Pretty Pessimist

It’s 1 a.m. and I am absolutely exhausted.  I’m writing because it’s been a while; I’ve been really busy lately.  I’ve said a few times that I’m going to California for spring break, my aunt and I leave Friday morning, and I’ve been trying to get everything that needs doing done before then.  This is not as easy as it sounds, so much so in fact that the one thing I’ve run out of time for is getting groceries for Matt.  Poor guy is going to have to do his own grocery shopping while I’m away.  He asked me to make him a list, hopefully I’ll have time.

I have a comparative lit mid-term tomorrow night and I’m sufficiently nervous about it.  She sent us some example questions, which are supposed to make you feel more at ease about what’s coming, and help prepare, but all they did is make me feel nauseous and worried.  I’ve been preparing over The Lais of Marie de France and I need to re-read it or at least skim and update my notes, but I don’t think I’ll have time.  Hopefully what I know will be enough.  I do know that when it comes time, I’ll sit down and write what I know and do the best I can, but I have a lot of fear about it.  My prof told us to bring at least two blue books, which is making me feel very anxious.  Two blue books for one question.   Three hours is all we have to write, so hopefully I’ll be able to organize my thoughts enough to write a cohesive, informative essay.  I can tell you this, I’ll be glad when it’s done and I don’t have to worry about it anymore… of course then I’ll worry about how I did.

Tonight, I had American lit which is always a fun class.  I had a short response paper due, which I got done last night, and it seemed to stand up against what my classmates were doing.  The day the papers are due we go around and discuss them, which tonight took almost the whole 3 hours for eight papers.  It was a good discussion and we’re onto the next book, Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls, which I might take to California with me because I need to have most of it read by the Wednesday after spring break.  Okay, it’s a lie, I probably won’t take it, I’ll take a book I want to read for enjoyment and enjoy reading it!  I’ll read Hemingway when I get home.

To compound the busyness, my sleep is all out of whack.  A few nights ago, I didn’t get to sleep until almost 6 a.m. and got up at 2 p.m. and then last night I got to sleep at 4 a.m. and got up at 12:30 p.m..  This is a problem for a lot of reasons.  With my impending trip, I have to be up at 3 a.m. on Friday morning, so I can leave by 4:15 a.m. to be in Springtown in time for Matt to get back here by 9 a.m. for a statistics quiz because his prof’s a freaking tyrant and won’t let him make it up.  She things he’s BSing her because it’s the last day before spring break.  GRRR.  Anyway, if I’m going to get any sleep at all, I’m going to have to be in bed shortly after my mid-term, about 9:30 p.m. and even then I’ll only get like five and a half hours sleep.  With my sleep the way it is right now, there’s no way I’ll be able to go to sleep at 9:30 p.m.  I guess I’m going to have to try, else my trip is going to be miserable.

Okay, so now that I’ve bitched a bit about everything I have going on, I need to run.  It’s getting late and if I have any hope of being up in time to study for my mid-term, I need to get to bed.  This is the last post before I head out to the west coast, but I’ll try to update when I get there.  Good night!

I have been totally slacking on the blog-front lately, shame on me.  I’ve been crazy busy with class, and trying to get things done before I leave for California on Friday morning, and trying to spend as much time as I can with Matt before my trip.  The good news is, I should be able to update my blog along the way since I’m taking my awesome netbook.  I’m also taking my camera and will try to include some pics along the way.  I don’t have net service apart from what I can get as free wifi along the way, or net at my moms, but will try to update when we stop in Flagstaff or Kingman for the night on Saturday.

Other than school work and trip planning and husband coddling, I’ve just been trying to keep my house clean.  Seeing how I’ll be gone for a week and a half, the cleaner it is now the less I’ll have to do when I get home.  Matt’s bound to make a huge mess while I’m gone,  he’s crazy messy,  so more work now means less work later… or at least that’s what I’m telling myself.  I’ve got to do the grocery shopping on Tuesday and there’s a video game Matt wants that comes out then, so I’m going to try to get that for him.

