La Vie Niçoise

I feel all warm and fuzzy inside. And it's not just because I'm sitting here in my blue flannel teddybear PJ's with the heater maxed out.

Naw, I'm smiling on the outside and inside, because I really feel like I'm being taken care of.

Yesterday night:

I come home late after another grueling 11 hours of class, tired and hungry. I push open the heavy wooden front door and am greeted with a flood of warm light. There are my two roommates standing there, smiling pleasantly.

"Salut Angelica!" Sabrina is cupping a bowl of couscous and veggies with both hands, and offers it up to me. "I made dinner tonight and we saved you some." Aww! I love these girls!

"A package came for you today, I put it on your desk."

I squeal with delight as I run into my bedroom.

There it is. It's what I've been longing for for so long (aside from that ideal fictional boyfriend, sigh).

MY HARD DRIVE!

Thank you, Daddy! Yay yay yay! I hopped around the kitchen, clutching the tiny box to my chest. Kati and Sabrina watch me, bemused, as I zoom around like a 5-year-old, on ecstacy, on Christmas morning.

Oh finally, finally. The past two weeks of laptop-crashing torment would soon come to an end!

But alas, as I realised around 11pm that night, the Windows Install CD was not in fact bootable, and thus I consoled myself with the Strawberry Bonne Belle Lipsmackers my mom included in the package. Yum. I can taste the love.

Today:
Wake up at 6:30am, a little frazzled yet eager to attack my computer problems once more. Unfortunately, calling my dad doesn't help much.

However, another caring character comes to the rescue once again. Thank you, Kenzo! I head to his place after school, and him and his brother work in tandem to resolve my problem. I've never seen such efficiency. Operating system acquired within minutes. I speed off to get my computer back online toute de suite!

I get home, and find more mail waiting for me. A postcard from Debbie! Mail from the BNP Parnibas bank! And another box, which I assume to be the 2nd box of Usana vitamins that my mom told me to expect. But WAIT.

So this is why Greg asked me for my address. How cool, it's not more gross vitamins, it's a package from Greg and Kat!

I tear into the parcel, and the first thing I see almost brings tears to my eyes.

A recipe for Adobo and Sinigang! How did you KNOW!? Are you psychic?? Seriously, I was wanting to make these exact things for the next Friday dinner, and I hadn't a clue how....

Now, I've never experienced the apparent joy that comes from tearing into Christmas gifts, but this must be at least 10000x better. Each discovery as I dig deeper into the box makes my smile grow wider and wider.

Ingredients for the Filipino dishes! A box of Pocky! Shrimp crackers! BUBBLE TEA RECIPES, MIXES, COCONUT MEAT, and even them FAT STRAWS. Oh lordy, I almost fainted with delight. You have no idea how much I've missed bubble tea. Sucking on tapioca balls in milktea mixtures just ain't something Europeans do, apparently. How sad!

I sit there at the counter, happily munching on my shrimp chips, legs swinging, reading the note and recipes. For a good 20 minutes, I forget completely about my mission to repair my laptop.

And now, I've got my computer back online and working beautifully. I'll be back to blogging regularly, this time for real.