AH and BSteer are Posting Again: the Epistolary Edition

Sorry for the long posting hiatus! Last week was pretty crazy for both Brittany and myself, and we let blogging fall to the wayside. I went to the beach, which was lots of fun but resulted in a vicious sunburn. Brittany went to a wedding, which didn't result in sunburn, but was still lots of fun as far as I know. Please don't be angry that we didn't post. Here's a picture of a baby highland cow to make up for it.

Hi! I'm adorable! :)

I promise, we'll try not to neglect our shenanigans again. But if we do, we'll give you more pictures of cute baby animals. That's a win/win, right?

School started back this week! It feels strange to be in the midst of fall semester again. There are so many freshmen on campus and it makes me feel very, very old. Brittany and I like to walk on campus at night, and now there are so many babies running around and playing frisbee and hanging ENOs in the trees. They still have so much hope and joy and optimism in their eyes. Bless them. Of course, Brittany and I dance around and sing and be shenanigany just like freshmen, except we're super old. But don't let me get ahead of myself. We'll have more on that another day.

Anywho, BSteer and I are both trying to settle into our semester routines, from getting used to work and class schedules to planning meals in E26. One of our daily routines is to check the mail, but we're usually quite disappointed; the Internet and electric companies are the only ones who want to talk to us, and they only ever want our money. Recently, however, our trip to the mailbox was much more exciting than usual.

Yay! A letter that's a letter and not a bill! 

We got a letter! My dear friend and former high school roommate Laura, who blogs at Unpunctuated Life, decided to show us some epistolary love. You may remember our desperate begging nonchalant request for some snail mail when we were recounting our sneaky zucchini exploits.  Laura immediately asked for our address, and I knew we would be in for a treat. Laura is one of the best letter writers I know. She's sent me the occasional letter over the years, and it always brightens my day.

 Laura has cute stationary. It even maintained the produce theme and included this clever insert.

Making shenanigans since 2005! I should post those videos one day...

 Unfortunately, I'm a terrible letter writer. I'll often start a letter to send in return, but I rarely finish it. Sometimes I'll finish it, but I'll forget to buy postage so it just sits on my dresser staring at me, judging me for being so terrible at returning letters. Eventually I'll shove it in a box under my bed so the blank area where a stamp should go will stop haunting me. It's a good thing I wasn't born in the 1800s; the girls got to wear great dresses, but they wrote far too many letters for my taste. I'd end up being a recluse who never went to balls because I forgot to reply to my invitation. So Laura, I hope you don't mind, but you're getting a blog post instead of a letter. It comes with flashback photos!

     Laughing Raptors, adorable socks, and our first roommate picture.

(Circa 2005 - now THAT makes me feel old)

Ah, memories of S201. See those polka dots? It took us hours to cut those things out. I'm pretty sure we did it while watching Gilmore Girls on my laptop. That's right. Be jealous. Also, I hunted through lots of old high school photos to find these gems, and I've come to a significant conclusion. I miss gaucho pants. I've never owned comfier pants.

For those of you who aren't lucky enough to know Laura, check out her blog! She'll teach you things about life, domesticity, and couponing like you've never dreamed.

Wanna be blog famous? Email us at shenanigansofe26@gmail.com to request our snail mail address (unless you're a creepy stalker).

PS: BSteer and I want to start tweeting! Follow us on twitter at Shenanigans_E26 for random bits of ridiculousness.

AH and BSteer Say Goodbye to the Olympics

It had to happen sooner or later. We knew two weeks ago when all the excitement started that it was going to end. We accepted our fate... the fate of the world. It's all over.

After all, the summer Olympics couldn't last forever.

Goodbye, London. Thanks for all the good times.

I'll admit, I'd never really gotten into the Olympics before. I've watched a handful of events, but four years ago if you'd asked me to choose between watching swimming qualifiers and Friends reruns, I would have flipped the channel to Friends in a heartbeat. But this year was very different. Every night for the past two weeks, prime time viewing in E26 has been tuned to Olympic events (with the exception of Tuesday nights - nothing will make us miss Pretty Little Liars, y'all). Brittany's Olympic excitement has been contagious, and I very much enjoyed watching the Olympics with her.

