Growing Things -- Eighty Third Post

I've been absent for a while. I could blame this on school, and up until the middle of December, that would be true.
I haven't been really busy with school for the past month and a half, man. I've just been lazy as all get out. I mean, I've done some stuff, but I get really tired when I do just one thing (research) all day and then have to go home and work on applying to graduate schools. Bleh. I slept all the time during Jan Term. All. The. Time.

This happened, too. I love making snowmen, because my hometown has crappy snow.

The times when I wasn't sleeping, I was at a friend's house where we are crawling through Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, a fantastic anime series based on a manga that I would love to find and read. Having seen both dubbed and subbed, I can say that the dub is pretty good. You should watch it.
When I wasn't watching TV at my friend's, I was doting over my plants. I love growing things. Over my abnormally long Christmas Break, I was overcome with a need to plant all the seeds. I stayed up late researching how to grow mangoes (got one for Christmas), pomegranates (got one to eat on Christmas), grapefruits, and oranges and it turned out to be supposedly simple.
Since pomegranates have ten million seeds, it wasn't hard to make them plantable. It's a bit harder to keep them alive once they've sprouted, but I've got one out of the five (out of about 24) that sprouted still kicking. Not the best ratio, but I just want one to mature. I don't need 24 pomegranate trees.
Mangoes are harder because of that slippery flesh and the woody seedcoat. I probably maimed it because my information was bad (do not pry the seed coat open at the fat end, that's where the embryonic root joins the seed), but it appears to be not dead yet. Like avocados, mangoes are supposedly able to sprout in water before being planted in dirt. Unlike avocados, however, you have to clean out the water and mine doesn't appreciate being stabbed by toothpicks even though someone on youtube did it no problem and they have to be fully submerged and... It's just generally a different process. However, mine is developing a little shoot, which is encouraging. I have to remind myself that my avocado took months to sprout, and that big seeds are just going to take longer because, frankly, they can afford to. Little seeds have to get those chlorophyll loaded cells up into the sunlight as fast as plantly possible once they get wet, but big seeds have huge stores of energy.

Fat mango seed with all its energy stores.

 Speaking of avocados, mine is about five months old (as of sprouting; closer to eight or nine as of planting, yet another illustration of big seeds taking their own sweet time) and I'm super proud of it. It's got a million leaves (11) and is super tall (1.5 feet at most) and just got repotted with apparent success. I'm pretty happy. I named it Avogadro (long time ago) because that's a chemistry joke that I would deserve to be shot if I didn't make. Almedeo Avogadro, man, what a guy. Discovered one of the most fundamental concepts of chemistry, was a revolutionary, had six kids, and no one ever remembers his first name.

A humble homage to the great man.

 My grapefruit seeds and orange seed (clementine-type) are kind of under the radar right now, but the grapefruits definitely sprouted in a baggy before I planted them and have hopefully not rotted in the soil, while I just stuck the orange seed in some dirt.

Citrus seeds not doing anything interesting.

And, because I'm obsessed, a bunch of Chinese Lantern seeds went into a pot. They've sprouted and turn towards the light like pros. 

Follow the lights!

After weeks/months of seeing "grow your own garlic!" pins on Pintrest, I finally decided to plant one of the garlic cloves laying around my kitchen (in a Häagen-Dazs^® Mango Sorbet pint container because it's deep enough), and that's already sprouted, yay! I also planted four spinach seeds (Nobel Spinach from Winco) in the same container.

Gettin' in on this instant gratification/grow your own food thing.

 Also, I have a hyacinth bulb that my grandmother gave me. It was already started, but it's starting to turn purple.

I love those vases, too.

So, to recap: I can't do things and also do other things at the same time and I love plants.

16 Things To Do This Summer

I'm deviating from my normal post-naming method because this post is mostly a list. It is still the Fifty Sixth Post, it's just going incognito.
While taking my daily stroll around my development, I was struck by the temptation to run through sprinklers. This is, I believe, a typical summer activity, but I couldn't let go of the idea. My list of things to do this summer began thus:
1. Run through someone else's sprinklers.
2. Get the paper route three blocks up if that stupid guy ever returns my calls.
3. Start the job at the concessions stand.
4. Go to San Francisco with my family.
5. Save $3,000 so that I have a shot at not bankrupting myself in England.
6. Tutor the (understandably) crabby 13-year-old for money, I hope.

This is hardly a practical list for other people. Most other people are not getting a job at a local baseball team's concessions stand, going to England in the fall, or going to San Francisco with my family.
Because I am going to be bored and lonely this summer, even when my jobs start up, I decided to google some lists of things to do in the summer, then make my own list.
Most of them are stupid, teenage-specific, regional, or for large groups. As I am not stupid, teenaged (turned 20 last September), in the regions specified, or a large group, I saw immediate flaws in my plan. However, I have sifted the chaff from the wheat (or, perhaps, collected the diamonds from the dog poop) and created this list for you single twenty-somethings just off college with all your friends far off and neither steady job nor car in a small-ish town. The list is designed by (and therefore for) a lonely introvert. Half the things are there to get me out of the house and around people so that my family and I don't hate one another and so that I have to take a bath sometime.

