Hello from the library!
I am feeling chipper this morning because Aaron and Dwight made a lot of room on my side of the bed last night and I got some good sleep.

So here I am at work, surfing one of those forums I told you about, and there's a thread that asks whether the current economy is affecting people's designer bag purchases. And here is what one of them said:

No, but the quality of Balenciaga has caused me to slow way down. Also I have been spending it on other things like showing my Tibetan Spaniel, Tim Cotterill bronze frogs, etc. However I just saw how much we lost the past 3 months due to the market *GULP* so maybe time to stop shopping and just enjoy going to the beach, on the boat, out to dinner etc. for a while.
Hope all those people that bought houses they could not afford and that we are now paying the price think twice next time. It's really a no brainer. If you make less than 50K a year, a 400K house is probably not a good idea. Gotta love good ole Fannie and Freddie.

Holy crapola! Tim Cotterill bronze frogs? Oh yes, good choice...and then put down people who make less than 50 K a year and buy an expensive house! I mean, not that buying a 400K house is a smart decision, but at least it provides shelter, which is more than can be said of her purchases. You try living on that salary and still pay off your boat!
And let me just say that, yes, I have fallen down the rabbit hole a bit, but thank god I don't know what Tim Cotterill bronze frogs are. I am not old enough to start collecting random nick nacks that are useless except to drive my future kids crazy when they have to clean up my "estate."

By the way, the guy that I am working with today (online tie guy) winked at me yesterday as I checked out a study room, and just bought me a donut and called me honey. And since he has a mustache that curls at the ends, and I believe, a wife, I find it all oddly charming.

While looking for my cardy uggs (boy is that a story to tell), I noticed that Oprah had them listed as one of her Top 10 Favorite things of 2008. The fact that I know anything at all about Oprah sickens me, because all I need to know is that she likes to take literary classics like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and act like she's "discovered" them for America. Sadly, (for America), she probably has for many people. Also, the only person who graces the cover of O magazine is...you guessed it, herself! (What other magazine does that???) And basically, she wants to rule the world.

Have you noticed the increased tinge of bitterness that now pervades my blog posts? I used to be happily cynical, now I feel like I am just angry cynical. I don't believe in a thing in the world except the people I know and love (which are few and far between...you know me), books, and creatures, and it has turned me into someone I don't quite recognize.
Shall I tell you more about it? Because I have quite a few embarrassing things to confess--I guess we could call them mental crutches, though they all really just revolve around one thing--shopping. It has become a problem. Not so much a money problem, but a mental problem. It bothers me that if I don't have something I am obsessed with buying or something on the way to me in the mail, I am bored with life and don't know what to do with myself. I actually started working again at the library to support my addiction, so that I can buy the occasional unnecessary item without affecting our budget.
In addition to shopping, I have all of a sudden become obsessed with fashion forums. Why?? I don't have any clue. I all of a sudden know who people such as Kim Kardashian and Ashley Tisdale are, and have opinions on how they dress. It's truly driving me insane. It's such a meaningless pursuit.
The thing is, clothes/shoes/bags are things that I can take an hour out of my life, go to the mall, and buy, that I can then carry around with me while I go through my boring days to keep me cozy and a modicum of entertained. Everything else takes too long--reading books, watching movies, going to the park, etc. These are all outings that I feel too guilty to take hours out of my day to do. And it is driving me absolutely insane.

If you can tell, I really really need this vacation.

In any case, I thought I should have a Top 10 Favorite Things of 2008 post as well. That's what I started out meaning to do, but now I'm too pissed to even do it. Maybe later. My brain feels like there's a fungus in it itching to get out. Oh wait, that fungus is med school.

I am at school catching up on lectures, and can I just say that I think Dr. A.R.D.N., M.D. is a smug bastard...not have rodents as pets my arse.

Grr. I am in a very bad mood because I am at school.

To say that I am not a morning person is like saying Jeffrey Dahmer was a bit antisocial...but the hot chocolate I was two minutes late to work for is helping my mood a lot.

