Just tell me once again ..... Who's fat?

Today I went to the health center for a check up. Nothing new. But because my coverage is, how you say...not very good, I was told to come back in March. They were kind enough to take my blood pressure (90/50), height (logging in at a fancy 5'4") and weight. Now, I had my height taken with my shoes off and all but she forgot to take my weight until later and I put my shoes and jacket back on. Anyway, the weigh in said about 130lbs. After all of this my doctor tells me that I can't get my check up today and will have to re-schedule. Futhermore, as she looks through my chart notices that when I first came to this health center four years ago I was lighter. True, but I have also developed A LOT more muscle since having been at Columbia. Then she gives me this talk about being on the slippery slope to obesity. WHAT!?

It actually went on for a while. She keeps telling me how important it is to exercise. I keep telling her I DO exercise. We leave with her showing me how close to overweight I am on the BMI chart. Come on! I'm wearing hiking boots today!

Then I get to lab and I have about 6 messages in my inbox from WeightSolutions offering me all kinds of dietary help.

Whatever. I love my food and I love my gym. My pants still fit. Hence everything is alright.

In other food/fat news, Iron Chef Washington Heights was a lot of fun yesterday. Katie has a short description. In short, our secret ingredient was pear and I am currently the reigning Iron Chef. Pics will be up soon.

Update: For now, you can enjoy Josh's pics and description.

Getting dumped on the A train is harsh

Last night I was on the A train heading to the gym when I had to turn down the volume of my iPod and very sneakily listen to the conversation going on next to me. There was a couple breaking up. The guy was breaking up with the girl and, boy oh boy, it seemed like she did not see it coming or at least was resisting. The guy was nice (in his tone) but very resolute. He was not going to change his mind. I make this assessment based on the lines he used.

1. There is nothing for us here in this relationship.
2. I feel that you are just going with the relationship without saying what you want.
3. (This is the kicker) When people are in a long term (not any more!) relationship, you at some point think about or even talk about marriage, but it doesn't mean it's going to happen.

That last point was harsh. The girl looked like someone stabbed her in the chest then spat in her face. It was so sad. So sad that I had to turn away. Her argument was that she didn't see the problems and that their 5 years together have been great. Poor girl.

But I guess he's right. Most people who have been together for some period of time have either talked about marriage or at least thought about it. It crosses your mind even if for a brief moment. And it's a sad situation when two people are not on the same page. Sad initially, but I am sure better in the long run. Anyway, the weird part was that the guy got off with me -not with me...that would have been so bad- at 59th St and the girl stayed on the train. I hope this wasn't the entire break up. I hope it was a meeting of second hopes and chances (which were crushed) and that it wasn't all contained to a break up on the train. That would make things so much harsher.

Pics and stuff

I finally put up a few pics from serveral different events. Be warned there are very few pics and many aren't that interesting.

Everyone loves to work on Saturdays

If you are thinking about going to grad school, think carefully. Now, listen (read) carefully to what I am about to tell you. You start off thinking you are going to contribute to the world. I use to tell my mom that I would cut off my leg for a Noble Prize. A few years later, you tell yourself you are doing this for the edification of yourself. Nice one. Then you get to a point. A break down. Eventually you pick yourself up and get back into it only to hit a wall again and find yourself at that "point of no return." The point of no return is when you decided there is no way you can do bench work again. Or write grants. Or be a PI. You can't because your experience as an underling has made you angry, bitter, tired and worst of all things, disenchanted with your choice for the past 5 years. At least you could make yourself feel better knowing you were learning so much at such an excellent institution. How wonderful it all is. I am so lucky. False hope always seems better than no hope. But like all things, this too is ephemeral and POOF! even your disillusionments fail you. And now what have you to show for the past 5 years?
1. I am very good with PCs and Macs
2. I can work just about every Adobe program out there.
3. I know a lot of about mice and how to tell if they are pregnant.
4. I know how to eat lunch on a tight budget.
5. I am excellent at surfing the web and making playlists on my iPod.

Ok, so obviously I have had a bad day. In fact, it was a long 15 hour day in lab. The worst part is that while this is a long day, it's not unusual to work 12hour day on a regular basis (in fact, I did it yesterday and the day before). That's right, I'm complaining. So if you're considering going to grad school, make sure you want to feel over used, violated and under appreciated. It does have it's benefits, but I can't think of any right now. Right now my right eye is twitching from lack of sleep. So to all of you who say that I'm lucky to have school paid for, I say "Phhhhhhh! (blowing raspberries)" Sure I'm kind of lucky, but it's taking years out of my life.

