Not-so-failed plans! (Summer Week 3)

Despite spending time with several visiting friends, I got a lot more done this week! Having seven goals total to worry about was a bit much, but I'm not likely to have this many things to do every week. Let's review, shall we?

Goals Met

• Learn how to cook saag paneer. The recipe I ended up following was this one, from Saveur. A nearby store has stocked paneer in the past, but it was missing from the shelves when we were shopping for ingredients - either out-of-stock or not highly demanded by other shoppers. While the Saveur article included a recipe for the cheese, I was hungry and didn't quite feel up to making the paneer, as well. At my mom's suggestion, I tried substituting fresh mozzarella, adding it in right at the end, and I would say it worked very well! As the recipe called for a serrano chile and cayenne, the saag ended up very spicy, but it was also delicious and beautiful and I realized right after I finished eating it that I'd forgotten to take a picture of my creation for this post. I was a tiny bit gutted, but I don't regret a bite.
• Post a new cover. After an unsuccessful attempt at a brand new cover, I decided to finally make a video for an old one I'd never posted. My laptop's video editor has been on the fritz, so I had to get the audio file onto my phone and then use the YouTube Capture app to make a video, but I'm glad I finally figured out a way to get the song on my channel as more than an empty black screen. I covered Coldplay's "The Scientist."
• Draw ten new portraits. I'm not yet quite confident enough to post my drawings online, so you'll just have to take my word for it that I met this goal. I drew two camp counselors and several little hipster girls.

Goals Met... Sorta

• Work out almost everyday this week. While I worked out more than I did the week before last, I still didn't work out as many times as I'd wanted. Hopefully I can get around to it more often this week!
• Watch three movies new to me. Since summer's started, I've watched four new movies (Cabin in the Woods, Pacific Rim, How to Train Your Dragon 2, and Grand Budapest Hotel), but only one of those was really watched in the last week, so I didn't really meet this goal.

Goals Not Actually Met At All

• Make real progress in a fun book. Other than a few blurbs during a recent trip to Copperfield's, I haven't truly done any reading yet this summer... But hopefully that will change soon!

New Goals

• Finish the Wong Kar-Wai "trilogy." I loved the Wong Kar-Wai film I saw winter quarter (In the Mood for Love), and I've been meaning to finish the unofficial trilogy it's a part of. And now I have the time!
• Post another cover, and include percussion. I love acoustic covers with soft percussion parts, but I haven't done one myself. Julia Nunes' amazing cover of "Redshift" by Darwin Deez inspired me to try it out. (The original song is amazing, as well!)
• Go to lap swim at least once. A friend and I have, in years past, gone to lap swim together almost every night, and I'd love to go back with her now that we're both free again for several months.
• Make another meal from some recipe I find online. During the summer, I have a habit of eating the same things everyday (recently: salad, avocado toast, and more avocado toast), so I'm hoping to start making at least one interesting meal a week for the sake of mixing it up a little and finding new recipes for this next school year.

I'm itching to add more goals to that list, but I don't want to sign up for more than I have time for. But - oh, what's that? You want something more? You're bored? You want - sorry, repeat that? Oh! A new blog to read? Well, what a coincidence...

I present to you: my boyfriend's blog! It's called Once More Unto Thy Feet - An Ex-Runner Learns to Run. Dan is hilarious and interesting and a great writer, and, while there are only two posts to date, they're both funny, engaging, and entertaining. Enjoy!

Failed plans

So... None of that happened. I was visiting and being visited by people I love. The goals can wait.

I'm going to try again this week, but let's add a few more goals.

• Work out almost everyday this week. I haven't been able to much lately, for the same reasons last week's plans fell through.
• Watch three movies new to me. I was hardly able to watch any movies or TV shows during the school year. This summer's for catching up.

Wish me better luck this week!

Summer Day One

My freshman year of college is over. It broke my heart to move out yesterday. My roommate and I pulled an all-nighter that last night. It was surprisingly easy. And now I'm home!

