Days as a Freshman: 71

Mood: Wanting to be blank

“Grace? Are you listening? I’ve been screaming your name for like 5 minutes.”

Stacey’s reflection stared at me from the mirror, her eyes heavy with pink glitter. Her whole body was heavy with pink glitter, actually. If I didn’t know any better, I would think my roommate was dressing up as one of those marshmallow birds that take over drugstores in the Spring. Peeps. That’s what they were called, and that’s exactly what Stacey looked like.

“Sorry, I was reading.” Pulling my scarf tighter around my neck, I leaned back in my chair and gave Stacey my full attention. She’d never shut up if I didn’t. “What are you supposed to be again?”

“I’m Jem. Isn’t it obvious? This hair is great, huh?” Straightening a short fuchsia wig on her head, Stacey looked back into her own eyes.

“Oh. Jem. 80’s cartoon. I get it.” I closed my history book and rubbed my face. The words had been jumbling together for the last 30 minutes. I couldn’t concentrate.

“Aren’t you coming out tonight?” Stacey popped her pink gum and applied more pink blush. “You can’t spend Halloween inside, Grace.”

“Rebecca and I might walk around for a little while later.”

“Rebecca?” Stacey’s expression went sour. “How can you stand to hang out with that girl? She’s so weird.”

“I don’t think she’s weird.” Read More »

The inner 7th grader in me is SUPER excited today.Why may you ask? Well its the day before Halloween. And whether I’m fourteen or forty-four the day before Halloween is filled with a sense of excitement.

Decorations are up, candy is in position, pumpkins are carved and costumes are ready. Everything is in its place and the young-at-heart-part of me has ants in my pants and is tired of waiting!

But that isn’t the only reason that today feels a bit more like 1999 than 2007. In 1999, you turned on TRL or the Today Show and who did you see?

Britney Spears or the Backstreet Boys singing to screaming pre-pubescent girls pronouncing their love with tears of adoration.

Flash forward to October 30th 2007: Turn on the Today Show and who do you see?

Post-pubescent girls still screaming their hearts out for the BSB.

Pull out your butterfly clips and Kipling back-pack purses girls:

Britney’s latest release Blackout and BSB’s Unbreakable (both aptly titled) are hitting stores today! Read More »

Between class, studying, reading (both for class and your necessary dose of College Candy reading of course), partying, drinking, partying, The Hills, Grey’s, and all other important daily activities in college life, leaves us students with no time to cook but no money to eat out. (Such problems we have- but seriously why is food SO expensive?!)

Cooking can be a huge money saver, calorie saver (we all love that) and now (yay) a huge time saver.

Check back each week for two quick and yummy recipes that will be ready in time for you to catch up with Lauren and Audrina(er- I mean get back to the library).

Here are two muy delicioso recipes to try:

From Cooking Light:

Black Bean Burritos with Avocado

Ingredients

1/2 cup diced peeled avocado

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

1 teaspoon olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 cup water

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 (15-ounce) cans black beans, drained

4 (10-inch) flour tortillas

6 tablespoons fat-free sour cream

6 tablespoons bottled salsa

Preparation

Combine avocado and lime juice, tossing to coat.

Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add garlic; sauté 1 minute. Stir in water, cumin, and beans. Reduce heat to medium; simmer 3 minutes or until thoroughly heated, stirring occasionally. Warm tortillas according to package directions. Spoon 1/4 cup bean mixture into each tortilla. Top with 1 1/2 tablespoons sour cream, 1 1/2 tablespoons salsa, and 2 tablespoons avocado; roll up.

4 servings (serving size: 1 burrito) Read More »

I know eating out of vending machines isn’t healthy.

My mom always told me anything that doesn’t go bad after three weeks is made out of stuff you shouldn’t put in your body anyway.

For the most part, I listened to her. But every once in a while…slipping a few coins in a tiny slot and watching that King-Sized Snickers plummet towards your waiting hands is truly the only thing that can get you through a day.

And then of course, the diet industry went and ruined everything.

