Unreccommended things, Part 1:
Don't go on a 12-hour car trip when just-barely recovered from food poisoning.
Ok, so now it's Monday afternoon, and I'm pretty much back to normal, although I'm still going easy with the food. J, his parents, and I traveled all day Saturday, and I'd spent most of the wee hours of Saturday praying to whatever deity or demon is in charge of Bootage: please help me, I don't want to ruin Joe and Elaine's upholstery.
In the end it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. I just slept. And slept. And sat up and pretended I wasn't some drugged Mexican slave they'd picked up along the way when we crossed borders (we cut through Canada).
Then I ate a Skittle and slept some more.
So, we got to Buffalo on Saturday evening, me and Jeremy drove to Ithaca on Sunday afternoon, and I'll be getting home tomorrow night. Can't wait to see the family. I stayed with Jeremy over winter break, so I haven't seen folks since Thanksgiving. And with mom being sick and stuff, I've been going nucking futs. I'll have 5 days of seeing everyone, and then back to school. A lot of traveling, yes, but worth it.
All right, let's see. Time to start reviewing last week.
The Partay:
The party that J's family threw was wicked crazy cool. And fancy. Met lots of cousins and second cousins and great aunts. If given a quiz I could probably match about 3/4 of the names with the faces.
I hope I don't have to prove that by taking a quiz. :)
Food was tasty, it was a brunchy thing at this really cool Art Deco-ey hotel.
And, we got lots of cool loot. Only problem is, me and J, being the not-all-that-into-stuff kind of people that we are, are going to have to back to Target and get some more stuff for the registry, at the rate things are flying off the shelves.
Poor us, right? Yeesh. Give me 10 years I'll be BEGGING folks to buy me a new rice steamer.
Onto:
What the hell did I do last week?
Oy. Kept myself busy. Me and J went rock climbing with my friend Land and his generic, can't-remember-what-they-call-themselves woman Jenny. This was indoor rock climbing, like on American Gladiators. We even learned how to use the harnesses and stuff. I liked falling. Even if I wasn't strapped in and was just bouldering--that's when you don't climb high enough to break your head open, so you don't need to strap yourself into the harnesses. Me and J did all right, even though we hadn't done it before. But Land is friggin' Spiderman, although I didn't feel too bad about it because he goes to that place all the time, he and Jenny have their own special fancy shoes and all that jazz. Part of one of the walls involved an angle like you'd be at if you were climbing around on the ceiling, and it's kind of neat to watch someone go "zip, zip, zip". I tried it and fell and laughed.
Jeremy didn't think that falling was so funny. But he did awesome too.
Besides that we didn't do too much exciting stuff. Just walked around and looked in the little shops, ate food, and I got better about not accidentally kicking him in the night. No really, I often wake up in the middle of pushing him with my feet. So either, I didn't push him, or it doesn't wake me up any more. I hope it's the former. All right, more updates sometime this week or next week, if any fun stuff happens. Or else I'll be bored again. J doesn't get back from class for another 2 hours, I'll have to find something to do with myself until then.
Well, okay, I've been really bad about this, this week. You would be too if your honey was here. And next week I'll be home, I'm not so positive that the computer will be fast enough for me to put a lot of updates up. I'll give you a very extensive update on April 1st, tell you all about both showers, rock climbing, the trip back to NY with J and his family, the trip home, dress shopping, and anything else that has happened or will happen. Until then, things will be pretty spotty.
At least I've given you some warning. :)
I've been having armpit trouble for the last few weeks.
I know you REALLY want to know that. It's just, I think it's that the air is so cold and dry here, and... they're CHAPPED. My ARMPITS are CHAPPED. I didn't realize this was possible. But there they are. That is how strange the climate is here, apparently. It chaps armpits. I worry that Jeremy, as pale and flaky-skinned as he is to begin with, will just disintegrate into a heap of skin and disappear into the snow with the first stiff winter wind if he's here next year.
Well me and J got the nicest present from Jamie today, she got us some little dishtowel and potholder things, and some dish soap. Cute. A nice reward for almost kicking her in the head a couple of times in the kickboxing class today--it's more like tae bo, all non-contact, so almost kicking her in the head was a bad thing.
And for those of you who also worry, mama had her last surgery thing yesterday, we all hope (knocking on head). And I talked to her this morning, and she was feeling pretty good.
Shh! Don't tell her yet, but I sent her some flowers, now that she's well enough to enjoy them.
Also, I think I've decided that I like what I've done with the website, as far as the way it looks. Added a few more details, which involved playing with Photoshop this evening. But I like playing with Photoshop, it's fun to do wierd things to picutres.
I did something today that I never thought I'd do.
I bought..... a Cheese Hat.
