Blackout

Waking up in a pitch-black apartment with no way to combat it is not a good way to start the day, or the week for that matter.

People always say bad things and bad luck comes in threes. Was I born in room 3? Seriously though, what the hell? First thing tuesday morning my roommate and I had to deal with power failure. Granted there are worse things in the world but bad is a relative term depending on the experiences of the person. 

All the same, showering in the dark, and having to be in Bio-Lab at 7:30 in the morning with dripping wet hair, still freezing from waiting for the bus in 42 degree weather, just so you can do mendalian genetics while sorting through hundreds of dead fruit flys is my definition of a crappy morning. Not having breakfast, and the fact that I had already done the lab before at my junior college only pissed me off further. Then we recieved our midterms back and whelp, lets just say that apparantly 4-6 hours of studying isn't going to cut it. Joy. 

The rest of yesterday was relatively uneventful. I paid bills (aka, made sure I would still have a roof over my head next month, and electricity once the damn power lines are fixed,) I finished some homework, studied (curled up into a fetal position and bawled over my midterm, and took notes based off of my failure,) exercised and did some housework (danced halfheartedly while doing dishes, and generally cleaning the kitchen,) relaxed a bit before bed, (mercilessly filed, buffed, and polished my nails until they were shiny enough to see my reflection, and I watched Hart of Dixie as I did it, that show always manages to completely shut off my brain.) Then, I promptly passed the heck out for the first time in a while. I was lulled into a false sense of security and thought Wednesday would be better.

Well it's Wednesday! And today started out just fine. I was running late as usual from ignoring my alarm clock on my phone the first 10 times I had pressed snooze, but I still managed to make my bus. Granted it was probably because the bus driver took pity on me as I hailed her, frantically,waving my arms and running like a chicken with my head cut off, but she still stopped and waited for me. Then Calculus was relatively easy this morning. Of our 50 minute lecture, we spent 10 having an actual lecture and 40 going over students questions regarding material on the Midterm we have on Friday. Not too shabby.

Then I went to the MU bought a bagel (they make them fresh here!) And a sweet tea and parked myself at a booth to go over biolab homework and eat my yummy breakfast. Everything was going fine, until I tried to check the time. My phone was curiously black, no matter how often I pressed the home button (yes I have an iphone 4, its worth more trouble than anything else.) The screen didn't so much as flicker. I tried to "reset" it by holding down the home and screen buttons at the same time but to no avail. I think the damn thing is dead. Granted I mauy be jumping to conclusions becausevthis only just happened, but my phone has been acting buggy lately and I figured it was only a matter of time, but I never expected it to quit on me so soon! I have no other means of telophonic communication, and my phone was my lifeline. In its magical little metal body it held the voices of my family, my friends and of course my insurance agent and the people I bug at the bank when I get confused with electronic banking. Now I feel all alone, truly alone without even a flare gun to give out my location. 

Sad right? 

And I readily admit, I am not looking forward to bad thing #3 whatever it may be. 

Bye for now. 

Ink_stained 

Knock Knock; no one's there.

Being locked out is horrifying!

So much of a busy student's life is spent in the bedroom. FYI it is not a glamorous lifestyle; I don't know who the hell thought to make so many romantic comedies and such spent in college atmosphere's because all of us serious students are wayyyyyy to damn busy to go through that crap. Honestly, my life at the moment consists of studying, doing homework, going to class, going to labs, going to discussion, going to study group, and occasionally coming back home to eat and sleep. Although I haven't been sleeping much lately what with midterms and whatnot, but hey now that that's over I plan to get a lovely snooze after my classes tomorrow. And there is no way anyone can tell me otherwise.

Anyway, sorry it's late and I'm getting off topic. Back to the real reason for the blog today. When you share an apartment there are just certain things you always do. All homework items: laptop, books, high-lighters, post-its etc, are to be left in one's room when one is not home. It's just common courtesy. No one wants the hassle or the after-wrath of moving around a housemates papers to have access to the dining table, or to accidentally spill something on a research paper or whatever. So like a good roommate I shoved all of my things in my room before heading to my midterm today.

Ordinarily this would be an insignificant occurrence, one blip of happening in my mundane-everyday-average life except for one little detail I didn't happen to notice until I got back this evening. I had locked the door! 

