Cocky's Quest!

Friday night, USC hosted a campus-wide scavenger hunt.

My friends and I decided it would be cool to at least see what it's about.

Can I just say? One of the best things I've ever done on campus.

We got to the starting point a little late, just in time to get stampeded by hundreds of freshmen, full speed, making it clear their wish to, "Win this thang."

We were given two papers to lead us on the hunt - one page listed items we were were to bring back with us, and one page listed things we were to take pictures of. Each picture had to somehow have our mascot Cocky in it, and every item on the list was worth points. So the first group to get the most points wins.

People will do some crazy stuff to win.

And by people, I mean me and my friends.

We stopped countless people on the streets asking if they had "any of the following items: an unopened toothbrush, three 1987 pennies, a calender magnet..."

Then of course got looked at like we were retarded.

At one point I found myself chasing after a car as it pulled away from a stop sign, shouting "WAIT!! You can't go! I need a picture of your license plate!!"

And I bet you're wondering what this picture is all about.

If not, I'm explaining it anyway.

This item was listed as American Gothic. So we built a pitchfork out of newspaper, and my friends posed as the old lady and man in American Gothic (with cocky).

Some of the things we had to search through campus and take pictures of Greek letters, somebody in a cast, somebody walking their dog, old time pencil sharpener, a license plate from a state that starts with "N," etc.

We had to bring back items such as purple socks, an Italian-American Dictionary, a 10 of diamonds, a TeaPot menu, candy corn, sombrero's, etc.

So needless to say, we were calling everyone we knew who lived on campus and raiding their dorms for these items.

Unfortunately, I didn't think about filming it until halfway through. But we were able to document this half:

Amurrica, you're stressin' me out.

Do you ever feel like you just need to escape?

From school, from work, from stress, from friends, from family, from your country, from your life?

I do.

I need to escape right now. In fact, I needed to escape last night.

You know how right before you fall asleep, you think about everything, and sometimes you can come up with crazy ideas of how everything is going to get better?

No?

That's just me?

For example:

If things are going good, just before falling asleep I think about how great my life is, and I come up with "great ideas" of what other good situations can come my way.

If things are going bad, just before falling asleep I come up with this "great idea" of how to make it better. Only to wake up in the morning and

A) not remember, or

B) realize how out of reach and crazy it is.

Well, last night before going to bed I was having a major crisis. I just kept thinking about my rent, gas prices, my previous employment, my semester wasted because I changed my major, my current inability to get a job causing my inability to commit to a future apartment, etc.

It literally makes me sick to my stomach. They say, "You live, you learn," and expect that to make it all okay.

Yes, I've learned a lot. But I can't help but wish I were able to say, "You learn, you live."

So, amid my 1 a.m. crisis, I violently chewed out America and the crashing economy. I rhetorically asked the people, "You raise the gas prices! You won't employ me! JUST HOW, America, am I supposed to live?"

Obviously this was an ignorant statement. Don't holler at me. In anger we sometimes say things we don't mean.

So as I cursed America, I turned on my reggae music and let the memories of my past trips to Mexico and the islands flood my mind. I felt my heartbeat slow as I pictured my butt in a hammock, my fingers fondling the sand, and the palm tree breeze blowing through my pony tail. A picture a know all too well.

But suddenly the picture began to change, as it became something new to me; a picture I've never seen.

I hopped out of the hammock and jogged to the tiki hut. I grabbed a Coca-cola, poured it into a cup of ice and I handed to a cheery tourist. I directed him to the line of free fruits where other tourists stood. I smiled and waved to a happy native bringing me a coconut.

I talked to the tourist as if I ran the tiki hut; I talked to the native as if we were friends.

It was the perfect picture; a new picture. Something I've thought about and wished for, but nothing I've ever pictured. Nothing I've ever imagined as a possibility.

But last night, when America seemed too much for me, I pictured myself in the place I've always dreamed of being. Living the life I could never dare to live.

Planning is the most important part of goal setting. Management 101 baby.

So I planned.

