... wonderful.
i'm making a galette for thanksgiving. it sounds fancy and uppity but trust me- it is not. last week i got a TON of pears. i don't even like pears.... and what are you supposed to do when an entire bag of pears is staring you in the face? combine them with butter and sugar, i presume. at least, that is what the blogdom tells me.
speaking of blogdom, it's been going insane with thanksgiving recipe round ups and last minute ideas that are making my head spin. every time an author talks about thawing and brining her turkey, i get really anxious. at winco today i wanted to shake everyone who was purchasing a turkey and tell them that, according to my little knowledge of poultry, that thing needed to be thawed and brined STAT if it was going to be ready for tomorrow.... which begs the question, do people even like turkey? i remember it tasting pretty dry during my meat eating years... in fact i have fond memories of it sticking to the roof of my mouth and then having to scrape it off with my fingers. okay thats gross. i will stop now. eat your turkey and enjoy it, alright? i will enjoy my sides. people always ask me what i eat on thanksgiving. i think that is possibly the dumbest question ever. everything but that gamey bird. don't feel bad for me. trust me-i won't be going hungry.

day twenty three- tonight i sat in my vacant apartment, cooked vegetables and pasta and spent some time with claire and phil.... and michael and cam and the whole gang. seriously modern family night gives me just one more thing to live for.
gotta get going on that galette. (hi alliteration...) happy thanksgiving, everyone!

good feeling 22

woke up. drove to work. worked 8.33 hours. drove home. cooked dinner and hung out with britni. GOT THE BEST PHONE CALL EVER.

day twenty two- today this girl called me. the one, the only, diana isabel cook. this picture i snapped during freshman year skype chat sits on my desktop and makes me smile on a daily basis. she's good looking even with facial hair, no? this girl is down in az living life and we haven't seen each other since last december (shudder) but every time we talk it is just like yesterday we were riding our bikes to high school and speaking spanish (well she was speaking spanish. i was just sounding more or less ridiculous) when we wanted to be sneaky. she's great. i can't wait to see her (and a host of others.... melissa i'm looking at you) come christmas. friends are awesome

good feeling 21

kelsey put up the christmas decorations. it might be november 21 but around these parts, we're welcoming christmas with open arms...i mean, its hard to say no to christmas lights. there is just something about them.
day twenty one- this has got to be my picture perfect winter. i've got a thing for hot chocolate. have you ever eaten spoonfuls of hot chocolate mix and those freeze-dried marshmallows right out of the can? .... me neither. i definitely didn't do that tonight... alright, i totally did and i recommend it. oh, and maybe i discovered THE BEST HO-CHO COMBO EVER. coconut milk + french vanilla hot chocolate mix... or maybe it was dulce de leche who knows it was just so good. i am borderline obsessed!
oh- ps, i am more or less really excited for thanksgiving. mostly for the sweet potatoes. did i ever mention how lately i have an obsession for all thing pureed? it's true. i blend everything up in my ninja mixer and just drink it. basically i've decided that i'm either a baby or a senior citizen at heart. it's cool. 

good feeling 20

uuuuf today was a marathon eats day. sunday might be a day of rest, but there is no resting for my stomach. i tend to do a lot of cooking on sundays... like four hours worth today. kelsey and i made t-gives dinner for our friends. it was bomb i must say... there were rotisserie chickens. mashed potatoes and gravy. grape salad. this soup. these rolls. that pie. pat on back. fist pump. needless to say, it was a pretty good pregame.
how many boys does it take to "carve" a chicken you might ask?

day twenty- so i made rolls today. they are my grandma's recipe- she makes them every week on sunday and they seriously are ambrosia. i had to make the recipe twice after a failed first attempt, but in the end i pulled out all the stops and let them raise in the dryer (fact). needless to say, they turned out! alyssa 1, yeast 0.

here's the recipe. you will want it.

grandma's rolls
makes about two dozen

2 packets yeast (4.5 T)
1/2 c warm water sprinkled with sugar

2 eggs
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c oil
2 t salt
1/2 c warm water
4 1/2 c flour

mix yeast in water and let it bubble and dissolve. in a separate bowl, mix eggs, sugar, oil, salt, warm water, and yeast mixture with a mixer until combined. add flour cup by cup, knead with hands, butter dough, and put it in a bowl to rise until doubled in size, about an hour. after it has doubled, punch down the dough, roll it out, and cut out circles using a cup. fold the circles in half, then pinch them at the edge (does that make sense?) let rise 30 more minutes, then bake at 400 until done!

