indian food extravaganza.

britni is my life twin. when i think of our relationship, i liken it to this graph.

funny and true, right? but in all actuality, we really do like a lot of the same stuff.... indian food being one of them.
today we planned to go on a hike. we went a good 1/4 mile before we decided it was too cold and decided that eating in a heated restaurant would be much more fun. plus eating at new restaurants is one of my goals of 20 before i'm 20. win win! we went to bombay house. in fact, we were the first people there, basically standing at the front door waiting for them to open at 4 pm. yes, we're old ladies. yes, we're fine with it.

i'm the kind of person that looks at menus before going to the actual restaurant. i like to scope out my options so i don't go into menu hyperventilation mode once i get to the actual restaurant. too many options paired with a hangry attitude is never a winning combination. i was stoked upon looking at the menu because there was a whole section labelled "vegetarian/vegan" beat still, my heart. i ordered the tofu vindaloo, which is tofu cooked with tomatoes, potatoes, onions, ginger, spices... good stuff right there. britni got the chicken tikka masala. we piled it all on top of jasmine rice and sopped up all the sauce with naan bread. for fifteen minutes of eating all was right in the world. the fact that our waiter brought us our food and proclaimed it "ready for the beautiful ladies", a lively bout of bollywood music playing over the speakers, and the legit turban another server wore just made it an all around good time.
i foresee more trips to eat more indian in the near future. i also see my kitchen smelling like garam masala and being "that roommate". it's fine!
see you soon, curry.

pizzeria 712.

provo has a lot of restaurants. this one is the best. last night one of my pals wanted to do something. he suggested rock climbing and food. i said i was lazy and i wanted cafe rio. we ended up here.

best decision of the weekend made early! the place was full to the brim.... but then again, it's in a little bitty place.

there is no back kitchen. there are only a few employees. they make all the pizzas in that little fire oven in the picture. i fell in love immediately. our waiter.... may i call him danny? that was his name. anyways, he was so proper and helpful and earned every penny of tip. he brought us our menus and used all kinds of fancy food lingo i'd never heard before. gasp! i need to eat fancy more often.

we settled on two pizzas... the menu is ever changing, so i am not 100 percent on what we got, but i am pretty sure one was fancy tomato sauce with "house ricotta" (fancy) and basil, oregano, and topped with arugula. the other was roasted butternut squash with caramelized onions, rosemary, and subtly laced with crack. favorite! we ate and savored and i tried to be girlish and not eat my entire pizza. (i finished it in the car on the way home. ha!)

then they brought the dessert menu. we split this crazy good amano chocolate mousse thing that tasted like straight up heaven.

i can't forget the bathrooms, either. even the bathroom was fancy! oh no, there were no paper towels, but real linens. sustainable! delicious! beat still, my heart.

so do you need any more reason? go eat here, already... but make a reservation if you don't want to sit in the cold for half an hour.  i really can't get over how good the experience it.... frankly, it makes malawi's look like mcdonald's.

fancy. did i say fancy enough, yet?

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!

is that the wasatch?

if you ask me, the mountains that shelter provo to the east are the best part about the place. 

i thought i'd seen fall before i'd moved here... but mostly i was just accustomed to the gradual browning of the boise foothills. last week when i drove around the point of the mountain and into utah county my jaw about dropped. i had to remember to look at the road once in awhile and peel my eyes off the red and yellow mountains. before i went home i thought fall was basically over- heck it had snowed almost to the base of the mountains and when mt timp is covered, you kind of know to kiss fall goodbye. but i was wrong! fall pulled through. good job.

weekend.

like i mentioned previously, i spent lots of time in my car.
and scoring deals at the mall on jeans. (okay they are jeggings) judge not.
and kissing my dreams of buying an SLR goodbye and deciding to be a responsible person and pay my college tuition.

thursday we went to slc for the twilight concert series and got our rave on. kind of.
ghostland observatory was pretty neat. they pumped smoke into the air that smelled like maple syrup, then shot lasers across the sky.
it was pretty great.

on friday britni and i went to the sound of music at sundance, after only a minor mishap where i thought i'd lost our tickets in the abyss that is my car. they were found. prayer works. i've got the attention span of a six year old and the lower back pains of a sixty year old, so we left at halftime. i mean intermission.
i stink at theatre. but i will just tell you... those hills were alive.

saturday i worked, which is super uncommon but necessary because of that college tuition deal.
then i ran on the provo river trail in the 94 degree heat, but thankfully i didn't die.
i ate at jason's deli and became obsessed. seriously, get there.
i slept on britni's floor and dreamed of spain.

