November 22, 2010 8:30 PM

Good evening!

This is a remote post, so I'll try to keep it short and sweet!

On Thursday night, we ended up going to "Portofino Bistro" for dinner, and I paid for everything except tip. They were pretty understanding about my vegan-ism, and I got spaghetti with grilled vegetables and LOADS of olive oil. I had some stuffed mushrooms (garlic and oil) for an appetizer, and the boys didn't eat it. All for me!

Mike didn't go - he had some kind of project to do. I felt a little bad, but it was his choice. They boys told him that I was paying, so he could have come if he wanted to.

On Friday, I got to work a little early and unlocked the building except for the front doors. I sat patiently and waited until (at exactly 7:29 AM) my supervisor walked in. Then he unlocked the front doors, and I worked as a desk assistant. For those of you who aren't familiar with the library system, there are only so many supervisor hours and multiple supervisors. Sometimes, we have to work as a regular student staff member just to fill our hours while another person 'supes'.

As soon as I got off work, I gave Tony and Jersey a call - they were on their way! I waited out back of the library and got picked up ASAP! Then I grabbed my luggage out of the apartment, said good-bye to Margie, and we were on the road! I spent most of the car ride asleep, though I did eat two bags of original Sun Chips.

We got to Tony's house just after his mom had left for the gym, so we played cards while we waited for her to come home. Then we ordered Chinese food, and his dad picked it up on the way home from work. I really like his parents, and they really are the stereotypical American family. His little brother wasn't there, but we still had fun.

After dinner, we played Jenga, cards, and watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail (again). Not in that order, of course. His parents went to bed before Monty Python, and we were pretty dead after the movie ended. I got the guest bedroom, Jersey got his brother's room, and Tony slept on an air-mattress on the floor of his bedroom (since his bed is in Rochester).

The next morning we got up, ate (oatmeal with almonds, walnuts, cranberries, and brown sugar), and went to catch the bus to NYC! Jersey and I got in around noon, but we spent a bit waiting for Ann to arrive from her 'casa' in NJ. Then we went to Korea-town and found a restaurant that had the same name as our favorite ROC place - Seoul Garden!!

It was on the second floor of a building, and it took a little while to find it. Once we did, we were seated immediately. Our banchan (small appetizers used to flavor the meal) was brought out - pickled daikon, bean sprouts, kim chi, some fish, and something that looked like it had mayo in it. And then he put a raw egg (still in the shell) in a small bowl and placed it on our table. We were a little unnerved, and it took a while to determine that, yes, that was a raw egg. Jersey ate most of the fish, and he tried a little of the mayo stuff and didn't eat much after that.

We ordered our main dishes - Ann got a traditional bibbim bap with no egg, I got a kim chi one, and Jersey got a veggie and tofu stew. All of our food was vegan. I tried it all - Ann had many traditional vegetables in hers, some of which we couldn't identify. Mine was only bean sprouts and kim chi (which was a little disappointing) but very good. I got to eat a lot of veggies from Ann's dish. Jersey's was very good, and I was very pleased when he couldn't finish and I got his leftovers. Ann ate everything she wanted to, and then I devoured the rest (mushrooms included!). Ann and I also got miso soup with our meals since Koreans are big on the idea of soup, rice, and entree for every meal. When the waitress brought our check, she also brought along some orange slices, and they were very sweet. Overall, it was a good experience - however, I like the ROC one more, mostly because their bibbim bap is the same size and about $5 cheaper. Also, we get more banchan with the ROC location.

The idea behind banchan is a favorite of mine - basically, each bite should taste a little different so you never get bored of your meal. It also helps to balance bitter and sour, mild and spicy, and savory with sweet. As you eat your meal, you can nibble at bits of banchan to clear the flavor off your tongue and then your next bite tastes fresh and different. At the end of every meal, I tend to devour the banchan with the remaining white rice.

There was a guy who looked like Conan O'Brien in the restaurant (the only other white person), and he was seated two tables back from us. I was positioned directly in front of him, and I swear he was staring at me the whole time. Probably was just staring off in a random direction thinking about other things, but it was still a little unnerving. Ann and Jersey loved turning around and looking at him. He really really looked like Conan.

I think I'll continue this story at some other time - this is a good stopping place for now! You'll hear more about Saturday, Sunday, and Monday when I post next!

Instead of having dessert tonight, have some fruit and maybe a mug of warm tea or coffee. Don't add milk or sugar though, and revel in the contrast of sweet and bitter!

Novemeber 18, 2010 9:30 AM

Good mornin' to ya!

