Ferris Bueller, you're my hero.

It is always a pity when really smart contestants on Jeopardy have absolutely no personality. Smile, man. Your neurons have won you 20,000 bucks, and your attitude is stinking up my television. Oh snap! He's losing. Final Jeopardy should be interesting. (In case you can't tell, I'm watching Jeopardy as I write a long-overdue blog post.)

Spring Break came and went. I went home for a few days for much needed friend and family bonding time. I saw my small, close group of friends from church and high school. It amazes me how much our conversations change each time we get together. Five years ago, we talked of college, boys, and being famous. Two years ago, we talked of graduating college, apartments, and roommates. A year ago, we talked of a friend's wedding, graduate school, and jobs. Last week, we talked of babies (one of the girls is expecting!), buying houses (another of the girls is buying a house!), and dream roles in theatre (another dear friend just finished playing Maureen in "Rent"!). It is amazing how some of our dreams have remained the same or even gotten stronger, while other dreams have morphed into something completely different.

I have always loved change, as long as I have complete control over it. But this growing up business I have no control over. As the very wise Ferris Bueller once said, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." No kidding, Mr. Bueller. I've come to realize that the older I get, the faster life goes. This is soething they don't teach you in your sophomore Life Skills class. Instead, they teach you how to plan dinner parties and tell you to always date in large groups.

And the older I get, the more nostalgic I become. Pretty soon, I'm gonna start saying stuff like, "When I was your age, I used to drive to school WITHOUT a cell phone" and "When I was your age, I didn't even know what texting was." I have also found that I have been drawn to activities that I used to participate in when I was eight. Which might explain why I completed task number 29 without even realizing it. I was hanging out in the backyard, enjoying a day that would make most summer days jealous, when I noticed an absolutely perfect climbing tree tucked away in a far corner of the yard. I was drawn to it like a kindergartener to a brand new set of fingerpaints and a clean white wall. You know, even though it wasn't as scary and high up as it was when I was under four feet tall, it was still just as exhilarating.
I'm thinking I've found a new stress-reliever.

(By the way, Mr. I-Don't-Know-How-To-Smile lost Jeopardy.)

Three Cheers for Tiramisu!!!

Today I made tiramisu (Task 27). Confession: I was a little concerned about eating it because it has raw eggs in it that go uncooked. I found some "kid-friendly" recipes that called for cooked or tempered eggs, but I wanted to make the real deal. And I am soooo glad I did! I ended up combining three recipes. The first was given to me by a friend from the Czech Republic (Thanks, K!). It's a true Italian recipe and was in grams and other such metric units, which is why I looked at a few other recipes as well. The second recipe was from Giada DeLaurentis from Food Network. The third is a recipe (Ristorante Piatti Tiramisu) from a website, "Tiramisu: Heaven in Your Mouth."

The recipe ended up being something like this:
6 organic egg yolks
3 egg whites (2 of which were organic... don't ask)
1/2 cup sugar
approximately 2 cups strong coffee
2-ish tbsp rum
8 oz. marscapone cheese
2 packages of lady fingers
Some unsweetened cocoa
Bittersweet chocolate, finely grated


1. Beat egg yolks, sugar, 1 tbsp and some rum until thick and pale yellow (about 3 minutes).


2. Beat in marscapone until smooth.

3. In another bowl, beat egg whites with a pinch of sugar until stiff peaks form (basically like merengue). Gently fold egg whites into marscapone mixture.

4. Put remaining rum (or more rum if you ran out earlier) into remaining coffee, pour into shallow dish. Dip one side of each ladyfinger in coffee mixture for 1-3 seconds (depending on consistency/thickness). I actually ran out of ladyfingers, so had to halt the process and fly to the store to buy some more. The first pack was very sponge-like, while the second pack was more solid until dipped in the coffee. But just make sure you don't soak them too long or they will fall apart. Line ladyfingers in a dish (I think I used an 8x8 or 9x9 baking dish.)


5. Spoon half of marscapone mixture on top of ladyfingers. (One recipe suggested sprinkling cocoa onto marscapone layer before repeating the layering process, but I did not do this.)


6. Add one more layer of ladyfingers and marscapone mixture, then sprinkle cocoa and/or shredded chocolate on top.


7. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

8. Enjoy!


I must admit, this tiramisu was GOOD! I totally recommend that you try it! Have you ever made it before? Or eaten it before? Does the fact that is has raw eggs in it bother/scare you?

Task 6: 100 Things I Want to Learn About- Part Two (26-50)

26. Wallace's Flying Frog
27. Strange ice cream flavors around the world... horseflesh ice cream? No thank you.
28. Firewalking
29. Whirling Dervishes
30. The Pig War
31. Greek priestesses
32. Oyster Shucking
33. Oligodendrocytes versus Schwann cells for neural recovery (Recommended by my biopsych professor)
34. Bird masks worn by plague doctors in the 14th century
35. Members of the Nazi SS had their blood type tattooed on their armpits. Another article here
36. The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus
37. The new fish species found at bottom of ocean near Antartica
38. Amok (or mata galap) in Malaysia
39. The legend of the Yeti
40. Myanmar
41. Vatican Secret Archives
42. Irish Elk (And here too...)
43. Leonor (Eleanor) of Castille
44. William James Sidis, possibly the smartest man in the world, and a child prodigy
45. Cranberry harvesting
46. Bikelophone
47. Bowafridgeaphone
48. Pearl diving
49. What to do if I ever meet the Queen
50. Liechtenstein

Creativity is my anti-drug.