good feeling 19

today i realized that i've been unintentionally participating in no shave november. yeah- oops. now the question is do i just keep it up or..... yeah, probably not shaving anytime soon. that, my friends, is the beauty of winter and tights.

day nineteen- so this summer i got into spinning. it's great. nobody can see you sweating your brains out, you're encouraged to scream and hoot and holler, and its kind of your own tailored workout. i like it. this morning was no different on the cycling front. the instructor today was like a walking talking tabloid, wearing a cheetah print top and donning a full set of extensions in a ponytail all tied up with a bow. all through class she gave me the lowdown on the kardashians, beiber, nordstrom, etc etc. we all need those little escapes, no?

good saturday. i'm gonna faceplant into my bed, goodnight

good feeling 18

i got hit in the face with a flying tshirt shot out of a cannon today.
kelsey and i were at the byu game and i had my face buried in my phone when OOF a flying shirt came and hit me. and everyone in the the crowd made that "oooooooh" noise. what a week, eh?

let me give you a little peek into the the good feelings of today. they are all pretty random.... but i'm feeling list-y. day eighteen here goes

1. it snowed tonight and i'm only okay with that because the flakes were HUGE. i am all about the "go big or go home factor"... even when it comes to snow.

2. i bought big grandpa sweaters at tj maxx. so big.... so boxy.

3. look at this! i love ryan gosling just about as much as the next girl. i love pancakes probably a lot more than the next girl...

4. look these rad shoes. i put them on at the store today and then took them off. then put them on, and took them off. then looked at the price tag.... and put them right back on the shelf.

5.  i think i've eaten variations of this about every day this week sans the meats. it is more or less delicious.

6. i can't wait to pick up my bountiful basket tomorrow. it is going to be like christmas.

7. speaking of food, i am probably going to make a whole batch of this next week to keep me company when my roommates ditch out on me for their homes. homemade gingersnaps are probably happening, too. feel free to drop by...

8. i went on a major shoeshopping binge today online without buying anything, and now all my sidebar ads are taunting me with beautiful boots. maybe its a sign.

good feeling 17

dating tip #1. not that i am speaking from experience or anything, but if some guy asks you out, it is a good idea to give him your accurate address. i mean, unless you want to take playing hard to get figuratively AND literally. (and that was not my motive, btw) 

so maybe i'm a little dyslexic and mix up my norths and easts. in my defense, it is a known fact that women communicate better by landmarks, not by road signs. 

so maybe i have to ask my roommates what our address is every single time i need to know it. at that exact moment, no roommates were around!

maybe i need to write it down and safety pin it to the inside of all my clothes? i'm thinking that isn't a half bad idea.

day seventeen- i'm at a loss for words of thankfulness. i think i have thankful hangover from the wallet incident yesterday.... today the best feeling is just laying here on my couch and having yogurt in my belly that was the effect of the aforementioned date that actually took place once that poor guy had driven around aimlessly for fifteen minutes while i tried to tell him i lived on streets that didn't exist. oy. sorry, dude. what a trooper, hey- that's a good feeling, right? knowing people won't judge you for your dyslexia? 

i'm stopping this post before it becomes any weirder.

goodnight. 

good feeling 16

i'm kind of a spontaneous person.

it's both a blessing and a curse. virtue and vice. yin and yang.

i worked this morning, then after my shift i was supposed to go back at 5 to work again. i had 3 hours to kill so i up and decided it would be the perfect time to go to check out the new h&m in the mall like 30 minutes away. fashion place mall is plush- university mall palls in comparison and it makes provo towne center look like a straight up trailer park. 

anyways, so i went in. h&m was disappointing. it was so great in spain and here it is just a glorified forever 21. ah well its fine because i didn't have any money. (this is what we call foreshadowing. read on) next stop was crate and barrel and my oh my did i enjoy myself in there. ya'll can just give me that whole place for christmas because i want to live in there with all the le crueset bakeware and matching placemats.

i wander through lots of stores and around 4 decided it would be a good time to go back to work. my last stop was tcby... they have one there! and it's self serve! i was on cloud 9 with my huge cup.... until i reached into my purse to find my wallet and found it to be MIA. i told the guy at the counter to hold my yogurt while i went to my car to search for it because THEY DIDN'T TAKE CHECKS. wtf tcby! 

much to my dismay my wallet was actually not in my car.

much to my dismay my beautiful gingerbread and cheese cake swirl with a dollop of caramel yogurt topped with raspberries and strawberries is still sitting in the freezer at tcby.