The horrors!
So, Jeremy's sister Erin has some friend from back home that wanted a cheese hat. I can't imagine why. But she's only going to be in Milwaukee for a day or two before flying back to school, and they ARE easy to find around here but you have to know where to look first, so she asked me if I could pick one up, and she'd pay me back.
Not technically a big deal, if it weren't for the fact that I needed to look a young woman in the face and say "I would like you give you many dollars in exchange for a hat made of yellow foam rubber cheese." It was a feeling I can only compare with the feeling of getting birth control from their local drug store. Um...other people. Other people that I've never met.
Besides that, ran a bunch of other errands, things I need to get done by this weekend. I want to do as little work as possible while Jeremy's here next week, but at the same time, have plenty of work to take on the 14 hour car trip with him and the family. That basically means two problem sets and some reading that can only be done in the library with reserve books.
Hmm....
Take the Affliction Test Today!
Kind of funny I guess.
Well today was bee-yoo-ti-full! It was my full-of-classes day, but one of my profs was really nice and decided to let us out into the world a half hour early. So I walked home the long way, took a deep breath....
and sneezed.
There's some kind of Angry Midwestern Spore of Death that has my number. I was having this problem until the first frost last semester. Never really had allergies before either, except for the pineapple. I guess I'm a natural New Englander, or something.
Since I'm re-learning a lot of HTML that I learned 4 years ago (it's nice to know that schoolwork isn't the only thing I forgot from freshman year), the site might look kind of... strange every once in awhile. I only know a little code, no java or crazy stuff. And I have zero eye for design, as most of my male friends (*CoughgaygaygayCough*) are willing to attest to. I'm playing with colors and things. If you see a design that looks really great, or if it's hard to read, which I'm honestly more worried about than it looking professional, let me know.
Until then I'm having fun playing with the colors. The code for putting color on the screen involves this system of numbers: and, it's the only time outside of a physics class where I've had to use hexadecimal. There is a practical use for it, chemist friends!
Sleepy right now, and mixed-up, because my mom's butche--I mean, doctors, have to go fix ANOTHER one of their damn mistakes. Bastards.
On the other hand, Jeremy got his acceptance letter for the MSW (master's in social work) program here, which is wonderful.
Before I found any of this out, I did my Aqua-Aerobics with J-Ro today, after a few weeks of not being able to go. Usually Mondays I'm doing homework with Claire until lateish and don't get a chance to join up, even though I always mean to.
I also bought a little outfit for myself for the showerish party thing happening this weekend. For those of you that don't know, a big chunk of J's family (particularly on his mom's side) live in and around Milwaukee. So this weekend Jeremy, his sister and parents, all sorts of relatives and I are converging on Milwaukee this weekend. I want to make a good first impression and look like a good wife-to-be--if only they knew. ;) So I went to the Land's End Reject Store (which actually has very nice, very inexpensive clothes) nearby and finished off the last of my gift certificate on a dark calf-length skirt and a dark purply blue sleeveless sweater, and a nice longsleeved zippered sweater, if the restaurant is cold. The overall effect says Young! Nice! Can Dress Self! Although, looking at myself under the clear store lighting in front of a big ol' mirror, I realized--it's been so cold, and I don't have a full length mirror, so I haven't really looked at or noticed my body in a while. I was standing there with my arms hanging out and DANG am I buff! All this tae-bo and aqua aerobics and occasional pushups is really doing some good! I'm almost back to my sophmore year of high school level of buff, and then I was throwing discuses (disci?) around.
Also, something about me wearing a dark skirt and shirt together, it always makes me look so... Italian. I mean, I *am* Italian so it's not too big a deal. But I look like I should be spouting Italian stereotypes... "Annnntonyyy!"
Oh well, I guess they may as well know right off the bat that I'm not a Nice Jewish Girl.
What else? Oh, dad's Vegetable Surprize (see yesterday) came out pretty good. Only thing was, I ended up with a lot of it, and ate it all in the last 24 hours... a little too much of a cheesy tasty thing... time to eat some crackers for the next few days.
I was reading a book in the library for this class, and the guy is using abbreviations left and right. And I only know what half of them mean, because he seems to just like using them for no real reason. So he starts talking about the BFD, and I think, *exactly*.
Ahh... it's nice to have a few days that aren't to stressful. I did some homework, sure, but I also started reading "An Anthropologist on Mars" by Oliver Sacks, the guy that wrote the book "Awakenings", which became a movie with Robin Williams being a serious doctor (aka not Patch Adams). It's a pretty good read, 5 or 10 case studies, and the overall theme seems to be "brains are wierd". Of course, Jeremy, having taken all those classes in Neuropsycholomumbojumbo, or whatever it was called, knows a lot more about that stuff than I do. I suspect I get the same look in my eyes when he talks about the visual cortex as he gets when I start talking about the Joy of Polymers.
