Top Cocktail: Chocovine Edition

Oh, Chocovine. As its tagline claims, it mixes the taste of dutch chocolate and fine red wine. You can buy it at Harris Teeter for about $7, so I knew without even tasting it that it would be magical. So magical that it would need its own Servery Challenge.

Then I remembered I can’t do Servery Challenges anymore, so I waited to bring you a Very Special Valentine’s Day Top Cocktail Special.

Special thanks to James Fox for his MSPaint Skillz

Special thanks to James Fox for his MSPaint Skillz

Four Competitors! Ten minutes! … and one bottle of Chocovine!

See the entires and the results here:
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Nostalgic Lists

I recently uncovered a notebook I kept I think sophomore through junior year of random lists. I feel a little bit like an Egyptologist since the handwriting is tricky to decipher and half the time I don’t know what I’m talking about.

Made up Positions I’ve Given Myself
Wiess Resident Expert in Speculative Zoology
Wiess Breakfast Rep
Wiess Mr. Potato Head Rep
Co-comics Rep
Resident Witch Doctor
Wiess Librarian
Interior Decorator to the Presidential Suite (after we wallpapered Hiren’s room with water colors, mostly of him being eaten by monsters)
Hairologist
Apprentice Mad Scientist
Wiess Zombie Attack Consultant
Awkward Breakfast Conversation Rep (I still am this)
Wiess Astrologer
Chief Phallic Symbol Recognizer
Wiess Soothsayer
Official BFF to James K. Polk
Noted April Fool’s Day Victim
Noted “the crazy” of the sophomore class by Doward
Wiess Pieologist
Inventor of the Snake Warmer
Wiess Egg Salad Rep
Official BFF to Stephen Hawking

I did so much for Wiess. No wonder I got that award.

Things I’ve Done Instead of Going to Class (first semester)
Homework for that class
Homework for another class
Sleep
Crossword puzzles
Watch movies
Talk to Michael Curtis
Eat lunch
Stare at people from 2nd Floor Fondren
Read
Buy interesting hats
Watch the rain
Have a dance party
Listen to Rocky Horror Picture Show and sing loudly
Leave anonymous love notes for Steven Wiggins
Look up lame pick up lines online
Have consumption
Flirt outrageously

I assume this was first semester sophomore year, since first semester freshman Patricia was MAD conscientious. Also, Steven Wiggins was IN my class, so it would’ve been hard to leave secret love notes. These notes, by the way, would always say things like “If I said you had a corpus bellus would you hold it against me?” He would usually just correct my Latin.
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Dreams I Had Last Night

Last Night’s Dream 1
So I was apparently going to UNC’s library science grad school… but at Rice, and living off campus, but eating dinner in the servery. I was sitting at a table with Rob, Rachel, and Bova, who were talking about a Spanish quiz that they had all apparently failed. I looked down at my plate and realized that the salad I had gotten had turned into three slices of chocolate banana cream pie, and went on a rant about how I shouldn’t have to buy a meal plan when I didn’t even go to Rice anymore. Bova agreed that it was stupid that she was required to come here and take Spanish when she lives in Indiana now, and Rob suggested we all just drive to Mexico instead, “for Spanish credit”. I agreed to drive, as long as I could also control the radio.

Interpretation
Clearly the fates want THE 434 back together again, and are telling me to make it so though my dreams. Also, my subconscious wants me to eat more salad.

Last Night’s Dream 2
I was outside Harris Teeter loading large pallets of yogurt into my car (apparently I had just bought their entire supply for some reason) when I got a phone call from Andrew Fox, who said he wanted to wish me a happy birthday. I said my birthday was in four months, and he said he was really busy so he was trying to knock out the easy things on his to do list early. He then apologized for not illustrating the children’s book about ducks I gave him (that part is actually real), and when I sarcastically said, “I KNOW, GOD, slacker,” he yelled at me for calling him at school. Just before he hung up, I heard the old sound the bell at my high school used to make, so I assume he was attending classes at St. Pete High for some reason. Then I realized while I had been talking to him, someone had stolen all of my yogurt.

Interpretation
The yogurt represents my childhood dreams, and my vain attempts to shelter them from the onslaughts of the real world. Clearly my subconscious is trying to tell me that Andrew Fox will play an unwitting part in their destruction. TOO BAD, Andrew. I am going to FIND Pangaea and its chocolate milk rivers, and you and your confusing phone calls will never stop me!

Yeah, I was pretty sure I could find Pangaea Indiana Jones style, and that it would have chocolate milk rivers. But if that doesn’t pan out, I think I could become a dream interpreter pretty easily.

Reasons Bova is Amazing!!!!

