A Long Distance Friendship

Today is an important day. It's my best friend in the entire world, A's, birthday. And I get to see her!

This isn't the first time I've tried to surprise A on her birthday. Two years ago, everything was planned perfectly. I was to take a long weekend, skipping my few Monday classes and thankful to have Friday off already. My parents had booked a hotel room at Disney World and planned a fun evening safari at the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

But I can't tell you how that went, because the trip only happened in some alternate universe. Here, the weather Gods were having none of it and they sent a mean blizzard to upstate New York instead. The storm moved in fast and then stalled, dropping a ton of snow. The winds picked up and you couldn't see across campus from the highest dorm. I was trapped. I told her about the fallen through plan, and that was the end of that.

But, when I was out in Arizona, A surprised me! My mom planned a visit with a few of her friends. Someone had extra points towards a vacation rental, and so mom told me to take a couple days off. I needed the break from work, so I didn't hesitate too much. However, I didn't know that she had been planning a surprise visit with A! We finally got our long weekend, though with cocktails and a private hot tub instead of a safari.

This year, I didn't go with the surprise visit. I was thinking of it originally, but considering how well it went the last time I tried, I decided not to tempt the weather again! So, while A is spending the morning on a Scuba diving trip, we'll all get together tonight to celebrate her birthday. I think the last birthday either of us celebrated together was A's 18th, so it's definitely been awhile. We're both 26 now!

So, Happy Birthday A - to many more!

Doctor Who Favorites Tag

Trivial Pursuit: Doctor Who

When Pines and Palmettos was posting her series on Doctor Who, I had to read along. I love the show! The Boy and I watch each episode together, and we can't help but discuss our own fan theories, even though we know we can't get inside the writers' heads. If you watch the show, enjoy reading about some of my favorites. If you don't, umm, please get on that.

Note: This may contain minor spoilers, but mostly linked to my opinions. I use character names and episode titles, but I don't mention storylines.

Favorite Doctor
Nine - no question. He drew me into the show and I was the saddest when he left. Also, I just liked the way he played the Doctor. I've only watched the reboot, so I can't say much about the older Doctors, but here's my ranking of those I know well: 9 (Eccleston), 12 (Capaldi), 11 (Smith), 10 (Tennant). I sometimes wish there was more Eccleston, but also I think he left after giving us so much amazing material. It's better to go out with a bang than fade away.

Favorite Doctor Who Story
The Girl in the Fireplace is just beautifully written, and it gets me every time. It really shows the implications of time travel, and I also love the slight throwback this episode gets at the beginning of Series 8.

Honorable Mentions: I mention a few from my favorite series' below, but others I love to watch are: Midnight, Vincent and the Doctor, Turn Left, and Human Nature/The Family of Blood.

Least Favorite: I absolutely hate Love and Monsters. Ugh, this episode is intolerable. It's straight up awful. Does anyone like it?

Doctor Who: Who-ology | Character Encyclopedia | Dining with the Doctor

Favorite Companion
Rory is my absolute favorite. First of all, he's perfect. There is no man on this Earth who is as incredible as Rory. Amy (who is borderline insufferable without him) does not deserve him. Also, he gets some of the best lines. Not to mention, it's interesting the see the dynamic of the Doctor with a male companion. I've always been a fan of the concept, and Rory did it best (Sorry Mickey!).

Honorable Mentions: Donna got some fun storylines, but her arc was devastating. Also, I didn't like her at first and she took some warming up to. Rose is the companion I best relate to, and I felt as though she has the strongest audience connection, which I like and think is the main point of the companions.

First Doctor Who Story You Watched
The beginning of the reboot: Rose. I was hooked pretty much as soon as Eccleston said "Run." I recommend anyone that has never seen Doctor Who before to start here as well. I know some people would say to watch Blink first, but I strongly feel that getting the whole rebooted story in order is worth it. Plus, Blink is so much better when you know a bit about the characters.

Favorite Series or Era
I love the first series, plus Nine+Rose are amazing. The subtlety of the overall arc was perfect, and not as in-your-face as some of the later series. Not to mention, it had great stories like The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances and Dalek.

However, I was also a pretty big fan of the most recent series as well. Clara and Capaldi have a great chemistry, and while Danny wasn't my favorite character, I liked the storyline with Missy, and I thought the series overall had some amazing episodes like Listen and Flatline.

Least Favorite: Series 2 because It took me a long time to warm up to Tennant, and many of the episodes were just unbearable: Love and Monsters and Fear Her for example.

Custom shirts made The Boy's sister! I'm clearly the clever one.

