The One About Robin--THE SCARIEST THING I'VE ENCOUNTERED THUS FAR...

Not in the sense of being about How I Met Your Mother.
Nor in the sense of being about Friends.
Nor in the sense of being about work (but I'm tagging you because I told you I'd tag you. -Patrice)

It's actually not about any of those things, but really about

HAIR CLUMPS.

As someone who is quite afraid of spiders, I must state this with no sarcastic tones whatsoever: hair clumps terrify me. (I hope that did make sense, but I'm not in the right mind to go back and correct it if it does not make sense.) When my hair was longer, it used to clump up on my clothes when I would do laundry and I would often find it poking through shirt arms, resting underneath my pants pockets, or hanging down from the bottom of my hemming.

I like to have a fan going in my room the majority of the year.

It just so happens that on my pajama pants tonight, there was a hair clump, of the generally dark-colored nature. When one is not entirely devoted to staring at their pants while sitting on the bed, a certain rotating fan may cause a certain hair clump to move in the breeze. This specific motion may resemble spider-like movements.

It does resemble spider-like movements.

I thought there was a spider on my pants. A large, spindly spider on my pants.

Alas, a hair clump. My heart jumped into my mouth for no reason.

Time went on. The fan kept rotating, I regained a calm, steady heartbeat. When suddenly

OH GOD IT'S ANOTHER SPIDER. In the exact same spot as the last one! With the same body composure! And the same coloring! And it moves exactly the same way...

Wait. It's a hair clump. The same hair clump I neglected to move from earlier. The same hair clump that has now caused my heart to beat intensely on more than one occasion. The hair clump don't know it is killing me very good. 

The only thing worse (currently) than a hair clump posing as a spider, other than it being an actual spider on my leg, is this beautiful work of art:

Sleep soundly, cherubs. 

A cabbage is a cabbage, a lettuce is a lettuce

Three is the number of the day, so it seems.

Three days until my birthday!

Three years until 33!

Three recipes tried for pizza dough!

Three truths and one lie!

I hope you all know that I'm NOT 33. I have 9 years and 3 days until that time comes, which I suppose is also a signifier of three, seeing as how the number is divisible by 3 (3 years and 1 day for those who are not feeling mathematically inclined at the moment.)


I'm currently waiting for 6:15 to come around, because I need to punch my bread some more. (I just went searching for an image of someone punching bread, but unfortunately all of the images are of people punching dough, which is exactly what I will be doing.) But I was really hoping for a picture of someone punching bread. Maybe if I have extra dough and do decide to make actual baguettes with the leftover dough, I'll take a picture of me punching bread. Strange picture searchers of the world, rejoice!

Three is also significant today because it was my third haircut with the short hair. I initially cut it off at the end of May, got a new, shorter cut in June, and let it grow two months this go around because...I'm growing it back out. It was a great run, but I'm starting to miss my long hair. It will be much healthier this time because since May, I've only had it blow-dried while at the hair salon (meaning 3 times) so it won't have the heat damage that my hair was experiencing right before the chopping.


Hopefully the baguette recipe bodes well for pizza dough/crust. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and post tomorrow! FOR SCIENCE!

This post has no appropriate title

Although I could call it "my thoughts on love," but who'd really want to read that?

I'm laying in my bed right now (laying? lying? cozied)--I'm cozied in my bed right now, thinking about the fact that my room is a bit too warm for comfort. I cannot sleep under the covers currently because my room is just that stuffy. Blankets will suffocate. Nevermind the fact that my sheet has somehow gone missing (I'm a firm believer that making your bed is pointless: you're just getting right back into it anyway.) This leaves me with a fuzzy brown blanket, which is perfect for cold winter nights, but not so ideal for warm late-spring nights, and a brown comforter with down-alternative filling. When did my life become so brown? And so insulating? Why am I not properly prepped for my pending move to Florida?

