December

I can't believe it's already December 31st, New Year's Eve!  (And also, my brother's birthday, haha.)  I've been bad at blogging this month-- the semester ended, and this is the first winter break I haven't been working a major side job in about 8 years. I got a cold and lazed around for a week, then I got better... and lazed around some more! Hey, what's break for anyways?

I thought I'd share some pictures from the last few weeks around my neck of the woods before the year is over.

Some of my favorite tree ornaments!

Christmas buddies

Christmas Eve! All decorated with presents under the tree.

Since I moved out on my own, I spend Christmas Eve at my apartment. It's been a great night alone the past two years, and I get to develop my own little holiday traditions (fancy Chianti, anyone?). I'm lucky to have my whole family living in the same city as me, so I can see them lots during the holidays, but still have my own space and celebrations.

My mom's super old spritz cookie press. Yum! Also, wine, another holiday staple.

Also, in the days after Christmas we had two pretty big snow storms here in Ohio. Last year's winter was so warm and non-snowy, I think this year we've already gotten more snow!

Like I said. Snow.

My mom's dog Rio LOVES snow :)

And the old Snickers-boy. The left shot was from one of the few snowy days last winter, and the right was from last week.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and has some fun plans to ring in the New Year!  I'm planning a post recapping 2012 and exploring some resolutions I have for 2013. It's going to be great, I tell you!

--Sammie

Grandpa Bill

Today, December 14th, would have been my grandpa's 82nd birthday. He passed away in March after a long, happy life and a short battle with pulmonary fibrosis. Although I miss him terribly and I'm sad that he's now gone, when I think about him I smile and recall all the amazing memories I have with him, and the great relationship he built with his grandchildren.

 My grandpa last year, on his 81st birthday, at his favorite restaurant, Hyde Park, with his favorite dessert, an Irish coffee.

My grandpa, William Dean Nonnamaker, had a really interesting life. He was born during the Great Depression on a kitchen table in a farmhouse in northwestern Ohio. (The name his parents gave him at birth was "Billy Dean" Nonnamaker, but he changed it to William as soon as he turned 18-- he thought "Billy Dean" sounded too immature.) His family grew corn and wheat, and raised hogs and cattle- just enough to get by. He and his brother Eldon helped out as they grew up, and Grandpa used to tell us stories of life growing up on a working farm. 

His parents, in a rather unorthodox way for the time, told him he should never feel "tied" to the farm, and should do whatever he wanted with his life. As a result, my grandpa attended college and entered the business world, where he was extremely successful. He never lost his farm roots, however, and later in life, the farm would be passed down to him. He and my grandma moved there after he retired, and some of my favorite memories are of visiting them, taking rides in the tractor and exploring the extensive farmland. There is an old American Indian burial mound on the farm, and we used to find arrowheads and knife blades from centuries past.

While another family took care of the crop planting and harvesting as a full time job, my grandpa was extremely proud of his massive vegetable garden in the yard of the farmhouse. I remember eating fresh peas, tomatoes and cucumbers picked from the garden as a kid.

When each of their four grandchildren turned 10 years old, my grandparents promised us each a trip anywhere we wanted in the continental U.S. I chose the Grand Canyon, and had one of the most memorable trips of my life with Grandpa Bill and Grandma Marilyn.

Some of my other favorite memories with my grandpa and the rest of my family are of northern Michigan. In the 1970s, my grandpa and his brother bought a cottage on a small lake in northwestern Michigan, in the town of Honor. The lake, called Platte Lake, became synonymous with summer fun as I grew up. Later, my grandpa bought his own cottage and a pontoon boat, and every 4th of July was (and still is) spent up on the lake with my many cousins, aunts, uncles and family swimming, having bonfires, and doing each of many little traditions that have been established over the years.

After my grandpa passed away, each of the four grandchildren got a letter from him. He had written in back in 2008, when he originally got the diagnosis of his disease. (Luckily, he was incredibly healthy and able until the final few days of his life, four years after being told he had only a few months to live.) The three page long letter was full of life advice, from a man who had an incredibly happy and fulfilled life. At the end of the letter, his final piece of advice stuck out to me-- "Love deeply. With love, we are whole." My grandpa's life was full of love- from his wife of nearly 60 years to his two daughters, to his brother and his family, to his four grandchildren and countless nieces, nephews and grand-nieces and nephews, to his many many close friends. I recently got this quote tattooed on my side. Tattoos are my way of remembering important people and times in my life, and I look forward to getting more as soon as I have the funds!