Favorite Pre- or Post-Regeneration Episode or Story
"This is a fighting hand!" Yeah, even though Tennant is not anywhere near my favorite Doctor, I did like his transition. I don't want to give too many spoilers away, but that line I quoted makes the whole thing fantastic!

Favorite TARDIS Desktop Theme
This was tough, as there's so much amazing fan art out there and I don't really utilize any of it as much as I should. However, I am in love with the Exploding Tardis Van Gogh painting. I even have the mug! So I definitely had to go with a version of that. This one is my favorite, but any are gorgeous.

Exploding TARDIS mug

Favorite Villain or Monster
Vashta Nerada are my favorite because they scare me the most. Something lurking in the shadows? Oh man, that's terrifying. Who isn't already a little bit afraid of the dark? After seeing Silence in the Library for the first time, I could not sleep. These little guys are absolutely petrifying.

Honorable Mentions: The Silence are amazing and have a brilliant defense mechanism. I hope we get to see more of them one day. Daleks are my favorite carry over villain from Classic Who. They are fun to quote, and I like how just sincerely evil they are!

Reactions
This was so much fun to fill out! It was super tough to narrow down a few of the categories to just one option, which is why I've listed a bunch of honorable mentions. Are you a Whovian too? Steal this survey and post it on your own blog. Leave me a link in the comments!

Some links in this post are paid through affiliate programs. If you click on them and then buy something, I can earn money at no extra cost to you! For more information, please feel free to ask me!

Back to the Right Coast

I hated living in Arizona.

I try to downplay it at family gatherings or job interviews, when people ask why I left. It seems that leaving a job because you hate the location isn't a good enough reason. They look at me with pity, "oh how unfortunate for you."

Stop that. I turned it around. I saved up the money. I packed up. And I got outta dodge.

Anyone who knows me well -- my boyfriend, my mother, my former boss -- will tell you that I was unhappy living out the desert. I just wasn't fully functioning without weather and the color green. So I moved somewhere that has those things, and more.

So welcome to A OhKait - Washington DC/Northern VA mode.

Here, I am living with my boyfriend, instead of being in a long distance relationship. I'm close enough to hop on a single plane and see my family within half a day. I have rain, snow, clouds, and wind -- so much of it. I have friends that I already know, making it even easier to find new ones. And, I have access to some of the country's greatest cities, just by riding on a train.

I'm glad I went out there. I tried it. I adopted the perfect dog. I learned all about a different type of culture and style of living, that was more laid back with less urgency. I learned what I could live with and what I couldn't live without.

I'm an East Coast girl, and 2000 miles can't take that away from me.

Now, I make no promises that I'm going to write a ton more out here than I did there, but I do have a few drafts written already, so maybe you'll see a spike. 

On Writing

Writing about writing feels so meta, that it's nearly impossible to do without sounding pedantic, but I'll try my hardest to make reading this enjoyable. After all, isn't that a writer's job - to entertain an audience? Sure I can say all day that "I write for myself," but how true can that possibly be when my outlet is on the internet?

100 Posts!

So I noticed yesterday that my french toast recipe was post number 99 - which means today's post is the first real milestone of this blog: Post 100!

While it's more within my personality to celebrate a Disney number (and thus making tomorrow's 101 an even bigger deal) I figured, let's start with one that everyone can relate to. So for my hundredth post-iversary, here are some of my favorite posts that I've written in this blog so far. Enjoy!

2,252

It all happens so fast.

One night, you're lying on the couch, queuing up the next episode of Doctor Who, passing the minutes with crosswords puzzles and computers games, and the next, you're thousands of miles away. Or at least, that's how it happened for me.

My First Week in Arizona

My updates have been nonexistent lately.

I know, I'm sorry (says every blogger ever, usually followed by "I promise to post more" which then ends up being the last post ever made in said blog). That's not my intention here, don't worry.

Upstate New York

Every single day is a little closer to leaving the state of New York.

And everyday I get a little bit more nostalgic for all the time I've spent in this place and all the people and memories I'll be leaving behind. I already wrote about some of the things I'm going to miss about upstate New York, but I keep getting reminded of more.

I Love New York

I was offered a job this past week that involves me moving clear across the country.

While I'm excited for the position, the adventure in a new city, and the chance to really start a life where I'm not worried about being broke constantly, I've come to love upstate New York as my home, and I'm truly going to miss many things about it.

Oh Hey, LA!

Can you believe I'd never been to Los Angeles before this summer?

I've been to Anaheim three times now. I've hit up San Francisco quite a few. San Diego? Yep, done that. I've stopped some other places in the west like Washington and Arizona - but somehow never LA.