much to my dismay my gas light was on.

much to my dismay i was supposed to be at work in 1 hour.

so i called britni and i cried a little. (embarrassing) that working girl had a date with downeast! i went to the gas station and begged them to take a check sans id because that was also in my wallet. they shook their heads woefully at me. i was straight up stranded in salt lake!
don't worry though, this story has a happy ending. 

day sixteen- kelsey called, and even though she had class, she drove out to meet me and bring my sorry self my wallet so i could get gas. seriously, she is the best and i owe her big. time. like a lifetime supply of zupas tomato basil soup or something. 

so i am all about learning experiences and what do we learn from this little story? a. keep your gas tank half full b. keep wallet on person at all times c. when at tcby make sure to stuff yourself full of samples because you just might have a freak accident resembling the one mentioned above. d. have a kelsey on speed dial. you won't regret it. 

good feeling 15

hi i'm a slacker. its been kind of a long two days... forgive me? i've been busy and feel pretty lame saying that seeing as its not due to school, children, etc etc etc. i'd talk about what i've been doing more but it involves christmas, so my lips are sealed. you know in the book wayside school by louis sachar where there is no thirteenth floor of the school building? well, in good feeling series, there is strangely no 14th day. creepy. moving on, though.
day fifteen- HAVE YOU SEEN THIS TRAILER? i am so excited. i was getting goosebumps up in here while i watched it the first time. these are almost the exact images i had in my head when i read all three over christmas break last year. seriously, so good. i can't wait. i foresee a lot of trailer-watching until march 23.

good feeling 13

fall is sticking around regardless of the fact that christmas keeps trying to butt on in here.... like somehow on the way to work this week my fingers put my car radio on some seasonal tunes. seriously, alyssa. stop that. 

day thirteen- i jumped on my bike and rode around today. the weather was unseasonably warm so i headed out, camera around my neck, dress blowing in the wind. (probably a little bit too closely for comfort, but tights make it all okay, right?) my tire was flat due to serious neglect, and riding was somewhat awkward. 

it was awesome still. today at church our stake president said something about the difference between experiencing joy and having fun... and that is about the point i trailed off and remember little else of what he said, BUT it got me thinking. this semester i've had fun. i've done cool things and met sweet people, but i feel like i've also learned how to be a little more joyful- snap a couple more pictures, bottle up a few more memories of hanging out in nature, bask in a good meal with friends, learn things for myself and not related to academia and whatnot. it's lovely. i'm joyful.

good feeling 12

bsu lost and that is not a good feeling. at all.
good thing this happened this morning.

and i am not feeling writing much about it. it's fruit and vegetables forcryingoutloud. here's a haiku to express my feelings poetically.

day twelve- bountiful baskets

oh so much produce
and all for twenty dollars
my heart and purse sing.

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good feeling 11

11/11/11. i totally blew my opportunity to make a wish this morning.
typical.
one of my friends got married today- and the best part about that? 1.5 years ago we were sitting on an italian beach lamenting our love lives and he said that no matter what, he WAS getting married on 11/11/11. well done, good sir. that is dedication. faith. insanity?
 here's to hoping for my own marriage to be 11/11/2111. yeah.
i read an article. it said vegas's little chapels are going downright crazy right now and i believe it.
anyways, strangely enough, other things happen on days like today. like veteran's day. hug a soldier! oh... and discounted race registrations.
alyssa just can't pass up a good bargain.

day eleven- i'm doing it. well, the half. one day i will be hardcore and run a full, but for now i'd like minimal chafing and whatnot. june 23! seattle! i've never been there and figured running a half marathon is the perfect excuse opportunity to get up there. who is with me? 20 bucks off if you register before 11:11 tonight. i'm excited.... it's been far too long since robie creek 2009. (prepare yourself for a throwback...)
now i'm off to watch the clock. 11:11 pm... i've got my eye on you.

good feeling 10

you've missed me talking about spain. i know it.
a couple of weeks ago i was sleeping on the floor at my aunt's house having final hoorah sleep over in celebration of the last day of single-dom for alexis. that morning, my phone alarm went off. i sleepishly rummaged around for it, turned the alarm off, and checked my email like i do each and every day before breakfast. amid the groupons and citydeals there was one that caught my groggy eye. a message from fernando poveda... the guy i'd lived with in spain! it read:

