Classically Conditioned...

First post...here goes!

So I decided to start a blog for a couple reasons. 

First, I want to keep a diary, and I started one recently only to shortly thereafter remember why I stopped keeping one in the first place: I write slow. I have a lot to say, and I type much faster than I write, so I figured this would be a good outlet for that. Most of my posts might be what I like to call "thought vomit," thoughts as they come in whatever way, shape, and form they produce themselves. 

Second, the wonderful teacher I aided for last year introduced me to Pinterest, which--given that I am freshly moved to a new city across the country from home with no family or friends or cable television channels to speak of--has proven to be a wonderfully enjoyable way of passing the time, in addition to the usual facebooking that goes on. Unfortunately, one can only pin so much and facebook stalk for so long. Once I began to notice pieces of my soul were dying, I realized I was clearly in need of a new hobby.

Third, and on a related note, I was getting tired of eating cereal, ramen, and frozen pizza (I joke that Josh and I are frozen pizza connoisseurs). I began to think that if I didn't want to turn into a walking lump of preservatives, I should probably start cooking. When my parents bought their court-reporting firm in 2006, we started to eat out a lot, and even before that we didn't make very many particularly pleasing meals in my home (sorry mom, if you're reading, but I think you understand), just a few favorites that got made a lot, so I didn't have much to go off of for starting my own recipe collection. That is where Pinterest came in. In just the one month (well, month and a half ish) that I've been here I've already made more tasty things than I have made in the last year thanks to stuff I've found on Pinterest! Needless to say, I am a fan. I had been posting pictures (really crappy ones from my camera phone, which is awful, but for a while I couldn't find my actual camera as it was packed away somewhere, but even my real camera isn't that great--I generally try to avoid being IN pictures and much prefer taking them) of my kitchen creations on Facebook, and so I will probably continue to do that here, in addition to listing my comments on how everything turned out and the recipe if anyone is interested in trying them out. You just can't really do that on Facebook. 

Finally, why "classically conditioned"? The name is largely the result of everything else I thought of having been taken already. But I figured it also reflects my liberal-artsy background in addition to referencing psychology, which I love. And, alliteration is always awesome.