The List of 16 Regionally Unspecific Things To Do By Yourself During Any Summer For 20-Somethings
1. Read x books. "x" will take on any number assigned to it, so set your own value for x. For me, x=20 new books. You lot might get a list from me sometime. First up: Tess of the D'Urbervilles (Thomas Hardy), Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë), and Guards! Guards! (Terry Pratchett). Do mix "classic literature" with more recent, light-hearted selections. It keeps things fun. You should also consider re-reading some old favourites to ease the mental strain of reading new books that you may or may not like. Try to turn in old books that you don't like anymore at a second-hand book store for store credit, or just use the library. Personally, I like to have books that I've read on my own shelf. It looks more impressive. Also, second hand books give your books that well-read look, are fairly cheap, and sometimes have cool old covers. My only problem is that I like all the paperbacks that I have and the main source of my book-trading doesn't take hardcovers.
2. Learn a new language. I plan to continue with German, hopefully aided by my friend who will be interning over there.
3. Do Something to earn money. Yard sale (recruit your mom or other more experienced female and offer her a percentage), lemonade stand (recruit a small friend or relative and offer it some free lemonade, or maybe a percentage if they get pushy), car wash (may require too much recruiting for a single, friendless person. Call upon siblings if you must.), paper route... (Except for the paper route, all are good for social interaction.)
4. Finish a project. I have a scarf and three bags that are in the works as we speak that have not been touched since... September. And another scarf that I started last week. Oh, and that half-done crochet owl...
5. Go swimming. Cliché, I know, but with no pool membership, no friends in the US with a pool, and no local pool anywhere near me, I still plan on being fully submerged at least one time this summer. This counts for at least a week of social interaction due to the traumatizing effect of being in a swim suit in public and in a pool or body of water that probably includes shrieking children.
6. Go to a farmer's market. Another cliché one, but they are the source of many delights. Fresh vegetables in larger quantities and variety than I can grow at home? Yes, please. Also, helping local farmers is apparently a big deal. (Also, social interaction! Good for up to three days, depending on how violent the other shoppers are.)
7. Ride a bike Somewhere. If you, like me, are currently... in the market for a bike, as it were, then find a cheap old one. That's my plan, anyway. It is my intention to ride a bike to work at the concession stand because I feel lame driving the car that I might not have three minutes, but I don't like walking alone at night. If you are too broke to get a bike, steal your brother's for the afternoon. If he actually uses his bike, or doesn't have one, then walk, scooter, or (maybe) rollerblade. Get yourself to an ice cream place (it's okay if that is McDonald's. I won't judge, and ice cream is ice cream.) or the 7 Eleven (a good 10-minute drive into a sketchy area of town for me) for a Slurpee (®/©/™/whatever). Only rollerblade Somewhere if you want to bring a bag of shoes, or if you have a decent walk-up espresso place nearby (Dutch Bros. springs to mind, or one of those cool local affairs). This also gets you social interaction, hopefully only enough for one day. McDonald's might push it to two and a half.
8. Overuse parenthetical phrases. (Done!)
9. Flag down the ice cream truck instead of just swearing at it for interrupting your nap. It won't make the music go away faster, but you'll at least get overpriced ice cream for your trouble.
10. Plant Something. I'm working on several bonsai, but those aren't the most instantly gratifying plants ever. Getting to a store for seeds or plant supplies will suffice for at least one day of social interaction, while the following time spent with a plant will help calm your nerves after that traumatizing event.
11. Watch the back episodes of your favourite TV show. I have no hopes of finishing even the new series of Doctor Who this summer, and I can't seem to find the old series on DVD. Let me know if you have any hints on where I can find the complete original series for cheaper than it ought to be.
12. Make a gourmet version of something normal. Lemonade, ice tea, pizza, tomato and cheese sandwich, ice cream, whatever. If you don't have something snobby in your mom's cookbooks, try google. For instance, I made fancy kebab-y things today instead of having... something else, like the three-day-old chili that's slowly going bad in the fridge. This fancy cooking thing generally requires going to the grocery store, which is enough social interaction for at least two days. Alternatively, if you are exceptionally clever, willing to plan ahead, and able to accept defeat, you can go to the farmer's market and get fresh (no really, fresh) ingredients for your fancy-schmancy meal. Drawback: sometimes, that one thing that you need is not there. Deal with it and get everything else, plus some strawberries.
13. Clean my room. This one is personal. I also need to clean the garage, a task at which I failed last summer. This has the added benefit of temporarily stopping my mom nagging me to clean my room and contribute to the household. In mom's defence, she doesn't nag that much unless I'm really pissy for some reason. It's possible that I'm perceiving nagging where there is none.
14. Go yard sale-ing. If nothing else, this can give you a sense of relief about all the crap that's not at your house. It can also serve as your weekly dose of social interaction. I know I swear off people for at least three days after a yard sale, depending on how early I got there.
15. Run through someone else's sprinklers. I guess I just really like the idea of an adult doing that by him- or herself.
16. Become ambidextrous. If you're right-handed (like me), learn to write with (or just use) your left hand. If you're a lefty, you're probably not too bad at a few things with your right. This is useful mainly in the area of crime-committing. Using the opposite hand can throw the cops off your scent. I suppose you could also use this skill to impress your friends, write on the back of spiral notebook or binder pages,  and have some insurance for when you break your dominant arm doing something stupid.

Twenty Third Post

Spring break is over. Classes have begun.

None of my plants died over break; my roommate and I weren't fined for forgetting something on the check out sheet...

Weirdly, it snowed today. While the sun was shining. I should probably also mention for any southern hemisphere readers that I live in the northern hemisphere and it is spring here.

Really, it's a bit odd when you walk outside to be greeted by the blinding daystar... and snow. the whole of campus was wandering around, squinting at the sky, and trying to catch snowflakes. I think the high schoolers (many high schools are currently on break and thus visit us) were disturbed by this...