The fuzzy blanket used to be pink until a certain fluffy cat decided to turn it into his own personal litter box. No, I did not turn the pink blanket brown (nor did he), I simply replaced the ruined pink blanket with an identical brown blanket. And then the cat was never allowed on the bed again. Ahem.

I just watched "The Book Thief" with my parents tonight and while it did not emotionally wreck me as it did my mom, I did feel one thing: ultimately dull. I keep feeling this over and over since I have graduated. I am a dull person. I do dull things. I live a dull life. I eat dull foods. I have a dull daily routine. Maybe that is why I switched up my hair last week: I was tired of doing the same thing with my hair. I was tired of wanting to have short hair, so instead I just acquired...short hair! And while tonight resulted in my feeling like a dull person, ultimately the shorter hair has made me feel bolder and more outgoing. I can go anywhere!

Note: after this, all is new writing (as of 8/27)

My life is dull, but only because I choose to make it so! The beautiful thing about life is that we are in control! Not fully, but to an extent. My mom has always told me (much to my dismay) that life is all about choices. You can choose to do A or B in situation C. Maybe somebody is forcing you at gun point to do option T, but it is still your choice whether you want to do option T or option U. Granted, choosing option U may get you shot...but it's still your choice! You hold the cards! You are the master of your fate! Of your life! You want to change something then make it happen! 

I want to make a better pizza crust! So I'm experimenting with various recipes to make it happen! This isn't exactly a life-altering decision, but I'll be damned if it doesn't mean that I'm always going to make pizza at home instead of searching and searching for the best pizza around. I still think that either Giorgio's (who I did not eat at during my pizza search this summer because I already know their pizza to be amazing) or Jockamo take the cake. Or pie. Pie is probably the more appropriate term to use in this instance. I also want other things, and I'm working on those other things, but there is a time and place to announce them and this is neither the time nor the place. Actually, it probably is the place, but it is definitely not the time! 

Fear not! Ye shall know soon! 

Four days until my birthday! 

I really need to go to the store but I just wanted to say

I LOVE LIFE!

Today was fabulous for little to no reason at all other than the world is a beautiful place. People fall in love! Babies are born! Puppies find homes! Kittens are cuddled! OATMEAL IS PLANNED AND SMOOTHIES ARE CONCOCTED!

I want to go get some of that powder peanut butter: have any of you tried it?

WILL YOU JOIN ME IN SINGING THE GREAT SONG OF OUR NATION?

No, not the National Anthem ('MERICA!)

"Maneater" covered by Grace Mitchell. (This is not in any way an implication that I am a man-eater) *crunches bones in corner*

WELL, GIVE IT A WAVE!

Seriously. What a great cover. I feel on top of the world!

The time for dancing has come.

Pizza Review Number 2!

BELLACINOS.

Okay, honestly, it wasn't that great. Nothing spectacular stood out about this pizza as far as food is concerned. The staff, however, was actually quite stellar (I had a LivingSocial coupon and not only was he very knowledgeable about the coupon, he informed me of how to make my meal completely free. Awesome!) He was kind, courteous, and entertaining! Just like a good dog should be. I think I'm most certainly losing my mind.

I'm not certain whether they have other locations, but my younger sister and I visited the Carmel location close to Old Meridian Street, just off of 31 or 32, whichever one they have massive construction on right now. What a pain! Thankfully, from friends formerly living over in the area, I know the way to get around everything, but still! Agh! Construction, how you are not my friend. At all.

We each had personal calzones, which is one of our favorite things from our Massachusetts pizzeria: PHOP (Paxton House of Pizza) The innards were okay. They weren't bad, but it certainly wasn't a flavor that would drag me back to them time and time again. The crust wasn't as crisp and flaky as I would have liked, the pizza sauce for dipping was lacking in oomph, and the cheese was a bit skimpy. I'm not sure entirely what my sister thought (I should really develop an outline on how to do this) but she didn't not eat. So...I guess she liked it?

