What's a Cherub Anyway?

It's natural to love this time of year.

Why is it that the darkest, coldest, most unwelcoming part of the year is when I feel most alive?  The crisp air slaps me in the face and reminds me to wake up as I walk to my morning classes, clad in my winter boots concealing my christmas socks underneath.  The best part about winter? Hot. Beverages.  Holding a steaming cup of a hot chocolate up to my face and breathing deeply wakes me up and makes me feel like I am back at home, sitting by the fire in my plaid christmas pajamas wrapping presents with my mom, fighting about how to perfectly fold the corners of the cheesy santa wrapping paper she bought from the neighborhood kids selling Sally Foster.

I'm listening to my classical Christmas station on pandora right now, and the Nutcracker's "Dance of the Sugar Plums" just started playing.  Me and my two oldest friends, Madeline and Allison, were in a production of The Nutcracker when we just 4 years old.  Allison could do a cartwheel, so she got to be a mouse.  Madeline and I were less fortunate ( and less coordinated) so we got stuck being cherubs. WHAT A DRAG! Our main job was to run around the stage for about 30 seconds holding a white cloth above our heads, while Allison got to be a mouse gymnast and flip all over the place and wear a cute tail.  But whatever, I'm over it now.  I owned that stage for that 30 seconds.  I remember going to rehearsal downtown with my leotard and ballet shoes in hand, walking into the seemingly endless dance studio with the bars on the wall and huge mirrors.  Our dance teacher was a male ballet dancer, whose name was probably Glen.  Or Pierre. What little I remember of rehearsals was that he was very serious about the art of dance....and I wasn't.  Looking back, this is probably why I didn't get very much stage time.  I remember Madeline and I being more excited about the fact that we got to wear lipstick for the play then actually being in it.  I guess that's always been our style, from the very beginning.  Easily amused and too cool for school.

Collard Greens Are Gross and That Baby Has A Gun.

It's natural to give thanks.

You know what's better than one thanksgiving meal?
Two thanksgiving meals.

My family hosted lunch at our house, then we headed to my grandmother's house for dinner.

This is a list of food I ate yesterday in no particular order:

Macaroni and cheese
Sweet potato casserole
Turkey
White rice
Brown rice (I'm not racist)
Gravy
rolls
deviled eggs
stuffing
more gravy
broccoli
Ham
collard greens (They were gross...my mom made me try them)
Pumpkin pie
Gravy
Pecan Pie
A couple of M&Ms (they were in a bowl on my grandmothers coffee table)

I realize that's an embarrassingly long list....but I skipped breakfast, so it's okay.

My mother's side of the family came over for thanksgiving lunch.  In the middle of eating, I look up to see my baby cousin Eva standing on the stairs holding my brothers rifle.  It's a good thing it's broken, because she is very feisty and it would not have ended well.  My uncles and brother argued about football and something about Joe Montana and the civil war.  My aunt and I stole my cousin's phone and changed her background to a picture of my tongue and recorded farting sounds and set it as her ringtone.
My big brother and I pinned down our little brother to the ground and force fed him broccoli.  We watched Little Rascals and Love Actually as our food digested.


I love thanksgiving for many reasons, but if I had to pick one,
it would probably be because there is a chance that I will see a 3 year old with a gun on my staircase.


I love my family.

I'm Feeling a Bit Sentimental

It's natural to change.


There is a beautiful tree near my dorm. 
It was nothing really special when I first got here.
 It was just a normal tree. 
Brown. Green. Bark. Squirrels. 
Then autumn showed up and changed the tree.
It is now sheltered by the most magnificently yellow leaves.  The ground below it, once dead grass, is now covered with a lovely yellow dusting.  You can't even see past the brilliance of the leaves to the dead ground.  I suppose this splendor was in the tree all along, but it took time to reveal the truth of it's nature.


Before you look away, look again. 

Time reveals the unexpected. 

Words and Pie

It's natural to not know what the heck you are doing.


If you are a college student, you could probably pay off your student loans if you had a nickel for every time someone asked you the infamous question,


"What's your major?"


My major is currently English.  I definitely get mixed reactions when I tell people that.  Some say things like "Good, good. That's great! I love literature." or "Oh, cool! So could you write my next paper for me?" What do people expect me to say to that? Yes, of course I will, I've been waiting for you to ask?


Others ask me, quite snidely,  "English, huh? What are you going to do with that?"


Don't think I don't see past your thinly veiled insult, you practical ninny.


What I really want to say is, "Um, I don't know, what are YOU going to do with your political science degree? Become the president? Do you know the percentage of people that actually BECOME president? Like, less than a tenth of a percent, kay?"

I don't actually say that though, because that is a tad cheeky and that percentage makes no sense.  I smile and tell them that I aspire to be a writer.  If I could get paid to write about funny and occasionally serious things and also bake pies, that would be ideal.  Practical? No. Awesome? Yes. An artist of words and pastries, if you will. People like Mark Twain and J.K. Rowling did okay for themselves, but they are apart of a very small club. And I'm sure J.K. Rowling bakes a mean English muffin.


There are many things I wish to do with my life, but if I had to condense it down to two main things, I would have to say I want to:


1) Have kids
2) change the world


First I need to find a husband (not anytime soon of course), which shouldn't be so hard, right? Like Tom Hanks says in You've Got Mail, "Oh right, yeah, a snap to find the one single person in the world who fills your heart with joy."
After that it's just science.


As far as changing the world goes, I'm still brainstorming on that one. 
 But hopefully it will involve words and pie.
Stay tuned.