This...is Erica.

Today is Erica's birthday. Erica is my roommate, and she's probably one of my best friends, especially down here in sunny Fairfax, Virginia. I figured with it being her birthday and all, I'll give her a little bit of a tribute or something. So, today you're going to learn a little bit about Erica and what makes her so special.

Erica has a special food allergy called Celiac disease. It's basically an allergy to gluten (i.e. wheat, flour, basically anything in that bottom row of the food pyramid that isn't rice). You may or may not have heard of it before. I know that before I came to college, I certainly had no idea what it was, and even more so, what I was getting into.

I drew her this lovely picture for our names on the suite door

It's not like a normal allergy where you would break out in hives or go into anaphylactic shock, and it's different for everyone who has it. Some people people go through life without ever experiencing any symptoms, while others can have very severe symptoms. Erica does get symptoms where if she accidentally eats something with gluten in it, she has pretty bad stomach pains and she feels sick. It's not deadly to have a single episode, but the way I exaggerate things, I always think she's going to die:

There's a lot about celiac that's still a mystery to doctors. They're not sure what causes it, but it can be genetic and passed on by parents to their children. Also, celiac is an autoimmune disease, meaning that it's a result of the body not being able to process something, and it attacks what it considers to be foreign matter and causes degenerative effects to the rest of the body. For example, Erica and I are the same height. She's short because of celiac, and I'm Ukranian. She also has joint problems sometimes. However, since she has symptoms she can make sure she's not harming her body any more without knowing it and she can stay healthy. :)

This whole year living with her has been a huge learning process for me. In the beginning it was a bit of a struggle for me; I had so much to learn and so much that I didn't understand. I never could've guessed how many different foods have gluten in them, even foods like feta and tomato sauce. But I'm glad that I could get to know about this and now I can even help her cook sometimes. I know that we can joke around about it now and she's totally cool with it. Sometimes I even chase her around with a bag of flour or threaten that I'm going to feed her flour while she's sleeping.

Ok, so I'm a little mean, but we know it's a joke and in the end we both end up laughing anyway.  I really wanted to post this, not just because it's Erica's birthday and all, but also because I want to help give you a little bit of extra knowledge today so that you won't be as clueless as I was when I met Erica. It's more common than I ever would've guessed, but hey, I was totally in the dark so maybe you are too. Nevertheless, I hope that maybe, if you ever come across someone with celiac, you can make their life just a little bit easier with some understanding.

I've also developed a personal theory that when you can't eat gluten you need to substitute other sugars into the body to compensate. Like, I have never seen anyone eat as much sugar as this girl. One morning I caught her spooning brown sugar straight into her mouth. Seriously, she has an unhealthy obsession with candy. But hey, that's her, and I couldn't love her any other way. :)

_sara

My Current Dance Craze

So life has been a little bit...uh...crazy lately. I think we've all gone through those periods of time where it just seems like everything is being thrown at you faster than you can say "meat nuggets." I also apologize, because I feel like I need to post on here every so often out of the sheer obligation of owning a blog, and this week has been killing me.

So, in order to cope with the stress of everyday life, I've created a little dance. Does it actually help? I have no idea. Probably not. But it's fun and I think that in some strange way it's therapeutic.

My dance is called "The Shitshit Dance."

(I apologize for the wiggly outlines. Hopefully a graphics tablet is in my near future.)

It goes to no music, and the moves are to be completely made up by the dancer. The only rule is to be as erratic as humanly possible with the arm and leg movements whilst exclaiming shit in a manner deemed appropriate to the situation. But in what situation would this be necessary? Well, I'm glad you asked.

Huge exam tomorrow you forgot to study for? Crap! SHITSHITSHIT!!
Woke up late for class/work/important appointment? Oops! SHITSHITSHITTT!!
Extremely socially awkward situation? Make it better! SHITSHITSHIIIITTT!!
Eating a burrito that is lava on the edges and frozen in the center? Well.....SHIT.SHIT.SHIT.
And many more!!

Okay, so I'm a little odd. But we all have to get through those tough days somehow, right? :)

_sara

Don't Blame Us, It Was 3am...

So, being that we are well into our lovely spring semester of college, it tends to happen that some nights go a little late while we try to get all of that homework/exam studying/project work done. With this in mind, last night was one of those late ones. There was a point where none of us wanted to do anything we had to do, and as the night went on, more and more ridiculous things were said. I don't think the world is ready for most of those things, but there was one that I found that was appropriate/funny enough to draw. And if you're thinking "Sara, this isn't at all appropriate!" Just remember, it was one of the more appropriate things that was said.

