Alone on a Saturday

Today was a good balance between eventful and relaxed. I woke up at 8:30!!! my alarm didn't go off! I had to be downstairs by 8:45 to get to my piano re-audition, so I hastily gulped down some yogurt and cottage cheese with berries and grabbed an english muffin with peanut butter to take with me. Didn't take a photo.
It was a good thing my mom got a grad student to give me a ride because it has been POURING outside for 4 days or something like that! Luckily, I got to my music school early and was able to warm up. The audition was no big deal-- it was just in front of 2 of my old piano teachers who only had me play 2 pages of my piece (weird contemporary Russian one that involves banging my fist on the keyboard).
I got home a little after 10, and knew that I had to be at my swim meet by 12. I figured that I should probably eat a real meal before the meet, but I needed to give myself time to digest. Although I wasn't hungry, I made "lunch" at around 10:35-- It was mainly very carb-y, easy to digest things: spinach and feta omelette, a piece of toast, and left over pasta from last night.
It was still raining out, so I gave myself a little extra time, because I'd decided to bike there. However, when I got downstairs, I ran into one of my favorite neighbors, Marian, who offered to give me a ride. She is so incredibly nice... she also gave me a ride back and invited me over for dinner tomorrow night!
The meet went really well for me. Of course, it was my first meet of the season, so I didn't really have any times to compare it to. I was in the 200 medley relay (breaststroke), 50 freestyle, 100 breaststroke, and 400 freestyle relay. I really felt confident about my starts and flip-turns... I'm definitely getting the technique down. My time for the 50 wasn't that great.. 34.55, but still, probably better than what I would have gotten last year. As for breastroke, I DROPPED 5 SECONDS OFF MY PR FROM LAST YEAR! 1:27 is actually a pretty decent time. I was so happy... I also feel like if he'd put me in a different heat I could have gone even faster, since I was in a heat with just one other person, who happened to be on our team. My last event was right after breaststroke, and I was first in the relay, so I was pretty exhausted by that point. Everybody felt so exhilarated afterwards, though. There was also pizza with the other team afterwards, since our schools are both UHigh (they're UniHigh, and we're UHigh). I hung around for a while (didn't have any pizza, big surprise), then went home.
Once home, I finished Breaking Dawn... maybe I should take a break from trashy books for now. I do have to read chapter 3 of Moby Dick. I also talked on the phone to relatives and did my math, which was really tedious and time consuming. UGH, I still have a lot to do... although compared to last year, this amount is negligable:
-3 more chapters of bio reading (4 chapters total, and the pages are HUGE), plus a sheet of essay-ish questions
-study for math quiz
-read chapter 3 Moby Dick
-Sit by the lake (in this weather?) and write a reflection about the water (gotta give it to the English teacher for creativity)
-2 page long French composition
I would do the composition now, but I can't figure out what to write about! There are 3 questions, and I can't think of answers to any of them.
Anyways, when I came back from the meet I had a pretty big bowl of cereal and nuts and berries and milk, so I didn't get hungry until after 8:00, but I decided to make myself a real meal. My mom won't be back till midnight on Monday, so I figured it would be good to have leftovers in the fridge.
I made a variation on a Deborah Madison recipe for a summer vegetable ragout, using whatever was in the fridge: parsnips, carrots (purple and orange), squash, an onion, garlic, cherry tomatoes, spinach, and an apple. Instead of first sauteeing the onions, she had you add everything to the pot with a little olive oil. After letting it simmer with some herbs and salt and pepper and water, I added chickpeas, some tomato paste, and the tomatoes. I also made a pesto to go with it, only instead of following her advice and using a mortar and pestle (who has that kind of time?), I made it in my Vitamix blender, the love of my life... of course, the texture was more of a puree than a pesto, but the taste was the same. Her pesto was a marjoram pesto, but I didn't have that, so I just added some mint and some unidentifiable herb off a plant by the kitchen window. Also in the pesto were a piece of bread soaked in vinegar, capers, pine nuts, garlic, parsley, and olive oil.
I figured that the pesto would be essential to this dish, the stew not having any flavor, but as it turns out, the vegetables were so fresh that the broth was sweet and fragrant... maybe from the apple? Still, the pesto was the perfect accent: all those strong flavors really made it a bit more special. I ate the stew with a Japanese sweet potato (microwaved it then broiled it) and some ancient bulgur pilaf I once made that was in the freezer (it had raisins and pine nuts in it-- yum!).
Tomorrow I really need to get work done! I think I'll get up early and then set out for the lake if the weather's nice (if it's really nice-- unlikely, maybe I'll go for a run) to do my English paragraph. I'll probably end up doing homework at Istria (nearby cafe with awesome gelato) so I don't feel like I've been in the house all day. Maybe I'll also bike down to the grocery store and do some errands and feel like a real adult. Either way, I have to babysit at around 5, and according to Marian, Sarah (the girl I babysit) and I will be having dinner at her place.