sunday was my final hoorah in the 227 ward, and they said farewell to the best relief society room coordinator they'd ever seen.
every single week i mess up on leading the hymns on the computer. either i can't scroll, i turn it on at the wrong time, or only the piano part plays. i'm a spazz and get ever spazzier when i know about 30 sets of eyes are staring at me fumbling around with a mouse with no mousepad! none! it's been traumatic and sweat inducing, but great. and those ladies are gonna miss seeing those beads of sweat roll down my temples as they are yelling out orders on how to work that newfangled device, i know it.
it was family dinner week, too. we ate at a park and i probably downed an entire costco container of grapes. i just can't help myself!

and now it's almost monday and school is starting in seven days, and saying "seven days" just reminds me of the ring, and how in seven days you die,  which i kind of feel like might happen to me. the clock is just a ticking. don't get me wrong, i do love school as much as the next zoobie, but i like my summer life. it's when "i do what i want" is the motto reigning supreme, i do what feels good, and i have next to zero serious cares.
byu is getting ready to pull that rug out from under me.... eeeeeeek! on my horizons are: organic chemistry. spanish phonetics. world religions. art history. cooking.
hopefully i don't get chewed up and spit right back out.
but hey! as of tuesday i will again be able to put my clothes in a closet.
for this weekend of fun, the last week of summer, and that last fact, i am indeed thankful.

vagabonding.

when i was small i used to play "poor".
while other little girls ran around wearing cinderella dresses and playing barbies,  all i really wanted to do was to pretend i was homeless, that i ate grass, and mostly that i had no parents and lived outside. (and that my name was felicia, but that's probably another story)
it's all the truth. we've got the home videos to prove it.

.... this week all those things became a reality. (besides the grass eating... for the most part)
this is a funny time in my life, mostly because of the amount of times i've packed up everything i own and moved it 2-3 blocks away from my previous location.

welcome to the beautiful life of a byu student who is never satisfied with her living conditions! don't worry though, i am not the only one.
welcome to this phenomenon that occurs every year around this time for about 3-5 days where roughly 1/3 of provo's population is between housing contracts and bumming off their more established friends' couches and living out of their cars.
welcome to life until tuesday.

today is day 2/6 that i am living in the corolla. for clarification's sake, i am using the term "living" pretty loosely, seeing as i have this saint of a grandmother who lets me sleep at her house and eat food out of her refrigerator. when i say "living" i simply mean that everything i own is chillin in my car, and i don't see the point of taking it all out just so that i can put it back in in four days.
time consuming. mind consuming. physically arduous.
it's basically the last way i want to spend my last week of summer.

however, living out my car has had some perks, for instance:
i now have full disposal to my entire wardrobe at all times... costume change during my lunch break? don't mind if i do....
the fact that i lost my phone charger and only have a car charger doesn't even matter, since i couldn't use the regular one anyways
i can appreciate the good gas mileage my car gets when it's lighter and fitter... cuz having your whole life in your back seat doesn't exactly help to keep the gauge at full...
i am learning what's really important in life... you know, outfit wise. for instance, are those black flats buried in the deepest confines of that tote REALLY worth the digging/unpacking/repacking? maybe. the skinny black leather belt? never.
there is always a mirror nearby for doing your makeup, and the natural lighting rocks.
plus, you know how sometimes you see some poor fool in some unfortunate circumstance and you just think about how glad you are not to be that guy? it's nice to finally be the cause of that life altering moment for somebody, somewhere.

now if you'll excuse me i've got to go scrounge around in one of my garbage bags for something appropriate to wear to work tomorrow. and my razor. this transient needs a shower.

who turned out the lights?

but really. WHO TURNED OUR POWER OFF?!
you see, we move out tomorrow, but our power was turned off today at 12. poo!
too bad our roommate who is in charge of the power jet off to panama today (something about building a canal....)so we can't even yell at her.
anyways, it has made for some bad news to us procrastinators who were planning on packing up all night long...
tonight emily got out her headlamp and we tried to make heads or tails of our kitchen supplies.
it worked... kind of. too bad it was like a sauna in there... and maybe thats a little dangerous with knives? maybe?
finally we gave up and went with the next best thing... sleeping at grandma's.
man i love having family close.
and man do i love electricity.
guess we'll be packing by the light of the sunrise tomorrow bright and early.
yayyyy

weekend.

well, it was too short, i will tell you what.
school is quick approaching and i am trying to slow

it.
down.
i haven't been in provo for a weekend in, oh, about a month, so i was worried i might forget how it's done down here.
it was like riding a bike. you never forget!

friday was spent at midnight in paris with my work pal. oh, what a movie. if you haven't seen it yet, i highly suggest it. when you understand all the artsy references you'll feel like a million bucks. (in real life did owen wilson really know who dalí was? scott fitzgerald? gertrude stein? just a question...)

saturday britni and i went to diego's for lunch.