Let’s see, I also wanted to share a bit of writing news.  Melanie and I have formed writing group!!  We both want to write more, and we both need support, so we’re writing together.  She gets all the credit for this awesome idea, it dawned on her while we were in class a few weeks ago.  We’ve decided to get together every Thursday afternoon for a few hours, to write and support one another’s writing, before our Thursday class.  We’ve had one session so far and it was amazing and productive.  We missed last week because I’m a total slacker, but will be getting together this coming Thursday to write again.  I’m really looking forward to it.  Truly, it was an inspired idea!  Then, of course, we’ll miss getting together the week I’m in CA, but will pick it up again the week after spring break.  Looking very forward to it and to the productivity that the first session proved to be.  It definitely renewed my interest in my novel in progress, Remembering Tomorrow, so I’m working on that again.

Finally, I added a “Portfolio” page to this blog as a place for me to keep a collection of links to work I’ve done around the net — it’s a relatively small list, but it’s growing.  I’ve also started a new blog over the last few days, a book blog called ‘A Turn of Page,’ if you’re interested — if you go to that site, can you tell me how it looks.  It looks fine on my computers, but I like to be sure it looks okay otherwise.  I need a new blog like I need a hole in the head, but I love blogging and I love books, so it works.

Anyway, that’s all I have for the time being.  Adieu.

I know that I posed a recipe a few days ago, but I just couldn’t resist this one.  This isn’t my recipe, I found it on this blog a few months ago and I’ve been dying to make it ever since, but keep forgetting to get the ingredients.  I managed to remember last time I was at Wal-Mart, and got around to making them tonight.

Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Fudge Cupcakes

1 box Chocolate Cake Mix
2 Eggs, Oil, & Water
1 bag Chocolate Chips
2 Tbsp Butter
2 tsp Vanilla
1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk
24 Cupcake Wrappers

1. Mix cake by package directions. I used Dark Chocolate Fudge, but any chocolate cake will work. Use one less egg than the recipe calls for (ie. my cake called for 3, I only used 2), that way the cupcakes are less like cake and more moist and fudgy.

2. Add 1/2 c. chocolate chips. The original recipe calls for semi-sweet, but I used milk chocolate. It turned out to be a good contrast with the dark chocolate cake.

3. Spoon into cupcake wrappers.  I use a cookie scoop because it’s easy to maneuver.  Two scoops per wrapper is about right.

4. Bake 20 minutes at 350 degrees, until a toothpick inserted in one comes out clean. Cool.

5. When cupcakes are cooled, clear a spot in the fridge and put down wax paper. I used foil, for lack of waxed paper, but waxed paper would be much better. They sort of stuck to the foil.

6. In medium bowl, melt butter about 30 seconds. Add vanilla, 2 c. chocolate chips, and sweetened condensed milk. Melt together all ingredients about another 30 seconds, stirring until smooth. Heat in increments of 15 seconds, if necessary, stirring between heating to make sure you don’t over cook it. Overcooked ganache is not pretty, so be careful.

6. Set ganache aside for 5 or so minutes. The ganache is really runny, so letting it cool will make it easier to work with.

7. Once ganache has set up a little, frost cupcakes with rubber spatula and place in the fridge immediately. I frosted one and put it right in the fridge, repeat. That way, the cold in the fridge can slow ganache from running off the cupcake completely. It will overflow onto the sides, and the cupcakes will look pretty!  Make sure you don’t try dipping the cupcakes into the ganache, it’ll just tear them up… trust me on this one.

8. Let cupcakes stand in fridge for about 2 hours, or until the ganache is completely set up.  When they’re set up, take them out of the fridge and serve with a big glass of milk!!

There you have it.  The one thing I’ll say is that this recipe took me a long time.  It wasn’t quick.  I can only cook the cupcakes 12 at a time, so mixing them up and baking them took about an hour.  Then, they had to cool and frosted, which took another hour or so.  I may have a skewed memory of the amount of time it took to make them because I made dinner between baking them and frosting them.  Then they had to sit.  So yeah, not a quick recipe but worth every second it took making them, because they’re delicious and because I had a fun baking them.

If you decide to try it, I’d love it if you’d share pictures of yours with me.  I just love the way they look!

Bon Appétit!!