Feeling melodramatic

It's handy to know how to play guitar when I feel melodramatic, so I can feed my melodramaticness. But it's also annoying that I can't play well, which can kinda kill the mood.

In other words, I start calculus tomorrow, and I DONT WANNA.

Lembas

According to the Lord of the Rings wiki page;
"Lembas, also called Elven bread or Waybread in the Common Speech, was a special food made by the Elves."

I thought I would try to be clever and send the guys some "lembas" during Lent, since cookies are a no-no.
Though I'll be honest, with 1.5 cups of sugar and a cup of butter, this isn't particularly mortifying food.
Unless you're allergic to sugar and butter. 

Pictures! Because that's one of the keys to a fabulously popular blog post!(which we all know this is bound to be!)

I was lazy and crudely cut some cheapy green cardstock paper for the lembas wrapping.

These definitely aren't as fancy as THIS post's lembas, but I bet they taste better! The recipe is from the mom of the British family I did Ministry to Mom's to while in Austria last semester. It's actually British flapjack, but hey, that might've been what Tolkien had in mind when he thunk the idea up!


LEMBAS BREAD (aka, British flapjack)

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar (I use brown)
• 1/2 cup honey
• 4 cups oats
• 2 cups coconut or oats.

Melt the butter, then add the sugar and honey. Melt and mix well, then add oats, mixing well. Add coconut, or two more cups of oats. You can flavor with orange zest and cranberries, or something else - whatever you like!
Spread it all out on a flat baking tray, about 1 1/2 cms or so thick. Press down a bit and bake until golden brown, 15 minutes or so.

This stuff tastes a lot like the Sunbelt Oats and Honey granola bars, so if you like those, you're in luck! If you don't, then well, you probably won't like this stuff.

Holy cow

...do I miss making cards and designing things.
Sometimes I feel I may spontaneously combust if I don't MAKE SOMETHING.

Crazy week

Last week was pretty crazy, but super fun.
Morning of the 13th, I Megasbussed (I know, it's not a word) out to Harrisburg to spend a little over 24 hours with Chuckie, Katie and wee Maria.

Maria - "Ew, Dad, cut it out, I'm trying to use my phone."

This is how Maria feels about her uncle John

She gave me lots of smiles before I left! Yes!!!

That was super fun, and then I Megabussed myself back on over to Pittsburgh super early Friday morning. Couple hours later, and I was on my way with John to Madison. The ride was super fun, but the evening was tiring, due to 3.5 hours of sleep the night before, driving all day, having dinner with a bunch of strangers at a loud German place, and then walking around Madison with a pair of (previously) trusted sandals that decided to be annoying and give me blisters.

D'awww!

However, the next two days were pretty fantastic - we didn't try to do a whole lot, and stayed with smaller groups that already had a couple people I already knew in it (I get tired/bored really fast in big groups). I got to meet some more cool people (including a priest that was super funny and nice) and hung out a lot with Emily. I won't lie and say it wasn't awkward at some points, but spending the extra time with her helped me get to know her better, and she is an awesome person and very holy. Without intending to, she showed me how to offer sacrifices better and how there's pretty much always an opportunity to offer something up. Things I knew before, but couldn't really get a solid picture of in my soul before of how I could do it.

I now understand why Sister Maria liked her so much. ;)

Anyways, I've got a LOT of packing to do. I spent a couple hours doing so today, and I'm still not done. 

Ugh. *cue in previous statement of always having an opportunity to offer something up*

Crazy Summer

I think that this is probably the most crazy/memorable summer ever, mostly due to Maria's entrance, but also probably because I have the memory of a goldfish.

Some crazy things that happened this summer;

1. Maria's entrance, as mentioned above.
2. My first real car accident. Apparently the driver who hit me "didn't think (I) was going to turn." (hmmm, yes, that definitely excuses the blatant running through a red light...) I'm almost excited this happened, because unlike most of my older siblings, who have been in near-death situations, I've been pretty low key till now. I can't help but connect the fact that my guardian angel was doing some serious damage control here (like with my siblings) and the fact that now most of them have a pretty good idea of what their vocation is! Is this a pathetic hope? Yep. 

