The Question of Eggs

I recently saw the 1999 chick flick, "Runaway Bride." It's not very thought-provoking, but it definitely works if you're looking for a few hours of humor financed by the wedding industry.

Richard Gere plays a reporter doing a story on Julia Roberts's character, who has run away from three (going on four) weddings. When he's asking her ex-grooms about her, he asks them how she takes her eggs. They all say different things, but almost all end with the words, "just like me." Richard Gere's very serious theory is that nobody should be getting married to someone else if they don't come to an independent conclusion about how to eat their own eggs. This is supposed to be the major insight into Julia Roberts's psychology. 

I don't understand this logic. For one thing, I don't think egg preparation should be telling about someone's personality. For many years, I would only eat scrambled eggs. Then I discovered the omelette bar at school. Now my favorite way is to have a single egg fried so the yolk is hard and put into a whole wheat toast sandwich with buckwheat honey. Maybe I should change one more time just to make sure my Egg Preference Change Score is even with Julia Roberts. Maybe I should act like my friend W, who takes his eggs "cooked." (Since my new favorite kind of egg prep is so specific, I feel like I should adopt this response to the question; I really will take my eggs most ways that will prevent food-borne illness. Also, I never realized buckwheat honey existed until about two weeks ago.)

The other reason the egg question doesn't quite make sense is that it's supposed to be the big revelation about how Julia Roberts is not quite in fine tune with her own preferences - she just goes along with the standard order of her partner. The thing is, you can kind of tell that she's not quite in fine tune with her own preferences if she's had three weddings and zero marriages. That might be indicative of other things as well, but I'm not a psychology major, so I wouldn't know. 

In the end, the question of eggs might be out of place a little, but it's worth pondering for college students with blogs. 

PACKING!!!

Well, as I approach my two-year blogoversary here, I must make a bit of a confession: I haven't spent time to think about my two-year blogoversary here. I've been thinking about packing. I leave for school on Wednesday, and most of today has been dedicated to two things: laundry and packing. The latter is a bit easier now that the former is done, but it wasn't very difficult in the first place. Aside from sorting out what yarn and books to take back to school, most of today has been waiting for my laundry to finish in order to fold it and figure out what to take. (to be fair, I haven't done much of that, either. I still need to take down most of the hanging laundry, which still hasn't dried yet.)

To be honest, packing for stuff is not exactly my strong suit - specifically, packing for college. If it's something like a J-term trip, I've got it handled. Even though this is my third year of college, there's always something I feel like I should have taken or some other thing that I should have left. Of course, by the time I actually get the chance to make the dropoff of the unnecessary goods, I've forgotten which ones I actually want to leave at home.

There's always that risk, though. There's a lot of guesswork - for example, there's the eternal question of "how many pens do I really need?" (I must constantly remind myself that the answer is probably "the amount you already have in your pencil case, Wild Card.") Then there's the frustrating moments after I buy a brand-new notebook or bag of menstrual products, only to realize, far too late, that I definitely had plenty of that product with definitely enough material left to last at least half the semester. (Knowing me, though, I can always find a use for notebooks and menstrual products.)

This is also my first year without baggage of a different kind. I returned from summer school and my boyfriend promptly broke up with me. This is my first term in three years - we'd been dating since I was in high school - where I don't have to coordinate my class schedule with his in order to plan Skype sessions with him. I hope I'll be able to effectively use the extra 30 minutes every week that would have been occupied by talking to him. (In retrospect, if we got to the point where we could Skype for barely 30 minutes once a week, then it might have been the loudest signal that the breakup was going to happen.)

In all, though, it's hard in any situation to pack up one's life, even - maybe especially - for college. Since I'm going to school in-state, it's easy to get into a mentality where it's safe and easy to go home and get more stuff or drop off some stuff. After all, it's a three minute walk and a two hour train ride, and there's guaranteed to be clean underpants at the end of it. At the end of the day, you have to make sure that you've packed in your laundry detergent to clean your own underwear.

Shopping Experiences

I had an interesting school supply shopping experience yesterday.
Okay, I wasn't only looking for notebooks. I was also looking for ingredients for soup and an umbrella (I was not looking for these in the same store, mind. I was looking for the umbrella in the same store that I was looking for school supplies, because it was RAINY and I've known that same exact chain to put out umbrellas when it's rainy).
So I got my ingredients. I went to get school supplies. I found the notebooks and pencils easily enough. I went all over the store looking for an umbrella. Were they by the lawn chairs - perhaps to shade the pale vampires from too much sun? Nope. Were they by the school supplies sale aisle? Despite the fact that there were lunchboxes and mascara wands in that same aisle, there was nothing with which to keep your perfect eyelashes dry.
I eventually gave up and went to the counter to actually purchase the notebooks and pencils. Classes start soon; I need this stuff.
As I was leaving, I glanced to my left. There were the umbrellas, tucked away unobtrusively in a corner of the MAKEUP AREA. On a RAINY DAY.
I was unaware that umbrellas were supposed to make my face prettier. I'll keep that in mind the next time I try to purchase an umbrella.

