previously at the o-house

just wanted to catch you up on the latest happenings at the o-house:

on saturday, we had surprise party for distinguished o-house alum bethany brabec. there was some difficulty, as at the last minute bethany went rogue and tried to plan her own party. as sydney put it, “planning a surprise party for bethany is like planning a wedding for a wedding planner.” but by some miracle, she was actually surprised. side note: the o-house offers its condolences to nick brown on nebraska's loss in the big 12 championship, and apologizes for a certain roommate's complete lack of football knowledge. "why did they do the exact same thing again?"- referring to the instant replay.

at bethany’s request, party guests wore green t-shirts. i decided to take it a step further and dress completely like bethany, which led to the realization that i cannot pull off a side ponytail. please check out the face on katie pooler:



okay, here's a better one:



all this leads me to some exciting news:
coming soon- the bethany brabec blog post. whether you know bethany or not, you should be excited. because she is the most popular girl in manhattan, probably in the state of Kansas, and possibly in the entire Midwest. i could probably write an entire blog series on bethany. she’s THAT FUNNY.

more exciting news:
attention gentlemen- it’s official, becca melvin and stu have broken up. now’s the time to make your move. she’s still vulnerable and looking for a shoulder to cry on. and there’s a very strong possibility they could get back together next semester, so time is of the essence.


sydney miller’s super-edgy banana republic coat finally arrived, just in time for the blizzard.




jennie hull has made a new years’ resolution to spend more time upstairs. wooo hooo! we can take more hot pics like this:



news that is scary, not exciting:
the “sydney miller attempt at burning down the o-house” tally is at five. seriously, do not let her in your kitchen unless you’re standing nearby with a fire extinguisher. and abby can testify that even that is not a guarantee of your safety.

news that is neither scary or exciting:

syd and i have started an unofficial competition to see who can get locked out of the o-house the most times. so far, i’d say it’s pretty even. this problem could be eliminated if someone would let us hide a key outside (ahem, keira). but i don’t see that happening anytime soon… or ever, really.

finals week is next week! this tends to be the most eventful week of the year at the o-house, so prepare yourself for some great upcoming stories.

keira's title suggestion was too bad to use

confession: i used to hate thanksgiving. i’m not really sure why… some weird childhood thing. i think it had something to do with dressing up like a pilgrim at school or being forced to eat leftover turkey for a week straight. and i had this theory that thanksgiving was just like Christmas, minus all the good stuff about Christmas, i.e. presents, candy canes and mistletoe.

but at some point, i saw thanksgiving for what it really is: a three day break from school and possibly the one day of the year you get pumpkin pie. and while i (and all the other o-house girls) had a lovely thanksgiving this year at home with our families, i would be remiss if i didn’t blog about our second annual o-house thanksgiving, which was awesome as usual.

the idea was simple and brilliant and thought up by sydney miller. the o-house provides the turkey, and everyone else brings their favorite thanksgiving food. and then we spread out tablecloths on the floor and feast. now past experience tells us that some of the o-house girls are not domestically gifted. (namely me) and so this plan is sheer genius because syd takes care of the turkey and all we have to do is contribute some money and show up. and the turkey that she made turned out absolutely beautiful:

now of course, becca Melvin contributed some homemade stuffing that was absolutely delicious, and probably handed down by generations of melvins. and then jessie briggs brought these little guys that were almost too cute to eat:

and there are tons of pictures of all the food (see syd’s Facebook album), but what really made the party were all the hot party-goers. see here:

and here:

the evening was an overwhelming success, and the o-house realized all the things we have to be thankful for: amazing friends, incredible food, little sisters, crocheting, each other, and of course you- our blog readers. we love you all…. unless damry is reading this.

spotlight on: becca melvin

i was having difficulty deciding who to spotlight first. and then one day, syd came rushing up the stairs proclaiming, “i have something for the blog! you have to put this on there!” the incident in question turned out to be a great becca Melvin story, which i will now share:

background:

becca hails from seattle, which means that she’s way cooler than everyone else. she’s super artsy, and is going to be really rich because she’s a landscape architecture major. she spends about 25 hours a day at studio, which you may think is impossible given the laws of space and time, but becca finds a way to do it.

becca can go weeks at a time without sleep and still manage to look totally hot. and she’s domestic. the other morning she whipped up a salmon pepper frittata for breakfast. i don’t even know what the hell that is, but it sounds (and looks) delicious:

at this point, our male readers should be asking, “does she have a boyfriend?” and the shocking answer to that question is, “no, although the o-house likes to make jokes about her pretend bf ‘stu’.” (short for studio, get it?)

becca’s dad is from England. both of her parents are geniuses. and although i’ve never been to the Melvin household, i’m guessing that it was a fascinating place to grow up. they probably had tea and crumpets every afternoon and bought fresh fish from the market and took weekly trips to the space needle. and i know for a fact that they have an herb garden.

now back to the story:

all of this would lead me to believe that the melvins didn’t consume a lot of little debbie snack cakes. which is why, when becca was presented with the gift of an oatmeal cream pie, she had no idea what it was. well, she had an idea… a very wrong idea that it was an ICE CREAM SANDWICH, and so she put it in the freezer. enter sydney miller, lots of laughing and the classic picture posted above.

i told you: hot, half-British and completely oblivious to the existence of junk food.

these are just a few of the qualities that make becca Melvin the o-house MEMBER OF THE WEEK!!! check back next week when we spotlight another member/share a semi-embarrassing story about them.