Book Buddies - Stolen by Lucy Christopher

So, this has been a really awful week.

I mean EMBARRASSINGLY awful.

The kind of awful where you (meaning me) hide in your craft room's closet and cry hysterically for about twenty minutes.

Yup, that kind of week. At least, that's basically what I did today.

The bank keeps sending me a weird service charge and it overdrew from me, despite doing nothing out of the norm. Nothing has changed. I don't understand why this is happening, and I want to cry. I can't ask my parents for money (they gave me some today and it ALL went to gas and mom told me to 'make it last', so I can't go back and beg for more because I'm already enough of a shit daughter). I'm crying even while I write this because my depression has been so bad lately, I've actually been thinking about how much I'd like to be on medication (something I swore I'd NEVER do again) or go and be institutionalized. But I don't want to burden my family or miss school, because who would bring me notes or assignments? Would I be allowed to have classes while in an institution?

I'm trying to sell some of my artwork to make ends meet until my seasonal job starts, but no one wants it. So I mean, that's not exactly an ego booster. I can't GIVE it away, okay? One of my friends purchased a shirt from my store today but honestly I think she just did it out of pity.

Home life is hard right now too. I can barely use the internet, which is making it incredibly hard for me to ever update this blog. We only have enough for one person to use it at a time, and Eric's been getting into a new video game. I just want to go back to my parent's house so I can do my homework without having to wait for him to fall asleep (which could be at ANY time because, you know, insomnia). I want to hide in my room and be left alone.

I hate to be the kind of person that "self diagnoses" because that should just be left to those kids who take one psych class and suddenly they're doctors, but I think I'm developing agoraphobia. Over the last couple of weeks, the idea of leaving the house sends me into a panic attack and makes my stomach cramp up until I'm home. Whenever I have to leave to go to school, I cringe for hours and freak out and have to busy myself so I don't vomit. But I don't know what to do. What if I can't leave anymore?

This guy in my one class told me to just "get over it", and it made me think of all of the people who thinks that you can just "get over" this. You can't. I don't like wanting to vomit all of the time. I don't wake up and go "OH BOY I HOPE I CRY AND FREAK OUT TODAY!". I can't just get over this. I fucking hate when people say to "get over it". Even friends and family say it and it makes me want to rip out my own hair and throw it in the air. You can't just "get over" this kind of problem. I don't know what to do.

But hey, this entry turned into me venting, when it's really supposed to be about a book! I doubt you guys are interested in hearing about my personal meltdowns anyway.

The other day, Eric took me to Barnes & Noble, handed me money, and told me to get whatever books I wanted (as long as I didn't already own them). I had often told him that one of my dreams was to go to the bookstore, be given a hand basket, and told I could fill it with books and they'd all be mine. We obviously can't afford to do that right now, so I really appreciated this gesture.

One of the books I picked up was Stolen and I'm glad I got this.

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

While traveling with her parents around the world, teenager Gemma Toombs is bewitched by an enchanting man at the airport known simply as Ty. They get coffee together, and before she realizes what's going on, Gemma awakens in a strange house. Ty slipped her some drugs, and has taken her away to an Australian "paradise" hidden in the desert. Gemma learns more about her captor, and she leads us through her journey of existentialism and feelings. Is she in love? Is it Stockholm Syndrome? Who knows.

I LOVED this book. Although, considering my anxiety issues, reading this might not have been the wisest choice. The night I finished reading this was the night before I had to go to campus, and I was up into the wee hours of the morning having a silent panic attack and wave of nausea next to my undisturbed sleeping boyfriend. While this is a well-written and surprisingly believable story, I couldn't help but sympathize with Gemma and that caused me to, well, panic. A lot. Because being kidnapped is probably no one's idea of a picnic in the park.

In fact, I even sent a tweet to the author in which I wrote about how if I hadn't already been afraid to fly, this book scarred me for life.

Now, I'm one for letting kids read. I plan on giving my future kids a lot of "banned books" because I'm a bit mischievous like that. If there was a book fair and my kid needed me to sign a permission slip, I'd sign it any day. However, this is a book I might not consider giving to my kid. It's labeled as a young adult book, but as an adult, I was freaking out the entire time. So I can't imagine what a empathetic kid (like I had been and kind of continue to be) would do if he or she read this. It's a terrifying concept, being taken from your parents and hidden away in a strange place all by yourself with the constant fear of death on your shoulder. So, I dunno. This isn't what I'd call a stereotypical YA novel. I'd consider moving it to just plain "fiction" or something. Just because the book is ABOUT a kid doesn't mean it's necessarily FOR kids.

