Sunday, October 30, 2011

50 Little Things (Part I)

Okay. So the deal here is to write down a little thing that you are thankful for/that makes you happy. It started on October sixth and the goal is to get to fifty. This conveniently lands on Thanksgiving, so that by the time you get there, you'll have fifty things ready at the go to be thankful for. Today marks the halfway point, and I'd like to share it with you, because these are all things that really make me happy. I got the idea for this here, and I think it's great. :)

BULLETS, GO!
  • The Penis Game: I am happy it made me shout inappropriately outside of a gelato place in Rome and giggle about it like a little two year old. I'm also glad that I was able to win. Because I'm competitive like that.
These guys revolutionized it.
  • Dippy Eggs: I like that they take two seconds to make and that they taste so good. Bonus points if there's hot sauce. I also like that I call them dippy eggs.
  • Nutella Mouth: Or nose. I love it when you can tell somebody just ate Nutella. Also, Nutella fingers make me smile too.
So good.
  • Naps: Not an original "little thing," but honestly, they can never receive too much love.
  • Water: Water is a most brilliant thing. It makes me really happy when I drink eight glasses of water a day. It makes me feel healthy and aquatic.
  • Kicking Mid-Terms in the Balls: 'Nuff said.
This is still a large victory for me, even though you've seen it.
  • When the questions you know appear on tests and you can officially stop worrying.
  • Google: Specifically Googling adventures.
  • Actually feeling cultured and appreciating art. As a type of artist myself, I always feel like I should love all art. I am not able to look at it for a long time and I certainly don't like all of it. But when I do, it's nice.
The Lovers of Teruel.
  • My Family: The day I wrote this was my cousin's birthday. And even though I was in Madrid, I still thought of her and how I get to see her at the holidays. And I can't wait.
  • Fruity Drinks: This is not an allusion to alcoholic drinks. I love my Pink Flamingos.
I can't let go of it.
  • Laughing: I love being goofy and I love when other people laugh. Or make me laugh. It's wonderful.
  • Making it through a metal detector without being stopped. Apparently that has become a very difficult thing for me to do.
  • Little kids dressed in/talking about/playing with/anything related to Disney. This is technically a very large corporation. But it happens so often, I'm counting it as a little thing.
I love Disney around Halloween. :)
  • Sleeping In: Sorry, kids, I love my lazy days.
  • Coming Back from Vacation: Okay so this didn't technically happen because of the Rome thing. But I like the feeling when you get to come back to your house. Specifically when you get to take your shoes off and feel the carpet. I love it.
  • Being A Three Year Old.
We Chubby Bunnied this one hardcore.
  • When you're sick and waking up, but feel like your nose is going to explode. But then you stand up and you cough and snot, but there's no more exploding! Gross, but true. See also: I miss my Neti-Pot. 
  • Sending Mail: Technically I didn't send it on this day because the ATM wasn't working. But I still loved imagining seeing everybody's faces when they get the mail.
  • Cooking Something New: Especially when it succeeds. Stuffed peppers, check?
  • Planning Adventures: I've got many tricks and plans up my sleeve. When they follow through? It makes it even better.
  • When friends make you feel better about your life, yourself, and everything else.
  • Halloween: It's not in Rome, but I'm long distancing this one hardcore. Scary movies, costumes, pumpkins...I want it all.
Most legendary Halloween ever.
  • Birthdays: I love giving special treatment to people on their special days.
BIRTHDAY HUGS. 
  • Taking care of somebody when they're sick. The fact that they're sick is no good. But helping them is nice! Note: I'm not yet sure if this extends to vomit.
So that's it! Nobody can say I'm forgetting about Thanksgiving, even though I'm listening to Christmas music in Rome. I'm celebrating for two months. :)

Thursday, October 27, 2011

I Have A Tummy Ache (Fall Break Part IV)

OKAY LAST ONE! I'll make it quick! I'll try my hardest! As always, so you don't get left in the dust here, I'll give you links to Parts I, II, and III.


Basically all you're missing on the Fall Break front is a lovely place where you can easily get shipped to a sugar coma.

Looks fancy, right?

The lovely Emily had told us about this a couple weeks before we left for Break, so we got our tickets ahead of time. Let me tell you, this was a nice Day After Disney recovery. This is one of (if not the) the largest chocolate festivals in the world. There's also a branch in New York City in November. So you know. If you're going to be up there for that, I would highly suggest going to see it.

We walked in and were TOTALLY overwhelmed. First of all, there were SO MANY STANDS. People were there to offer you chocolate literally everywhere. There were chocolate fountains, chocolate art, a fashion show, baking demonstrations, phallic chocolate; it literally had everything I could want and more. We tasted a lot of stuff and were a little caught up with eating and I didn't take SUPER many pictures. But I do have some!

This is insane. Like Food Network in person.

That fountain has Rome's fountains beat.

There's pineapple and banana in there. Healthy. Duh.

MACARON TOWER. And tree in the background.

The best thing I tasted there. It wasn't even chocolate.

So we spent a good three hours there navigating aisles of chocolate and goodness. We walked away with only a few purchases, lest we spend all of our money on chocolate. Because, really, who would do that? It should be noted the pictures were taken back in Rome. If there's any confusion.

Strawberry mousse filled chocolate thing.

I just think this is a funny picture.

SO MUCH FUN!