It amazes me how much I psychoanalyze myself. Basically every person I meet who finds out I'm being trained as a therapist asks me if I'm psychoanalyzing them. I usually put on my best Freud impression and ask them, "So... how does that make you feel?" just to make them nervous. But in reality, I rarely psychoanalyze someone beyond what anybody would do naturally without their permission. I mean, I hate it when my professors start psychoanalyzing me and trying to give me therapy during a meeting or casual chat. I assume most other people would prefer I not do the same to them. Instead, I focus on myself and why I act/think/feel the way I do. I overanalyze, hypothesize, and soliloquize usually to the point of driving myself crazy. While there are hundreds and thousands of things I have not, and probably will not, figure out, I have come to some pretty solid conclusions about some dimensions of who I am and why I am that way.

For instance:
I thrive on creativity. If my opportunity to be creative is stifled in any way, I wither away into something resembling a zombie with a bad cold. Seriously. I lose motivation, energy, and immunity from infectious diseases. The year I stopped dancing was also the year I ended up with about 4 varieties of sinus infections and colds. It took 4 attempts at heavy antibiotics before I was back to normal. I blame this on the loss of a creative outlet.

So, all this to say that I have found I MUST always have a creative outlet to keep me happy and healthy. Within the past few years, my creative outlet of choice has been a mixture of dance, theatre, and music. But recently, all of my outlets have been smushed, so to speak. This summer proved my body is too old and crippled to endure much dancing; grad school has taken away anytime I might have been able to devote to theatre; and piano has taken a backseat to all of my other responsibilities. So, sadly, I have recently found myself outletless. And fighting off the early (yet still noncontagious, nonthreatening) symptoms of a cold.

However, these past few days have proved to be a silver lining on the dark cloud of my creativity-starved existence. Tonight, a friend and I will be checking out the local choral guild. I haven't been in a choir in probably 5 years. I haven't sung formally since summer. Actually, I haven't sung classically in probably 2 years... Wow.

Anyway, I have also begun attending more classical music recitals and concerts, like I used to. I hadn't realized how much I missed not only performing, but also being in the audience. There's something so rejuvenating and, well, therapeutic about a well-played sonata.

And... a few days ago, I learned how to play the trumpet (Task 44). As a French horn player, I had the basic skills already in my back pocket, but was surprised at how different the two instruments really are. A musician/grad student friend of mine offered to teach me how to play and, starved of creative outlets, I of course agreed. I'm no Maynard Ferguson, but now I can fairly confidently play elementary etudes and duets. I also was reminded that there is a trumpet back home, so maybe I'll keep it up. Maybe this will be a new outlet to add to my inventory.

No wonder people tell me I'm weird...

Last week, I took the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) as part of my internship. It turns out that I have a personality type that is only found in 1% of people. This explains so much. Additionally, I am supposedly the same personality type as Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, Meryl Streep, and the Olsen twins. Part of the explanation of my type says that those with this personality persuasion are "often nontraditional" and may be misunderstood, because our thinking patterns are very different. We thrive on creativity, originality, and logic (Somewhat contradictory, but I guess that is why we are so difficult to understand). As I was reading the summary, it seemed very accurate. It also seemed to made sense with regards to my drive to complete an annual to do list. Variety, new experiences, and learning new things that others see as pointless are all parts of who I am as well and, in turn, why I choose to attempt to complete these lists.

Isn't psychology fun?
Have you taken the MBTI? Did the results seem to be accurate?

I honestly have no idea what to title this post.

I have been realizing that my list this year is full of long-term tasks. Most of these have to be planned and executed over long periods of time. No instant gratification this year. Consequently, I have had to buckle down and get a rough idea of my time line. I have already thought of what I want to invent (#20) thanks to a rainy day yesterday. But more on that later. I don't want any of you stealing my idea and making a fortune on it. :)

Life has seemed like an episode of “The Twilight Zone” lately. A few days ago, I was approached by a modeling company. (I'm still trying to figure that one out...)

Modeling Rep: “Have you ever considered modeling? You are very tall.”
Me: “Actually, I’m really not. I’m not even 5’9”.”
Rep: “Well, you look like you are.”
Me: “But I’m not.”

If I were a model, I would more than likely get fired for being a smart aleck.

I have also sold half a dozen sheep’s brains now, but I don’t think that can count for any of this year’s tasks...

Task 48 is already a flop. But I have been taking more pictures than usual. I think maybe I’ll exchange that task for something else. Any ideas?

In other news, the house across the street from where I live caught on fire this morning. Nobody lived there, as it had been donated to the historical society to be renovated. Years and years of work and care had been put into that house. It was the oldest house in town, built in the 1840's, I think. I feel a bit like I have witnessed a death. There is something sadly poetic about watching a grandious Victorian house, full of almost 200 years of history, transform into a delapidated heap of smoke and ash within a matter of hours. It is all so exisitential and so very sad.

100 Things I Want to Learn About: Part One (1-25)

1. The Branch Davidians
2. Kentucky Derby Etiquette and Protocol
3. Norse Mythology
4. Cryptozoology
5. Japanese Tea Ceremonies
6. History of Piracy
7. Ancient Egyptian literature
8. Catahoula Leopard Dogs
9. Norwegian Lundehunds
10. Secret Societies
11. Unusual Death Rituals
12. Anchoresses and Anchorites of the Middle Ages
13. Sumatran rabbits
14. History of makeup
15. Sumo Wrestling
16. Black Holes
17. Scandinavian Wedding Traditions
18. Caviar
19. Nazca (Nasca) Lines
20. Hildegard von Bingen
21. Sokushinbutsu monks in Japan (Beware the site of the link is a bit disturbing)
22. Strange Buildings Around the World
23. Hanging Gardens of Babylon
24. Zorbing in New Zealand
25. Echolocation in Humans