Holiday Traditions

Merry Christmas!

(Almost) Every year our friends from Chicago come back and spend Xmas with us. They used to live around here and moved away when I was about 5. I'm really surprised we've stayed in touch for so long but I'm really glad we have.

For breakfast we make pancakes, and then we'll get our family and their family and another one together and all head out for dim sum. If we have time and there's enough snow we'll go sledding. I like it because we're able to pick up where we left off and it doesn't feel awkward even though we only see each other once a year.

What do you guys do?

Alright, I would easily marry Aladdin. A close second is Link from Zelda, but he is a video game character so I am not sure he counts. Anyway, Aladdin is hot and also nice and has useful friends (you know, Genie and Magic Carpet, etc). The downside is that I like Princess Jasmine, so I would feel bad taking her man away...or trying to anyway. :)

Three of my good friends now live with their boyfriends. Since I don't really have a ton of friends, this seems like a lot of people! I think this is weird, not entirely unexpected, just weird. Growing up is weird. I still feel like I'm really young, but people my age are acting older and older. The people my age at work are buying houses and either married or engaged. And people do not like drinking for fun. I just thought there would be more medium ground between college and being a full-on grown up.

Also, some medical news: this might be shocking to you guys, but I was recently diagnosed with having an overactive bladder! The doctor laughed when I told her how often I go to the bathroom in a day (pretty much atleast once an hour while I am awake...in case you were curious). She put me on medicine, but it didn't do anything besides make my eyes really dry. So basically nothing changed, except that now I have something to come back with when people make fun of me.

Last news...the decade is changing!! I didn't even realize until I got the new People magazine (Best of 2009 & the Decade). I have just been thinking back about how much I have changed in the past ten years and laughing. The sad part is that my thing back in middle school was sweater vests and glasses and I am pretty much back to wearing that again. Maybe I haven't changed that much. Hopefully I figured out how to make it actually look good this time around!

K, peace out ya'll! If you want something to responsd to, I would love to hear about you guys ten years ago. :)

First real snowfall in Cincinnati. There's like, probably not even an inch, but it's enough to make me too lazy to walk to the gym.

I had a dinner party Thursday night. It was really fun. I know good people. This is what I made:

Baked brie with brown sugar in puff pastry
butternut squash sage lasagna
caesar salad
patatas bravas (fried potato wedges with garlic mayo and spicy tomato sauce)
chocolate cream pie
sour cream apple pie with streusel topping

I went to see Trans Siberian Orchestra last night. It was okay, some parts were really cool, and I enjoyed the music, but it was a bit too long (2.5 hours with no intermission) for my liking.

HummusBoyfriend is here. I think today we will eat carrot soup, crusty bread dipped in the leftover spicy tomato sauce, and salad and pie, and hide from the cold.

We went to a bar last night with a $3 pomegranate martini (as the normal price). I was feeling kind of sick so I didn't try it, but am I the only one who is skeptical? $3?

If I had to marry a cartoon character, I would marry Lucifer from Howl's Moving Castle.

update on the radish situation

I ended up making a version of this: http://giniann.wordpress.com/2006/12/23/radish-curry-saute-with-onions-garlic-and-chili/

Still have 4 jalapenos to go.

Mawwiage.

Mawwiage is what bwings us, togedder, today.

If I were to marry a cartoon character...
My first instinct was to say Terry from Batman Beyond. He.was.so.cute.
Of course, after thinking about Terry my thoughts immediately went to Tuxedo Mask from Sailor Moon (don't ask me why, I have no idea), but he's kind of a pansy.

Seriously, Batmobile vs. throwing roses at people? I think we know who wins that battle.

But ultimately, I must go with Yuki from Cardcaptor Sakura. He ate all the time and was ultra skinny. We would have beautiful babies that would never get chubby and would eat everything and it would be awesome. Besides that, turns out he had magical powers too and was awesome with a sword.



SO the grocery store down the street is tiny, so they tend to prepackage produce and make you buy it in those packages. Not for veggies like tomatos, cucumbers, or peppers. But I had to buy a whole package of jalapenos at once, and today we got a whole ton of radishes at once.