The best part is that I have at least another year because my stupid animals died.
Man, it's been a rough week and another one is about to start. And I think I would cut off my right leg for a long vacation.

So you want to hear about my crazy morning? You know you do.

Crazy. Ok so here it is. Mike and I went to bed super early (10pm!) in the hopes of getting up early and hitting the gym. We got up at 6.45am and because the weather has been really mild (high of 50F today!) I decided to run in Central Park again today, but this time wearing my spandex as I got heckled for wearing shorts on a run on Saturday. I hit the pavement and lo and behold...I can breathe in and out of my mouth. This is the second time EVER that I have been able to run and do this. It's a miracle. I always breathe in and out of my nose. You try running a race as fast as you can breathing only through your nose. It's hard and you feel like throwing up. I attribute this miracle to the fact that I have actually been using my inhaler and have been using it properly. The wonders of medicine. Man, it feels good to give your muscles oxygen. Well, for the most part it was a good 3.5 miles. I had to go to the bathroom but kept thinking, " Just a little further." Well, I didn't have an accident but it made me haul my butt the last mile back to the gym. Oh man, I was sweating out. Like Joe...on the A train.

Anyway, you would think this would be the start to a good day. So I decided to go to the bank to deposit a check. I get on the D and shortly after the doors close, a very obese woman begins to scream and moan. She says she is in pain and is clutching her...middle? I couldn't tell if it was her chest or stomach. They eventually have to stop the train and make an emergency stop and take her off. This means we ALL have to get off and wait for another train, but by now this whole thing has taken about 30 minutes of my time. The best part, when the medics get to her, she walks off the train. Dude, if you are in so much pain that you had to stop the train, you better be getting off in a stretcher.

I finally get to 59th and transfer to the A. I sit down, relaxing in my seat. I look up and no kidding, but a woman who looks freakishly like Bowser is sitting across from me. I'm not kidding. The combination of her intricate, bi-colored hairdo, her multiple piercing and being over weight...man, she really scared the bejeezus out of me. Then there was this large man sitting a ways down wearing a red Hawaiian shirt and a very large festive straw hat. He is staring at this man in an olive colored business suit. At 125th St, the business man is waiting to exit the car when the festive man says to him, "Excuse me sir. But your tie clashes with your suit. " The business man looks at the festive man in his get up and says, "Well, blame my wife." Hardy har har. After the guy gets off the festive man says, "Man that poor guy. He got a wife with no taste. It be sad when a man goes 'round dressing like that." He was totally serious.

I got to lab a whole 1.5 hours later than I wanted.

Crazy morning in NYC.

Pet odors and mulchfest and kings cake...Oh My!

This weekend we used ZipCar for the first time. We reserved a Mazda 3 which we found to be a peppy and comfortable car. They have a really strange system of using your Zip Car Card to unlock and lock the doors. You wave your card in front of the reader fixed to the top left of the windshield and voila, your car unlocks. We ran some errands and met up with my extended family for dinner. We returned the car without any problem, but the funny part is the email I got this morning.

Apparently, it was noted (by the following user I am assuming) that we had a pet in the car, which is against Zip Car policy. Obviously this is incorrect. Not only do we not own any pets, but the car didn't have a pet odor when we picked it up. Zip Car said they decided to waive the 50 buck clean up fee since this is our first offense. I immediately emailed them back to let them know I had not had a pet(s) in the car and that this must all be an error. So how did this happen? What makes them think we had a pet in the car?

The ONLY thing I can think of is this: We ate Korean BBQ for dinner and the smell of the meat/garlic sticks to your clothes quite heavily (since the meat is cooked at your table). We must have smelled up the car with Korean BBQ. Mind you, we ate BEEF, so no wise cracks about dog meat. Man, if that's what they mistook for a pet, someone needs get their olfactory receptors checked out.

