I am in Gryffindor and (much to his chagrin) Devin is in Huffledor. And we will have Gryffinhuffledor babies.

Welcome to the best blog of the year.  Why?  Because J.K. Rowling has affirmed the premise that I belong in Gryffindor.  Perhaps not personally, but through the site Pottermore.com, which despite Nicole’s bragging about, I started, since I told her about it.  Just kidding.  Sort of.  (Also I'm aware that the title isn't an accurate portrayal of how sorting works [it's not genetic (though I think the Weasleys make a strong case against this- I would've put Percy in Doucherdor) and you can't arbitrarily combine houses, such as "Huffledor", which I put Devin in because he has all the good traits of a Gryffindor but is really friendly/loyal, too, and despite what y'all say, I find Hufflepuff kind of demeaning.].). (<---- Surprise ellipses!)

"Black Walnut with Unicorn Core, 12 1/4 inches, Hard"

However, it is to Nicole’s luck and general magicalness that she got chosen to be a part of the site long before I did.  I am clearly a muggle.  And Nicole is clearly a witch.  Anyway, I’m in Gryffindor!  Albeit with a mediocre wand (unicorn hair, really?  I mean, it’s better than dragon heartstring at least, that’s for all the evil people).  I actually didn’t cheat on the test; when they asked if I would rather be envied or praised or whatever, I picked I’d rather be “liked”, which I was sure would land me in Hufflepuff, and a lot of the other questions are totally random, like what mythical creature you’d most like to study (centaur; I would’ve picked unicorn but for whatever reason that wasn’t a choice) and “moon or stars?” (stars).  So just want to make it clear that both Jo and I are in agreement that I’m brave at heart or whatever the hell Gryffindors are.  Thank you.  Also, what do we think about the wand?  Do you guys know more than I do about the type of wood?  Black Walnut?  What kind of wand do you have, Nicole?  Also, happy almost birthday.

In muggle news, the last week has been exciting at parts and dreary at others.  I will be coming home on the 7th of May, which is super exciting and super close.  In other words, this is my second-to-last in-D.C. post for a while (look at them hyphens!).  The year is already almost done!  My first final is today!  Weird how quickly it’s all gone by.  Are you guys ready to be college sophomores?  I’m not.  I’m ready for a loooooooooong summer.  Hopefully with a job (actually, if we’re wishing for things, I’d like a lot of free money thrown my way) and a book club full of awesomeness.  Also, a lot of time with Devin (<3), who if you didn't know (aka if you never read my blog), is officially going to Depaul U in Chicago with $21,100 in financial aid for the first year alone.  Couldn't be prouder, or more excited that we will be 1696 miles closer to one another (straight line distance).  Also, for those of you who know Blake Zimring of the Mayberry brood, he's going to Loyola Chicago.  So the two musketeers will be close together, which is nice for them.

I MAY also take a summer Spanish class at a local four year university, but that is looking kind of doubtful because of the cost/time requirement.  I wanted to take it at a friendly community college, but my academic advisor told me (implicitly) that we are of a caliber above community college, despite the fact that I saw she has an Associate degree.  She didn’t actually say we’re too good for community college, she just said it won’t count for credit here.  Despite the fact that Hiles’s AP Macroshit class counted.  Excuse my language.

As aforementioned, my first final is today.  Education for International Development final, online in about two hours and it’s open book (yay), but that means I’ll have to cite stuff (less yay).  However, I did well on the midterm (yay) so I’m optimistic about the final.  But it could be difficult because I haven’t done all my reading (less yay).  Final count: two yays, two less yays.  So I’m feeling neutral about this final.

Chickens.

Last weekend, which seems like a hundred years ago or so, I volunteered at a farm in Maryland called “ECO City Farm” which was really awesome.  It’s an urban farm without much land, so they don’t have any exciting “big” farm animals, but they have chickens, bees, fish, and worms.  Aka the pets we all have anyway, so that part was less exciting (OKAY I’M LYING I LOVE CHICKENS).