I almost never cook with either, so what should I do with them?? Mix them together into jalapeno radishy goodness? I am a bit skeptical at the thought.

What would you do with them??

Thanks hummus

Your question made me really want to post this. I would absolutely marry Johny Bravo. But I think he needs to work on his lower body too.

If I marry him I wouldn't have to walk anywhere at all because he can just carry me around. He's soooo biggggg and strongggg and bigggggggg.

I Am Forcing You All To Blog

Post your answer the next time you blog. You can just attach it to the end of your entry if you want.

If you had to marry a cartoon character, who would it be? Why?

OLD!

My study buddy is 20.

He can't even drink legally.

Are we old???

Yesterday I saw Precious. It was miserable. Sooooo sad. And not heartwarming sad, like, WTF sad. After that, Matt and I were so depressed we decided to watch something else so we rented Up. I know I've seen it before, but I guess I forgot how sad the first ten minutes are. I was bawling. I have only cried once during a movie in my entire life. That was when I saw Mousehunt in middle school. I think I was having a bad day (it WAS middle school). Anyway, so I have now cried twice during a movie. Yesterday was a roller coaster. I would recommend skipping Precious.

If we are talking about things we are thankful for, I am thankful that I am not the girl in that movie. And I am thankful for Matt, because he didn't hate me for taking him to see Precious. And he took care of me when I was crying. And he doesn't mind if I fart around him. That's nice :) I am also thankful for my friends who are still my friends even though we can't hang out all the time like before. And I am slowly making friends in East Lansing too, so I am glad for that. Also my parents cause they're awesome and my job because its surprisingly fun. I am presenting a big project tomorrow morning and I am kind of excited about it.

Today is the first day in a long time that I haven't had to work and and I don't have any plans...not sure what to do with this! Maybe I will go Christmas shopping!

December thoughts

It's been raining. Since I left work. 7 hours ago.

Mich. is entering the cold, gray, no pretty snow phase of winter. You know what Michigan? I will rise above your dreariness! I will be cheerful in the face of no sun for the next 6 months!!

Hmm. That does sound depressing.

Anyway, in regards to H's last question...
I am thankful for:
-My friends. Both old and new, I'm happy to know you and I'm glad we still keep in touch. I'm also glad that you understand my frustration when my seedless cutie has seeds in it, and laugh with me.
-My parents and bro. The former for letting me make my own decisions, and the latter for taking me in this year.
-Sir Tubbington. For handling my crazy and calling me a fatty in a failed attempt to motivate me to exercise.
-Having a job and going to school. Because even if it's not quite where I want to be, at least I'm not a bum.

I'd add in being healthy, except I seem to have caught some sort of disease. Probably just a cold, but it sounds so much more dramatic when it's a "disease".

Oh yes! Most importantly, I'm thankful the end of the semester is near, because I am really, REALLY tired.

Belated and corny, but...

I am thankful...
(1) to have a job.
(2) to have avoided swine flu thus far, AND to have gotten the h1n1 vaccine.
(3) to have awesome friends. :)
(4) to be warm and have food in my belly. It's 60 degrees in Cincinnati. Yeah!!!
(5) to have successfully completed four drives to and from Michigan without running into a wall/car/tree/cow/etc.

What are you thankful for?

Customer Feedback/ Suggestions

As my friend was busy getting money out of the ATM at the mall, I read the customer suggestions and feedback that were posted on a notice board nearby. One post made me laugh pretty hard.

"Customer service is bad. Your employees have really bad habitat."

LOL.

It's a little late but..

Here's a picture I stole from someone's facebook. I think it's a really good costume. I don't mean to scare anyone. I just think it's worth sharing.

Frozen paneer tikka masala from Trader Joe's is basically perfect. Hurray for finding a $3+ Indian food fix!

I am content.

Mr Jamaine was in Malaysia

The first picture was at the museum of traditional Malay houses and the second picture was taken at the Petronas Twin Towers. It was a lot of fun and Jamaine really loved durian. And now I have a cold and Jamaine got the shits.

