A Small Trip

Wow. So sorry it's been so long since I posted. It's been a while since I went to the grocery store, which means I couldn't make my own food. That, and my stomach has still been bothering me, so I haven't felt too adventerous in the whole food-department. I should be getting my lab results soon, to find out just what's been going on, but until then, I'm stuck in limbo.

So, today's blog is about trips. It's broken up into two categories: the first being yesterday's trip, the second being today's trip. That pretty much sums it up.

Yesterday's Trip:

My roommate and I decided to go to Target and Ikea yesterday. It took us about 2 hours to get there via bus and MAX rail system (since we missed the bus by literally seconds and had to wait 30 minutes for the next one). So, we went, and about five minutes before our stop, I get this text from my lovely boyfriend. It turned out, he was in the main lobby for my dorm. The guy had spent three hours of train and about half an hour busing from the train station to my college, just to surprise me! I was ecstatic. And also about an hour and a half away. But, of course, I had to go back right away, and that I did. I was just so happy to finally see him after being away for a month, and so surprised that he spent five hours of traveling and waiting, just to see me. He took the last train North out of Portland, but, of course, that was a 6, so we really didn't get to do much. But, much isn't what's important anyway. Goodness gracious, I am still in shock. But it is a super, duper positive shock, indeed. =) =) =)

Today's Trip:

Today's trip was nowhere near as exciting. I went to the grocery store. I bought bananas, raspberries, mixed green salad, and beans; bread, bagels, and two boxes of cereal; canned soup, SpongeBob EZMac, frozen pizza, and yogurt covered pretzels, ; milk, string cheese, and cream cheese. Oh, and purple duct tape. All for about $35. I am proud of that. I am especially proud of the yogurt covered pretzels, since they were the same price as my small baggie from the school, but contained a POUND of pretzels. I've also been eating these a little bit to much already. But a girl can't help loving yogurt covered pretzels.

Coming home with all of this was quite a pain. Since I was alone on this trip, I couldn't pawn any heavy item on some unsuspecting victim. The cereal boxes proved the most challenging to deal with, though the heavy cans and half gallon of milk were also difficult. I ended up putting the boxes on the back of my bike, tying them on as I had done with Anna's soda cans earlier. Here's what it ended up looking like:

Yes, I am impressed with my tying skills too. Who knew sailing knots could have any sort of value in everyday life? Oh, and should I mention it was raining on my bike ride home?

Dorm Food

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Homemade Soup on a Very, Very Long Day

Against all better intuitions, I decided to trek out to the cafeteria for lunch today. Perhaps I should go back and explain what my day has been today.

It all begins around midnight when I snuck back into my dorm room after hanging out with a friend all night (one of those you start talking at 9:00, then suddenly it's midnight type deals that I've always heard about but never quite experienced before...especially on a school night). Afraid to wake up my roommate (and also eager to go to bed), I got into bed without brushing my teeth, changing into pjs, or even feeding my poor beta fish. I seriously just walked in and got into bed.

Thanks to this late night, I woke up with very few hours of decent sleep (I'm still getting used to my bed). Luckily, I had class at 8:10 this morning! Hurray! So, I woke up slowly, got dressed even slower (unaware that it would be in the 90's today), and ate much quicker. Though I left with 10 minutes to spare, I was still one of the last students to reach class (the very last being the friend I had been hanging out with last night). Tuesday and Thursday classes are the longest classes, as they only meet twice a week, so the class lasted FOREVER.

As soon as it was done, I went back to my room to study (I have to have a history book finished by tomorrow and...it's not going so well...it's written in Old English). I fell asleep instead. It felt glorious.

When I woke up, I realized studying in my bed is not a good idea when I'm tired, so, around noon, I traversed to the cafeteria. And that's where this story begins to relate to food.

I am still lost in the cafeteria.

It' big and crowded and I don't want to look like a dumb freshman...but I am a dumb freshman. Luckily, I discovered soup today, so that's what today's blog is truly about.