So, yesterday after work, I went home and didn't eat. That's right. I didn't have lunch. I sat around on the internet like a fool and wasted my life away until Joanna and Jersey talked me into making something resembling a dinner. As in, soup and lentils.

Then I went to dance practice for this dance we are going to do at the Winter Gala. See, one of my fishies wants to do a choreographed dance to one of the songs (which isn't even on the playlist for the dance). Now, the Winter Gala is a semi-formal ball, and somehow I can't see us pulling this off.

1. It's not on the playlist.
2. We have limited dancing space to begin with, and the dance she has planned takes up a lot of room.
3. The song is "Teenage Dream" by Katy Perry - and that doesn't quite fit in with "Winter Gala: Semi-formal Ball"
4. No one else will get what we are doing.
5. About a third of the dance is moving back and forth snapping our fingers.

I mean, I'll do it. I love that girl to pieces, and I'm not easily ashamed. But this might be one of the few things that makes me full-out embarrassed - especially since I'm PLANNING this event and faculty I know and respect are coming.

I'll be able to pull it off with a smile and look like a goof - but those are the two things I keep separate - my dancing life and my professional life. I really want certain people to respect me, and I don't know if awkward dancing to "Teenage Dream" (of all the skanky songs to choose) will be detrimental. I'm sorta hoping it doesn't get put on the playlist or gets on at the very beginning when no one is there just yet. This is the sorta thing you do with your friends, not the sort of thing you do in public unless you're on a reality TV show or smashed. And I don't plan on being either.

After dance practice, I went over to the guys' place to level up on that video game. I ate some of their tator tots and promised them I'd buy them dinner tonight (since I swear I've eaten 1/8 of all their food so far this year). I've easily put away over 8 pounds of tator tots alone. But they haven't decided where they want to eat tonight.

I'll try to talk them into something fancier (since its the last night before we go) and they can pay for half of their meal instead of all of it. That means it won't be Korean, but I can live. We were just there anyways.

Bundle up and pray it doesn't hail on you today!

November 17, 2010 11:45 AM

Good morning (almost afternoon)!

So I finally finished that paper, got all my inorganic stuff done, turned it in, and now I'm golden!!! I get off work in 18 minutes and then work tomorrow and Friday morning for a short little stint before I'm gone!

I've been puttering away on the computer today, getting a whole bunch of not-school related stuff done for all my extracurricular activities, and I've got to say that I've got a pretty good handle on all of this.

I had my meeting about my behavior at work, and that's all been sorted out. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be, and my boss was very understanding.

I've got me a newspaper, and I'm all ready to relax for the day as soon as I get off work. I'm meeting some friends later tonight for dancing lessons (we're doing a choreographed dance for the Winter Gala), but I'm all clear until then!

Man, I felt really sick last night (like a stomach pain) but it went away after I got some sleep. I'm just happy to be home free!!!

Make dinner special tonight! Pull that lobster out of the freezer or turn on that oven! Even if it's just mac 'n cheese, cover the plate with garnish and herbs!!

November 15, 2010 9:30 PM

Good evening!

So, the past few days have gone a bit better.

On Saturday after work, I went home, ate, and got ready to go to a semi-formal birthday party! That basically means, "Joanna got a pretty dress and wants a good excuse to wear it!" So I got nicely dressed and met up with some friends to go. At the party, I had a great time, and I ended up getting close to a new girl - Alex. She's in one of my classes, and we see each other all the time at work and extracurricular stuff. We had a great time, and maybe we got into a little mischief too...

On Sunday, I slept in late (no church again), and then I busted my butt working on my philosophy paper about the existence of miracles and my advanced organic exam. I finished both and went over to the guys' place to chill and be merry.

Unfortunately, today I woke up at noon, which shot my super-productive plans for the morning. Now, I didn't have to be anywhere until 5pm (well, I have to turn in my exam before 5pm and then go to work), but I was hoping on waking up around 9am or 10am to start working on my inorganic notes and my chemical literature paper.

But since I got up so late, I killed any hopes I had of productivity and surfed the 'net until around 3pm. Then I decided I should walk over to hand my test in and maybe get some work done before I had to go to work. On my way over, I got a call from my RA (resident adviser) from freshman year. Apparently one of his friends had to finish up a photo project and all of her models had bailed out on her.

And the subject of the project just happened to have something to do with girls with short and 'unusual' haircuts. Including girls who have less than an inch of hair. So after I turned my test in, I wandered on over to the studio to do some quick poses. I felt super cool for being on call like that, and the both of them were so grateful I couldn't help but feel awesome. That took like half an hour, and then I buckled down with the books until my shift started.

