You know how you can tell? Because I'm blogging when I should be studying. I'm a MASTER at putting things off til the last minute. Just to let you all know about school, cuz I'm sure you're dying to know, it's hard and it's only been two weeks. But look, that's all I'm going to write cuz it's back to the books. I promise!
P.S. Utah football rocked this week! (And by Utah, I do mean the whole state-I'm being nice.) While you will never find me openly cheering for a certain team to the south of Salt Lake, I'm glad the South Eastern Conference was shaken up a bit this week. And how about them Aggies nearly taking last year's national champs? GO BIG BLUE!!! Granted, it would have been a better game if the Aggies could have held them off for a few more seconds, but no one can deny that they gave Auburn a run for their money!
What's all this? Did I recently join Bountiful Baskets, you ask? I didn't need to...we just picked all this from our garden last night, and it's only the beginning!
We've not had the best luck with our garden since we moved here because, truthfully, we didn't spend all that much time tending to it. In fact, with school and everything else going on we didn't even attempt a garden last summer, and I was convinced we wouldn't have one this year either for a few reasons. First, the spring was so cold and wet that I didn't think we'd have a long enough growing season. Second, I had to do rotations this summer for school, meaning I worked 40 hours a week at whichever sites the school placed me (while still having to work every week at my regular job), and I didn't think I'd have the time for a garden. By the way, not only was I working for free but I HAD TO PAY tuition in order to do it. Isn't that cruel? I ended up loving it, though, and I learned a ton.
Back to the garden... I am queen of impulse projects, with no thought to planning, and it drives Evan crazy. I came across some seedlings for really cheap and immediately convinced myself that we could not live without a garden this year. So I bought a bunch of plants and came home, expecting a few hours' work to get the garden prepped and the plants in the ground. Evan laughed...and laughed...and laughed...and after few weeks, countless man-hours (mostly by Evan, bless his heart) and a rockin' irrigation system (of course, also by Evan) we had ourselves a beautiful garden!
***This is where I publicly thank my incredible husband because had this garden been left entirely to me, it would have failed within a few days. (Who am I kidding? It would have failed if even 20% had been left to me. He's really done it all this summer.) THANK YOU EVAN!!! You amaze me with all you do.
I'm skeptical about our tomatoes making it, though. We've had a lot of blossoms but not a lot of developing fruit. Any gardeners out there know why that is? (Evan suggested maybe they're not getting pollinated, which led me to dream last night that we enlisted the help of a bee the size of a rabbit to get the job done. Seriously.) I've got 9 or 10 tomato plants of differing varieties, but none of them are doing very well. Anyway, the beans, peppers, cucumbers and zucchini are doing great, and we've got several squashes, cantaloupes, and watermelons growing bigger each day! I can't wait!!!
In case you're wondering, there are two kinds of peppers in the picture-a regular green pepper, and what I thought would be a golden yellow but has turned out to be more of a chartreuse. I know peppers develop their color the longer they're on the plant, but these guys haven't changed color for about two weeks so we decided to cut them off last night. Now the question is, what dish can I make that will incorporate zucchini, green beans, cucumbers and bell peppers? Any suggestions? Maybe just a good pasta salad?
a 13 year-old kid comes along and shows me just how unintelligent I really am. Here's an article that sums it up, and here's the full article from the American Museum of Natural History. All I have to say is..WOW!
Stress...lovely, lovely stress. I believed I'd experienced it before, I really did. I mean, everyone gets stressed, no one's life is free of complications, and everyone's been pushed to their limit, right? I was certain I knew the boundaries of that limit, but Spring Semester just barrelled right through it and kept on sailing. I survived, but only just BARELY, and now I can say that I'm half a pharmacist-I'm a pharm! YAY!!!
So, I'm going to share one of my deepest, darkest secrets: I'm a stress plucker. It's true. When things get tough, the tweezers get goin'. The more stressed I feel, the thinner my eyebrows are. I'd expound a little more, but what else is there to say? Here's what I looked like during the last two weeks of school...
What? You thought I'd post an ACTUAL picture of freakish-looking me? How little you know me, my friends. How little indeed. Why bother? Natalie Portman gives a great demonstration of how normally gorgeous people turn instantly freaky without eyebrows, so imagine the results when the person (ie-me) is just ok-looking. YIKES. (I have no idea if she really was ever "eyebrowless" or if it's just photoshopped.) And, a little FYI, did you know that Mona Lisa didn't have eyebrows? Well, at least not at the particular time that she sat for this somewhat famous painting...
I thought about spilling my secret here on the blog during the height of my affliction, but then I decided it was wiser to not tip people off. So instead, I painstakingly drew them in each day, and from far away they looked so-so but it became very obvious once you got up close that they were only 2D eyebrows. I think some people noticed. I could see it in their faces, but they never said anything about it. Emily Post would be so proud!
Seeing as how I could now choose for my eyebrows to look anyway I wanted, I considered all the options. Here are just a few...
These are actually a nice shape, but clearly drawn on and VERY dark:
These are pencil thin and WAY too close together:
This is a good option for all the "Hollywood in the 30's" parties I'm always invited to: 
Again, pencil thin and WAY too close together, among other things: 
Check out these geometric beauties-a math teacher's dream! 
All I have to say is...wow:
Finally, this poor sweet girl. You can tell she's really trying but...honey, no one's eyebrows grow that far apart and that hook-shaped:
Let me ask a question, and I'd really like to know your opinions. What do you think of makeup tattoos? I've NEVER imagined myself as the type to get a tattoo, but now I'm not so sure. I mean, suppose I fall victim to this sort of calamity again?? It'll cut out the extra time I had to set aside each morning for precise stenciling and eliminate all the worrying I've done that I'd accidentally rub my face and smudge something at some point during the day. Here's a stunning before and after shot...nice eyebrows, huh? I don't think I'd bother with the eyes or lips, but the eyebrows are really tempting!
Or there's always this tattooing option. Evan's reaction to this shot was classic..."Man, she clearly didn't have any good friends to tell her beforehand how stupid an idea that was."
Do you have any idea how hard it is to wait for your eyebrows to grow back? Luckily, I haven't had too many social engagements over the last 6 weeks, so I've been able to wait it out in private. Phew! But don't worry, I'm well on my way to looking like I used to. For those of you who may not quite remember, here's a photo to jog your memory:
And last but not least, a clip for you to enjoy. We love Arrested Development around here, and Evan sure loved being able to tease me for the last few months that I was Stan Sitwell.
