... are wonderful. not maybe so much for the actual potluck, despite the yummy foods and the sit-down conversations. the thing is, during the actual potluck, i'm on my best behavior, trying to rein in the weird as best as i can.

but, the pre-show and the after-party? oh, ho, that's what makes slaving away in the kitchen for a total of 5 hours completely worth it.

(1) making the turkey.

making the turkey was an all night endeavor between my two fellow underlords, PK Nicole and roommate christine. the turkey was named Urkel the Turkel and was, as we found out about an hour ago, a "success". We hung out in the kitchen until past midnight, watching silly and/or smexy videos, listening to wonderfully upbeat j-pop and nerdfighterlike, and even wrote a song about how ridiculously cute PK nicole is:

look at me
so-o cute
adorable
named nicole
H2O
just like so
CO2
not like youuuuu

of course, a second stanza was written while we ate ice cream, but it ran more along the lines of endorsing ice cream, so we decided to withhold that verse until the next time we had Häagen-Dazs ice cream.

Your Primary Mood Color is Yellow

You are a enthusiastic and cheerful soul. You have a real zest for life. You have as many troubles as anyone else, but you believe it's important to have a sunny outlook. Life is what you make of it, and you strive to make your life as awesome as possible. You believe in happy endings. You are willing to put your a lot on the line in hopes that things will work out.

(2) the hours between cooking

after finishing up the turkey last night, there was a 15 hour break before the next wave of cooking (this time, PUMPKIN BALLS!!). But, right after we put urkel in the boys' fridge, we (okay, fine, I) thought it would be funny to go down to paul's room to "disrupt this schedule"--'coz this guy lives by his clock. as in, "oh, it's 10:45, i have to go back to the dorm and be ready for bed by 11PM"-schedule-oriented. and then we learned about paul's executive chair that was perfectly molded for his body and then the other underlords and i started to make fun of his beat up door--siriusly, the thing looked like wolverine attacked it. and then christine expressed her jealously, stating that she wanted to be the victim to wolverine's "hot claws".

after getting up this morning, at the abysmal hour of 11:30AM, instead of, you know, studying and stuff, I kept doing research to make sure i was ready to take on the PUMPKIN BALLS. and then, finally, around 2PM, i settled down and studied.

sorta.

meaning, i looked over vocabulary and some grammar while teeny-bopping to the happiness of Otsuka Ai's newest compilation album (with some prettying frigging awesome remixes!), LOVE is BEST.

(3) the second wave

In which Paul from first floor came upstairs, helped smash a bag and a half of graham crackers, and then ran off to his business school group to finish up some project. Thus, leaving PK nicole, Christine, down the hall chelsea, me to finish up the majority of the cooking. (1) PUMPKIN BALLS, (2) gravy, (3) helping our AMAZING RA with mashed potatoes, (4) the stuffing, and (5) all in all, hogging the kitchen like nobody's business.

there was happy music. there was the most amazing K-pop song i've ever heard ("Wedding Dress" by BIG BANG's Taeyang--who, i must say, can dance like nobody's business!). there were silly conversations, random bursts of dance, and the all-in-all feel-good feeling that all cooking parties should have.

The PUMPKIN BALLS took a lot more work than i expected, but with the combined help of the 4 of us, plus Stephen "Potluck Prince" Google, everything turned out okay, despite the small hitches and the slight bumps.

also, PK Nicole, Christine, and i came to the conclusion that, should each of our separate future careers fail, we'll start a small catering company, alongside with our pie/ice cream/printing shop combine. and we already have a design for our logo.

You Crave an Unpredictable Adventure

Life has gotten a bit too boring for you lately, and you're really looking to stir things up. You couldn't imagine planning your great adventure. That would go against the whole point of it! All you need is a plane, train, or bus ticket to anywhere. You'll make the rest up as you go along. You want to visit every corner of the world and have many different experiences. The sooner you start, the more you'll see.

(4) food time!

of course, food time was a bitter time for those who just spent 4 hours in the kitchen, slaving away--not even a joke, really. the people at the front of the line were those who only contributed a bowl of cranberry sauce, along with the trio of girls who came down empty-handed. classic.

but, all in all, at the dinner table, we joked, we scolded the Potluck Prince, and we ate. lots of wonderful food.

it was... kinda awesome.