I am going out to dinner and a comedy club with a group of people tonight. Eh? Do I have friends?

If you would like to receive a (shiny) holiday card from me, email me your address.

Thanksgiving is fast approaching

EDIT: They called us today and invited us to their house instead. I still need ideas for an appetizer, a main dish, and a dessert please!!

HEEEEELLLLPPP!!

My momma wants to host Thanksgiving this year. We eat with the same family every year and this year it's our turn to host. Usually my momma is fine with making lots of Chinese food, but this year she asked me to come up with some non-Chinese food to also serve at Thanksgiving.

What should I make??

They usually bring bread and a pie and we cover the rest. (Likewise when we head over there we bring an appetizer and a dessert and they handle the rest)

It doesn't have to be traditional Thanksgiving food. In fact the other family thinks normal Thanksgiving food gets boring year after year.

So...good food ideas????

Today at the gym there were a bunch of booths giving out free food. It was awesome. And also canceled out my work out. But mm, delicious.

It made my day a little better, because I just found out Kristin Chenoweth isn't performing in Cincinnati this weekend due to illness, which I've been looking forward to ever since I moved here. Booooo.

I just made my first red velvet cake for a co-worker. Halfway through making the cake, I realized that one bottle of red food coloring wasn't enough, and had to run out for another bottle. The cake is very red.

November things

Well, October didn't quite work out like I planned. I didn't apple pick or pumpkin carve. I did have cider and buy a pumpkin though. I also found out there's a local brewery that makes really good spiced pumpkin ale.

Things I'm looking forward to in November:
-Thanksgiving. Sir T wants to do dinner with his friends. Which is going to add up to about 13 boys. And me. And I'm an eater. The sheer amount of food we're going to need boggles my mind. I love Thanksgiving food though so I'm mostly excited about the cooking and eating process. Even if it will take forever.

-Is that it?? That's sad. Oh well, turkey and pumpkin pie will just have to be exciting enough I suppose.

Greetings from NOT California!

Hullo! Sorry I've been M.I.A. Grad school is surprisingly difficult considering I've taken the class before. Of course, the last time I took biochem it was at 9 AM and I slept through it half the time. This year it's at 1 PM and I'm seeing a definite improvement in wakefulness during class time.

In case your were more curious about what I've been doing, I've been staring at this poster for the past week:

Anyway, here is a photo of our little house:

(We're waving hi!!)

That is our living room. We are kind of messy.

I will try to take more pics soon :)

Food

So you guys love food and I thought I would write about it. I wish I had some right now. Why does food go bad?? I have nothing except condiments and milk in my fridge.

Also its so dark out. I keep thinking its too late to go shopping/eat and I should just go to bed. But its only six. So I guess I will go buy food.

Okay, I know I am sooo interesting and everything. I have one more thing to say. The other day I went to Buffalo Wild Wings (with a new friend!!) and this guy had his coat on the chair next to mine. He picked it up and said "Oh, watch out. I have ten thousand dollars in my pocket." And then he set down the coat exactly where it was before. The rest of the conversation went:
Me: "OMG YOU NEED TO INVEST THAT FOR YOUR RETIREMENT!!"
Him: "Baby, I am retired. How old are you?"
Me: "22."
Him: "I'm 18. Just kidding. I'm 27. Born in 1982. Do I look 18?"
Me: "No."
Him: "Do you have a boyfriend?"
Me: "Yes."
Him: "That is too bad. You look like a down to earth girl. I need to find me a down to earth girl. I would have called you if you didn't have a boyfriend."

Anyways. How do you expect to find a down to earth girl with pick up lines about how you have ten thousand dollars in your pocket??? Also, my new friend doesn't like gay people and went on a rant about how they shouldn't be allowed in churchs. This is my new life.

vacation

I went to Cincinnati to see Hummus. It was a fun, exciting, thrilling, adventurous, insightful, delightful trip. Too early to think of more words...

