Here

Hello!

I apologize for my absence from this blog. I went away to India, you see, and am now finding my bearings in this new semester.

More on India later--I'm planning to do one big post about my time there, so stay tuned.

For the non-India news in my life...

...Bloomington is extremely cold still. I think we have discussed how this makes me sad inside.

...I have two New Year's resolutions: 1) flossing and 2) being more proactive about making friends. Progress has been made on both fronts; more consistently with resolution #1. At first I was doing terribly, but then I decided to follow advice from my dental hygenist and floss in the shower. This sounds really weird, which is why I had always been hesitant to try it, but since I love standing in hot water, especially when its 20 degrees outside, any reason to extend my showers is good with me. If you are having trouble working flossing into your life, I recommend this strategy.

...for the past two issues, I have made the cover recipe from Bon Appetit, albeit in a modified fashion. I have no need to make 5 pounds of ribs, thank you. They have been tasty, but I have a serious complaint to raise about Bon Appetit recipes which is this: they don't give you a timetable upfront. You have to search through the recipe for the times they give you and add them all up to figure out how long its going to take you. Which is a problem when you skip over one little instruction that says "cover and simmer until tender, about 1 1/2 hours." Awesome. On the bright side, the ribs were seriously delish.

...I just got drafted by the dean of our school to do a research project on electric vehicles and I am super excited about it.

...I have been getting into urban ecology and community gardening lately, and I really want a garden which is problematic since I will not be here over the summer and I will live in an apartment next year. I am going to try to get an indoor composter and plant an herb garden, though.

...I recently got WAY into Teen Mom. I watched the Catelynn episode of 16 and Pregnant and it totally touched my heart, and I am now just so fascinated by Catelynn and Tyler's life (they just got engaged! awwww) and the rest of the teen moms. But mostly Catelynn and Tyler cause both their parents are meth-addicts (I think...regardless their parents are screwed up) and somehow they are way mature and responsible and just adorable together. They gave up their baby for adoption and both sets of parents were MAD at them for it instead of proud at how responsible and rational and selfless they were. Insane. I love when you find out there are some real life people making the best of their terrible lot in life. Reader challenge: watch one episode of Teen Mom and tell me you aren't 1) totally hooked 2) loving Catelynn and Tyler and 3) totally going to show this to your children so they use protection.

...Parks and Recreation is a great show. I recommend people ditch The Office in favor of Parks and Rec. I am just a huge Greg Daniels fan apparently.