For the Love of a Linguaphile v.56

( source )

austere adj. [aw-steer]: severe, strict, uncompromising; grave, solemn, self-disciplined; simple, without excess or ornament (via) 

For a college student desk was austere, only containing the necessary notebook, folder, and lamp he would need to focus on his work.

For the Love of a Linguaphile is a weekly series where I share the joys of being an English major and language lover with a useful new vocabulary word or definition that keeps popping up lately. Hopefully you can incorporate a new word into your vocabulary, or even share one of your favorite words!

Father's Day

I've been staring at a blinking cursor on a blank white screen for over an hour now, not really sure where to start, what to say. And really, when it comes down to it, it's simple: I love my Dad. 
He is such an incredible human being, and I couldn't be luckier to have such a loving, encouraging person in my life, especially as a father. We've sat on the porch and watched a family of robins together. We've gone on vacations and gotten bowled over by waves. We've had graduation parties and confirmation parties and hooray for paying off our debt parties. We've had Lord of the Rings marathons together. We've watched the same taped VHS copy of A New Hope together for years and years and years together. We've Skyped from across the city, we've Skyped from different continents. We've ranted and been hopeful together. We've done science projects together, eaten cherry licorice together, and taken road trips together.
I really can't put how amazing my Dad is into words. It's one of those things where you just have to be there. For the crazy phone calls. The coined "Dad-isms". The Yogi Berra quotes. Just take my word for it :) 

Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there!

Recipe: Brie, Basil, and Tomato Pasta

I don't like summer.

I want to like summer, really, I do. But after the first week or two of sweaty palms and muggy, miserable days I'm ready for the perfectly crisp air of autumn again. Or, you know, snow. Anything to keep the sweat from dripping down my cheeks. So these past few days of breezy days due to the storm have been a godsend.

Getting through the long months of heat takes strategy, and I choose to focus on the little milestones to keep me going: the first bushel of fresh strawberries, the moment delicious peaches crop up in the stores, picnics and barbecues, and the sprouting of each and every herb in my garden. I'm willing to put up with summer if only for those deliciously simple flavors of basil and rosemary.

So the minute my basil plant starts offering leaves, I take them. I take them and I make my absolute favorite meal in the world. It's simple, light, and summery, and makes me not care about the sun, or the sweat, or the humidity. 

Brie, Basil, and Tomato Pasta

• 8 oz shell pasta
• 1 c. grape tomatoes, halved
• a wedge of Brie cheese
• a generous palmful of fresh basil, shredded
• black pepper

Cook your pasta, chop your tomatoes and basil, and cut your Brie into small cubes to melt faster. Drain, and mix together, adding a little bit of reserved pasta water if needed to loosen things up. Shake in some pepper and chow down!

Easy, no?

It's really very imprecise; you can add as much or as little of any of the ingredients based on your liking. And a brief note: I'm usually all for substituting dried herbs with fresh if you're in a bind, but I wouldn't dream of making this with anything but fresh basil. 

Do you have a go to summer meal? An herb that makes everything more bearable? Basil is my savior :) 

Things I Love Thursday

I'm not going to lie: it's been mighty difficult to find the positive in this week. Some days I feel like it'd be easier and more beneficial to make a "Things That Make Me Want to Bash My Head Off My Desk" list to get out all of my frustrations. But then I remember how much ranting and being angry doesn't help my mood, and just how much I have to be thankful for.

Choosing to focus on the positive doesn't mean the bad things magically disappear. They don't. While I could rant and rave about them, dwell on them, and let them fester, it leaves me feeling drained and grumpy. My time is too previous for that, but my feelings are just as important, good or bad. And so I run, or I blast Amanda Palmer in my car on the way home and I get out all of the bad feelings in whatever way I can. I say hello to them, I think about them briefly, and then I let them go.

♥ I'd like to take a moment to pat myself on the back for my patience. It's a miracle I've made it through the past few days, and I think this is what I owe it to.

♥ Making my Filofax pretty helps me get through the week. I'm much more inclined to plan things and get them done if I write it down, and I'm much more inclined to write it down if bright colors are involved. I am on the hunt for colored pens that a) don't bleed through and b) write on washi tape. Thoughts?

♥ Having the drive and determination to stick with something, even when it's not providing the experience and expectations I was hoping for. I will never sacrifice my ability or integrity and will always do my best, no matter what the outcome. It would be so easy to get frustrated and walk away, but I would be doing myself no service and missing out on still a good learning opportunity.

♥ Being able to watch the rest of the Stanley Cup Playoffs without the emotional attachment and heartache. It was a good season, boys. But now I can actually watch games without getting emotionally invested, wanting to vomit, and crying.

little loves

looking forward to a morning cup of coffee ♥ impromptu yogurt trips, and how nice the owners of froyo shops always are ♥ fresh strawberries ♥ baby cows!? Someone on my way to work has cows that he puts out to graze and they scare the crap out of me every time I round the corner, but seeing some babies just pop up one day was really cool! ♥ women dance partners ♥ sharing carrots and commiseration in class ♥ working out - which I don't think I've done at all in like, a month. It felt gooood ♥ sleeping on a pile of pillows ♥ the one spoon with my initial on it

What are you choosing to reflect on this week?

