Friday Five

Five Things That I am Sort of Super Proud Of.

5. My vanilla-hazelnut coffee blend: this is by no means anything cool or impressive. I just really really like Einstein Bros. vanilla hazelnut coffee and the departure of the Einstein Bros. from our student center was really cramping my style this year. So I decided it was time to put on my big girl pants and make my own coffee. For the first time. (Call me a princess, but I just sort of assumed that someone else would make my coffee for me for my whole life. That dream is done.) So, basically, all of this is to say that I'm really proud of the fact that I can buy Folgers brand vanilla and hazelnut flavored coffee grounds and mix them together. It's a big deal to me, alright?

4. My heritage: everyone knows I'm from Texas. I make sure of that. I love it, and I am all kinds of proud to be from the greatest nation in the world. And every time you talk about this "Six Flags" you have here in Georgia, I will tell you the origin of the park and the meaning of it's name and list all six flags in order of appearance, regardless of if I've told you before or not. More important than where I come from, though, is who I come from - I am proud as all get out of my family and the values that they have passed down from generation to generation that make me who I am. The majority of my jewelry is heirloom, passed down from my mom and grandma, and I love that it reminds me of the great women who wore it before me and the loving men that gifted it to them.

3. My bookshelf: not to brag, but it's pretty ballin'. I take tons and tons of pictures of my various books/bookshelves, trying (usually failing) to be artsy and cool and Madi. A girl can dream.

2. My babies: I got the mom gene pretty hard. (Not to be confused with mom jeans. I try to stay away from those.) I like to take care of people, then I get really proud of them when they turn out AWESOME under my tutelage. The kids I led in small groups at church, my confirmation kiddos, my 6th 7th grade girls (they grow up so fast!), my EL babies; they all make me so proud that I want to burst and tell everyone "I know them! I know them!"

1. This here little blag: starting off, I never imagined anyone other than my parents and grandparents (and probably the mahjong ladies) would read my incoherent thoughts. Then I came to a technical institute and my incoherent thoughts became more than just a hobby, they became a necessity. I'm proud to have retained this appreciation of words and the freedom of language at a stage in my life where accuracy and numbers and computers and formulas and proficiency are considered "the most important thing".

0. My God: I belong to Him? *brushes shoulders off*

What are you proud of?

Friday Five

Five Nicknames That I Have/Have Had/Wanted Desperately

5. Maaawwrry: although this version of my name has really only caught on while I've been in college, it all started with Trish/Trishtopher/Stingray, my tenth grade English teacher. My friend and I would pay her daily sneak attack visits of jumping in her classroom and yelling "Herrrooo!" and leaving again as quickly as possible. She always responded with a "Herro, Mawwrry".

4. Molly-           : a grouping of several. My sixth grade science teacher called me Molly-Jo, seventh grade reading teacher called me Molly-Dogg, my roommate calls me Molly-Pants, and my mom calls me Molly-Girl and Molly-Mol on occasion. I'm also including the crowd pleasing Mollz-Ballz here, coined by Jilly-Bean and adopted by Ker-Bear.

3. Miss Molly: this is what kiddos at church call me when I'm rocking out as preschool music teacher at Vacation Bible School or child wrangler extraordinaire at Sizzlin' Summer Missions. Thanks in large part to Little Richard, lots of other people call me this as well.

2. E: this is one that I really wanted to catch on. My initials are MCC, or, in other terms, MC^2, which makes me E according to Einstein's mass-energy equivalence. It really only got so far as one person ever calling me E - my kindred Physics-loving spirit during high school - and in retrospect I'm thinking that might have been for the best.

1. Pooh Bear/Molly Pooh Bear/Molly Pooh: my grandpa has called me Pooh Bear for as long as I can remember. There isn't a real story behind it, but who ever said that nicknames need a reason?

What names have you been nicked?

Friday Five

Five Things That Are Perpetually on My To-Do List.

5. Figure out what nuclear engineers actually do: yes, those exact words are on several of my to-do lists, starting two years ago. I mean, I get the gist, and I understand the science behind it all, I just don't know what nuclear engineers actually do. Ya dig?