It doesn't help to think about the sad $12 that I am making for waking up this early, especially since it is about 30 degrees outside.

I love mousies! Even ones that eat the cereal in your cupboard.

Currently working at the library, and the guy working with me is looking at buying ties online. Yup, it gets pretty boring here.

I'm skipping class right now because I left during my lunch hour for a cd buying date--the new Killers cd, w/ Jen S. And then we went to Panera bread for lunch and I got back to campus late and hate walking into class late, so I decided I would just skip the hour.
I listened to the first 4 songs only on the way here--track 1 was good, track 2, eh...track 3 amazing! track 4 great but with strange sax solos that are reminiscent of cheesy disco. We'll see, though, because I initially hated Sam's Town for being so bombastic, but now, it's one of my favorite cds of all time. Brandon Flowers' voice is sexy as usual.

Aaron and I went to Houston this weekend to get Dwight used to Aaron's dad's place since that is where he will be staying for 10 days while we are in Taiwan. Dwight didn't like the fact that he could not get up on the couch to sit next to us at all, and by the last night there, he had taken to sitting up facing us on the couch and laying his head in our laps with his eyes closed. He seemed like the saddest dog in the world. But when he goes next time, we will be sure to bring his chair and his dog bed so he won't feel so restless.
The good news is, I feel quite secure leaving Dwight with A's dad, because there is very little chance that Dwight will get lost, at least.

I will be very glad when this school day is over because tomorrow's classes should be easy, and then the weekend begins. eek! I need this. Bad.

Something I realized this weekend, that I probably already knew, is that white people like to hug a lot. To the point that it might be considered borderline rude if you do not hug them. I'm not really used to this, and despite the fact that modern Americans (probably bc most of them are white) believe that part of being a good parent is showing your child a lot of physical love, I only remember being hugged twice in my life by my dad, and once by my mom. I will probably be the same way, since I have this phobia of the warm soft feeling of human skin. It's not so bad once you're doing it (hugging, that is) but I find it hard to make the initial plunge. It just seems so personal. The only person who I rarely have a problem hugging is Aaron. And of course, animals of all shapes and sizes. But anyways, I have learned that the key to keeping Aaron's mom happy is to offer to hug her a lot, which is a small price to pay. Quite a good discovery.

Yes, I am weirder than most. Can't help it, really.

Supposed to be studying (or better, sleeping) at this time of morning, but here is a link to some excessively!! cute lab pups that are purebred but have wierd coloring. My faves are the brindled ones, and the ones w/ a band or random splotch of black on them like an inkstain. Delightful!

Winter mornings are the bane of my existence unless I am cuddled up in bed w/ boy or dog.

I hate waking up early and thus having to drink coffee and thus being unnaturally present in spirit and talkative to random people, because once I get home, I inevitably feel like I have said a dozen tiny wrong things and then must think about them for a long, useless time.
That's what happened today, but I am home now, and am looking forward to Aaron getting home from work so we can continue Season 3 of the X files a bit, before I have to go to a friend's place and have her teach me how to read EKGs.

Lately I have been thinking a lot about Bully, this PS2 game I played two years back. It's wierd how much this game means to me--I first played it during my first year here, and I spent hours on it wishing I could live in the little town that the game takes place in and just ride my bike around and do tricks (which of course was quite easy in the game) and collect blue rubber bands. And I was enamored with my character, who I painstakingly customized. This is what he looked like:



And incidentally, this or a version of this has been what I've been wearing for the past 2 weeks.



I call it my teamster outfit. And when I want to channel my character especially, I wear a green sweater that is quite like the one he has on in the pic. If I could do a 'hawk and dye the tips red too, I would.

Aaron just called one of my annoyed groans a "primordial groan." The groan occurred because he forgot to leave the keyring full of store discount cards in the car, and instead brought it home, where we will surely forget it the next time we need to go to Kroger's.