people of provo, you should probably get there now. seriously, drop whatever you're doing, get in your car, and stuff a burrito in your face. (ps. they really only gave me three chips.)

 i am drooling right now. 3.50 for a ginormous burrito? it was love at first bite. last bite, too. diego, whoever you are, i think this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

this little number on the window made this place all the more endearing. friends, i know what you're getting for your birthdays, christmases, hanukkahs, and weddings. i may or may not have to splurge on the 20 x 30 variety if it turns out good enough...
next brit and i laid in the park. just laid there and soaked up the summer, trying to strategically place our legs in the sun and faces in the shade.

 baha

hi this is me trying to catch up on some long lost journaling.
we laughed. we scammed on the frisbee-ers. we listened to the entire mumford&sons album.
days like this are the best part of summer. don't you agree?
the cherry on top of a perfect saturday? then emily and i water colored.

still lifes of fruits and veggies. i miss the days when watercolors were top priority on the school supplies list....
sunday came and went at the speed of light!
i went to church
i cooked about 50 pancakes for break-the-fast (breakfast for break-the-fast. how funny) and i came to a revelation that they are rockin' if you sprinkle cinnamon sugar on them as they cook.
i gorged myself at family dinner. (and fell in love with macaroons)
later we had an intense game of nerts. best card game ever! what a way to end the weekend.

and now it's back to work and the daily grind. this week.... well i have a feeling there will be a lot of tortillas to be eaten since it's that time of the year in housing contract season where you've got to start getting creative with the ingredients in your fridge to maximize it all or something. not a problem, though. tacos have been a major theme for summer '11.

 just look at this spread we ate last wednesday for cooking with friends day! mouth watering.

 i decided you can put anything in a taco and it is good.

even tofu. yep, i said it. that the combination of premarinated tofu+ broccoli slaw+couscous in or out of a corn tortilla is heavenly. i am guilty of eating it three days in a row this week, and i highly suggest you try it out... or call me up and i will share my leftovers.

happy monday.

hoy

emily[rummaging for scissors]: i'm going to go steal some flowers. be right back!

"how do i guess the future? based on the omens of the present. the secret here is in the present. if you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it. and, if you improve upon the present, what comes later will also be better. forget about the future, and live each day according to the teachings, confident that god loves his children. each day, in itself, brings with it an eternity!"
                                                         - the alchemist

i just finished this book last night, part of my summer reading list. it was so great, so weird, so unlike anything else i've read lately.  (and contrasts quite well with the ellen degeneres book on tape in my car right now... books on tape. life doesn't get much better.) next up on the list: joy luck club. then east of eden. emily tells me it's the best book ever. i trust her judgement.

i sat at work today dreaming of sunny weather. it has been raining here for about, oh, a good two weeks now. i am feeling like i'm living on the western seaboard, not provo utah. everything is green though! and i'm sure everyone with a lawn likes it.

after work i went to winco and only bought vegetables. and cottage cheese and gum. and kashi tlc granola bars, the best granola bars on this planet. seriously, try them. (but be prepared for a MAJOR jaw workout.) anyways, i bought some basil because this week i am making caprese salad and i am going to slow roast tomatoes and sit in my kitchen and savor every bite. that's what my calling is this summer. anyways, the whole way home from the grocery store i smelled my hands (but not in a weird way) because they smelled like basil and that is my favorite smell. it reminds me of the days of high school when we'd ride bikes to pie hole downtown and buy huge slices of red pepper basil pizza. man, we thought we were cool.

tonight i fried up some aubergine, which is a fancy word for eggplant. aubergine is just a better word. it reminded me of spain and how pili would always fry it up for me because she didn't know what else a vegetarian from the states ate. little did she know my first encounters with those beloved berenjenas was in spain. that blast from the past was definitely worth the 1.73 i paid for it. fresh produce= made of gold. i need to learn to garden.

time for the gym. did i mention i sold my soul for another three years at gold's? looks like i'm not moving any time soon... good thing i like that place.