Why did I do this? I haven't the faintest idea. I came home happy with the knowledge of acing my Physics midterm, and nerve-wracked at the idea of how I did on my Biology midterm but glad nonetheless that midterms, for the time anyway, are over. I decided that I would come home, promptly shower, eat something and finish up some Calc homework that was due by midnight. All of those plans came to a halt when I jiggled the handle of my bedroom door. Sure that someone was playing a prank I knocked, hollered, begged, and  all but cried, to no avail. My roommate wasn't home and there was nowhere to turn, except maybe to the pantry. I tried wooden skewers, nails, screws, a coat hanger. Nothing worked. In my panic I called my dad and asked what to do. He said to ask my neighbors.

Maybe it's just one too many lifetime movies but I am a very paranoid person. Very paranoid. People genuinely frighten me and I'm always worried that if I let my guard down I will eventually become someone's human lampshade. Okay maybe I've watched American Horror Story, and Silence of the Lambs, one time too many too but whatever. Better safe than glowing right?

Well eventually I wrestled up the courage to cross the 12 feet separating my door from my neighbors and after fervently blessing myself several times and plenty of foot shuffling, I rang the bell. My neighbors have to be in their 70's at least. That still didn't make me feel any better as they invited me inside. The old lady has a cane and I bet she can use it too. (Oh come-on, Hansel and Gretal anyone?) Her husband was kind enough to lend me some tools to try and unlock the door but nothing worked.

It just so happens that one of the maintenance men that works at my apartment complex lives a few apartments away from me. I know because I see him every dang day. He also gives me the creeps just a little bit, but that's probably just my natural aversion to people in general. He seems nice enough, when he isn't glaring. Unfortunately, I had homework due and I panicked again and I was desperate enough to go over and ask for his help. I've never felt so mortified! Ever! He didn't stop glaring at me the entire time, even though I apologized profusely for bothering him after hours.

The whole ordeal only took about 10-15mins but I'm pretty sure that in that time I grew a few grey hairs and shaved off a couple years from my lifespan. I was also vaguely terrified at the guy being alone in my apartment with me so I hid in the kitchen, (conveniently close to the knives) just in case. When I called back my dad and told him all was well he got angry at me for not watching the maintenance guy do what he was doing so I could replicate it when I got locked out again.

Its sad how well he knows me. I can't even be agitated at the accusation of my incompetence because I clearly displayed it once and will undoubtedly do it again. How depressing.

Oh well, Calc homework is finished. Midterms are over. Room is unlocked and life is good again, for the time being. I plan to celebrate my Physics score with a marathon of The Walking Dead and AHS: Coven tomorrow and a visit from, or to, the family this weekend.

Lesson of the day? Don't rush. Stupid things happen when we aren't thinking straight. I still don't remember locking my door. But I know I probably did it out of habit from my old house or something.
In the words of one of my most favourite bouncy stuffed Tigers: TTFN; ta ta for now!

Ink_Stained

Not exactly "pan" pizza.

Whoopsies, unless you have a sweet-tooth I guess...

Most college students cannot afford takeout everyday. I know, I'm one of them. As a transfer student this is my first time actually away from home, but I do not live in a dorm, this means I am lucky enough to have my own fully functional and occasionally (with frequent trips to the local grocery store and farmer's market,) fully stocked. Now, I've had some experience in the kitchen, but mostly I just know how to make rice, beans, and soups of all sorts. Being away from home has me missing my roots so the other day I experimented making "albondigas," (meatball soup) a traditional Mexican soup, and it turned out splendidly! I had enough for the week. Which is awesome when you come home after class and you're starving and really just want to eat something quick and take a nap before you have to head back to class in a couple hours.

Last weekend I attempted to make enchiladas. And can I just say Yum! They weren't as great without my Tia's homemade enchilada sauce, but did well in a pinch. But Geez louise what a mess! Stove top enchiladas are not for the faint of heart or those who do not like to clean but would rather not be slobs either.

Not all of my cooking adventures have been so great though. Last Thursday I decided to make brown rice, just a cupful and holy guacamole! That stupid grain took nearly three hours! I usually make white rice which takes about 20 minutes at most but since it's Breast Cancer Awareness month certain items at the store give proceeds to the Breast cancer association and brown rice was one of them. Sure it's great being able to help out and I actually prefer brown rice to white rice but like I said it almost took 3 fricken hours! And about eight 16oz cups of water! Good thing I have Netflix... ahem, I mean books to study.

And the other day( a couple of weeks ago) I attempted a tuna casserole. My roommate barely forgave me. Nuff said.