Brittany and I knew we wanted to do something special to honor the end of the Olympics. It had brought us so much joy over the past two weeks! We'd grown to love so many of the Team USA Olympians: the Fab Five with their incredible gymnastics skills, Michael Phelps with his record breaking medal count, Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings (AKA The Girls) with their flawless teamwork, Missy Franklin with her "ever effervescent" attitude (my favorite quote from the closing ceremony), and Jonathan Horton with his inspiring sportsmanship. We also have several Olympic jokes in E26 that we share even when no one else understands what they mean, including talking about Jonathan Horton's wife, assuming that Ukraine is not pleased, and Brittany trying to get all of the male Olympic athletes to be my boyfriends, including the 18-year-old British swimmer Tom Daley. According to her, "age is just a number when you're legal! But when you're not, it's a law."

After all, he'll be 22 in Rio.

We truly felt the Olympics had given us so much and therefore deserved to be celebrated. We debated for a while how best to honor the august occasion. Themed food? A party? Decorations? Talk in British accents all day? Finally we chose an option that would not only honor the Olympics, but would allow us to cherish our favorite Olympic memories far into the future. We decided to have... an Olympic Hanging Ceremony!

Not like this, though.

Our Olympic Hanging Ceremony involved hanging pictures of our favorite Olympians (The Fab Five, Michael Phelps, The Girls, Missy Franklin, and Jonathan Horton) along the stairs in our apartment just before the closing ceremony began. If you read Brittany's last blog post, you'll remember we got a great deal on some picture frames from Palmer Home Thrift Store in Columbus. The day before the closing ceremony, we put our artistic skills to work and went straight up patriotic on those frames! Our little apartment crasher, Alexa, lent her talents to the painting of Jonathan's frame, although she unfortunately missed the Hanging Ceremony itself. We hung our Olympian portraits in their places of honor to the electric sounds of Jimi Hendrix's "Star Spangled Banner" just as the closing ceremony began.

We love our Olympians, even with poor picture quality.

The Closing Ceremony began! We were excited, elated, and... confused. For those of you who watched the ceremony... did you get it? I mean yay, music, but the first hour or so felt very sloppy and disjointed. I enjoyed the technicolor dancers and the flying guy in the kilt and even One Direction (no shame!), but at first I was a bit let down. But then STOMP showed up. I believe my exact words were, "I don't care that I don't get it now that STOMP is happening!"

"I don't know if I'd want to be suspended in the air in a kilt." -BSteer

After that, I felt the ceremony really picked up. There were so many good highlights: spotting the Anthony Dixon doppelganger; noting that BP (British Petroleum) was an official sponsor of Team USA; Brittany's vindication that puzzle building should be an Olympic sport when they put together John Lennon's face; and Russel Brand riding the giant bus octopus. We all know, however, that the HIGHLIGHT of the highlights was absolutely the Spice Girls reunion.

It's true, friendship NEVER ends!

Brittany jumped up and down screaming and spun around in circles when they announced the Spice Girls. I might have done the same thing if I hadn't been laughing so hard I could barely take a picture of her.

Note: real life Brittany is less blurry.

The Spice Girls were phenomenal. We slammed our bodies down and zig-a-zig ahhhed and spiced up our lives like crazy while they were performing. I'm fairly certain our downstairs neighbors were not pleased...just like Ukraine when Japan bumped them from medaling.

Ukraine is not pleased.

But we were pleased as punch in E26! Alexa came back for last last half hour of the ceremony, and she even brought us snacks because she is delightful (and she washed our dishes AGAIN-we're never letting her go). Overall it was a great end to a great couple of weeks with exciting sports, good company, and lots of gold medals. And from now on every time Brittany and I head to bed, we say good night to our little Olympic family.

"Good night Fab Five. Good night Michael Phelps. Good night The Girls. Good night Missy Franklin. Good night Jonathan Horton.. and I guess your wife!"

Did you watch the Olympic Closing Ceremony? What was your favorite highlight?

Reciprocation

Cheerio fine readers! When you last left us, we had strategically placed fine squash produce on our neighbors' porches. If you could not tell from the previous post, it was exhilarating, exciting, and a million and five other adjectives.

This is an image of "so much excitement" I found on Google. Pretty accurate, if you ask me.