I wish I could read this again for the first time. It's so beautiful and frightening. I hope Hollywood never ruins it with a bad film that romanticizes Ty (considering, you know, Stockholm Syndrome and he honestly isn't really a terribly good person) and I'd love to read more of this author's work.

If you have a book recommendation, send it my way! I'd love to know what you guys have been reading. After this I plan on reading through some more books to make some more room in the house (I have far too many books for my own good), so be sure to keep an eye out for another book review!

Sorry again for the little fit I threw earlier in this entry. I'm basically just a mess right now and it's shocking that I can even remember to get out of bed in the morning, let alone write a coherent blog entry.

Hope you little lovelies are having a better week than I have, and don't be afraid to send me some emails with comments or questions!

xo, Kate

Chicken Salad

Happy Labor Day everyone! I was originally going to post this yesterday, but for some reason my computer didn't want to read my camera's memory card and to be honest, I was too lazy to try again after the first attempt.

If you're ever hosting a party, this is a great recipe to use. It's quick to make (only takes about ten minutes to make, though it does take a few hours to set) and you can make it the day before. Great for vegan barbecues! (I'm not a barbecue person, but they probably would eat chicken salad right? Maybe?)

I don't know if it's because college has started back up, but I've been getting REALLY strong cravings for certain foods lately. And I've been groovin' on sandwiches.

I'll admit, this entry was supposed to be a little bit different. On Friday I tried making a chocolate chip cookie pie, but it was kind of a failure. I mean, an inedible failure. (I know what I did wrong though, so maybe you'll see that up here next month!) But I've wanted to post more recipes here lately. I don't want to be lazy just because of school, you know?

And then bam. A 3 a.m. craving for chicken salad came upon me, so that was a bit helpful.

I would've submitted this for VeganMoFo, but naturally I missed the deadline (which I'll probably always miss), so maybe consider this the unofficial entry. I'll see if I can whip up other stuff this month, and worst case I'll just review some vegan store-bought foods.

So, here we go.

ingredients:

• 1/2 cup vegan mayo
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1 Tbsp spicy brown mustard
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 2 tsps lemon juice
• 1/2 Tbsp dried chives
• 1/2 Tbsp dried minced onions
• optional: 1 tsp dried dill
• 1 package Gardein teriyaki chick'n strips, cut into chunks (shredding would work too)
• 1/2 cup celery, finely diced
• optional: vegetable broth (see the second instruction)

instructions:

1. In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the mayo, sour cream, spicy brown mustard, sugar, salt, pepper, lemon juice, chives, minced onions, and optional dill.
2. Cook the package of Gardein chick'n. If it tickles your fancy, add a little bit of veggie broth to the pan when you cook it. I would've tried that, but unfortunately I was out!
3. Once your chick'n is cooked, either cut it up into chunks or shred it. Whichever floats your boat! I like biting into chunks of it, so that's what I did. 
4. Dice the celery.
5. Add the chick'n and celery to the bowl with the dressing and mix. 
6. Put the bowl in the fridge and let it chill for about two hours before eating.

You can also add grapes to yours if you want. I didn't have any, but I'm not totally in love with grapes in chicken salad anyway so! Adding some kind of nut would work too (I personally favour almonds in this.)

I like my chicken chunks big and my celery chunks small! You can always shred your chicken with two forks to make it smaller, or make your celery chunks bigger if you want.

Mmmmmm, dressing. I love dressing and dips and such. You could probably use this as a dip for a veggie platter too. (Maybe make it a little thicker with some more vegan sour cream?)

Before it's stirred.

And after! Chicken salad is never really the most "attractive" food, but it's the taste that counts!

I really love eating it on potato bread. Mmmmm, potato bread.

This makes enough for about four-five sandwiches, depending on how generous (or cheap) you are when you spoon it onto the bread.

If you have any comments, suggestions, or questions, feel free to leave me a comment here or send me an email! I'm really looking for some food suggestions at the moment, so don't be shy!

xo, Kate

Sailor Moon Saturday #9

Hello all!

As some of you may know, the school semester has started! I'm taking five classes this semester, but I want to try my best to stay on top of things so I can continue to post here semi-regularly. (I'm actually writing this on Friday - and hopefully I'll have a recipe for you tomorrow, depending on how things go today.)

Warning: This post is spoiler-heavy for those who have never seen the 90s show or read the manga.