Today however I ate up the last of my albondigas for lunch and I finished the chicken and enchiladas yesterday and I happened to have the ingredients for a pizza so I decided to make one.
By ingredients I mean that I had pepperoni, mozzarella, canned "tomato sauce" (basically a tomato puree,) italian spices, roasted red pepper and garlic powder and some other salad seasonings that smelled about right and of course one of those pre-made refrigerated pizza can things.
Ok well this is where the trouble starts. Last weekend my roommate opened the refrigerator rather abruptly and the pizza can thing fell out and she just shoved it back into the freezer.
The damn thing froze! It had burst open a bit, and was rock hard when I attempted to open it. I had to break it apart and defrost it in pieces, which was a major pain in the rear let me tell you. Then I had to attempt to make it pizza shaped!

For those of you who have never made pizza from scratch or dealt with a lump of pizza dough that stuff is ridiculous! You spread it out and it shrinks back into a ball. Well luckily I have some cousins who have dealt with pizza on a regular basis and both recommended using flour on the cutting board to help shape it. Lovely. except for one tiny issue. I don't have any flour. My roommate was out at her night class, and it was getting dark, the darn oven was already on and it was too late to turn back now so what could I do? I scrounged around in my pantry and found, pancake mix! Honey-wheat pancake mix to be exact. So well what could I do? I used it! It didn't take much, less than 1/3 of a cup really.

And once I had the dough spread well enough (lumpy as heck,) but even as it would get, I let it pre-bake and made the sauce with all of my  previously documented seasonings, making a rather questionable but tasty concoction all the same. The rest of the baking experience turned out all right and I had no further issues except that the pizza that was supposed to be baked in 18 minutes max took about 30 minutes to bake through. (Maybe my stove/oven don't get hot enough?) It turned out a relative success, but tasted a little bit like pancake, it was sweet in a way that pizza had never been sweet before. But yay for pizza leftovers! now I have lunch for tomorrow and possibly Wednesday unless I get really hungry tomorrow or am too lazy to make breakfast and just eat some pizza. Whateves. That's the beauty of being a college student, we don't really get to be picky anymore. And besides, when you have labs at 7:30am you can't really function enough to care what you're eating anyway.

I guess the lesson for today is don't give up? Learn from cooking mistakes, and keep the kitchen clean.

Seriously, clean dishes after each use, and after every meal; it keeps them from piling up and becoming overwhelming, and keeps the cupboards ready for whenever you have surprise study groups. It also makes cooking and cleanup soooooo much easier. Luckily my roommate and I are both relatively cleanly creatures and we take turns cleaning the kitchen, living room, and dining room every week. Life as a student is much nicer when there aren't huge messes to deal with all of the time. (I guess that's my message of the day.)

Ciao!

Ink_Stained

It's beginning to look alot like.. Christmas. In October?

Backstory!

Be warned: this long-ish bit, has nothing to do with the title. If you want to fast-forward my past public transportation misadventures, move on down to the next bit after the bold font!

I don't know about anyone else's experiences with public transportation, but until a month ago I had never set foot on a bus, except for the occasional field trip in grade school. Davis is a lovely little community and is made for the broke college student with bike paths and bike racks galore! This is awesome, unless you don't really know how to ride a bike and the one time you tried you hit a car, and face-planted in the road. More on that later.

Anyway, back to buses. UCD is exemplary in going out of the way with the bus system just for students, run by students. Our lovely buses are dubbed the unitrans. Why? I haven't the faintest clue, we just call em the big red buses, because they are big, and well red. Nuff said. My first experience with the big red buses was quite an adventure in of itself. Being a unitrans newbie, I decided to test the system a week before classes actually started for the fall quarter. I managed to get on the right bus, (well any bus is the right bus, they all go to the school eventually, but whatever,) which is luckily located right across the street from my apartment.

However once I got to campus I saw my destination come, and go. Mistake #1, I didn't realize that in order to get the bus driver to stop you had to pull the little yellow cable with big words plastered beside it reading, "Pull Cord to Signal Driver to Stop." I'm book smart ok? I swear. Anyway so for those of you who don't know the UCD Campus is huge! Enormous! Insanely big. And well, what I didn't know was that the bus I was on goes around the campus and then back through it, and stops at the heart of it, where all the classes kind of branch off. Well I got nervous and a little trigger happy once I realized my mistake, and so when a passenger, who actually seemed to know what he was doing,  pulled the cord and got off, I followed. Big mistake #2.

