Memorial Day

To most Americans, Memorial Day is a three day weekend spent with family and friends, but most of us forget why there is a three day weekend and even fewer forget to actually give thanks, and I'm not just talking about on Facebook or Twitter. Memorial Day is dedicated to the men and women who served the United States and paid the ultimate sacrifice, their lives for our freedoms. Memorial Day, always on the last Monday of May goes back to the end of the Civil War in 1865. Traditionally it was held on the 30th of May, but in 1971 Congress changed it to the last Monday in order to afford a three day holiday weekend. 

Some people attend a parade where veterans from wars past walk holding the flag up high, others go camping with family and friends in their own tradition, some might grill food and have a party in their yard, while my family typically goes boating.


Whatever you do today, if it is one of the things listed above or if you celebrate in a different fashion, please make sure you thank current servicemen and women and veterans and take time to remember the servicemen that couldn't be here today that have ensured your freedoms with their deaths. 

Books

It is probably no surprise to any of you (especially when you notice the background I have picked out) that I like books. Actually, that's a lie. I LOVE books. It wasn't always this way though. When I was in elementary school and even middle school I hated to read. I had a speech problem and reading in class was a pain. In high school one of our assignments was a book report on any book in the library. I like horror and mystery so I thought I'd give Stephen King a try as I heard he wrote some dark stuff. The book was The Eyes of the Dragon. 

It was brilliant. I couldn't put it down. It was the first book that I actually enjoyed reading. I started reading other works by him, such as Cell, Christine, Under the Dome and (my personal favorite so far) IT. While I love how he develops his characters and their interactions between them and throws them into the action then explains it, I knew that he will only write a limited number of books. So last year I started branching out. I've read The Woman in Black by Susan Hill, The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson and some various short stories by the one and only H.P. Lovecraft. I now have over 70 books (still need to read quite a few actually) but I can't wait to get to them all. To step inside the world. To meet the characters, some of which will become my friends and a little piece of me. 
With all of these books on my shelf waiting to be read, you would think that I would not go out to buy more books. Well that is where you are wrong. Yesterday I went to a store called Half Price Books where you can buy a book for roughly half of what it would be new. I told my boyfriend (Mason) that I was going and that I was going to limit myself to 6 books (I tend to get carried away at times ~ I'm the one typically sitting on the floor in the middle of an isle with a stack of books by my side as I forgot to get a basket reading random pages from the book currently in my hand). Well 6 books was too many for him so he made me a deal. If I only bought 4 books, then next time we were together he would buy me one.
At the store, I instantly went to the horror section and found Stephen King's On Writing which I grabbed off the shelf as I was looking for that one for a while. Then I found his Danse Macabre. I read the back cover and it sounded like a good gross-out book. That made two so far. Now going back to the above, I am trying to branch out on who I read, so I found Glen Duncan's Death of an Ordinary Man (the author of I, Lucifer which I am currently reading and is hilarious) and Pete Hamill's Forever.

So I stuck to my promise and only bought those 4 books (for $20 ~ AWESOME!) then made plans to go over to Mason's house last night where I met his parents and sister. After slight awkward hellos, and nice to meet yous, we escaped and took a walk to a Half Price Books about 2 miles from his house (that would be very dangerous for me because I would visit weekly). We made our way to the horror section and was looking at books when one called to me, The Incredible Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson which is now all mine (Thanks Mason!). 

Long story short, I love books and love this new deal. 

Choo-Choo

As you may have guessed from the title, today is National Train Day ~ a personal favorite of mine. It all started back in 1869. The Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads were reaching the far corners of America yet they weren't connected, that is until the tracks that were laid became the first Transcontinental rail line. Once this was completed, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans would be connected through the metal rail. The place they met was none other than Promontory Summit, Utah and a golden spike was driven into the final connection of the two tracks, making it one. The Continental Rail Line was 1,776 miles long and cities and towns soon spread with the rail way system helping create the America we know and love today. 

So here are a few ways you can celebrate today: play with your own model trains,

go for a train ride, or join a train club. You could even go around wearing a conductors cap (like the one I got my dad for his birthday last year).

Main thing is, go out and enjoy and be thankful for trains. 

Random Guitar

Yesterday Christina, my sister, came in from having lunch outside because it was a beautiful day. She came up to me and said there was a guitar by the garbage room. I didn't believe her and thought it was a lame attempt to get me to take the garbage out (and it worked). I threw the garbage out and sure enough, there was a guitar sitting there. It was a decent condition, missing a string but no big deal (and majorly out of tune) but otherwise really good. 

Only thing was, it was kind of boring looking (I prefer electric guitar but that's just me). So what do I do, I grab a permanent marker and go to town on it. First I drew the Aerosmith logo

Then I added Led Zeppelin (with each band member's logo)

And pretty soon the guitar was getting covered in band logos.