Well, the excitement wore off on August 9th when we discovered that the majority of our neighbors were less than enthused by our zucchini. There was no mention of our good tidings, save for the lone banana (which REALLY, REALLY made our day.) Despite our super bummed demeanor, Ann Ham and I persevered. 

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Our one true "follower" of E26, Alexa (this is her blog!) came and crashed with us this weekend because she is temporarily homeless. We took this darling in, not only because she subscribes to our shenanigans, but because she is also my little sister's best friend. (There was some kind of sisterly duty that overwhelmed me. Sometimes I adopt individuals regardless of whether they need it or not. I'm like a people hoarder. It's totally normal, I swear.)

Alexa spent the weekend entertaining us, as well as cleaning our kitchen. She said she likes to wash dishes because it's therapeutic, but I'm slightly under the impression that she felt like she needed to. She didn't have to, but we weren't going to argue about it. We love clean dishes, and we love clean dishes that we didn't have to do. 

Saturday was a particularly entertaining day. What started as an adventure to find Ann Ham a new comforter escalated into a tour de force of the Columbus Palmer Home Thrift Store. That place is awesome and everything goes to a great cause. The Palmer Home for Children could be considered an organization of people hoarders, but in the most amazing and best possible sense of that phrase. (Told you it was normal.)

 Just some random picture frames. We bought 11 for $12. 

I'm also just going to throw this out there, I like the original thrift store in Columbus much better than the one in town. Columbus has ample space for browsing. And skiing (just trust me.)

Oh, hi! I'm just catching some good deals!

In addition to scoping out bargains on Saturday, the three of us participated in arts and crafts, as well as baking. I suppose baking could also be categorized under the arts and crafts heading... well, for the following reasons: 

 

1. Multitasking was involved.

 

2. Lots of color! Check out those colorful cake shavings. Yeah, we did it. That's a tie dyed cake.

There were lots of artistically-placed spoonfuls of colored cake batter. Prior to baking, the MSTATE cake really looked like a pile of deflated balloons, which in and of itself, was quite fun. However, once baked, that cake looked like a magical rainbow from space. And by magical rainbow from space, I mean it looked like a tie dyed cake that anyone and everyone would appreciate. 

I know you're appreciating it. 

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Oh happy day! This morning (let's be serious, this afternoon) as Alexa was preparing for her departure, she opened our apartment door and voila! we found this fine specimen:

Mr. (or Mrs.) Potato Head!

A big shout out goes to the fantastic occupant (and puppy) of D20. We in E26 had given up hope; our dreams were slightly shattered, but then you pieced them back together with this spectacular porch present! I hope you read this and know how great you made our Sunday. You sir, are a winner.

I leave you with one last image from our thrifting experience. Have a great week guys and gals!

We're so stylish.

P.S. If you want to know what our arts and crafts project was (and you definitely want to,) keep an eye out for future posts. =]

Sneaky Zucchini Day

"Good tidings, neighbors. We greet you with a zucchini and some kind words."  - BSteer

We did it! We sneaked around to six of our neighbors' apartments and successfully delivered our holiday zucchinis.

That is one sneaky zucchini.

A little background: while crashing with her grandmother during a summer internship in the Midwest a few years back, a friend of Brittany's decided to research unique summer holidays to celebrate with her friends back home as a way to stay in touch. One of the holidays she discovered was August 8th: Sneak Some Zucchini onto Your Neighbor's Front Porch Day, or as I've taken to calling it, "Sneaky Zucchini Day."

While brainstorming fun ways to meet our neighbors, Brittany remembered Sneaky Zucchini Day and decided we should give it a go. On August 7th we purchased several zucchinis, attached a note to each, and chose six zucchini recipients (because delivering zucchinis to the entire apartment was a bit out of our price range). We were ready to go! All that was left to do was sneak.

This zucchini is ready to get SNUCK.

Morning dawned bright and lovely on the 8th of August, a perfect day to distribute neighborly vegetables to our fellow tenants. Unfortunately, Brittany left for work before I even woke up, I had to work past five to finish a project, and neither of us wanted to sneak alone. We'd been hoping to deliver the zucchini either before folks left for work/class or before they came home, but it wasn't until after six that we finally had time to sneak. Sneaking was made more difficult by the fact that our neighbors were out and about, so we decided to do some reconnaissance first. With my purse loaded up with veggies and under the guise of checking our mail (there was none - maybe our loyal readers should send us some snail mail [or even just post a comment... hint hint!]), we wandered through the courtyard to determine who was home and where we could get away with dropping off the goods.

