"Gentle Mornings"

Today's post is to explain to you how excited I am to have what I like to call

"Gentle Mornings"

every day over my Thanksgiving Break.  Here's a Wordle bundle of words for some adjectives (because I'm not as good at thinking of them on my own like Ashley is:



I apologize that it is so hard to read, but Wordle makes it difficult to save the image of what you've created after it's done.  :)

To explain further, Gentle Mornings are those mornings when you wake up in a nice warm bed, there are no noises throughout the house, the sun is beating in through the window on your comforter, and you wake up feeling refreshed and ready to take on the world.  Following getting out of bed at your own pace, you walk along the hardwood floor hallway out into the kitchen where you look through the full-length sliding glass door at the bright blue sky and the seagulls playing in the wind currents.  You find a nice, rotund bowl of fruit sitting on an island in your kitchen, you sit on one of the bar stools at the island, and take your time savoring the taste and texture of honeydew, cantaloupe, oranges, clementines, watermelon, apples, pineapple, bananas, and pears-a serious indulgence of the 5 senses.  Then when you find yourself full, you walk back along that hardwood floor hallway and slip in the shower.  Once clean, you are ready for your day.

See?  Doesn't that sound nice?

These kinds of mornings I don't get too often, so when I do, I hold onto them and remember them. 

Gentle Mornings do NOT include the following: cell phones, alarms, yelling, stress, frustration, junky foods, uncomfortable temperatures, rough fabrics, time limits, restrictions, crying (unless it's due to joy,) television, radio stations (unless there is soft/soothing music playing,) or any other person who exhibits or participates in anything listed above that morning.

Gentle Mornings are all about you, and getting your mind in the right place to do what you need to do for the day.  Kind of like yoga...but not so dangerous.  :)

 XXOO

<3 Megan <3

I'm Addicted

I feel like my blog is my baby.  I keep coming back to check on it every time I get the chance, even when I should be doing other things (like trying to write this 10 page paper before I have to leave and do my break.)  I mean, I technically could do it all on Saturday while I'm home before I leave for FLORIDA (I can't say that enough,) but who really wants to do homework on the first real day of break?  Seriously?!

Anywho, I keep hoping for more comments and readers, which is probably what has sparked me to write about 3 blog posts in 24 hours.  Would that help, perhaps?  If I treated my blog like I do my cell phone, Twitter, or Facebook, then we'd have a serious epidemic going on here--but at least I might have readers!!! <3

Until then, I'll keep popping back in to see what activity has taken place.  Do me a favor and surprise me someday.  :)

XXOO

<3 Megan <3

Keep Rollin' With the Punches

So, just when I think I have a good shot at being done homework before break, my professors come out with things like, "Oh, don't forget you have a 10 page paper due for us the Monday you get back from break!" 

Lovely.  Thanks for ruining my break.  Except not.  Because nothing is going to ruin the awesomeness of FLORIDA and BEACHES and HARRY EFFING POTTER!!!!

Just thought I would share my excitement.  As for the paper...well...maybe I can work on it in my free time at the beach?

XXOO
<3 Megan <3

Cee Lo Green

\

Definitely inappropriate.  Definitely one of my favorite songs, lately.  :)

Watch the Glee "clean" version here:

Montreal

As promised, here is my rundown of what happened in the foreign country of Canada this past Saturday.

Your challenge?  Put them in order and tell me what I did.  :)  Kidding!

Most of the balcony railings I saw in Montreal looked/did something like this.  It looks like there's an especially dense vortex of gravity outside....

One of the dragons from the Chinese restaurant we went to for supper.

The menu/timings of the place we ate supper.

On the way in to Montreal.  We crossed over that bridge.  This was taken looking back at where we just drove.

Another bridge!!!!

On the bus on the way into the urban area.

Some factories and businesses on the way in to the city.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH which way?!?!?!?!

French.  Whoa.

IDK who he was, but NICE HAT!

Another picture taken off the bus.  Notice the people in the advertisement running together.

French French French French.  Ashley's best translation:  "Park avenue (something) north direction.  (Something) October 11th: Risky due to congestion of traffic."

Ohhhh yeahhhh.

I can't decide if that is sketchy or not.  Also, the cart entering the frame is interesting.

The view from the Champlain campus building.

Hollah!

What I feel like all this week with all my papers coming due.

My lunch at the Indian Restaurant.  It was called "Butter Chicken."

