Medical Hibernation Ahead

Lots of stuff to tell you but nothing exciting to share really.

I had a great birthday celebration in San Diego this past weekend. I also went to my first Dave Matthews concert (which was lots of fun). I discovered that I'm on a big Mexican food kick. 5 of my 7 weekend meals consisted of Mexican food, mainly burritos from Pedro's. Pedro's, by the way, has been world famous since 1986.

I am amidst my second week of school. This week, TA'ing and Tutoring actually began. I love it but it is exhausting. It is hard to help teach people things all day long. And it literally is all day...on Tuesdays and Thursdays I'm on campus from 8 until about 7:30. I only have one hour off between 11 and 12 (which is right before my TA session so I am usually busy doing prep stuff and printing copies). I get another break for a half hour between tutoring and the lecture I TA for between 5 and 5:30. So all day long, my mind is inundated with Chemistry, Microbio, Physiology and Anatomy.

So last night when I got home, what do you think I felt like doing? Relaxing on the couch. Watching what TV show, you might wonder? House. Yes, even though I spent the entire day thinking about various medical-related sciences, I wanted to do just that at night too. I am slipping back into my early summer routine of nothing but school and medicine.

But I like it! And here's something funny I noticed last night: I can't watch House without having my text books near me. I didn't have them near me last night and I had to keep running up stairs to check my knowledge on things/look stuff up as they were discussed on the show. It's so fun...in a geeky, medical kind of way.

With school and the three jobs, and the LONG days, I am now starting to doubt I'll have the time/energy to do that marathon training again.

I Choose Me

Beverly Hills, 90210 is coming to DVD

Now we can all live again through Kelly being a slut, then retelling her rape story, then almost getting raped again, then getting burnt, then being a coccaine addict, then having a stalker/crazy person, than having a lesbian friend be in love with her, then becoming a bit bitchy, then being shot in the stomach, then being Dylan's soulmate, then getting engaged to Brandon but not marrying him because...well, I'm still not sure why, but hey, in the end it's really cool to choose yourself.

Post GRE Glee

I am done with the GRE. YAYYYYYYYY! I first experienced a huge feeling of numbness when it was all over. I didn't know what to do with myself. But now that numbness has faded away into a something more like glee.

Okay....off to celebrate being done with that silly, silly grad school test!

Photos of the Week (from a long time ago)

I'm way overdue for "Photos of the Week." These are from when I went wine tasting with KM in March. (There's a real, new post below all these photos, BTW. I did a back to back posting last night).

Champagne (we also did some champagne tasting).


The next few pictures are from vineyards as we drove through Sonoma and Napa (so some of them are a bit blurry at the bottom). It was an overcast rainy day, but sometimes that made the lighting really nice for photos.

This first one looks like a painting to me.



The mustard seed was blooming.

The Meat of It

For Christmas last year, I asked for a crock-pot. I envisioned coming home to warm, home-cooked meals at least once a week. My brother got me a nice one, along with two great cookbooks geared towards creating those warm wonders I dreamed about. And I was very excited to receive all this greatness. I opened up the books and immediately began folding down the corners of recipes that sounded especially good (and easy). I lovingly took it home and I placed it down in the dining room corner near the window. And there it sat, until yesterday.

I'm not sure if I decided to approach the crock-pot yesterday because of a sudden urge to start cooking fantastic meals without much effort, or if it was because it provided a nice distraction from studying. But...I've known me for a long time now and I'm gonna go with the latter. Only because that is what I do. In college, it was always during finals week that I suddenly felt the need to organize my CDs. Or get rid of clothes I no longer wore. And I remember two distinct stressful times where it seemed particularly fitting to became suddenly obsessed with MTV's Real World du jour. Obsessed enough to watch the entire marathon. Even if it meant staying up all night. Because it was either that or studying and clearly, I needed to know if Trichelle and Steve (or whatever their names were) were gonna hook up.

You get the point. New obsessions are welcome distractions, especially when I'm busy.

So, back to the crock-pot. Yesterday I not only opened up the crock-pot, found a recipe, bought the materials and made a fabulous chicken and asparagus dish, I also made home-made pesto from a basil plant I just purchased. Yes, that means I created a well-balanced, healthy, home-cooked meal AND whipped up a batch of fresh, me-made pesto for the future. And an even bigger shock--for anyone who knows me--is that I BOUGHT MEAT.

I don't buy meat. Sort of as a policy. I don't really love it (aside from the occasional hamburger or tri-tip), and I don't really like to buy it or cook it. I do know how to cook things with it--I was raised by very carnivorous people and in college I was a nanny to meat-eating children with expensive tastes--but I don't really do it. Ever. And the other day I was thinking...one day I might have a significant other. And this significant other might lead to a family. And families eat meat. And so I knew it was time. Time to crack open the crock-pot and jump on that chicken-buying wagon.