I must expand on my love for chickens.  I almost convinced Devin to get me a chick as part of his asking me to prom last year, but he didn’t because he is the one with sense in this relationship.  I love chickens.  Why?  Because they lay eggs and are, despite popular belief, actually smart animals and are frickin’ adorable and whenever anyone else likes chickens, I can pick up the nearest chicken and say, in a chicken voice, “Then why do you eat my friends?  Rachael doesn’t eat my friends!”  And then I feel really popular among birds and happy that I can practice my chicken voice.

 

Anyway, onto the rational coolness of the farm:

• They compost food waste! 
• They have this system called “Aquaponics”, which is a combination of hydroponics and aquaculture.  I included a picture of a diagram, but basically they take Bluegill fish and watercrest plants and get them to cancel each other’s waste out, using helpful bacteria which turns fish pee into nitrates for the plants (that’s the layperson explanation.  There’s a sciency-er one in the picture if you can read it).  And then they make a lot of money selling both the watercrest plants ($14/pound! That’s a lot of money to me) and the fish ($unk, to local restaurants).  But don’t worry, they’re a nonprofit so theoretically no one is getting rich off of this clever idea.  But this could literally fit into an apartment and it’s a cute system, something to keep in mind for you science types.
• They have 6 bee hives and are encouraging bee populations to increase in a time where lots of bees are dying out.
• They use greenhouses to grow year-round and don’t use any pesticides.
• Because they’re a nonprofit, one of their main goals is to teach people (especially kids) how to grow their own food and be awesome.

Worms! (These are not my hands jsuk)

Sorry, is that too much about the farm?  I found it really cool.  We moved a whole bunch of compost (worms!) across the farm, then moved their extremely heavy bins across the farm, then weeded and got a tour.  I found it super awesome and rewarding, and it only reaffirmed my desire (need) to keep chickens as soon as I own/rent a property where I can (il)legally do so.  Thank you for putting up with me in advance, Dev.

A thousand word blog from yours truly cannot possibly be as entertaining as one from Derek, so I’ll start wrapping it up.  There’s just a lot for me to say!  I like doing these before 11PM because it’s so much easier to actually talk about what’s going on with me.  I apologize.

Firstly, here is a song I can’t stop listening to.  DEREK has said he likes a cover by Ingrid Michaelson that I posted on here, which means you are all obligated to like at least one Ingrid Michaelson song/cover.  I am giving you another opportunity to like an Ingrid Michaelson cover, in which she plays all of the instruments featured in the song and is generally awesome: 

Secondly, Jason recommended this movie series to us (me specifically) briefly in a recent blog, and I can assure you that they are delightful and you should watch them.  It’s the Pride & Prejudice vlog that Hank Green co-produces.  This girl is better at vlogs than me.  There are six short episodes in an ongoing series.  No pressure to watch this if you don't want to.

Vote for this man, if only because of this picture.

Thirdly, are we all registered to vote?  I haven’t yet, but I’m going to as soon as I go home (I don’t want to register for D.C., since our dudes aren’t voting representatives and all) (I like to refer to important people as “dudes” to be ironic and because I like egalitarianism).  Let’s all make sure we register before November.  If you aren’t voting for Obama, it’s okay, because you should be able to vote for whomever.  Just maybe put off registering until December in that case.  If you still need convincing after this picture to vote Obama 2012, I have a collection of videos of Obama being an exceptionally cooler person than Mitt Romney that I would be more than happy to share.  Also, my prediction of the presidential Republican candidate has been going better than Derek's hockey bracket.  I've thought it would be Mitt for quite a while, and it seems like it will be.

Fourthly, here’s Rachael’s Culture Corner™.  I will be taking an art history class next semester (Art of the Renaissance) to supplement my art’s education (much to my stepmom’s chagrin, who thinks it will be totally boring).  Next week I will show you my final art portfolio, since it has to be done by next Thursday.  I know you guys can’t wait!  This week I was perusing the reference shelves (delightful as always), and saw the Bible (delightful as always).  In the reference department, we are doing a fat project where we determine what books should go to the general shelves (books less frequently used) or put into storage (for the rejects).  Anyway, we let students weigh in, and I found this comment amusing.

it says: "not a huge fan of this work of fiction, but its (sic) useful as a reference for my art history classes"

That’s it for today, folks.  Enjoy your weekend!

-Rachael