Fresh ink! I don't know that my grandpa completely approved of tattoos, but 

I think he would've been flattered and happy that I gt this for him :)

Miss you, Grandpa!

My grandpa was such an inspiration. He traveled (he'd been to nearly every country); he painted (oh yeah, he was an accomplished watercolorist); he cared about his family and provided for us all; he was passionate about history and learning; he knew how to have fun. I will always know how lucky I was to have such an amazing grandfather, and remember all that he taught me.

Happy Monday.

So, in stark contrast to yesterday, my busy-lazy day, today I went to work. For nine hours, aahhhhhhhh. And the much much worse part?  I got nothing done.  I've been stressing out lately enough about normal school stuff-- it's the end of the semester and I have projects and papers and tests; but work is somehow even more brain-mush-inducing as of late.

Yesterday I wrote a ton of my big semester policy paper and cleaned and had fun... but today, when I was actually supposed to be working at OSU, I had nothing to do. Not for lack of asking either-- there's just not a lot going on in my office right now.

This isn't like in many of my past jobs (I have SEVEN years of coffee shop and food service experience) where when my boss asked me to do a menial task, such as cleaning a grease trap or wiping out the fan grates or taking out trash, I was glad to because 1) I am proud of what I see as my dedicated work ethic, 2) I saw how the task was helping the shop/cafe/job I worked for, and 3) they showed me how to DO all said menial tasks before I did them on my own.

No, this is a failure of scheduling and clear job duties. The student workers act as the face of our office-- they answer phones and do all kinds of super helpful things like put together mailings and keep track of prospective students in the computer programs (that I have no clue how to run). See, in other circumstances I would be more than happy to fill in for these lovely young people when their schedules cannot overlap properly to cover the entire 8am-5pm Monday through Friday window at the office... but I haven't been trained on any of the front desk or front computer practices and policies. I don't know where to direct people who come in the office and honestly? Phones that ring constantly and go on hold and patch through to various office people terrify me. Mostly because no one has EVER shown me how to use one.

So, when I ask my boss's boss for things to do (since I don't even technically have a job description and I've been flying by the seat of my pants so far, and lucking into some good work experience) and she tells me it would be helpful if I could cover for student workers, I find ways to say no. I found my line-in-the-sand at work. Hopefully next semester I can develop a better weekly schedule and find more to do/be trained in more areas that I'd actually like to be working, like student academic and career advising. Honestly, it's only the past week or so that I've been bored and listless, completing small-scale projects in half an hour or so and frying my brain and eyeballs on meaningless computer screen light in the meantime. I get home and want to stare at a wall.

*sigh*

I apologize for this vent-y post. Work and school and the future (i.e. job applications) to me right now are all very surreal. And days like today make me walk to my car kind of wanting to cry for reasons I cannot figure out; all I know is they're tied to work and a sense of purpose and self-confidence and career exploration... hey. We'll see. Everything will work out the way it's supposed to :)

In other news, today was ridiculously warm for December 3rd in central Ohio-- 67 degrees! And humid! Crazy. I wore my Urban Outfitters heels to work (sorry, no picture, I was in the middle of a career crisis ;)) that are super comfy and always make me feel a little more put together. Paired with a light chambray shirt and dark skinny jeans, I felt relaxed yet respectable, pretty yet professional.

I purposely did NO schoolwork tonight-- I think my 27-page paper deserves a night off so I can look at it with fresh eyes before I turn it in on Thursday. Also, I'm glad my mom is feeling better-- she had some kind of freak 24-hour flu she caught late Saturday, but she's on the upswing :) I keep sending out prayers and positivity that I don't get sick... I think running has really helped my immune system.  Back at it tomorrow!

I'm about to wash my face, get comfy and watch Justified. Those Kentucky accents get me* every time.
*By "get me," I mean I speak in a Southern accent for at least 48 hours after watching this awesome show*

Don't judge, I've got roots in Southern Ohiah. Sort of.

Night!

--Sammie

Lazy Day

Do you ever have fantastically lazy days where you do nothing and yet you get a ton done?

Yeah, neither do I. My lazy days usually also involve being extremely unproductive, which is awesome most of the time, but not when I have a ton to do.

But somehow, today was one of those days--a lazy-but-get-a-ton-done-day. And it came at the perfect time; it's the end of the semester, so I have a ton of schoolwork to do and to worry about doing, and work stuff that I couldn't care less about but it still stresses me out because I want to do it well. My "free" time is busy, and money is tiiiiiiiiiight, and holy-crap-I-need a-day-off!