I have been reading a book called Go Go Girls of the Apocalypse that I got from the library at the same time as my Stephen King books (which I loved. Reading new Stephen King books is like hearing the voice of a familiar person after a long absence.) Go Go Girls of the Apocalypse, however, sort of sucks. I feel like I should have known it would by the catchy, overly-marketable title. But I didn't know. I think the problem is I expected it to describe a dark apocalypse, but the author is pretty upbeat about everything even when describing murders and rapes. I can almost imagine him sitting in front of his computer drinking a whiskey sour and giggling into his hand whenever he writes a paragraph he considers especially tongue-in-cheek. He just thinks he is a little too clever. Too bad he has mostly 5 star ratings on Amazon. Grr.

Aaron and I saw a well-dressed lady at Petsmart today with a really well-muscled female pit mix on a choke chain. We took notice of her because from the way she looked, she did not look like the type of person to own a pit at all. We caught her in the pet clothes aisle putting a hoodie on her dog to see if she should buy it. After she adjusted the hood around the dog's head, she gently took the dog's chin in her hand and looked earnestly in to her eyes, as if she were asking the dog, "Do you like eet?" Since I later saw her trying out another dog jacket, I assume the dog told her, "Thanks mama, but I'm not so sure about eet."
I loved seeing a pit be so spoiled. Other than Dwight, that is.

Other things I have enjoyed this weekend:
1. Rock Star party at a friend's place
2. Going to the salvation army to pick up a comforter for our winter feral cat hideout. Now that the ferals are in the backyard constantly, we weatherproofed a crate for them to stay warm in.

In other dog news, Aaron's dad's dog Lucy passed this last week. It's sad to think about someone having to come home to an empty house after getting used to being greeted by a wet nosicle every day for the past 12 years. R.I.P Lucy

Aaron & I rearranged the place again this weekend. I was starting to feel claustrophobic, and we needed more space. So we basically moved everything back to how it used to be except that our new poang ikea chair is where Dwight's crate used to be and Dwight's crate is now on the other side of the sofa.
The first night after the rearrange, when A told Dwight to go to bed, Dwight went over to the poang chair and looked around, like, "Well, I know this configuration of furniture, and this is where my bed should be!" Because that was where his crate was when he first came to live with us almost 2 years ago, and that was where it stayed for about a year. And he still remembered! Bizarre.

I had a great weekend. I had sushi with another Jennifer on Saturday, and it was great--the company and the food.
On Saturday, A & I went to Ikea to eat and browse this time, to make up for our blitzkreig shopping on Tuesday night when we purchased our poang chair (I should have been studying but couldn't make myself, so we figured we might as well do something out of the ordinary, and we've been looking to get a reading nook chair for a while.)
But by the time we decided we would go, it was 8:00 pm and Ikea closes at 9. And it takes about 40 minutes to get there. But, in those 20 minutes before closing, we decided between the poang chair and a considerably more expensive chair that happened to be in the As-Is department and was about $500 cheaper than usual, and also picked up a new slipcover for our couch from the as-is dept for $10. We are efficient shoppers.

I also have a theory about an Avril Lavigne song, but I will lay it out in another post.

halloween!

More at my flickr site.

Me and Dwight just went and had lunch at Jimmy John's! I had a free sub coupon, and I figured it would be Jimmy John's's birthday present to me. Dwight waited for me outside while I ordered my sandwich, and then sat next to me while I ate. He was super good and calm, even when a guy and his golden retriever came and sat at the table right next to us. It helped that I had a delicious meaty sandwich for him to focus on, I think.

I got an awesome birthday package from my sister yesterday, containing:
-tragic royalty playing cards: the royalty cards look zombie-ish in a Tim Burton way, and they glow under black light. overkill of cool.
-two glitter nail polishes (!!)
-two pairs of aerie underwear
-fun dip: every time I think about fun dip, I think of the scene in freaks&geeks when millie is eating fun dip while waiting for the school bus in the morning, and desario comes along in his trans-am (?) and double dips with his finger.
-25 free itunes songs that she got from ACL
-and...I'm sure I'm missing something, but I will add a picture of it later.



