Summer Vacation Begins with a BANG!

Finished, friends! My third year of University is now complete.

I never know when to consider myself belonging to another year of studies. Certainly by September, I shall be "FOURTH YEAR". But for now, what am I? Third Year still? Entering Fourth Year? Just straight up Fourth Year? These are the questions.

So I'm back in Ottawa and headed down to Tobago on Tuesday. Hurrah! I'm excited to see what the future of this summer will bring, and I'm extra-excited to share it with you, internet. It's gonna be a great one, I can feel it!

So not too much has happened. Apart from moving out of Guelph and moving into Ottawa (which I'm still not entirely finished doing...) Easter is really the only thing that happened. It was a lot of fun! I'm happy that Easter was so late this year, because I got to spend it with my family, I think for the first time since I started uni. Dad wasn't here, but everyone else was. Big dinner, big stomach aches... big happiness.

At one point Colin started shooting me with a Nerf gun and I may have taken it and gotten carried away. It was actually super fun and my aim was pretty good. I decided to make things a little more Terminator and brought out the aviators. Clearly, we look pretty badass. And I have no selfie shame, unfortunately. Future Ronnie, please, develop some selfie shame.

So now I think I had better get back to that "moving back in" thing. The clothes are taken care of, but I still have a suitcase full of crap to find a place for...

On that note, I really wish that I could live with fewer things. That modern minimalist lifestyle, y'know? Clean cut, with everything fitting into one bag. Magic. In saying that, Mom and I went to a few thrift stores today and had the best time ever. I just love digging through piles of clothing. I love it so much. I found so many wonderful things! Today's theme was apparently loud tropical print shirts and slightly worn 90s GOLD. Not literal gold. Not even gold-colored fabric. Just golden finds. Golden finds.

And now I have to pack. And also finish un-packing.

Life Continues Gloriously and I Play Video Games. Fantastically.

Well now, blogging kind of escaped me for a while there. I had nothing to talk about. Lots of lovely nothings to fascinate and enthrall you all, as usual, and I'm sorry you've missed them. Should I do another run down about what happened in the last month and a bit? Stuff happened. I finished my first semester of third year, and I think it went really well. Possibly my best semester yet, not because I worked especially hard, which I certainly did not, but because I didn't have any courses that were impossible to do well in. Not only were all my professors good (or goodish, anyway) but I actually liked all of my courses. This semester was important for me partially because it was the first semester where I didn't have to take any of the courses I chose, and by that I mean that they weren't prerequisites for either my degree or another course I wanted to take. All five of my courses were chosen by me, for me. And it actually turned out really well! This was especially significant for my science course, because I'd previously been very disappointed with my grades and lack of enjoyment in my bio courses, and this semester I got to take a course that I didn't have to take and in a specialization that high school Ronnie would have never, ever, in a million million years, have taken. Turns out not only do I enjoy botany, but I'm actually pretty good at it as well.

But now that's all over, and as sad as it sounds I am still a child and I cannot wait to get back to school with a fresh attitude and work ethic in January. I know. Where is my slacker student spirit? Lost forever, I can only hope.

Not to say that I'm not looking forward to my holidays! Oh, I so am. I'm back home now, in Tobago, and it's been lovely. I feel like I haven't done very much at all, but it's early days. I have a few plans and of course, some work to get done, but all work that I enjoy and am generally looking forward to. Can this be life forever? Fingers crossed, because I don't see why not. Also can you see that picture??? Google figured out it was a Christmas tree and so naturally IT MADE THE LIGHTS TWINKLE. What is this brave new world that has such programs in't???

If there is one thing I could complain about, it would, so ironically, be the weather. It's been so windy lately! I mean yeah, it's warm and all, and to be honest I like a nice breeze more than anything down here. Hot weather and I don't generally get along without one. But this is gale force winds! And that was an exaggeration! Still, it's been too windy to sit outside and read a book so that means too windy for me. Mainly I've been sitting inside, playing Animal Crossing, doing some baking, and showering a lot. Is that weird? I've been showering a lot. I swear I'm not dirty, I'm just really loving cleanliness? Maybe this is an indication that I want to hit the pool. We shall see. I was going to take some pictures of my baking, because I was so excited, but it was actually a monumental failure. I hadn't realized how out of practice I was, and it did take me a couple of trays to get back into the swing of things. Naturally my ego and I had been playing up the occasion of Christmas baking quite a bit, so the ol' pride took a bit of a hit, but I'll make up for it. The next seven days are going to be so fucking festive, I'll make this family cry. Cry for more cookies, that is. I'll keep you updated.

I also made an alt character in Animal Crossing! I know. God, I know. I have been playing too much. I wouldn't even mind if I'd been playing some other games too, but I haven't. I haven't been playing anything. Just AC...