We did order cinnamon dessert stick things. It was basically a small pizza crust with cinnamon sugar (not enough cinnamon) and cinnamon roll glaze (not enough of that either) on top. Pretty sweet tasting, but could have been so much more.

Overall, if I didn't have a coupon, I would not be returning to Bellacinos. Just not my cup of tea.

This One's For You

Dear Sir or Madame who viewed my blog 20 times last night at 4 a.m.,

Did you find what you were looking for? What were you looking for? Perhaps you were merely stuck on my page and it continuously refreshed and caused my page views to jump dramatically?

I know not who you are, nor how I came to find you, but may I just say... Hi. How ya doin?

Who are you, mysterious blog viewer? Why were you up at 4 a.m.? Why were you viewing my blog 20 times in one hour? WHY ARE YOU STILL USING INTERNET EXPLORER?!

xoxo Chromelyfe

Pizza Review Numero Uno!

And yet, it was not Uno's Pizza!

No--it was Greeks! (in Zionsville)

Alright, so a little about Greeks. It was started in 1969 by some greek dude (you can read about it on the official website or you could not. That's your choice. I won't force you to read up on pizza in your spare time.) Greeks' homebase is in Muncie, IN, fueled by college students chowing down on some delicious pizza while "studying" for classes. Who's really going to study when they can just devour pizza?

I'm kicking myself for not taking a photo of the pizza (damn that hindsight 20/20 business) but it was pretty tasty. Started off with breadsticks that were covered in a garlic buttery mess of goodness (piping hot! Fresh from the oven!) They had the perfect amount of crisp on the outside with fluffy melt in your mouth inside. Mmm delicious. We ordered them with cheese dipping sauce instead of marinara and what's not to love about cheese and bread? I'll tell you: nothing. Cheese and bread is an ideal combo. Like Sampson and Delilah. Yogurt and Cheetos. Cheddar and Oreos. Grapes and Pretzels. All of these classic combinations clearly exemplify how wonderful cheese and bread are together. (Trust me on that Cheddar/Oreos claim.) Garlic butter, melted cheese, and bread are just a match made in heaven.

As I was accompanied by a well-versed Greeks connoisseur, I allowed him to choose the pizza selection for the evening. The pepperoni and sausage were simply asking us to consume them. I personally love when pepperoni becomes crisp and crunchy on the top of my pizza, and Greeks did not disappoint. Like all great pepperoni, there was grease, but not to an excessive degree. The sausage was...sausage. But the cheese was the real star of this pizza. On Greeks' website, they boast using all milk cheese rather than skim milk cheese, and I believe this to be their real strength: nothing can compare to perfect cheese. Their crust was nothing phenomenal (I do prefer heavy crusts) but the bottom of the pizza did have a nice crispness.

The service was friendly and not overbearing (thanks Ashley!) Restroom was clean, table was clean, everything was in working order! We were the only ones dining in at 5:30, though we were soon joined by an older couple ("I'm not supposed to drink for two weeks--I'll have a Coors Light!")

Quite an enjoyable experience.  Not at the top of my list, but I would certainly chow down on their pizza again!

Pizza

Because my life is so exciting and I have plenty of time to do things in my spare time, I've decided that I am, once again, setting out to find the best pizza. Previously I attempted to find the best frozen pizza. BUT WHAT ABOUT PIZZERIAS IN INDIANAPOLIS AND ITS SURROUNDING COMMUNITIES?! It must be done! (With the exclusion of chain sort of restaurants like Noble Roman's, Pizza Hut, Papa Johns, Dominos, etc.)

