October 7th, it was lovely and foggy, and there was strange pizza

Dear October,

You surprised us today. I woke up via light chirping alarm, and feeling slightly drowsy, I looked out the window and immediately backed up because outside it was all a dim gray, somewhat pretty and really strange. Looking out the bathroom window (which by the way, has a great view of the sunrise and the tops of tall buildings. I don't know if it is sad that I mention this from the perspective of the bathroom window) I could see one clock tower and then just nothing, and walking out of the dorms, the fog was so thick that I could see it flowing past me as I walked. You didn't even have to look a few yards ahead to find someone submerged in fog; just looking at your hand, it was tinted white. It's weird how really thick fog makes everything look like an island. It's as if you're approaching things as an airplane, even the patio chairs and the canvas bag you're carrying, as it swings closer and further away. Things are instantly magnified. You kind of want to look at the veins of your hand more closely because it's like approaching a river from really high up. Keep zooming in on google maps and you'll see the details more clearly. It was kind of an amazing and short experience, and I enjoyed walking to class (although it was too bad that today's class was only a minute's walk from my dorm, so I didn't get to see much of the city like that). Then you surprised me again when I walked out of the dorms in the evening to go to the computer lab, and was immediately pelted by rain.

So I went to drawing class today and we had critique on our skellies, and did a bunch of figure armatures. The room we have class in is smaller than usual because our class is actually held on the second floor of the 'cafeteria', which has three rooms that are usually used for club meetings and small events. Our teacher really dislikes the size of this room because it does make it difficult to position all the easels so that everyone has room to work and has a good angle. The other major problem is the lack of wall space. There's a bathroom in this room plus a strange counter area and a wall that is entirely window. So we've got 3 strangely shaped walls to put our work on (the room is irregularly shaped too), and some of these walls are painted with some kind of paint that makes it difficult for tape to stick on it well. And then sometimes we use the projection screen, so then we have to move the easels all to the side to make sure they aren't blocking the projector. Still, with all its problems, the classroom is "a) very close to the dorms and the place where most of us eat breakfast and lunch (and grab coffee/tea/snacks during break), and b) it is pretty and has nice lighting because of the windows. So I took a picture of that.

Let me tell you about the food of today. I had a toasted rueben sandwich and cream of celery soup at one place that's covered by my meal plan for lunch. I have honeydew, almost always, for every meal. I had some okay fish, pasta, and a slice of chocolate cheesecake for dinner. I had a poppy and lemon seed scone for breakfast (the scones are always so good!), although I often have half a waffle instead. 

Speaking of waffles, once I got over my initial apprehension of the timer and the beeping, it became really fun to make waffles on the waffle maker! And it's so nice how you can determine exactly how much of a waffle you want today. Some days it's a half-waffle day, and other's you just need a whole one. Sometimes you start daydreaming while pressing the waffle mix button, so you fill your cup with too much mix and later split your waffle with a friend. I've really been wanting to make a mini waffle, where you just drizzle the mix in the center of the waffle maker, rather than in a quarter section of the waffle maker. I've also wanted to make one where there's a hole in the middle, but I keep forgetting. Maybe someday I can make a dinosaur waffle. It's really fun to just half fill part of the waffle maker so that when your waffle is done, it comes out with these frozen drips and eddies, which are textural and fun to eat. Is it just me who likes to eat things with weird shapes? For instance, when you are presented with a plate of pancakes or meatballs, do you always want to pick the pancake/meatball with the most deformed/interesting shape? Those really do always taste the best, and it makes sense. 

Also I haven't yet mentioned the strange midnight pizza that is here. On weekdays/school nights, the cafeteria is open from 9pm to 1am in case students are still working. At that special time, all the strange and frightening pizzas emerge from the oven, and four are presented every night. At first we all thought that there would just be normal pizzas there, the typical pepperoni and cheese, some sausage, and occasionally a Hawaiian. But the first night my friends and I stopped by, we found out that at midnight is really when the cooks experiment with their food. Of the times we've visited (sometimes people go purely to see what they've concocted that night) there's been salad pizza, paella (spanish rice) pizza, m&m and sunflower something pizza, chicken noodle pizza, broccoli pizza, giant-potato-chunks pizza, beef/sort of korean bbq pizza, and strawberry/caramel/pretzel pizza among others I've forgotten. It's really kind of amazing (and hilarious). Once we asked one of the female cooks(?) whether they just came up with this stuff and she said something like,  "Yeah! We just experiment with different ingredients. The hardest part is figuring out what you guys would want. For instance the sunflower something one was fine but we didn't think anyone would want it just like that because it was too something, so we thought we'd make it slightly sweet, hence the m&m's." I've tried a few of the pizzas, although I almost never go for the really out-there ones, like the m&m's one, but I'd like to try one of the weirder ones some day. For now though, I have to say the chicken noodle one was really delicious.

Thanks for the fog,
Indigo

song of the day: Let Her Go by Passenger (cover by Jasmine Thompson)
also I found some really good music today, so get ready for a nice line-up in the next few days