one way ticket to yumtown

this place rolled onto campus in november and dayum. dayum. dayum. dayum. it is good. super fresh, crunchy baguettes and insanely good ingredients. i'm a total sucker for pulled pork so that's normally my go-to (lime mayo and pickled jalapenos seal the deal for me) but i've tried the whole menu and you really can't go wrong with anything there. plus, the duo who run it (lanie and andrew) are super sweet and great for a waitin'-for-my-sammie chat. if you're around philly, you should check it out! follow them on twitter! salivate over the beauty of the truck and food!

james as the artist

sometimes i forget about how amazing my friends are. or more specifically, i forget the ways in which they are amazing.

i know that jimmy is amazing in the sense that he gives me hand massages and will always play just dance with me. he's always down for beyonce sing-a-longs and will walk you home if you're feeling like a wuss. but one of the other incredible ways jimmy dunn exists is as an artist! as wonderful glorious artist!

i went to visit him in his studio a few weeks ago and he showed me some of the things he did in his screenprinting class. AMAZING. homeboy has serious talent. that second one is a bunch of little teeth and the last one is modeled after dead birds jimmy found outside the art building. he works so hard on all his projects and always goes above and beyond the class requirements. he's incredibly invested in the work he does and you can completely tell.

very proud of j.d.

and this is what i do at work

i literally spent my afternoon playing with fruits and vegetables at a very small desk space. along with the creations featured above, i also made an insane mess and ate a lot of mango in the process.

have i mentioned recently that i love my job?

what's the what around here?

this picture exemplifies my general feelings as of late: i want to hide/christmas-now-please.

1. temple smash is in full swing. which means it is simultaneously the craziest and best time of the semester. this show is full of grandmas in corn husks and men with boobs and it promises to be one of the more bizarre episodes. if you're free thursday at 8 and happen to have access to a computer hooked up to the internet, you can stream the show live from our site! do it!
2. i have been tearing up constantly as of late. not in a sad way; in a very sentimental way. in the past, my crying incidents were very sparse- maybe once a year at most. but recently, i've become like someone's great aunt at a wedding. find out my aunt is pregnant - uncontrollable tears. get a card from my mom in the mall that sings 'celebrate' when you open it - blubbering to k.c. and the sunshine band for an in ordinate amount of time. the king cries in tangled (which, btw is on netflix instant and is totally worth watching) - salt-y drops rolling down my face. all these crying episodes are immediately followed by uncontrollable laughter though as i think about how stupid i am for crying about things.
3. the semester is winding down and my levels of motivation are plummeting. i have a huge list of things to do before the end of the semester and the days in which to do said things are slowly shrinking down. GODS OF MOTIVATION - please tap my forehead with you magic wands or breath on my face or whatever. help me feel like doing this baloney homework stuff!
4. i cannot wait for christmas. planning out gifts for people is possibly my all-time favorite thing to do.
5. soup season is the only season in my book.

i will probably write a longer, more depressing post later about the constant inner-turmoil one must withstand as a senior/citizen-of-earth/human/person-waiting-for-the-muppet-movie-release, but i'll be sure to sprinkle it with pictures of good food so it's worth reading.

also

i cut mike yaz's hair on saturday.

though it may be a bit on the short side, may be a bit more summer-y, and may not be good in the traditional sense, it was free! and it was fun! and thank god my boyfriend is an easy going person who not only looks good regardless of follicle styling but also understands that hair grows back! i started out just trimming it but it kept getting uneven. and just like that valentine's day episode of sabrina the teenage witch where harvey attempts to make a symmetrical heart (anyone?), it just ended up way shorter than expected. it's still ridiculous soft and mikeyaz still looks ridicilously dreamy. another somewhat successful experience to add to my barber resume.

as of recent

it's been a lot of good food.
typical. in the best possible way. how lucky am i that i get to claim it's 'typical' that i'm constantly gorging on insanely delicious food stuffs?

from the top:
- pumpkin and spinach macaroni and cheese. if you're looking for a savory pumpkin recipe, look no further my friends. nothing makes you want to zip through the work day quite like the promise of baked mac'n'cheese with an autumn twist waiting for you in the fridge.
- new food trucks are popping up all over campus. and you'll hear no complaints from this little lady. i am totally in love. i enjoy walking around campus, just because it know it means potential new food truck spottings. yumtown usa served up a mean beer-braised pulled pork sammie on deliciously fresh french bread with picked jalapenos, lime mayo, and red cabbage cole slaw. i spent the following hour debating my finances/morality/fatassness to determine if i should buy a second one. that good.
- hit up a.c.moore with my roomie keiran. we each spent a ridiculous amount of money on yarn and crafting supplies, then twice that amount of time in the car justifying it. it's for christmas gifts! so i'm reallly SAVING money! and i signed up for a rewards card! treat yo' self!
- made donuts! dark chocolate with caramel and sea salt followed by apple cinnamon with baked apples on top. dizzaaamm. to continue the donut spree, keiran, mikeyaz, and i went to federal donuts in south philly. that place has been hella crazy since it opened - it sells out almost every day before noon. the donuts were so worth waking up early for though - i got a warm lavender vanilla donut, a key lime guy, and a pomegranate nutella donut. all were less that $2 a pop. boo yo to the donut gods.

general synopisis for those too overwhelmed by the wordy bits: life is good yo.

asteroid

i don't talk about my improv team very often. which is a total shame because they really kick ass. case in point: this weekend's show. we're a long-form team and we usually do a standard harold. but for the past month or so, we've been practicing a b-movie form. it's roughly based on a harold (starts with a three scene structure) but it's a lot looser/gets a lot more insane/features more ridiculous archetypes/features more screaming and falling around. we get a suggestion of the name of a creature (last nights were 'attack of the mutant eggplant' and 'attack of the killer ducks') and set the scene, then the origin of the creature.

we found out last minute that we had to fill the total hour (freak snow = cancelled other team) and ended up doing two b-movies. it was amazing. we all dressed up in 50's style black and white clothes and looked totally boss. everyone was having a total blast and i think it was really apparent in how we were playing. the pictures above = definite proof. me as a killer eggplant attacking bert, luke as a dead horse, aj fishing, pondering with jess - it was a total whirlwind of silliness.

when improv is good, it's the best feeling in the world. i get ridiculously giddy and hopeful and can't stop talking. that being said, when improv is bad it causes physical pain and serious stress. i've been known to go into funks after crappy shows. but it's completely worth it knowing that there's the potential for amazing shows and moments. because you're making it all up on the spot, with the support of all these other people around you, and you know any choice you make is the right choice - when you get to this really sweet spot when it's completely euphoric. it's so collaborative and it really requires you to follow principles that should dictate your life in all areas: listen to people, exist for someone outside yourself, take chances, listen to your gut, say yes, contribute something else.

i'm so grateful for the role improv has played in my life. when i decided to try out, on a whim, in december of my sophomore year (after seeing the audition event in my newsfeed on facebook), i had no idea how much it would shape my college experience. improv introduced me to most of my friends at temple. it got me involved in temple smash. it gave me to the confidence to audition for my PHIT team, which has lead to me meeting wonderful people and learning more about improv as a craft and as a community.

if you're ever in philly, you should check out a show. my team, asteroid, performs regularly around the city. and even if you're not in philly, you should look up your local improv scene! go support it! it's full of hilarious warm-hearted people who would love to see you in the crowd.

(sorry this turned into a sappy love note to improv dudes. i'll try to keep it together for you bros in the future.)