I've gotten some of that paper done, but I really need to work on my inorganic stuff for my quizzes tomorrow. I've also got to turn in my outlines and vocab list tomorrow too. While I'm studying for those quizzes, I think I'll write out my outlines for the stuff I'm studying for. I've already finished the outlines for the previous material. Then I'm going to write out my vocab list terms and fill them in.

So, yeah! Great weekend, but not super-productive.

Take care now! If you don't want to eat vegetables tonight, try for some fruit instead!

November 13, 2010 1:30 PM

Good afternoon!

OK, let's break down the past week for you!

Saturday after work, I went over with the pre-fishies and some friends over to Catherine's house for dinner and games. We played mafia (I got to be God - apparently I am really good at it.) Then I went home and went to bed.

Sunday, I didn't go to church (this is becoming a bad trend, and I've gotten emails from people asking me if my faith is deteriorating). I worked on homework and even did some real cooking (as in making rice instead of ordering it from a Chinese restaurant). My food was very good, and I was very satisfied with myself for actually taking the time out of my day to treat myself right. My meal was three courses - soup, main dish with rice, and dessert. Everything was made in the kitchen and quickly devoured by yours truly. I also finished that silly lab.

Monday, I went to my classes and got to work on more homework! I started work on the next lab that was due on Thursday and sold tickets for the Winter Gala that will take place on December 4th! I met with one of my professors about a presentation I had done, and we went over what people had said about my presentation. Most of the feedback was good, and I appreciated it.

Then she started asking me if I had a learning disability. Allow me to fill you in on some background information: during people's presentations, we were supposed to take notes on how they were doing. I took these notes, but I also took count of how many times they said the word "umm" during their presentation. I organized it in a column on the left side of the page and kept tally. The right side of the page was notes/interesting things about their presentation. At the top of the page by my name, I kept track of how many times the professor said "umm" as well, since it was easier to keep track of all of them. This had been going on for about three weeks.

She was offended, of course, that I counted her "umms", but she also said that students thought it was rude and inattentive of me to judge them so superficially. She had told them I had a disability, like being ADD, that prevented me from concentrating (false). She also suggested to them that I might me hard of hearing (false and irrelevant to the situation). She did not tell me any of this until we met now (three weeks later). She didn't reveal my name to any students, but several of them knew it was me.

So when I walked into her office to discuss my presentation, I had this in mind since I had heard from Jersey on Friday (when she met with him and told him this) what she was telling other students about me. After we discussed the presentation, she directly asked me if I was disabled and/or what the meaning behind this was. I explained that I was not judging the students in any way - this concept of 'counting "umms"' had been brought up by my other professors when they noted on how many times I said the word 'like' during my presentations. I said that I did this in my other classes as well, and my Philosophy class loves it. They all ask for their counts at the end of our group discussions, and we all work together to improve.

She suggested medication.

She then proceeded to tell me about all the medication she has ever been on (including meds for her menstrual cycle in high school), her parents' medical history, and how 'we like to think we can survive and keep ourselves in check, but we really can't'. I didn't need to know any of this.

Oh, and I had a meeting at 3pm I had to go to (which she knew) but she continued talking right through. So at 3:10pm, I picked up my backpack, said goodbye, and walked out while she continued to talk. I went to my next meeting and apologized for being late.

On Tuesday, I had a class with this professor, and during all the presentations, I took notes and wrote down the "umm" count. I also wrote a note about how standing up fidgeting in the back of the room (like she was doing) was distracting and seemed to make the presenters more nervous. They also avoided looking at the class, probably due to her hovering, but I didn't say that.

I got an email response on Wednesday about how her feet hurt too much to sit for too long.

Tuesday night, I went over to the boys' place and studied with Jersey for our Advanced Organic exam. When we took it on Wednesday, we were both done in fifteen minutes, and not because we were exceptionally prepared. She just made the exam really short.

On Wednesday, I worked like crazy on another lab report (due Thursday) that I would have worked on before except I was studying for that exam. I finished most of it with my lab partners by around eleven o'clock. I went to bed.

On Thursday at work, I finished the lab and printed it out. I handed it in to her that night and got back last week's lab - a 66. Next time I work so hard on a 35 page lab, I'll remember this. But she said she's going to give a ten point curve for doing some non-linear regression stuff in the lab. I don't know if that is ten points to my final grade or ten points to a lab, but either way I'll appreciate it.