Yes, what more perfect way to deal with this very rich feeling of burnout, my upcoming GRE, and a fall semester starting a month sooner than it should (in my opinion) than by preparing for my future and learning to more effectively nest.

Just call me ML Crocker, future mother, proud crock-pot user, and meat-cooker.

Post-Season Game Playing

The other day I was talking to WBF while at my computer. I was showing him something and in the process he saw my desktop image. It was not a picture I had taken, but it was nice. He asked if it was mine and I told him that I downloaded it from Webshots. He wanted to know more about webshots so I showed him some of the other pictures and some of the software it comes with. You can add your own photos to the webshots software and set it up so that the wallpaper and the screensaver change regularly. In this way, your own photos can get mixed up with the pretty, professional webshot ones. While showing WBF all of this, a photo of myself, BDP, and two guys we met in Cabo popped up. It was one in which we were all dancing together, sandwich style. If you didn't know what was going on, it could look as though we were romantically involved with these guys. Just cause we were all close and smiley and drunk and dancing. Like couple friends.

WBF saw it and I kind of scrambled to change it, saying something like "This isn't a pretty webshot photo!" We both chuckled kind of awkwardly. Then I quickly moved on in the conversation, returning to safer topics like where one can download the webshots software.

We're friends now. Sort of. But we don't ever talk about his girlfriend or my various boy dramas. Part of me kind of wonders if he thought that the boy I was with was a boyfriend. Part of me kind of hopes so. And then that same part of me hopes he felt just the tiniest bit of something akin to watered-down jealousy.

I guess even after the fact, the game continues. Just a little bit.

Highway to Hell

I spent the weekend in SF with my mom. It was lots of fun! We went up there for an info session on the program I am applying to. Because the info session was on Thursday evening, we decided to make a weekend of it and stay through Sunday. Our hotel was fantastic and in a great location (right near all the shops in Union Square). It was great learning more about the program I'm applying to, and it was also loads of fun seeing KM and my lil' bro (and his girlfriend and all his roommates).

Everything went really smoothly until yesterday, when we tried to leave. First there was an engine malfunction with my mom's car. We wanted to have that looked into before hitting the long drive home. That put us on the road a bit late, but it wasn't too much of a problem. An hour into the drive, right after you get to the part of the 5 freeway where there are just two lanes and nothing but rolling hills of dead grass around you, the traffic came to a complete stop. For 50 minutes! Apparently a trailer rolled and the driver had to be airlifted to a hospital. Of course, for most of those boring minutes, we didn't know why we were stopped (there aren't all that many AM radio stations in the middle of nowhere). We had to rely on the CB Radio of a near-by trucker for into on the delay. But, when we started moving, my mother and I were feeling optimistic again and ready to continue on the journey home. We were feeling so optimistic in fact that we thought milkshakes were in order. And what goes better with milkshakes than some onion rings and crosscut fries?

About a half hour after our fattening and fried snacks, we saw one of those computerized signs saying the Grapevine was closed because of a fire. GREAT. We were still many many miles from home and the detour they provided would dump us near Paso Robles after passing through 45 miles of narrow curving mountain roads. And then, Paso Robles is a good 3.5/4 hours to LA without traffic. The traffic on the 101 going back into LA on a Sunday night is usually pretty heavy, but since the 5 traffic was added to the normal 101 traffic, there were just way too many people on the road. Our average speed from Santa Barbara back to the Southbay was 20 MPH. Joy.

We got back to my parents house at 10:30 and I got home to LBC at 11. It was a long, long day.

The only fun parts were that we were so bored with the driving and the snail's pace that we decided to keep snacking. After the fried-food-and-milkshake extravaganza, we got sandwiches at Starbucks (best sandwiches ever!) and potato chips at a gas station. We were snacking our way through the state. And today I feel appropriately sluggish.

Treadmill, here I come!

My Issues Are Smaller Than Yours

Last week I went on a date with a new boy. I met him online and he seemed great. In fact, aside from the fact that he was divorced and had young children, he seemed really, frighteningly fantastic. But this opinion was based on emails and a couple of long phone conversations. I know better than to assume that things would also be great in person.

But this time, they actually were. We met on Thursday night for dinner and he was cute and tall, just like his profile/pictures suggested. We had lots to talk about and the conversation never lagged. In fact, after dinner was done we wanted to spend more time together. We went to a near-by bar and continued chatting until the bar started to close. He opened doors, paid for my meal, and even brought me a CD of a band I liked. Before the date was done, he brought up getting together again. He was excited to see me again and wasn’t afraid to say it! And I can’t tell you how refreshing that is! I mean, how often does one meet a single, attractive guy who likes to communicate? Someone who isn’t afraid to show interest and isn’t scared to make future plans?

