Under the Skin

As many of you may know, I am not creative. A lot of people say, "Oh, I'm not creative," when they really mean, "I'm not Monet, but I have creative aspects." When I say that I'm not creative, I mean "I really am not creative." I cannot paint, sculpt, draw or design. Given, I can draw a very cartoony banana, but that comes from the fact that when I was in fourth grade, I ran for ASB vice president, and my posters had cartoon bananas on them. I learned this from my mother (who is creative) drawing a cartoon banana, which I then traced using a light table so many times that I can now draw cartoon bananas. I cannot sew. I can follow a pattern, but I cannot actually come up with anything, and I need the fabric to be chosen for me before hand. I have zero ability to assemble outfits in the morning that match, and I cannot do artsy hairstyles or makeup. I cannot dance. I have become a passable Irish dancer, but that's solely muscle memory...

It seems that I keep on thinking of things that I should blog about, but then it never happens! School is back in full force, but I don't feel like I took enough credits this semester. I am not nearly busy enough. Main places my time goes this semester: 1) Classes. I'm taking Chem 107 (General Chem Lab), MMBio 241 (Molecular Bio Lab Techniques), PHSCS 121 (Physics 1: With Calculus. It's the one for physics and engineering majors, but I'm taking it anyways because I need physics, and my father really encouraged me to take this version), PWS 340 (Genetics), REL C 324 (D&C), REL A 211 (New Testament). I don't feel like it's enough. I have too much time on my hands. But, oh well. 2) Work. I'm an American Heritage TA. And where many TAs just go to lecture and grade papers every now and again, and then lead review before tests, American Heritage TA is a 10-20 hr./wk job. We prep lab sections (the 30-student section of the class we teach), grade, ent...

Do you have something that you do when you're blue? Something that helps you fall asleep? An odd quirk that makes you happy? Well, listen up, because I've decided to bear my guilty pleasures. Don't worry, there's not anything bad, just kind of odd. Ready? Okay! -When my roommates aren't home, I sometimes turn on spy music and run around my apartment with my fingers making a gun, hiding behind doorways and shooting the bad guys -Sometimes, I go to itsaboutlove.org (the LDS Family Services Website) and read the profiles of the Hoping to Adopt Families. They're just such cute families! It makes me feel fuzzy inside. -I secretly believe turning on Vivaldi's Winter from the Four Seasons makes it snow harder (it's kind of one of those things that you know it doesn't, but you kind of feel like it does) -I kill time by playing Gingerbread Circus 2 -Christmas music makes me happy and so I occasionally listen to it regardless of the season -watching old...

(A little background music while you read my post): Back in New York, and not quite sure what I'm doing with my life next. That is Hannah. I am currently working as a CNA at Finger Lakes Health (specifically Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hospital). I am glad to be working here, and as I've gone through their training on their technology, equipment and gone through their protocols and policies, must say that if I'm injured in the Finger Lakes, and I don't need emergency services that exact minute, I say go to Finger Lakes Health. They have top notch technology, comprehensive injury prevention protocols, their accident prevention is phenomenal (particularly their medication verification systems), and their infection control protocols are great. Their transport policies are above and beyond to avoid injury, and after seeing their billing policies as well, so long as they follow them, they will be one of the fairest healthcare systems you'll have ever worked with. N...

So, more correctly, Canandaigua, New York! But, here's my update. I have a job! I am a CNA at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hospital. And I'm currently a Regents Biology tutor. Regents is the test that New York high schoolers must take if they intend to receive a high school diploma. As such, this is very much so harvest time for the tutors. To be completely honest: I hate tutoring! I'm not a great teacher, and though I don't mind teaching (I've taught lunchtime French catch-up in high school, I teach merit badge clinics for the Boy Scouts, and I have been hired as an American Heritage teaching assistant), I despise teaching those who do not want to be taught. Which most children who need tutors are. But, I am quite happy to have a job. My new job has the most amazing amenities, including a kosher kitchen (for Ultra-Orthodox Jews), and a barn in the parking lot (for the Amish).

Today, I am musing about people who are convinced their lives are terrible, so they make them that way. As I was flying home from Utah (I'm back in New York), I flew through Chicago. I'm not a big fan of O'Hare Airport, but that's the way that it happened this time, so that's life. Anyways, there was this super bitter gate agent. She hated her job and mostly her life, I think. She was so miserable, that she was making everybody else miserable. I tried to make her day easier and lighten the area around her, but she would have nothing of it. For example, there was a lady who came to check in for the flight. She was seventy-five years old, and was going through chemotherapy and so she was very weak and feeble. When the gate agent found out that she was booked for a seat in the emergency exit row, the bitter gate agent informed the woman that this was not going to be possible. The emergency exit door was much too big for her and she was not legally able to serve...

Tonight, I picked my favorite religious paintings for the purpose of building a screen saver that I liked. So, here's the thing: I could add more later, but here are my current favorites. (Simon Dewey) I really like this picture of Christ because He looks protective and contemplative. (Simon Dewey) I guess I'm the type of person who looks pictures of the things we don't usually picture. And usually, we show pictures of Christ talking to Mary Magdalene and such. But I like this picture of Him emerging from the tomb because it takes the Resurrection to an event rather than a before and after. I think too often we think of it as "He was dead, then He was alive," and skip the part in between. (okay, so I really like Simon Dewey) I like Joseph's paternal stance in this picture mostly. I think too often we think of Joseph as a "the guy" in the story. Joseph must have been a pretty awesome man for several reasons: 1) God trusted him as the surrogate f...

