Alnighter & Jacksonville I’m Here

First off, this is my first time using the app on my phone for WordPress and I’m just a tad bit excited. Especially since I have no intention of spending money on Internet service (even though its supposedly free). So until then, my writing and humor may be lacking due to the fact I’m typing with only my thumbs. Or maybe it’s the fact I’ve been up for a couple days.

So, I’m in Jacksonville. We had a soccer game on Wednesday, which we won (and I sprinted a ton but felt like I was lumbering along) and I had some hw to finish and hasn’t packed. This, I didn’t go to bed. I don’t recommend it. We had a car picking us up at 4, so I did homework, painted my nails, questioned my insanity. You know the usual 😉

Flight was at 6:30 out of SFO with a layover in Atlanta. On my second flight I sat next to some artist (who plays Jazz for Taylor Swift?) and is nominated for a Grammy Award. We struck up an odd conversation and he even gave me a free CD. He told me to look him up on Facebook but no thank you. Stranger Danger at its finest right there.

Zach, the other person from my school, has a girlfriend in Florida and she was kind enough to pick us up. Oh hot damn the hotel is mighty fine! I even checked out the weight room since running alone would be stupid here (see, I’m learning). Dinner was delicious because I loaded up on all my favorite grilled veggies and a bit if lasagna. I tested the tiramisu, mostly because I can’t say no. Bad habit, I know. We started around 5:30 and the talks and ice breakers didn’t end until 9:30. It’s a lot better than I thought it would be (I always enter with low expectations) but I swear, the last speaker couldn’t shut up or make his point promptly enough. I think part of my issue is lack of sleep. Also I just don’t deal well with people who ramble. But moving on. Afterwards, there was an ice cream meet and greet which about half the people were attending. I, along with Zach and a few others, decided against the ice cream and went to hit the books or bed. I am planning to start February off on the right foot with a workout tomorrow bright and early! Hopefully ill have Internet access so this can be a little more descriptive. Until then…HAPPY FRIDAY/February 1st tomorrow!

WIAW #25 – Midterms and Nutella

First off, a very happy birthday to my grandma Jamma 🙂 It’s always a treat to spend time with you, window shop, walk on the beach, and chat the afternoon away.  Many happy returns!

So, this week has been a bit more stressful than I would have liked. Who thought winter quarter of senior year of college would be so stressful?  Oh, wait.  I did 🙂  I knew this would happen between overloading on units, senior capstone class, carrying the load of two other group projects, etc. but it’s life and hey, better to get it out of the way when it is rainy and foggy than during spring quarter when the weather is so warm. 🙂 It certainly makes it easier to be in the library

But, I stumbled across this clip by SNL with Adam Levine and Andy Samburg, which helped pick up my afternoon by making me laugh quite hard.

This is a look at what I ate from Monday (and maybe a little of Tuesday).

Started out with a morning gym workout, early enough to see the sun rising over our softball field and townhouse apartments.  It’s quite a surreal sight and always makes me feel good about being up to get the workout complete.

Breakfast: Coffee (Starbucks Light Vanilla Frapp warmed up), Chobani yogurt with some granola, and a bowl full of berries.

Berries are certainly my favorite!  I can’t wait until summer arrives and the berries are overflowing the farmer’s markets 🙂 I think I’ll even add berry picking to my wish list for this summer.

So, for some reason, I either don’t listen to my stomach, I am bored, or am truly hungry mid-morning.  I settled on a small slice of CHOBerry bread with a cup of tea for the morning and a Luna bar and orange for the afternoon.

Lunch in between consisted of a leftover half sandwich from Safeway (chicken, wheat, pepper jack, mustard, pickles, lettuce, tomato.  Basically the works 🙂 ) alongside an apple and ginger kombucha.

After finishing my classes (Monday & Wednesdays are my long day – three classes with Theta chapter on Mondays), it was back for din-din.

This wasn’t as picturesque as I had hoped (remaining burger from Sunday’s Red Robin adventure/splurge), green beans, vegetable assortment (brussels sprouts, pepper, and tomato), and milk.  If it counts for anything, it tasted quite good.

This was Tuesday’s dinner

Still not quite the picture perfect image, but delish none the less.  A sweet potato, turkey chili, sauce, and grilled veggie medley.

I would like to work on slowing down my eating habits because otherwise I seem to end up a bit peckish, which could be dangerous.  Monday night, it was another round of snacks – rice cake with some PB and chocolate chips and tea as I powered through my homework/take home midterm.