Folks in the physical sciences tend to look at biological and medicinal sciences as being kind of messy, compared to their "purer" work where they don't have to worry about some rat or human pooping on your shoes, and to a certain extent, I do too. But I find that kind of messy compelling enough to read about other people's experiences with it.
I just don't want to get pooped on.
Another mild piece of news--if you go into Yahoo and type in Tchemgrrl, you'll get this site! I only got that set up with Yahoo a day or so ago, and I already suspect that some people have actually come in that way, considering it looks like 10-20 people visited yesterday. That would mean that either every single person I've told about this so far looked at it twice, or else a few people thought I sounded interesting.
Just something I get a little kick out of.
Went grocery shopping yesterday and I got all the ingredients for my dad's Tasty Casserole Surprize. Surprize! If you cover unloved vegetables with cheese, cream of mushroom soup, and breadcrumbs, they suddenly become edible! Of course, it's even better when it's something that you LIKE to eat. I'm going to get a little wild--I got mushrooms AND asparagus for it.
There's another new thing on that menu to your left--a Wedding Information Page. The information on it right now gives you plenty to think about for the next 2 1/2 months, but as we get closer to the day, more details will show up, I'm sure. For one, I'm going to put some maps up. But give me a break for now please! I'm trying not to spend more than 2 hours a day on this thing--I AM supposed to be a grad student that never gets any sleep from working so hard.
Whoohoo! Done with the crazy week. The exam today could have been much, much worse. I came out of it feeling an 85. And a girl I know that got an 87 on the first exam in this class last year and got an A+ with the curve, so I feel pretty good.
I'm also narrowing down my ideas for what I'm going to do for the next couple of years. I talked to my advisor this afternoon, which eliminated a couple of things and added on another. Here's what I've got right now :
1)Just keep doing exactly what I'm doing for the next 4 or 5 years, get Ph.D, get science-related job.
2)Just keep doing exactly what I'm doing for the next 1 1/2 years, get M.S., get science-related job.
3)Get M.S. in another year and a half, but do a more education-focused science program. Get secondary school teaching job.
4)Get M.S. the way I am now, but switch programs after that and get my Ph.D. in something else (Chemistry). Get science OR undergraduate professor job.
This is better than I was doing a couple of weeks ago, when "Running away with gypsies" and "Become latest pop music sensation" were still viable options. Number 4 would be the most complicated but could give me the most options. Number one would be the laziest, and not necessarily un-fun, but I'm not sure I want to do that, either. Gimme another week or two. I swear I'll have this all sorted out by the end of the semester. I can always change my mind and do something else after that, but right now is the point at which I can still change things without having to start from the beginning.
Ok, if you read that, you deserve a more entertaining gift. My little sisters always email me funny things. Yesterday I got this from K. Hope you have Flash and can hear sound!
Going to make this a short one, since today wasn't earth shattering. My lab quiz went pretty well. I only made one mistake, which wasn't even really a mistake, but was just not remembering a shortcut on something. However, they time you on the instrument--you're supposed to have everything set up and sent to the other computers in 10 minutes or less. I wasn't *too* slow, but I think I ran around 10 1/2. So that was another point or two off.
I might have gotten it done in time if the TA hadn't scared me. I started to adjust the settings on the instrument the long way, like I said, and the TA who was watching me said "Wait, what are you doing?" That got me flustered--I thought I was accidentally setting the machine to "explode" or "eat the people". But I still did the thing right, just more slowly.
Tonight and tomorrow: Studystudystudy. Friday: Pray, take test, pray some more. Wish me luck!
Today: a lesson in local culture. And a new pretty picture up above!
I've been writing after midnight the past few nights, so *technically* it's been the day that I said it was, but really, I was writing about the day before. Now it's 9:30, so I'll just write more about today. Been keeping up with the site pretty well anyhow. The first silly picture I did on Photoshop last night is up top, and there's a picture of the girls in the Family part of the Picture area.
I forgot to mention last night that I ate a bratwurst for the first time. Bratwurst (Brats for short, which, by the way, rhymes with "pots", not "cats") are one of those local things, like cheese curds and terrible mass produced bagels. All these things are new to me, although Jeremy claims that one of the dining hall specials was cheese curds one day.
Here's some more about cheese curds, because I've learned more about them than bratwurst. I know the cheese curds at the dining hall weren't the real kind, because I'll betcha they weren't squeeky. According to J-Ro, who is my Source for All Local Things, cheese curds are only squeeky for a day or two after they're made. I brought some with me to Ithaca the last time I went to visit, and chased Jeremy around holding a small cheesy nugget in my hand.