And from Aaron, who I made give me my present at midnight last night, got me a western looking leather belt with my name engraved on the back in cool font. It looks awesome and Killers-ish.

Random Gifts that the universe gave me:
1. The Killers tix for Dallas go on sale tomorrow morning.
2. My JImmy John's free sub card made its way to my desk just this week.
3. My tracking number started working today for my T&D bag, so it's just a matter of time till I get it!!
4. The library had, in its new books section, the new book by Stephen King.
5. I got a really nice and unexpected smile and "Good Luck" today from a friend in class before the test, which cheered me up.
6. When Aaron and I went to Ikea on Tuesday, we found a couch cover for our couch in the As Is area for only $10. Regularly, it's $200-300! Needless to say, we got it.

And I finished a test today, so the weekend is mine to spend however I want. I went to the library straight after the test and got 5 fat books to read, and it feels so luxurious to look at them.

I am not even going to worry about how I did on that test, and this is the last time I'll think about it for the next 72 hours, at least. It is just too hard to tell how I did on these tests.

Perhaps...studio movie grill and changeling tonight?

a whole day of entertaining myself

Aaron is at a friend's wedding today, which I had to skip in order to study. I didn't realize until last night (he left this morning) that I might not get that much studying done anyways, since I would have to deal with the dog all day.

dealing with the dog =
1. sitting on the floor, happily studying on the coffee table. feel wet nose encroaching upon arm. see flashcards and papers fall to ground, having been pushed by wet nose.
2. now, forced to sit on couch with said dog pressed tightly against my thigh, try to balance textbooks and notebooks precariously. have mini heart-attack as dog suddenly leaps up and barks in panic at voices outside.
3. watch dog, finally sleeping peacefully, start feeling quite tired, curl up next to dog and take a 3 hour nap.
4. repeat.

So, to prevent this much-feared chain of events, I set out to tire the dog out. Studied in the morning in bed. He did whine for 30 minutes but then went back to sleep and gave me a blissful 2 hours of uninterrupted study time. Get up, get dressed, play with him in yard for 15 minutes until the edge wears off. Come home, pick up keys, etc., stop at McDonald's for lunch, then dog park to wear him out so he will sleep for rest of day. Yell at him at dog park for eating throw up and drinking muddy puddle water. The problem was, the process of tiring him out tired me out as well.

Of course, it is all worth it to have my little old man-dog as my constant companion. I took him with me to Pizza Hut, even, to pick up my dinner--mac and cheese tuscani pasta with bacon. I go all out when Aaron's not here, obviously.

Oh and I just chewed a piece of gum that really upset my stomach. grumblegrumble.

Can I just say...I think this chimp might be my soul mate. This is exactly how I like to hold Dwight!



Ah, primates and our need for ventral-to-ventral contact.

I've noticed that since school started, all of my posts have been about school. This really must stop.

One political/mere observation thing. I have seen a lot of SUVs on the road these days with McCain stickers...which is to be expected, seeing as it's Dallas. Quite a bit more colorful, however, is the couple I saw while Aaron and I were *edit: driving around in Austin with my sister and Jordan*, sitting in their front yard with a McCain 2008 sign and another sign that proclaimed that Democrats are "Socialests". Very sad. If I were so serious about my opinion that I would make such a statement in such a public venue (they were right next to the highway...well they were that day, who knows where they'll park their trailer tomorrow?) I would do a dictionary check on those words I'm not quite sure of the spelling on.
This is partly in response to Jordan's newest post.

