My Favorite Item of Clothing

Being a committed lover of fashion with an intense designer shoe fetish, you might expect my favorite item of clothing to be a dress or a pair of stiletto heels. I have many dresses and spiky heels that come close to being my favorite, but they will always come in second place to my ratty old UGG house shoes. My house shoes spend more time on my feet than any other pair of Jimmy Choo's ever will, which is why they deserve first place. They are buttery suede in a camel brown color with light tan sherpa fur around the edges. The fur on the inside of the shoes is wearing off in some places and has been completely flattened by my feet. On the left shoe, the fur around the edges has been chewed off, serving as a snack for my dog. They have seen me through the early mornings of high school and the late nights studying in college. I have been wearing them for almost five years and I don't plan on getting rid of them any time soon! 

Something awful I had to eat

Writing about my favorite meal made me think about my second favorite meal which is mashed potatoes. Unfortunately, last night I had an attempted version of mashed potatoes that almost made me want to abandon my love of mashed potatoes (I never ever thought that I would say that!). I love food in general and will eat almost anything, so when I say that something is awful it is certifiably awful. When I stuck my spoon into the bowl of mashed potatoes on my table at the BLUU, I could tell right away that something wasn't right. The bouncy texture of the potatoes wiggled as my spoon dug into them. Despite my apprehension, I tried the potatoes--a substantial mistake. They were chewy! Mashed potatoes are supposed to be velvety and smooth, not rubbery. I am positive that if I had thrown them against the wall they would have bounced like a basketball. My friend concluded that they were made out of the cardboard box that the potatoes come packaged in, not the actual potatoes. I believe her and if you had tasted those potatoes you would too. 

My Favorite Meal

Thinking about my favorite meal is making me hungry as I write, especially because I have been living off of my typical college diet of cereal and pop-tarts. My favorite meal is so delicious that it is one of the things that I look forward to the most when I am driving home. The meal is not some elaborate feast at a fancy restaurant. Its surprisingly simple: macaroni and cheese. Although it is simple, its uniqueness is in the fact that it is a gourmet pre-prepared meal from a small local grocery store in Oklahoma City. My mom knows that I love it, so she always stocks up right before I come home. It consists of oversized macaroni noodles with four cheeses baked on top and some kind of creamier cheese covering the rest. When I put it in the microwave, it sizzles during the last 15 seconds as the distinct cheesy smell sails through the kitchen. The smell assures me that I am in the comfort of a loving home. I guess that makes my favorite meal a comfort food, which is precisely why I love it. It resinates with home. 

Where I was when I first heard...

Its been three years but I still remember exactly where I was and what was going through my mind when I first heard about my cousin Jayce's death. On the night that it happened in April 2006, my family and I attended an initiation ceremony for a peer leader program that I would be doing as a senior the following year. I remember the headmaster of my school giving a speech at the initiation that could have put a caffeine-induced hyperactive 6-year-old to sleep within five minutes. As he rambled through his speech, his raspy voice going in one of my ears and out the other, I just wanted to get out of the lecture hall as soon as possible because I was bored. I had no idea what was going on with my family members in Wewoka, Oklahoma. Now I know that they would have given anything to be listening to a boring speech that night, instead of spending it in the Seminole hospital. 

After the initiation, I went with my boyfriend and my two best friends to Taco Bell to eat dinner. The headmaster's hour-long speech made us hungry enough to eat our arms, and food was the only thing on everyone's mind. I had my cell phone turned on silent mode from the initiation, so I never heard my mom's dozen phone calls and the text message that caused me to almost wreck my car when I read it. As I was driving home from Taco Bell, I checked my phone and noticed all of these calls and text messages. I read the first text message from my mom. It said, "Jayce was killed in a four wheeler accident." The bluntness of those words jumped out from the phone- I had to read them twice before I could fully comprehend what my mom had told me. The reality of the fact that my little 12-year-old cousin's life was cut short did not set in for a couple of days, but I will never forget that moment when I first heard the tragic news. 

My Car

All of my friends call my car the "soccer mom car," and I think that is the perfect phrase to describe it. It is a Lexus RX 330 SUV (the model that has sort of an egg shape) that is black on the outside and tan on the inside. It promise that is the most dependable car in the world. I can see why a mom would want to drive her precious cargo (aka children) around in it, trusting lives in its hands. I have put many miles (I'm not sure of the exact number) on it, constantly driving back and forth between Oklahoma City and Fort Worth, but it has yet to break down. "Lexy" as I like to call her has seen her fair share of the I-35 highway. Her dependability is what makes up her inside beauty, but she is physically beautiful as well! The shiny black exterior paint has numerous nicks and scrapes on it, showing off the everyday use of the car. Some people may think that these are annoying marks that need to be repainted, however, I think that they give the car character. On the back windshield is my official TCU parking sticker, a Chi Omega sticker, and a plain TCU sticker. The inside consists of light tan leather seats that are subtly wrinkled and worn from my friends and myself sitting in them. In the back is a clothes rod to hang my clothes on when I travel back to Oklahoma City for breaks and such. The floor carpets have grass and dirt scattered about them with several stains from various drinks as well. Despite all of the wear and tear, Lexy is beautiful and new in my eyes, serving as my faithful companion on the road for the past couple of years. 

The Desk-Throwing Teacher

My ninth grade English teacher was not my least favorite teacher ever; however, I am absolutely positive that she was certifiably nuts. Mrs. Richardson was as thin as a pencil with short dusty blond hair that she kept in a shaggy bob cut. She was an avid Oklahoma State fan and her room was covered in black and orange OSU parafanalia. Everyday she wore a matching pants and shirt outfit that always had some crazy print on it. She was effective in teaching my class of freshman a significant amount of literature-- Romeo and Juliet, Lord of the Flies, and the Odyssey. But, as freshman year progressed I could tell that something about her was off. 

Her frustration with the wild and unfocused boys in my class culminated into a momentous explosion during the second semester. She was attempting to get a class discussion started on one of the books we were reading. After asking a girl named Paige, a quiet but rebelious student, a question and receiving a sarcastic answer, Mrs. Richardson proceeded to scream at the class, calling out individual students on their misbehavior. The dramatic episode cilmaxed at the point when her tiny body picked up a desk and threw it across the room. Along with the rest of the class, I could not believe my eyes had just witnessed a teacher throw a desk. 

My Room at Home

My favorite part about going home is having a room all to myself-- not just any room, my room. When I walk into my room, the fragrance of a candle instantly confronts my nose at the door. The light green walls set relaxing and soothing mood. The first thing to catch my eye is my king size bed. It is relatively low to the ground with a beautiful antique wood headboard with gold hardware on the posts. The fluffy white comforter and pillows tempt me to jump into the bed and never get up again. Against one wall is a refinished white antique dresser containing all of the t-shirts I didn't bring to college. A matching buffet table sits against another wall with picture frames of family and friends from high school sitting on top. My silver flat screen television is mounted above it. A metallic gold night stand table sits next to my bed. It is probably my favorite piece of furniture in my room-- my mom and I found it in an antique shop in Oklahoma City. My room is my favorite place in the world, because it is the only place where I can be completely serene.