 But today... ahh. Busy yet lazy. Blazy. Yep, I went there. Don't judge.

Here are some things that happened today:

• I slept in. ('Til 9:30, but that's sleeping in for me, and I didn't have to wake up to an alarm!)
• I did NOT put on makeup.
• I wrote ten pages (!!) of my huge Environmental Policy paper that I'm actually really proud of.
• I cleaned.
• I did dishes.
• I took out the trash (my only trip outside today).
• I didn't run. (Oh well. Tuesday morning run, here I come.)
• I watched Justified and How I Met Your Mother and Community.
• My best friend made me dinner when other plans fell through. (Burrito night, thanks Ben!)
• I found some fun new blogs.
• I  improvised the chimney sweep dance from Mary Poppins.
• I laughed way too hard at myself.

And now I'm in bed and I just had to set my alarm for tomorrow morning. *siigh* But this is the last week of class of the semester, and the second-to last week of work, and I have fun posts coming up and Today. Was. Awesome. Here's to blazy days and making up words and laughing at yourself :)

OSU campus, last Friday night at ten-til-5:00pm. I always hate seeing the sun set so early, haha, but the sunset was pretty!

--Sammie

Run Run Run Run Run

I just broke my personal record for a 5K distance run-- 3.11 miles in 29 minutes, 18 seconds. 

That beats my previous record by over a minute!!

I averaged about 9 1/2 minutes per mile.

It was freezing... like, literally. 32 degrees.

(Maybe that made me run faster, haha.)

I'm so proud of myself!

Now, a cookie and a shower.

--Sammie

Thanksgiving

Right now, it's Saturday morning. I'm pretty sure I'm STILL full from tons of turkey, stuffing, two kinds of potatoes and a not-to-be-disclosed amount of wine and Great Lakes Christmas Ale I consumed two days ago on Thanksgiving. I love having Thanksgiving at my mom's house and helping her cook all morning. I made roasted sweet potatoes and onions-- I can't do "sweet" sweet potatoes, you know, with the brown sugar and marshmallow? Nope, I like mine savory. Lots of garlic and salt and pepper, yes please.

The recipe is really easy:

• Acquire some yams (the more orange-y ones-- actually different and better than sweet potatoes, but I've never said "yam" for whatever reason), a white onion, and a head of garlic. 
• Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. 
• Chop 1-3 yams (depending on how many people you want to feed) up into bite sized pieces. 
• Dice the onion. For one person, I usually use half.
• Mince 2-4 cloves garlic. 
• Mix yams, onion and garlic in a large bowl with a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper, seasoned salt, and a dash of cayenne pepper.
• Pour into a baking dish sprayed lightly with Pam.
• Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes.
• Remove foil and continue baking for 25-30 minutes.

This recipe is also easily customizable-- if you like less onion or more garlic, do that. If you want veggies, add red or green peppers. The basic idea is easy-- roast a bunch of yummy stuff with olive oil and spices. I eat this for dinner all the time!

My Thanksgiving plate (number one... of several)

Cute centerpiece my mom made

Thanksgiving was great: I got to see my family, and had fun playing dominoes with my grandma (who plays with her friends for money... I suspect she is secretly as ruthless as they come). Cooking and clean up were a breeze thanks to all the help and my mom's hard work. One of my uncles snored through two straight NFL football games, which was hilarious. We spent the whole day laughing and talking and being thankful. Everyone missed my Grandpa (who passed away in March), but we are all thankful for life moving on for the rest of us, and know he is up in Heaven looking down on us happily.

 My Grandma Marilyn and I

Rio with her Thanksgiving treat

Things I'm Thankful For! Happy Holiday Season 2012!!

• Friends and family. And friends who are like family.
• Being able to get by on an even smaller budget than a few months ago (thanks grad school)
• Being able to cook decently (though not as good as my mom or Loretta or many other awesome ladies) and have yummy, home-cooked meals many nights of the week
• Blogs I follow written by inspiring and thought-provoking women (see the list on the right!)
• Healthy foods- avocados, rice, chicken, black beans, red peppers, sweet potatoes
• Unhealthy foods- Zebra Cakes, Twix and Reeses, popcorn, Fritos, nachos, boneless wings
• The upcoming loveliness that will be my winter break, and plans to make paintings and art and clean out my closets and read tons of books!
• My apartment and the awesomeness that is Grandview 
• Peppermint soap and white candles and soft blankets and plants and all the other little things that make my apartment my own
• Running and the healthiness and peace of mind it brings me
• Thrifted clothes (and Instagram-thrifted clothes!)
• Movies and TV shows
• Kiddos and puppies
• Job applications
• Champagne
• Basketball
• Football
• Tattoos
• Books
• Life

I hope that in the upcoming year I can think of more and more things to be thankful for every day, and never forget how blessed I am to have all these things.