Este mensaje tiene como objetivo, darte la posibilidad de ponerte en contacto con Pilar y conmigo sin pasar por Roberto que siempre anda ocupado.Un abrazo de Pilar y Fernando.

i seriously had to read through it 4 or 5 times before i even half understood what it said. really it's not that difficult. he basically just told me to email him, but evidently when you are half asleep spanish doesn't make all that much sense, and that led me to forgetting all about the message, then accidentally deleting it, then accidentally forgetting i'd accidentally deleted the message. whoops.
anyways, the other day i remembered this email. i facebooked roberto for his parents address and in a matter of hours the email was sitting in my inbox. this time i didn't delete it, but instead just forgot to respond at all. i'm a really great american.

day ten- today i redeemed myself and emailed my spain family. it was so good to type spanish (of which i am sure they will laugh at). so thankful am i to have lived with such a great group of spainards, to have had the opportunity to eat their food, listen to their rants, smell their cigarettes, and learn their ways. i miss them a lot, but i'm really glad we are good friends and they still think i'm cool. anybody want to go for a visit? obviously i've got the hook ups... i mean, they own a churros shop for crying out loud.

the man and his masterpiece.

good feeling 9

real life is:
throwing away an entire loaf of bread when it molds (sigh)
wearing the same pair of black pants to work er..... every day?
resurrecting the claw clip and owning it.
sitting at barnes and noble and listening to the old guys behind me talk dancing with the stars and their views on getting massages (favorite quotes being "i just usually don't feel good with people getting that intimate with my body"and "i'm a horse rider! i know pain...")

hi. this is my life.

day nine- this is also my life. this blog post via melissa coles. i first read this while sitting at work, and i was doing everything humanly possible to not die laughing. i think you'll do the same. girl's got a gift for writing and humor and that is fact.
now excuse me while i go look up "tight end" and a certain "kellen moore". maybe i'll bake some cookies, too. i feel like that might be one point melissa skipped over. a couple weeks ago in church our bishop devoted an entire meeting to dating panel. always hilarious, always controversial. my favorite moment was when the question of "how many plates of cookies must i bake before boy x asks me out?" my favorite real life response from the audience? "bake one plate, maybe two,  and see how it goes.... if he doesn't ask you out, lay off of them. you might be making things uncomfortable. "
no sir, YOU are the one making things uncomfortable. and that is also real life.

good feeling 8

today was all about the small victories....
ie: zupas catering work lunch, thus leading me to drink that tomato basil bisque of the gods like it was going out of style

making it in and out of the temple with britni before the crazy byu crowds hit

buying a brand spanking new jar of smart balance creamy peanut butter and eating it with a spoon. <-- seriously the best peanut butter. get you some.

hosting dinner group and 1. making brussel sprouts and cauliflower fancy and tasteful and edible by boys and 2. reheating a full pan of meaty lasagna that was semi-stolen from break-the-fast on sunday and calling it good home cooking.

buying a watercolor set on a whim. new favorite activity? probably. especially when paired of episodes of  this american life. (seriously, listen to this story. it is hilarious and will strike a chord with all those who made it out of middle school in one piece)

day eight- it was a good day. i did all the things i never have time to do when i am buried in college life. however, i am more or less itching to get back into school. i miss structure. i miss sitting in the library on the fifth floor wanting to gauge my eyes out as i read microbiology textbooks. i miss walking up rape hill and never knowing which of the identical classrooms physiology is in, even though i've gone to class every day for 7 weeks. i miss the pitiful daily universe newspaper. i even miss the awkward couples doing their thing. but don't get me wrong, i don't miss it all enough to not enjoy every second of my freedom currently..... it is just nice to know that in 2 short months i will be back at it and getting stuff done.... because for me, that is where my true good feeling is.

another small victory? finding gem pictures like this in photobooth. i miss my missionary buds

good feeling 7

the extra hour daylight savings has given me has been awesome. waking up to light outside is a beautiful thing.

day seven- watch this video.

my friend emily sent me this video last week. it is so great to get real email from real people that isn't wells fargo telling me to pay my credit card bill or living social trying to sell me a four day excursion to mazatlan. (which is always tempting, btw, and always causes my fingers to delay deletion, btw)

anyways, i digress. this video is great. his testimony is spot on and his voice is so entrancing.... take five minutes and listen in. you won't regret it. if you have questions, visit mormon.org or drop me a line! 

good feeling 6

this weekend my family came to town.
i failed in the photo department. probably because this had to happen.