Mah New Home

So I think we should start doing occasional themed photo posts. You can write about the picture if you want, or not. I'll start with a photo I like about where I live now. Feel free to post your own photos, of any (random) thing you like about the place you live!


This is HummusBoyfriend deep in thought on Mt. Adams. Cincinnati is pretty.

3 things funny about Cincinnati:

(1) Instead of saying, "I beg your pardon?" when someone doesn't hear you, they all say "Please?". Apparently it stems from what people would say in German, since Cincinnati used to have a huge German population.
(2) They have a holiday that they've dubbed "Sweetest Day", which is basically Valentine's Day in October. When we started hearing all the commercials, Friend1 and I were very confused.
(3) Everyone whips out their winter coats when its 60 degrees out. I am an upstate New York snob, I know. I have been frozen and unfrozen so many times that I am invincible now.

But I like it, because:
(1) Graeter's Ice Cream, which Oprah has declared to be the best ice cream in the country, is a 5 minute walk from my apartment. I have definitely eaten ice cream for dinner on more than one occasion. I should be more ashamed of this, instead of announcing it to the world.
(2) It's pretty. I like being close to a big river, and everything here is very lush and green.
(3) It's big(ger than Ann Arbor), so there is a pretty long list of things to do/places to explore/restaurants to try.

But a few downers...
(1) There aren't very many Asians (which is fine) and as a result, not very much Asian food.
(2) It's almost TOO big (ha ha, now you know I can never be a big city girl)...I hate driving for thirty minutes and still being in the Greater Cincinnati area. Especially when I'm driving to Michigan. It's depressing to realize that after half an hour you're still only by Jungle Jims.
(3) And, related to both points above, I have to drive 20 minutes to go to the nearest and basically only Asian grocery store in the area. Which means I never stock up on Asian food except when I happen to be in Ann Arbor by north campus.

Okay, your turn!

Should Be Studying

It takes me so long to get into a good studying groove that I'm either tired or hungry once I get there.

Anyway, I made a new friend. His name is Ankur. And he is a genius. Or so it seems. In any case, he outscored me on the exam I crammed a week for and he only had a day and a half to study.

But here's the funny story. For some reason, after I met him I was convinced his name was Darshun. I don't even know if that's an actual name. I knew the "a" and "r" existed in his name, but I couldn't remember in what order.

So I've made a decision. Ankur is my friend. Darshun is his evil super genius alter ego that I can curse to eternity for being smarter than I am.

We have an exam on Friday. If he outscores me again...well, it's a pattern. I'll accept it.

Stupid Darshun.

Fun Cake/ Roll

My friend brought me this from the Borneo Island. It's really fun looking. Can someone tell me how I can put pictures below the things I write instead of it being at the top all the time?

Singapore!

I went to Singapore last week, and no Singapore is not part of Malaysia. It used to be back in 1957 up to 1963 but not anymore.

I was there for 2 days and I went with my mom. We took the night train that had beds so that was nice. I feel like I should talk about the food there so here goes.

I had some yummy Unagi Don there at the Food Court in Sentosa Island. I also had some good ramen that was Tom Yum Flavor. Tom Yum is the hot and sour soup you can get from Thai restaurants. I saw a musical that they did on the beach. The waterworks and fireworks were pretty good but I think Singapore was just as corny as Malaysia since they keep talking about how they live in a harmonious multicultural country. This is not always true. There's a lot of racism there as it is here. Look on my facebook for more pictures.

Why, Purple Potato, how did you get there?

This picture symbolizes the lack of Asian people in Cincinnati. I am the purple potato.

(uh, for those of you who are unfamiliar with purple potatoes, they are an actual kind of potato, and not a random mutant spoiled potato among normal potatoes...this is not symbolism about me being a mutant person, though I suppose we could go that route...)

I got a bunch of baby potatoes for free from the place where we had our (12 hour) choir retreat yesterday, which was in the boonies somewhere outside of Cincinnati. I roasted these potatoes with a rosemary garlic mustard dressing, and now they are going in my tummy.

