The Importance of Umbrellas

As you may or may not know I am an atmospheric science major, so while most people instantly start to complain as soon as they feel rain drops, I tend to get excited.  I know I probably won't be able to get you pumped about radar images and convective instability, but I think you should at least appreciate poor weather as a prime opportunity  to judge people (don't pretend you don't judge people, I know you do), I'm talking of course about umbrella watching.  

1. The ridiculously large umbrella: In general the larger the umbrella the more important that person thinks they are.  It's likely they obtained their absurdly large umbrella at a country club so that they could cover their golf clubs and overpriced shoes at the same time.  Be careful though, they could just be posing as a country club golfer.  

Another fact to note is that the large umbrella carrier is on top of things...aka the weather.  There was no way they could fit that thing in their bag, they knew it was going to rain and they were ready (this goes for people wearing rain boots too). 

2. The tiny portable umbrella:  This person most likely thought "look at how practical I'm being" while buying their umbrella. They may never check the weather channel, but as soon as it starts to rain they smile because they're prepared...until the slightest breeze comes and they realize that the pocket umbrella is one of the least practical inventions to date.  These people tend to act as a comic relief for you the umbrella watcher, as they wrestle their umbrella to maintain it's proper shape and get soaked in the process. 

3. The designer umbrella:  These are the easiest people to classify, anyone carrying a designer umbrella simply wants you to know they can afford designer things...don't let them fool you into thinking that designers make a more sturdy umbrella than say an outdoorsy company, you know better.

4. Last but not least...No umbrella:  These poor souls are either unprepared, lazy, or stubborn, in any case they usually look miserable...unless they're dancing in the rain on purpose, in which case you should join them because they are undoubtedly having the most fun of anyone out in the rain that day.  

Saturday

Saturday was a fun filled day, even if the weather failed to cooperate.  I started off the morning at flapjack frenzy, a philanthropy event where my sorority sells pancakes to support a domestic violence shelter.

Unfortunately it was rainy, cold, and therefore kind of slow so me and Liz had a photo shoot to entertain ourselves, here she is manning the orange juice station

After that we headed over to the Spring football game, it felt so much like autumn being huddled with friends in the horseshoe (Ohio Stadium) for a game, it was hard to remember that it's actually April!

As excited as I am for all of the long summer days ahead, I can't wait for football season to start again!

A Weekend In Indianapolis

Last week I went to Indianapolis for a fraternity formal...it was a weekend filled with good food, friends, and dancing!  There's nothing like a few days away from campus to make you feel like a real person instead of just a student.  We kicked off the weekend with a night on the town Friday...

On Saturday we woke up nice and early and took a tour of the Indianapolis Speedway (where the Indi 500 is).  They have a museum full of old race cars and fancy trophies.  Here's me and my friends with a Lotus formula one car.

We even got to drive around the actual track at the mind blowing speed of 20 mph! (we were in buses and it was raining...).  And ended our little adventure by playing dress up in the gift shop. 

After the speedway it was off to a fancy lunch at a delicious restaurant called Palomino, followed by an epic hotel pool party (sorry no pictures, there was a lot of splashing going on).  And before we knew it it was time to get ready for the formal dance!  Everyone put on their finest and headed over to a lovely hotel where we had the most delicious food (with synchronized dining service, basically the coolest thing ever, you should look it up) and of course lots of dancing! 

I wore a dress from modcloth a great online store that focuses on vintage inspired clothing.  Everything is well priced and really unique, browsing through their inventory is one of my favorite diversions.  You should check it out!  Alright, back to catching up on schoolwork after my fun weekend away!

Pasta alla whimsy

I've been really neglectful lately and haven't blogged in forever, so naturally I thought "what epic blog post can I create to distract them from the fact that i've been slacking" the answer: post pictures of me having a glorious time on some exotic island.  Unfortunately I didn't have time to hop over to the Caribbean so instead I'm going to show you the odd concoction I made for dinner tonight!  

Note: I was feeling rather whimsical when I made this, there was no recipe...First I cooked up some bacon, and while that was going I chopped up some red pepper and onion ( I also wanted to mince some garlic, but I couldn't find any...).  Just before the bacon was done I started boiling a pot of salted water for the pasta.  When the bacon was nice and crispy I put it on a plate in between paper towels, got rid of about half of the grease from the skillet and then poured my vegies in to cook.  

When the vegetables were soft and delicious (aka done) I put them in the pot with the drained pasta (which was done at this point) and this is where it gets weird...I didn't really have a plan in mind so I just poured in random things I thought might taste good.  I started with a little garlic powder (in lieu of the fresh garlic i didn't have) and then I poured about half a cup of whole milk in (thinking I would make a sauce).  It didn't thicken up as much as I'd hoped it would, so I grated in some parmesan and mozzarella.  After crumbling up the bacon and tossing it all together I had a strange yet delicious meal...it ended up being sort of like macaroni and cheese, which wasn't at all my intention but I guess that's what happens when you use macaroni-ish noodles and melted cheese.  

Do you like whipping up random meals too?  I'd love to hear about it, comment with you're favorite concoctions!