Me?! Really?! You want me?!

Today I got an email (as did Katie, but nevermind that part) informing me that there are two tickets for the January 18th taping of the Daily Show reserved in my name. That's right I have a date with Jon Stewart (let's ignore the fact that Katie also got tickets for the same day as did a whole lot of other people who probably put themselves in the lottery). Awesome. I can see this turning into one of those weird events. Like the time in college when I decided I would wear a skirt (!) to class to look nice for this guy I had a mini crush on. Hae Sun totally called me out on it and well, it was defeating that (a) I would be so lame as to try to look hot for someone in biochemistry and (b) that wearing a skirt or looking nice was so not normal for me that it was obvious that I was trying.

Anyway, how awesome! Jon Stewart invited me to a taping of his show...I mean, that must be a sign, right?

Busy.

Since my last post, a lot has happened. I met with my TRAC and got approval to write my thesis (!), I finally had the time to go see a film (Borat) and go to Tony Luke's (they re-did their place and now it's like a real restaurant with a bar!) and celebrated Vijay's ex-patriotism. During this time I managed to get very sick and actually stay home from lab (I took this time to knit and watch Laurel Canyon [which was pretty good]).

Last night Vijay and Bena came over for dinner (lamb stew, rice pilaf, green beans and a tomato- cucumber-dill salad). It was great to see them both and was nice to spend extra time with Vijay before he leaves. We all reminisced on memories from Rutgers and he and I stayed up talking a bit after Mike went to bed.

Good times were had.

Tomorrow is Lab Thanksgiving and this marks the beginning of the holiday gorging that goes on until New Years. Exciting.

There really aren't that many fish in the sea.

I got excited when I saw this article and wanted to run down to the WholeFoods down the street. I haven't has Chilean Sea Bass in over 6 years. It's so tasty but after reading the article, I will have to continue abstaining. Oh well. Back to more tilapia and wild Alaskan salmon for me.

Here's a seafood guide if anyone was interested.

The Return of Vijay (and other stuff)

Dan and Vijay came over to our place and I wasn't feeling the best so we hung around the apt, waiting for Mike to leave work. We decided to look at Vijay's Nepal pics (many folders and half truths were involved). The pics were great though the lack of JomSom or Marpha shiaos were very disappointing. The plethora of pics resulted in Mike becoming very impatient and eventually breaking the laptop monitor. Now, I should state that this was his old Compaq one and so it wasn't in very good shale, but it was still usable! The laptop carnage got to be so bad that I sat mouth agape and protested. The three EE dorks were so excited (Dan was so set on dismembering the monitor and Mike was so proud to be using his amputated laptop now hooked up to our flat screen monitor. Vijay stood and laughed a lot.).

Because of this nonsense, we got a very late start to dinner-Cafe el Portal (my favorite Mexican place way downtown on Elizabeth St.) to celebrate Dan's book finishing accomplishment. Dinner was great and afterwards we walked all the way back uptown to the Apple store on 5th Ave and then over home.

The next morning, Vijay and I woke up and went to get breakfast. Afterwards I suggest we walk a bit and headed in the direction of the knitting store. On the way there, I told Vijay we should get cupcakes, because, well they are tasty. Then I told him of how I wanted to test all the cupcakes from the bakeries in my neighborhood but had no one to do it with. "Wow, that's so gross..." was his comment. Haha. Yeah... Well, we walked to Homemade where we bought 5 cupcakes, all of the attendant's picks. Walking back home, we past Crumbs and I made Vijay stop in where we purchased the attendant's top three picks (Caramel Apple, Hostess, Reeses) then I took Vijay home by way of Buttercup Bakery on 72nd. Here we got PB&J, Red Velvet, and Vanilla.

We got back to the apt, spread out the goods, prepared our palate cleansers of choice (Vijay-milk; me- tea), set up music (Nouvelle Vague) and got to work. We decided to try two kinds from each bakery but only half of each one, so in essence we had three full cupcakes (but let me tell you these things were DENSE).

Order of Tasting:
1. Chocolate frosting/yellow cake (Homemade)
2. Vanilla frosting/chocolate cake (Homemade)
3. PB&J (Buttercup)
4. Caramel Apple (Crumbs)
5. Red Velvet (Buttercup)
6. Reeses (Crumbs)

It definitely took me a while to recover from serious sugar coma.

Our comments can be seen here and pics here.

Even in my dreams grad school is ruining my life.

I have been in school for 22years. I have been a student for 22 years. It is the past 5 years that has really taken a toll on me. It might not be grad school itself, but maybe just getting older while watching your life not proceed in the forward direction (it's just kind of wading [treading in place] in general, that has made me tired with it all. As much as I complain, I really do like lab work and science...I would just like to be rewarded for my hard work once in a while...take a vacation for two weeks...get paid more...that sort of thing.

Anyway, I have my TRAC (thesis research advisory committee) next week and have been slowly preparing my write up and presentation. Last night I have a dream so vivid (yet so mundane) that it startles me and wakes me up due to hysterical crying. I dreamt there were all kinds of problems with getting to my TRAC meeting- PC to Mac conversion problems, the computers in lab and all the servers crash (therefore erasing and losing all my recent data and notes), my committee cannot approve of my project since:
A. I have not handed in my write up (because of the computer problems stated above)
B. They find me incompetent to answer questions (but it is because I am crying from losing all my data)which they have asked me to do in Korean (and I am so upset that I do not know how to say tumorigenesis in Korean).
C. They do not approve of my usage of the dogfish as an animal model. (I remember telling them in my dream that the dogfish is an evolutionary conserved animal of amphibian origins which has rudimentary stem cell development and vestigial ears [this really means nothing]).

In the end I am told I cannot graduate and that they, and my own PI, are appalled, really HORRIFIED, that I could even be considered a PhD candidate. I am hysterical and decided that this is devastating but I have to do my math problem sets and the laundry. I wake up and my eyes are encrusted with salt. This is at 4am. I could not go back to sleep. So I lay there, hoping that the write up I sent my mentor wasn't going to get ripped apart- but it probably will. And, OH NO! I left the gym clothes out on the clothes line and it is raining...All the while Mike is sleeping like a baby. How nice it must be to sleep so peacefully.

The mundane world is very scary.