New Nail Polish

Brand: Essie
Color: One of a Kind

You like??!?!?!

Dinner

I served up a dinner on time!! I'm usually 10-30 minutes late, so this is quite the accomplishment for me being half an hour early for once!

Except that when I said "6:30-7," Sir Tubbington (boyfriend) apparently only heard "7." SO I'm more like an hour early :( I hope everything still tastes okay.

I had a funny old balding man help me pick out a wine for tonight. I'm not sure if he actually knows anything about wine or is just really quick at reading labels. He was nice though, and the one I got doesn't seem so bad.

In case your wondering, I made Chicken Scallopine. Got the recipe here (Thanks H for introducing me to the blog!).

Maybe I'll take some pics once the food gets out on plates.

Anyway, Sir Tubbington and mom should be here within 45 min. What's that you say? Sir Tubbington AND his mom? Yup, they're coming over for dinner. Am I crazy? I hope dinner doesn't suck. And that everybody likes parsley. I mean is it weird to have them over for dinner?

Well, Halloween is fast approaching so look forward to some pics of my beautiful carved pumpkin and the Halloween house in my neighborhood.

Uht oh....

Well... if I wasn't scared enough as it was, that last post managed to freak me out so much that I cannot put this off any longer. I've been working for almost half a year now which sounds ridiculous now that I say it.

On that note, Fall has been by far the busiest I've been since I graduated. Early September I had this wild dinner party with a bunch of really cool people most of whom I never get to see or hang out with, but it was fun.

Later in September "Phantom of the Opera" came to the Detroit Opera House. I think I had already seen it twice now, but both times I was relatively young so I ended up going again with the family. It was a really good time, we ate at this restaurant called Pegasus and I had the best Hummus (no reference intended) I've ever had.

So more recently, as in 2 days ago, I got back from a vacation in Boston. The main point of the trip was to spend time with some good friends who I miss a lot, but we ended up eating tons of food and having some pretty good adventures. Since I know how much the majority of you reading this love food I'll elaborate on this a little. Basically each day sort of fell into a category. Day 1 we went to Chinatown where we basically just ordered a bunch of food for the table... dumplings, seafood and tofu hot pot... yada yada. Pretty delicious. A couple other highlights were North Boston, which had excellent Italian food, but even better pastries. We stopped at this shop known for their Cannoli. It was really cheap and really delicious and I probably could've gone there everyday if I had the opportunity and wasn't worried about exploding.
One interesting restaurant was this place called Parish Cafe. The whole premise behind the place is that their entire menu features specialties off of other menus from around Boston. Seems kind of like cheating, but the place was always packed and it definitely promoted dining all around the area. The final place I'm going to include because I know it'll make certain people jealous is this Indian restaurant we went to called Tantric. The food had tons of taste to it and they didn't hold back on the spice, always a good thing. They had really good Naan too.

As far as activities went... there was a lot of talking, a decent amount of drinking, some other stuff... One highlight was definitely kayaking between Boston and Cambridge. Maneuvering through sailboats wasn't recommended, but it was something we couldn't resist. Near the end it got really windy and the waves started picking up, so I ended getting pretty soaked which... kinda sucked but whatever. Got us thinking of a great idea though. Open this kayak place where they give you a boat, a map, and a bottle of rum, and somewhere out in the middle of somewhere we have this booey with a bunch of coins attached, and if you bring one back, the rum is free. Perfect idea yes?

Enjoy your reading for the day.

PS There's no way I'm grammar checking that.

Attention Please

JOLLY GREEN GIANT,

HURRY UP AND WRITE YOUR POST OR I AM GOING TO STEAL YOUR FIRSTBORN CHILD, WHICH MAY NOT SEEM LIKE A BIG DEAL NOW BUT YOU WILL BE SAD WHEN THAT DAY COMES.

SINCERELY,

HUMMUS

One Mushroom...

...to rule them all and in the darkness bind them. (bahahha lotr)

I want soup, it is definitely soup weather.