In other news.... today is the Ohio State-Michigan game. It's at home, here in Columbus. Biggest rivalry ever. GO BUCKS!! We're as-of-yet undefeated and we can't even go to a bowl game, but BEAT MICHIGAN, WOOO!!

Plus, it's super fun to watch football on a holiday weekend when there are snow flurries outside and beer to be had. :) I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and is having a wonderful weekend!

--Sammie

23.5

Today is my half birthday! 

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving!

I don't have to go to work or class 'til MONDAY!

No, I'm not a half-birthday celebrator, but it's always fun when I do notice November 21st, the halfway point between my last birthday and my next one. I enjoy getting older (maybe because I'm only 23?) and every year seems to be more fun than the last. And hey, maybe I'll open up a pack of Zebra Cakes I have stashed in my cupboard (because duh, they are the best snack cakes, even above Twinkies) and stick a candle in one. Because I'm a dork like that. And maybe because I want to put off doing homework even longer *sigh*.  I think Ohio U. ruined me for grad school because at OU, you were DONE with fall quarter at Thanksgiving. And you didn't have to go back to class until JANUARY. It. Was. Awesome.

Anyways. Stay tuned for a Thanksgiving post in the next couple of days with a recipe for roasted sweet potaters. 

Happy Thanksgiving!!

--Sammie

Winter Sweater

I have just discovered 

the joy

of people selling used clothes 

on Instagram.

I'm sensing that I'll be spending tons of money

(that I don't have)

on clothes

(that I honestly need)

soon.

But seriously--

My purse is falling apart.

I'm wearing clothes from high school.

The clothes I DID recently buy, from nice stores...

...suddenly have holes in them.

Three shirts.

Holes.

Ugh.

And my shoes, well, I wear them every day and they're from Target.

(Target, I really do love you but your shoes are not made to last.)

And LOOOOOK at the Burberry (hopefully) sweater that I'm about to buy for change.

Bring it on.

Being thrifty is awesome.

(Is there a better feeling than finding an awesome piece for cheap?!)

Luck to all you other thrifty people. :)

--Sammie

Lots of things.

Dear life, you are pretty awesome.

Dear director at Capital U., please read my whole resume and don't laugh at the fact that I'm still in school.

Dear coffee, I love you.

Dear donuts, I love you too.
(I sound like a cop)

Dear brother's knee, please recover from surgery quickly.

Dear Great-Uncle Eldon, I hope you and my grandpa are rockin' it up in heaven together (rest in peace).

Dear December, please come quickly so I can have a break from school.

Dear body, thanks for being so good at exercising (to my complete surprise) and thanks for not getting sick even though everyone everywhere seems to be!

Dear Penn Station, why are you so delicious? I should not be buying you so often.

Dear Thanksgiving, ohmygosh you are only a week away!

Dear BBC, thanks for making such awesome TV shows, like Luther.

Dear God, thank you for such amazing friends and family.

--Sammie

Tuesday.

Today is a big day.

I'm about to send in my resume and cover letter for my first "real" job..."real" as in, not a coffee shop, not a dog-walking gig, not a farmer's market vendor and not a 10-hour-a-week research job to support myself through school.

I appreciate all those jobs, and loved (and still love!) many of them. But today, I officially kick off the search for a full-time, hopefully salaried and benefitted, business-carded career!

I'm not likely to get the one I'm applying for because I'm still six months away from graduating and I'm still developing my professional experience, but AHH it's still so exciting to officially start getting myself out there. And, you know, a little terrifying.

In other news, I saw a giant deer while I was running this morning. Apparently, along with wooded areas and meadowland, their habitat now includes city.

Here's to big days!

--Sammie

Frosty Morning

I love Ohio State's campus.

This is the view of the Oval that I walk towards every early morning of work:

The sun is rising above my building, Page Hall. 

The grass and leaves were covered in frost.

Even though it got up to like 55 degrees today. 

Tomorrow is going to be 70.

Thanks for all the crazy weather Ohio.

But seriously, we love you.

-Sammie

Magical Black Box

My love for TV shows is embarrassing. Ever since I was 13 and my best friend and I started watching the final season of Friends back when it was actually on TV, I've been hooked. (She and I can probably quote from memory the entire series. Yup. We're those girls. "Ohhh. Myyyy. Goddddd.")