Today, we'll be talking about Rei Hino's ravens - Phobos and Deimos.

At Rei's temple, she is often seen with two ravens named Phobos and Deimos. Before discussing the background of these names, let's look at the actual animal.

Ravens are kind of a mixed bird within legends. Because of their dark colour and their attraction to carrion, they are often known as birds of death. But this was not always the case. In Greek mythology, for example, they were often seen as good luck. They were generally seen with Apollo, and were associated with gods and prophecies.

But then again, in the Talmud they aren't seen as being particularly great (they were one of the few creatures on Noah's ark that was punished for um, gettin' down and dirty). In general, it seems as though they weren't completely innocent in the eyes of many religions. In the Qur'an (specifically in its version of Cain and Abel), a raven teaches Cain how to bury the body of his murdered brother. I mean, I wouldn't really call that a good role model, would you?

I'll lastly discuss a Native American tale called How Kah'-kah-loo The Ravens Became People (specifically this comes from the Miwok, but if you know of any other stories please share!). To shorten things, people essentially come from ravens and ravens created humanity.

Now that I've given a quick background on ravens, let's move on.

First we shall discuss Phobos.

According to Wikipedia, Phobos was often seen as the Greek personification of fear. (Have you guys ever seen Disney's 'Hercules'? If so, do you remember Pain and Panic, Hades' henchmen? That's basically who Phobos and Deimos are, if you really wanna simplify it.) Phobos was the son of Venus and Mars (hence his relationship with Rei) and Deimos was his twin brother. His Roman equivalent was known as Timor (or Timorus).

Another fun fact? The word phobia comes from phobos! So, you know. Phobia, fear? Get it?

In general, Phobos and Deimos were never really mentioned in myths. They were just kind of a physical representation of emotions more than anything else (though people made sacrifices to them anyway).

Now, a quick blurb about Deimos!

Deimos, like Phobos, was a Greek personification of terror! His Roman equivalent was known as Formido or Metus. Deimos is shown on the statue of Leonidas in honor of the Battle of Thermopylae (pronounced ther-mop-a-lee). (I remember really liking the film '300', which really goes into this battle so if you've seen that, you should be caught up in the very basics.) I assume the image of Deimos on his shield was meant to strike terror into the hearts of the Persians.

That's it for now, but if you're interested in this sort of thing, you really should read the Percy Jackson books by Rick Riordan. (I honestly held off on reading them for a long time because I thought they sounded idiotic, but then I ended up tearing through them and now I recommend them to everyone.)

THANKFULLY we'll have another episode of Sailor Moon next week! Gosh, it kind of feels like it's been forever. For all of you back in school, I hope your semesters are going well. And if you're lucky and you've already graduated, well. I kind of hate you a little, aha!

Take care lovelies!

xo, Kate

Sailor Moon Saturday #8!

Hello everyone!

I feel like Toei Animation is just TRYING to antagonize us at this point; first we had to wait two weeks in between these episodes, and now it's three!? Maaaaaaan.

But that's okay, because I have plenty of stuff to hold you over while we wait!

Warning: This post is spoiler-heavy for those who have never seen the 90s show or read the manga.

Today, we'll be talking about Rei Hino and Mars.

We'll be focusing on Mars and Ares, the Roman and Greek gods.

Now, if you've seen the 90s anime, I want you to do me a favour. Forget the Rei Hino that you were given in that show, and let's briefly talk about the manga Rei. (I can't really comment on the "new" Rei yet.)

In the manga, Rei was originally a very serious character. She wasn't terribly interested in romance, and she wanted a career of her own. While she obviously had a sense of humour, she wasn't exactly the most "lighthearted" girl of the group. She was one of the more levelheaded ones in fact, along with Ami. This is probably my biggest complaint about the old anime; I hated that they made her into this ditzy character that was so boy-crazy. She's so much more than that. She was concerned about her own future.

Now, moving on.

Mars is one of the most well known gods of Roman mythology.

Interestingly enough, Mars was known for his relationship with Venus (while we have yet to meet Minako in this new anime, this is still rather fun to know). Their romance was often seen as "wrong" because of the adultery involved (as Venus was married), but think about this. If Takeuchi had chosen to put Rei and Minako together as a romantic couple (which would probably not work, but that's a different discussion), perhaps people would've seen this as "wrong" because of the homosexual nature. Despite the presence of lesbian couples in Sailor Moon and other anime and manga, homosexuality is still unfortunately frowned upon in Japan. (Which makes little sense to me, in a way. There's SO MUCH HOMOSEXUALITY in their art and animated works and books and yet if we see it in real life, WOAH THERE. What? Here in the U.S. we're still so prudish about things sometimes, and yet in real life it's like OH HEY PARTY OVER HERE. It's just a bit of culture shock I guess. It's also fun to think about a unity between Love and War.