Then I went to girls night out - which ended up being "buy Wegmans sushi and watch a movie". It was lots of fun, but I kinda missed Shiki sushi (which is much more expensive). On the bright side, I had never seen "the History of the World Part One", and I laughed a lot. Half of what I ate was vegan, and the rest was fish. However, I took a small bite of some cheddar cheese and ate two inari (which have some egg in the batter-stuff). So I wasn't pesca-vegan either.

When I woke up on Friday, my whole room smelled like all the cheddar cheese in the world.

Friday morning, I veganized 'dirt pudding' since it was three people's birthdays (including Joanna's, you lucky girl!). However, I was much too cheap to buy vegan gummy worms, so I used regular ones and had several servings without the worms. It was super-sugary, and I felt like a terrible 'foodie', especially since I'm normally so healthy.

Friday evening, I signed up for work hours for next quarter, and here another issue arose. Previously this quarter, I was still new at being a supervisor at the library. I would hug other students, etc, and some of this got a little out of hand. As the quarter progressed, my behavior would only get 'touchy' when I was tired or had been at work for seven or eight hours already that day. But this was unprofessional, and my boss noticed.

So now I have a one-on-one meeting with him to go over my behavior and discuss how a proper supervisor should behave. I've met with the people that I normally am affectionate with, and we have agreed to switch to high-fives. And no, I wasn't just attacking random people: I only hug my friends and they are reciprocated 90% of the time. That's just a problem with working with your friends, I guess. Also, we always hug outside of work, so I guess it didn't really occur to me that this was inappropriate in the way my boss says it is.

I hardly ever get on Facebook during work, and I thought I was being friendly. I'm kinda crushed a little, mostly because there were only two or three hugs during a nine and a half hour shift. And I don't work with my hugging friends on my other shift (this one).

And I'll be working with them next quarter, so it's a good thing we have this "conversation" scheduled because this really worries me. I don't want to be fired when I only have two quarters left with this job.

But right now, I really should be working on my Philosophy paper (due Sunday at midnight), my take-home exam (due Monday), my Inorganic notes and studying (due Tuesday at 4pm), and my Chemical Literature paper (due Wednesday at noon).

So I bid you farewell! Don't forget to wear socks when wearing sneakers!

November 11, 2010 2:15 PM

Good afternoon!

So, my gal pal Joanna is back in town, and we have dinner planned for us girls! I'm thrilled because we are gonna be eating some fancy sushi and catching up!

This past week has been a blur, and I had a little caffeine induced spazz out this morning. But I got my lab done and even though the computer crashed like 6 times, I have accomplished most everything that I needed to.

I think I'll pass/get B's or A's in all of my classes this quarter, but let's wait and see before our hopes get up.

The caffeine is still buzzing in my ears, so I'll do a more thorough update next time (Saturday).

Take good care of yourself!

November 6, 2010 1:30 PM

Good afternoon!

For starters, I got an extension on the lab! It's now due today, Saturday, via email. That still means I have to finish it, but I have most of the calculations done now (just one part that I'm slightly stuck on). I also need to write up the conclusion and abstract, but that should be easier now that I have actual results to work with.

On Thursday night, I worked like crazy on other homework, and I only got two hours of sleep (from 2-4am). On Friday morning when I got up at 4am, I took an hour to get everything together and clean up a little from the night before. Then I baked from 4-7am, spending some time on Facebook (and not accomplishing anything, really). I was going to have a friend over for breakfast, but he took too long in the shower and had to run to catch his bus. I fed his breakfast to Margie instead (which made me feel a little guilty about giving her food intended for a guy she doesn't even know).

Then I started working on homework again, and I went to the coffee shop on campus at 8:30am to meet with one of my lab partners to learn how to do the calculations. She didn't show until around 10am, but Jersey bought me coffee and a banana. She was very thorough with all the explanations, and I spent the next couple of hours power-housing through the lab. My friend that couldn't do breakfast showed up, and we chatted for a bit while he ate some of my baked bread.

I went to a Free Pizza Friday and didn't eat anything (of course), but I fed my friends with my latest baked creation - I messed with the flour ratios, and someone commented that it had the texture of a marshmallow. I'm not sure how, but I'll switch up the ratio a bit to keep away the grain-y feel from last time and the texture from this time. They all loved the flavor though.

I went to several meetings, one of which was for work. I took notes and went over them with my staff today, so hopefully they will feel informed and part of 'the team'. Mostly they were interested in the information about work shirts and the matching sweaters/fleeces we will be getting soon. They were also very cooperative when I sent them off to do menial tasks like pushing in chairs and looking for missing books.