Macarons are the best. If you ever get in a fight with me, buy these and I'll forgive you in two seconds. We only have two left now, but they were SO FUN trying. You'll also like to know that Paul and I chose this specific booth to get them at based on the fact that they have a cerulean one. You can see the crumbs. 

One lesson that we learned here is that if you don't speak a language, you should probs just ask tell them, rather than standing there confused. This one lady called us out on it for having her "making wind at us." But ah well. We learned. She was also at a stand that made chocolate with olive oil instead of butter. It was tasty and better for you!

Wasabi covered chocolate...not so much.

So we had an early flight the next morning, so we wrapped up Paris with a walk down Avenue des Champs-Élysées towards the Arc de Triomphe because we hadn't seen it yet.

WOULDN'T YOU KNOW? Joe Jonas was in town! Lots of chanting fans! So. We were in Paris with Joe Jonas. Aw. Yeah. ....?

Things have a knack of being crooked when I photograph them.

Naturally, we also went out to dinner that night. More free bread. Salmon. Duck. Potatoes. Fries. Rice. YUMMY.

SO MUCH FOOD.

The night ended with the crepe fairy delivering a banana and Nutella crepe to the most amazing person ever (Emily). Paul and I had one too. It was a lovely end to a break that was so great and wonderful. 

I hope you weren't too bored reading it. And regular posting will come back soon, I swear. Paul's birthday is on Saturday. So I've got prep work to do. But I promise I won't neglect you too badly.

The crepe fairy is AWESOME.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

The Best Day of My Life (Fall Break Part III)

I know you're pumped, this is a day full of excitement. I decided to just get it posted faster rather than have you waiting. There's one more post. And then I'll be done. I promise. So, if you need a lot of reading material little refresher, check out Part I and Part II.


So, as I'm sure you'll find wonderful, this isn't going to be a huge wordy post. Because yesterday's was a little bit overwhelming. But here's the post that everybody (read: my sister) has been waiting for. After our lovely days in Paris, we boarded an RER train heading towards Chessy. There was something there that we couldn't wait to get to.

Disneyland Paris.

Now. First of all, let me brag and tell you how great it is to have somebody want to go to Disney with you. And let me follow that up by telling you I got a yes for Florida soon. SO YAY. We'll see if I have any money at all by the time I get back.

There are the men of the hour.

IT WAS SO GREAT. I kept proclaiming that it was the greatest day of my life. I loved every second of it. And I'm not going to go into super huge detail so let me know if you want more pictures. Oh, I have them. I'm also not going to focus on food because we had quick service meals all day, and a lot of places weren't open because it was the off season. Don't ask about fireworks for the same reason. However, that also meant the longest line we stood in was twenty-five minutes at the longest. AWWW YEAH.

First we went to the equivalent of MGM Hollywood Studios. It's called Walt Disney Studios. 

I suppose this is their huge hat.

RAT PATOOTIE.

Front row. Our first roller coaster. You know.

It's not as tall, but still fun to scream your head off.

This is a reproduction of our Roller Coaster Faces.

TOY STORY PLAYLAND.

Buzz Lightyear to the rescue!

His first Mickey picture. :)

Mike n' Sully. 

LIVE AND IN PERSON. 

This is where you give the monsters power.

Yes. We for real screamed. The little boy next to me was jealous.

Original show! It was crazy in two languages!

WHAT'S THAT?

My french fry face.

And then. We went to the other side. And I nearly fainted about 4205945 times. Approximately.

I LOVE DISNEY.

I love pumpkins. Especially when they're shaped like my favorite mouse.

Thanks for loving Jasmine, Paris. :)

BAH. Kaitlyn's castle!!

This is the Phantom Manor for my bestest buddy. :)

The villains were out because it's Halloween!

Oh man. It's mini story time.

So, we were going happily along, enjoying our adventures. We decided to ride Big Thunder Mountain. It was the longest line we stood in, but I didn't mind! So we're going through the ride, screaming our heads off at not scary parts. (At the dark part. Just like my Dad. :)) Then we start going up the hill. And then we stop. And then a sad sounding announcement comes over the loudspeaker saying, "We're sorry but our magic can't continue at this time.." IT WAS SO SAD SOUNDING. So we walked down our first stuck roller coaster together. And traveled through the mountain. BEHIND THE SCENES DISNEY, WOO. I didn't take pictures to preserve the magic. But. Of course I do have two cool pictures that not many people can say they have.

Standing next to the train on the top of the mountain.

Aw yeah. Chillin.

Space Mountain. The weather looked daunting. But it didn't rain. :)


Which one of us looks tougher? We didn't get the Michelle treatment. :( Reference? Anybody?


The villain float in the parade!

GIRAFFES.

The princess float. <3

We asked Italian people to take this one!!

This a fake smile on my part. But I digress.

No Space Mountain fail.

It's very difficult to get a picture of this castle at night, apparently.

And that summed up our great day at Disney. We were sad to see it go. But it was so wonderful. 

Were our sad faces convincing?

So there's some pictures for you to look at. I hope you liked it. :)

One more post and we're out of Fall Break and back into my day to day life! CLING TO THIS WHILE YOU STILL CAN. I know I do.

SNEAK PEEK. 

FYI. It's a tad inappropriate for any of you reading this that see me in an angelic light. But it's mad funny if you think of it being in the midst of fancy chocolate in the middle of Paris. So can we set it aside and laugh? Yes.

Go on, laugh.