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.

i'm dreaming of an o-house christmas

pre-preface:

i want everyone to know that this blog post was written days ago. i've tried posting it multiple times, but my technological incompetencies have gotten the best of me. and so i'm making one more attempt as i sit alone at the o-house, missing my roommates and hoping that landlord dave doesn't burst through the door and see me without pants on.

preface:

i’d like to clear up some confusion caused by the last post. becca melvin’s ex-boyfriend “stu” is not a real person. stu is short for studio, where becca spends 97% of her time. hence the joke- "oh becca, are you going to hang out with stu again?" this was explained in an early post, which apparently not everyone read. my apologies to becca and everyone who thought that she was really dating someone named stu (which is an awful name. more of a thick soup than a name, really).

making Christmas lists has been all the rage at the o-house recently. i’m not going to post everyone’s list, obviously. but if you’re shopping for abby, just look at your grandma’s list and buy something from that. if however you’d like to save time/money and buy something for the house as a whole, please check out our collective list:

1. stairs that don't creak, a driveway that doesn't suck and a heated kitchen floor.

2. new house crushes. it's been awhile.

3. a studio so that becca can work from home, a library for abby and keira and a swimming pool for everyone else.

4. a remote for the dvd player. or batteries for the old one.

5. an alarm system: something really complicated with codes to push in and fingerprint scanners and a direct line to the riley county police department.

6. tickets to see oprah. duh.

7. a basement heater of which anthony fox and all of our dads approve. unlike his little guy:

8. permanent custody of toby.

9. shacker beds for everyone!

10. cooking lessons, or even better- a personal chef. here's why:

well, there ya go. merry christmas to all. see you next semester!

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.