Life Lately

A few iPhone shots of the past few weeks:

I got my hair chopped! 

The first sign of spring: my mint exploded thanks to a couple of fifty degree days.

Ben's birthday rolled around, and we all know what that means... cheesecake!

My masterpiece:

To celebrate, we met Emily and Nate for a drink... and tater tots.  Gotta love GC.

Then a few days later, this stinker turned five years old!

His cake-master genius Grandma made this Kick Buttowski cake:

...and he made a wish and blew out the candles.  aaaaaaaadorable.

There were some pretty, almost-spring days at OSU!

 ...and a warm weekend afternoon was spent on my mom's patio.

Oh, but wait, we live in Ohio-- this is what Monday morning looked like.

Come on, spring!!

In other news: the job applications continue; I have "second-year-grad-student"-itis; the President is my commencement speaker; I suddenly like oatmeal; I'm planning my balcony garden (if it ever gets warm); there is only one more month of indoor farmer's markets; I'm stressed and tired and happy.

This is the first time in my life that I'm really not sure of what's coming next (school/job/money-wise).  It's a little terrifying, but exciting!  Here's to optimism!  :)

--Sammie

Interview with a Bobcat

I'm taking a fantastic elective called Higher Education Governance and Policy this semester; it's all about college presidents and administration and how university systems affect students, and vice versa (yes, I'm a big higher ed. nerd). The class is co-taught by two professors; one, Dr. Holub, was chancellor (president, basically) at UMass Amherst, and is now a professor of Germanic language at OSU. The other is the inimitable Dr. Strayhorn, a professor of Higher Ed. at OSU (check out his TEDx talk last year!)

Our midterm for the class was (what else) to interview a college or university president. I had high hopes of interviewing a female university president to talk about women's issues, but unfortunately couldn't get on anyone's calendar. As time ticked by, I decided to return (figuratively) to my alma mater and interview the president of Ohio University, Dr. Roderick McDavis.

When I was at OU, there were mixed feelings about Dr. McDavis; the typical battle between athletics funding and academic funding raged for a couple of years, and many students took issue with what they saw as a discrepancy between his salary and what he was worth. However, since I've been back in Columbus for two years now, and know a considerable amount more about the realities of being a university president thanks to my class, I went into the interview without the agenda of talking about those issues.

Dr. McDavis was so great to talk with; he was happy to be talking with an alum, and answered my many questions intelligently and with character. He described the university's proposed Guaranteed Tuition Plan, which would lock in a student's tuition at the same rate for all the years they are in school, even if tuition prices rise in subsequent years; this proposal would make planning for college much easier and take the burden of unforeseen financial hikes off students and their families.

McDavis also spoke about the evolving role of the college president from a more internal role to a more external one--presidents spend much time fundraising, lobbying and traveling, while positions such as the Provost and Chief Financial Officer deal more strictly with on-campus issues.

All in all, we had a great conversation and it was amazing to talk about issues I've been studying in class with a real college president who I've had experience with in the past.

President McDavis (photo from here).

 Only six weeks to graduation! Aaaahhh!!

--Sammie

Jam-Crackers

So, we've already established that I love the TV show Friends.  I laugh especially hard at the character Joey's incessant love of food (maybe he reminds me of, oh I don't know, me?).  Joey loves simple food: sandwiches, pizza, and even just jam on crackers.

Last week, my mom brought one of her coworkers over to see my apartment.  Janell is gorgeous and one of the sweetest girls I've ever met (check out her super cool blog!).  She is thinking about moving to Grandview, and wanted to check out my place.

She and my mom came over after work, and we cracked open a bottle of wine to sip on as we talked.  I whipped up my own version of 'jam-crackers' as a snack, alongside some olives and chocolate covered blueberries.

Jam-Crackers
These are literally the easiest appetizer ever, and everyone loves them.  I chose a jam that was both sweet and spicy for some added surprise and depth, but any quality jam would work. 

Ingredients
-Thin crackers (I used Almond Thins because my mom is gluten-free; Wheat Thins would work too)
-Whipped cream cheese
-Jam (I used an amazing raspberry jalapeno jam I bought from the jam-lady at the Farmer's Market where I work.  Check out the awesomeness.  The spiciness of the jalapeno was cut nicely by the cream cheese.)

Directions
Spread some cream cheese on a cracker, and top with a small smear of jam.  See, I told you it was embarrassingly easy.  Enjoy!


--Sammie

Annie Hall

Yesterday, I watched the movie Annie Hall with my mom. My mom and I have a very similar taste in movies, and she and I are official "old-movie" watching partners-- we almost exclusively watch movies from the 1970s and before.

Annie Hall stars Woody Allen (also the director) and Diane Keaton, and was one of Allen's seminal works of the '70s. The movie examines a neurotic, obsessive comedian (Allen) and his relationship with the ditzy, pot-smoking singer Annie Hall (Keaton).

I've been wanting to see Annie Hall for a while, mostly because in How I Met Your Mother, Ted Mosby often uses it (his favorite movie) as the initial indicator of compatibility with a girl he's dating. (Watch, and laugh). He obsessively can't understand why people may not like the movie-- ironically similar to Allen's movie-loving character's attitude in the film itself.

Photo from IMDB

My favorite part of the movie was Diane Keaton's style: menswear to the max. She wore ties, vests and baggy suit trousers. Apparently this look in the movie inspired the resurgence of the menswear trend in fashion.

I also enjoyed watching the movie and realizing exactly why Ted Mosby likes it so much; it's set in NYC, and one of the underlying themes is that Allen loves the city, while everyone else is convinced that it's dying and that California is the place to be. Also, Allen is slightly arrogant, quick-witted and self-deprecating (similar to Ted), and he's constantly trying to convince himself he's found the right girl, but he keeps failing.

My other absolute favorite parts were the brief cameos from Christopher Walken (Annie Hall's brother) and Jeff Goldblum (who literally shows up for three seconds). Everyone looked so young!

So yes, I've seen my first movie starring Woody Allen; however I had no idea he wrote and directed Midnight in Paris (one of my favorite creative rom-coms from last year) and Match Point (which I thought was horrifying). Here's to seeing another little piece of movie history!

The next few movies on my list (that I haven't seen already) are:
Mystic River
Warm Bodies
Dances With Wolves
Argo
The Shining

And then I will always rewatch the following:
Lord of the Rings
Harry Potter
Anything by Hitchcock
...and about a million others. I love re-watching movies and we all know how I love to re-watch TV shows!


--Sammie