I called it "Orange."

This is why Canada rocks: awesome architecture.

Another street!!!!!

My fave.  :)

The lady on the left is Patricia, our tour guide...for 3 hours...

Pipes left over from the Industrial Revolution?  Also, the guy on the left was our Champlain guide around Montreal (to make sure us American kids didn't get lost and couldn't find our way back to campus.)  He was actually there my 2nd semester of my Freshman year, (the first time I visited Montreal) also.  Hmm...

There were three different writings etched into the stone.  These were signatures of various tribes in Canada, apparently.

I took this for Ryan.  It was beside the pipes in the ground.  His birth year is displayed in Montreal.  Whoot!!!

A random factory.  :)

A glimpse of Chinatown in the daylight. 

There's a face in the wall!!!!

One of the dragons guarding the entrance to Chinatown.

This is the exact Starbucks I sat and drank hot cocoa and a cookie my first time here.  (I was lost and was by myself.)

Excellent staircases are rampant in Montreal.

All in all, Montreal was pretty awesome.  Here's the itinerary:

9 AM- Leave Bader Parking lot for the boarder.

10:15 AM-Reach the border.  Have to get off the bus to go inside, have all of us hand over our passports, etc.

11:15 AM-Reach Champlain's Montreal campus.  *Note*-the "campus" is a tiny building with 3 floors, but only about 30 square feet per floor.

11:45/12 PM-Head to the Indian restaurant for lunch.

1:15 PM-leave the restaurant.  They had the BEST water I've ever drank in my life.  It was smooth going down...if that makes any sense?  Either way, it was amazing.

1:30-4:30 PM-Tour of Montreal.  Three hours.  What. the. heck.

5 PM- Arrive back at Champlain Montreal campus.

5:30 PM-After walking down to Chinatown, we have a half hour of free time.  I then commence buying presents for the roomies!

6 PM-Eat the 'ehh-so-so' Chinese buffet that was $18.60.  Wasn't impressed.

6:30 PM-Walked back to Champlain Montreal campus.

7 PM-Board the bus to go home.

7:45 PM-FINALLY make it out of the city.

9 PM-Make it to the boarder again.

10 PM-Arrive back at Champlain's Burlington campus.

All in all it was a good time.  I love displacing myself and unplugging everything for a day every once in a while.  Because Canada is a foreign country, I decided to leave my cell phone at home because I knew I would be tempted to text all day long.  It was rough not being able to text every passing thought I had to SOMEONE on my contacts list, but also strangely refreshing.

Also, I realize when I go to Canada how inadequate I feel.  Nearly all the teenagers in Montreal are bilingual.  I'm just the stupid American that can only speak English, and in the process completely butcher and stamp all over others' languages like a wild elephant on a rampage.  Seriously, why didn't I take French or Spanish in high school?  I might not feel like such a failure.  Latin definitely did not teach me any accents, although I suppose it did help learn more of the English vocabulary.  Derivatives of words were my favorite. 

But I digress.  I am an American, and I suppose one way or another, I should be proud of that.

Montreal was very fun, and I enjoyed the day away--the break from the normal.

I hope you all get the chance to completely immerse yourselves in a new culture someday.  Also, when you do it, go with a group and leave your cellphones at home.  Tell me what happens.

XXOO

Megan

Dark Moments in Cumby's

What's this?

This is Cumby's in Montpelier, VT.

Kind of sketch, right?  Yeah, I think so too.

Anywho, behold the tales of Friday, 11/12/2010:

After leaving U-32 and having watched Erin Galligan-Baldwin's phenomenal A Midsummer's Night Dream, Jake, Ryan and I decided we should stop at Cumby's because we were all hungry.  Well, as if that weren't the worst decision in the world.

A tiny Latina woman was working the counter and she appeared to be alone.  Cumby's was pretty hoppin' when we got there.  There was a truck parked getting gas, and about 4-5 customers inside.  (Yes, this is considered busy by Vermont standards.)  Jake, Ryan and I enter to begin scouring the place for food items that catch our eye. 

"Wait, where's the chocolate milk?" I wailed. 

(There was no apparent regular-sized drinkable container of chocolate milk-which made me very sad as my throat was starting to get a bit scratchy.) 

