Rhythm and Diversity - Chico World Music Festival 2011

Eric and I were able to go to the Chico World Music Festival last weekend and we had a blast. Here are a few pictures from the day and a link to the cultural event I wrote up on it on my other blog.

The Lost Mermaid (Class Blog Link)

Latest Blog for my Multicultural Lit Class.

Hope you enjoy the entry.

Video to Make Your Day

This is how I want to be when I'm this old. Funny, adorable, and a little kooky.

:D

Hope this takes you into your weekend with a smile.

Class Cultural Event1 Blog Link

Here is the first cultural event posting for my class. I talk about the Thursday Night Market and local culture.

Enjoy!

Just something to make you Smile

I know the semester has really kicked up a notch for a lot of us. For me, this week is rolling in papers and projects. So I thought I would share the laughter and joy these guys have given me. They are the balloons from my birthday (which was about a month ago now) who deflated to a certain point of equilibrium. They aren't getting any smaller than this. So, they keep a smile on my face even as the work load gets bigger.

I hope your week is full of laughter too.

Balloon Friends

May have deflated in size, but not in happiness

Multicultural Lit class blog1 Link

Alongside this personal blog, I have also started one for a class I am taking this semester, Multicultural Literature. We have to respond to readings assigned in class and give personal experiences as well. Here is my first post where I talk about September 11th, 2001 and Andrew Lam's book East Eats West
Let me know what you think.


Approaching the Ideal, Approaching the Future

Of the Seasons of Life

In my Survey of British Literature II class we have been going over poets from the second generation romantic time period. A poem we talked about in class and I also wrote a short paper on is one by Keats, "To Autumn."
It is a poem about seasons, both in nature and in our lives. He gives us the chance to acknowledge that beauty is not only in the beginning of life, but in the middle and at the end.
I thought it was a really strong piece and that it came to me at the perfect time in my life, what with autumn right around the corner (seasonal-wise, not my own season in life just yet) and the end of life always reminding us that it is there.

Here it is, enjoy the beginning of this season, both in the year and in your life.

                                 TO AUTUMN

                                  by John Keats

 
                            1.
    SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
        Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
    Conspiring with him how to load and bless
        With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
    To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
        And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
            To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
    With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
        And still more, later flowers for the bees,
        Until they think warm days will never cease,
            For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.
 
                             2.
    Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
        Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
    Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
        Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
    Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep,
        Drows’d with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
            Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
    And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
        Steady thy laden head across a brook;
        Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
            Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.
 
                            3.
    Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
        Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
    While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
        And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue;
    Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
        Among the river sallows, borne aloft
            Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
    And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
        Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
        The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
           And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Eric's Birthday

Friday was my boyfriend’s, Eric’s, birthday.

Earlier this month, I thought it would be an awesome idea to get him a bike as a gift for him. He had been talking about wanting one a lot now that he was back in school. His apartment was just that perfect distance…too far to walk and too close to drive.

I decided that since it was a pretty big gift, it would be the perfect thing to go in on with everyone as a sort of community gift. I talked to his mom and we brainstormed some ideas about how to get the bike that was closest to what he wanted (a good, simple road bike) and about how we could get it to him since we are both down here in CA.

So first came the scavenging around local bike shops to ask for advice on where to begin. We had little luck on finding anything more than a few tidbits of advice that were linked with ‘buy our really expensive bike because it’s exactly what you are looking for!’

A little frustrated, we put our thinking caps back on and ended up going to craigslist to look for the perfect bike with what little Intel that we had. On top of that, we were looking at the craigslist that was designated for Corvallis, OR. We decided it was time to get his brother, Ed, who lives with him, to help out. We found about 6 or 7 bikes that fit the profile of what we were looking for and I sent out emails explaining the situation to them, hoping to get quick responses.

Of the owners that we heard back from with the bikes that we liked, there seemed to be one that stood out over the others. It was a beautiful Vintage Japanese Shogun Road Bike. The frame was bright red and it fit into just about all the categories that Eric was really looking for in a bike.

Although a tad bit earlier than his birthday, Eric’s mom and I told Ed to go over and take a look at the bike and pick it up if he thought the bike was as good as it sounded. Next thing I know, the bike is ours!!! Ed slapped a bow on it and rushed it back to their apartment. Before he walked in the door, I gave Eric a call to get him upstairs and out of the way so the bike could be a surprise. Little did I know that Eric had gotten his new license in the mail that very same day. He was so intrigued by all the cool features on it, that I was able to send him downstairs, in an attempt to get him to see the bike, 3 separate times without him noticing anything but the licenses that he was comparing. Finally, his brother caught his attention and directed him into the kitchen and to his bike.

I was so excited to get to see his reaction to the bike, it was so awesome to see him run back up the stairs and look at me with this HUMUNGOUS grin that spread from ear to ear.

After the whole extravaganza with the bike, I decided to send him a little care package for him to get on his actual birthday.

The last time I visited him, we made some pretty amazing homemade mint-chocolate chip cookies. I thought that since I wouldn’t be able to be up there with him on his birthday and make him a cake, I would make him some of those cookies again.

If they look delicious to you and you want to make them, it’s actually quite simple. All you do is follow the cookie instructions on the Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Chips bag. But instead of adding all the chocolate chips, you substitute half of them with crushed Andes mints. Delicious.

Here are a few pictures of the cookies and a few other things that were in the package.

the boy for him and the girl for me

a horn!!!!! HONK HONK!!

Already all gone!



An official letter of acceptance into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry