molly's blog

The end of the semester is near. Only a couple more days of class, a week of finals, and then it’s summer. It’s actually gone by pretty fast, but that’s probably because the Spring semester is shorter than the Fall.

I’ve got some plans for the summer. I’m taking summer school at TCC, which for eight hours of credit, and only giving up about two hours of my day Monday through Thursday, seems pretty fair to me.

I am looking into getting a new job. I’m pretty worn down with the whole serving thing. Don’t get me wrong I enjoy helping people and don’t mind serving them in a business setting, I just need a break from the restaurant service industry. It’s so up and down anyway. (Yes, I will still eat Olive Garden. Sometimes I get an intense craving for a chicken parmesan that I just need to satisfy.)

I also want to eventually move out over summer. My best friend and I are in the same boat. We want to move out, really aren’t in any rush, but would like to get a place together sometime before the Fall semester begins.

As for the future, my plan is to just keep on trucking through school until I graduate, hopefully land a sweet internship that will eventually lead to a sweet job.

I don’t really have any “big plans”, any high-set goals because, well, I’m young. I still want to have time to live and breathe the fun years while I can. I’m gonna soak as much out of it as I can while it’s here. Before I have to “grow up and go out into the real world.”

As for now, I am going to study, study, study like there’s no tomorrow for those finals. Then the celebration can begin.

Oh, and thanks to my incredibly awesome Journalism teacher, Geoff, for always being so great and teaching me the skills I need to land the job that makes the money that pays the bills and supports me the rest of my life. Many thanks to you.

MM

The thought that runs through ever 17-year-old’s head  the moment they turn 18 is walking into a tattoo shop, sitting down and getting inked up.

It seems that tattoos have almost always been popular. They were especially thrown into pop culture when TV shows like “LA Ink” and “Miami Ink” came along (which are two great shows, in my opinion).

But that “newly legal” feeling, I have never felt. Here I am, 20 years old with no tattoos. I don’t have anything against them, I actually really enjoy tattoo art and most of my friends have at least one. But for me, I have never taken the time to think about what I want to get, where I want it, if I want color, etc. I have a feeling the time is coming close though…

When my sister got her first tattoo, my parents were pretty upset, that is until they realized that it was actually a work of art and came to appreciate it. (They liked it is two angels facing each other in beautiful blue, purple and pink.

I’ve gone with several people to get their tattoos, including my boyfriend on his 18th birthday. I’ve done the hand holding and had mine almost squeezed off by my old best friend when she got her back tattoo, but I haven’t had the chance to be the hand squeezer myself.

I want one soon, before the summer, so I will be able to show it off when the time comes.

Whenever the time comes, I believe I will be able to take the pain, because I have wanted one for so long. Wish me luck.

MM

Cooking is foreign to me. I know how to make a few things, but not enough to have skills for feeding anyone more than myself. However, I love watching the Food Network. I started watching about 8 months ago and it has come to be my default channel (alongside A&E). My favorite shows are the competitions such as Chopped and Cupcake Wars.

In Chopped, four contestants go through three rounds, with one being eliminated each time. They must make an appetizer, entree and dessert using mandatory ingredients found in a secret basket. It is timed so the pressure is on.

In Cupcake Wars, its similar. Four contestants must compete in three rounds. The first is based on taste and contestants must use at least three choice ingredients. The second round is based on taste and presentation, and they must make three cupcakes. In the third and final round contestants must make a 1,000 cupcake display to be used in an event for the sponsor of that episode. It is also timed.

I never really enjoy cooking shows but when competition is added, I’m in. And I’ve actually learned a lot about cooking and food from these shows. The Food Network is good for any other newbie or aspiring chefs to watch.

MM

Japan is in serious danger. I sympathize for the people of the country who are struggling to survive when they face one disaster after another. Earthquakes, nuclear disaster and radioactive danger are all harsh everyday realities that we cannot imagine. It is a sad and difficult road for the Japanese.

In America, our biggest worries usually are if we have enough time or money to buy the things we want, not what we need. We have become so accustomed to getting things easily, without mother nature or any other outside force interrupting that.

Seeing all this disaster in the world around us makes me grateful for what I have. It makes it just a tiny bit easier on me to pay the $4 per gallon gas, when many people in Japan don’t have a roof over their head anymore. As Americans, we have it good. We need to remember that.

MM

Its that time of year again. Students, including myself are starting to feel the pressure of the end of the semester creeping up. We only have about a month left, and that is just enough time to get completely stressed beyond belief. End of the year projects, research papers, and other assignments are lurking in the back of our minds, it’s just a matter of getting them done. Most students, like myself, work along with going to school because there are bills to pay and pricey gas to buy for the one hour commute to school, Monday through Thursday (in my case). It seems there is never a time to rest.

There are a few things I must do to be able to be productive while doing homework. First, I need an ice cold glass of water (mainly to keep me awake), and then I turn OFF the television and log OFF of Facebook. Finally I’ll put on some appropriate “homework-doing” music. The most productive way I do homework is to work on one assignment at a time, I can’t switch back and forth. Usually, if I work hard I will be able to knock it out in that one sitting, but other times, depending on the magnitude of the project or assignment I’ll spread it out over a few days, even weeks. And I don’t like to work on homework for one subject only in one day, I’d rather get some work done on assignments for a few of my classes. This is what I have found to be most effective. That way it is easier for me to finish the assignment the next time I sit down to do it. Of course this is all ideal and not usually what happens if I have to work that day.

I wish good luck to every student who is in the same position as me, which I’m sure is a lot. There’s a faint light at the end of this (approximate) four-year tunnel, and it’s a very expensive piece of paper that we are working very hard to receive.

MM

My favorite show on television right now and for the past six months is an A&E original, “The First 48.” It is a detective/investigation program that shows all the events that take place during the most critical time in an investigation:  the first 48 hours after the crime has been committed. The shows location ranges from Dallas, Chicago, Louisville, Miami, Houston, New Orleans and many others. It basically “follows” a few lead investigators as they go through the crime scene and try to uncover any leads. The crimes resulting in murder spur from anything from a fight outside a club, to a robbery involving drugs, to a crime with no known motives.

The cameras show everything that is uncovered in an interview with a witness, all the way to the skilled interrogation of the suspect by the investigators, trying to get them to talk. As the first 48 winds down, they recap all the progress that has been made, sometimes they have a new lead and other times they have nothing to go on. It finishes the case, mostly ending with the arrest of a suspect and then awaiting court. The families of the victims, (if they have family), are the motivation for the investigators to catch the criminal and provide the family with some type of closure.

I watch crime shows such as CSI, and Criminal Minds, but this show is most intriguing to me because it is real. I have learned a lot about crimes and investigations from watching the show and would recommend it to anyone with an interest in criminal justice.

Over spring break I took a trip to New York City with my boyfriend to visit my sister, who lives there. It was one of the best trips I have been on, and I soon realized why NYC is a worldwide powerhouse.

We ate at, shopped and visited landmarks all around the city. My sister served as an amazing tour guide through places such as Broadway, 5th Avenue, Central Park, The Metropolitan Museum, Ground Zero, Chinatown and Times Square, just to name a few. One of my favorites was Central Park. It’s huge and beautiful and right smack dab in the middle of the city, where people can exercise, walk their dogs and enjoy the weather (when its not snowing, of course.)

I finally understood the amazing New York shops and stores. From the most unique clothing stores in SoHo with the best t-shirts, to the Big Piano we got to dance on in FAO Schwartz, to the huge designer stores five stories tall, to my boyfriends favorite with all things Mario, Nintendo World. Of course the things we bought were not inexpensive (except in Chinatown,) so we did spend quite a lot.

The best food I ate while in the city was the pizza and cheesecake. There is a type of pizza there that is not anywhere in Texas, “white” pizza. It basically just a four cheese pizza, one of them being dollops of ricotta cheese that almost make it a dessert because of its richness. Mmm. The cheesecake was so delicious. I’m not a huge cheesecake fan myself, but this stuff is the way it was meant to be.

We rode the subway for the four days we were there. Yes, it was dirty. Yes, I wanted a shower right after every time we got off. Yes, there were bums and druggies which made it scary to ride at night. But the people of New York are so hardened they really don’t care, so I didn’t pay much mind. Even my sister who is very petite, very fair skinned and blonde doesn’t have any problem riding the subway and making her way home to Washington Heights in Harlem every night. I did give a dollar to the mariachi band that came in our train car.