Back when I was still in high school, my mom and I would watch Will & Grace and Grey's Anatomy religiously. Sunday nights were unashamedly reserved for Desperate Housewives, which, along with my aunt, cousin, and (though he'll deny it) my brother, we would watch with chips, dip, wine and chocolate. Those times, it wasn't even as much the show (soap-y and ridiculous), but the atmosphere and tradition that was so enjoyable.

In college, I moved on to shows I actually wanted to watch in my free time. Dexter, Mad Men, and of course Friends reruns via DVD took up most of my TV attention. Senior year I was obsessed into SyFy's quirky series Eureka, which I still occasionally watch on Netflix if I'm in the mood; that show and Friends got me through writing my thesis.

The last couple of years, perhaps thanks to the eternal glory of Netflix, I've started watching some hilarious and awesome shows. Those on the popular TV circuit include Rules of Engagement, Parks and Recreation, How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory and Modern Family**.
                   **I constantly (and to the annoyance of anyone unlucky enough to be watching with me) giggle and point 
                       out jokes that have been borrowed from Friends in these more modern shows.

More dramatic recent watches include Hell on Wheels, Justified, Sons of Anarchy, Detroit 187 and The Unusuals. A couple, such as the latter two cop dramas, have been cancelled much to my dismay. I'm behind on SoA (it's so SO dramatic! A girl needs a little comedic relief!) and caught entirely up on Hell on Wheels (a gritty drama about the building of the Union Pacific railroad) and Justified (an absolutely fantastic Timothy Olyphant as a trigger-happy U.S. marshal sent back home to eastern Kentucky). These last two I can't recommend enough if you're looking for something to watch!

Oh, and let's not forget the cherry on top...perhaps my absolute new favorite:

Season 3 is due to start next year!

 ...So. Yes. I like TV shows a wee bit. I'm the kind of person who can re-watch her favorite shows over and over, hundreds of times. I watch reruns of Friends and How I Met Your Mother in the mornings when I get ready (I've seen them so many times that I don't actually need to watch the screen, ha) and when I'm doing boring, quiet chores like washing dishes or cleaning out my dresser. I think it's because a) the episodes are short, so I can watch one while I do my makeup, and not have to worry about missing or pausing anything, b) unlike a book, I don't have to devote my entire attention to the activity of watching TV, and c) good shows pack a lot of punch- a lot of humor and drama and ups and downs. They're like a really, really, really long movie made to watch in short segments. That sounds way dumb, but for that reason, TV shows are perfect for someone like me who always wants more out of movies, and all the important parts of a story in 20 minutes while she looks for her keys.

Bam. There it is. I'm a TV nerd. Netflix and old Friends DVDs will forever have my heart.

:) Sammie

Columbus Marathon!

No, I didn't run in it.

But, BUT I am a runner!  If you've been following along, you know I used to hate running with the burning fire of a thousand suns (seriously). I come from a very athletic and sports-oriented family, and I played sports through high school-- soccer, basketball, track and field, water polo, and volleyball. However, running as a singular sport or exercise always made me wrinkle my nose and go "Eugh, who would DO that?!" (Even in track and field, I did the long jump, and to get out of running laps, I'd say I had to go practice my steps.)

In college I didn't play any intramural sports, and only worked out minimally. I luckily never gained the freshman 15 due to a fantastic metabolism and relatively healthy eating habits. I would go to the gym and do the elliptical a few times a week for a few months at a time, and then find some excuse like finals to stop going. I did yoga regularly, but a half-hour yoga workout three times a week just wasn't really "working out" to me. I also walked everywhere-- my undergraduate institution, Ohio University, is in a beautiful, hilly region in southeast Ohio, and their parking sucks, so I had no car and was walking up and down hills to get everywhere. So, I inadvertently was decently in shape by the time I graduated in 2011.

At that point I bought a car and moved back to Columbus to go to grad school. Suddenly I was driving everywhere and getting fantastic free food at the restaurant where I was working (Northstar Cafe, for any of you Columbus residents... MMM). I didn't gain weight but I could tell I was slowly getting out of shape.

Fast forward to 2012. I got into reading several blogs-- one a vegan mom, another a personal trainer... and I felt like I knew enough to get back in shape and start living a healthier lifestyle. I was eating pretty healthily, but still not working out, until this past summer. It's not that I didn't like how I looked, but I knew I could look better. I knew I could be stronger. And sometimes, in my silly fantasy/sci-fi loving mind, I thought, "What if someone chased me and I couldn't outrun them? What if someone grabbed me and I couldn't fight them off?" (Yes, I'm weird.) Regardless, I like knowing that I'm strong and able, and heck, YES I like wearing skinny jeans.