4. Check on that due date: I feel like I'm always telling myself and others that I need to check T-Square to figure out the due dates of homework/quizzes/tests/whatnot. I usually do check then forget again 5 seconds later. So maybe this should be written on my lists as "record that due date on a calendar" from now on.

3. Go to the Wal-Mart: no matter what, no matter when, no matter how recently I've been, I always seem to need to go to the Wal-Mart to pick up a few things. Given, part of this is because I just really like the Wal-Mart. Aisles are therapeutic, y'all.

2. Get in touch with So-and-So: there is a never ending queue of people that I either want or need to drop a line, be it letters, email, phone call, whatevs. Summer in a different country with no cell phone was not friendly to my communication habits.

1. Watch/read/listen to                   : why must there be so many tempting movies, shows, books, magazines, blogs, albums, concerts? I want to see/hear ALL the things.

Friday Five

Five of My Very Favorite Restaurant Meals Ever.

5. The Child's Enchilada Plate, Gilbert's El Charro, Tyler, TX: I get this every time I go to El Charro. It's chili con carne smothered comfort food. I've had enchiladas many places, but nothing quite compares to El Charro Tex-Mex quality.

4. Some duck, some restaurant, Philadelphia, PA: during my college search, my parents and I found ourselves in Philadelphia late at night and very hungry. We went to some restaurant that I think might have been a tapas bar and included the word "spoon" in the name. I don't remember. What I do remember is the dish I ordered. It was duck breast in a cherry glaze. It was goooood, it was my first duck, and it is responsible for my lasting duck obsession.

3. Pancakes, Lighthouse Diner (I think), Sausalito, CA: my grandparents took me to San Francisco for my 13th birthday, and one of our mornings was spent on the island of Sausalito. These pancakes were probably 2 times bigger than my face. I know we had much fancier and probably even much better food (Julius Castle, Mama's french toast!), but for some reason those huge pancakes define that trip for me.

2. Pancakes, Esperanza's Bakery, Fort Worth, TX: it's sort of weird for me to put pancakes on here twice, but these were some good pancakes. We went to Esperanza's on a family trip to the Stockyards - as in, whole family. Aunts, uncles, cousins, the whole shebang. So in addition to being delicious and having syrup cooked into the batter, these pancakes remind me of doing fun stuff with my family.

1. Fried Green Tomato Po'boy, Crabby Jacks, New Orleans, LA: ohmygoodness I got this sandwich with the tomatoes coming straight out of the fryer. It was unbelievably tasty. I ate here with my work site on a youth mission trip, so more good memories associated with the food.

Ok, I have way more favorite restaurant meals because I am an eater. These are just the first ones to pop into my head at the moment. Isn't it neat how meals carry so many memories?

Friday Five

Five Things Without Which I Could Not Survive the First Week of Class.

5. Pilot G2 07's in every color and Black Pilot Precise V5's: I write my notes in pen, no pencils. (Except for math classes but those are OVER!) Without these pens I would have no notes, because I am one of those people who will write on looseleaf and recopy everything before writing in the same notebook with a different pen.

4. iPhone: so I can check email and Twitter without having to go through the arduous task of opening a laptop. Really, though, it's extremely convenient to have everything I need at my fingertips. I'm also one of those people who has to have closure with any and every question, so I look up a lot of random stuff on the interwebz to either prove points or satisfy general curiosity. And wouldn't you know it, this thing even calls people!

3. Tea: I drink it caffeinated in the morning to wake up and herbal at night to wind down. My quality of life is significantly better when tea is involved.

2. Chacos: worn 4 out of 5 days this first week. How else am I expected to truck across campus comfortably AND stylishly?

1. Wristwatch: call me old-fashioned, but I just love wearing my watch(es). I know I can check the time on my phone, but I much prefer using a watch. These handy tickers keep my world running on time.

Friday Five

Five Reasons Why              is One Of My Very Favorite TV Shows.
Tonight, Friday Night Lights is my blank. Here's why:

5. Texas Football. What else are Friday nights for? Except, there's no Whataburger in Dillon, which I find hard to believe. And not one person orders a Blizzard or Steak Fingers at the Alamo Freeze, which I also find hard to believe.

