On Christmas Eve, my family eats...

What is traditional Christmas Eve fare? Is Christmas Day dinner more important than that of the Eve? I would assume so since if it were my birthday, I'd want to be celebrated on the day, not on the eve, but these days, it seems that the secular Christmas is celebrated more on the eve than on the day. Christmas day is a day for opening presents, spending time with family, etc. But as in all celebrations, there is no celebration without food.

Wikipedia says there ought to be bread at the table. I'm thinking there should be some kind of special meat. Ham? Goose? All I can think of is in A Christmas Carol (maybe a Muppet's Christmas Carol) where Rizzo falls down the chimney and onto the roasting goose. -__- But then maybe some hearty vegetables - potatoes? salad? beans? yams? Am I going in a Thanksgiving direction here? There probably should be cake. Fruitcake? Angelfood cake? Pound cake?? Ohhh I could go for some pound cake right now.

But then again, I may be thinking of Christmas day dinner. Anyways, it's not what I eat.

On Christmas Eve, my family goes all out and eats HOT POT. :)

Yum. Take that as you will.

On the first two days of Christmas before winter break...

Kelsey is pretty much awesome.

Two grilled cheese sandwiches:

And...

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas. :)

Chewing Gum: Thoughts about Cold Days and Police Raids

Today was one of those days where you think, "Ahh. This is fall. Autumn is finally here." It was a day where the clouds were tinted with gray, but the bright blue of the sky peeked through where it could, where the trees rustled with the chilly breeze, and the air was just cold enough to feel clean. You could feel the deep breath in your lungs, cleansing, and while a fall coat is too warm, a thin, summer jacket just can't cut it. Do I regret sleeping away the last sunny day of the week? Not really. It's the weekend. I needed the break. Especially after Friday night.

~~

Morse/Stiles Screw. Police brutality. I wasn't there but plenty of people have plenty to say about the situation. "The police were doing jobs, but it was a bit much." "The police were shoving people willy-nilly and cursing at them." "It was scary."

From my perspective, my unknowing perspective, I can imagine that the police were a perhaps a bit too aggressive, but that Yale students, especially drunk Yale students, may have caused a bit of trouble. It's a hard thing to give up your arrogance, particularly when you don't respect those conducting the authoritative search of your belongings. The being said, I have no idea what happened. From the bits and pieces I saw online (including the video), there was a lot of fear and sweat going on in that crowded (58% over-capacity!) club and I'm glad I was not involved in the situation.

~~ A bit of levity and some pie baking!

 Excitement at finding butter!!!

 Ready to roll.

 Peeling an apple...

 The longest apple peel I got.

 Final Product! A is for Apple! (Of course)

We served it to some people playing Indian Poker. Omar won lots of lollipops.

SPAM Musubi

I was writing a paper on SPAM for my Women, Food, and Culture class, and part of me felt that it wouldn't be fair to review something without trying it first. So I did.

Here's the tine: Less Sodium, right?

Oooo....appetizing?

 Browned

 Kelsey is adding soy sauce...

 Sugar...

Musubi mold: Rice...

 Spam...

 Rice...

 Press it down! Down!

 Pops out! And roll...

And tada! 

Because Kelsey is on a vegetarian rage right now, he made his own musubi, or as the fellows in Pokemon like to call it, a "jelly donut." (It's just rice and nori, don't worry.)

Yeah, typical Monday night?
<3 Yale

P.S. It was delicious. Sigh.

Today's achievements (for Thursday, 9/2)

1) Successfully shop a class I'm not taking (Organometallics. Love Nilay, love Chem Bio more)

2) Take a nap in the PoliSci Library. Yay armchairs. Woke up successfully 1 min before my alarm went off.

3) Did some scaffolding. Really just lifted some lights. Got to wear a nifty hard hat.

4) Danced. Go Phoenix!

5) Turned $458 books into $198 books. 56.8% savings. SCORE.

Goodnight.

Working the System

So I got called for jury duty. Jury Duty? Really? It was supposed to be on a Wednesday (incidentally, my cousin's 16th birthday, w00t w00t), but I got out of it because I'm a student, I'm in class, and...I'm not actually a resident of Connecticut except during the school year. Yeah. And now, I will go rest my stomach pains and see if I'm up for eating some nom nom cake in an hour.

Peace.
Out.

Buddhist Chanting

So Chelsea mentioned during dinner at La Cocinita that she was going to Budhist meditation with her friend so Alyssa and I say, "Why not? Let's go too!" We swing and lie on the grass for awhile in Branford and Bruce, the Buddhist monk, lets us into the bottom of Harkness Tower, which is an awesome place to meditate. Except it wasn't meditation. It was a chanting ritual [I use ritual here with its anthropological definition of a group of set actions carried out by a group to achieve a purpose, in this case a state of meditation and holyness....word choice not the best right now]. And it was awesome to be a part of. We can call this my religious ceremony joining #3. Lots of rising and kneeling and chanting words I knew not how to pronounce nor meaning. Sigh. Sleep.

Junior Year!!! - My Arms are Sore

I start this the way I've started all my diaries/journals in the past.

My name is Angela. I'm (now) a JUNIOR(!!!) at Yale University in Jonathan Edwards College (the best college). WHOO! I am just starting out in my 20s. I'm a chemistry major. I like sweet gestures (especially those that involve sweet foods), cute cuddlies, thoughtful conversation, and think that long walks on the beach at night are overrated [there's nothing romantic or sexy about being cold, wet, and sandy, especially when the wind is blowing your wet, sandy hair into your mouth. No.]

If you've been directed here by my summer blog (The Summer of 20) know that this is nothing like that (long narratives about journeyous adventures); but more of what's going on in my head at random intervals. I really have no obligations with this one, nothing that I have to do, nothing that I want it to be. It's just...when I feel like it (much like the LJs of old). Grammar matters less here. As do pictures. as dOES caPitaLiZatioN.

Why the title?


TALK: It's where I talk about random things when I feel like talking about them.
WALK: Also, I like to talk about things I do and places I go and things I see.
CHEW GUM: Also, I like to talk about my musings. Chewing cud sounded too gross. I think a lot. Most of the time, it never makes it to print. And my mind whirls in mysterious ways.

Why Blogger?


I was thinking about doing LiveJournal again, like I did when I was younger, but I'm on Gmail a lot more, I guess and I read people's blogs, so...

Entries will be short. Perhaps frequent, but mostly short. Unless I'm chewing some gum. In which case, they may be longer. Exhibit A:

--

Entry 1: My Arms are Sore.

So are my legs. In fact, most of me is sore and most of me is also hungry. This comes from moving in the newly minted freshmen to Yale. And I thought I had a lot of stuff. And I do have a lot of stuff. But some of those freshmen have waaaay more stuff than I do; stuff that doesn't really fit into a single in Farnam Hall. Good luck trying to pack away all your stuff kiddies. And now, I'm mostly hungry and waiting for Chelsea to get up so that we can go eaaaaatttttttt. Nom.

Current Location: My room
Current Music: People on Old Campus commenting on how they're in great shape.