Homestead Farms

On a cloudy October day, I frolicked on a farm with friends and family!

On second thought, perhaps "waddled" may be a more accurate description, given the enormous amount of Indian food we'd consumed prior to venturing outside. (Waddup, Minerva lunch buffet at the intersection of 355 and Shady Grove!)

Anyway, with bellies full of naan and ambitions set on picking apples, we went forth onto the farm, starting at the pre-picked pumpkin patch.

J defied Y's orders to pose with a pumpkin. REBEL!

My sister had to pose with the wartiest pumpkin of them all.

I dub thee "veneral disease pumpkin"

Family pumpkin portrait!

We then moved on to the farm animals.

This fellow had bad teeth.

Really bad teeth.

Goats are the weirdest.

After the animals, we started our trek towards the apples... or the pumpkins... we weren't sure.

Where are we going.

Nobody knows.

She'd rather be studying for the SATs

Finally, after some and retrospecting about what we were doing with our lives, we steered ourselves back on track and found the apple orchard. Galas and braeburns and pink ladies, oh my! 

Some silliness ensued along the way.

Juggling with braeburns. Also woefully unaware of being snuck up on.

When bears attack. Clomp clomp clomp.

Someone said something funny.

Y after taking this picture: "You look like you are having diarrhea" THANKS

Her hands overfloweth

Putting those years of orthodontic work to good use.

We made away with about 23 lbs of hand picked apples. I've been eating them nonstop ever since. At this rate, I will never see a doctor again. 

Cafeteria Lines

This is how the cafeteria at work is set up to look like. The lines are implemented through ropes to guide payers.

But often this is the reality. One lonely cashier and two lines.

Unfortunately, our brave cashier quickly gets swarmed with patrons.

Usually not long after hitting critical mass, cashier one enters the stage to help. The single line now serves two cashiers, while the other line remains empty. This setup is less-than-efficient as now, a.) the person in the front of the line sometimes must gage which cashier to go to and b.) there is more time being spent walking to the cashier than there would be otherwise.

This also creates some awkwardness - to switch and essentially butt in front of everyone, or to stay and remain "fair"? Usually I've seen that people who were already in line 2 tend to stay there, perhaps out of respect to the patrons they've spent the past few minutes standing in line with.

But then! Enter a new person altogether, with no context whatsoever. They see two lines, one full of suckers, the other completely empty.

And so our brave new person treads forward, annoyed looks from line 1 patrons notwithstanding.

And as more patrons come in, the balance is thus naturally restored.

This behavior pattern is something I see a few times a week in the cafeteria. Its consistency never ceases to amaze me. Women, men, managers, interns, tall, short, young, old - regardless of what demographic or group, almost everybody follows the pattern described. If you already were in line, you don't switch. But if you're not, you usually carpe that line diem and step right up.

Humans are funny creatures.

fuck it, i'm eating a chicken patty.

sometimes you come home from a long day and all you wanna do is eat a chicken patty. in my book, a chicken patty is just a big chicken nugget, and is therefore the ultimate feel-good comfort food. there's something aesthetically pleasing to its perfectly round, unassuming shape. something nostalgic that brings back memories of grade school and little cartons of chocolate milk. something about it that just says, "oh rose please eat me, i will make you so happy."

here is how i prepare my patty:

i begin by microwaving the frozen patty. i pull out some leftover kale and slice up half an avocado while it's nuking.

next comes mayo

then i add avocados

top off the sandwich with sauteed kale

and a fried egg on the side. voila!

i wash it all down with a tall glass of almond milk

there you have it, the chicken patty dinner. it may not be the healthiest meal, but it's better than my other "fuck it, i'm eating _____" default, which is ramen with roughly a billion % of my sodium intake. bon appetit!