4. It's kinda like high school. And by kinda like high school I mean it's a lot like high school. I started the series my first year of college and being a lot like high school, it comforted me.

3. The theme song is by Explosions in the Sky.

2. Coach Taylor and Tami T Taylor have the loveliest, most realistic marriage on television. No sleeping around, no googly-eyed honeymooning, just two honest people with an honest relationship.

1. Tim Riggins.

Clear eyes, full heart, can't lose. (I might or might not write this on a very visible surface during every finals week...)

By the way, Kerry is awesome and has fabulous taste. Check out her Friday Fives!

By the other way, this is the inaugural blog post for MY NEW COMPUTER. Mucho excitement over here. The roof is being raised just a tad.

By yet another way, the Olympics rock. Just sayin.

Friday Five

Five Literary Characters That I Think I Could Actually Be Friends With.
Let's be honest, there are some characters that I'd definitely love to be friends with that probably wouldn't give me the time of day. There are also some characters that I would hate to be friends with. There are also characters like Aslan that don't need to be mentioned because WHO DOESN'T WANT TO BE FRIENDS WITH ASLAN?

*this was hard. there are lots of characters that I really want to be friends with. these are in no particular order. also, it's weird trying to defend why you would want to be friends with someone...

5. Fitzwilliam Darcy, Pride and Prejudice. Sort of bad at making first impressions, mildly socially inept, but a great friend once made? Sounds strikingly like the Picnic Club. Really, though, Mr. Darcy is probably the Pride and Prejudice character that I feel I relate to most. Please appreciate this major breakthrough on my part, since every girl in the world wants to be Elizabeth Bennet (or at least they should) and it takes a lot to accept that one might not exactly be Lizzy material.

4. Dagny Taggart, Atlas Shrugged. Dagny takes care of business. I feel like she would be the friend that I would automatically lock eyes with when group work was announced because I would know that she'd leave me alone to do my part and that I could trust her to do her part. Then we would finish the project before everyone else and use the extra time to talk about stuff and solve the world's problems. In pencil skirts. Very stylishly without being stylish.

3. Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter. I feel like this would be one of those opposite enough to be entertaining but alike enough to work out friendships. Ginny seems to be braver and brassier than I am, especially in the later books, but she's smart and collected about it. As much as I'd love to be friends with book Hermione, she would get on my nerves. And book Harry is too busy being angsty and killing Voldemort and whatnot to make and retain many new friends. Ginny, though, we would click.

2. Rosie Cotton, The Lord of the Rings. Rosie Cotton is the hobbit that Sam ends up marrying at the end of the adventure. Despite dreams of being a graceful warrior elf or a crazy awesome Nazgul slayer woman, I think my disposition is rather more suited towards being a hobbit. Rosie and I could dance with ribbons in our hair, eat second breakfasts, and drink tea while our husband hobbits tilled the yard and tended the garden.

1. Scout Finch, To Kill a Mockingbird. Let's face it, I was a prime candidate for bossing around. You could call it "easygoing" or "reserved" or "a sweet child", but it all boils down to being really good at having people tell you what to do. I was that girl, and Scout would be a perfect boss. We would be friends because we're both smart, but I would be decidedly less interesting and Scout would convince me take part in antics that I would never do on my own.

0. Vicky Austin, A Ring of Endless Light. Sorry, I had to include one more. Ahem, "Vicky shares a similar personality to Madeleine L'Engle. Both share a passion for literature and poetry, and use writing to express their ideas as well as their emotions. In addition, both struggle with the problem of evil, but ultimately believe in the existence of a loving God" (Wikipedia). Plus she can talk to dolphins. I think it would work out quite well.

Friday Five

5 Words/Phrases that are Probably Overused in my Vocabulary
(These are the things that I think I say the most, which very well could or could not be the things I say the most. Feel free to inform me of my limited perception.)

