I'm on Twitter (And Other Things)

Heyoooo! This post's original title was "The Fall Bucket List." However, I joined Twitter yesterday so that takes precedence now. Yes, I caved. I used Twitter bug repellent for months and finally yesterday I forgot the ole spray can and the bug bit me. So now I tweet. Weird. Feel free to follow me: @gillyblythe.

Even though I tweet I still feel very out of touch with modern social media. I'm using Twitter on my iPhone and I don't understand what all the symbols/buttons mean. So I could be misusing the system and not even know it. Eh, ignorance is bliss.

So, onto the meat of this post - the "other things." This fall is shaping up to be uber busy. With the departure of Roomie K I felt the need to fill up my schedule so I'd be less likely to feel her loss (read: weep). Ergo, I decided to do three things that I hadn't done this summer. One, I decided to take Spanish. That's right! Soy estudiante de espanol. And I love it. Granted, I'm only in Level 1 and always forget to practice what I've learned so my progress isn't quite the same as The Little Engine That Could. However, I know some stuff now. And with any luck, I'll go on to the next level after wrapping this one up in a month.

Here's the scenario for Spanish. Three of my friends and I meet our tutor at 7pm on Monday nights at the local Barnes & Noble. We set up shop for two hours, learning everyday conversational Spanish, and go home to practice and do our homework. Last week I bought a children's book of Spanish words. It has pictures. It's helpful. Anyway, we found out tutor through this program called Spanish Blackbelt. It's solid. We're working on our white belt right now. Let's hope I pass the test.

The second thing I put on my schedule for this fall was musical. I am the sole violinist in the pit orchestra for Centreville Presbyterian Church's winter community theatre production of Les Miserables. We haven't started rehearsals yet, but we will soon and so I guess I should practice, errrrr....? That project will be keeping me busy this fall and winter. And boy do those show composers seem to hate musicians. Could you add more key signatures??? I mean really. It's ridiculous.

So, the third thing I chose to add to my list is semi-new. I mean, I've done it before, but... Okay, I'll start over. I decided to join a new church. So, in getting involved in the new church, I decided to join a small group. I've done the small group thing before with my former church, but this is the new one, with new people. So that's a weekly thing. I'll miss my former church, of course. There were lots of good people there, but I'm excited about getting more involved in this new congregation and gaining a greater sense of Christian community. And, since I won't be working in the Children's Ministry anymore, I won't have little two-year olds yelling at me and breaking my necklaces. Ugh. They sure get testy when they're separated from their parents.

So those are the things. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to Twitter.

Blerg. Also, Cooking.

It's been a while. A month, you might say. I've been unmotivated when it comes to anything but hanging out and watching the Olympics. (Has anyone noticed how much more dangerous the winter olympics are than the summer olympics? Wipeout!) However, it has been a month and Laurel has inspired me to blog again. I don't have much to say, except that you should know I'm Betty Crocker.

Well, in my opinion I'm Betty Crocker. Betty Crocker would call me an amateur and probably throw batter in my face to prove her point. Or something. However, I would shake my finger at her and exclaim, through the tears of shame and humiliation, that while I am an amateur I have been making things from scratch lately and shouldn't she be proud?! I sure am. Well, as you might know, I usually cook on a team. Roomie K is the head chef, which she vehemently denies, and I am the sous chef. She comes up with the brilliant ideas and tells me what to do and then we team up to create culinary masterpieces. Most recently we made biscuits and gravy. From scratch! I've never made white gravy in my life. You know, the breakfast kind. People don't really eat that around here and I'd kind of forgotten about it until one night a couple weeks ago. The night of the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremonies, to be precise. That Friday, Roomie K and I were grilling homemade Bleu Cheese Bacon Burgers to celebrate the U.S.A. We had plenty of bacon grease in the pan, so R.K. says, "Let's make gravy!" "Okay," I said enthusiastically. I had no idea how to do this, but I DID have a recipe for biscuits in my "Anne of Green Gables" sampler book that my parents gave me years ago. I knew how to make biscuits and R.K. had an idea for the gravy making. We combined our knowledge and not only made the most delicious burgers you've ever had, but some Grade A biscuits and gravy for the next morning's breakfast. Huzzah!

And yes, that's the most exciting thing that's happened to me in the past month. Well, besides the Snowpocalypse. The Snowmageddon. The Snowtorious B.I.G. (I didn't make a single one of those up.) All that snow (3 feet ish) is finally starting to melt now that warmer temps have arrived. There will be giant snow drifts across the city until mid-March, I'll bet, but at least I don't have to walk through them every day to get to the metro. I did have four snow days in a row that week. AWESOME! I built an igloo, shoveled lots of snow, and walked around in the Blizzard of 2010. People kept calling it a blizzard but I don't believe it. When I think "blizzard" I recall the words of Laura Ingalls Wilder in The Long Winter. They had such bad weather they had to tie a line between their house and barn so they could find their way back without getting lost in the storm. It certainly wasn't that bad around here. But it still was pretty hardcore. That's the most snow this area's received in over 100 years. And I really enjoyed living a life of leisure, watching movies, reading books, eating like I was a bear preparing for hibernation and hanging out with the neighbors. I'm sad those days are over, though I'm not sad to see the snow melt. I'm over it. Let's get on with Spring!

So that's about it, methinks. Nothing else to report. No "real world" revelations at this time. Work is normal, peeps are good. Oh, I am in charge of the volunteer schedule now at my church. Have I mentioned that? I'm a Coordinator now. I'm the manager, if you will, for the babies and pre-k classes during the first service. I've held a lot of fussy babies recently. I'd like to think I'm the baby whisperer, cause after I walk them around a bit they usually stop crying. But that's me handling one. The volunteers have to deal with multiple babies at a time. I'm all, "Yes! No more tears! Awesome! I'm great at this!" Then I look over in the babies classroom and I'm like, "Hmm, not so much. Multiple children are scary."

Okay, the end. Buh bye.