All in all I would go to New York again in a heartbeat.  Preferably in the spring time with warmer weather. It is an amazing place to experience.

Beautiful day in Central Park

MM

$25 used to be normal for me to fill up my Scion xB when it was on “E.” On Sunday I went to work the lunch shift, got gas after and had to spend all the money I made and then some on gas. I am glad however, that I do not drive a gas guzzling SUV or truck. I usually drive to school, home, work, then home or whatever I decide to do after (and it really doesn’t help when I live at least 10 miles minimum from town.) But gas prices are not letting up. $3.39 per gallon is a price to pay for broke college students or single parents. And now the Obama administration has released that they are considering tapping oil reserves saved for emergency to ease the price of gas.

It’s a difficult place to be. We don’t know how much higher the prices will go, and if they will surpass the $4 mark that was hit in 2008. I hope the problems in the Middle East die down, since it’s obvious they aren’t going to end, even though they have more monumental tasks in front of them rather than complaining about how they can’t fill up their car/truck/SUV for under “x” amount of dollars.

Tapping oil reserves

MM

I’m not a Windows. I’m not a Blackberry, or a Droid. I’m a Mac. I’m an iPhone. I’m an iPod.

I used to not have a preference of operating system, or phone or music player, but within the last few years I have become increasingly attached to all things Apple.  It started with my iPod Nano, my first piece of Apple equipment.  It functioned so easily and with iTunes it quickly became my main method of listening to music.

Then I got my Macbook, which is what I am writing on now.  It is one of the newer aluminum body models, and the look of it alone is pure sexy technology. It’s operating system, Mac OSX Leopard, took some getting used to. How it functions, where things are located and how to utilize all the features it offers take practice, but once you get the hang of it, one might agree that it is simple, and performs beautifully.  Another plus is the built in iSight camera, where you can take photos and communicate via iChat. Also, Macs do not get viruses. (If you do, you probably had to try very hard.) And they are long lasting, probably about two or three times that of a Windows computer.

Then I got my iPhone 3GS, which had me hooked.  The performance of the iPhone, touch screen quality, optics, sound, built in iPod, built in 3.0 megapixel camera, maps, internet, e-mail, planner, and an endless amount of downloadable applications makes it hard to not enjoy and cherish an iPhone.  I recently upgraded to the iPhone 4, which is my baby.  Built in HD camera and video camera which is reversible to face the person holding the phone, also aids in Face Time which is video calling (you can see the person you’re talking to), and a glass front and back make for the sleekest design yet. This is my most prized possession.

Apple has yet to not impress me with their new inventions such as the iPhone 4, the iPad, the iTouch and many more they have in the works. They are on top of the technology market, even though founder Steve Jobs is not in the best of health conditions. I will stay faithful to Apple as long as they keep doing what their doing.  Fresh, high-performance, sleek, simple, sexy products (not just for snobs or hipsters), but for everyone at a reasonable price.  Apple rules.

My 20th birthday was on Monday.  I didn’t plan much for it but I knew I wanted to do something.  On Friday night, my boyfriend threw a surprise party for me with ALL my friends.  It was a complete surprise, I had no idea, and was the best/most fun party (of my adult life) that I’ve had.  And everyone agreed that it was a party to remember.

On Monday when I got out of school he took me to lunch and we went out for dessert later that night.  We went to The Melting Pot in the Arlington Highlands, which I have never been.  We ordered a swiss cheese fondue that was pretty good.  It was served with fresh apples, white and wheat bread, broccoli and carrots for dipping.  The real treat however, was the chocolate s’more fondue.  Warm creamy milk chocolate with flambeed marshmallow cream, all made table side.  And the dippers alone were delectable.  Rice krispie treats, brownies, pound cake, strawberries, graham crackers, bananas, cheesecake, and oreo cookie crumb and graham cracker crusted marshmallows.  It was heavenly.  I would recommend The Melting Pot for any birthday dessert or dinner, which I haven’t tried yet but heard it’s amazing as well.

The Melting Pot

MM