The Good Finale

TCN left on Sunday. It was sort of a sad good-bye. More because I think "good-byes" in any capacity can be sort of sad.

For example, I hate the 405 freeway. But if I was driving down it one day and someone who knows the future told me with certainty, "ML, this is the last time, EVER, you'll be driving on this freeway," I know a part of me would think "OMG, I'll NEVER be on this freeway again. EVER. I hated it but I've spent so much using it to go between here and there...it's like a part of my past!"

Yes, that's how I think sometimes. And that's why I think TCN's departure was sad. That and the fact that he was crying and so was his sister. And the fact that he gave me a big long hug that felt more meaningful than I care to honestly admit to myself. But I can allude to it here, to you fine people, because this is just a little anonymous blog floating around cyber space. Wherever that is.

We said good-bye in my apartment, then we went out side where everyone else in the complex came out to say good bye. Then he drove off and honked. The whole thing felt like the end of a sitcom season.

It was a good finale.

I'll Show You Mine

I like the new Paris Hilton song.

I'm sorry! I know! It's dumb--the song and the fact that she's a singer now. But anyone can sound decent with a studio and sound editors who know how to work one. And the beat is really catchy and fun and summery!

(It is necessary to bob your head from side to side in a sort of reggae type beat while you sing the song.)

Even though the gods are crazy, even though the stars are blind, if you show me real love baby, I'll show you mine.

That's what he said.

I bet Paris liked how that last phrase could be interepted in a sexual way.

That's hot.

J and the Confused Bird

Due to the fact that I sit at my desk working most afternoons and late into most evenings, here are two new things I've learned:

1) J, the little boy who lives directly across from our apartment, plays with his dad every evening around 6:30 pm. He gets his bath at 7pm. His father sometimes uses the bath as a threat to keep him in line. They play a lot of boy games, and sometimes J is a big fat loser about it. I'm not sure how much I like J. It kind of makes me wonder how much I really like kids in general. I used to like kids...now I just hope that I like my own one day.

2) At 12:30 AM each night, there is some variety of bird that starts chirping loudly. Yes, the early bird catches the worm and all that, but at 12:30 AM? I like birds okay...and their chirping does bring about a certain chipper background noise to daily living. But when I am up working late I don't want to be thinking about the fact that it is morning for this little, happy, worm-hungry bird. At what point does "early" become "late"? Maybe this bird is confused.

Bye, Evil Sith Lord

The Evil Sith Lord just told me he's quitting. I am sad and I am shocked (at how sad I am). I seriously almost started to cry when he told me the news. For all the joking I do about how he's annoying and awful, I really like him as a person. Also, as a boss, he's not been so bad either. He's very protective, always looking out to get for ways to get his peeps a better deal. And he's fun! He felt more like a friend most of the time and we spent most of our meetings talking about non work stuff (he also likes Joss Whedon). We are similar in many ways. And, I also feel a great deal of gratitude towards him for orchestrating this whole part-time deal for me. It was better then I could have ever asked for.

I always thought we would stay in touch and be sort-of friends after I left. Plus, I love his kids and since he lived in the LBC, I imagined us all staying in touch. But with the job change, he's moving too.

I can't imagine this place without him. I am really, really sad.

When Trees Attack

My weekend...bulletized.

• I went to a new local bar on Friday night where I was taller than almost everyone there.
• I ran into a tree while I was walking and talking to a group of friends. I blame the city for putting a tree there.
• I went to a wedding reception on Saturday. I feel guilty admitting this, but It was kind of boring.
• My car got keyed. I'm very angry and it makes me even more tired of the Solara. I want a new car!
• I studied at the beach. I didn't get much done but I enjoyed staring up at the blue sky filled with one teeny tiny wispy cloud. I tried to stop complaining in my head about how hot it was and just appreciate that I could be on the beach studying. Someone somewhere was no doubt suffering from less then perfect weather. I need to be respectful of their situation.
• I consumed more of my LF peanut butter and no-sugar-added-apricot-jam combo. God, it's the perfect desert! It's just tough balancing both containers on your lap.
• I studied a lot...but I enjoyed it. Sort of. Now I "get" those people who get all consumed with what they do. I fear that I will become one. I think that may have been why I was bored at the wedding. My mind was elsewhere. And I didn't mind it.
• I bought PopTarts! There's nothing bad about frosted pastries filled with gooey fruity filling! Cheers for pop-tart-y fun!
• I cleaned the house like a mad woman. I had a big test to study for, so clearly, cleaning the house was crucial.
• I became more addicted to House. It makes it extra fun that I know what they're talking about now. Of course, it only feeds my current all-consuming obsession with all things medicine.
• I told a woman at the wedding that she shouldn't try and pet the squirrels in her backyard because they can be carriers of the plague. She thought I was joking. And then everyone at the table thought I was joking. So they joked about it by grabbing their necks and attempting to act out what they must have thought were plague symptoms. I wasn't joking though, and their pretend symptoms were wrong. I gave a polite chuckle anyway.