Yesterday we took Dwight on a walk in the West Village as part of our "socialize Dwight better" campaign. I'm glad to report he is losing his fear of railings and learning to further control his urge to pull on the leash.
We had one rocker-ish lady croon "Sweet baby" as we walked by (I enjoy people ogling my dog more than I enjoyed it when hispanic guys would yell similar things to me from their hoopties and make kissie noises).
Dwight also met this middle-aged Indian guy who was walking with his wife. I was happy about this because we were standing off to the side of the sidewalk, with Dwight in a sit to let a bunch of people pass. At first when I saw them coming toward us, I thought the couple seemed a little leery of Dwight, but as the guy passed him he said "pitbull" in an affectionate voice and sort of petted Dwight, and then stopped to ask us Dwight's name and got licked by Dwight. It was cute, and I like it when people surprise me in a good way.
We also saw a huge harlequin great dane leashless crossing the street with his/her owner. It was nerve wracking because I felt like at any moment this horse sized dog could come bounding over and freak Dwight out. I don't think he's ever met a great dane.
Oh! and last thing about the dog, I promise, we went to the dog park this weekend as well and Dwight met another pitbull, and they licked each other in the mouth incessantly. Must be a pit thing. Dwight does this to all other dogs, and the only dogs that have seemed to like it and even returned the favor have been pits or pit mixes.

Finally, Aaron promised in his blog that I would relate to you the details of our fight with the neighbors. I wasn't planning on doing it because it was making me sick to my stomach every time I thought about it, but I feel better about it now, so I will relate to you the conversation in script form, as precisely as possible.

Scene: Aaron and I in our house on a Saturday night. I am upstairs. I hear some racket outside and Aaron go out the front door. Dwight and I wait anxiously at the front door, wondering what is going on. Aaron comes back inside.

J: What's going on?
A: I heard some footsteps running by outside, so I went out there to see what was going on. It's those guys in the corner, chasing away the cats. I saw one of them disappear into their house, and heard him say, "That was fun."
J: Wha--

Aaron walks outside again, I turn off the living room light so I can properly spy out of our front window. I see the man who we will hereby call "The Asshole" coming out of his house with his white fluffy dog. He mumbles something at Aaron and walks away. Aaron flicks him off as he walks away, but his back is turned so he doesn't see.
Aaron comes back in.

A: It was that guy, the asshole.
J: Well, shouldn't we just go out there and tell them that the cats are neutered?
A: I don't know...should we?

I storm out, see the Asshole's partner, who we will hereby call the Fatty even though he is not so fat, just fatter than his partner the Asshole, and that is what Aaron has been calling him.

J (normal voice but with anger barely reigned in): Hi, I just wanted to let you know that those cats are neutered, so if they cause any problems, please just let us know and we will take care of it.
F: Ok. We know all about kittico and all that, and I know you and your husband are upset, and my partner would be the first to apologize.
J: Ok, well I just wanted to let you know. (makes move to walk away)
F: Well I know you're upset right now, but my name is Fatty and my partner's name is Asshole. We've lived here about as long as you have, and I guess we have never really talked.

editor's note: I had small-talked to Asshole a couple times, and had just said hello to both of them earlier that day. Also, we witnessed them having a loud fight in the courtyard a few weekends ago, in which one of them was apparently making the other one move out.

J: Ok.
F: And your name is?
J: Jennifer
F: And your husband's name?
J: Aaron

Asshole walks up, back from walking his dog.

AH (in loud, drunk, obnoxious voice): Um, what is going on here? Are they angry at me for chasing away some stray cats?!
J: I was just telling your partner here that those cats are neutered and part of a feral colony, which is legal in Dallas.
AH: Oh we know all about Kittico! But I looked it up on the internet, and Kittico is all about catching them, neutering them, and dropping them off somewhere AWAY from here.

editor's not: no, it's not. Kittico's website expressly tells people not to drop off cats elsewhere.

