Why must pumpkin pie come once a year?

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I’m thinking we need to make this into a year-round food. Eggnog can stay at Christmas time. But I mean, pumpkin pie needs to come out more often.

I’m still alive. I do not feel as though I ate enough turkey. There is something wrong but still satisfying about that sentence. It’s late and this post isn’t really about anything, but I promised myself I’d post at least once a week.

Updates on life and thoughts du jour:

Warning: This is like massive A.D.H.D.

– Lesson of the week: always travel with your Driver’s license/I.D. with you everything. Because there are frat parties that require that stuff, which result in you having to crash a frat party or better yet – start your own frat party(!) and you don’t know when your (older, responsible) relatives will have one glass of wine and turn lobster red at Thanksgiving, may or may not requiring you to become the new designated driver.

– Crowd pumping is THE most awesome training process. Ever.

– Help feeding the homeless tomorrow

– Rounding up your floor to shout out “ohh ahhh” to a cheer you made up on the bus is a little more difficult than it seems.

– On that note, Day of the Longboat is AWESOME. Totally Harry-Potter-Going-Back-to-Hogwarts Awesome. Shout outs to anyone who just got that A Very Potter Musical Reference. High fives for anyone else who just (or is going) to YouTube that right now.

– Prank Wars are ON! Take that boys. Us, girls are way smart s-m-r-t so you better watch your backs. (Yes, that was intentional. My high school chem teacher always used that line).

– I still need rainboots! How am I surviving? I have no idea!

– I wish my substitute yoga teacher was my regular teacher – only difference one gives you face massages with organic lime orange cream. Yum. Not that I ate it or anything…

– Apparently alcohol is an excuse to hold hands and jump up and down on sofas and sing Katy Perry. But you don’t need it to jump on the bouncy bushes. You (nor I) really need it to do the first thing either. I just said it was an excuse.

– This is getting way longer than intitially intented…

– I love pie.

– I have actually started singing in the shower. All the girls on my floor are now like “So that’s who it is/was!”

– I am thankful for my 6th sense ability to wake up on the bus and SkyTrain the stop before I have to get off. Grilled Cheesus, thank you.

– Aw, what is happening to glee this season, guys?

– I didn’t believe my friend who told me that her friend told her the way to make new friends at university is to buy a ukelele and ask somebody how to teach you to play it. After having my neighbour teach me how to play the ukelele I have a new addition to my Christmas wish list. Right after Magic Bullet.

– I hope the Chinese food my grandma gave me, because she’s visiting town, is still in the lounge fridge when I get back tomorrow. Should not have said that aloud… on the internet.

– When life gives you lemons you got to eat them straight up. Pour some honey over them and that sore throat cold will go right away.

– combat boots + skinny girls = This equation makes no sense to me.

– This week’s goal: go stargazing, like actually this time. Not attempting to go and then getting distracted by the available piano in the ballroom for spontaneous jam session.

Sounds good? Schveeet.

More pictures and posts to come. Sweet dreams tout le monde and Happy Thanksgiving!

Who said late night snacks had to be healthy?

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Obviously, it wasn’t me.

Because honestly, there must be at least 400 calories in this thing. My delicious chocolatey chip left over banana bread I just bought like 10 minutes ago. It doesn’t matter. I’m not one of those chicks who are all “Oh em gee, that must be sooooo unhealthy for you” and constantly look at Nutritional Information on the side of boxes. In fact, I practically make fun of anyone who dares to reach for the 0% fat free “yogurt” stuff at the grocery store. I mean 0% milk fat yogurt? What do you think yogurt is supposed to be. Give me that 4% Balkan Style with Honey! That’s what I’m talking about. Or Greek yogurt. Greeeeeeeeeek yoguuuuurrrrttttt again with honey. Mmmmmm. Excuse while I salivate in my thoughts.

You know what, maybe I’m just a hypocrite because I do recall pouring in skim milk into my coffee at Ike’s yesterday. But in my defence I just picked up the first one and it wasn’t until afterwards as some other girl meticulously regarded the labels that I realized they weren’t all the same. Big deal.

Point of this blog was to say that I have a new goal for myself.

Please hear my declaration: I, Ned, am challenging myself to be able to run all the way up the Wreck beach stairs without stopping by the end of the year. If I want to get really ambitious I might even say the end of the term. But that’s like Christmas. And… considering how lightning speed fast this first half of the term has gone by I don’t think that would be very realistic. So Internet, fellow bloggers, blog readers, this is my declaration. I challenge the rest of you to join me or make your own fitness challenge.

I am quite proud of myself though. The first day of classes my goal was to just make it up to Buchanan 3rd floor without panting. You see!? I’m already improving. Yes I would like my little gold star. Because my gold stars are very Rachel Berry-esque gold stars. Maybe not, but if you gave me a gold star I would surely keep it and stick it up on my corkboard.

Anyways, my friend did the math and Wreck Beach is equivalent to living on the 30th floor of residence. 16 steps per floor. 480 steps. 30 floors. So think of that next time you visit.

Say it with me people, we are going to get fit! None of this elevator laziness bogus. Let’s get pumped and do it! Because then you feel so good about yourself you go to Magda’s (the late night convenience store at Totem) and buy yourself a 400 calorie chocolate chip banana bread square that tastes like pure butter delight amazingness. You eat it and then you have to go to Wreck and burn it all off. You see, everything once again comes full circle.