This is my new character. I'd tell you his name, but I'm assuming I don't have to. When I told my mom I was making a male character, she didn't even need to ask... I did love that he was already wearing a red shirt, though. And that hair style. Suddenly my town looks like the setting for a perfect self insert. I'm okay with that? I needed the storage!

"Tahraaahnah" is evidently how the cool kids say it. Stick with me, kid.

Did I ever tell you guys about my love affair with big cities?

I have one.

After thinking about it, I've been living in coastal areas all my life, essentially moving from one small town to another. Guelph is the 'biggest' place I've lived in, unless you count Ottawa. Can I count Ottawa? I'm here like four months of the year. I don't know. Either way, I want to try living in a big city. And it's not just because small towns are, in general, creepy, inbred, devoid of all life and miserable (though lets be honest, they are). I love the energy, life, and size of the big cities. Anywhere that contains so many humans has to be something amazing, right? Because we're amazing. Hurrah for the  human race. Go us.

Anyway, the point of this post is to say that I had a recent trip to Toronto where these feelings were solidified. Toronto is awesome and wonderful. It is vibrant, and I want to be a part of it. My parents are both Torontonians, which I think I've actually mentioned before, so I think it's almost a duty I have to my heritage to discover their city and make it my own. At least for a little while.

For instance, this shot (which turned out waaay too bright) was taken in front of old City Hall, where my parents got married. : ) It's actually the exact spot where their sort of 'most used' wedding photo was taken. If I had it scanned I'd do a comparison shot, because it's pretty neat and time travel-y to look at them together. Especially since you can see that all those little signs around me are no-smoking signs, and in my parent's wedding photo Dad is of course holding a cigarette. We live in such a different world.

Also you see that purse? It is wonderful. It is so pretty and so functional.

As for the trip, it was super-fun! I went with my Mom to visit her sister, whom I hadn't seen in a very, very long time. I'm not especially close with any family that isn't immediate, but visiting always makes me wish that I were. When I become an aunt, hopefully this blog post will remind me to be annoyingly close to my little nieces and nephews.

Also, final thought - another thing that I love and completely don't care if it sounds horrendously childish is dressing thematically for movies. It doesn't have to be obnoxious, but it damn well should be. I feel like if everyone only went to see movies they were willing to dress thematically for they wouldn't be nearly so busy and you wouldn't always end up sitting beside someone who chose to have a coughing fit throughout Man of Steel rather than go home and hack a lung out in the comfort of their own bed. 

...Go human race! Yeah...

I guess that's it! Just a little post this time. Short posts can be fun too. I think I'm doing a lot of museums and galleries and far too many trips to Value Village so that I don't really feel as though I'm out of school and jobless for the summer. Does that mean success? I think it does. Yeah.

What's for Dinner?

I am a nodder. I'm one of those students who feels the need to keep professors in a continuous state of reassurance that I understand what they're saying (even if I don't). I keep a constant rhythm of nods for them throughout class. It's fairly static, but the tempo can increase dramatically when/if they make eye contact with me.

It's come to my attention in recent times that most people don't do this, which makes me feel slightly alone, but every now and then I'm in a class where there is more than one of us nodders, perhaps even a few of us, and I know that we have an understanding. A message for all of those nodders out there, possibly nodding your comprehension of this very sentence: you are not alone; I feel you.

Now for food. Living in a townhouse this year has afforded me the opportunity to actually make food, and through the past three months I've managed to get visual evidence of my cooking skillz to share with the web. One day, I hope to look back on these culinary masterpieces and laugh heartily because I'll be eating so much better by then... right?

Yeah, eggs are pretty much all that I can do. However, I do do them rather well, if I do say so myself. My favorite part of these pictures is that you can clearly make out my laptop in every one except for toad in the hole. So please, future me, tell me that you eventually stopped slobbing every meal at your desk. Tell me we purchased a table. Please.

Also, grating cheese for that pasta was my being 'fancy'.

And now, a final thought: I'm doing better in all of my English courses than any of my Biology courses. This happened last year as well. Is this a sign? Should I be re-thinking my life?

Other final thought: My back does not ever crack, and I cannot remember it ever happening before, which leads me to believe that if my back were ever to crack it would be the most incredible crack in the world, ever.

The #1 Cure for Lack of Joy

If you're all together with family this summer you may be experiencing cabin fever from doing nothing all day, or you may have discovered a sling-shot effect through time from doing way too much all day and staying up all night with sea turtles. In both of these cases, and in fact in any case at all, I'd recommend fairy cakes.

The addition of these fairy cakes increased household happiness by 41.83%.

My stomach hurts with the abundance of both joy and icing, and the best part is that I made them the completely lazy way using cake mix from a box and readymade icing. These cakes contain complete happiness and minimal effort; the essence of summer.