Jeremy doesn't like the idea of food that talks to you while you eat it.
I think they're tasty.
So does dad and the girls--I brought some home over Thanksgiving.
J-Ro also tells me that the grocery store near her house always has fresh cheese curds sitting next to the front counter. It's strange to think : just being in another part of the United States, people give dairy products the same status that us Northeasterners give candy bars. Do mothers ever tell their whining four year olds "No cheese curds! You'll ruin your dinner!"
One last piece of information, and that'll use up all my knowledge of cheese curds.
If you want to blend in with the locals here, don't just call them "curds".
People will laugh at you.
They're "Cheese curds". Cheese Curds.
Well I've already talked a lot but maybe you thought that was all amusing. Other stuff today: well I had kind of a rough, low energy day. Was up late last night doing silly things with the pictures, and Tuesdays are always long, have more classes than any other day, and I usually have homework due. I have a homework set to finish and a lab quiz tomorrow. The lab quiz is the TA saying "Here's the machine you have to play with, now make it do such-and-such." I don't think it'll be too bad, but I still have to write everything out (it's open book and timed, so I gotta get organized).
I apologize in advance if something on the website looks funny, the server's being grumpy is only showing me a green background right now. I usually check before I put stuff up, and things are all lopsided or something.
sleepy. Bed.
Well I'm all signed up for my apartment now. Gave them a big wad of money.
Here is a rough sketch I drew of the floor plan. Unfortunately, this is as far as my technical skills go, or else I'd draw you a picture of the acutal FRONT of the place. Suffice it to say, it's really nice. And right across the street from the lake (although you can't actually see the lake from the place). It has radiators, and is big but cozy at the same time. I can't wait to move in! Still not until the end of the summer, though.
Oh, and I scanned in some more pictures--but these are pictures that will eventually grace the front page (where the clock tower is now), and I was able to learn a little bit of Photoshop, so the words really DO blend into the picture, unlike the really cheesy effect above that took me like an hour (when these on photoshop are even cooler, and only took 15 minutes). Guess you'll have to wait and see. Heehee. They're mostly pictures J has sent me when he was in New York City for the semester, just because those were the only good scenery pictures I had. But that should be about it as far as major updates to the site go for at least the next week--except for this part, which will get updated as fun, exciting, and silly things happen.
Happy birthday mama!
I just put a buttload of pictures into the picture area. Spans all through college. Things from more recently will come up as soon as I actually get the roll in my camera finished up and developed.
And, why yes, I DID just say the word "buttload". I like it. And to answer the question that Dan always asks, no, I can't describe the exact volume that a "buttload" of something takes up. The number of new pictures that are up constitute, I believe, a 'buttload'.
Y'see, this is what happens when I'm overtired. I start getting philosophical
Had a fun day today. Didn't get any homework done. Whoops. But went sledding in the wicked blowing snow, and had a tasty dinner, saw Hedwig and the Angry Inch, all with Claire (the other female with undergrad science liberal art school background in my major) and/or Ari (her guy). Cold, warm, and entertaining, respectively. After watching the movie, I came down to the computer lab to write this, and to play the word game online that I play... and what was the first word clue I got? "inch"!
So I've had the main tune stuck in my head since.
Feeling better about my stay at this crazy school. Went to the group meeting for my major advisor, and everyone was cool. Was feeling kind of distant from that part of my academic life so far, but I got put on the group emailing list, and got introduced to more people working for my advisor--I think there's 10 or 12 folks, all put together. And I'm going to be doing some Grad Student Bartering System work for a postdoc in the group: I'll be doing that chemistry voodoo I do do so well, in the form of synthesizing some stuff she needs. In exchange, she's going to show me what they do with this junk I'm making. And we're splitting whatever I do synthesize.
I'd hit a real rough patch with this whole school thing the past couple of weeks, but a few things combined to make me feel a little better about it all though. This thing with my advisor and feeling like I'm actually doing something useful, getting my digs for next year sorted out, mama finally being home and having the cat to make her feel better. J-Ro, my friend down the hallway, liked the slice of quiche I gave her so much that she's making it for her sister for some "fancy dinner" the two of them are making this weekend.
Everyone loves me, I guess.
Now if only I had a Boy to snuggle with...
All right, so now I've been playing with this for almost a month. It's coming along pretty well--colors not too offensive (I like to call it a light puke), and I even have a pretty thing on top that took me half an hour playing with Paintbrush!
So, I've decided it's time to actually show it to people, instead of just talking to myself all the time. Will get a few new pictures into the photo gallery first, so people aren't just looking at things they looked at in other places.
Boy, do I love my family or what?