Tuesday I decided to use the remainder of the Nutella from my Nutella FroCHO and make some Nutella Brownies.  This was partly due to the fact that my friend Katie’s birthday is next week and I know she had requested some.  They were quite decadent, indeed.  Absolutely delish and well received by my food critics.

Tomorrow I will be off to Jacksonville, Florida for a business leadership conference with Beta Gamma Sigma.  It’s a bit ill-well timed as a number of my midterms are next week, I’ll miss the Super Bowl and its commercials, but that’s life.  So we move on and enjoy the experiences 🙂 I’m excited to meet other college students, sleep in a nice hotel bed, and travel to another state.  It’s also almost time to think of how to celebrate Mardis Gras, Ash Wednesday, Valentine’s Day and what to include in my Lenten Diet 😉 My mom teases my sister and me about our strange habit to take on the Lenten challenge even though we aren’t Catholic.  I guess it’s alright since I go to a Jesuit University though.

Ta-ta for now!

“Your life becomes the thing you have decided it shall be.”
– Raymond Charles Barker

Any good plans for Super Bowl Sunday? 

How to Make a T-Shirt Blanket

Goodness, I have accumulated so many t-shirts over time from soccer tournaments to cross country races and beyond.  I love wearing them all, but when they started to fray and well get those lovely stains, I know it’s time to retire them.  So, what do you do with all those shirts? I didn’t want to throw them out, but wanted to display them.  What about a blanket?

When I began the task of creating a t-shirt blanket, I had every intention of taking pictures of each step.  Well, five or so months later, I plumb forgot. 🙂 But, I’m still going to share it with you and maybe my vivid descriptions will help paint a picture for you.

1.  Determine how large of a blanket you would like.  This will ultimately impact how many t-shirts you use, but I would recommend about 30 shirts, which creates a 5×6 rectangle.  This is perfect to slide over a bed or wrap up in on the couch. Granted, at every step of the process, feel free to take some creative license with the decisions.  I know I like to 🙂

2. Take a piece of construction paper or cardboard and cut it with dimensions (~15×15″).  Let’s call this the “guide”.

3. Cut each shirt in half, saving the side that you would like to have represented on the quilt.  Some of my cross-country shirts were dual-sided, so I needed to save both sides.  The easiest way to do this is to cut simply along the sides of the t-shirt and through the shoulder parts.

4. Piece one t-shirt side over the guide.  I would recommend pinning it down so that you get a clean cut.  Cut the edges so that the t-shirt is left with a 15×15″ outline. Repeat with each shirt until you have 30 cut t-shirts ready to sew.

5. Lay out your shirts in the order you would like to have them sewn.  Place one tshirt on its neighbor (images facing each other in) and sew along the edges.  Make sure when you sew these edges, the back sides of the shirts are facing out.  Repeat with each shirt until you have six strips of shirts (w/ 5 each) *This is a bit tricky, so if you need further assistance, feel free to email me 🙂

6. Repeat step 5 but this time folding one horizontal level on top of the other. At this point you should have one half of the quilt finished. If you are feeling up to the challenge.  Iron the remaining backside creases (parts you sewed).  This should provide a flat surface to sew the backing upon.

7. Obtain enough fabric to back your quilt.  I selected two colors of jersey fabric (about 2 yards each to be safe).  Take this home and WASH IT IN THE MACHINE.  *I forgot this step and not only did the fabric shrink later on me, the red fabric turned my white t-shirts pink.  Hmmm, oops.

8. Once the fabric has been washed, measure out enough to fit over your t-shirt side.  This could vary from blanket to blanket, so I’m not giving an exact number.  I tend to fly by the seat of my pants a lot of times, so it’s more of go with the flow.

9. Pin the front of the t-shirt blanket to the piece of fabric.  Sew ~90% of the edges, leaving a little slot to flip the blanket inside out.  Once you have done this (sew and flip), sew the remaining 10% of the blanket.

10. To add more stability to the blanket, sew horizontal and vertical lines, outlining the t-shirts. (See bottom picture)

Of course the last step is to ENJOY 🙂 Have any questions? Feel free to reach out – californiaendlesssummer@gmail.com

“Far away in the sunshine are my highest inspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see the beauty, believe in them and try to follow where they lead.”
– Louisa May Alcott

Tahoe Photographic Day in Review

Beautiful and blustery indeed, but a wonderful way to spend a Sunday and a great break from school.  Because yes, a break is always necessary 🙂 I will not focus on how sore my back, neck, and derriere. It was totally worth it and a huge thanks to Eddie for organizing and driving!  Next on my life to-do list, visit Tahoe in the summer.