I have decided this is soup week

Today:

I made a Greek-style lemon soup with chickpeas and rice. I sauteed onions in olive oil, added broth, fresh lemon juice, chickpeas, and rice, and brought it all to a boil. I ate it with a pretzel baugette. Post-gym discovery today: Whole Foods truffles are delicious. Good thing they are $6 a box and I am too cheap to buy it.

Tomorrow:

Tomato soup from scratch. I'll probably sautee onions and celery in some butter, add canned tomatoes and broth, boil and puree, then mix in some whole milk. We'll see how that works out.

Thursday: Cauliflower soup, which may be the most delicious stuff ever. Lots of whole milk (though the original recipe calls for heavy cream, I think whole milk works just fine), butter, bits of celery and carrots and cauliflower, some sour cream mixed in right before serving.

It's supposed to rain for the rest of the week.

Pumpkin Spice Latte

I love fall because of all the good fall stuff like football and sweaters, but mostly I just like that Starbucks has the Pumpkin Spice Latte again. I missed it :) So I drank too much and now I am up late (10:30...isn't that sad?). I am watching a show about the new hominoid Ardipithicus. I miss college.

I got invited to a party last night at my co-workers house. I want more friends so I went. It sucked. No one was friendly and my co-worker was mean to Matt. Making friends is hard! :(


K, I suck at blogging. Hope all is well with everyone!! Also, are people going to the Purdue game?? Should I look for a ticket?

Bye!

Fall and Not Back At School

Things I'm Loving:
My haircut.
HummusBoyfriend is here right now.
I threw my first successful dinner party with 7 people, serving:
Roasted squash risotto, warm roasted asparagus and mushroom salad in lemon mustard vinaigrette, baked brie in puff pastry, flourless mocha cake (which was delicious, if I do say so myself) with whipped cream, lemon tart. Nobody knew each other but everyone seemed to have a really good time. I think 7 people is a good sized dinner party.
Lack of homework.
Pumpkin desserts.
Eating leftover dessert so that I can make a mocha tart. I am going to get so fat.
A quarter will buy me an hour of time at a parking meter in Kentucky.


Things I'm Not Loving:
I'm cold. No more wearing skirts to work.
How early it gets dark now.
Work. Is stressful. And might remain so until my business trip, which is right before thanksgiving.
HummusBoyfriend is leaving tomorrow. Oh.
Getting up when it's dark.
Not being in college. I miss college. Even though Cincinnati is pretty nice.
my boyfriend is ugly :( <--HummusBoyfriend wanted to add that. Yes, that is something I don't love.

HummusBoyfriend and I went to Jo An, a Japanese restaurant hidden in an office building in Kentucky by the big Toyota plant there. If we hadn't been specifically looking for the restaurant, we never would've found it-it's in such a random location, in a big complex of office buildings. I had heard really good things about it from numerous people, and apparently that is where all the Japanese businessmen go when they come to Kentucky for Toyota business. It was kind of ridiculously expensive, maybe even more so than Beluga, the trendy sushi place/nightspot by my apartment. HummusBoyfriend thought the fish was of excellent quality, but I was kind of appalled at being charged $5.50 for salad. He ordered a marinated baby squid salad, which looked kind of horrifying in a gooey sort of way. HummusBoyfriend said that might have been the weirdest thing he has ever eaten, and mentioned something about exploding eyeballs in his mouth. I thought the food was okay, nothing too memorable. I don't know if I'd venture into Kentucky to go there again. Beluga is better.

I think I've pretty much concluded that I don't want to go to law school. Question is, what should I do? Just go get my phD in finance? That's something to think about another day. I am going to go eat dessert.

Fall

Things I'm looking forward to in October:
-Apple Picking
Let's face it, I really just want the cider and donuts. I went apple picking with my bro and his friends last year and it was a lot of fun. And we made apple ravioli after baking 2 pies, apple chips, and apple disaster.

-Sweaters
I like sweaters. They are warm and fuzzy. I passed first grade sentence writing. I could add scarves in here too, but I was never much of an indoor scarf wearer. Tried it once, couldn't get used to it. My neck likes to be free!