So I started running.

I heard of this program called Couch to 5K that is designed for beginner runners; it eases you into running slowly and negates the horribly painful and breathless feelings new runners get after they try to run for too long (I've felt that many a time-- hence why I HATED RUNNING!) The program is easy and fun, and it gave me such a great feeling every time I logged a workout. Looking back I can see the progress I've made, from running one minute at a time to running 28 minutes straight. I can also see so much difference in my body; my endurance, obviously, but also my legs, my abs and even my arms! Running is great. It's fun, it clears my mind and de-stresses me, it makes me feel productive and strong, and I can tell that I'm so much healthier.

Yesterday, I ran three miles, the longest run I've done to date. As I cooled down, I walked up Grandview Avenue and watched runners in the Columbus Marathon jog past mile marker 22 (!!). It was so inspiring-- there was music and water and tons of people from the community- both businesses and residents- cheering the participants on. One little boy was holding out his hand to high-five the runners :) Watching the marathon inspired me to keep running after I finish Couch to 5K, and maybe someday enter a race myself.

Sammie, the running convert

PS-- if anyone wants to buy me Christmas present, a gift card to Brooks Running would be great, thanks. :)

Death of the Garden

Hello! Happy October all.

Yesterday, I destroyed my garden. It was time.

I trimmed and chopped and yanked my weatherbeaten herbs and flowers out of their summer pots in preparation for the frosty weather coming our way.

Some are living inside with me over the winter (jade, sage, mint)

Others are drying to decorate my place and make it smell good (rosemary, lemon thyme). Hanging these up made me feel like an apothecary or a medicine woman. Or a witch.....IT'S ALMOST HALLOWEEN! 

Last week was incredibly hectic, so this past weekend was lovely and relaxing. I scored some funky sunflowers at the FarMar:

and went to my first Buckeye game of the season with my ma:

 Our tiny, chilly tailgate. We may have been loners (due to new, dumb parking rules) but we had FUN! (due to beer cookies.)

Warm up!

 Me and Pheebz.

I'm halfway through the semester at OSU. I'm so glad to be at Ohio State; I grew up in Columbus so proud of the place that employs my mom and consistently generates amazing community and impressive academics. I wasn't ready for the scarlet and gray as an 18-year old, and got the heck out of Dodge for a bit, but I'm glad to be back! In another semester-and-a-half, I'll be an OSU grad and hopefully scoring a job at a local institution of higher education or a fun non-profit. 

I want a job that fulfills and inspires me, but that I don't take home with me and stress over. I want a clear job-personal life separation. I want a paycheck that allows me to live comfortably and save for a house (I'm a nerd and cannot wait to be a homeowner). I also want a job that improves Columbus, even if in some small way. Columbus is freakin' awesome, and I want to be a part of making it even better.

In other news, I want my nails painted this color:

 Scotch Naturals "Hot Toddy"

...and now I want an apple cider hot toddy with Woodford. I'm (still) reveling in all that is fall :)

'Til next time!

Sammie

"Wait, let me check my planner" -- said me never.

I feel like life after house sitting is going to feel like a vacation.

House & pet sitting is a great way to make a quick buck -- I get to pretend I have a dog for a few days (or weeks, in the current case), and I get to stay in beautifully decorated homes -- but I swear my brain has a limited number of responsibilities it can handle before things start to fall through the cracks. Between school and it's accompanying homework, actual work, dog-walking and working at the Farmer's Market, as well as time with family and friends and professional junk development, like tailoring my resume and researching jobs, my mind is pretty darned occupied before having the responsibility of an entire home, a garden, and two pets thrown at me. (Note- I am, however, so thrilled that my friends could go on their trip to Europe, and I'm happy to have played a major part in helping them get there. I just don't think I'll be house-sitting again any time soon.)

On a similar note, I have a subconscious aversion to planners and calendars (unlike this girl, who I think is super cool, but we probably definitely couldn't bond over planners). I've tried countless notebook/academic/weekly/designer planners, and they end up 99% unused at the bottom of my purse. Even my mom (who, ironically, passed on her incessant to-do-list-making trait to me but forgot to give me the writing-in-a-planner trait) has bought me a planner nearly every year since early high school, and they all end up being tossed in the trash.