Vegetable Salad I love salad. A lot. The downside? When there's only one of you, you'd have to eat nothing but salad every meal every day in order to warrant buying lettuce because it goes bad SO fast. I don't love salad that much. So, I concocted lettuce-less salad the other day. It's a keeper. Lettuce-less Salad! radishes celery cauliflower carrots a TINY bit of onion (because it's a dominant flavor) a bit of olive oil a tad of vinegar (I used balsamic, because I borrowed it from my roommate and that's what she had) salt black pepper Chop it up and go. I'm feeling that a little cucumber would really make this, but I don't have any. So, yeah. It's quite good.

Film Mojo for this Valentine's Day named the nine best screen kisses ever. Hulu editors named the best TV kiss moments of recent tv and made a film playlist of it. And people vote all the time. I indulge the Valentine's Day romance. I believe in romance, contrary to popular belief, but I just think it has its place. And one of its places is in film entertainment. What are the best? The worst? I was given the option of writing an article for this, so I thought I'd take on the endeavor. These were my opinions, not necessarily what I wrote in my article, because some of them aren't the Hollywood classic ones, but my favorites. Before I name the 21 best in my opinion (21 because I like numbers that are divisible by three), I think we need a rubric so to speak. A sidenote though. This is not on the rubric, but after reviewing some lists to inspire mine, I set the standard: heterosexual kisses ONLY. It is just a pre-req to be even considered by the rubric First: ...

So, this is just something that I've started doing recently. Ever since I was a small child, I have hated oatmeal. I used to think it was the taste. But this week, I bought some raw oats for an apple crisp I was making. I just ate some dry, raw oats when I was making the apple crisp, and then I found that I LOVE THEM! It was just the mushy porridge-y thing I hated. Now, I eat them raw. With a spoon. A few drops of milk add a bit of sweetness. Yeah. The internet says there's nothing dietarily wrong with it. I don't know if that's true, but that's my new thing. However, this does not come as that big of a surprise for me. Because I don't have a very strong sense of smell, my sense of taste is kind of basic. Sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami. Those are my tastes...all other nuances are pretty lost when it comes down to it. So, I've noticed that a lot of my likes and dislikes are based solely on texture. It's just another one.

On Thursday this week, my American Christianity class was about Anabaptists. In the lecture, my professor said something that I really liked: "I am going to say something that you will probably never hear an LDS religious historian say again: Why did the mobs hate us and why were they justified? We like to believe that they were working under Satan. But really, they were just scared, and happened to be fulfilling Satan's desires in their fear. Because when a guy jumps up, claims he's a prophet, says that God speaks today, that there are miracles today, that there are apostles, that every person can receive revelation and that the heavens are open, and they start playing around with polygamy, the European protestants are programmed to scream, 'ANABAPTISTS!' And when those neo-Anabaptists start amassing an army, they scream, 'MUNSTER- 1534!' and that scares the heck out of them." I thought that was an interesting take, and I like it. I was never qu...

Today's issue of Cooking for College Students is going to be slightly different. We are going to discuss, instead of a recipe, the basic techniques of college student cooking. If I had to give one piece of food advice to college students everywhere, this is what it would be: Don't decide what you want to make and then go to the grocery store. Look at the grocery store ads, see what is on sale and then decide what you think you could use. Now, I'm not saying buy something just because it's on sale. Last week, there was a massive sale on rice. I would really rather eat mashed potatoes. I don't dislike rice, but I know that each night I would say, "What carb tonight: rice, potatoes or pasta?" and every time I would choose potatoes or pasta. So, I didn't buy any rice. There was this huge sale on baked beans. I despise baked beans, basically. So, why would I buy them? However, cater your cooking to the sales. People have criticized me that I ne...

WARNING: THIS POST MAY BE INTERESTING TO YOU. IT MAY JUST BE A THERAPEUTIC THING OF ME TRYING TO RECONCILE MY YEARS OF PHILOSOPHICAL DISSONANCE WITH MY CLASSMATES IN HIGH SCHOOL. TAKE IT FOR WHAT IT IS We are all aware that I do like to read. One of my favorite books is The Chosen, by Chaim Potok. Today, I tell you something about my love for this book. My disclaimer is this: If you have never read this book, and would like to read this book, I might spoil parts. I promise nothing. So, in high school, I was once reading it for the third-or-so time during lunch. Some of my friends came up to me, saw what I was reading and said, "That's a great book!" I told them that I agreed and that it was one of my favorites. They then said, "Really? I don't know how someone as religious as you could love a book about someone realizing the falseness of religiosity!" This began a very intense debate between us, as I don't thi...

I invented another one tonight! Unnamed chicken chopped olives chopped bell peppers chopped onion paprika parsley dab of olive oil pasta You know what to do! That's right, cook the pasta. Put the rest of it in a skillet. Cook that up. Put it on top of the pasta. AMAZING