Sneaking zucchini is a lot harder than it sounds. We had several close run-ins with our chosen targets. Two different neighbors walked out of their apartments right as we were making our approach; we had to tuck and roll off to the side to avoid being caught and try to pretend that we had any business being in a random stairwell across the courtyard from our apartment. That was not so sneaky. Another neighbor's blinds were open, so we inched along the wall and tried to subtly place the zucchini on her welcome mat. That really was sneaky!

Posing for pictures: not so sneaky.

With all our zucchinis delivered, we headed back to E26, triumphant and eager for some sort of response to our efforts. And we weren't disappointed.

It's a sneaky banana!

One of our neighbors reciprocated with some sneakiness of her own. While Brittany and I were cleaning the kitchen, or possibly while we were sitting on our couch in full view of the window and with the blinds wide open (absorbed in our computers, repeatedly checking the blog for any new traffic), we had a visit from the new tenant in E27.

 "Happy Sneak Some Zucchini on Your Neighbor's Front Porch Day! (I was out of zucchini, have a banana instead!) P.S. - Thanks for the zucchini! -E27"

We decided the note deserved a prime spot on the fridge as a sign of the success of Sneaky Zucchini Day. Even if we don't hear from any of our other neighbors (though I hope we do!) this absolutely made our day. It also made my breakfast the next morning. Thanks, E27!

Sneaky Zucchini Day was a lot of fun. Perhaps we'll keep the fun going by celebrating even more wacky holidays. 

Do you have any suggestions for the next holiday we should celebrate or other fun ways to meet our neighbors?

PS - Brittany is feeling a bit under the weather today. Sneaking zucchini will take it out of you. Y'all show her some love!

Sneak Some Zucchini onto Your Neighbor's Front Porch Day

Tomorrow is Sneak Some Zucchini onto Your Neighbor's Front Porch Day! This year, E26 is celebrating in style. Hopefully our neighbors will appreciate the holiday as much as us.

(If you're visiting this page because you were the recipient of a zucchini, let us know what you think about the holiday!)

How I know this whole roommate thing will work out just fine.

This is how I know Brittany and I will do pretty well as roommates. I had some really stressful days this past week. Between four days of moving, work assignments, summer school assignments, losing a pet, and getting little sleep, I was feeling pretty grumpy by Sunday. Brittany was a champ through it all, though. She cleaned my carpet before I moved in, helped me pack and move boxes, unloaded and put away all my food and kitchen supplies, and let me eat her food. Girl's kind of my hero.

Hero Brittany to the rescue.

By Sunday night, after spending most of the day slaving away over a report for work that I promised my boss she would have by that afternoon, I needed a milkshake. Nay, I DESERVED a milkshake! Nothing would sooth my harried soul like consuming the most delicious ice cream concoction Sonic has the ability to craft (half price shakes after 8 pm has made me a loyal Sonic customer). When I mentioned this need to Brittany, she nodded vehemently. She might even have scream-whispered, which definitely signals that she's both interested and excited. She'd been feeling kind of crummy all day, so she said a milkshake would do her some good as well (girl after my own heart!). By 10 pm, we were Sonic bound. We both got chocolate malts and they were both delicious.

While waiting for the carhop to bring us our malts, I said some ridiculous things (as per usual) about Sonic's payment system and PINs and credit card security and what have you. I'd like to blame it on the lack of sleep delirium, but let's be real: I'm always just a little ridiculous. Anyway, this night's topics led me to acknoweldge how much I complain about lots of little things that don't matter, which in turn led to the creation of...my own political party! That way I can complain about random things that don't matter AND make money while I do it (like all great politicians)! My movement is aptly named the Ann Hamilton party. The slogan is, "There ain't no party like an Ann Hamilton party!" Everyone who joins my party gets to be an Ann Hamilton. Brittany said that everyone should get a badge with my face on it to identify loyal Ann Hamiltons. We're gonna change the world, guys.

My name is Ann Hamilton and I approve this coffee.