                - Birth! Newly torn out of Christmas wrapping paper or drawn from a bookstore bag

                - Next hour: Lying on the counter near me as I explain to my mother again why I don't use 

                              planners.

                - Next 10 minutes: Being written in as I attempt, once again, to try to use a planner. It
                              usually goes something like this:
                                "Do homework."
                                "Football game."
                                "Farmer's Market."
                                 *...star doodles...*
                                 *My thoughts concurrently:* "Uuuuggghhhhhhh thisisdumbbbbb."

                - Next 6 months: Sitting unopened in my purse or on my desk.

                - Next week: lying on the floor of my room.

                - Next 3 years: Stuck in a shoebox once I get around to cleaning my room.

                - Tragic death by trashcan.

Anyways, I am a hopeless anti-planner and furious to-do list maker, hoping that life continues to be kind to my awkwardly imbalanced organizational ways.

Some random photos of my week:

What I walk by every day to get to class and work (Ohio Stadium). O-H!

 Equally monumental, the elixir that often gets me through those days of work and class.

 I celebrated the first day of fall with a batch of homemade pumpkin cookies (recipe here). I thought they were pretty fantastic, and I ate, uhm, several.

The prettiest flower bush on one of my dog-walking routes. These flowers have literally been there since May, changing colors ever few weeks from white to pink to blue to green to burgundy. (I feel like Professor Sprout from Harry Potter secretly uses this house as a summer home....)

 

 On yet another dog-walking route, I found a low stone wall running along the sidewalk for thirty feet or so with hundreds of hen-and-chicks growing in the cracks and crevices. Given that I've only seen hen-and-chicks in bunches of like, 3 or 4, this was super cool.

A sunflower I was lucky enough to snag at the Farmer's Market :)

More to come soon! The weather is continuing to cool down, and I can't wait for apple cider, brainstorming about Halloween costumes, chili, more football games and more free time!!

Sammie

Life Lately

Ahoy!

Life has been insanely busy lately; along with classes, accounting (granted, this is a class too, but I count this one as a separate kind of hell -- who cares about debits and credits anyway? That's why they have ACCOUNTING MAJORS), work, dog-walking and fruit-selling, I am now house and pet-sitting for two weeks for some friends of mine. While they're flitting around Paris, Florence, Venice and Rome, I'm staying in their cute home in Grandview just a couple of blocks from my apartment.

Here are my companions:

Basement cat, aka Peanut (oh, come on, you guys know Basement Cat)

Gunther

These two are quite the characters, let me tell ya. Gunther is like a happy-go-lucky, slightly destructive ADHD child who skips around the house, nearly breaking his legs jumping on and off of furniture that is much bigger than he is, barking at nothing and staring with his buggy eyes. Peanut is like that kid's grizzled old grandmother who has to put up with his antics -- if she's not sitting in the doily-covered chair where she spends 90% of her time, she is looking on with the most perfect scorn I've ever seen as Gunther whines about everything something.

Aside from my brain feeling like it's running on overdrive (and the hint of my annual fall cold, which I am stubbornly ignoring with my own personal classic "It's just ALLERGIES!!" They always say to be positive when you feel a cold coming on, right? Mind over body?), life has been sweet. I finally bought some new jeans from Old Navy, whose fall styles seem to be a huge hit or a miserable miss for me every year -- this year's a hit! Levi's just ain't cuttin' it for me anymore. 

Also, running is going well (surprisingly... If you know me, you've probably heard me say, "I hate running. Did you know it's actually bad for your body?!" Yeah). I'm doing Cool Running's Couch-to-5K program, which has been completely manageable and has surprised me with great results so far! But more on that later.

Now for a few iPhone pics of life lately:

Creme brulee cheesecake at the wine tasting my mom works at every Friday evening (drool).

Peaches, nectarines and Asian pears at the Farmer's Market.

Cat-in-a-box. Hope you didn't want a Mountain Dew.

Walking the big dog on a rainy day.

Said big dog, Snickers, my daily walking buddy 

(picture obviously from a long-lost, wintry corner of my iPhone).

My all-time favorite zoo animal, the okapi -- it's a horse! It's a zebra! It's a giraffe!

...Nope, he's just an okapi.

:) happy mid-September!

Sammie

Ode to Fall

There is change in the air.

"CH-CH-CH-CH-CH-CHANGES!"

(My first concert when I was a kid was David Bowie. My mom's kind of awesome.)