As a little bit of background, this is a hot beverage product hailing from my friend Tri, who deemed it with the lovely name mentioned below. Claiming it had magical ultra-fiber-like qualities, she insisted that this is truly what happens upon ingesting this product. Though it's not actually comprised of what the name suggests, I think you can figure out why else it would have that name. The more graphic details were withheld (though if I get a good response on this one there may be a follow-up second advertisement). I present to you, Poop Tea (patent pending):

Yes, that's exactly what it looks like.

_sara

Love Hate Relationships.. with our Jobs.

There is always that one day, where everything that can possibly go wrong, goes wrong, and you are in the middle of wishing for a brain aneurysm when something reminds you why you are working here. You manage to pull yourself through it, and before you know it your shift is done and you can finally go home to where sanity and peace of mind greets you with open arms.

This revelation happened to me just a few days ago, after an incredibly long day at work.

Laws of Cat pt. 2

Time for part 2 of the enthralling saga of the Laws of Cat. This little gem comes straight from my very own little kitty. Every time I come home from a semester at school, she clings to me like one of those little fishies that lives under a bigger one, or like a fly consistently buzzing around a horse's ass. It seems that the longer I've been gone, the more clingy she is. I'm starting to get the impression that everyone else in my family just has no idea how to pay attention to her. Either that, or she likes me best :Þ

Either way, enjoy:

Clicky for full!

-Sara

You Should Care!

Hello. My name is Mike and I'm not entirely sure why Bri and Sara invited me to post on this here blog. Last night/early this morning they told me that I should start writing about politics on their blog, so I guess that's what I'm going to do. I just decided on my own that the general theme to my posts will be that there is an entire world out there and there are a ton of different ways to look at it, so my posts will basically be about world events, world history, world music, world film, and the occasional babbling about topics that are vaguely related to those things. I guess I'm going to start with some babbling.

DISCLAIMER: The views I represent are my views and are not the views of the other posters on this blog. I am only speaking my own views, so don't be a dick to them because of something I say.

Lurking around facebook has brought something to my attention that I find kind of alarming, no one gives a shit about politics. I have seen a disturbing amount of people who have listed their political views as something like "I don't care" or "none :)"(Yeah, I actually saw one with a smiley face. I guess they were right when they said ignorance is bliss.). Now I can understand why people wouldn't want to pay full attention to politics since a lot of it is kind of like a glorified version of the drama we all have to deal with in High School. You have these two big cliques(a few other, smaller ones) that are constantly bickering and calling each other idiots, and nothing seems to ever get done, nothing seems to ever change. Although I feel like it is reasonable to not want to watch C-SPAN all the time(I sure as hell don't), I feel like it is important for you to care and pay attention even just a little bit. Why? Because when you aren't paying attention those bickering politicians can pass a law that negatively effects you, a world event could happen that directly or indirectly effects how the world works and how you live and you could not even know that it is happening. Doesn't that scare you a little bit? Politics determine how we rule our selves, and if you don't pay attention you are only more likely to be ruled in a way that doesn't at all please you.

Another reason I feel like people may not pay attention to politics or current events is that they even if they know of all the terrible things in the world that are going on, they don't have the power to change it. They might feel that politics should be left to the politicians, and they cannot do a thing because they are just an average person. It's kind of scary that people feel this way since we always say we live in a democratic system, which I believe should mean that every person has the chance to say how they feel. There are times when average people got together and fought for what they believed in, and made some solid progress (The protests in the Middle East probably being the best current example. If 30 year old dictatorships in the Middle East can be toppled by protest, people should be able to change things here easily with similar methods). Other times it doesn't work (There was a pretty large anti-Iraq movement and that obviously didn't stop the war), but nothing will change if you don't try or don't even pay attention. There are thousands of issues out there, there's bound to be at least one that you can identify with and at least pay attention to and maybe even fight for or against.

Politics can be so much more than a bunch of old white men arguing to no one, it can be the people standing up for what they believe in. Do yourself and the world a favor, pay attention to at least some of what is going on, you might change the world.

-Mike

Laws of Cat pt. 1

So if you don't know this already, I have an unhealthy attraction to cats. I have one, and I think there's a high probability that she hates her life. I plan on becoming a crazy cat woman one day, too. Until then, I'm forced to keep my number of cats to preposterous amounts like "one" and "two."

Anyway, I feel that there are certain laws of cats that are pretty applicable in most situations. I've only drawn one so far but I can almost guarantee this will be a multiple part series. So, enjoy part 1:

Click on me to see full size!

-Sara

Where Rainbows Come From.

Today's post comes to you from the depths of Sara's cold, sarcastic (and for some people, non-existent) heart. I drew this a little while back, but it remains one of my favorites.

Captioned: "You're so ugly, you make flowers throw up."

Apparently flowers throw up rainbows and sparkles. Mildly appropriate.