what i've been up to

first off, happy birthday to the best little brother ever

seems like just yesterday the secretary was interrupting our bus ride to the botanical gardens when i was 7 to announce that i had a new baby brother. what good times it's been since then. happy 13th little paytey. i love you.
i think it is safe to say it's finally spring.
at least, that is what my sunburned shoulders are telling me. today i finally reconnected with some great provo trails and it feels so nice to get off of university blvd and onto dirt! our moab relay is next weekend... hopefully i am ready. and if not, well at least i can enjoy the scenery while i walk!
life is great. without the weights of school and homework my days have been real stress free and somewhat lazy. waking up without an alarm has never felt so nice. i've been getting called into work quite a bit (yay money) which keeps me busy, but between the nine to fives, there has been a lot of empty space to fill.
voids that have easily been filled with trips to yogurtland, which takes the cake for the best froyo in ALL the land, trips to the grocery store with britni- it's great to have a kindred spirit who loves buying produce as much as me- bike rides and reading and "borrowing" music from the provo library. this week's hot items? the outliers on book on tape, he's just not that into you (don't worry, i read it in about 3 hours... seriously every single girl should read it. i've never seen the movie, so who knows if it's the same thing) and retrato en sepia by isabel allende. out of respect for cinco de mayo tomorrow i'm gonna get my spanish on and read it in it's native language. yeah, probably biting off way more than i can chew, but i am gonna try.
speaking of cinco de mayo tomorrow i am so excited to cook and listen to my marachi band music and wear my drug rug all while drinking mexican coke imported right from south of the border.
it feels good to finally have some semblance of hobbies again.
i went to scratch my forehead and found it caked in dirt from my run, oh 2 hours ago. time to shower. til next time!

it's that time of year again

when all the zoobies come out from all parts of utah, idaho, and the surrounding area to join together and throw chalk at each other while some hare krishna guy who used a little too much ganja back in the day croons hare krishna over and over. it's great. in the words of my then-chalk-virgin friend,

"so we're just gonna pull up and they're gonna throw some chalk on us?"

yes hailey, indeed they are. and that is just how it went down.

(after my gps got us completely lost and heading in the opposite direction of spanish fork)

although the weather was less than adequate and the riff raff the festival attracted this year grew exponentially, the colors were just as vibrant as ever and it was still a great time. 

i mean, who doesn't love to go to church the following day with pink hair and blow purple snot out of their nose for days to come? 

in other news, it snowed today, and i have this theory that it only snows when i wear a certain pair of boots. (it's been tried and tested, let me tell ya) anyways, i am taking one for the team and putting them in storage. it's just not worth it anymore!

i took my last midterm til finals today. yessssss my motivation is becoming increasingly miniscule. if that even makes sense.

this weekend i did a lot of cooking with britni. you must make these delicious recipes for :

chocolate chip banana pancakes 

snobby joes

and chocolate chip banana oatmeal cookies.

honestly, they are all to die for i tell you! 

happy monday (only three more mondays for the semester!!)

success

if someone would have told me I'd write a 6 page analysis of Spanish literature in Spanish at the beginning of college, I probably would have laughed.

(but most likely cried) And I am just proud to announce that I DID IT and it's done and I didn't procrastinate, and that's just one more thing that is outta the way between me and my Christmas break.

Mmmmmm smells like gingerbread.

and here is a list of random thoughts on a night such as this:

Provo decided to get all nice and lose the snow this week. What's up with that? Not that I'm complaining, but really?

I didn't fail my anatomy final. It's hanging on the fridge serving as a good dose of motivation for the next week. (oh boy, do I need it!)

Kelsey and Sam are going to London on study abroad. I am so excited for them and their European adventures because I am kind of a Europophile. I just love Europe. A lot. (but mostly Spain)

We are in the process of making our free christmas cards from Shutterfly. Hallelujah it's kind of exciting.

Tomorrow me and Pat are going to Brian Reagan and it's going to be fabulous.

I can't believe Christmas is sneaking up so much. Last night we had an FHE Christmas complete with Christmas sweaters and a whole lotta cheer. Our family is great.

And currently I am what one might call obsessed with red pepper tomato soup. And no, I did not make it. I simply dump it in my bowl and heat. Ahhh it's good and fast and easy and tasty with string cheese.

That's all. Time for more homework!

Cheers

Wisdom Wednesday

ATTN: DYING! Need.... news... source....!

The Daily Universe is just about the least reputable newspaper to have ever graced the state of Utah. However, for lack of something better to read, I usually pick up a copy on my way out of Biology. I thoroughly enjoy reading the "Police Beat" which is featured on Wednesdays. My favorite story today? Here is just a little taste of Happy Valley

Nov 5- A man in his 60s and a woman in her 20s showed up at the Morris Center. They went to the back of the cafeteria where th

e woman posed provocatively while the man took her picture. An employee asked who they were and the man said he was a BYU alumnus. They were gone before the police arrived.

Oh boy.

Nov 6- A car was moved out of its original stall at Helaman Halls and was parked perpendicular to the parking spot. Police arrived and concluded that a large group of people picked up the car and moved it.

We have a high rate of crime here in Provo.

However, before I could get to the Police Beat, I had to get past one large obstacle-

David Archuleta's face plastered on the front page of the DU. Sure, I know the kid is from Utah and most of the girls who attend this University would give up a couple Friday dates to Comedy Sportz to get to one of his concerts, but really? Is there NOTHING in the world that could compete with this "news" story?

It was a good bit of comic relief to my morning.

WW36- To myself- find a real newspaper.