My Boyfriend vs. The Museum of American History

It was a touristy trip to Washington, DC. We went to the zoo, three Smithsonians and hit up all the national monuments. On the way home we explored Gettysburg.

And this was all during that heat wave in the middle to end of July. So needless to say, we were tired. Our feet hurt. It was exhausting. But so awesome.

Friday Five Things [08/02/13]

1. Well, I'm back from my two week adventure. Isn't adventure a much more fun word than vacation? I think so. Anyway, I went to California for B's wedding, as I've been mentioning a lot recently. We were in San Francisco and then jetted down to Anaheim. M&W hit up San Diego during Comic Con, but I headed back east where I explored Washington DC with The Boy, and then we drove back to upstate New York. Good times all around. I hope you've been enjoying the posts from these trips so far and there's more to come!

Exploring San Fran

The day before B's wedding, the whole family had to be in San Francisco already, because we were needed at the rehearsal and it's accompanying dinner.

Awesome fountain!

However, since we're all east coasters (the right coast ...) we had no problem rolling out of bed early and hitting the streets of good old San Fran.

In Praise of Dole Whip

I'm a fan of ice cream. Anyone who knows me can vouch for this.

However, there is one beautiful, gorgeous, delectable flavor of soft serve that just outdoes itself with taste, texture, and cooling perfection on a hot summer day - and that's Dole whip.

Wedding Bells in San Francisco

What a fantastic and much-needed vacation! I'm going to be writing about this trip for weeks - which is probably good, considering that for the next couple weeks, I really need to be focusing on job applications, cover letters, and interviews (cross your fingers that I actually get some). Hey, maybe I'll even get to travel for some interviews, but honestly, if I don't get on a plane again for a couple months, I think I'd be okay with that.

So, San Francisco, huh?

Friday Five Things [07/12/13]

My Fourth of July look from last week!

1. By the time you read this, I'll be in San Francisco. The whole family will be here by tonight because it's time for B's wedding this weekend! The actual wedding is on Sunday afternoon, but there's family events all weekend and then a hop down to Disneyland for some of us. After California, I might be flying back to the east coast but heading to DC with the Boy instead of going straight home.

Outtake from an upcoming post on deviled eggs!

2. I've rediscovered SwagBucks, which is an easy way to earn points for gift cards by doing stuff you do everyday - like searching the internet! I'm working toward getting some money in PayPal, and I'm really close to my goal. If you need a little extra cash, you should sign up here, and I'll get referral points!

Little creek through a broken window in a friend's garage

3. I've been working on my novel, and I hope you've enjoyed what I've posted so far. If you haven't read it yet, be sure to click on the Camp NaNoWriMo tab above where you can read some of what I have written. Please leave comments and criticisms!

4. Most of this week has been all about prepping for being out of town next week. That means laundry, packing, cleaning out the fridge, cleaning up my room a little bit, and making sure all my travel plans are in order. It also means writing lots of extra blog posts to post throughout the week. So don't worry, just because I'm gone doesn't mean there's no posts - there might just not be as many!

Some dippers from our beer and cheese fondue

5. The job market still looks dismal for me. Even with local businesses when I ask if they're hiring, they just say to apply online and then I never hear a word. How does anyone get a job anywhere? As for a career job, I'm working on it - lots of cover letters every single day and usually no response at all, even if I follow up! It's just disheartening.

Genesee Country Village

I love historical buildings and home design.

To be fair, I also love modern home design so I think I might just be into interior decorating. Anyway, we went to this cute little village in upstate New York that has restored old homes from the Civil War to the turn of the century called Genesee Country Village.

Friday Five Things [07/05/13]

1. For the next two Fridays, I'll be in California! That's right, it's coming up on time for B's wedding and the whole family is packing up for our big west coast extravaganza vacation. A little bit of hanging out in San Francisco for a few days, including a farmers' market and dim sum. Then the wedding is Sunday. Then Monday through the following Friday I'll be in Disneyland with mom, dad, M and W, before taking the red eye back that night. One week in California - should be an adventure, right?

June in Review

Wow. Can you believe that June is over already. It's July, and 2013 is halfway done, which is completely crazy to me. Time is a strange phenomena. It's amazing how quickly and slowly it can go at the same time. Thinking about that always reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:

Texas Sheet Cake! My favorite summer picnic dessert. Yum!

“When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity.” - Albert Einstein

Letchworth State Park

Oh you all know about my waterfall obsession. I'm going to skip over the raving this time and just say that Letchworth State Park is pretty much amazing. I'm not sure how I'd missed visiting it before, but it is truly a wonder of nature.

They call it the Grand Canyon of the East, and I can completely see why.