We took our tree down on Sunday and I took it on the train to drop it off at Central Park for the MulchFest. I felt bad about getting a Christmas tree in the first place, but felt so much better when I heard about MulchFest. I put it in a garbage bag, though the top was sticking out quite a bit. I was berated by a crotchety man for taking my little Charlie Brown tree on the crowded train with me. The tree took up no more space than a suitcase, small child and even less space than an obese individual. I told him to mind his own beeswax (actually, I engaged myself in fiery discourse) and a nice man standing next to me told the mean man to back off. Jerk. I dropped the tree off and went to buy many delicious toppings for home-made pizza night we were having with Josh and Yilin.

They came over and brought...Kings Cake complete with hidden treat and crown from Claude's Patisserie (they also brought palmiers, my favorite!). Following the tradition of Kings Cake, we had the youngest hide under the table (Mike) while deciding which piece, cut by the oldest , goes to which person. The cake is one of my favorites...yummm....almondy goodness. Mike found the trinket in his cake and was King for the night. Josh and Yilin, inspired by Dan, brought over a 99% cocoa bar. Mike and Josh found it to be unpleasant while Yilin and I decided we can't go back. It was a fun night. Pics will be put up soon.

I know what it feels like to be Al Gore

A while back, we (Vijay, Katie, Mike and I) decided to do the NYRR Midnight Run. This run is also a costume contest party. I thought dressing up as the Super Mario Bro might be fun, especially since I have a special place in my heart for Vijay's previous Mario costume. But then, I thought, OOOOH! Mario Kart! Ingenious. This gives us the ability to bash into each other as we run. Vimal, hearing this news, signed on and so now we were on our way to a seriously fun New Year's Eve.

I don't think I need to re-cap the overall sentiments of the costume party and judging since this has been well documented by Mike, Vimal and Vijay, but I will anyway because the situation was so wrong. Popular vote appears to disagree with Ms.President of NYRR and Ms. Emerald Nuts. In their infinite wisdom, our costumes were inferior to that of a dog. I wasn't expecting to win, I was just suprised that the dog beat us. I'm not being bitter here. What I am is flabbergasted. Everyone seemed to love our costumes, even those who did not know who we were. We had two people involved in the contest tell us how great it was and how we should have win. We were robbed of our victory, at least one over the dog. The feeling of complete confusion when the dog was announced (not to mention the look on Mike's face) could only be placed in the same category as the shock of Al Gore's win in the popular vote but loss for the presidency in the 2000 election. Mr. Gore, I feel for you.

The dog! I'm convinced that the dog costume is this guy's work clothes. (I saw you with your mask off. I know who you are.) I imagine that he works for children's parties and banks handing out balloons and old lollipops. Don't get me wrong, I love dogs but for a costume party, no contest, it's kind of lame. It wasn't even of a famous dog. It's the equivalent of me showing up to this event with a lab coat on and saying I am a scientist. Your work clothes or a obviously generic costume should NOT WIN. So it's not his fault that he wore his work clothes, it's the judges fault for being boring and lame.

Despite the injustice, the night was the blast. I will list the things that I found most humorous/memorable that were not listed in the other recounts of the night.
1. Making Julia's Roast Lemon Chicken with Herbs- it's fantastic. I changed it a bit and it was really yummy.
2. Having EVERYONE stare at us and seeing/hearing people in the park and on subway trains cheer for us.
3. While approaching 125th St., a group of people stared at us then finally realized what we were and came to talk to us. After some introduction (Hi, I'm Mario...), the one guys said, "Look, they made the black guy the bad guy."
The "black guy" they were referring to was Vimal.
4. Mike's seriousness of the contest parade. He made sure that we were all in a single file and berated Vijay when he accidently wandered off.
5. The look of complete disgust on Mike's face when they announced the dog. He had no shame in showing his feelings.
6. Dancing with Katie, aka. Princess, to Sweet Caroline
7. Singing "Living on a Prayer" with passion while standing on the benches.
8. Running with a mushroom cap which is filled with about 15-20 plastic bags. It was so damn hot. I now own many shower caps should you ever need one.
9. Mike singing his Mario Bro version of "Gold Digger"
I need the gold coin
To get a new life
I need a hundred
For the 1up
It kept going. I almost peed myself, He also did it in a high pitched voice.
10. Coping out at mile 2 with the goal of getting fries and ice cream.

We had a great night. And in many ways, that damn dog made it a little more interesting. Happy New Year!

Pics on Mike's and Vijay's page.
Katie does not have a page.