Things I forgot about Winter (That are terrible)

Since moving to Chicago in June, I've been trying my hardest to mentally prepare myself for winter, following nearly four years in Florida where weather is an illusion. I came to terms with the fact that I can't just wear skirts, sundresses, t-shirts, and tank tops every day, which was horrible in and of itself because long sleeves and pants are suffocating and terrible. I remembered the importance of a good boot, what it's like to purchase a jacket, and even bought a shovel to clear a path when the snow came. Everything would be fine. I always liked winter in New Jersey, and realistically I could handle it compared to my two roommates who were also coming from Florida.

It wasn't until I was taking a lyft home the other day that I suddenly remembered every little inconvenience about winter that adds up to being perhaps the most frustrating season of the year. After several years not dealing with these small annoyances, I'm realizing I'm less prepared and was blinded by Christmas for the first 18 years of my life in winter. So this is a short list of crappy things that we all forget about winter. Open your eyes, people.

1. Rock salt ruining your shoes and everything you once loved in your life.
• I don't mind salting sidewalks to melt the ice and provide traction, SURE, WHATEVER. I actually prefer it to the 300+ times I've slipped on black ice. But I do hate the sense of urgency involved in taking your shoes off before you scratch the floors of your home. Or how nice your shoes/coat/pants/everything looked before the salt stuck to it and left a cakey layer of dried out patches on you. 
2. Wearing multiple pairs of socks, and all of them are wet. 
• Who are we kidding when we layer up on socks?
3. Going into a department store to get winter clothes, and suddenly realizing you have 30 layers on. 
• It starts when you realize most buildings are heat-controlled, so you're quickly very overheated in the store. As you get more items you think to yourself, "I should probably try these on, because winter clothes are terrible and the sleeves are never long enough." You go into the dressing room and take off your coat, scarf, cardigan, sweater, and undershirt to try on like two things. Then you remember you have to put all those layers back on before you leave the changing room. You weep quietly to yourself, because the process of changing has already left you flushed and adding layers on is, in this moment, your definition of hell.
4. Checking your pocket for your cellphone.
• But, like an idiot, your phone is in the pocket of layer 2 of the five layers you're currently wearing.
5. Being responsible for scarves and hats.
• Okay I think most of my problems with winter have to do with the fact that I'm always too hot in proportion to the suggested number of layers. 
• But putting scarves and hats in overstuffed pockets or the sleeve of your coat still sucks, right? There is a 100% chance that you will lose at least one scarf and one hat this winter, according to science.
6. Gloves as a whole
• Even if they say you can use your phone with them on, you can't. Also you can't feel anything, so your guess is as good as mine whether or not my keys are in my jacket pocket.
7. Grocery stores when it's snowing
• Suddenly everyone prepares for an apocalyptic-level winter, no matter how mild the forecast. Food hoarding for four inches of snow? O-okay buddy.

In conclusion, I think I mostly hate wearing layers. But winter is still my favorite season, because I'm just sick with pollen allergies for the other 3 seasons. 

This guy gets me.

COOKING PART 2.

Oh, hey there. I didn't see you there because I haven't been on this blog in nearly half a year! You look good, did you get a haircut? You may have. Yeah...cool, cool okay well. Nice to see you again.

With that 100% accurate re-enactment of every time I bump into someone, I'm just going to segue seamlessly into the topic at hand. How to cook, written by someone who doesn't consider themselves good enough to be a food blogger. Or even a blogger really, if we're being honest with each other.

One of my favorite posts back in the day was "Tips on Being an Adult: Cooking", which wasn't really cooking advice as much as tricking people into thinking you can cook. Go look at it. Tips include great bits like "blindly believe in yourself" and "put sriracha in everything you cook." Since then, I think I've gotten better at cooking. Now I can trick people into thinking I can cook well, and with these easy tips, SO CAN YOU!