Though Rei is obviously mature and intelligent and calm, I can't completely see her planning any battles though. I feel like Ami would be a good strategist. But, at the same time, I think Rei would be able to detach herself more in the event of plausible casualties.

Actually, Ami is more like Athena. Maybe Makoto is more like Mars, heh.

Now let's talk about Ares.

Ares is the Greek counterpart of Mars. He's much more violent and "hey, let's go!" than some of the military gods (like the aforementioned Athena), including his Roman counterpart. He had sons named Phobos and Deimos (like Rei's... crows? ravens? I dunno, I hate birds), who I'll be discussing in a future article.

It's kind of funny that I talked about how much I loved Rei for being levelheaded and not super interested in boys when in reality, Ares was a big ol' playboy that couldn't keep it in his pants.

So... I'll admit it. I never finished The Illiad. I just can't get through it, I'm sorry. If anyone knows of a decent translation, let me know! But in it, apparently they use ares as a noun to replace battle? Is this true? I doubt Wikipedia sometimes.

Rei's birds kind of come into play again with Ares though. According to Wikipedia, "The birds of Ares (Ornithes Areioi) were a flock of feather-dart-dropping birds that guarded the Amazons' shrine of the god on a coastal island in the Black Sea". I went ahead and looked up "ornithes areioi" and apparently they were prominent during the story of Jason and the Argonauts journey to find the golden fleece.

Before we finish for the day, let's talk about Rei Hino again for a moment.

Now, according to the Sailor Moon Wikipedia, she was apparently put in for a proposal to appear in a Sailor V anime. Heh, I'm just giggling because of all of the Sailor Mars and Sailor Venus tension that I've never thought of before now.

In the manga, she was apparently also originally going to wear armor! Her birthday, April 17th, also makes her an Aries, which is associated with both Mars AND Venus. Boom.

We have a long wait for the next episode you guys, but don't worry! I have stuff planned, considering we have to wait ANOTHER two weeks for the next episode!

Breakin' my balls, Toei.

If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please leave a comment below or email me!

Have a lovely day and if your semester is starting back up, good luck! Mine doesn't start till August 27th, so I still have a few more days of freedom!

xo, Kate

Lemon Chickpea Burgers!

So, for the last month I've been trying to lose weight to no success. I've been exercising and eating well and have not lost a single pound. And it's been pretty discouraging. (I DID pig out this weekend for a party I threw, but a weekend does not a month make!)

So I looked over my blog and I realized that you guys probably think I eat like shit because all I post is unhealthy food. But I mean, let's be real. People tend to gravitate more towards junk foods and such. They're wonderful. Let's not lie to ourselves. But I do want to show you guys some healthy food occasionally too, in case any of my readers are those who just want a healthier lifestyle.

I was looking over some recipes I had pinned on Pinterest (here's my Pinterest if you want to follow me) and I have a board specifically for recipes I want to cook for my omnivore family. Now, I had created this board when I had first gone vegan, and I wasn't as adventurous as a cook as I am now. (Look at all of the as' there. Ew.) So I went back and looked over some of them and found a lemon garlic tuna burger recipe that I was interested in veganizing.

So today, I bring you some lemon chickpea burgers.

ingredients:

• 1 15.5-ounce can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1/3 cup breadcrumbs (check to make sure they're vegan!)
• 1 Tbsp dried chives
• 1 Tbsp dried parsley flakes
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 3 Tbsps vegan sour cream
• 2 Tbsps vegan mayo
• optional: romaine lettuce, a slice of tomato

instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahreinheit. 
2. In a medium-sized bowl, combine all of the ingredients with a potato masher (or, if you don't have one, a fork or your hands). 
3. Form the mixture into four patties. Put parchment paper down on a baking sheet, then put the patties on the sheet.
4. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Serve on an English muffin with vegan mayo, romaine lettuce, and a slice of tomato. Enjoy!

Here's my mise en place! The vegan mayo shown here is the store brand from Whole Foods, but lately I've been incredibly fond of Hampton Creek's Just Mayo! (While it was originally a Whole Foods exclusive, I've heard that they'll be selling it at Wal-Mart starting in September! Not that I really go there, I hate it there. But I might start going now purely for that mayo because it is DIVINE.)