Did You Know?

I have a very keen eye for spotting bugs. If there's a bug in the room, I'll notice it almost immediately. This is also true for anything that is out of place in a room I am familiar with. It's a part of my anal side. And "anal" means charming right?

If you give me something to hold when I am out drinking, I will hold it all night. I will (generally) not lose it or put it down. A couple of my friends in college noticed this skill and took advantage. But I don't mind. I do what I can.

I have only received four parking tickets in my life. Three of them have happened in the last six months. One was from last week. The rate at which I get parking tickets has now almost become exponential. I'm obviously becoming a slacker.

Water is my favorite drink. I am not picky about it (except I don't like the taste of Arrowhead) and I drink lots of it. Even before I go to bed at night. My college roommate used to call me the Camel for this reason. In fact, I once left a slumber party when I was 5 because they wouldn't let me have a glass of water before bed. The mother said, "No honey, you can't drink that before you sleep because you'll wet the bed." My indiginant five year old self said, "I can too and I don't wet the bed." When she didn't believe me and didn't get me the water, I told her I was going to go home. And I did. Don't mess with me and my water needs.

Sharp Pencils

Today for the first time in years, I found myself using a pencil sharpener to sharpen a colored pencil. It was strange having to get up during lab time, find the contraption, adjust the opening so that it fit my pencil and then stand there turning the little thing around and around until my "sea-foam green" Crayola had a nice fine point on it. And then, I got to blow the sharpening dust off of it. I felt like I was 5. Other than using a hand-held sharpener thing for my eye-liner, I haven't sharpened a pencil like that in forever. I guess it's just like riding a bike...

You're Stupid, Stupid

I love my brother and I love the way we interact. We're still very playful and tease one another all the time, and being around him makes me act younger. Even the insults now are sort of fun. This is an example of how a typical insult conversation might go:

ML: "Hey butthead, I just made a stupid mistake on my test."
TL: "Well that was dumb, Fartknocker, why'd you do that?"
ML: "I don't know...I just got confused."
TL: "It's cause you're stupid, stupid*."
ML: "No, you're stupid, stupid."

When I was younger this wouldn't have been funny. But because I am all growed up, this reminds me of simpler times and always makes me laugh. It reminds me of big wheels and fighting over my doll Pepe. It reminds me of building forts in the family room out of sheets and TV trays and then camping out in it. It reminds me of the times we would try to sneak him into my room at night so we could tell stories instead of sleep. We cleverly did this by stuffing him into the 12" space between the wall and the bed, and then camouflaging him in a heap of stuffed animals. It was not enough to hide him from the keen and watchful eyes of my parents though.

Yes, I miss those times. But I'm still glad we can keep them alive through our mature and witty banter.

*For those who don't know, that clever insulting technique (where you say someone is something and than end the comment by calling them that very thing) comes from Petrie in the Land Before Time. Which was the best movie ever...when I was 11.

In the Gutter

Anyone who has spent any time with me in the last month knows that my new favorite joke-y sort of thing to do is to respond with a "That's what he said" whenever someone says anything that could be interpreted sexually. It's so fun! It's so easy! It's entertaining for everyone! And you'd be surprised how many things people say that come with built-in double entendre. Even in Microbiology. For example...

A basic bacteria shape is the coccus. Another one is the rod. Given the context of this post, I'm sure you know where this is heading...but I'll take you there anyway.

LHL (Long Haired Latina of Anatomy and Phsyio fame) sits next to me. The prof was asking about the shapes of various bacteria in lab. One guy answered about a specific one by shouting out, "It's a rod!" LHL chucked softly and said, "He said rod." The next bacteria shape was round. And when the prof asked about it, I answered "Coccus!" followed by a soft chuckle that only my neighbors could hear. LHL then said to me, "You just love the coccus." And I couldn't, I COULD NOT, stop myself from saying, "That's what he said."

I think LHL was surprised. She knows me as nothing else but the girl who always beats her. I probably seem serious, focused, annoying and nerd-like. But now she probably thinks I'm a bit of a slut too. A serious, focused, annoying, nerdy slut. What fun!