J: No, it's not. (looks confused)

Anyways, it goes on from there...here are a few choice excerps:

ONE
F: I mean, I get the granola...No offense to you guys, I mean, I used to work at Whole Foods.
J: What are you talking about, I don't even shop at Whole Foods.
AH: Oh bless your little heart, bless your little heart.
A: What does Whole Foods have anything to do with what we're talking about, we're talking about the cats, and you are busy stereotyping us.
F: I mean, you guys have a sticker saying Fast food kills on your window.

editor's note: the sticker is from a movie promotion, has a hamburger with fangs and says, "Eat fast, die young." Obviously, something totally up Aaron's alley...we eat fast food all the time as anyone who actually knows us can attest.

A: That's a movie promotional item!

TWO
F: You guys have never come around and communicated with anyone about these cats being neutered.
J: Well, I had no idea that anyone had a problem with them, seeing as no one has come to let us know. I didn't think anyone would have a problem with being nice to animals! (editor's note: I know, I sound like a 12 yr old. This is what they reduced me to.)
F: Well, you live long enough around gay guys and you'll realize that everyone's got a problem.
A&J: Oh, so now you want us to stereotype gay people and believe that they all hate animals?!
F: (pointing to a bunch of different ppl's doors) They're not gay, they're not gay, and we've talked to all of them and they all have a problem with you feeding those cats.

editor's note: I have never seen F&AH talk to anyone in the complex, and we are always out and about. We have talked to their neighbors, Mike and Joe, who actually took in two of the strays who used to be owned by a hispanic family who abandoned them when they moved. Mike and Joe are the ones who probably told F&AH about Kittico in the first place. Oh, and Mike said they were assholes.

F: LIsten, we are all really upset right now, but once he calms down, my partner will be the first to apologize about chasing the cats.
AH: No I will not, let me just say one thing, I will continue to chase STRAY cats away.

Grr. Anyways, this script form is tiring me out. Basically, the only thing they could come up with is that they let their cat outside, and don't want their cat to get diseases and fleas and ticks from our strays. I was like, if you're worried about your cat, you can keep him inside. And there's fleas and ticks just on the ground. And the cats are neutered so they're not going to fight their cat and thus, will not give the cat any diseases.
I mean, in my opinion, if you think your housecat needs to be outside sometimes to have a better life, then you have to deal with the risks of it being outside. It could get hit by a car, or any number of things. Everyone else cannot change their habits just to protect your cat, who is your responsibility. Anyways, there's a leash law for cats and dogs, and an exception for feral colonies.
Anyways, we moved the kitties' feeding place into the backyard and cut a little hole in the fence for them to get in and out. I am adding a door today, to make the hole as discreet as possible. We would have done this a long time ago if anyone had had the balls to come and tell us they had a problem with the cats.

I sort of hoped the guy would make it a habit of running off the cats, so one Saturday night I could string up some steel wire close to the ground and trip his animal-hating ass. It's not so much that he's mean to the cats, it's that he thinks he has the right to run back and forth in front of our doorway and make a racket and be a general jackass.
But he has not chased the cats again, despite vowing to.

Ok, now I'm worked up again, I will go make some flashcards to calm down.

Things I'm looking forward to:
1. My NBF package, which should arrive this or next week.
2. Camera Aaron's dad is getting for Aaron

Waking up at this hour is so unholy.

Oh I forgot to mention that I am really in need of a night of drunken debauchery. Really really in need.

Tequila, heal my wounds.

I have started many a post in the last week, and not been able to finish them.

But just a quick post now, to tell you of my phlebotomy orientation this morning at 6 am. We had to practice taking blood on each other, which I totally do not agree with. And I apparently had good reason to not agree with it, because my turn at being drawn by someone else ended in a spray of blood that made it at least a foot from my arm. The girl even got it in her hair. I just squeaked a bit in surprise, concentrated on not fainting, and told her I didn't have any wierd diseases, so not to worry. She looked at me as if she didn't believe me.

So, I had a great morning. And I'm going to love the next week, with shifts from 5-8am until Friday.

My life sucks. Yours?

On a brighter note, I should know by Wednesday when my new bag should arrive, and Aaron and I bought Dwight a new collar w/ skulls and bones stamped on it from etsy.com, and it should arrive this week as well. Retail therapy may be wrong, but it gives me something to look forward to other than the miserable school experience.