And if that hasn't sold you, the day after our milkshake adventure, Brittany made dinner so I could study, and then she ate a whole bunch of oreos with me.

So yeah. I think this whole roommate thing is gonna work out just fine. 

PS - You're welcome, Sonic, for the free advertisement.

EDIT
Y'all. As I was getting ready to post this tonight, Brittany and I had an epic roommate bonding sing-a-long in the kitchen. For some reason, I had the Strong Bad email "Montage" stuck in my head. Specifically, I had part of the end credits on a loop in my head. When I asked Brittany if she knew what Homestar Runner was, she said yes. And we both got really excited. And I sang "Partyin'! Party party party in a wagon!" And then we proceeded to sing "Trogdor" in high pitched voices. And it was amazing. It's like we were meant for each other!

Burninating all the people who live in THATCHED ROOF COTTAGEEEEES!

Also, Brittany needs me. Today I taught her about organic milk, which she didn't know doesn't expire as quickly as regular milk. I also taught her the word "wonky," which I said when I couldn't get the cookies we made to transfer from pan to cooling rack in their perfect cookie shapes (Brittany somehow managed to get them to come off the pan without breaking, which is just plain typical. She's like Queen Spatula).

 

Paula Deen's got nothing on me.

Then she said, "Have a wonky cookie sandwich!" in a somewhat crazed voice, followed by, "Ah've gawt tha wonky cookie on mah fwace!" as she tried to eat said wonky cookie.

But I also need Brittany. She's making me pot roast for dinner tomorrow. And she likes to drink coffee in the morning. And she gets stern with me when I need to do Econ homework and threatens to eat all the ice cream if I don't. What a good roommate.

Life is always interesting in E26. Stay tuned for updates about zucchinis, meeting neighbors, and Olympic hanging ceremonies.

This nickle-sized area on my wrist will never be the same.

This post is not so much about roommate adventures as it is about my own personal shenanigans, but I'm jazzed about it so I'm going to share anyway. I don't think BSteer minds.


Warning: This is going to be a long one. I'm pretty excited to chronicle this day. Don't worry, though, because there are lots of pictures.

July 31, 2012, was the 47th birthday of Jo Rowling (author of the Harry Potter books) and the 32nd birthday of the boy wizard himself. I'm a giant Harry Potter fan, having been an avid reader of the books since I was 8, and I knew I needed to do something to celebrate. I dedicated a Facebook status to the pair (thank you, social media), and I considered watching a Harry Potter movie before the day was over.

But then I thought, nah, I'll get a tattoo instead!
   

Jo and Daniel approve!

For the record, I've been wanting a tattoo for ages, and I knew I wanted my first tattoo to be small, simple, and Harry Potter-related. Aside from my family, the Harry Potter books have been the most constant and joy-bringing element of my entire life. After much debate, I had finally made up my mind that I would get the page stars from the American books as my tattoo. What better day to take the plunge than on the birthday of the two people (one real, one fictional-yes, I do know that Harry Potter is fictional) who have been such a big part of my life?

Can you tell I've read this book a lot? The pages used to be white.

So here's what happened. I got all psyched up about the idea of finally getting my tattoo, and I just couldn't let it go. I mentioned to a couple of my far-away friends who also share my love of all things HP that if they were in town, I'd make them go with me to get my tattoo right away. And the idea of going right away just wouldn't leave my head. AND I had unwittingly worn my owl necklace, snitch bracelet, and shirt that has been described as an English tea cup that day. It was obviously meant to be, right!? So I texted my bad ass mother, who recently got her first tattoo, as well, to tell her I was thinking of going that day. And then she offered to go with me. And I said HECK YES!!

On my lunch break I told Brittany, who was thrilled and wanted to come (but not watch, because she has needle-phobia), I called Coon Tattoo in West Point to see if they would take a walk-in that day (they said yes!), and I called my dad to break the news. I was nervous that he'd be angry, but that guy wasn't even phased. I believe his exact words were, "Your mother has one, what am I going to say to you?" Thanks for taking all the umph out of my rebellion being so supportive, Pops.

By then I had to go back to work, but I couldn't. Sit. Still. I was literally vibrating at my desk chair because I was thinking about where I'd be that afternoon and what my wrist would look like and holy cow I'm about to get a tattoo ahhhhhhhh!

