Lessons from the Negatives

Greetings from sunny Maine!

It actually is sunny; I'm not lying. However, in Maine winter, sun does not often equal warmth. This past week has been unbelievably cold here in Orono. The tv weather people are calling it Arctic Blast 2009. It's catchy. But also upsetting.

So, I've been dealing with the subzero temps like a champ. I've pulled out the YakTraks for the icy walk into campus and I've started backing into my parking spot so my windshield gets as much direct sunlight as possible before I get in the car in the morning. I've increased my layers and I have gloves stowed in each of my winter coats.

Alas, there are some things that I just can't prepare for. One thing I just cannot seem to handle: frozen water pipes.

Yesterday when I woke up, I noticed that the toilet water was extremely brown. Assuming digestive causes, I gave the toilet a quick flush and went to the sink to brush my teeth. No luck at the sink either... there was a quick spurt of water with what appeared to be coffee grounds in it, then nothing. I turned back to the toilet to see brown water rushing back into the toilet. Interesting.

After trying the kitchen sink, I was convinced that my roommate and I would be headed to campus even sooner than we planned. Our pipes were for sure frozen. Like a good renter, I called the landlord, left a message, and went to campus for the morning.

When my roommate and I got home around 1:30pm, we had water in all the familiar places. Success!! We both showered quite promptly.

Fast Forward a bit...

This morning I took advantage of the 4 day weekend by sleeping until 10:30am. Very nice. I strolled downstairs to find my roommate gone and hot water in the shower. So, I hopped in and showered happily while I thought about my plans for the day. As I was getting dressed upstairs in my room, I heard the singular pounding of the maintenance man on the front door. By the time I got myself (still wet) downstairs, the man was coming in and asking me if we had water.

"I think so..." I said with obviously wet hair.

"Did you call?" he queried.

"Yesterday."

"Yeah, we fixed it yesterday. Somebody called again."

At this point I'm just plain confused. And to be honest, a little bit ticked. If my roommate called, the least she could do was leave a note before she flew the coop.

The man asked if he could check the faucets and I of course stepped aside. As it turns out, I showered with residual water, because all of the pipes were frozen. Again. (By the way, my roommate didn't call and ditch, it must have been another tenant.)

About 4 hours and two broken pipes later, the last maintenance man left and we were able to brush our teeth at last.

Oh, and just to top it all off, I found out that the unheated basement - the cause of all our problems - is on our circuit. So, each time these fine gentlemen have to come out and use their heaters to thaw pipes for our building, my roommate and I foot the bill. For the entire house!

Basement Lights + Two heaters x 4 hours = A bill that should be picked up by the landlord or at least split evenly between all apartments involved.

Even though our temperatures are suppposed to be climbing in the next few days, we aren't going to see 33 degrees for a good while. I'll be talking to the responsible parties on Monday, because I have an inkling that this will not be the last pipe freeze this winter.

However, Maine winter is nothing if not educational, so I've come up with a list of things that I have learned so far. Some of these things I've learned by experience, but I'll let you guess which ones those are.

1. Our outside temps are cold enough to freeze flesh in ten minutes. I asked if that meant my flesh or a pork loin. I was told that "flesh" in this case refers to exposed skin. Gotcha.

2. When one freezes to death, the eyes go first causing blindness. I'm sure that's helpful.

3. My forehead is quite susceptible to cold. When I'm bundled up, it's the only thing that hurts a little because of the brisk wintery air. I guess I need to work on the bangs and hats.

4. Black ice is actually easy to spot in Maine because the road stuff makes the asphalt white through the winter months. Also, around here, it's just safe to assume that everything is iced over.

5. Bank thermometers register and broadcast negative temperatures. Who knew?

6. There is power steering fluid and it can freeze. I'm not sure if mine froze or my car just needed to warm up more, but I had some fun driving to campus one day. My roommate enjoyed my apparent struggle.


Okay, so six is a really odd number of learnings, but that will give you an idea of how I spend my days.

It looks like it's going to warm up a bit and snow tomorrow. I'm actually okay with that. Snow is not so bad. Frozen pipes are.

Tis the Season

Merry Christmas!

I'm here!

(Well, that is, if you are here too and we therefore share a "here.")

Anyway, hit me up. ;)

finals week.

finals week was quite eventful this semester. katie, steph, rachel and i went out on Monday night for my birthday to Cheeseburger in Paradise.