My boyfriend Eric is the guest star today! He helped me mash together the ingredients and form the patties because he's brilliant and lovely.

We have this cute little colander that's perfect for rinsing beans with. Mmmmmm.

Here's what your bowl of ingredients will look like before you mash it all together.

And here's what it looks like afterward! It's okay if you have whole chickpeas left in there, it's nice to bite into a chunk of it. Chunky or creamy, both are good!

Eric flattened the patties into a giant circle and cut it into four pieces in order to form them equally.

Mmmmm, look at those herbs.

The wee little babies.

Today was my first time making these, so it was a little bit of a risk. The photo above shows the texture of the patties after they've baked in the oven. They're a tiiiiiiny bit dry, so Eric suggested lightly brushing them with olive oil before you put them in the oven. If anyone tries this, please let me know and I'll post about it here!

Like the original post I based this idea on, I put my patty on an English muffin with mayo, a bit of romaine lettuce, and a slice of tomato.

I'd definitely eat these again. I tend to have a HUGE appetite, but one of these left me totally stuffed.

I hope you guys enjoy these as much as I do! I'm sure you could freeze these as well and perhaps pan fry them! (Not sure how these would hold up on a grill, so if you try it let me know! Veggie patties in general tend to be fairly delicate.)

If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, feel free to leave me a message below or to email me!

xo, Kate

Sailor Moon "Saturday" #7!

Hello everyone, and welcome to Sailor Moon "Saturday"! (Shhhhh it's not Sunday. I don't know what you're talking about.)

To be honest, I've been kind of farting around with this entry. This episode didn't really thrill me, but at the same time I'm glad it happened.

(Warning: This post will be filled with images and will be spoiler-heavy, so turn back now if you wanna avoid all of that.)

Yesterday's episode was entitled 'Act 4 - Masquerade Dance Party'.

So, at the beginning they give us a super quick recap of what's going on.

Oh, and they're looking for the Legendary Silver Crystal. And a princess.

Coincidentally, there's a princess visiting Japan and she's throwing a party to show off some treasure.

Hmmmm.

Thanks for the news, Umino. (Also, dat height difference.)

So what does this mysterious princess look like?

Well, Umino has a picture for us.

I just like Kunzite. He was always my favourite. So here, have a picture.

I like that we're seeing more of Usagi's parents. Her dad is a baaaaabe.

In the manga, this was one of my favourite dresses and ugh I want it for real. It's so cute.

Security at this event is seriously awful though. I mean, they just walk in. Uhhhhhh.

Applause to the background artists again. Ugh, this is so beautiful.

This is why I'm glad we had this episode. It's essentially just a filler episode, but there's a bit of romantic development between Mamoru and Usagi, as well as some very slight character development for Mamoru. So that's exciting.

I'm so weirded out when I watch all of the four kings of the Dark Kingdom working together? I'm so used to the old format of "one king is a villain, dies, rinse, repeat" that this is odd.

That skyline though.

Finally, a good shot of Kunzite.

And all of the kings together.

So that princess from before wears glasses. So that explains a bit.

And this was the secret treasure she was hiding. So nope, she's not the princess. And nope, that's not the Legendary Silver Crystal.

Mamoru takes this chance to kiss his "sleeping beauty", and he and Luna have a quick discussion about whether or not he's a villain.

But, we're getting closer to having the whole gang together. I wonder who this is, hmmmmm?

FINALLY ugh yes. I'm excited for this storm to arrive, and her name is Makoto. Can't wait to finally see the next Sailor Scout in action!

Next week we're getting another Sailor Scout, so yay!

But yeah, I was kind of bored this week. And from reading the manga, I knew I would be. But that's life sometimes! The next episode will be better. (But, for those of you who remember entry #5 in this series, I WAS right.)

The next episode of Sailor Moon Crystal will be debuting on September 6th (ugh, they keep making us wait more and more!) and is entitled 'Act 5 - Makoto, Sailor Jupiter'.

I'm currently watching the show on Crunchyroll but you can also watch it on Hulu.

If you guys have any questions, comments, or suggestions, feel free to leave me a message below or email me!

xo, Kate

Sailor Moon Saturday Delay

Unfortunately I'll have to make it Sailor Moon Sunday this week. I have a friend sleeping over, but I'll be back tomorrow lovelies!

xo, Kate