Friday, 14 June 2013 – Sip of Starrshine

Wow, is this a trap? Asking about my favorite internet friend on the internet… where my internet friends dwell?

If we define internet friend as someone who I have never met in real life, I will write to someone I have been talking to more recently and maaaaaaaaaay get to meet one day maybe, if the stars align.

Dear Matt,

‘ello guvna! Thanks for always humoring me when I try to put on an English (or, er, Cockney) accent in attempts to be less threatening (read: more cool) to you.

You’ve been a very good friend to me! You’re a very good listener and also a good sharer, which some people don’t realize is also a big part of a friendship. I’ve really enjoyed learning about you and befriending you, and of course, trying to reconcile the little differences between American and English culture and language. (And also that the Titanic set sail from the town in which you went to university! Fun facts all around.)

You sent me a whooooooole box of Reese’s peanut butter cups. That was so stellar, you don’t even know. Even though my little brother ate most of them (……) I still felt alllll the love. 🙂

I’m really proud of you. I know the chemistry in university was tricky, but I’m really proud of you going after the culinary arts that you love. Your photos from Shepherd and Dog look so delicious and I hope I’ll get to try one of your wonderful concoctions someday soon!

I REALLY HOPE I GET TO MEET YOU WHEN I VISIT LONDON and thanks in advance for making the trip to London if we are able to coordinate this properly. 😀

Cheerio 😛

Starr

Your “posh egg & bacon”:
Slow cooked soft duck egg with crispy pancetta, smoked bacon foam and soldiers (toast strips in the US)

Yesterday, I was able to take the time to pamper my face because we were in the midst of a very freaky storm system. (Weather reports were warning us of a derecho, which is super scary and strikes very quickly.) I doubted we would get the storm, as many others did, because it was quite sunny in the early part of the afternoon.

It suddenly got very dark around 3:30 PM, however, so I slapped on a mask and watched as a sudden torrent whipped through my street. My boyfriend told me that he was in his basement but that the storm had mostly passed for him, so I knew it wouldn’t last terribly long.

My biggest concern was the tornado warning. I have recurring nightmares about tornadoes, so while my curiosity as a scientist really wanted to see one, my fear of tornadoes made me want to curl up in fetal position in my basement. (Neither happened, because I am both a scaredy-cat and also a little proud. XD)

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful until I headed to campus. I left later than I wanted because I have to pay for daily parking and I figured if I got to the parking garage at midnight, I could pay for all of Friday. I got to the garage at 11:55 PM, so I waited in my car for 5 minutes before I went out to the meter machine.

… it wouldn’t let me pay for the day. It only gave me a 15-minute rate and an hourly rate. What. I started panicking a little because the whole point of me leaving late in the evening was so that I wouldn’t have to wake up at 7 AM to pay the meter. I was looking around for a number to call and maybe I accidentally hit the machine?

Because the next thing I know, the parking machine is sounding a car alarm at me, extremely loudly. I was freaked out like you don’t know. I just wanted to pay a parking fee and go to sleep, and now the machine was yelling at me from the roof. Luckily, it stopped about 30 seconds in, but it was really scary for me and I just kind of walked away dejectedly afterwards, knowing I’d have to wake up to pay for parking in the morning AND I was out late trying to avoid that anyway.

This morning when I woke up to pay the meter, I got up to the roof and I saw the transportation services truck going around my parking level. ZOMG I hustled to check that I didn’t already have a ticket and then I paid and shuffled away, staring down the transportation services truck as I did so…

Just thought I’d share. 😛