Then later when we were inoculating our test tubes with some bacteria, I heard LHL telling our other table-neighbor, "You just open it up and stick it in." She was saying this to the young cute guy I sort of have a crush on (due to slim pickings). He's so young and innocent, I'm not even sure his mind knows how to find the gutter, where mine apparently takes up contant residence. This time I didn't say it out loud. But I wanted to. I really really did.

How old am I again?

Detachment is Bliss

This explains how I feel a lot of the time.

It even explains how I feel now. Just a little bit. Just because the stress of this darn class.

But, TGIF baby!

Things are good in THIS minute because I had a test today, I did well, and I have two days (two blessed 24 hour periods) ahead of me with which to get four lab reports done and study for another test on Monday. And 48 hours is 4X more time than what I had last night and the night before to do the same amount of work.

And so I am celebrating by sipping me some toffee nut latte at work where life is incredibly easy, unstressful, full of time to email and most importantly, void of inoculations, incubations and Latin terms for various Bacteria.

A Purse and a Backpack

Yesterday was my first day of summer school. Six hours a day of the same class. Then I go to work after school. I was there until 7:30 last night. Then I had to go buy all my stupid school supplies. Did you know a box of surgical gloves costs $20?!? And colored pencils cost almost $8??

By the time I got home last night, it was 8:30. I hadn’t eaten since 11am. I was tired and grumpy and overwhelmed and starving. Some of those feelings carried over to my sleep unfortunately. And this morning around 5 am I started tossing and turning. While many thoughts going through my head were regarding my lab report, applications, GRE studying, etc., another annoyingly persistent was there too: “What am I going to wear today?"

For six years now, I’ve perfected the art of sometimes professional, sometimes stylish, sometimes comfortable business casual. And when I went to school at night after work, my businessy-casual outfit came with me. But now I find myself waking up and going to class. What that means: I get to start dressing like a real college student again. Only problem is…I sort of forgot how.

This morning I laid in bed for many minutes wondering about what I used to wear to school and how those sorts of outfits could translate into what I currently own. On top of that, there are 40 students in our microbio lab. We have three hour lab periods. Each of us 40 students uses his/her own little Bunsen burner for most of those three hours. Which means, 40 Bunsen burners on (with a big flame!) in a confined space for over three hours. In the middle of the day. In June. In Southern California. Now I am always on the cold side. But between noon and 3pm, Monday through Friday, I am not. It's so hot in fact, that the old prof lady recommended we wear shorts. While I understood the concept a little voice inside me frowned at the notion. SHORTS? Aside from beach vacations and working out, I haven’t worn shorts out of the house in God knows how long. Probably around six years actually…

Another area that I’ve noticed some changes in, in regards to my new studently-ways, is my hair-style. Or lack thereof. I don’t see much of a point to doing my hair any more. I’ve defaulted to a pony-tale the last two days and I'm not sure why I should do anything else. Whenever the Bunsen burners come out, prof is all “Ladies make sure to tie back your hair!” And who I am to argue with authority?

And now to discuss how I’m carrying all my stuff around with me. All through my work-full-time/school-part-time days, I used a shoulder bag thing (free from a Taiwanese vendor with a faux Monet type painting on it. Very classy) to schlep my VERY expensive text books to and fro. But yesterday I realized the bag wasn’t gonna cut it anymore. The classes I’m taking now require larger books (read: more expensive ones) and more of them. It was with great resignation this morning that I pulled out my backpack and tossed in colored pencils, my trusty TI-32 calculator (which harkens back to my high school math days), the shiny new $160 Microbio textbook (no “USED” available because they decided to upgrade to a newer version this year. Joy!), $80 worth of lab material, $50 worth of slides, gloves, and the like, and a package of Snackwell cookies. I like sugar.

Yes, I am convinced that for now, the backpack is the way to go. But I am yet again faced with the same question I encountered in college: purse AND backpack, purse IN backpack, backpack only??? Now that I’ve been an adult for a little while I don’t like the idea of not using a purse, but I always thought those girls in college using a backpack AND a purse were just silly. So until I come up with a better solution I’ve become one of those silly dual-bag-carrying girls.

Here is a summary of what I look like when I go to school:

Shoes: My Reef thongs. This is a carry-over from UCLA. Actually, I’ve never stopped this habit, only now I’ll be in them all the time. And I’ll have that fabulous thong tan on the top of my feet. Well, I already have that tan. It never really goes away….and secretly, I sort of like it.