Pizza parlors I intend to dine at prior to moving away to Florida (for the sake of lists, I will denote pizza locations I have already dined at with a star): <-that should not be a sad face.
- Pizza King *
- Amore Pizzeria Ristorante *
- Greek's Pizza
- Zionsville Pizzeria *
- Fox's Den Pizza
- Roselli's Pizza *
- Jan's Village Pizza
- Pizza Harbour
- Pizza N Stuff
- Bub's Pizza
- Cool River Pizza
- Tony Sacco's Coal Oven Pizza *
- Bellacino's Pizza and Grinders
- Bazbeaux *
- Mellow Mushroom
- Some Guys Pizza Pasta Grill
- Pizzology
- Wise Guys Pizza
- Puccini's Smiling Teeth
- Bella Pizzeria
- Gramboli's Pizza
- Luca Pizza di Roma
- Circle City Pizza
- Pizza Pete's Original Italian
- Pasquale's Pizza and Pasta
- Pizza Doughmain
- Mozzi's Pizza
- Hometown Classic Pizza
- That Fun Place
- Don's Pizza and Pasta
- The Pizza Shop and Sister's Ice Cream
- Jacks Pizza
- Riccos Pizza
- Reds Corner Market
- The Willard
- Richard's Brick Oven Pizza
- Enzo Pizza
- Jockamo Upper Crust Pizza
- Barlo's Pizzeria
- Jet's Pizza
- Bob's Tu Your Door Pizza
- The Pizza Barn
- Monical's *
- Gallagher's Pizza
- Mugg-N-Pye
- Dawg House Pizzeria
- Casey's Carry Out Pizza
- Lil Mo's Pizzeria
- Grizzly's Pizza
- Pizzaville
- Sal's Famous Pizzeria
- Mediterranean Pizza
- Pittsboro Pizzeria
- Rockstar Pizza
- Piezano's Pizza
- Hungry Howie's
- Pizza Paradise
- Randelli's Gourmet Pizza
- Dave's All American Pizza
- Union Jack Pub
- MacKenzie River Pizza Co.
- Datsa Pizza
- WB Pizza

Holy cow. Okay, I did not realize there were that many pizza places in the donut counties. I'll just have to try and get to as many as possible. My Saturdays are now planned for me. Each time I try a new type, I'll write about it here. And it will be

EPIC.

Or just tasty. Or not so tasty. Hmm. Pizza. My favorite thing! If any of you notice somewhere that I left off, please comment on here or Facebook. Let the pizza munching begin! Also, if anyone wants to accompany me in my endeavor, do not hesitate to let me know!

Rats are Horcruxes

Last night's dream, in a nutshell:

Help! I'm in a nutshell! Borrowed from hark.com

     I was in this really weird house. Everything was in sepia tones (not the first time this has happened for me. Apparently my dreams just adore shades of brown and cream.) So this house was Victorian style and almost had the layout of the Beetlejuice house: think of that for your basic mindset. Definitely had a tower sort of fixture. I was in this house and I was sleeping--how cruel that within your sleep you should be sleeping. At least let me do something exciting!--and I had woken up because I could hear something next to me. I frantically started smacking the pillows in my white metal frame bed (does this scream old style hospital to no one but me?) and heard something scream. I looked up and this man was watching me smack the crap out of my bedding. He began to tell me that I cannot find what I am looking for unless I truly know what it is that I am looking for. I racked my brain (see here for why rack is correct and not wrack) but could not come up with what was in my bed. Meanwhile, my level of absolute terror is rapidly increasing, rendering me practically worthless to even think of the word for banana or bed. The thing in my bed continues to make twitchy movements within a pillowcase and no matter how hard I try, the pillowcase refuses to open and show me its contents. The man, who looks remarkably like the Genie from California Adventure's Aladdin stage show, is still watching me, laughing at my struggling. I start yelling at him what various options are of what is stuck in the pillowcase, because more than anything I just want it to be gone. "Mouse! Spider! Bird! Squirrel! RAT!" And then POOF he disappeared and the pillowcase opened: it was a rat.

