Passion

November ended on a pretty good note.

I finished Kayla and Ben's wedding blanket. I finished my 5,000-bead lace shawl. I finished my grad school applications.

I only got to 19k words in NaNoWriMo. I feel a little guilty about this. But I really don't think I could have expected myself to finish, with everything else going on.

Jim and I got to spend a week in Reno for Thanksgiving, which was awesome. I got to hang out with my mom (we went to a yarn store and neither of us bought ANYTHING--it was incredible) and see my little sister (she's definitely cute). And just before we left, my parents lent us their third car and we got to take a quick road trip to San Francisco and Santa Cruz. Since I've got my grad apps in and we're crossing our fingers at least one of the schools accepts me, we took half a day to look at some houses in the region. Most of what we looked at was ~30 minutes outside of San Francisco, so hopefully we can find something reasonably priced on a BART or a bus line and I'll be able to commute in fairly easily. I'm not insane, so I refuse to drive in, but it's likely I might have to drive to a BART station... which would suck. It would be much better if I could walk or bike.

Anyway. PLENTY of time to think about these things next summer, if I do get in somewhere. Please please please cross your fingers for UCSF.

And now... pictures!

Me working on the Shipwreck on the steps of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.


I love Grace Cathedral. Jim had never been there before (obviously... it being only his second trip to California, and the first having been with me in February, when we went only to Pier 39), and we got really lucky and ran into a docent who was giving a tour inside. So we followed the tour for about 20 minutes and learned some fun things about the Cathedral and San Francisco's history.
Also, did you know there was never a Saint Barbara? The church made her up. It was some sort of ploy to get people to convert, but I don't remember exactly what the docent said the motivation was, not knowing much about Saint Barbara.


Done, and spread out on the kitchen floor! Boyfriend and Mom included for size reference.




It needs to be blocked--the lace will open up a lot more and it will get a LOT bigger. But isn't it gorgeous already???

Remind me to take a detail shot of the beads when I take blocking pictures. It's just stunning in person. I wish my camera could capture it!

I will post pictures of Kayla and Ben's blanket once it has safely reached them. :-)

Also, I need a new project now....

Wow. So, 1h30 into the cooking process, I checked on the turkey and realized a few things.

1. I had "basted" the turkey beforehand with butter (and a small amount of oil), which had of course all melted off. Did I need to reapply butter? Or add oil?
Phone call #1 to my mother assured me that I did not, but that I needed to cover the breast with aluminum foil.
I do not own aluminum foil.
No worries, a quick run down to the corner store on the other side of the undergrad quad fixed this problem, except that I stayed on the phone with my mom while I was in the store, and thus didn't notice that I was purchasing plastic wrap. I got home, got off the phone, and had to turn right back around and go back down the stairs and across the street and through the undergrad dorms to the store, where the proprietor did not speak English but eventually let me leave with the box of aluminum foil, after I'd given him the plastic wrap and three quarters.

2. All that juice that's accumulating in the big scary cavern of the turkey--do I need to worry about that?
Phone call #2 to my mother assured me that I did not.

3. How do I apply this aluminum foil? And why does aluminum foil get hot SO FAST?? I tore off a small piece and attempted to "tent" it over the breast as my mom had described, only to realize that after about ten seconds the foil was too hot to touch. So I used forks to poke at the edges until I was too mad to care if it was perfect. Aluminum foil doesn't listen to me any better than cling wrap does, and cling wrap REALLY doesn't like me.

4. Instant mashed potatoes. Mmmmm.
Okay, so that's not a realization, but I did have a conversation with my mom about whether or not soy milk would work instead of regular milk, and she insisted that vanilla soy milk would be a bad idea. I'm not sure why she thought to bring this up, because I wouldn't have used vanilla soy milk anyway, but since she mentioned it I'm wondering why you couldn't. Vanilla soy milk! Mashed potatoes! Two wonderful things; shouldn't they be brought together in love and creamy harmony?

5. I haven't gotten any homework done tonight. But I have watched two episodes of the second season of Weeds.

So I'm attempting to cook a turkey today, because I didn't get any leftovers from last week in Ohio and because someday I'll need to know how to cook a turkey. I figured immersion was the best way to learn, so I bought an 8.6 lb turkey and it's been sitting in the fridge thawing since... Monday? Yeah, Monday. And now it's just the turkey, the oven, and me.

As I fuss with it more this evening, I'll update you on how the cooking is proceeding. But first I leave you with this:

Raw turkeys are gross. And bewildering in their abundance of bloody cavities.

And I normally don't cook because I'm the type of person that somehow gets SOAP in the BUTTER.

In a very unexpected turn of events, it appears that I will be going to Ohio for Thanksgiving, with a friend from my program. His family lives in Columbus, but apparently part of this trip will also be taking place in Cleveland. There will be football and a Turkey Trot and tons of family members and lots of food and apparently the more the merrier, so I'm accompanying him on his drive from Connecticut to Ohio. I'm really excited; I'll get to know him a lot better, and I won't be alone (with my memories) for Thanksgiving. And I still get my road trip (although sans Rodin)!

We're leaving Friday afternoon and will return next Friday. I have no idea if I'll have access to the internet in that time, but of course I'll have my cell phone with me (I really hope this phone likes me and doesn't decide to ditch me the way the last one did). I'll also take my paper journal and attempt to make entries in it, in the hopes of actually having memories from grad school instead of just random synopses posted occasionally on lj.

Anyway, what was I talking about? There are a few cons. I'm going to miss part, if not all, of the cell bio retreat on Friday, so I won't get to hear the talks there, which kinda sucks because I still don't know what I want to study, and I was kind of hoping to get more of an idea after listening to the cell bio people tell about their research.

The ironic part of going to Ohio for Thanksgiving is that my dad is from Ohio (though he doesn't live there now) yet I've never been in Ohio for Thanksgiving before. Except for driving (rapidly) through the state on my trip across the country, I haven't been to Ohio since I was seven. So there will be lots of new sights. Should prove to be a really interesting trip.

Also, apparently my mom has a "Thanksgiving box" that has to get to me before Thanksgiving. What goes into a "Thanksgiving box" that's getting mailed across the country?