Bizarre Search Terms

Like any good blogger I keep an eye on my Google Analytics to monitor my blog's stats and trends (though, confession time: I do need to start acting on this data a bit more). While most of my traffic sources are to be expected, every now and then I find some hilarious search term listed in my referrals and think to myself, "Really? Someone found my blog by searching that?". I had the bright idea to go back in time and look at all of the ridiculous search terms to treat myself to a little laugh-fest and maybe uncover some bizarro truth about My Life as a Teacup. I don't think I've discovered any profound trends or anything, but I did get a good chuckle out of this list.

And so I present to you, the most entertaining terms people have searched for that have led them to My Life as a Teacup. I only wish I knew what to say to half of these... Like, how do I optimize my posts for keywords like "1001 toodles"? (If you've got any inkling, please enlighten me!)

• "Aliens on Earth" While this topic is something near and dear to me, I don't recall posting anything related to an alien invasion. Hmm...
• "Dream job - dolphin trainer, race car driver, pastry chef" I would just like to admire the detail that this person put into their search query. I wish you all the best in your endeavor to be a race car-driving, cake baking, dolphin trainer. 
• "Sweatpant + blogs" I do often blog in my sweatpants, so I suppose this is accurate. 
• "Happy Birthday Robert Redford memes" I just....what?
• "ass tea cup" Well now we're just getting profane. Seeing as I don't think I've ever sworn on this blog, I'm really confused as to how this has led here, not to mention what "ass tea cup" could possibly mean.
• "I love spreadsheets teacup" Yes, yes I do love spreadsheets. How ever did you know?
• "1001 toodles" Thoughts? I've got nothing....
• "Legend of the friendship teacup" This sounds like a really epic bedtime story. If someone is interested in writing or illustrating this, I'd be down. Maybe I'll even take a crack at this one...
• "Pittsburgh Penguins nursery" Even though I've never talked about kids on this blog, this is totally something I would do if I have kids someday. It's like the internet knows me or something.
• "swag girls" - Excuse me while I show my age and ignorance here, but what in the world is a swag girl? From what I gather from Tumblr, they appear to be bootylicious urban, fashion conscious ladies, and baseball caps seem to be involved. Can we talk about all of the criteria here that I do not fit into? My "swag" level is close to nonexistent (though, this chick can bust a move if the occasion calls for it), and can we talk about how many baseball caps hats I own? None. Nada. Do a pair of Minnie Mouse ears count?
• "my grandma gave a 'duster moo moo that was super comfortable" I repeat: what even?
• "Pinterest - make way for Christmas decorations, Game of Thrones" So basically I need to get crafting some DIY Game of Thrones-themed Christmas decorations. The juxtaposition of these two things is not lost on me. 

What are some crazy search terms that people have found your blog with? Surely, I can't be the only one...

For the Love of a Linguaphile v.55

( source )

jejune adj. [ji-ˈjün]: empty, devoid of substance; simplistic or naive; juvenile  (via) 

Despite trying his hardest to impress, his opinions weren't really opinions at all - just jejune rehearsed phrases and empty clichés. 

For the Love of a Linguaphile is a weekly series where I share the joys of being an English major and language lover with a useful new vocabulary word or definition that keeps popping up lately. Hopefully you can incorporate a new word into your vocabulary, or even share one of your favorite words!

Book Review: A Moveable Feast

( goodreads )
Let me be honest up front: until a few months ago, Hemingway was on my list of "authors I'm embarrassed to say I haven't read even though I have a degree in English Literature". Aside from reading The Old Man and the Sea in middle school and barely retaining a thing, I had never bothered to make friends with another Hemingway work; I had always written him off as stuffy and boring American Literature that I'd probably never like, and with no real reason for doing so.

I think my tipping point was watching the movie, Midnight in Paris, and when I realized that Hemingway was more linked with some of my favorite authors, poets, and artists than I had initially known, I resolved myself to reading some of his works to form an opinion on my own. I've been building up to A Farewell to Arms, but figured I ought to read some of his other works before throwing down my thoughts on such a big-ticket work. A read through The Sun Also Rises and re-read of The Old Man and the Sea later and I found myself at A Moveable Feast - a text I was probably most looking forward to after my recent infatuation with the Jazz Age.

In short, A Moveable Feast is a memoir of Hemingway's time in Paris in the '20s. I'm normally not one for short story-like pieces, or non-fiction for that matter, but Hemingway manages to capture something magical about the time. His writing isn't overly flourish-y, but somehow beautiful in its honest succinctness. I don't like to make these reviews particularly long, but even so, were I to tell more I fear I'd give away some of the wonderfully intimate little moments.

 I don't think I've ever been so engrossed in a memoir like this, feeling as if I'm in Paris all this time, amongst the names of famous writers and artists that are so renowned today. It's utterly magical, yet in a way that's so realistic that it subtly takes you somewhere else for a few hundred pages.

How have I gone twenty-odd years without reading Hemingway? I realize he's not for everyone, or at least so I'm told, but I'm in love.

What's your favorite of Hemingway's works? Are you a fan? Not so much?