So I left work early, called my mom, and she was on her way. Called my roommate, and she was at lunch. Girl's strange hours and bad timing made her miss all the excitement!

In all my exuberance, I tore out of E26, threw myself in my car, bounced in my seat for the whole 20 minutes it took to get to West Point, jumped in my mom's car, and bounced in the passenger seat until we pulled up to the tattoo parlor, all the while saying, "Oh my gosh I'm so excited but I'm so nervous. So excited, but so nervous!"

Excited, but nervous.

I all but ran through the door, hovered by the front desk while I waited for the lady to get off the phone, and restrained my excitement enough to say, "I'm here to get my first tattoo!" (I wanted to say it like this: I'M HERE TO GET MY FIRST TATTOOOOOOO! LET'S DO THIS!!!!)

"Yeah, we can't see you 'til five."

Um... what?

My wrist is so sad and empty.

Apparently another walk-in had arrived just before me, and his tattoo was going to take a while. My exuberance left me like air from an untied balloon (so not all slow and calm like a leak, but quickly and making noises akin to latex flatulence). My mom said she didn't mind killing an hour and a half in downtown West Point, so we went and wandered around patiently (i.e. with me being antsy and jittery like I'd just had a large coffee on an empty stomach) until about 4:50. This worked out pretty well for my mom, because she got to learn how to knit.

Making a wash cloth like a BOSS.

But finally it was time, and we headed back to Coon's, and I waited for a few minutes, and another tattoo artist, Johnny, had just arrived for his shift. He had this really soft-spoken voice, so when he first greeted me, I wasn't sure if he said, "What can I do for you?" or "What are you doing standing so close to my desk?" I figured I could answer both questions by saying "I'm here for my first tattoo!" That seemed to be an appropriate response, because then he started asking me questions like, "What do you want, and where?" so I figured we were on the right track. I whipped out my copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, flipped to a random page, and pointed to the upper left page stars.

"I want this, on my wrist." He looked at me like I was crazy. Then I realized those page stars could be covered up by a pinkie nail. "Oh, but bigger."

He seemed slightly more satisfied, took my book, and scanned the page. He blew up the stars about four times their normal size and held it up to my wrist. Y'all, it was perfect. I started vibrating again.

Johnny went back to prepare the room and I just kind of bounced around smiling at my mom while she finished watching the Olympic swim team's cover of Call Me Maybe on my phone.

Missy Franklin, you are too adorable.

Johnny came back to the front of the shop to get us, and we followed him back to his room. I tried not to look at all of the pictures of naked chicks plastered to his walls (don't hate, I'm still a tattoo newbie and was very much out of my comfort zone; some other girl's boobs weren't exactly the thing to make me feel comfortable). I got Momma to take pictures while Johnny prepped my wrist and warned me to stay very, very still (which of course made me want to vibrate even more, but somehow I restrained myself). He transferred the copy to my wrist, taped the design to the bar so he could be certain to get the lines right, and went to work.

My mom took her job very seriously.

Both Johnny and my mom told me the needle would hurt, but that it would be more irritating than painful. At first they were right, but then that thing started to hurt like a jerk. I was petrified of moving, though, and also I wanted to seem tough, so I didn't say anything. And the whole process from start to finish took maybe three minutes. The tattooing itself probably took about a minute. After all, it's a pretty tiny design. When he finished, I compared the copy from the book to the copy on my wrist, and you guys, it's pretty spot on. Considering how tiny these lines are, I'm really impressed by Johnny. He was a trouper and put up with all my excitement and nerdiness and girl-who-doesn't-belong-in-a-tattoo-shop-ness and even posed for a picture.

I'm sure I'm his favorite customer now.

And then I had a tattoo! And since the needle had been put away, I went back to vibrating and bouncing all over the place because I FINALLY HAD A TATTOO!!!

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

 I'm going to pose for all of my pictures like this now.

How cute is my mom? So glad she came with me!

And then I texted a whole bunch of people. And I put it on Facebook. And I kept talking about it to anyone who would listen. And every time I look at it, I get really, really excited.

Casual and not awkward at all.

Happy birthday, Harry and Jo! Thanks for inspiring my first tattoo!