-Pumpkin Carving
Bro's girlfriend even offered to scoop out all the gooey stuff for me because I don't like that part.

-Halloween
Okay, a little less excited for this because I'm not sure what to be. I'm thinking Optimus Prime. Or Dorothy.

Happy Weekend!

Food, what else?

I am having my first dinner party of all Cincinnati people this Thursday. Wow, I know some people! What should I make? I was thinking roasted squash risotto for the main dish, but I'd probably want some kind of salad, and definitely dessert. A vegetable side? Soup? Ideas?

Also, one of the people coming doesn't like chocolate (I know, what?!). So I might have to make two desserts. Which is always okay.

Dessert ideas:
Mocha Tart
The Lemon Tart I Made at Josh's (except one of the people coming has already had it before, not that that's a bad thing) (also I have one of those plastic lemon-shaped things of lemon juice that I should probably use soon, so that'd be convenient)
Coffee flavored cake with coffee buttercream (I made a variation of this for Jahan's birthday, which was also at Josh's)
Strawberry rhubarb pie
Apple cake
Peach raspberry pie (but neither are on sale...yes, I'm a cheap person)
Banana cake with cream cheese frosting

I need to teach my baby niece to do this

Watch this baby swears in his sleep. Turn up your volume coz it's a little hard to hear what he's saying.

Which is Worse?

Okay, would you rather have a soul-sucking job, or a mind-bogglingly boring one?

Because currently I'm sitting in my dark closet doing microscope for hour 3 of 5 (maybe 6) and I've run out of ways to entertain myself.

(giggle, snort, awkward)

Being a Responsible Adult

Yesterday, I received my government credit card in the mail. I looked at the envelope, decided it was junk mail, and threw it into the trash without looking at it.

Today, I came home from work and dug through my trash can. Good thing I didn't take the trash out last night.

I want to quit choir, but I can't. It's not that fun and I don't really like the music. I hate going on choir retreats, and this upcoming one is on a bad weekend. I can't skip because I'm already missing the concerts. My boyfriend wants to come visit for six days during his fall break, and between this retreat and work, I'll be free for exactly one entire day in those six days. I'm also missing a baby shower that I was looking forward to. Man, if my 17-year-old-idealistic-musical-self could hear me now, she'd cry.

Should I get a bunny?

Pros:
I'd be less lonely.
It'd be so cute!
We could eat vegetables together.

Cons:
It has to be let out of its cage daily. I'd have to bunny-proof my apartment, and probably buy a little pen so that it doesn't end up hiding under my bed, etc.
I'd have to clean its cage regularly.
It has the potential to be smelly.
I'd have to take care of something other than me.

No idea

HIIIII!!!!

I am writing a blog to you guys! Woo! I spent too much energy trying to decide what my nickname was...now I don't know what to write. I have been working. It is not incredibly exciting to hear about, but for the most part I like it. I have spiders in my apartment. Every morning when I wake up and my mouth feels weird I am scared that I ate one. Have you heard that thing that the average person eats 8 spiders a year? I have no idea where I heard this. Either way though, I would prefer spiders to my old roommate.

Lets see, what else. I went to the UM football game and got blisters on my feet. It was fun besides the blisters. I was walking around without shoes on and people were like "Eww! put your shoes back on!" Also I had a hot dog and it was so good. [I hope H is remembering that hot dog she ate with me...yummmm.]

Ok I think thats it for today. Oh yeah! One more thing. We played Scattagories at work today (the computer system was down) and the letter was "B." I got a point for State: 'Bama...like Alabama. Usually they're pretty tough about weird answers. I was so proud :)

New Life Plan

Okay, this masters thing isn't working out. Looking at PhD apps now. It probably won't be any better than masters, but at least they won't be trying to feed me to med school.

But apps are due in Dec?? I thought I'd have until January.

How do I make new teacher friends??