Eventually Ryan saved the day and found some for me.  :) 

We all eventually get in line with our less-than-nutritional food choices and are chatting back and forth.  Then, this true Redneck VT Hick assclown comes in and is all like, "WHEAS MY FUCKIN' GAS CYLINDAH?  I BEEN WAITIN' ABOUT 20 FUCKIN' MINITS!  I GOT THINGS TA DO!  WHAT'S GOIN' ON?"

The poor Latina woman replies, "I'm so sorry.  I have customers..."

"NOW!" he cuts her off.

Well....that's nice.

The woman asks if I mind waiting for a few minutes while she goes to help him.  I say no, not at all, and she walks out into the darkness. 

30 seconds pass...

2 minutes pass...

5 minutes pass...

"Uhm.....so, is she still alive, or....?" we collectively ask.

This was getting to be incredibly sketchy.  We couldn't tell if he had taken her around back and killed her, or was in the process of abducting her.  The security camera feed was appearing on a television right in the store, but there was no camera focused around back where I believe the gas cylinders were located.  Shoot.  Well....okay.

Things got awkward as we continued to stand there for about 7 minutes total.  In the meantime, guy after consecutively sketchy guy continued to enter Cumby's.  There were about 8 people in line by the time the FINAL guy came in. 

"I'll help you guys in just a few minutes." he said as he walked around behind the counters.  Wait, where did he come from?  WTF?!

Obviously he worked there because he knew how to work the cash register, but Ryan and Jake apparently thought all of these guys were in on robbing the store or something.  I guess they thought the guy behind the counter was the ringleader?  Hahaha.  I have to admit that never really crossed my mind at the time, but is really quite amusing in retrospect.

Finally we were able to purchase our items and GTFO! 

So, if you have a hankering for Cumby's after seeing a high school play in Montpelier--my recommendation?

DON'T DO IT!!!!

Lost, Again

Well, hello there!  It's been 3 weeks or so, according to Ashley.

So: here's where I'm at right now.  I plan to do a post branching off what Ryan said about the Cumby's "hold up" in Montpelier, as well as my trip to Montreal this past Saturday, but I want to get something else out of the way before those posts happen.

I need a new direction for my blog.  This past summer, after having been inspired by Julie and Julia to make a themed blog, I decided that I would focus on weight-loss, and how that's working for me in order to inspire others to make positive life-changes themselves.  However, that really isn't working out so well.  I don't feel that I have enough readers, and I don't feel as though I'm making an impact because outside of Ryan, Ashley, and Rachel, no one else really comments on anything I post so I'm never sure how I'm doing or how the post was received.  If I'd had more response, I could take the temperature of what kinds of posts my readers liked best and stick with that, but for now...I've got nothing.

I also feel a bit like a hypocrite in terms of being a weight-loss motivational blogger because I preach staying positive and not letting your mind get in the way of your body and ambition, yet that continues to remain a problem for me still.  I cancelled my Weight Watchers membership last Thursday or Friday before my 3-month renewal came up because I haven't been using it.  With my lifestyle here at college, I don't have time for it.  I want to eat fruits and vegetables but the cafeteria only offers the same things every day.  I want to have the money to buy what I feel I want to eat.  Maybe I want pineapple. 
Is there a problem with pineapple? 
Well, apparently the cafeteria thinks so, because they never offer that. 

Before I let this post begin to sound depressing, and wallow in self-pity-ish, I'm really looking to hear from my readers some ideas-some new direction to lead my blog in.  I can't find what I'm passionate enough about to keep a regular blog schedule going.  I mean, I am going to be a social worker and I find I do get passionate about human rights-but I feel there's only so much I can say on that topic at the risk of simply repeating myself over and over.  I can maybe do a human rights blog with a themed issue per post, but I feel I may run out of those, too.  I just want to write something that is going to generate interest, and maybe more readers.  I'd love to have other dedicated followers than just Ryan and Ashley (not that they aren't awesome, but I see them every day and know them in person.)  How about someone from Spain?  Or even California?  Or even Rutland, VT?  And I know that before I start getting readers I need a topic (or topics) to keep the posts coming, and to keep me dedicated as an author. 

So all in all: here's my task to you:
Suggest some topics to me that will take many posts to cover.  Give me overarching themes with smaller subsections, or even small one-time posts that you find yourself interested in. 

I may post some of my papers to my blog later this semester that I found I was very interested in and passionate about, but I'll wait until they're graded and returned to me before I do so.  Help me out, fellow readers!  I'm floundering in the blogosphere.

XXXOOO
<3Megan<3