My favorite soups in the whole wide world were, until today, as follows:

1. Miso soup (especially from Infinite Soup in Tacoma...where they include like three different types of mushrooms)

2. Clam chowder from the can

3. Brocolli cheddar soup (especially from Panera Bread, but I like it just about anywhere)

4. Chicken noodle soup with oyster crackers (I only eat this at Grandma's house, though).

5. Split pea soup

However, after today, split pea soup has proudly moved up to position number 2. Seriously, I loved the school's split pea soup. It had large chunks of actual ham. And, though you could tell it was from real peas, there weren't chunks of peas in the soup. The texture was smooth and creamy. And, best of all, there were hardly any spices. I could tell there was some salt and maybe a few other slight flavors, but, basically it was peas and ham. Soooooo gooooood. They don't seem to have it often, which is disappointing. But, I guess I'll just have to use it as a special treat. I am seriously in love with this soup. If it were possible to marry a soup, I'd marry miso soup and cheat on it with this soup.

In addition to soup, I had chocolate milk because I wanted milk (I didn't have choir today so I didn't have to worry about it coating my throat). And, after a bit of studying, talking to a fellow UP student who used to be in high school with me, and more studying...I ran into another friend and ate lunch with her. This time yogurt covered pretzels, which were expensive ($4 for a tiny bag), but oh so goooooood.

I went with this friend to class, ended up late for class, and then hung out with her and a bunch of other people after class. Then, I left the group to go with my roommate to get groceries (especially my missing cheddar cheese and some Ritz crackers). And now I'm back, and I'm blogging, and I still haven't finished the stupid book for history and I think my mind is going to either explode from all the stuff I have yet to do but don't want to do, or melt from the 90 degree heat (all my shorts are filthy and, since I still haven't done laundry, I am hottttt). I'm wearing pajama shorts but I'm still dying. I'm just not used to this crazy heat.

Dorm Food

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My First Trip to the Grocery Store

I finally went to the grocery store! It was marvelous. We ended up going to the grocery store that was furthest from our school. It was worth it for the experience, though. The store was huge. Like, two stories huge. I’m from a town where Fred Meyer is one story, contains a small selection of produce, meats, and dairy, has a decent bakery, and a basic supply of dry goods as well. Our Fred Meyer in my home town is literally the smallest Fred Meyer there is. But this one? This was huge. Like, sells food, toys, clothes, furniture, and fridges huge. Like, two floors of nothing but store. I was a little bit overwhelmed. So I bought a lot: a plethora of fruits and vegetables, bread, milk, string cheese (I somehow lost my cheddar cheese before I made it to the checkout counter, and didn’t realize it until I got back to my dorm), a can opener, tortillas, and rope. Why rope? Well, because I have this nifty rack on the back of my bike and I would like to be able to use said nifty rack to carry things. My original plan was to get bungee cord, but amongst all the overwhelmingness of the store, I got a little lost. Rope was all that I could find. I got about 300 feet of it. I think I should have enough.

On our way back from the grocery store, Anna (who had just about as much stuff as me) and I looked like fools. My wicker basket was full of milk, jars, cans, and everything else that was heavy. My backpack was full of fruit. On my handle bars, I hung two plastic bags (which cost ten cents each here in Portlandia), filled with veggies, bread, and miscellaneous other food items. Anna’s bike looked similar (minus the basket). However, we had one conundrum. Anna bought a six pack of soda. So, being the creative college students we are, we used the rope I had just purchased, and tied the soda to the back of my bike. Using 300 feet of rope, several sailing knots, and several minutes of patience, I tied the soda to my bike. And my back tire. So, I had to undo and then redo all of my tying. Eventually, though, we were off. It was a challenge steering all three miles back, especially with the bags falling off my handles every couple of blocks, but eventually, we made it back to the dorm. So, we untied Anna’s soda from the back of my bike, took the basket off the front of my bike, piled bags on top of said basket, and carried all our earnings all the way up the eight floors of Mehling (using the elevator, of course). We looked ridiculous, but when all was said and done, we had accomplished what we had intended. We had food. And, best of all, we had room for all of our food in our dorm.

I was kind of upset because I forgot to take a picture before I undid everything on my bike, but I can promise you, I will be doing this again. And next time, there will be pictures.

Dorm Food

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