*steph and katie*
*the birthday girl :)*
I also put together goodie bags filled with candy and treats for my and katie's elderly friends at Langhorne Gardens Nursing and Rehabilitation Center where we play Bingo or Pokeno every Wednesday night.

*the final product.*
*i also put together a going-away present for Billy (he's transferring to a college in Florida) from Katie and i.*
*this is me and Addeline, my very favorite nursing home friend. she was very excited to take a picture with me, and she's holding her goodie bag proudly on display.*
*katie and i'm not sure i can remember her name. oops.*
*the ladies (i forget her name, eleanor, and pat) with the new guy (Joe) who's doing community service at the nursing home. ha!*
*katie and joe and oh stink i forget her name too. oops. i wasn't in these pictures because i went with Addie to her room and she was showing me pictures of her grandchildren :), and then we had a heart-felt goodbye until January 20 something.*
*rachel, billy, me, katie and steph. out on wednesday night to say goodbye to billy :(*
*ha. another one. rachel accidentally got cut out of the picture, but it was cute of me and billy.*
so there you have it. thanks for all the birthday wishes today. i am currently packing to come home and just finished watching a movie with rachel. i work tomorrow from 7am-10pm. pray for me. it will be rough. but i get to come home on Saturday morning!!!
love you all.
<3 jecca

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESSICA!

Happy minute you were born Jecca!Doesn't Dad look rested? Jecca sure does!

This was just the beginning of many long nights to come :)
Beautiful in lavendar!

Happy Birthday Jessica~have a good day~and come home!!

Cupcakes Anyone?

It's been a while since I teased you guys with a cupcake, so here you go!

This latest cupcake was very trying for me for several reasons.

1. I was baking for an actual event, not just because I wanted to bake.

2. The cake recipe calls for figs, but it's winter in Maine. I had to use dates.

3. I mistakenly used both the stick of butter called for and the stick of butter I was softening for the icing in the cake batter.

However...despite my best efforts to ruin them, these cupcakes are both tasty and cute. Observe:

These are Date Spice Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting and Fig Newton Books.

Last night I pre-gamed the cupcaking by decorating 24 Fig Newtons with tiny little book spines. I'm taking these to the potluck for my Young Adult Lit class. The course title is ERL 518.


And then when I started actually preparing the cupcakes this morning, I had to begin by stewing the dried dates. Let me just say . . . well, I'll just show you.

See? It's not good. I just don't like dried fruit too much. And I hate hate hate things with skins. And the dates started out dried and then - with the stewing - gave up their skins. Ugh. I'm making an ew face just thinking about it again. It makes my own skin feel a little crawly.

Anyway, I powered through the stewing portion of the show and then opted for the food processor rather than the "chopping" that the recipe demanded. I just couldn't be handling the dates that much. The processing worked just fine.

Dates aside, the recipe was quite nice. I made some lovely - read odd - buttermilk and combined that with some reserved date water and I was on my way! Please note the snow. It continued to snow all day today. Again. I'm so over it.

The cupcakes are really helping me cope with the snow for sure. Haha. Don't question it, just let it be.

Here's a wacky picture of both my life at the moment and one of the cupcakes. Notice the stack of books in the background. They'll be going to class with me tomorrow too.


So, that's what I've been up to lately. What about you?

random update.

all of these pictures uploaded backwards. i'm not too excited about that, but it'll have to do. these are just some random pictures from the past week or two that i thought you all might enjoy.

*josh getting in touch with his earth-nature.*

*the sweetest boots i've ever found, at a thrift store in Bangor, ME. they were a little too big. i was devastated.*

*these next two pictures might not interest you in the least, but they are my pride and joy. i did a semester-long business project where i had to come up with my own company... anyways, it was legit... and this was the store i was going to rent.*

*josh looked the best in this lovely wig.*

*this picture was taken only minutes after the tears of joy had dried from josh's wonderful surprise. i was in shock.*

*this, my dear family, is my smokin' hot business attire worn for my final business presentation. i got a 98.225% on the presentation. woohoo!!!*

alright, i guess that's it. i didn't take many pictures in Maine because josh and amanda had such cool cameras that mine paled in comparison. i'll post again soon hopefully... with birthday pics possibly :)

<3 jecca