Living La Vida [Nilla]

You know, I've had that song title post in my mind for a while. I was just waiting for the opportunity to use it. And, it seems the opportunity has arisen. I find it ironic that I ended up having two Spanish blog post titles back to back mere months before I (most likely) will find myself jetting off to a Spanish-speaking country. Life is interesante, no? And my apologies for the fact that that song will remain in your head now. But hey, since it's going to remain in mine for the day, I thought I would share the experience with you.

So, since I remembered to bring my camera with me, I figured I'd upload my photos from the weekend and give you a play-by-play of the Nilla life when it's not so vanilla :).



Doesn't that look yummy? I'll just go ahead and tell you that it is. The recipe actually calls for toffee bits instead of butterfingers, but as I couldn't find ANY toffee bits or any toffee-like candy in either Wal-Mart or WinnDixie, I consulted with April over the phone and we decided Butterfingers would be delicious. And they were.

Okay, so on Friday, I got off work at 11:30 (and let's just say I am basking in my last few weeks of having this opportunity), and I ran by the passport office, as I indicated yesterday. So that's in the works and I'm glad. Oh, and it only cost me $100. (Only?!?). Just FYI -- if you go through like a travel agent to get your passport, they will charge you a significantly higher price. It's much more worth your while financially to find the nearest not-for-profit place (in my case it was the county courthouse) and you can do so by looking at the immigration website for the government. Just wanted to help you out with that info :). I went to Institute after that and we ate pizza. We had a lively conversation about books. Right up my alley. I left there at 3:00 and got a shower and got ready to head to the Temple. I picked up Virginia and we stopped to get gas on the way. Good grief... $3.45 a gallon, and that's the cheapest I have found lately. On an up-note, since I was very thirsty, Virginia and I went into the gas station and bought some drinks (I never buy convenience store food anymore -- it's expensive) and they had mint M&Ms! They are special for the upcoming Indiana Jones movie. And they are very minty. So obviously you see that we bought some. I worked at the office until 10 and then we drove home. However, I was sooo hungry. And so was Virginia. So, we pulled off the interstate in Bessemer and got some Sonic. I have to say those were the best pieces of popcorn chicken ever (due to my hunger). And I also have to say that that was the crappiest Butterfinger Sonic blast ever. We got totally jipped on the butterfinger.