UCD has a great Veterinary School of Medicine. and it is in the boonies. There is nothing even remotely close to it except for like the equine center and maybe some sunflowers and some cows. I had to go to the MU(Memorial Union, its a big place to get everything from school supplies to fresh bagels, to a place to bowl now and again) to get my Aggie Card (School ID) and basically not have to pay to ride the bus anymore and get whatever other school benefits and such. But yeah, now I'm stranded in the middle of nowhere, the bus is gone, the guy I followed is fast disappearing away from me, I don't have a map, and my GPS isn't worth anything because according to the blooming thing I have arrived at my destination. Joy.

UCD is supposedly known worldwide for having the greatest diversity of trees on campus. And though I am not a Botanist, I had to walk a good 2 miles through the Arboretum before I saw anything even remotely familar from past campus tours and I can honestly say I did not see the same tree twice. Same kind of tree? probably. Same tree? no. (sorry, my humor can be a little dry and tasteless now and again, but I'm the one laughing over this pun, so who cares?)

Let me just say right now. I am directionally challenged! I fully admit it! I also don't pay attention to roadsigns and stuff, and I'm working on that, kinda. Don;t get me wrong, I am very spatially aware, once I'm in a familiar place I'm in good territory. It's when I've never been somewhere and I'm trying to follow directions that I get in trouble. Which happens...alot. Especially on a gigantic campus like UCD! Plus it doesn't help that the buildings are huge and have very tiny names on signs in obscure places where people like myself, would never think to look. Enough of my squabbles. It took me about 2 hours to find the administration building, get directions and a map, (Which is all but useless to someone like me just saying.) only for the map to be rendered worthless by a big construction block, so I took the detour only to get more lost, get more directions from a friendly face, and finally find my way to the MU, successfully get mu ID card and then proceed to attempt to find the nearest bus. (Little did I know that if I had gone out of the back of the MU there are buses right there, one of which I now use frequently to get home.)

I found the buses! After walking in many a circle, and once I did, the bus I needed to get home was, lo and behold! Not in service. Joy. So I sat there for another hour, (I could have easily walked home in like 20 minutes, I only live a mile and a half away from the school, except for the whole getting lost issue) and waited for some other bus to take over our route. Which eventually happened and then I got home, and stayed there until school started.

Most of these past bus rides have been trips to learn from. I now know that you never wake up late to catch the bus right before 8 am unless you don't mind being smashed into a bus with a ton of other students, (so close that sardines would feel claustrophobic,) for one of the most uncomfortable bus rides ever. One in which a girl half your height has her face smashed into your chest, and the tall guy behind you is breathing into your scalp, and thank goodness you washed your hair that morning.

I also now know that you never make eye contact with the guy sitting next to you, or attempt to make polite conversation, and above all do not smile! I come from a small town where my graduating class was under 100 people and so I'm used to friendly hellos and idle chit-chat with strangers, only to part and never bother to think twice about the occurrence. Here in Davis it is such an overpopulated community, no one knows each other and everyone is starving for attention; which unfortunately, often leads some people to misunderstand a polite, friendly attempt at conversation (to slake boredom) as flirtation. The overbearing way in which I was hit on, after remarking that I liked a guy's shirt, was lesson enough to leave other people alone. Watching the girl across the aisle from me pick her nose repeatedly only to wipe her discoveries on her pants taught me to ignore them entirely. Big mistake #3.

Today

In which another valuable lesson is learned, in the art of taking the bus. 

It turns out that when you get on the bus and there is a seat available, but other people are standing, that seat is open for a reason. Most likely a good one, therefore you should not count your lucky stars and jump into the open seat without observing why it is that no one is sitting there. Which is not what I did today. 

It's early afternoon, and even though it wass freezing this morning, it is now a lovely 80+ degrees F and everyone is still in their morning sweaters and the bus is starting to overheat, so naturally, eveyone opens up the windows a crack. (Only because they have little things that don;t allow you to open the windows more than a handspan, ever, well unless in case of an emergency but anyway,) And I in my trust that ignoring other passengers, gleefully take my seat and begin to text my best friend about plans for the day. It isn't until we actually begin to move that I realize my mistake. 