Let's do this:

• Spices are Cool
• Skip to Tip 4 to see the spices I use most often
• I'll make up a statistic and say 60% of bland meals forgot to salt their food whilst cooking. 
• I imagine you're nodding along, and just lightly laughed to yourself thinking, "Oh, Meghan!"
• Aside from salt & pepper "to taste", try buying other spices! Look at recipes that use those spices for reference of what they taste like/how to use them.
• Add these spices in gradually to whatever you're making, tasting as you go. Layering spices can make some good flavors. Think of the balance between spicy, salty, and sweet.
• Contrasting Temperatures
• At the same time, if you know you're making something sizzling hot and/or spicy, add something cool and bright for contrast. Tzatziki sauce is a good example
• I'm lazy and don't make Tzatziki sauce usually, but if you have a splash of lemon juice and a spoonfull of sour cream, it makes a nice cool dressing to brighten spicy foods.
• Contrasting Texture
• This one is easy. If you like putting chips in your sandwich or eating a Taco Bell Crunchwrap, you get what I mean. 
• Slow cooked meats + Toasty Bread. Croutons in a salad. Just stop eating only soft food or only brittle food (who does that...?) It'll make you feel fancy.
• If you're making a sandwich, adding an apple slice actually accomplishes all 3 tips I just gave.
• When in Doubt, try being Italian
• I'll go on record and say this one is my fall back, because I was raised in an Irish-Italian household which, perhaps to your great surprise, means a lot of Italian cooking. And here's what's fool proof about Italian cooking: 90% of the time, just use these ingredients:
• Garlic, Oregano, Parsley, Basil, Olive Oil+Whatever you're cooking 
• Fresh herbs make it fancy, add tomatoes and you made sauce, add cheese and you made a parmigiano. 
• I like throwing bay leaves all over the place, but that's just me.
• Probably add pasta. Done.

If you aren't instinctively Italian, follow whatever culture you ate the most growing up and it'll probably lead to similar results. Start with what you're familiar with. If you like following recipes, go for it! I prefer just kinda throwing stuff all over the place until there is food, but sometimes I go online to reference different spice combinations.

See you at your next dinner party. 

Idk why, but I usually just add the first Google Image to whatever word comes to mind. This was "Food."

I'M GRADUATING AND I HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS ABOUT THIS.

During freshman orientation this year, I had the honor of welcoming the freshman class of 2019 to Ringling College of Art and Design at the Van Wezel performing arts hall. I was the last person to give a welcome speech before a Q&A Session, following our school President Dr. Thompson and many others with very official titles. For four long speeches I sat behind the stage, where I looked at a sign that said "It's WAY-ZUL, NOT Weasel!!!!!" and this exact picture that I found now by google image searching "no weasels allowed sign":

When I got on stage, I opened my speech with the following:

"So, most of you won't remember the speech I give today....and that's okay. I like to hope that, of all the events you have to look forward to these next four years, this speech will not be the highlight of your Ringling Experience."

I literally don't remember the rest of my speech, and any freshmen/rising sophomores at Ringling can probably confirm that they forget it as well. And now, as I approach graduation tomorrow, I see that this will more or less be the rest of my life...and that's also okay.

These past four years at Ringling have been, as they say in America, "like, a lot." It's hard to pinpoint specific memories or "classic college stories", which is why I don't write blog posts very often. But I do know this: When I look back at the time I spent here, I'm not going to think about how big and special my graduation ceremony was, or how eloquently spoken the speeches were that day. I won't remember what shoes I wore, although I'll probably remember what I ate for dinner because I have my priorities in check.

When I look back at the time I spent at Ringling, I'm going to think about the cool people I knew and hope that I impacted their life in some way. I'll think about my student work that seems REAL COOL right now, but I know won't be good enough a year from today. I'll think about a piece of paper in the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall that's strongly against the word "weasel".

The thing that ultimately matters upon graduation was that the four years it took to get to this point were really great. Or really terrible. Or somewhere in between. As long as they happened.

So to the Class of 2015 and all those who have mattered in our lives, thanks for being a part of it. This must be how Will Smith felt on the finale episode of Fresh Prince of Bel Air, only with more student loans and less comic relief.

Yo holmes, smell ya later!