Tomorrow is Bova’s birthday, so I’ve decided to compile a list of some favorite Bova memories/reasons why Bova is amazing!!!! In honor of Bova, this post also has 30% more exclamation marks!!! These are mostly in the order I thought of them while driving home from work, and should not be considered a comprehensive, authoritative, or even factual list. Since there are way too many things that are amazing about Bova to fit in one blog post, I’ve decided to simply use some of the lesser known ones that I, her fellow THE 434 member, have special memories of.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1. Night of the Comet

You seriously do not even know how amazing this is

You seriously do not even know how amazing this is

Night of the Comet is your typical sci-fi disaster post-Apocalyptic zombie movie mixed with a sassy coming of age story all set to a ironically awesome 80′s soundtrack. I was skeptical in the beginning too, but Night of the Comet did not disappoint. Every time I thought it couldn’t get even more awesome, IT FOUND A WAY. Another amazing movie I would never have experienced if Bova hadn’t taken her D3 professor’s derisive comments about its lack of scientific accuracy to heart and ordered it on impulse from Amazon Marketplace. Not only do I think about Bova every time I remember how great this movie was, I also learned from her and it the valuable lesson that impulse purchases of questionable taste are ALWAYS even more amazing than you could ever expect. For instance: the time I rented Santa’s Slay.
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Times I Have Almost Died: Helping Others

I know I have a job tutoring math, but I mainly do that for the Lying to Children aspects as much as the Helping Others part. So you can tell how hard this is for me. I wouldn’t be doing it at all, except instead of having a Wafflemaker Off of Epic Proportions last night, I made Steven watch Labyrinth with me instead.

Blockbuster Guy: I have the Collector’s Edition of this.
Me: Cool!
Blockbuster Guy: Yeah, and the Jareth action figure.
Me: Of course you have the Jareth action figure.
Blockbuster Guy: This movie is so awesome… it even makes me forgive David Bowie for trying to act.
Me: He was SO acting! He changed tight pants in like every scene! Just when you think there are no more tight pants in the world for David Bowie to wear, HE FINDS SOME!
Blockbuster Guy: I mean… if you’re into that.
Steven: I am already having doubts about the goodness of this movie.

Anyway, Steven learned a valuable lesson about goblins and I made friends with a Blockbuster employee (current life goal), so I feel that, despite a waffle lack, it was a night well spent. But that leaves me with nothing to write about today (besides Blockbuster employees). So, I have decided to help others. Sigh.

The Adventures of Cynthia Bova
As an integral part of THE 434, Bova’s blog is maybe my blog’s sister, or at least some kind of hot cousin. We originally battled for supremacy, but eventually decided that the Internet was big enough for us to coexist. She writes more about her personal life than I do (I only write about mine when it is AWESOME, which is often, so that’s okay) but definitely holds the market share on exclamation point use. My paltry attempts at Bova-levels of punctuation excitement don’t even come close. Also, it’s Bova. Come on.

NASCAR News
My cousin maybe knows too much about NASCAR, to the point where sometimes I don’t understand anything when he talks. Last time I visited, I asked if a NASCAR anchor was what he wanted to be when he grew up, and he gave me this withering look and said, “I am one already.” Clearly. I don’t know what I was thinking. Anyway, despite not understanding the content at all, I still think his videos are super cute, especially when Mr. Biffle, his dog, or Patricia Ladd, his intrepid cousin, are guest anchors. I can’t wait to say that I knew him when he was producing videos in his garage.

Andrew Coffin Fox’s Kind of Emo Extravaganza of Amazingness!!!!!!!
Andrew is apparently really bad at coming up with titles to draw people in (“Andrew Coffin Fox’s Blog”?) so I helped him out here a little. I know, so much with the helping people. I’ll probably have to skip class to go lie down after this. Andrew is one of the infamous Brothers Fox and may or may not be a time traveler (he always denies it when I mention it; that was my first clue). Sometimes it seems like he’s trying to become a modern day Emily Dickinson, but other times there are comics!! Both are good times. Also, the tales of his epic struggle with his arch nemesis, the University of New Hampshire Academic Calendar! One day, Andrew, one day you will prevail. And look! Even though I bet he will never read this (not everyone is generous and amazing and good at wasting time like me), I’m not even saying anything bad about him. THAT’s helping others right there.

Came to my Senses & I chilled for a bit
We all know about my love for Alex Crompton. Naturally I assume that anyone who can run for SA president on the platform that he’s a better kisser than the other candidates has to have amazing post-college adventures. Unfortunately, he does not update enough so I am forced to imagine what he is doing, which is pretty much just as exciting. If he ever does update, I am sure I will be vindicated in thinking that he is becoming pale and tragic in a Parisian cafe trying to win the affections of a deaf Bulgarian immigrant girl while playing the accordion for change in the echoing tiled tunnels of the city Metro. If not, why not?

Okay. I need to go take someone’s seat on the bus to balance myself out.

Happy Emo Friday!

While archiving my old journals, I have come across two stellar premiers that have heretofore gone strangely unnoticed by the artistic and literary communities.

The first: my invention of emo comics in 2006, after a coworker at the library invited me to join the “Spinster Librarian Club”. Here was the comic response I drew in my journal of myself exiting the “Interstate de vie” (“writen in French b/c it’s classier”) onto Rural Route Spinster Librarian on the way to Scenic Alonesville. You can see my two library coworkers already ahead of me on the road:
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Things That Are Actually Pretty Awesome: A Rare Moment of Optimism

Shockingly, yesterday I went the entire day without thinking something, someone, or some esoteric concept was out to get me. Possibly a record. So, in celebration of my new-found and probably short-lived lack of paranoia, I thought I would write about some things that are actually pretty awesome. (I assume they will all be part of Friday’s “Things That Spell Our Doom” after they turn on me tomorrow).

1. High fives

Did you know that they have an amazing Wikipedia article, complete with how-to pictures and multiple “variations”? I didn’t until I googled it in an attempt to find a hilarious picture and then forgot what I was doing. Anyway, yesterday I taught a kid how to do long division and when he finally got it, he gave me a high five. It was pretty awesome, and the best possible form of payment for my stellar services. You know, besides money.
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