A Review of Exercise

Exercise is one of those things that I don't like doing, but I like having done. I might not necessarily enjoy "running" up really long hills. It might really suck having to clip my stride to attempt to do it. And don't get me started on non-running exercise - it sucks. I don't really have patience for yoga or ab-specific workouts. (Mind you, it's been a vicious cycle of not liking it so I don't do it, but the only way to like it is to do it). And, of course, I'm also really self-conscious about my abs.
Exercise is necessary. Physical exercise, for sure, but also mental exercise. Memory games and all. Maybe that's why I appreciate the daily crosswords I have access to on the Subway - there's free newspapers in there. (The city provides the free, quick paper by every Subway station I've been to. It's small, and provides short articles and a crossword, a SuDoKu, and a Scrabble thing.)
So, what do I think of exercise as a whole?
It sucks, but do it anyway.

More Harry Potter

The Weasleys are a huge family. There are established interactions: Fred and George are definitely the jokesters; Percy is definitely the uptight academic. It's fairly clear throughout that the twins have potential that they direct towards joking, and few people in the family actually like Percy as a person. Part of me is curious about how the lesser-known Weasleys interact. How does Bill feel about Ginny, since he's the oldest and she's the youngest? Ginny might not have even been around when Bill left for boarding school - how does he view her, as someone who only interacted with his sister on holidays? How often do Charlie and Bill see the rest of the family? What does Charlie think of his sister joining the Quidditch team? How does he feel about Ron being a lousy Keeper in Quidditch? What do they think of Harry and Hermione marrying into the family?

I feel like J.K. Rowling knows all these things, and I would love to know these answers.

On Harry Potter characters

I'm really into audiobooks. Lately, I've been listening to the Harry Potter series again, and it's kind of interesting to go back and relive the experiences. Right now, I'm on book 3 - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Since I've read the series multiple times, there may be spoilers in here. You have been warned.

The first two books, I've realized, are very structured within themselves. Each scene drops hints and clues, explicitly or implicitly, about what happens. The Mirror of Erised shows the deepest desire of one's heart, for example. As it turns out, if the Deepest Desire of Your Heart is to get the Philosopher's Stone and do nothing with it (as opposed to make the Elixir of Life, create gold, cause severe head injury to one's enemies, etc), then you can get the stone.
In the third book, however, there are a few more subplots, and I think this is an area where character development shows itself. I know that there are other characters that are far more frustrating, but Ron is really bugging me in Book Three. Admittedly, it's easy to get defensive when a cat seems to be intent on killing your rat in particular (especially if that rat is one of the only things you can call your own), but I feel like he shouldn't have been so annoyed at Hermione over it. I feel like he should have had someone make him take a step back and think about Hermione's feelings. If Hermione Granger, the know-it-all who gets perfect marks in everything, is so disoriented that she misses classes, that should be a heads up. It could be everything from a first period to time travel, but picking on someone in that situation is not going to make it better.
I know characters change over time, and I'm definitely not the person I was at 13 (if only because I have a pixie cut now, as opposed to waist-length hair). I'm starting to see, however, why J.K. Rowling said that Ron and Hermione would have a very tumultuous marriage.

On History

You know those time capsule things that people do sometimes? I think they were popular in the early 2000s. I know my mom had my brother and me put one together when I was around six or seven. We wrapped a Quaker Oats container in a piece of construction paper, drew all over the front, and put things that we liked in there. I don't remember much of what we put inside - I know a Pokemon card was one thing, but I don't remember what else. After we had put stuff in, we put the top back on and put it in a closet. (of course, a week later I wanted my Pokemon card back, so I tried to dig it out of the time capsule and put it back in my binder. I'm not sure where that card is now.)
There's a project I've been working on that has similar implications as a time capsule, but you can't dig it out of the closet and quickly find your Pokemon card. This goes back thirteen years, and the Pokemon card is at the center. (no, I don't start my yarn balls with Pokemon cards).
Yes, I have a ball of yarn scraps that dates back to when I first started working with yarn, when I was around 7. It's now around 28 inches around, not counting the bits and pieces I haven't put onto it yet. It's bigger than my head. It's almost as big as my waist. (It probably will be as big as my waist by the time I'm done with it.) What's great about this, though, is that you have to make an entire project with it in order to peel back the years. It's crazy.
Part of me doesn't want to do anything with it - keep it rolling until I'm an old granny, and then when I have grandkids I'll make each of them a going-off-to-college blanket, because I'll have enough yarn in it by that point. At the same time, I kind of want to start now.
Don't believe it? Here it is:

The beauty of it is that if I have to add more, there are plenty of points where I can stop the main flow of yarn, untie the knots, add in whatever I need to add in, and then keep going. It's a continually growing project.
Of course, the continual growth does affect the time-capsule nature of the project, but if it's a changing project, it needs a changing set of yarn to go with it.
The beauty of making anything with a scraps ball is that nothing is exactly the same. Of course, all the knots lead to a lot of frustration, but the variety of textures adds to the whole experience.

Late Post on Fun Times!!

So I've decided something interesting. And by "interesting," I mean TOTALLY FUN AND AWESOME.
I'm going to go to a show thrown by YouTubers. People who work on YouTube. For a living. (Well, who have it as their primary income). They do other entertainment-based things, too - that's why they're going on tour with a comedy show right now.
This is the first time I'm going to a show like this. I know they exist - I was going to go to a show by Miranda Sings, but then emotions and romantic breakups happened. Instead, I'm going to do the #NOFILTER show, and I'm excited.

I'm also going to try a new thing. I'm going to see if I can actually do two posts a week (maybe even three) and put ads on the blog. It'll be for a bit of a trial run in the beginning, but if it works, I'm going to keep it.