Kraft Foods, the makers of that oh-so-natural bright orange cheese, have begun to test out vending machines that are stocked with only South Beach Diet approved options. Yes. South Beach Diet.

As in…lame alternatives for bread, sugar, and whole grains. Read More »

Usually when I need some info on friends with benefits, I turn to my friends who have been there, or those brilliant people behind the screens (get it? Computer screen?! HA) at College Candy. I usually don’t turn to the New York Times.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I was surfing the Times today looking for some good opinion pieces when I found an article titled Friends with Benefits, and Stress Too.

At first I thought it was a joke. I mean, I know the Times is a liberal publication, but even they wouldn’t discuss the not-so-easy to explain situation we like to call Friends with Benefits.

Turns out, it was no joke. In fact, it was about a study conducted at Michigan State University where students were polled about their experiences with friends with benefits.

For anyone in college, the findings were nothing spectacular.

Basically, friends with benefits work for some, progress into a relationship for others and cause the rest to have a giant blow up fight because one person likes the other more and thought they had something special and meanwhile the other person is off hooking up with other people and stomping on their “friend’s” heart.

The only interesting thing to come from this, in fact, is the phone call I received from my mother this afternoon after she too was perusing the Times looking for opinion pieces and came across the article: Read More »

Oh, Snickers! I love you.

You have everything that was ever good stuffed together and covered in chocolate. You are my favorite candy bar. You are even better frozen.

But alas, you hate me. You do! Why? Because of how many calories are in you. Because eating you will give me all the fat I need in one day.

And yet, you tempt me so.

What’s a girl to do? Make a shot that’s the closet thing to your fat-abulous goodness, that’s what.

Snickers Bar

• 1/3 Frangelico

• 1/3 Kahlua

• 1/3 Bailey’s Irish Cream

Take a rocks glass (bigger than a shot glass, smaller than a plastic red cup) and fill it with ice. Pour your Frangelico and Kahlua into the glass, and then “float” the Bailey’s on top.

The best way to “float” a liquor is to hold a spoon upside down and drip the alcohol into you glass drop by drop. It takes a while, but it’s worth it—plus, you look cool. Read More »

• I really wish my contribution to society was “:-)”! I’m really jealous…seriously. (Wired.com)

• So, wait, it’s breaking news now that people like to look at attractive people and it only takes a half second to notice them? Any horny college kid could’ve told you that. (Yahoo News)

• If you have a tramp stamp, beware! All of those pregnancies that your stamp has been causing is going to make birth a lot more painful. (wsj.com)

• Bad News: You’re in college and weed is still illegal. Good News: As long as you’re not a raging pot-head. (denverpost.com)

• I almost forgot Halloween was coming. So, just in case you love candy as much as we do at College Candy (ha) check out some sweets that never made it onto store shelves. (i-mockery.com)

“You don’t understand, I think I’m seriously addicted to chocolate!”

Sound familiar?

No matter how painful an urge becomes (such as when I’m on a diet, walking past a Cold Stone Creamery, or trying to eat just one Dove ice cream bar), I never actually believe there’s something chemically wrong with my brain when it comes to sweets. I mean, I can’t really be addicted, can I?

Actually…I might be.

The Guardian recently released a study that claims “the pleasure centers of chocolate lovers’ brains [light] up more strongly in response to the food than those who are less partial.”

Which basically means: to some of us, chocolate is like coke. Read More »

Sometimes, a drink is called something so preposterous, so stupid, it’s obvious that whoever created it gave it a name after they tried 7 versions.

Sometimes, the actual ingredients are the unbelievable part.

You want me to combine cream, vodka, and cough syrup together? Who’s actually tasted this?

Most of the time, the answer is no one, but today, that’s not the case.

I had heard about this recipe, but never actually tried it…until the day arrived when there was nothing left to drink the fridge besides a bottle of Gatorade someone had left and a bottle of raspberry vodka the roommate and I had received as a present.

“Well” I thought, “now’s the time.”

Sure, it was sweet, but it was also light and tart—a nice thing to sip over ice while waiting for the night to start. Read More »