Food is Good for the Body, but Cooking is Good for the Soul

So I've had cafeteria food that would be considered absolutely atrocious and the stuff here is probably the best I've had, but in the end it is still just cafeteria food. Luckily I have this awesome neighbor and friend that loves food as much as I do. Now we have started this lovely tradition of late night cooking every Saturday.
It's quite funny how all of it started. My room mate was talking on the phone and I was just jammin as usual while doing some work when I hear "why won't you make me tacos?!". Of course coming from Texas and having Mexican in-laws I love tacos and I am an expert in making them from scratch. Thus the word quickly spread for Saturday Night Tacos.

Of course we had to get our classy selves down to the local grocer to get some ingredients

Don't make fun of my rigged up back pack

carrying wheat flour and corn flour over a mile is not fun

  you know I always hang with the most classy people

I have a knack for getting good shots

or at least I think so

 I gotta say though that cooking with friends is the best

Now this chick right here. 

We bonded over cooking.

Look at those beautifully made tortillas we flattened with a dictionary!

Now of course with a love of food like mine one does not simple stop with a taco night. The Next week we planned homemade donuts, candied bacon weave, and baked apples. MMMMMMM

Now the really awesome part is my university has an apple orchard, so we just went over and picked some apples for a couple of hours.

Our first climber

I made this photo famous on instagram

You have to admit she is sorta graceful 

The original of the instagram photo

And our expert apple catcher

she has rad skills

 Well I said sorta graceful..............

 It okay she's in ballet so it's a work in progress

However I can do a song and dance up there

She thinks we're ridiculous

but she is too

I had to get a stick to knock down the ones that were really high

Never never never give up

- winston churchill

Growing up is over rated

Now I'll admit it

This is a stupid face

 

But in my defense 

Deer showed up!

We tossed them some apples and they ate them!

We named her Nellie

 The day's bounty

and my stick

Apples!

The apples are her amazing creation

But I showed them how to make beautiful Donuts

I'm getting hungry again......

The CANDIED BACON WEAVE

This is a true art

 yep definitely hungry

look at those donuts and apples

the apples are insanely delicious

okay are weaving game needs some work

but that is still greasy goodness

Not burnt bacon

candied bacon

That is a late night/early morning meal

So at four in the morning I get sugar up my nose

and turn into Jenna Marbles.....

 I believe a person's desk space reflects who they are

 and mine says I like food/cooking

A Serious Moment: the sacredness of life

I really should be going to sleep right now, but some moments in life are too big to ignore. Besides writing (or typing in this case) is supposed to be cathartic, so perhaps this will help. I want to start at......well I don't really know where to start, so I'll start with some general background. Overall I believe life to be a marvelous thing. Sometimes terrible and bad things happens, but I work through it, move forward (not on from it, but simply forward), learn from it, grow, and become a stronger person. These aren't just words to me. Not just some vague philosophy I say to people that are struggling. I am no stranger to tragedy and pain. I have faced it at least once a year, for multiple years in a row now. To be more exact I would say five years in a row now. Though every time something does happen I also believe that God gives me a way deal with it, a way to see things with perspective. Sometimes it takes me a great deal of time to see that perspective, but if I work through it I can find it. Not a justification for the incident, but a way I grew because of it. This week I had the fortune to work a show that Monks from Tibet were performing at my university. At the end of the show their spokesperson came out and explained why these monks travel around performing. They do it because it's their way to help heal other places by love, and to show the importance of world peace. They wanted to share their culture and to ask people for support in liberating Tibet from communist oppression so their culture is not lost. Now I'm not Asian, Buddhist, or anything like that, but I can have respect for a culture that supports peace, freedom, love, and the sacredness of life and culture in the face of longstanding oppression. Having been around the monks through out my week and working their performances these sort of things were on my mind when I had to have a very upsetting conversation with my best friend. Within one hour she had to confront two different deaths of people at our former high school. Now I was not personal very close with these individuals but I did know them and many of my friends were extremely close with them. Having gone through similar circumstances on different occasions naturally I would want to be there for my friend, but when you're across the country empathy can be your worse enemy. When I become extremely close with any person my empathy becomes ridiculously strong. I can know from just what the situation is how that person is handling it and if they won't cry then I cry for them, and if they do cry then I don't. I don't have to see the person before I have the appropriate reaction I just know. Having empathy as strong as mine without the ability to comfort is a personal nightmare. So I ask why. Why must I have such strong empathy if I can't even use it for those that need me? Just why?
Then I realized why. I empathize for others so that I can remember why people need each other. How each life interacts with another. We all have impact on someone the value of your life you cannot measure. One cannot see their own reach.
So I ask, no I beg that if anyone is struggling to remember that some one some where can always see your worth. That your decisions impact others' lives. So stay strong and live on, because we can all heal. Even if there are scares we can still be healed.

Across the campus

   The campus here is quite beautiful, and since the weather here is usually simply amazing here are a few pictures of the campus along with some closer snip-its I did with my room mate for her project.

Some the angles are odd since there wasn't anybody to take our picture, but I think it turned out well.

I love the Bluff in the background here

 It is a private institution so there's a chapel on campus, 

and well no one chapel is complete without stained glass

 Or without the religious art

 There are statues absolutely everywhere, 

and it took forever to find this small one

(which is pathetic since we kind of walk past it daily)

 A slightly more metaphorical statue

and a favorite of mine

 A commonly seen picture of the patron Saint of Teachers

 Wood Carving of the Founder of The Christian Brothers

 Like I said it's commonly found

 Statutes. Statues Everywhere. 

 A view of the Central Plaza

 A Stormy Day 

View from my Window

 I Really like the Lamps on Our Walkways 

 They make Me Think of Dumbledore 

(because I'm nerdy like that)

 The Plaza from a Different Angle and Distance

 Oh Yeah We Got Hail

That was sort of different since I never saw much of it in Texas

(at least not with people going outside in it!)

 I Find the Large Use of Basements up here Interesting

(there are no true ground level floors)

 That's more Hail around the Drain

 Peaking Out into the Storm

 Okay I'm Lame but I like this Door

(I want to paint it blue and pretend to be in the TARDIS)

 I Pitied the People that Ran Down this Path Coming In

 I like Trees

 and Pretty Lighting

 Poor Poor Roses got Beat up by the Hail

 Once again me, my lameness, and an Old Door

 On Rainy Days the Bluffs do this Really Cool Thing

 The Bluffs like to Pretend to be Volcanoes 

 Went Walking to the Campus "Orchard" one Evening and there were Dozens of Deer

A Young and Curious one Ran up to Us and it was Amazing

(you can kind of see some on the tree line as well as 3 that were closer)

 Van Gogh Painted the Sky for Me the other Night

 I rather Enjoy old Architecture 

 Nice Little Meditation Pond Dedicated to Mary

 Shots of The Original Building

 Trees?

 I think I was Trying to get some pics of the Squirrels,

but of course the run and hide the second you actually care to see some

Well that's my campus on a overall and slightly detailed scale, and on a rainy and sunny days.