I want to try to actually get things done this summer. As always. But here's my plan for this summer, so that I both blog and do stuff. Key word? "Plan." We'll see how well this works out.

I'm going to check in once a week, with a new list of plans and a recap of how the previous week's plans turned out (Panned out? PLANned out? I'm tired.), with some pictures!

So, WEEK ONE PLANS

• Learn how to cook saag paneer. I love it so much, I should probably know how to make it. I've already found a few recipes online that I can choose from.
• Post a new cover. Wednesday, my friend Sean and I did a cover of "When We First Met" by Hellogoodbye, which is one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite bands.
• Draw ten new portraits. I've been learning how to use some nice new pens of mine, and drawing portraits has been a fun way for me to do that. Not only would I like to draw at least ten more - I'd like to post them here, as well!
• Make real progress in a fun book. I've started and had to stop a few different books this last school year, but I'd really like to actually finish quite a few this summer. The first book I'm planning to finish is Notes from a Coma by Mike McCormack.

Wish me luck!

Music... Wednesdays?

Maybe I'll make music... Mondays... a thing. Music Wednesdays doesn't have a fantastic ring, but I have no patience and wanna post music recommendations now.

So, Foster the People just put out a new album, "Supermodel." It's really really good. So is their first album, "Torches," which I'm now finally listening to all the way through.

All of Daniela Adrade's covers and original songs are really good.

This song is silly. And surprisingly catchy.

There you have it.

oops it's been a quarter

Winter quarter just ended on Saturday.

And GOOD RIDDANCE.

It was simultaneously more and less difficult than fall quarter, but it definitely involved less sleep.

And that's that. Moving on.

I've spent basically all day in bed. I can count the number of times I've stood up today on, tops, one and a half hands. I know that's not really the best way to count how many times I've stood up today, so let's say the blood isn't being properly circulated to my brain or something else that might happen from not moving enough.

I got all caught up on "Community," I finally watched "A Very Potter Senior Year," and, now, I'm watching DailyGrace videos.

I've got to do something tomorrow.

It's evening now. What can I do today? My plans are basically just to workout and relax some more. I might make a cover, I might make a vlog, I might just end up watching "2046" and then rewatching old episodes of "Buffy."

Actually, now that I've mentioned it, watching "Buffy" sounds really nice.

This upcoming quarter will hopefully come with a lot more free time. I'm planning to volunteer with the campus radio station, attend club meetings again, actually go to lap swim and not just get scared away by mean people, and, hopefully, put up more videos and blog posts.

We'll see how that goes.

Hope all is well with you 5 followers!

3 a.m. is child's play

In one of my classes today, my professor said she sometimes gets emails from students at 3 a.m.. My friend who comes to the gym with me from 12-1 a.m. and rarely goes to bed before 4 just looked at me and started laughing, and I joked that 3 a.m. was nothing. Today, though, the one assignment I was planning to do is essentially done, and I just have to prepare some stuff for my chemistry lab tomorrow, and then I'm done for the night. I don't even know what to do with myself.
Maybe I'll wake up at 8 instead of 9:30! Maybe I'll wake up at 7! Maybe I'll - wait for it - eat breakfast.
I used to wake up at 5:45 every morning and go to sleep at 9:30 or 10:30, at the beginning of high school. By the end, I was going to sleep more often around 12:30, but I was still getting up by 6 everyday to go to my 7:20 classes. Nowadays, I'm rarely awake before 8:30 and rarely asleep before 3:30. I don't remember the last time I looked at the clock and saw it was 7 a.m..
I would love to start waking up early again, but, honestly, I also do enjoy staying up late. Maybe if I go to bed a little earlier, though, just so I can get up a little earlier, too, it would be a good idea.
Next year, when I live near a tiny pool and don't have to worry about being the slowest swimmer in a campus pool's slow lane (because tiny pools don't have lanes!), I might go back to getting up around 6 every day to swim, the way I did a few summers back. Maybe I'll do that this summer, too, now that I have a bike and can get to the pool without my mom complaining about the time.

Maybe not, though.

We'll see.