 so much cold in so little time, but that is probably fact of life #1053 though, right? i should probably quit complaining and channel those emotions into a coat or something.
day six- this weekend trip with my family basically can be summed up with this equation. fun=food and i am pretty okay withthat. i had an amazing salad at malawi's where the key players were  tomatoes the size of donuts, sweet and tangy balsamic vinegar  and an entire block of mozzarella cheese. yum

 on saturday i was feeling hungry and angry at the cold so i went to "ginger's garden cafe". i dined upon an overpriced salad with vegan mozzarella and listened to customers in the herb section repeatedly ask the cashier if he could mix them some herbs... to which he replied it wasn't fda approved. shady? i finished tofu laced ranch dressing then took my business elsewhere.

these pictures are misleading. much more food ensued than this. obviously i was just too hungry/busy eating to pull out any camera. but really.... is there anything better than just sitting at a restaurant and eating something good? i don't think so. especially when it is with the people you like and you can sneakily steal all the muffins off the salad bar.
alright this is making me hungry, so it is time to eat. and research astrology... a good sunday activity, right?

good feeling 5

day five- most days are good. some days are not. this is a post for those days. this summer i found a really great blog. joanna, the author of cup of jo, is the epitome of cool, and her baby is the cutest. she posts daily about interesting topics and this was just one of her good posts the other day. it really struck a chord with me- maybe it will ring true for you, too.

good feeling 4

my family is fifteen minutes outside of provo. you know what that means? i am getting my other car! big red is going back to boise where he belongs. hallelujah.
today's outfit paid homage to big red, though. i semi planned it. we really bonded, that car and i...  he's got quite a powerful heater. there was ample room in the back seat for my lunchbreak naps. when i turned up the volume on my radio is sounded like there was a whole symphony right in my back seat. he just about drained my bank account with the amount of gas he consumed. it was good times...but to everything, a season. thank. goodness.

incaseyouwerewondering: jeans-levis, sweater- roxy, scarf-gap, boots- steve madden

good thing i have another big red to replace the one i'm losing.
good feeling 4- sometimes life hands you a really great pair of jeans. sometimes you only have to pay nine bucks for that aforementioned pair of pants. sometimes you buy them and wonder what exactly people will think of you parading around in a pair of maroon pants. sometimes they become cool and trendy and all of a sudden you're stylish for once in your life.
but mostly, sometimes they match your mom's van perfectly. and you thought twin day was only something you celebrated in 2nd grade.

good feeling 3

i bought dental floss today. and new make up. how is it that all toiletries seem to run out at the exact same time? please, somebody- riddle me that one!
things have been a little bit on the slow side at work this week. it is probably the calm before the flu and strep throat storm, so i've been relishing in watching "annie" and reading every single issue of cooking light then enters the premise.
day three- usually when it is slowish i find myself gravitating towards msnbc.com. it's my favorite place for news. they've got pretty pictures and large print. (am i 5? 95? both?) anyways, flipping through their photoblog is my favorite and i highly suggest it if you want some high quality images of what is going down in the world. my favorite topic as of late has been their stories on the "7th billion baby". that's right folks, our population has hit 7 billion.

 what do seven billion people look like?

go check it out.

good feeling 2

i spent three hours cooking curry tonight in my kitchen. samosas, too. i probably smelled a lot like that weird international college roommate everybody seems to have horror stories about... it's fine. it was my first rodeo with the moosewood cookbooks and i am very happy about it.
did i ever write about discovering that the provo library has an awesome cookbook section? well, it does. and it has great books, too. which leads me to today's good feeling.
day two- lofty goals.
do you see this stack? yeah, i probably am biting off way more than i can chew, but it is what it is...currently i'm becoming acquainted with mr. tolstoy. my goal for november... or life? we'll see. all i know is that having absolutely nothing better to do than read classic novels feels pretty dang good.

good feeling 1

welcome, november!! 

last year i made it a point to post the things i was thankful for on a pretty regular basis during this great month. this year will probably be no different. 

to me, november just ushers in a sense of "good feeling".... and that is the only way i can describe it. 

for the next thirty days, expect to see a lot of posts centering on the things i am most thankful for and that, for me, evoke that good feeling i am talking about- you know, the little things that make life great. i encourage you to do the same. 

day one- outside.
if i've said it once, i've said it one thousand times. i am a lover of nature, especially in the fall. having a break from studies has opened my eyes to the everyday changes and beauty of the world and has given me a chance to experience what is in my own backyard. it might sound cliche, but for seasons and changes i am truly grateful.