No, I'm talking about FALL! Autumn! My favorite season! I remember once, in the fourth grade, our class did an activity where we each took a piece of paper and wrote down our name and our favorite season. Someone then grabbed the Scotch tape and categorized the pieces of paper on the board by season. About 90% of the kids wrote down summer, with a smattering of spring and winter favorites. I was the only one to scrawl "FALL."

I've always loved fall; sweatshirts and jeans, my beloved copycat Frye boots:

flannel shirts, beautifully colored leaves, school supplies (obsession briefly discussed here), and the encroaching time of darkness in the evenings, in which my mom builds fires in our fire pit. Fall is a gorgeous, dynamic introduction to the cascade of holidays the later months bring; a time for cooking and baking things that I find inappropriate at other times of the year, like pumpkin cookies, long-simmering chili, roasted sweet potatoes and apple pie; a time for impromptu road trips to orchards to pick apples for said pie; most of all a time of both great anticipation and great enjoyment.

That said, there is something beautiful about the time of year we're in right now in Ohio. I like to call it the death of summer. Don't worry; I'm not going to wax poetic all over you again. It's just that since the times of ancient cultures, the in-between times -- of the day and of the seasons -- are supposedly the most magical. Dawn and dusk, spring and fall.

Right now, the nights are getting cooler, even though it still reaches nearly 90 degrees in the daytime (thanks, Ohio, home of crazy weather fluctuation). Things are dying -- plants (my basil resembles more of a dead branch stuck in the ground than a tasty herb), bugs (I crunch over far too many dead cicadas to mention when I walk the dog) and the carefree attitude that summer naturally brings to the world. Kids of all ages are back in school and squirrels are starting to freak out about eating and storing enough food for winter. The trees just look plain tired, and last weekend I saw the first yellow leaves of fall on an admittedly very early-changing shrub.

 Welcome, fall! Only three days 'til September, people. I'm starting to crave roasted pumpkin seeds.

Sammie

Farmer's Market

On Saturdays, I wake up at 6. A. M.  I know -- gasp, shock, horror.

However, I do this happily because I work at a local farmer's market.  The market is in the historic city of Worthington, a northern suburb of Columbus.  Nearly a hundred vendors of produce, meat, baked goods, cheese and flowers line each side of High Street from 8 am to noon.  I work half the year for a landscaper who sells herbs and flowers, and the other half for a family who sell some serious fruit -- apples, peaches, plums, pears, nectarines, apricots.... (I could go on and on).

I'm sure I'll talk about the farmer's market and all it's accompanying awesomeness (and drama) a lot on this blog, but I just wanted to let you all know that today, I saw something like this walking down the sidewalk toward our stand:

image via here

His name was Hamilton.

And with that, I'm off to enjoy my Saturday.  You do the same!

-- Sammie

First Day of School!

Hello!

Welcome to my little blog.  You may remember me from my incredibly famous (ha, not) blog, Coffee Conundrum, on which I believe I posted a total of three times, until life got in the way.

However, now I'm back! My head is full to bursting with fleeting thoughts, ideas, ramblings and goofiness and I feel the need to write it all down.  I want to write about all this life stuff that I used to think was just getting in my way.

I'm a second year grad student at The Ohio State University (yes, we are obnoxious like that- we capitalize and always over-pronounce the word "THE" in our school's title) in Public Administration and I think the program is great; I also happen to work in the student affairs office of my program, which pays my tuition and offers me a wee stipend to live on, which is awesome, since otherwise I wouldn't be able to afford grad school.  I'm extremely grateful for this opportunity.

However.

Due to recent legislation, public colleges and universities in Ohio are now required to utilize a semester schedule as opposed to one based on quarters.  I did my undergraduate work at Ohio University (notice, no "THE." I'm often torn between pride for my current institution and four years of laughing at the insufferable arrogance of OSU).  Both my schools were on quarters until this year- and as a result this is my first ever experience with college semesters.

My first day of class was Wednesday, August 22nd.

Last year at Ohio State, and during the previous four years at OU, I wouldn't have been starting class until late September.  Another MONTH!  This week it's been nearing 90 degrees in Columbus, and I'm trying to adjust to having class in what I long considered the midst of summer.  I saw the first day of school on my calendar and excitedly pulled out my boots, jeans, and a variety of fall weather shirts, until I realized I might look a smidge out of place (or you know, die of heatstroke) among the sundresses, short-shorts and sandals that semester-goers wear on the first day of school

Oh well.  I'll graduate in early May, as opposed to mid-June.  Think positive!  My dear boots, you'll have to wait a few weeks til the weather cools down to real school fall weather. 

*Sigh*

:) Sammie