Oh what a week I've had.
It's really all my own doing, due to being so burned out after my tests on tuesday and wednesday that I did not immediately start studying again on thursday and friday. So by the weekend I was behind and by the middle of the week last week I was hopelessly behind. I am showing all the symptoms of depressive syndrome. I sleep late, wake up late, and then four hours later, am so tired I need a two hour nap. And I seriously can't stand to even look at anyone other than Aaron and Dwight. I can't concentrate!!
This is how it was at the worst of first year, and I'm only four weeks in to this year.
Grr. I am determined to catch up though.
The only bright spot in my day today was that the dwight-toys I ordered off Amazon using my coinstar giftcard came in the mail. A kong wubba, and two orbee balls--the standard globe ball and a glow in the dark one. Score!

Now if only my mysterious NBF purchase would arrive. I really must tell you about that sometime.

Did you know that it is possible to get a dog hair splinter? Aaron came in from walking the dog and said he had a dog hair splinter and I totally did not believe him until I got it out myself and it was a hair!
Then I googled it. Apparently, hair splinters are more common than one would think.

Here is a link to a case report of a diabetic woman who had a hair splinter and didn't even know it: http://thefootblog.org/2006/11/16/foreign-body-hair-abscess-of-the-foot-a-case-report/

It caused an abscess. Don't forget to look at the pictures!

I've had a super crazy week, because I had two tests, two days in a row.
So, I've been keeping up, like I promised myself I would, which consists of reading the lecture before going to class, and then writing out a summary of the lecture after class. Then, I memorize the summaries before the test. This system has basically reduced my free time to about 2 hours and 30 minutes each day. It totally sucks. But if I keep up, then I don't have the dread in the back of my mind that I'm behind and might fail the test during times when I actually get to have fun. Which really ruins any fun that might have been had.
So this past weekend was the weekend before my two tests (immunology and pharmacology). On Friday, I took off from studying, and Aaron and I went to Appleby's to try their all-you-can-eat meals. Aaron had a chicken fingers meal and I ended up forgoing the all-you-can-eat and had mini burgers. Funny thing is, they must have had some sort of training in regards to this all-you-can-eat promotion, because they had a system down. The first helping, they would bring the chicken fingers and dipping sauce with a side of cole slaw and some french fries. The second helping they cut out the cole slaw and just brought chicken fingers and fries and dipping sauce. The third helping, they didn't bring any dipping sauce, only chicken and fries. Shady, right? And then we came home and watched a movie from Blockbuster and stayed up really late, because I was not willing to end my no-study day.
Saturday, we woke up at 3 p.m. Ridiculous. I couldn't stomach the thought of starting to study the minute I woke up, so I convinced Aaron to go to a Shoe Pavilion clearance to possibly look at some shoes. Just as we were about to leave, we got a call from Andi and Jeff inviting us to dinner and to go to an art show put on by some kids from the school where Jeff teaches. So we ended up doing that. We went to the Bishop Arts District, which sounds much more artsy than it is, or at least it sounds much larger than it really is. It's about two blocks of independent stores--a store that sells soda from all around the world, an organic pet store that had no good toys for Dwight at all, and a bunch of cafes and restaurants. We ate at a tapas cafe and had really good fried goat cheese, crochettes, and chicken in sherry sauce. Yum. But the waiter was a little condescending and obviously wanted us to order more so his tip would be larger.
Needless to say, I got basically zero studying done Saturday. Which I reasoned with myself was ok, since I had already done so much studying I would've gotten an A in any college class.
Sunday and Monday, I studied, but it was a struggle. I started getting sick on Monday, and I took the Immuno test on Tuesday morning after two hours of sleep the night before and with a sore throat and stuffed up sinuses. Then, I went home and took a nap, and then went to dinner w/ Aaron at Central Market. Well, he had Central Market macaroni and cheese, and I had Panda Express from across the street--fried rice, orange chicken, and egg flower soup (following the feed a cold, starve a fever adage.) After dinner, I started studying for Pharmacology. I took the test Wednesday morning at 8 am, still sick, and with only 2 hours of sleep the night before again. I felt like shit.