5. "No problem" and "true dat". They're my go-to's, no matter what the occasion. "Thank you", "excuse me", "do you mind...","can I...", it all gets answered with "no problem". Or, if you're really lucky, "no prob, man". When I have nothing else to say, or when I want to express agreement, I throw out a "true dat".
4. Referring to myself as "sista". As in, "Sista needs a new pair of pants", or "sista's gotta watch her figure". It makes me seem like I take myself less seriously. Soooo nonchalant.
3. Anything from Sweet Brown.
2. Since being in France, "Oui.", a la Cardinal Richelieu.
1. Y'all, all y'all, y'all's, y'all're.

I'd love to hear yours!

(Another thing that crops up quite often is, "Oh....I was quoting something" - because I'm usually always quoting something and it usually always doesn't get picked up. My life is one long ride on the struggle bus, y'all.)

Friday Five

Since it's Friday, and since I'm feeling particularly blaggy, I am going to perform an experiment. Here's the deal: every Friday from here until eternity*, I will list five things about myself that pertain to a certain topic. Here's the catch: it's interactive. I'm counting on y'all to holla atcha girl with five things about yourself that pertain to the same topic, in whatever manner pleases you. Send an email, leave a comment, write a letter, keep a diary to bequeath to me on your deathbed, use the Force, start a blog, the possibilities are endless. Here are the rules: be honest and don't call this a "linky party", because that name is entirely too silly. But if you do choose to respond on your own blog, give me a shoutout so that your parents massive readership will know that I have insane topic making up abilities.
*or until I forget or something.

Why all of this? Because as I'm reading War and Peace, I'm wistfully longing for the days where people would go to each others houses to talk as evening entertainment, instead of liking each others' pictures and calling it interaction. In lieu of an awesome house in St. Petersburg where we could all feast and converse, I have this blag. I do what I can. So to kick things off, here are 5 Things I Vowed I Would Never Like But Ended Up Really Liking Anyway (I warned you about my topic making up abilities).

5. Coffee. It used to be so gross. The only hot drink I used to touch was hot chocolate. Then I went through a phase when I believed that drinking tea, breakfasting on jam and English muffins, and reading Jane Austen would make me British. It didn't, but it made me the second best thing - a tea snob, and I only drank black tea. Then someone introduced me to a magical land called Starbucks, where coffee tastes like chocolate milkshakes. Milkshakes turned to mochas, mochas turned to lattes, lattes turned to milk and sugar, milk and sugar turned to black. And there you have it. Now it's hard to go a day not drinking a cup. or two or three.

4. Wuthering Heights. I read this book as a ninth grader, then made paper dolls of the characters for an English project. I thought it was the biggest waste of my young life. I could have been reading something about dragons or Pride and Prejudice for the sixth time, but I was stuck with mopey Cathy and Heathcliff instead. Then I had to read it again senior year, and it was kind of beautiful.

3. Pinterest. I hate to be that girl, but I did have a Pinterest account before it was cool. No one else had one, though, and I kept looking up pictures of Anastasia instead of studying for my AP tests, so I deleted it. Then EVERYONE had a Pinterest. So I requested another invitation, but Pinterest was not about to let me back into their elite society (which kind of hurt my feelings, Pinterest). So I decided to dislike them out of spite for two or three years. But I caved in a couple of hours ago and it's pretty awesome......

2. Black Licorice. There are always bowls of black jellybeans sitting around our house at Eastertime. Mainly because I eat all the red ones out first, then go for the pink ones when the red have run out, then maybe a white or a green if those have both gone and I'm desperate for a sugar fix. But never the black because they were gross. Then a few weeks ago, I could not resist these candies I saw in Strasbourg. The profile of a Cherokee chief caught my eye. The bin was labelled Melting Pot Ancient Cultures. There was also a stereotypical Chinaman. But they were black licorice. Turns out, my racial insensitivities beat out my tastebuds and I bought a scoopful. And it was delicious. I am now a black licorice addict.

1. Skiing. My parents and grandparents, as well as a few million ski instructors, can attest to the fact that I stubbornly disliked snow skiing for about 3/4 of my life. I hated the cold toes, being dropped off with a stranger from Australia for the whole day, having to ski in the back of the line and yell "wipe-out" when someone fell but not being loud enough to be heard, sharing communal chapstick, etc. Then one year I realized that my parents were going to continue to take me skiing whether I enjoyed or not, so I decided to enjoy it. Best. Decision. Ever.

And you?