(5) the after party

aka, CLEAN UP TIME!!!

more music, but slower movement as everyone was pretty much stuffed. We usurped the potluck prince from washing the dishes multiple times, each from different members of the underlord crew. and it was then when the UNDERLORDS OF REVES were created. and we had arm gestures/poses for each individual.

and i might have me a little too... enthusiastic about the whole thing.

thank you, world, for always humoring my crazy antics

You Are the 1970s

You are a free-wheeling, fun-loving person. You are out for a good time. You appreciate the libertine days of the 1970s, when the attitude was "anything goes"! You may live fast and die young, but at least you'll have fun doing it. Times may be tough, but you hardly notice. You know how to make the best of things.

So... today in Japanese, Kato and i kinda had a legit conversation where she learned a lot about my sister.

But, i guess, it worked out in the end--she didn't really call on me for anything during the actual class.

So, i walked into the classroom, and Kato was asking the few people who showed up early for class what they were doing during Thanksgiving (or, rather, what they were going to do in preparation for the break). And then, when she got to me, she was like, "you live pretty close to the school, right? VA Beach?"

and the conversation went from me going home, to my sister picking me up, to me telling Kato about my sister's internship for a small clothing company while going to school at TCC. And then, Kato asked if Lilly went to W&M ("since my sister wants to become a photographer, she's going to TCC right now and will transfer to VCU in two years"), to "what kind of photographs does your sister take?" ("Interesting pictures from the PoV of bugs"--which isn't a complete lie, since these are her side projects, but, overall, not lilly repertoire, at all), to "do you want to be a photographer, too?" ("heh, no. I wanna be a writer!"), to "do you always write" ("yes, of course!" <--liar!), to "what are you working on right now?" (*pausssseeee*), and, to fill in the pause, "is it a secret?" ("yes, yes, it is")

Unfortunately, i kept slipping into casual form with Kato--terrible.

Your Name is Yellow

Your name tells people that you are welcoming and cheerful. You are open to all the love in the world. You are a warm person who can't help but make others feel comforted. You are truly radiant. People see you as someone who has figured out the secrets to life. While that's not true, you do try to remain positive in the face of adversity. You are the sunshine in other people's lives. You make more of a difference than you realize.

but, yeah, i've been kinda not exactly under the weather but not exactly not-under the weather. Like, i've been getting really shallow aches in the head, but for the most part, it's just some aches here and there. Like a very creaky old lady. that does a robotic gang-sign dance when she can't think of anything to say.

also, good news!!! This is got to be the first time post-fall break that i've never fallen asleep while reading philosophy!!!! i mean, granted, i read half of the reading last night, went to bed because i was sleepy, and just finished the second half. But i'm really liking this passage a lot better than Kant--it's about stuff that we can actually apply to life (and not "imagine your beam yourself to Mars, but your body's destroyed. are you still the same person if all your memories are transferred into a new body?" applicable, too).

You are Energetic and Bright

You view people with optimism. You have many meaningful relationships in your life. You had more conflict with your father than your mother. Your relationship with him was healthy but challenging. You deal with stress in an effective and competent matter. You are able to remain calm. You are a natural multitasker. You enjoy being busy, even if the amount of things you need to do is overwhelming.

oh, my buddha, the last inkblot is amazing!! It looks like a sheep in the center, with green forelegs, that's wearing a blue bowtie, a red boa that looks vaguely prawns on either end, with a tiny Eiffel Tower on the head, goldfish swimming on the sides, and blue crabs with green maracas in the upper corners.

inkblot for the win. siriusly.

...is that I lose sight of the point of the reading about 2 pages into the passage. the pictureless, 17-page long passage of, whoops, i fell asleep again.

siriusly. I just sloughed through about 14 of the 17 pages, and i completely forgot that the overall view of Kant's argument was about morality.

it's getting kind of ridiculous.

but, as a wise roommate once said, only one more month left, right?

oh, december, i wait for thee.

You Are West

Like an American, you are an innovative, free-spirit. You tend to do your own thing, especially if no one has done it before. People admire that you are creative and a visionary. You come up with all sorts of ideas, and you're never afraid of failure. Sometimes you come across as wild to the point of being careless. You are a rule-breaker who borders on dangerous. You make a great artist. No matter what you do in life, it's your personal expression of who you are.