A breeze blew through the window and brought unwanted gifts with it. I didn't notice the little white things on my phone screen until it faded to black, as I waited for a response, and when I decided to question the source, thinking it was coming from the window, I turned to my left. To my horror, I realized that the man sitting next to me, earbuds blaring some nameless rapper's foul attempt at rhyme, scratching his head, was shedding. His grey hoodie did well to camouflage his problem, but now that I knew what to look for, I realized that his skin flakes were in disgusting piles on his shoulders and were gently floating my way with each passing wind. I wanted to gape. Instead I clamped my mouth firmly shut and fought the urge to squeal as I watched the snowlike stuff settle on my pants. Perhaps the poor guy couldn't help his dandruff, but I still get the heeby jeeby's and feel itchy just thinking about it. Granted it only happened an hour ago but geez! So yeah I rode home in silence, (screaming on the inside) and could not get off that bus fast enough. I know I could have gotten up, but I didn't want to be rude. 

So yeah, for whomever shall read this I hope you take the lessons to heart and learn from my mistakes!

Goodluck

Ink_Stained

Beginnings: Take 2!

This is the original beginning to this blog. 

It was written and posted on the 11th of April 2010:

First off: Hello,
____I've never blogged before so, bear with me please. I would like to use this blog primarily to try out story ideas. However, please be warned, my story ideas, plots and characters may change on a whim. Thanks.

____Ok, a little about myself, I am a music fanatic. Any and all types of music fascinate and inspire me. I love coffee but I only have it on rare occasions. I'm naturally hyper, so any added caffeine just makes me jumpy. I am indeed a bookworm and I find some of the most beautiful people between the pages of a book. Poetry enlightens me but I don't live quoting sonnets in my day to day life, However, Shel Silverstein has been one of my favourite poetic authors of all time. An example of his work is right below:

INVITATION
If you are a dreamer, come in.
If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,
A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer . . .
If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire,
For we have some flax golden tales to spin.
Come in!
Come in!

by Shel Silverstein

Sorry I just couldn't resist, I absolutely Love that poem.

____Movies and popcorn are made for each other and I have to admit that I appreciate that combination weekly.
Some of my favourite movies are: Memoirs of a Geisha, Pride and Prejudice, Pirates of the Caribbean movies, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Resident Evil series, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, House of Flying Daggers, The Princess Bride, Underworld, Interview with a Vampire, and 27 Dresses.

A favourite quotation of mine:

" Just like the seasons of the earth all things must change, nature reinserts a balance into itself through the process of Spring through Winter. But unlike nature We as individual Human beings must decide. Make a conscious choice and effort to find balance within ourselves in order to become better, or at least have a small sense of normality. That, our choices our decisions, our changes of personality those are our Seasons."
Myself

Also my motto is, "Smile Lots, Laugh Always."

----Some last minute facts about me:

-I am a book worm and digest at least one to two

chapters of any book on my nightstand before bed.
-I love to draw but never seem to have time for it

anymore.
-I enjoy laughter, and basking in its ambiance at

least once a day is what keeps me going.
-I am religious, but am not what some would call

devout.

-I've been called an "Old Soul in a Modern World"

before or "A Closet Victorian."
-I currently feel as though I am writing a sequel to

the song " I am, I am", from Nacho Libre.

Well anyway thank you for stopping by and if you read though all of my mindless psycho-babble I applaud you and say Brava!

~*Have a beautiful day!*~

InkChild

Beginning of Diary of a Toothpaste Princess

~*~

Time Jump!!!!!

It is now October 17th, 2013

Three years later and my musical tastes have, if nothing else, grown.  However, I found my ipod from High School, and I still adore every song; so they haven't really changed. I'm a bit more cynical than I was 3 years ago, but I'm still a bookworm; only now once I'm in bed its lights out! I don't know why, but since I've hit my 20's I can no longer fully function on only 1-3 hours of sleep. It's kinda depressing. My housemate teases me, and calls me an old lady.

Oh well, I'm getting my shut-eye so who cares. But yeah, I started this up again to kind of use it like a journal and document my unexciting adventures in Davis. I've already had quite a few, which I will be happy to recount in my spare time. Though most will be boring, and odd, and more than likely not make any sense, I will post them anyways. So if you are interested in the mundane existence of a college student. Enjoy! Otherwise, I promise to not be offended as you pass on by. 

By the way I still Love, Love, Love, Silvertein to bits and pieces. 

Ink_Stained

Also FYI:

 Ink_Stained refers to inkstained fingertips from writing notes and drawing all day. I don't have any tattoos. And I don't plan on getting any, I'm way too fickle. I can't even handle having the same nail polish for two weeks.  Ok ,now that that's cleared up.  Uh, bye.