     I quickly shut the pillowcase again and ran to the garage to throw the rat outside. While carrying the pillowcase, the rat was gnawing through the material, attempting to pull off a great escape. I grabbed it by its tail and began to swing it around in circles, winding up for a great toss into oblivion that is the side yard. My mom is now by my side, encouraging me to just shoot the rat (suddenly there's a gun at my feet) but I tell her I'd rather he just roam free outside (who knows if he has a family or not!) I toss him into the side yard, certain he's going to sail through the night air for yards, but he bit my hand just as I was about to release him so I fumbled the freeing. He hit the ground and immediately ran to return to the house. "WHAT IS WITH THIS RAT?!" I screamed at my mom as we were running back to the garage to shut the door and keep the rat from reentering the house. The rat latched onto my shin and I screamed out in pain. I grabbed a baseball bat from within the garage and began to beat the rat. As I beat the rat, images were flying out of its mouth in horcrux fashion. "People" flooded out of his mouth, yelling at me that I am not good enough, that I am lazy, and that I cannot keep a clean house (why is this something I was worried about?) After nearly beating the rat to a pulp, I once again attempted to throw the rat into the yard. This time,

     I woke up.

Lame. Don't even get to know the ending of my own dream. What thievery, damned alarm clock (phone)!

Confession: I've never watched Austin Powers, so I don't know why I use the line. Harumph.

Cold Night Cozies

It's really cold. Like, super cold. Allow me to sound as Valley Girl as possible right now. Like, totally really cold. I can't even, like, think of other words. It's like the weather has, like, frozen my brain, you know? And I can't think, like, at all? What does this mean? Is this, like, the end of my thoughts? Like, let's make a deal!

With Mother Nature. Seriously, lady, it's been cold enough this winter. I saw on the news tonight that with tonight's temperature, we're evening with the record of nights under 0 degrees with 2005/2006 winter. Please stop this madness. I cannot handle anymore.

My mom posted a link today of 20 things a future spouse should have before you marry them or something something. I agree with all of them. For the article/blog, see here. In regard to number 17, I'm really not that hard to please, I promise. A large nose and dark hair. Preferably tall. As Steven has been so kind as to point out, I want a Jew. I would not be opposed. [Insert Jewish stereotype here about how much money we would save and how I really don't want to be a coupon clipping wife all of my life so perhaps I should not marry a Jew who truly falls into the stereotypical category of penny pincher.]

I have the sudden desire to ride an elephant at some point in my life. I think this goes along with thirst for adventure? Just no spiders. Please don't make me go to Australia and see spiders as big as my head.

I had a dream the other night about a man. Oh ho ho! What a scandal! Hannah, you scandalous lady! Do not tempt me further! It involved hanging out with this nameless man at his house, eating delicious sandwiches, and playing with his son (not our son.) I also met his family and they, of course, loved me. As all families should. I'd like to eat another one of those sandwiches just now. And find this guy. Duh. But sandwiches capture my heart more instantly. Oh god no wonder I'm not a model. Plus the whole 5'6" thing: there is nothing spectacular about being five and a half feet tall.

I already made a Potter status for The Half-Blood Prince and in sticking with my pattern of only one quote per book publicly posted, I shall post another lovely quote here instead to wrap up tonight's ramblings (which are arguably less happy than I would like, increasingly disorganized, and a bit odd like usual):

"What happened?"
"Cracked skull," said Madam Pomfrey, bustling up and pushing him back against his pillows. "Nothing to worry about, I mended it at once, but I'm keeping you in overnight. You shouldn't overexert yourself for a few hours."
"I don't want to stay here overnight," said Harry angrily, sitting up and throwing back his covers. "I want to find McLaggen and kill him."
"I'm afraid that would come under the heading of 'overexertion,'" said Madam Pomfrey, pushing him firmly back onto the bed and raising her wand in a threatening manner.

Oh Harry, you scoundrel. Stop trying to hurt your Quidditch team members!

I Want Doughnuts

Donuts.

Dough-nuts.

Those delicious mini cakes that are fried and glazed and frosted and filled and heaven in my mouth.

Is there anything so magical as a doughnut? NO. THE ANSWER IS NO. We are, of course, forgetting the existence--I promise it's real--of the wizarding world and all sub-genres of that realm. But otherwise, doughnuts are the most magical. So magical, in fact, that they warrant day-long adventures to find the best doughnuts. Do I hear a re-do of that splendid day in the near future? Yes, Johnny from the Bronx, yes I do.