I'm leaving for the Virgin Islands in April on a cruise. When I get off at a port, I plan to never board that cruise ship again. Just stay on the island with what I brought. Open a tiki hut on the beach, befriend the natives. If I can't find a place to live, I'll sleep on the dang hammock. I don't care.

Tasty Tuesday - Mimi's Chex Mix

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Alright guys! It's Tasty Tuesday!

err..

It was Tasty Tuesday..

YESTERDAY.

I guess that makes this a Weird Wednesday.

But it's never too late to share this recipe. This has been my absolute FAVORITE snack since I can remember. Mimi's Chex Mix

My first memory of this snack is when I was a toddler, sitting in the far back of the minivan scarfing these things down, crying my eyes out as we left my grandma's house.

Finally when I got old enough Mimi gave me the okay to not only learn, but share her recipe. My mom (the blogger that she is) documented every step of the way, making this blog post possible.

Throughout the years Mimi's changed a few things up;

pretzel sticks, cheese sticks, cheez-its, gold fish...

But no matter what you decide to put in it, there's a melted butter mixture that, when mixed with the proper amount of grandma's love, will always make this chex mix a delicious finger snack perfect for any get together.

Preheat the oven to 300.

Melt a pound of butter in med. size pot on the stove.

You can't go wrong with butter!

Butter.

get it?

Add 1/2 cup worshishtershire worsistashire worcestshire sauce. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently until the butter has melted.

Add 1 Tbsp each:
garlic
onion
celery salt

While the butter is melting, stir together 1/2 of your dry mix:

1/2 bag of each rice, wheat and corn Chex Mix

1/2 of a 9.25 oz. can of nuts or half cashews

1/2 bag of stick pretzels
1/2 bag of cheesy snacks (ie. Cheez-Its or Goldfish)

Mix these up thoroughly.

Mimi uses a large roasting pan to mix. And in fear of crushing the mix, she gently stirs with her bare hands.

I recommend washing first - just sayin'

Take 1/2 of your melted butter mixture and spread it over the Chex Mix, gently mixing it in evenly.

Now make the rest of your dry mix with the remaining Chex Mix, nuts and pretzels.

Pour the last 1/2 of the butter mixture on top. Stir it all in good.

The less dry mix you use, the tangier the flavor will be.

At this point the mix will be very gooey. It's OK to taste it! It's actually really good.

Spread the mix out on flat cookie pans in a flat layer, making sure none of the mix is lumped on top of each other. Put the pans in the oven and bake at 300, first on the top shelf for 15 minutes, then the bottom shelf for 15 minutes per pan.

Does it make a difference if there are lumps in the mix on the cookie pan?

Does it make a difference if you move the pan from top to bottom shelf?

YES. Because Mimi said so.

Remember, it's part love that makes them so good. If your not careful, the chex mix won't feel the love. Leaving you to not feel the love later.

When they're done in the oven, they're ready to eat!

I hope you enjoy this recipe and let me know what you think!

I also hope you continue sharing recipes with me through your own blog posts or through e-mail. I've thoroughly enjoyed reading your Tasty Tuesday recipe posts. And being that I don't cook, I only have so many of my own recipes to share, so I would love to share your recipes for Tasty Tuesdays!

PS. Don't cook with your cousin. He'll mess everything up and blame it on you.

I DON'T wanna marry someone if I don't have a job first!

This

is South Carolina

in February.

So I'm pretty sure you can understand where I've been for the last week.

It has been ridiculously wonderful feeling like late April for the past week.

I am so tan

(for it being February)
 

Can you believe we had snow just 2 months ago?
 

No, actually some cities near me in South Carolina got snow just 2 weeks ago!

It has been beautiful outside, in the low 70's. Tempting me to jump in the pool and get hyperthermia.
 

(if you'll notice everyone around the pool in the picture is staring at it and drooling.)

It's that get sick weather. If you don't get sick because of the inconsistent weather patterns, you might get sick because you jump in the pool in February. Or you might get sick because when it changes from 72 back to 48 you go into serious depression.

Anyway, I'm sorry for the lame-o posts. I LOVE YOU. Just remember that.