Breakfast” provided.  I was a little skeptical about this, so I brought my own.  Still munched on part of a chocolate old-fashioned, just to see if it tasted the same.  Of course we started off the day with a downpour of snow (quite blustery indeed) but luckily the sun came out a few times throughout the day!  Right when we got off the slopes (~4pm) the storm picked right up and dumped at least half an inch of snow on us.  We had picked up sandwiches from Safeway, which we ate in the car, but I thought I’d share some of the goodies from the lodge. 

Funny story: I was texting my sister to see where she and her teammates stayed during August for cross-country camp and it turns out she was in the exact same area we were!  Small world 🙂

How did you spend your weekend? Have you ever ventured on a spontaneous adventure/trip?

Blogging Oh My

I really REALLY cannot believe I have just finished my third week of the quarter.  Yikes.  Well, I have a few fun adventures coming up to balance all the time I will be spending in the library.  No complaints since it still is college and my schedule really isn’t that bad.  I mean, waking up to work out, semi-leisurely getting ready to start work/homework by 10, etc. isn’t too bad.  That combined with the fact that I am surrounded by all my friends on a daily basis.  Yep, not too bad.

So, this weekend I am making my first ever trip to Tahoe.  We are driving up today (mid-morning/afternoon) and are planning to snowboard tomorrow.  I have boarded a few times and since that is what Liz and Eddie are doing, I’m planning to give it another shot.  Wish me luck 🙂 I know a number of people who have visited Tahoe in the summer and am much more of a sunshine/summer gal, so that’s on my to-do list.  But, for now, live up the moment and that means winter + snow.

I’ve also got a trip to Jacksonville planned out for next weekend for a business honor society, Beta Gamma Sigma Leadership Conference.  It’s not really timed correctly as I have practically all my midterms the Monday I return, but life isn’t always convenient, so it’s a learning experience.  Only bummer is we have a 4:00am transportation call on Thursday and we don’t return until 10pm on Sunday.  Basically that means no Superbowl.  Guess I’ll be missing the entire town of Santa Clara rooting for our local 49ers.  Ah well, again, no regrets.  Move on 🙂

Mahalo to Sarah at pickyrunner.com for this Versatile Blogger Award.  I feel like I’ve shared a lot about what’s been going on recently, so I’ll share some fun, random facts.

1. I have an extreme love for sauces. Nothing with mushrooms however and I don’t like wine reduction sauces.  However, I adore a mixture of BBQ, ketchup, and ranch. Mmmmm.

2. I would rather run than bike or swim, but I guess I need to do all three since I am on the triathlon club at school.  I was even the president a couple years ago. 🙂 Spiffy, right?

3. If I could only eat one of the following three (ice cream, baked goods, or candy), I would choose ice cream.  There is so much more potential for variety and well, candy just throws me over the edge sugar-wise. Any ideas for baked treats?  Sugar after-all is my favorite 😉

4. My favorite flowers are GerberaI  Daisies.  I love how many colors and patterns there are.  Don’t even think about giving me roses. Not a fan.  Don’t know why, but hey, I’ll be a cheap date 😉

5. Speaking of cheap date, I could always go for a solid burger and milkshake.  Well, in my head, but realistically when I arrive at the restaurant, I end up with a salad or something along those lines.  I’d love to explore some new restaurants, but it comes with finding some better/more adventurous/healthy foodie friends.

6. The first movie I ever owned was the original 101 Dalmations, the animated version. I’m still a huge Disney fan (Up anyone?) but am not enamored like the princess movies like most people seem to be. Sorry, I guess I don’t fit the girlie stereotype then.

7. I lived in England for three years during the first few years of my life and more recently, I spent almost four months in Barcelona for study-abroad. Goodness, I miss it!

Here are some bloggers I have nominated for this honor 🙂

Sara at Sara Smiles

Abby at Abby Eats Almonds

Brit at Brit’s Blurbs

Tracey at Coffee N College

Jessie at Jessie Loves to Run

Sunnie at ModernNutritionGirl

Alex at Cookie Dough Katzen

Will recap with you soon about my adventures in Tahoe! Have a fabulous weekend all!

Thankful Thursday Edition

Let’s try something new this week, shall we?  I’m working on starting the day on a positive note and would like to take a moment to note many of the things that I am thankful for.  I truly believe if I say it aloud, it makes me realize how fortunate we all are in this world.