the boys I mean are not refined

I am going through this ridiculous cycle right now of 'cannot-do-anything-right life sucks'. IT REALLY DOESN'T. I just have stupidly high expectations of myself. Especially for things which, realistically, I know I'm not good at. BRAIN. GET WITH THE PROGRAM. A lot of it is softball, and spring break practice kind of sucks. Mostly because no one is focused and our coach is getting pissed, but also because it eats all of my time.

I've finally managed to pass some of my love of cooking onto Caro - we're doing theme nights at her house, because she has a huge, beautiful kitchen. Tonight was Thai & Vietnamese, which was perfect because she grew up on the American embassy compound in Vietnam. We made shrimp spring rolls with ginger-soy sauce, Thai green curry chicken with peppers, clay pot chicken, & mango sticky rice. Om nom nom. Considering neither of us had ever cooked in this style before, it worked out well - soy sauce is still too salty for me no matter what, but other than that I loved it. Cooking with someone else is so much fun.

And then her mom backed into my car and smashed in the entire driver's side. WHAT. I am dealing with it because she immediately offered to have it fixed this week, and I know that won't be any problem for them financially, but. I am really emotionally attached to my car.

Anyway, I need help with a playlist! I'm looking for songs about small towns. (Like John Mellancamp's 'Small Town', which sort of started this whole thing.) Even if it's just a single line, like just a small town girl from Journey's 'Don't Stop Believing'. Thanks!

So I'm alive after all! The past week just - I honestly can't account for half of that time. What happened, people? But good times were had, so I really can't complain. I was firmly planted in the kitchen for five days straight, which was beyond awesome. I'm not even going to get into that now because I'm planning an epic picspam/storytelling sometime tonight.

Christmas turned out nice, even if we didn't do much. I was sort of nostalgic re:decorations, because they just didn't happen; we did get a tree, but didn't decorate it or hang stockings. IDK, they were just so iconic as a kid that I really missed them now, especially since it's my last year at home and all. My parents found me an elliptical though, so that was awesome! I wasn't expecting anything like that, because even secondhand ellipticals are well over $100 and that tends to be the family limit. But a neighbor got one and hated it, so she sold it for $50 just to get it out of her house. Whatever, I'm psyched! It's definitely an improvement over working out after school in the gym basement, because now it's stuffed with the lacrosse boys who're training. (Okay, so that admittedly wasn't exactly a hardship, but.)

And then AND THEN. I drove up to Pennsylvania early Friday morning (ugh, I did not sleep at all last week) to help with another family dinner. ( So much more than you ever wanted to know about the Italian side of my family! )

I spent Saturday night in Pennsylvania and then took the long way home yesterday. All back roads, no highways - it was fantastic. I was really disappointed not to find any little coffeeshops (I have a thing), but it was still so relaxing. Mmph. Good way to end the week.

I really hope all of you had happy Christmases as well! ♥