So just remember kids, if I don't like you, I will artfully and anonymously make fun of you behind your back. Then I will spread it all over the interwebs for the enjoyment of others.

And don't worry, this was done in high school and I couldn't even for the life of me tell you now who it refers to.

-Sara

Im failing Anatomy 2 and should be studying...

Heythere.

I honestly don't know what to say to you guys I don't really have any sort of thought out plan, I just felt like I needed to contribute to this page.. Sara created this last night all by herself and I felt bad that I wasn't there.. or really even putting a ton, if any, thought or effort into naming it or for that matter. My dearest apologies. I was so distracted by events around me ie. holding babies, going to diners, meeting friends, freaking out from being in Allentown, being followed by a cop, and last but not least going through Burger Kings drive thru in reverse. I was so upset, the workers didn't even look impressed!! How many people can you say have come through your drive thru like that? I mean if I saw anyone come through like that I would probably give them something for free for being so a w e s o m e.

I'm also paranoid of police officers now. My college schedule has me basically me running on like 4 to 5 hours of sleep and my social life has turned nocturnal, cops don't seem to understand this and profile me all the time whenever I'm driving home at 3 or 4 in the morning. In the past week and a half Ive gotten a $170.50 ticket (which I later found out of could've challenged it and won), and have been followed for a short amount of time for the past two nights on the way home. None the less, I have gotten extremely good at picking them out. Its like playing where's waldo! (OH FOUND HIM! FOUND HIM! HE IS CREEPIN IN THE GRAVE YARD!!) And whenever they flip those red and blue lights on, all I remind myself now as a wave of fear rushing through my body ITS FINE, WERE FINE as I have a whole conversation played out in my head now as to why he (or she) has pulled me over, and how I was doing absolutely nothing wrong this time. I know all of your little tricks now, coppers, thanks to my father's stories of when he owned a Camaro back in the day and couldn't go anywhere without a cop following him around. I don't even have a nice car.. I don't know why they want to follow me around.

I get so off track all the time, like right now. At this moment I should be taking a shower and then heading up to Nazareth to study Anatomy with my future husband. My test is tomorrow and I am SOO not prepared to get ass chewed up and spit out by my professor, I also have terrible test anxiety so that doesn't make it any better. But no. What am I doing? Entertaining people who don't even have a basic understanding that this page exists yet. That just shows my dedication.

An Appropriate Actual First Post.

What makes it so appropriate? Seeing as how this blog feels like it will be predominantly populated with comics, I figured I'd get the ball rolling with an oldie but goodie:

Bri and I are best frands. We drew this in 8th grade, which was quite some time ago considering we're both in college. I'm the one kneeling and begging for her mercy, and Bri's the one going ballistic and laughing. As you can see, she's holding a very large hot glue gun. Long story short, 8th grade was the year for about a million and a half projects, and since we couldn't make them good with actual content, our 13 year old creativity pretty much consisted of whatever we could hot glue to something else. Those "easy buttons" on the ground there are referring to Bri's home-made easy button. It was basically a GIGANTIC hardened puddle of hot glue. I never want to use hot glue again...so..many..burns... Anyway, as you can tell in this we're both wearing our plaid skirts because we attended the tiniest rinky-dink catholic school you could think of. Like seriously, gym class consisted of playing hand ball (couldn't afford sticks, let alone bats) on a blacktop secured by a prison-style chain link fence adjacent to a major street. We like to think that surviving it gave us "better personalities," but its probably something more along the lines of "social abnormalities." The kid getting killed in the background is this kid Brandon who was in our class. His only role here is to show that the glue hurts. And of course, there's a Canadian plane crashing way in the background. Sorry if you're Canadian, but I'm gonna tell you right now, prepare to be the butt of a lot jokes because Bri and I have a running gag about hating you.

Us in lovely PA

(Bri's on the left, me on the right) (Edit: BRi: Terribly picture of me. )

In short, if you don't know us already, I think that comic describes us pretty accurately because, well, we don't really make a lot of sense. But our friends think it's funny and hopefully you do too. Oh, and make this blog famous. That would be pretty rockin'. -Sara

SO.

So this our little blog space I suppose. If anyone reads this I apologize because there's absolutely nothing posted at the moment, but never fear! Things will be up eventually. When, you ask? It's a surprise silly! :F

About Me

This is me. A very hip picture of me actually. My name is Sara and this is my blog. I'm currently a college student in Virginia, though I'm originally from a very exciting and enthralling area of eastern Pennsylvania. I guess I'm a bit odd and kind of a nerd. I'm currently a computer engineering student, though I still love to draw and be creative and such. Some people think I'm funny, I guess. Hope you do too :)

Feeling the compulsion to sing my praises/shout verbal diarrhea at me? Email me at sbondi92@gmail.com.