murphy hall list

Things I love about Murphy Hall:

1. Arlene, the concession stand lady. Always gives me my hot water for free.
2. Saying hello to the same person three to six times a day as we pass in the halls.
3. My practice room. The messy piano covered with papers, the smell of it, the way I have to pull on the handle to unlock it, constantly being interrupted by Eliud, my crazy Puerto-Rican roommate...
4. The fourth floor theory classroom and the windows that won't shut.
5. Swarthout in all its glory.
6. The fountain that never seems to be working quite right.
7. Basking in the sun in the courtyard.
8. Running into Dr. Winerock... "Hello, hello, how are you, how're you doing, fine, fine, fine..."
9. Singing in the choir room.
10. The couches in the third floor east hallway, where I can sit in the sun, read my paper, and eat my lunch.
11. Fifth floor din.

puctuation list

My favorite punctuation marks:

1. (Parenthesis)
2. Question mark?
3. Ellipses...
4. Dash --
5. "Quotation marks"
6. Ampersands &
7. Asterisk*
8. Hyphen (but only when creating made-up hyphenated words)
9. Semi-colon;
10. Colon:
11. Backslash/

(Not a dork, not a dork, not a dork...)

salad ingredients list

Best things to put in/on a salad (though probably not in this particular combination):

1. Spinach

2. Peas

3. Bean sprouts

4. Onions

5. Balsamic vinegar

6. Banana peppers

7. Broccoli

8. Tomatoes

9. Sunflower seeds

10. Chicken

11. Strawberries

worth sharing

grandma's house list

Things I loved about going to Grandma Nelson's house as a kid:

1. The constant presence of lefse, butter, and sugar.
2. The smell of coffee, cigarette smoke, and au gratin potatoes in the oven.
3. Having aunts, uncles, and cousins constantly stopping by... Darci would sing bad 90s rock songs and Paul would tell me I'm full of baloney.
4. Playing pet shop in the living room and making cages for the animals with her couch cushions.
5. Singing ridiculous songs together: All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth, Good Morning, Bananas in Pajamas, etc.
6. Playing outside, which consisted of sneaking into Grandpa's shop and playing with the sawdust, riding bikes around and around their driveway and sidewalks, building cities in the sandbox, and eating apples off the tree by the swingset (and getting in trouble for it every time).
7. Always knowing where to find Grandpa -- in his chair in the TV room, doing crosswords and watching the soaps.
8. Playing "pool" in the basement -- which mostly consisted of rolling the pool balls across the table at each other and trying to have one of those thrilling collisions.
9. Looking at the stacks and stacks of old wedding pictures.
10. Playing with Tabitha and getting scratched most of the time.
11. Watching PBS and drinking Quik with lunch, usually served to me on a TV tray in the living room.