This post is just to keep you informed that I am still alive. I've also been spending a lot of time on youtube lately, taking notes from this 5 year old girl. She's smarter than most 20-30 year olds.
 

Self Help? I wish I could.

Have I ever complained about my apartment complex?

I'm sure I have. Well, maybe not since Spiders & Roaches & Flies, Oh My!

I think it's due time. Especially considering the crappy shuttle they provide to take me to and from campus. It always breaks down. And yesterday was one of those special days.

It broke down mid-day, leaving me to figure out on my own which rental bus was ours.

So today I get out of class just as the shuttle arrives.

As I approach the bus, I notice another bus in front of it that looks exactly the same. I'm 90% sure this bus is ours, so I hop on. When I get on, I recognize the guy in the back, so I'm confident this is my bus.

We're driving along when I realize we didn't turn on the street we are supposed to turn on.

What is this lady doing? I think to myself as I perk up and look around me.

haha this lady is new and she doesn't know where she's going.

I figured she would figure it out.

I go back to texting, and a couple minutes later peek my head up and look out the window. Uhhh.. this is not the way to my apartment.
 

I don't know where we are going, but we aint going home.

 

Yeah, wrong bus.

Anyway, I didn't let that wasted hour get me down. Instead, I skipped class and went to the library.

Yeah I went to the library.
 

I don't even read - Ironic? maybe. Hypocritical? I don't know.

I mean I have the shortest tension span ever. I want to read. I really do. I love literature and that's why I like to write. But I can't sit there for days at a time just reading. I just can't.

But I heard about this book called The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and I thought to myself, SELF, I gotta read it!

I mean, I just admitted to you my dream of being a quotoisseur. I want to be effective!!

And plus, it'd be nice to pick up a good habit for a change.

So I went to go pick up this book.
I haven't been to the library since I was little. So as I'm walking in I have all these flashbacks. I walked through the alley where Mom told me the homeless people pee. And sure enough, it still smelt like pee.

As I reached the escalators I had to stop myself before going down to the kids section. I'm pretty sure that's the only section I've ever been in. It's hard to break habit.

While I'm looking for this book, I start reading the titles around me. The Pocket Therapist, The Hidden Power of the Heart, Happy at Last, Why Are People So Crabby?

YES. These titles interest me. I have an unhealthy addiction to skimming through self help books. I don't know, maybe it's the idea that you can help yourself without admitting to others you have problems, or the deep, meaningful stories shared inside. Most of the (5) books I own are self help books, and even though I've never read through them entirely, I love getting ideas of how to help myself just by reading the table of contents.

Looking at books is like looking at appetizers. You read the title and it interests you, so you read the description and suddenly you have to have it.

So by the time I get to the book I came here for, I have four other books in my hand. FOUR books, that are due by March 9th.

Like I'm gonna read four books by March 9th.

I've always been this way. I would always go to the library, pick out a ton of books, and let them sit on my floor (or get lost) until Mom took them back to the library.
 

But this time I know I probably won't read the books; however, I look forward to skimming through them.

Tasty Tuesday!!

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Alright guys! It's Tasty Tuesday!

You know what that means!

wait, what am I thinking, no you don't.

I want to share with you my absolute favorite "snack recipes."

I know in the about me it says on this blog you'll only find a recipe for disaster. But these are so simple and easy that even I can make these treats without it ending in disaster.

So in return, I want you to share your absolute favorite treat recipes with me.

You can share your favorite recipe as your blog post and spread the Tasty Tuesday love. The Tasty Tuesday button will bring you right back to this post. Then you can leave a comment on my blog with your link and what recipe you are sharing so I can check it out.

If you don't have a blog, you can e-mail me your favorite recipe and I will post it on Tasty Tuesdays.

The very first treat I want to share is probably the easiest thing I know how to make. It's also one of the best tasting and low cost.

Pretzel Turtle Snacks

Ingredients:
Bag of round or square pretzels
Bag of Rolo candies
Bag of pecan halves
White chocolate squares or chips, melted with a little Crisco added in

Directions:
Place pretzels flat on a baking pan. Place one candy rolo on the middle of each pretzel. Bake 3-5 minutes at 300 degrees. Pull out of oven. Place pecan half on top of each snack and press down on hot Rolo. Rolo will melt into pretzel. Drizzle with melted white chocolate.