The next morning, after TWO hours of sleep, we left for Vegas. Despite my exhaustion I was still on a post-date high. The boy had told me the night before that he would text message me while I was away. Also, we had made plans to hang out on Sunday, the day I got back from Vegas. And it was nice not having to worry about the usual: “Will I hear from him?” “Did he have fun?” “Does he like me too?”

Things seemed so good that I actually started to get a little scared. But despite all the excitement and all the “good” I kept trying to keep site of a few key facts that might mean things wouldn’t work between us:

1) He had three young kids. That can really tether someone down. And I don’t want to be tethered yet.

2) He was very interested in getting rich. That was a main goal. And sure, I like money, and I’m really good at spending it. If I happen to end up being rich, I’m cool with that. But it’s not a personal goal of mine. If it were, I wouldn’t be changing careers…I would be working on my MBA.

3) He didn’t seem that interested in traveling. Well, he said he liked “going to Maui.” Sweetheart, that ain’t traveling. That’s a vacation. And I like vacations, but if that’s what he wants to see of the world, then there could be problems. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to visit Hawaii’s beaches. I like them too, but if he has no desire to ride a camel through the Sahara or hike through the Amazon then maybe we just aren’t meant to be.

Still, despite these concerns, I decided it was best just to go forward and see how things go.

I did hear from him later that day. He left a nice phone message about how he’d had lots of fun and text messaged later that day to see how I was doing.

The next day he texted to see how my night had gone. I wrote back that it had gone well. He responded with a, “Well I hope there were no what-happens-in-Vegas-stays-in-Vegas stories.” I didn’t respond to that because, um, even if there were, it’s not like I would tell him.

A few messages later he said the following:

1) He asked some questions about my personality. Turns out he found a description of my horoscope and was wondering how these Virgoan details played out for reals in my life.

2) He made some references to previous conversations and how those things supported what astrology said about the kind of person I am.

3) He told me he found my myspace page.

4) He asked if I’d be interested in coming back to where he lives AFTER he puts his kids to sleep, after we spent all Sunday afternoon together. That meant, we hang out for a few hours, I leave so he can do the dad thing, then I would drive all the way back to where he lives to hang out more?

I told him I couldn’t come back on Sunday evening and I didn’t respond much to anything else. I was starting to wonder about him… He wanted to hang out twice in one day? For several hours each time?? And we’d just met?? And he had found my myspace page?? That means he was searching for me. We’ve all done a little cyber stalking here and there but the rule is that you don’t TELL the other person you’ve been cyber-stalking them!

And he just kept sending me message after message. At first, it was sweet, exciting and cute. This kind of guy attention is rare! But then it became too much. He was coming across as too eager.
To make matters worse, when I didn’t respond to his text about my myspace page, he texted AGAIN a couple hours later saying “I didn’t hear back from you and when I checked my phone I saw that the memory was full. So if you responded, I may not have received it.”

I didn’t respond to that text message either. And in fact, I didn’t write him until the next day at the airport. I didn’t want to cancel our plans ‘cause I was curious about him. We’d had so much fun on Thursday night. Sure he seemed a little obsessive over the weekend, but maybe I was reading too much into everything.

So we planned to meet at a coffee shop, grab lunch and walk around some suburban OC shopping center thing. I wasn’t impressed with the place he picked for lunch. I wasn’t impressed with his conversations. All he talked about was work in fact. It was interesting to me before, but it’s like there was nothing else going on in his life.

I also discovered that he doesn’t read books. AND, he doesn’t really have friends. He used to and understandably, a father of young children who was married obviously has less time for all that. But to not really have any friends? At all?

THEN (here comes the best part) he pulled out my horoscope description. He had actually printed it out and brought it with him. I couldn’t help but give an incredulous chuckle. My thoughts were “Are you serious?” He handed me mine and while I glanced at it, he pulled his horoscope description out. He said he didn’t think it would be fair if we read mine and not his. Again, I glanced at it, chuckled a bit, handed it back, and went on eating.

That was the kicker for me. He was just too needy, too possessive, too obsessive, too EVERYTHING.
After lunch and some coffee I was tired and wanted to leave. He walked me to my car and asked about when we could get together again. I said “let’s just figure it out later.” (Read: NEVER!)

That night I got a text message from him saying how much fun he’d had and how he couldn’t wait to see me again. That night I ALSO got an email from him in myspace AND an invite to be his friend on myspace. I didn’t respond to any of it.

The next day I sent him a long email about how I thought our lifestyles were too different. I tired to focus more on that than on the fact that he’s a little CRAZY. Based on what he told me about his various ex-girlfriends, he thinks all the women he’s dated have issues. I didn’t want him to think that was the case here…if anyone had issues in this situation, it wasn’t me.