1. I got my hair cut by a real-life hair cutter person for the first time! Okay, so maybe this isn't really crazy, but the experience was pretty terrifying (hair salons are SCARY) Oh, and I got short bangs, which I haven't had since I was ten (maybe?) and I go in between hating and just being annoyed with them...

1. This hasn't happened yet, but I'm going to live, in a different country, with no relatives, for three. whole. months. 
2. I got invited to join the design team of one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE STAMP COMPANIES. I'm still kinda in shock about this, but maybe by the time December rolls around (I couldn't start right away, studying abroad and all) it will hit me. BUT I'M SO EXCITED. Seriously, as pathetic as this may sound to non-crafters, this has been a dream of mine for about five years now. 

There have been a lot of little exciting things too, but that's all I got for tonight. 

Yikes!

...I just bought a Eurail pass! That basically means this whole Austria thing REALLY IS HAPPENING.

I'm really excited but I'm also pretty intimidated.
Because lists are cool things (whenever they don't have horrible, unfun things you need to do on them)...

Excited for:

• being able to dawdle in Europe! Last time was all rush! rush! rush!, though I guess I shouldn't complain since I accidentally won that trip.
• getting the "full college experience" - i.e. living in a big building with people who aren't blood-related (horror, I know). I didn't really understand at my freshman, but it is hard to be a commuter, especially if you play college athletics. Between driving, helping a bit around the house, volleyball practices, and studying, there isn't a lot of time to be piddling around campus, so it's harder to make new friends and to actually get together with them. Not that I actually want to change this (I LOVE MY HOME) but living in Austria should be a nice little taste of that "experience".
• seeing a friend that I hardly ever get to see and going on adventures with her! 
• European fashion! Haha, I know, right? I'm not the most fashion-savvy person, but since I wear skirts pretty much all the time, I'm hoping that for once, I'll blend in well with the people around me (at least, until I open my big American mouth) and that my fellow students won't seem so judgmental of my fashion choices (or lack thereof)

Not excited for:

• being away from my HOUSE FOR THREE AND A HALF MONTHS! Trips and small "vacations", however enjoyable they were, tire me out pretty quickly, so how I'll handle all that time in Austria should be...interesting.
• getting the "full college experience" - I know what I said above, but this is definitely a mixed emotions thing. Since none of the people are blood-related to me, I can't just do weird things I do (like completely blank out when I'm talking to someone) and expect them to understand/not be offended. I'll actually have to communicate! With people! In real life! Who aren't related to me! Terror! On the flip-side of that, I'm going to have to figure out how other people work too. 
• the campus spirituality. It's funny, Franciscan is pretty "conservative" to most other colleges, but for a Catholic college, they do some things that just...well, weird me out. Like FOP's (Festival of Praise)?? Uh, yeah, I tried understanding that...um, energetic part of Catholicism, but I'm still not comfortable with a lot of it. So many times during campus Mass's, I've wanted to shout "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! EVERYONE PUT YOUR HANDS DOWN. NOW. AND PUT THAT GUITAR AWAY!" I've heard that things are more...levelheaded on the Austria campus, but I'm still worried about possibly going so long without a Latin Mass, or at least a really reverent Novus Ordo Mass.
• getting horribly lost in a creepy country. 

and finally

• not seeing any of my family for a whole three and a half months. :( There will definitely be some Skype attempts (I've heard the wifi there is pretty crummy), but man, no adventures or fights with siblings for that long? REALLY not looking forward to that.

So in the end, I'm trying not to get too excited in case I get horribly disappointed too easily, and I'm also trying not to be too much of scaredy cat so that I chicken out on any fun adventures. In any case, this should be an interesting three and a half months!

Yet again

...I fail to pull out an A in a theology class.

Aside from Latin and one absurd Comm. Arts class, my theology classes are the ONLY classes I have not gotten an A in. One B+ (granted, that first teacher was awful), and now two A-.

UGHHHHHHH!!!!!