Hospitality

This is me in the hospital last week. My platelet count dropped to around 5,000 (normal is 150,000+). My mom took a picture of me so she could send to grandma. This is my "why the heck are you taking a picture of me?" face.

ER and ET

THIS IS THE SUMMER OF 2013, BAYBEE! I just finished my sophomore year at Kalamazoo College, getting ready to go to Ecuador, visiting friends and making new ones...this is what dreams are made of! Right when I think that I won life, the plot twist happened. I started bruising like a banana in the sweet summer sun. My body speckled with black and blue, over ripened if you will. Like a fairy could have sneezed on me, and I would wake up with a bruise. Now, usually I don't go in to the doctor. I think, "if you don't go to the doctor, then nothing can be wrong with you." Well, I am probably an idiot.

So my concerned mom, bless her heart she is a saint, booked some doctor's appointments to get me back in working order. On Tuesday, I skipped on over to my appointments and pretended I was an adult for a couple of hours. My two doctors were not liking what they were seeing. So they ordered a few more blood tests along with the usual battery of others.

I went in, got the blood tests, came back home, LET'S GO TO GREEN ZONE PIZZA.

*ring, ring* 

 I saw the caller ID reading, "S. John's Hospital." And I quickly picked up the line.

"Hello"

"Hi, is this Miss Stevenson?"

"Yes it is."

"You need to go to the ER immediately."

The picture is of my ET finger. I think they were trying to check my pulse.

Summer Skin

There is absolutely nothing better than a summer of good friends and cheap fun.

Steps to success:
1) Go with the flow; embrace every opportunity.
2) We have cars! Seriously, you cannot top a car ride with the windows rolled down and your favorite song. I love it when someone else is driving... you can close your eyes and take time to just feel.
3) Drink enough beer to always be smiling. And if for some reason you think you will be a sad drunk, always start with a Mike's Hard Lemonade. At least you taste the spirit of fun.
4) Being higher is always better. Take that how you will, but I'm talking sitting on the roof, climbing a tree, or hanging out on the second story deck. Being somewhere up gives you perspective, and the breeze will getcha every time.
5) Breathe with your nose. Summer smells like tan skin-full of sun, wind off the water, BBQs, sunscreen, fruity hair--it's just good to keep an open nose.
6) Read books because it's fun to again.
7) Stay up late because that's when you grow close to people. Secrets are always better under the cover of the night.
8) Find your friends without texting them or making previous plans. Just knock on their door, simple as that.
9) Eat fruit because it's in season and it tastes so right.
10) Make a fool of yourself. The sun makes people loopy, weird, and spontaneous. Take advantage of that.

Just my thoughts on summer...take it how you will. :)

thoughts I thought

Sometimes when you miss an important part of growing up, all you want to do is be a child again. I just want to sit on a park bench and eat pixy stix.

Starting back up, folks!

So! I've decided to start a blog up again...because on a really bad day, all you can really hope for is a successful blog that will make you tooonnnnnns of adsense money and you'll be rich and famous! It's a theory, it's out there, so it's not likely, but still. 

Katherine, why did you have a bad day?

Well I'll tell you why, it's because I failed my accounting exam. That means I'm an idiot and I'm never going to give a TED talk or be successful. I would fake faint right now, but I already pulled that stunt in the library a few weeks ago. I don't want to toot my own horn but it was so realistic that the old lady behind the circulation desk asked if I needed help. I suppose her response could be interpreted multiple ways. In any case, the melodrama is a real struggle. 

Questions I am asking myself today: Why liberal arts? Why me?

People are starting to break down. The real world is inching nearer and I'm not even done with puberty.  I'm not ready to be a real person, please! someone turn the lights off, carry me home! But not to my real house because I have mommy-daddy-sister-brother issues. Maybe to a cool house that has Sharper Image gadgets and bluetooth connectivity, or one that is super cute, in the woods, with a bunch of nooks. 

Pleasantries. Kat Stevens.

Salt Ponds (San Francisco Bay)

In the Omnivore's Dilemma, Pollan mentions his 'not so perfect' experience collecting salt in the San Francisco Bay salt ponds. He describes the colors as "...a sequence of of arresting blocks of color-rust, yellow, orange, blood red-laid out below you as if in a Mondrian painting" (393).

While glancing over a blog, I came across the same salt ponds referenced in our class reading, and MY OH MY are they spectacular!

Take a look!

Process Writing :)

My poor writing skills really influenced my decision to enroll in the Food and Travel Writing Seminar, and I am very glad I ended up taking and enjoying the class. I started off on a rough patch for the first few weeks. Trouble lingered around when I wrote my memoir. I wanted to write about my disease because I thought it would offer some kind of catharsis. However, the process of writing my memoir piece presented much difficulty. It ended up more like throw-up all over a blank canvass.

This leads to one of my first difficulties/frustrations, the lack of focus in my writing pieces. I often have so much to say, and then go into very little detail. What is left is a vague skeleton of what happened, making it incomprehensible for readers. To battle this ambiguity, I found the workshops very helpful. Classmates provided pertinent feedback that gave me guidance on elaboration of details within my writing pieces. Otherwise, my mind would fill in the blanks within each essay. Having classmates evaluate my work and leave comments gave a new perspective that could not fill in missing information. The feedback of other students in the Food and Travel Seminar really helped me provide clarity for my work.

The most important idea I learned from this class is to find your voice. I have often relied on a formal tone to rely my ideas on paper. By taking this course, I found that having voice is important. It encouraged me when my voice was well received. I first started integrating my voice in our restaurant review (Rasa Ria). I incorporated small jokes. Yet upon reading them, I worried it was too corny or informal. It surprised me that students in class actually laughed at the jokes. Buzzing on confidence, I went full out on “My Perfect Meal” assignment, and the results were positive. I realize that not every opportunity allows for so much personality, but I will definitely feel more comfortable with voice in writing.

This seminar “Food and Travel,” really helped improve my writing skills, and it did so much more. I enjoyed our discussions, debates, and readings. This course was absolutely stellar. I think the chemistry with the group along with the oversight of Marin, our professor, really created one of the best classes I have ever taken. The enjoyment I felt toward the class made learning fun and enjoyable, I couldn’t have asked for a more ideal situation.