My mom taught me how to make these over Christmas. We made them for my siblings graduation party, for Christmas and for the New Years Eve Party, because they are just that good.

I was born this way, baby.

I've been doing a lot of "not thinking" in the last couple weeks.

Just to, you know, enjoy myself like a kid at Disney World.

Since then, I've:

changed my major

chewed out my roommate

made a couple more friends

become a volleyball coach

bought an amazing pair of boots

blogged less

and stayed very busy.

It has been great.

I recommend the empty mind to anyone.

"For the empty mind is the most open mind."

You know who said that, right?

Me.

yeahh I just wrote it. I didn't even know if it would make sense, but it does. SO, yeah, you can quote me on that.

You know, I have always wanted to be one of those people who are famous for their quotes. A quotoisseur, if you will.

Like Winston Churchill, or Bob Marley...

"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on."

- Sir Winston Churchill

I mean how clever is that?

He had to know the minute those words came out of his mouth that people would be quoting him for generations.

Unless...

no...

Do you think he pre-wrote his stuff?

Surely not.

That'd be like saying Bob Marley only said those things because he was high.

Now that's a predicament.

Who knows. Anyway, believe it or not I have had plenty of things to blog about lately.

Like how I have the personality type that cannot be defined, even by the professional development personality quiz.

"I am not a word, I am not a line, I am not a girl that can ever be defined." - Nicki Minaj

And how I find myself comparing my lifestyle to that of a caveman to make myself feel better.

And the best: the fact that I am assistant coaching a volleyball team of 13 year olds who thought I was joining their team, not coaching.

But since I'm "not thinking" about things, I haven't wanted to sit down and dwell on them.

But thanks to having followers, I feel the need to finish what I started.

I feel the need to continue writing. To continue sorting through my mind. To continue, not going crazy.

And to continue my journey to becoming a great quotoisseur.

To quote Nicki Minaj (again)

I came to win, to fight, to conquer, to thrive
I came to win, to survive, to prosper, to rise
to fly

Why So Serious?

"The unexamined life is not worth living."

Well sure, it's not worth living. But why not?

If a person is not open for others to question his or her thoughts and action, or lives in denial of the motivations that prompt his or her thoughts and action, then it is a waste of his or her life. Such a life is a superficial act, revealing nothing new, nothing unique. Such a life is not "real."

-Wiki

This is probably the biggest thing I have struggled with. I've tried so hard to be able to provide the answers when people question my life, to find my motivations, find reasons.

But is it possible that you can think too much?

I feel like I've spent so much time focused on the reasons for living, that I have lost track of living.

 

Everything has become a constant thought. I think before I speak, I think before I act, I think about what I have done, and I dissect every detail of my life trying to understand my motivations, trying not to hurt people.

Why does everything need an explanation right away?

It's like when you take someone to Disney World and they just keep asking, "Why are those people dressed as mice?"

"Why can't you just sit back and enjoy yourself?!"

What happened to the girl who said things just to make someone laugh? The girl who did things without thinking?

The girl who knew she had a purpose, and rather than trying to explain the purpose, she just lived out the purpose.

Somewhere along the way I stopped to examine my life, which is okay for a brief time, but at some point you've got to get going again. I forgot to pick things back up, I never stopped analyzing it.

I got so worried about living a "superficial act, revealing nothing new."

When I stopped to think, I over-thought. 
 

Suddenly I saw anger and confusion in peoples faces when I said off-the-cuff things. I saw myself as immature for doing things without thinking.

I became obsessed with pleasing others, answering questions correctly, doing the right thing; not just trying to live the best life, but trying to be the best at life.

Maybe it did become kind of a competition. I compared myself to others all the time. I'd look at where they are the best in life, and try my hardest to be more like them in that area. Because I want to be the best.

I just wish I could turn my thinker off, stop questioning things, stop comparing myself and just enjoy the wonderful life God has given me.