Hair: Pony-tale. Today I straightened my bangs and put on earrings. That’s as good as it’s gonna get.

Clothes: I’m still working this one out…I don’t want to get bacteria on anything I like. Plus it’s cold in the morning, hot during lab and sometimes I have to go to work after class. What to do, what to do.
Accessories: Heavy backpack (picture me hunched over, burdened by the weight of all things microbio), a cute purse on my forearm, a Cliff Bar in hand and a jacket (for the cold early mornings) tossed casually over my Cliff Bar bearing arm.

I guess I look like a student again (read: HOT).

Meet the Sheep*

Hi!



















This is where I sleep.

This is where I sit and wait for everyone to come home.

Sometimes I play in the General's room when she's not home.

Sometimes I watch TV. I love anything by Joss Whedon.

Hey, even Sheep shit.


















Happy sheep come from Southern California. And isn't this a fabulous patio?!?!











*This was an Easter gift. Just looking at him makes me want to laugh. He's so fat and squat and over-stuffed. Sort of like me after all the food I ate this weekend...

Treachery Afoot

Yesterday I went out for lunch. I ate a salad, but it was a restaurant salad, and therefore probably just as fattening as a big fat cheeseburger. That meal, in and of itself, wasn't SO bad though, as I had a small, healthy breakfast and the tools to make a small healthy mainly-veggie dinner. But I was weak. And in my celebratory Buffy marathon happiness I got tricked into eating dessert. Tricked I tell you!

Someone fooled me into taking my favorite British dessert (sticky toffee pudding) out of the freezer and stick it into the oven, where it was accidentally warmed and then magically ended up in a bowl in front of me where I was forced to eat it!! The gooey, buttery toffee sauce atop that lucsious warm moist spice cake was impossible to resist.

Oh, the treachery....

It Shall Be Mine

I have a confession to make. I just bought something I don't need and something I don't have time to do. Here's what happened...

I got off work at 3 today. I had lots to do and was feeling pretty stressed in general (see previous post). But then my plans were cancelled. And then when I got home, I was rather productive rather quickly. I decided that I earned a little break prior to being more productive. I sat down to watch a little TV and snack on a TJ's Tropical Popsicle. I didn't really like the movie I was in the middle of and nothing was on TV. Sure, I could find some mindless entertainment on E! or VH1 or the like, but I wanted to watch something that I REALLY wanted to watch. And then it hit me. It was time. Time to start re-watching the end of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I had only seen seasons 6 and 7 once--when they originally aired several years ago on TV. I wanted to watch them again but only after enough time had passed that I didn't remember them very clearly. And today, my friends, was that day.

Now if only I could find them to rent or buy. I belong to Netflix, which is a great service, but bad for whims and instant gratification. I called my local Blockbuster. They weren't renting it and they were out of stock. She suggested I call the local Tower Records. Again, they were all out. Then I decided to just head out to find it. I knew SOMEONE would be renting or selling it somewhere. And the first place I was going to try was my favorite entertainment store: Barnes and Noble.

I walked in. The man behind the counter asked if I needed any help. I told him what I wanted and he led me right to them. They had every season. AND on top of it, they were 10% off. AND on top of it, they were having a buy 2 DVDs get one free. He kindly informed me that that deal was good for boxed sets too.

I wanted to watch 7. But my favorite season is 5. And season 6 sits right there smack in the middle. I thought for a second about what I should do. Thoughts like "This is a stupid thing to spend my money on right now," and "do I really need all 3 seasons?" But with a deal like that, I could get 3 seasons for the price of two, or $180 worth of shows for $120. Pre tax, but pre 10% discount. I took the plunge.

I shrugged off the warnings of the little voice in my head saying "Stupid impulse buy! Stupid Impulse buy!!!" Also, I knew I had a gift card somewhere in my wallet.

The B&N man rang me up. Turns out I had TWO gift cards. I handed them over and the total, after the gift cards came to a mere $41.

$41 for $180+ worth of good quality TV. One of the best written TV shows ever, in my opinion.

It was clearly fate working it's magic. Season 7 (and 6 and 5) were supposed to be mine today.

Still Here...just not blogging much

I'm all better now. But now I'm just busy. Which is odd because I thought this would be a relaxing week. No school means a lot of getting everything taken care of for next week. 'Cause once next week starts, I will be balancing 20 hours of work, 30 hours of class time, and appxomiately 20 hours of homework/studying. That doesn't include sleep, exercise, down time, etc. I am stressed! And...I have to start studying for my GRE soon too...

Just FYI, the blogging may be reduced during this time.