After my meeting, I hung around the library for a bit, talking with some of my co-worker friends. We ended up discussing different squash recipes, and now I am starting to crave squash and potatoes. Then I walked home (in the freezing rain) to grab the rest of my baked goodies for a coffee date I had with a friend from my Philosophy class.

He was a bit busy, so I went and talked to my faculty adviser for a bit about some issues that came up in one of my classes. She told me that she'd look into it, and I was very grateful. Then I met up with my Philosophy friend and spent an hour and a half eating bread, bananas and a cup of Earl Grey tea. He drove me back to my place, and I settled down to make dinner.

But I had forgotten that I had plans for the night, so when Tony showed up in the apartment wondering if I was ready, I grabbed my stuff and headed on out. We ordered some Chinese, watched the latest Criminal Minds episode, and then the party began! I had a great time, and people kept commenting on how well I seemed for having so little sleep.

Around midnight, I was getting a little tired, and Mike said he'd drive me home. So I picked up my keys and phone and stuff, and we ended up getting back at around 12:45am. I crawled into bed and passed out completely. Oh, and I lost (and re-found) my ID card yesterday. It was in my taxes that I was going over on Thursday night...

This morning, I woke up tired, but very refreshed. The walk to work this morning was very brisk and kinda freezing-drizzling. A Public Safety officer came in before I unlocked the building and asked me if I was going to open the building. When I said yes, the officer left - which makes no sense to me.

So far my shift has been productive and not-productive. I still need to finish up that lab and study for Advanced Organic. But I've got another four hours before I get off today....

Try something different for lunch next week!

November 4, 2010 10:30 AM

Good morning! I was actually going to write a post yesterday, but then I downloaded AIM and got really confused. So I forgot to post.

Anyway, last Saturday, I went out to two parties. The first was the Honors Halloween party, and I got to see all my freshmen dressed up! Tony was a Simpson's character, painted yellow and everything, and Jersey was Mr. Freeze, complete with a bucket on his head?????

Margie went all out as a witch from the video games series Left4Dead. They are these creepy zombies that cry, and if you startle them, they kill you in one hit. She went all out with the make-up, and everyone loved it. I went as Stephanie from Lazy Town (the TV Show for kids), and many people remarked that the costume was perfect for my personality.

The second party I went to was in the city, and a friend invited me. I didn't know most of the people there, but I ended up having a great time. This fact should be pretty obvious if you consider that I got back to my apartment at 4 in the morning, sauntered in, and, upon seeing Margie on the couch, said, "Heyyyyyyy.... you look like my mom.....". Shortly after that I woke up to my alarm for church. I didn't go.

But, I did go to the pancake party after church, and I'm pretty sure everyone in the room wondered why I wasn't at service but still able to go to eat. Of course, there was nothing really vegan there for me to eat, so I suffered in silence until I finally announced that I had to go home and write a paper. Then they all gave me a look that said, "So you're just gonna come for an hour and leave?" But hey! I really did have a paper to write!

The rest of my Sunday was spent writing said paper, except for Kim's birthday party that night. It was pretty great, and Matt made her pumpkin whoopie pies from scratch. We got a little crazy, but the girl's birthday is Halloween! She deserves a full-fledged party! We also discovered that it was slightly snowing outside, which is depressing, but since we were indoors, we didn't really care. It didn't stick anyways.

On Monday, I got a boyfriend, a freshman guy who's friends with my freshmen and is pretty cute. I also spent a large portion of Monday preparing for a large lab report I have due today (Thursday). Then I put some pictures up online for Halloween and a few night before.

Tuesday, I majorly crunched on that lab and discovered that I had no idea what to do, and the explanations given were insufficient. So I emailed my lab partners for help, and after I received no response for the next four hours, I went to bed.

Wednesday, I checked my email first thing in the morning - no response. I went to class, lunch, and then back home to work on that lab. No response. I looked over my notes, google-d it, etc. Nothing. Did some other homework. Went to class, meetings, then over to the guy's place to work on other stuff.... Then when I finally got home at 11:00pm - I had return email. It didn't even address the question I had. It was asking me if I wanted to meet up and work on the lab right now. I had work at 7:30 am the next morning.

I ignored the email and went to bed. I'll turn it in late, and if I fail, I'll re-take it next quarter. I've had enough of this.

Also, there was this really dumb guy in the business building who doesn't know anything about the difference between a VGA cable (for projectors) and an ethernet cable (for internet). And he's tech support. He also thinks you can only access your email from your home computer.

To relieve a headache, rub your temples in a circular motion. If that doesn't work, pop some aspirin and skip all your classes.