welcome back to the o-house.

dear blog readers,

i would like to begin with an apology. it has been six weeks (give or take) since the last o-house blog post, and that is far too long. i could blame it on my job, my internship, my classes, my various volunteer commitments and/or extended (although inadequate) time spent in a kia rondo, but i won’t do that. i will merely say that i am sorry, and that i am optimistic that the rest of the semester will be better.

the o-house girls returned to manhattan after a wonderful Christmas break. syd took a trip to seattle to see becca, and had a wonderful time eating crumpets and chocolate pasta with the melvins, including the british grandmum (which is a word i think i just invented). she was, however, disappointed with the lack of rainfall. shocker. see cute pic below:

to celebrate everyone coming home, we made a delicious hot fudge sundae cake, the uncooked version of which can be seen here:

sorry, i forgot to take a picture when it was done. but take my word, that it looked and tasted amazing after it came out of the oven. and here’s a photo of everyone else cooking while i avoid all things domestic under the pretense of “documenting for the blog”:

the most exciting happening at the o-house in recent weeks occurred on January 29. as you know (or should know), this is a very special day, i.e. KANSAS DAY and OPRAH’S BIRTHDAY. to celebrate, the o-house girls and friends made a dirt cake with an O made out of gummy worms on top. see cake and #1 oprah fans below:

the best part of the evening came in the form of our three distinguished guests. first up, former o-house inhabitant and current o-house bff, jayne long. here she is pictured with keira in one of their finest photos:

i would like to point out that i was hard pressed to find pictures from this evening that did not include jayne. she loves the camera. and the camera loves her, obviously. here she is again with the girls of pact crew, including distinguished guest #2 marion marie griffin:

marion has been to the o-house on multiple occasions, although you would never be able to convince sydney of such. as a result, every appearance she makes is met with exclamations of “welcome to the o-house! guys, marion has never been here before.”

and finally, here’s jayne again with our third guest: bethany ida brabec. she’s displaying her patented “sassy ass” face:

bethany is also an o-house alum. sometimes she forgets that doesn’t live here anymore. and i’m not complaining about that. i would gladly welcome her back to our bunk bed for a 3 a.m. conversation about the male gender, and i would give anything to hear, “i have to go to bed. i have to be at work in two hours.”

well this post is getting longer than i intended. let me close with this, the classic oprah “hug/handshake”:

thanks for visiting the o-house. in the words of my gramma, "hurry back."

p.s. sorry for the profanity. i couldn't resist.