Saturday, I woke up and started cleaning and de-cluttering my room. Okay, so I'm going to make a confession... I only sleep on one half of my queen-sized bed (although I could use the whole thing, I just don't -- I'm imaginarily confined to "my side" of the bed. One must not pass the 5th parallel, or whatever marks the mid-point of your bed). So, I use the other side for storage... You know, it stores my scriptures and any other book I happen to be reading. So anyway, I had a lot of junk mail to shred and all that. I think it should be illegal to get junk mail. It really irritates me to have to go through it all and shred 50 million credit card offers. Anyway, I talked to my mom that morning, got my sheets in the washer, ate the last of my Fruity Pebbles... Then I went to Wal-Mart and got groceries. And since they didn't have toffee bits, I went to WinnDixie in hopes of finding some there. And then I decided to get butterfingers instead. So I was headed home and starting to put the white bean chili into the crock pot. Well, it calls for vegetable broth. I had very carefully scanned the Wal-Mart shelves for veggie broth. The ONLY veggie broth at Wal-Mart was a box of organic veggie broth by Swanson. $2.72. Sigh... Ordinarily, I would have just substituted chicken broth (which is 50 cents for the Wal-Mart brand), but April is a vegetarian... So, I bought the organic stuff. Or at least I thought I did. Sitting on the shelf next to the organic veggie broth was the "Free range" chicken broth. Turns out I grabbed that in lieu of the veggie broth. And I didn't notice it until after I got home and was about to put the requisite 1 cup of broth into the crock pot. Arg. So, back into the car and back to WinnDixie. Who, I might add, had a significantly cheaper can of Swanson veggie broth... If only I'd have realized I'd be going to WinnDixie, I wouldn't have even bothered with the broth at Wal-Mart... What an adventure. Once that was going, Stefanie helped me bake the cake for the trifle. I also had to cook the pudding for the trifle. I'm not sure why I couldn't use instant, but the recipe said "NOT INSTANT," so I obeyed. I don't know if I will obey in the future, though... I spent the rest of the afternoon continuing my cleaning spree by cleaning my car (and breaking a nail in the process) and raking up a lot of hair from my rug in my bedroom. Ick. I could have made my own hair doll. I have lost a lot of hair. Meanwhile, April was on her way from Jacksonville (where she had been baby-sitting her nephew for the day), and when she was about 30 miles away, her check engine light came on. So, she pulled off to find out what was wrong. Turns out it was the O2 sensor. Why do they even put these in cars? Everyone's seems to go out, but the car still runs. What is its purpose? So, I got a shower and April got there a little after 6:00. We headed over to take pictures with Bear Bryant before it got too dark. It's just something you have to do... take pictures with the statue. It's a landmark. (And I shared that with my class last night during my power point presentation). April wasn't sure where graduation was to take place, so I drove her over to where that will be so she'd know. And on the way, we stopped by where I used to live. It certainly looks different... It's been leveled! My apartment no longer even exists. It's kind of sad, really. Then we traipsed to the library to take pictures on the big steps, because we figure we should have pictures in front of the library, seeing as we ARE future librarians and all that. I'm thinkig the future of libraries is scary... (Just kidding). We started to leave, and I made a comment about how some of these trees on campus are "tree-climbing trees." Well, that resulted in us having to climb the trees. And Elka -- flip flops get all wonky when you're trying to climb a tree. They are a hazard and can fall off at any second. Might as well just go barefoot and lose the possible distraction :). But, then it's painful on my poor tootsies. Lesson learned. I will likely try to climb a tree again in the future though. Monkeys climb trees, you know... So I'd better do that. We stopped by Publix (after a seriously huge let-down that I couldn't climb the second even cooler "tree-climbing tree") because, surprise surprise, I forgot to buy yeast for the cinnamon rolls. Look, if it's not on my list, it's not going to be remembered. Not even if I mentioned it out loud to Stefanie that morning that I needed to get some. Arg. Then it was on to the house... Where we satiated our now monumental hunger with white bean chili and corn muffins and Dr Pepper (I learned last night that there isn't supposed to be a period after Dr). Honestly, wasn't that impressed with the white bean chili. It was too sweet -- probably due to the sweet corn. But, it was food. Then it was time for me to wash the dishes and prepare the dough for cinnamon rolls. Which I did. And while it was rising in the oven, we broke out Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture edition. We soon discovered that using the accompanying DVD was lame. So, we stopped that. I was the Atari joystick, Courtney was the lava lamp, and April was the cool mix tape that had "makeout tunes" on one side (you can see it in the picture of her holding up her winning piece). The makers of Trivial Pursuit think of all the small details... We made the cinnamon rolls (well, except for the baking part) and then returned to our stimulating activity of learning trivia. I still can't believe I didn't win! I was the first one with all my pies, and I made it into the hub on the first try. But, as I can't answer a sports question to save my life... Finally, we decided that there would be no sports questions in the middle. Nobody would have won if we had... So, since you have to leave the hub and re-enter it exactly each time you miss the question, April ended up getting back in there and knowing the answer to the yellow question for the win. Darn! But it was close. Oh yeah, and we did stop at one point to dish up some delicious heaps of trifle. And it was soooo good. By this time, it was 1 in the morning and it was past time to go to bed. So, we retired to our beds and slept the night away.

On Sunday, I woke up at 7:30 to set the cinnamon rolls out to warm up, plus I pre-heated the oven. Then at 8, I popped them in and they were ready by 8:30, which is when I went and woke up April and Courtney. So, the rolls were fabulously delicious and warm and gooey. And yum. At 9:30, I headed to church and April and Courtney left. Turned out April was going to meet with her group mates our crazy class at 11:00, so it was a good thing she was here, since she's the only one who doesn't live locally. After church, I headed home and got a shower and got ready to go to a wedding with Heath, who was a groomsman in the wedding. It was outside of Birmingham, so I got there in good time and the wedding was nice. It threatened to rain, but it didn't end up raining, which was probably good, since it was an outside wedding. The rain waited until it was time to drive home, and then it fell torrentially. So lovely. But, the rain did bring the cooler weather again, which is good, since Stefanie and I finally caved and turned o the a/c on Saturday. It's the humidity, I'm telling you. That's what makes it feel so hot and icky! I got home and talked to my mom on the phone and talked to Stefanie as well, and so I ended up not going to sleep until after 1 in the morning.

So there you have it... That's what it sometimes looks like to "Live la vida Nilla."

*And Julie has guessed the movie quote!*