It is pretty funny how this happens though. I remember all my teachers in high school telling me that once I move to the West Coast I was going to become a Hippie. And now look, here I am visiting nudist beach, signing up for a Yoga class and eating a lot of vegetarian dishes, if only because they look way more appealing than whatever is going down at the Asian Station for the most part. I guess this means I succumb to the Vancouverite life style. What did I expect?

Before I sign off, I just want to say that I did it – I dipped my feet in the Strait of Georgia. BASICALLY, the Pacific Ocean. Close enough. Yada yada yada. And it was amazing. I literally dashed down the last 50 steps and ran towards the water. As you can see I’m still wearing shorts, which for any of you reading this from back home is not surprising at all. I have always been, and will continue to be Miss. In De Nile of the weather gradually getting colder. And at least until Thanksgiving hits I will continue putting on my skirts and shorts as long as I can. Got to get that Vitamin D somehow, right?

On that happy thought, I love how this picture make it look like I’m the only person on the beach. Reminds me of these song lyrics from some cheesy grade six choir I used to sing in (in grade six…): There is a place I call my own. Where I can stand by the sea.

I think I just found it…

Veni, vidi, vici y’all.

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And somehow we came in tied for second?

But it’s okay because this war was not just out of two teams. This was COLOUR WARS at Totem Park.

Fast forward. Ned here on Sunday night and I can safely say I survived the non-stop weekend of activity.

The weeks here at UBC are falling into routine as are the leaves on the few deciduous trees around TePee (Totem Park – Haha I make myself laugh sometimes). Hence, I am focusing more on the weekend activity on campus. Besides the fact that campus looks completely dead [insert another stupid lame joke about crumpled dried dead leaves on the ground here] on Saturday and Sunday between the hours of 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Before, you know, the booze comes out…

So this weekend was the famous Colour Wars event at Totem. Sure, you Vanier kids can have the Olympics and do whatever you want but Totem was where it was at Saturday morning. I’m in Haida [hi-dah] House and I think we were getting pretty intense with our black warrior face paint. We were playing dodgeball on the tennis courts. Tug-of-War on the field. Oh yeah – shout out to all the Haida ladies because we owned the girls only Tug-of-War match. Just saying. Won’t say against who. And also the wacko shaving cream relay.

But as my friend mentioned the morning was all about house bonding and Totem pride. All these events just make me feel like First Week all over again. I kind of wonder how long this feeling lasts, because just when you think “Alright I’m settled in now, the school year is starting, like my Prof actually mentioned something about mid-term today, all the crazy events are over…” They pull out something like this and we’re back at summer camp.

Has any one felt that? The summer camp syndrome? That we’re all stuck in this (slightly dreary because it rains) summer camp. That soon we’re all going to be packing up our stuff, hug each other good bye and lie to ourselves saying stuff like we’ll write and keep in touch. Sorry this is the twenty-first century now. Saying stuff like we’ll Skype and text.

But Colour Wars was so much fun. You really have to get into it and just go out and be hardcore and show your pride. If you don’t try and get pumped up, you’re not going to get pumped up. Which goes back to the whole idea of uni is what you make of it. So come on and carpe diem guys! I feel a little bad for all the commuter students I meet in class because I feel as though being in rez has been incredible and I don’t know what to say to people who don’t live on campus.

So, yeah Haida came in second. YES, that’s right. Second. There was so mix up, but I assure you these results are totally legit. We tied with our long rival Shuswap.

There’s lots more to come on this but right after the Colour Wars I literally raced off to Granville Island to something very cool and not secret but I know a future post is coming about it in the near future so I will expand upon this there…

Next was the G.L.O.W. Dance. Unfortunately, I didn’t buy a ticket soon enough so I got a little left out of the dance. BUT, I totally enjoyed Saturday night with some awesome dorm-baked cinnamon buns a la toaster oven. If only I could bottle that smell and keep it with me. Seriously, tips on how to attract girls into your dorm: bake cookies. It’s that simple. Screw the stomach being the way to a man‘s heart. Us women (and my fellow floormates agree) are all about the digestive track too! Food is good. End of story.

Continuing with the play-by-play of my weekend, Day of the Longboat Clinic was this morning. Totally pumped for next week. Day of the Longboat = Largest Longboat event in North America. Longboat = (in layman’s terms) glorified canoe. As well, more information to come. What makes things even more super is that I get to be our team’s runner and hit the gong. Yeah! A gong? A gong! I mean any event that has a gong ranks ten times higher on any scale/league of awesomeness. I mean – it’s going to be a flipping gong show!

Then this afternoon, I took a ride on the SkyTrain to visit my relatives and while I was on the train there was this moment where I thought to myself “Hey, my Mom has no idea where I am right now.” Right at that instant. And it just felt a little strange to me thinking about where I am. Like where the heck was I? I was moving on a train. Sure, Sheldon Cooper could’ve given me a long explanation about frames of reference. Then, part of me wants to get all deep and philosophical and say this whole train was some metaphor for my life, moving at 90 km/h (albeit no where close 340.29 m/s).

But still, how has it already been a month? Time’s a flying.

Sheesh y’all feels like it’s a dream.