100 points to who ever can name all of the bands on here. (remember, the points don't matter, just like having an umbrella in a tsunami)

National Pretzel Day (recipe included)

Yesterday, April 26th, is National Pretzel Day. It is a day that celebrates all shapes (from traditional pretzel shapes, to sticks, to squares and more) and sizes. As it was National Pretzel Day and I love making bread and bread type things, I decided to make pretzels with Mason. First I had to find a recipe, then after I found a great looking one I checked to make sure we had all the ingredients and sure enough we didn't. After a short walk to the nearest grocery store, we got started and roughly 30 minutes later had these glorious pretzels.

Did you know that pretzels are believed to be the world's oldest snack dating back to 610AD in Southern France? Monks apparently baked this strips of dough into the shape of a child's arms folded in prayer (what is now the 'traditional' pretzel shape) and added a little salt and the pretzel industry was born. 

The recipe I used is: 1 pkg. dry yeas; 1 1/2 c luke warm water (hot tap water); 3/4tsp table salt; 1/2 tsp sugar; 4 c flour; 1 egg beaten; course salt. Mix water and yeast in large bowl and let the yeast do it's thing for a few minutes (don't touch after stirring!). Then add table salt and sugar and stir in flour a cup at a time. Once all (minus a half cup of flour) is mixed in, put the half cup of flour on smooth surface and knead the dough with your hands (note, if you put flour on your hands, it will clean off easier). When all flour is kneaded in and dough is a smooth consistency, cut the dough into small pieces and shape into whatever shape you desire. Place on either foil lined dusted with flour cookie sheet or greased cookie sheet (both work great). Brush each with beaten egg and sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake at 400*F for 15 minutes (you'll want to watch them if you make smaller pretzels to make sure they won't burn). Either eat warm with a beer and company (which is what I would recommend) or let cool for later. Dipping in mustard or jam is really good too!

Enjoy!

I can.

I've been working out and losing weight for a while. I walked with my mom picking up trash on our street (a total of 3 miles per walk) and then started walking more. 2 years ago I took a self-defense course here at University Wisconsin-Milwaukee and I loved it. The punching and kicking was fun and a great stress re-leaver  for me. Last summer I trained with my mom for our half marathon that we did in August. This whole school year I've been taking kick boxing classes at school, which like the self-defense course, was fun, a great stress re-leaver and has built up my muscles. Along with kick boxing I sometimes go for a jog or walk in preparation for my mom's and my marathon in (yikes) roughly 75 days. But it's not just about the distance (26.2 miles!) but also the strength because in August my mom and I are enrolled in the Dirty Girl Mud Run (a 3 mile course with 11 obstacles) and in September a Tough Mudder (10-12 mile course with 26 obstacles). With all of this working out, and shrinking in jean size (now down to a size 10!), I still didn't see what others were seeing, that is until I looked at old pictures. 
Here I am (tye-dye shirt) in 2008 (I pushed my friend's pudding into her face, so much fun):

Now here I was a month ago on the cruise celebrating my mom's 50th and my 22nd birthday (the one in the pool): 

I never would have allowed a picture of me in a swim suit - much less a bikini - be on the internet. But now I feel great and am much more confident. 

I've already lost 45 pounds.

 

Stress

Stress, defined by dictionary.com, is the physical pressure, pull or other force exerted on one thing by another; strain. I am definitely stressing right now. Let me explain.
I have several countdowns on my computer so I know how many days are left until a particular event. One of these countdowns is to Graduation as I graduate from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 37 days on May 20th so a little over a month. Seems like a lot of time, but now when you have so much going on. First of all, there is no break in homework. Readings for classes are getting longer, having to watch movies in order to respond to them in German seem to never end and the homework in general is piling up. Second is finals. I have one 'traditional' final this year for one of my criminal justice classes. By that I mean, go to class after studying, sit down, and take the final in class and then forget about it until grades are posted. In my other classes, I have one exam on the 24th of April which I can't really study for as it is just transliterating the text that he will give us in class. For that class I also have a presentation that I need to work on and a paper which together is 50% of the grade and is considered the final. For my online German class I have another presentation and a final paper (all in German) that together consists of 30% of my grade (which I'm not doing too hot in that class at the moment). My other criminal justice class I am actually looking forward to the final (how weird does that sound?). That final is basically a 20 page paper on 5 of the countries we studied talking about their criminal justice systems and how they differ from US's system and what I like about them. I might actually have more than 20 pages for that. Third thing that is getting at me is work. I don't have to prepare for work or anything like that, it is just that work hours always pick up at the end of the semester and the amount of homework one can complete during work is very little. To top it all off, I still need to finish applying for Grad School for Fall. Basically meaning that I need to remind the people that are writing my references to do so and take this MAT test which is an hour long test on next Wednesday (which I probably should study for). 
Then there are the few things in this next month that will make my stress decrease. One is kick boxing. It is 3 hours a week where I concentrate on nothing else but punching and kicking the pads and not worrying about anything else. Then there is family and friends. Whether it is calling someone up on the phone, to playing Gears or watching a movie, it all helps relax me (only if I finished stuff due in the near future). 
With all that being said, I should probably go do some more homework and hopefully not go crazy. 
37 days and counting down!