So I guess, now that I'm ten days into 2014, I should make a list of things I want to accomplish this year. Should I include things I know are already going to happen (because they're already booked) just for the sheer joy of knowing I'll accomplish AT LEAST ONE of my list items? Nah. Let the challenges...BEGIN! And may the odds be ever in my favor.

1. I want to get my passport. I've had one before, but that was prior to turning into an adult. Aka I was less than 16. Womp womp American government says you have to actually get a new passport after that age or some nonsense. Le sigh. My goal is to have applied for it by February 28th. Better be getting on that, home slice.

2. I want to get a real job. "But Hannah, you have real jobs! You make real money!" No, no I don't. I do have jobs, yes. And I do make actual money, yes. But these are not jobs that I want to be doing by the end of the year unless something in my life HAS GONE TERRIBLY WRONG. Which I hope it does not, but now that the fear has been laid out for all to see...wouldn't be completely unexpected. In the past few days, I've applied for almost ten different jobs (okay, so it's seven. Don't be so pushy) and I know that the odds are against me that one of them will work out. BUT IT'S 2014 AND I REALLY WANT SOMETHING TO WORK OUT FOR ME IF I WORK HARD ENOUGH FOR IT. Yup. #admittingit

3. I want to travel more. So this one goes hand-in-hand with the first one, and also goes with the listing I said I wouldn't do because it means that I have a guaranteed plus-one for Hannah success column (I'm going on a cruise to the Bahamas at the end of the month #coloryoujealous)... Yeah I'm not even going to continue. I just want to travel more. Which really doesn't sound accomplishable if I get a real job...UNLESS MY JOB INVOLVES TRAVELING!!

4. I want to write more than once a month. At the beginning of 2013, I was doing great with the blogging! Multiple times a month, ideas were regularly flowing, blah blah blah. And then the final semester of college hit and I became an insufferable know-it-all. Actually, despite the harsh labeling by a certain Severus Snape, I was not such, I was just incredibly bogged down, as one of my few blogs from that time would suggest. 55 hours a week, full time school requirements, regular ping-pong tournaments, dance competitions, promises I don't intend to keep, etc. Just leave me alone! If you think of things I should write about, send me a message on Facebook. Shoot me a tweet. Comment on one of my blogs. I COULD DO AN ENTIRE SERIES ABOUT SOMETHING IF YOU'D JUST GIVE ME IDEAS. Let's form a partnership.

5. I want to read at least one book every two weeks. I was going to say "I want to read more" but given my reading habits during my college career...this would mean reading a book a year. I was then going to put "I want to read a book a month" but how hard is that? In the past two weeks, I've gone through two books and I'm finishing a third...probably tonight. As long as my old lady tendencies of falling asleep super early don't kick in. So, one book every two weeks. Or two books a month. Should not be that hard.

6. I want to stop feeling so sorry for myself. Plain and simple. Start thinking happy thoughts.

7. This isn't so much a resolution as it is a confession: if you post things on pinterest about a wedding you want and you aren't engaged, I probably stopped following that board. Sorry I'm not sorry, but your significant other shouldn't be the last piece to your perfectly planned event. That's just so many levels of wrong.

8. I want to eat more ice cream. And as I plan to move to a warmer climate with a new job (if everything works as I'd ideally like it) I think this is going to happen. Especially with the cruise at the end of the month: unlimited ice cream bar? Mickey premium bars to the room WHENEVER I WANT WITHOUT CHARGE? Yeah. The ice cream thing is happening. Not even a challenge, but I accept it.

9. Sandwiches.

I can't make ten items this year. I just can't. But god how I love sandwiches. Sandwiches and pizza. Mmm. Obviously I want food tonight. Maybe I should make a food blog instead of a blog about how much I want to eat food.