Although on the normal friend front, I think I made one. Which is good, because he sounds smart (or at least he sounds like a super effective studier) and I have a sinking feeling I failed the first exam in the class we have together. New study buddy? I hope so :)

Post-College Fears

Swine flu. While we did graduate during one of the worst recessions ever, on a brighter note, we aren't in college anymore, where swine flu is spreading like crazy! A few 20something year olds have died from it though, and my co-workers keep talking about (probably a very broad conclusion to be drawing) how swine flu is attacking people in their 20s. While I realize swine flu is basically the same as normal flu, I am scared of both!

A census worker was recently found in Kentucky, hung, with FED scrawled on his chest. This is extra creepy now that I (a) can walk to Kentucky from my work place, and (b) work for the government.

I guess I kind of fear that I won't make more friends. But really I just fear swine flu and crazy hillbillies.

Goodbye Freedom

As you all might already know, I moved back home to find a decent job. I had an interview with Maybank the day after I get back, thanks to my Aunt who knew the Head of the Actuarial Department there. I've been super busy with the Holiday (Eid) ever since last Sunday. The holiday last a whole month. I visited 5 houses the first day, 5 the next day and about 6 yesterday.

There was a lot of good food and I get to see old friends and family members who I hadn't seen in years. Everytime I meet an uncle or aunt who works at a big firm, they would offer me help to find a job. One uncle works for Petronas which is the giant oil company here and he said "I can help you get a job but you should know that if you work for us you can't marry anyone who works at the company."

*Puzzled Face*

And then last night an uncle called his friend who knows a lot of Actuaries so they can help me get a job. First of all, I haven't had the chance to apply for jobs myself and even if I had, I don't think that it'd be too hard to get one here. My problem with people helping me get a job is that I don't get to say no if I get an offer; thus, my freedom to scout around is gone?

I appreciate the help they offer but I have mixed feelings about this.

Living with my brother

I moved in with my brother this year because he's 20 minutes from campus. On the upside, I'm not paying rent. On the other hand, I cook, clean and do laundry for me and my bro. My momma claims my rent is too high actually. At least we don't have bug problems.

I think it was good for me to enroll in school because I was having a really touch time finding a job, but I really dislike my program! It's boring, it's tedious, and it's half UMich kids anyway. It's almost like I never left undergrad.

I'm a little worried because I don't think I'm making friends like I should be. I could blame it on the commuter campus, but it's unlikely that that's the entire problem.

Anyway, my brother took me out to dinner last night. He said it was a thank you for cooking and cleaning all the time. We went to Sweet Lorraine's. I ordered the Tuna Fajitas because it was a special for the day. The tuna had a cilantro pesto on it. The waitress said it was amazing but I was unimpressed. I did really enjoy the homemade salsa that came with it (yay for mangoes). Also, they give you truffle/mint things with your bill that they make in their bakery next door. And the chocolate was delicious :D

J and I started weekly lunches. We're slowly eating our way in an ever increasing radius from the med school. GET EXCITED!!!

Living On My Own

Did you know there are these little carpet bugs that like to hide under cardboard? Cincinnati is always full of new surprises. I just spent the past 10 minutes vacuuming up all these bugs (I guess that’s incentive to unpack my last box…) and freaking out. I am not that dirty. I rarely cleaned in college, other than scrubbing down the bathroom and the kitchen counters, and I NEVER had bug problems. I’ve had a ridiculous number of bug problems since moving here. Attack of the flies (suddenly 40 flies appeared in my apartment one day for no reason, for those of you who missed that story, and I don’t mean little fruit flies, I mean giant houseflies), giant spiders, carpet bugs…the irony of it all is I live in one of the nicest neighborhoods in Cincinnati.

I hadn’t intended on starting my first entry by talking about bug attacks, but bug attacks are kind of the story of my life ever since I moved to Cincinnati three months (can you believe it’s been that long) ago. I was planning on using this blog to talk about how confusing it is that it's September and we're not back in college and it's time to think about real people things, but...nope, my mind is too preoccupied by bugs. I don't think I am cut out to live alone, between being a big scaredy cat and hating bugs. At the very least it'd be nice to have someone to freak out with. Areener, come back to me.