TCN Surprise: Part 2

I got the TCN Surprise.

He sent me an Outdoor Photography Magazine. It had a nice little note in it too. It was all very thoughtful. I am pleasantly surprised.

Homeboy Show Me Love Up In Da Club

Just got back from a fantabulous weekend in Vegas. We were there for BDP's 30th birthday extravaganza and we had a lots of fun. My still-hoarse voice is proof of that. We spent Friday and Saturday by the pool, baking in the too-hot desert sun and floating in the lazy river. On Friday we had wonderful food at Diego's in the MGM grand. Then we went to Taboo (also in MGM). I had never been before. It was small but nice. More importantly it was free! Some of us (like myself) could only make it out until about 2am, but others came home after 6am. On Saturday night we ate at Fix and then went to Light in Bellagio. Getting in was a challenge--we had to cut a big line, get 9 people in (including 2 boys) AND we were trying to use these complimentary passes that we were told might not work. It went really smoothly though! Everyone, including the boys, got in quickly and for free! I had lots of fun at Light even though I've been there many times. Sometimes it's nice to be in a familiar club. We shook our groove thangs until 5:30 in the morning. After 2 hours of sleep, we got up again and stumbled our way through painfully through the sunshine, to the airport, and then back to LA.

The weekend was great but it was really nice to be back. I am a fan of cooler temperatures, a smoke-free environment, healthy eating, and getting enough sleep (enough = more than two hours). I slept 11 hours on Sunday night.

Here are some of the funny things from the weekend. They might not make sense if you weren't there...

• It's like good-stuff.
• Helloooooo, Kitty!
• BD's walking the line
• 5am Group Huddles
• KA asking: "Do you think you guys can be quiet when I call my boss?" Our response was "Of course." While KA and her boss talked, JB whipped out some surprises and threw a little sticky toy person-thing on the window. As it flipped down the window, we all cracked up. And since we weren't supposed to, it made everything all the more funny.
• Dead Man's Curve: a particularly fast section of the not-so-lazy river. We all had our favorite ways to take the curve. BL liked the cannon ball. BDP liked linking arms. KA and I liked the back-against-the-wall method. Y refused to really participate (her hair would get wet) and JB almost drowned!
• 30 Year Olds are Strong!
• Palm Tree Straws and Torso Cups are fun!
• M&M World: An odd collection four stories high of M&M inspired merchandise. I'm not sure what was more strange--that there were four stories of M&M stuff or that people were actually buying these things. My favorite things were the little Star Wars M&M plastic figures. The M&M Sith Lord and M&M Darth were pretty cool! Y liked the M&M Emperor.
• So we don't have a Steve in our group? (passing back ID's after the bouncer had me collect all of them)
• Get your Damn Hands Up!
• We helped JT bring Sexy Back.

Am I forgetting anything?

The Outlook is Grim

Because we are now owned by a different company, they are switching us over to THEIR email system of choice. Which means after a six year loving relationship with Outlook, I am being forced to start using Lotus Notes. Yuck, yuck, yuck.

It is so disorienting when you have to use new tools to operate in areas that normally don't require you to think at all. I know Outlook, and the processes I normally do within it, like the back of my hand. There's nothing to think about when I want to write an email, insert a file, organize things. I don't want to stop using it!

Unfortunately, pouting doesn't work in large public companies.

Back to the Future

I was at Disneyland the other day with BDP and we REALLY wanted chocolate covered frozen bananas. It was that time of the evening when people pool in ways that make walking impossible. These people, presumably tourists, gather around main street for the firework show and around the "River of America" for Fantas-not. Factor in over-excited children and strollers and it becomes, for me at least, the unhappiest place on earth. We know about this time of night, and we were doing our best to keep our calm, collect our treats, and get out off there. But the ice cream stand on our way out, near the castle, RAN OUT of frozen bananas.

We asked the kind ice cream man where we could get them.

Overly Enthusiastic Disney "Cast Member": There's a stand in Tomorrowland that might still have some. (pointing across the throngs of people anxiously awaiting the sight of Tinkerbell flying).

ML: "We have to go all the way to the future?!?"

LOL.

That made me laugh. He liked it too.

When we got to "the future" there were no ice cream carts. They pointed us towards Fantasyland where our fantasies about eating a frozen banana did indeed come true. And lucky us, we got to then loop back through the firecracker crowd again.

TCN Surprise

TCN just emailed me asking me how to spell my last name.

I wrote back the answer and a "So...hello. How've you been?"

And then he called me. We had a nice 20 minute little chat about life. It was good and normal! Like we are friends. Which is what we are, I guess, but it was still surprising because I figured we wouldn't really keep in touch after he left.

And the reason he wanted to know my last name is because he's sending me something in the mail. Which, is also surprising.

I wonder what it is?