hey you with the pretty face, welcome to the human race

Well it's the start of another busy week here at USC. Mondays are always the worst days for me...nonstop running around. I've decided that Whole Foods might just be the best place ever. I ate there two or three times this weekend. They have sushi and sandwiches and a very delicious salad bar. The prices are fairly expensive and I can't find a diet pepsi can in the whole of that store, but they offer a huge array for vegetarian frozen meals now. 5 years ago when I became a vegetarian, Morningstar Farms was pretty much the only brand that offered veggie options so I'd be stuck eating gardenburgers morning, noon and night. Got very boring. But now they have an entire aisle! I feel like I'm in heaven every time I walk into that store. I ran into my old basketball coach from circa 5th grade when I was actually still somewhat athletic. He said that I looked all grown up which was much nicer to hear than the usual "wow, you havent changed a bit. You look exactly the same!" that I have gotten from past teachers and other people. 6th grade was a horrible time for me in terms of fashion. I was one of the tallest girls in my class, very awkward, and I wore clothes that didn't go together. I do not want to be reminded that I look the same as I did in 6th grade.

At monday night dinner tonight we had a practice fire drill where we had to exit the second floor from one of the bedrooms. What a site to see I'm sure. We didn't have a permanent fire escape from our window so we had to use this portable chainlink one. I didn't have much confidence in it supporting me or breaking my fall when I would inevitably slip and plummet two stories. We had to squeeze between the window and this gate and then lift our legs up and hoist ourselves over the gate. I managed to do it and felt very spy-like. It was pretty easy to climb down from there but the whole time I was looking out to see which girl I could break my fall on if i were to slip. I survived and have been elevated to the level of ninja, but it's something I hope not to do again.

I developed my first real print today in photography. I'm really enjoying this class. I think I might be slowly going blind from being in the extreme dark and then immediately running outside to check my prints, but it's a risk I'm willing to take. My birthday is coming up in less than 2 weeks! It's on February 13th and I'll be 20 years old. Amazing.
Oh, also I must say that today is January 31st and I want to take a quick moment to mention that today would be my sister's birthday if she was alive. I don't want to dwell on it because I have written a few posts on the subject already, but I like to take today to think of the memories I could have had if Andrea was here but also to be so happy and grateful for the memories I have with my family over the last 20 years. I couldn't ask for more.