Anyways, I got my grades back today. 76 on my immuno test (which I spent 30+ hours in total studying). That is 7 points below average. 83 on my pharm test, which I spent 5 hours studying. 10 points above average.
There is just no telling on these tests. It is ridiculous.
All I can say is, at least I passed. I do not understand people who worry about getting an A.

I am really craving some tapas right now.
And I am still sick.

And I can't wait for my package to come in. A designer-inspired Balenciaga motorcycle bag. After this, I am quitting. I never thought I would love handbags so much, much less designer ones.

Today I found a hard round turd in Dwight's crate. I had let him out for the morning, and was studying downstairs while he annoyed the heck out of me by nosing all of my pens off the table, whining, and ringing the bell in an attempt to get me to take him on his morning walk. This was all normal. But I noticed he kept walking into his crate and sniffing the back of it, whining, and then walking back out. I figured maybe he threw up in the middle of the night and was looking for remnants to re-eat. (I know, it's gross, but in the beginning I would clean out his cage every time he threw up by hosing out his blankets in the backyard, and he would spend the rest of the day ringing the bell, asking to be let out in the backyard to re-consume the disgusting chunks in the backyard grass. So I just decided to make it easier on both of us and let him clean up after himself. Dogs in the wild do it...why not.)
But he seemed so disturbed by whatever was in the back of his crate, that I finally got up to see what was bothering him. I look into the cave of his crate, and see a small mass in the back of it. Piece of chewed blanket? Rubber tire? Luckily, I go to the kitchen to grab a paper towel before getting it out, and then realized it was a turd. A hard turd with little teeth marks on it like he tried to get rid of the evidence. I go out to the dumpster to throw it out, and when I got back, he seemed really grateful. Like, he sat down on the couch next to me and licked my arm really hard, for a really long time. He usually is not so affectionate when it is just me and him, for some reason he only feels relaxed enough to cuddle when we are all home, maybe because I am so stressed in the mornings thinking of everything I have to do before I leave the house, which stresses him out too. So I think he really was grateful that I took care of his accident for him.

Anyways, that was a really long exposition on Dwight's turd. But, such is the content of my day. Unless you would like to hear about sitting in class and dozing off, and chewing gum, and drawing on margins, and dozing off...

At this very moment, I would love to go to a comfy, dark bar, with a good amount of other people in it, and drink a gin and juice. With my fakie spy bag. That bag adds such spice to life.

I have been spending a lot of time browsing flickr lately. It's interesting to search certain words and see various people's interpretations of those words. Like, type in 'comfy' and you will find people in hoodies, or dogs on couches. Or 'bedside table' and see what people have on their bedside tables. Or 'purse' and see what people carry in their purses.
It is quite satisfying, and I feel like I am able to vicariously live a thousand moments in different places.

I have recently upgraded to a new (to me) cell phone that I got from craigslist. It was a super deal, only $60. I knew I was probably going to get a pretty good deal when Aaron and I walked up to the Starbucks where we were meeting, and there were two women sitting in front, with a Fendi Spy sitting on the table next to them. I'm assuming it was a realy Fendi, seeing as if it weren't they would have set it on the floor. Only real Fendis get table treatment.

Dwight loving on Zillah, Andi and Jeff's cat.



Speaking of which, Dwight found us a dollar bill the other day. It was laying off to the side of the sidewalk where we were walking him, and he started sniffing at it. I thought it was a wild mushroom or poop (both of which he likes to eat) and so started pulling him away. But then I noticed it was a dollar. He must've been smelling the millions of hands it's had been held by in its lifetime. So I told him "Good dog!" and waved it in front of his nose so he would be sure to point out more if he ever came upon one again.

By the way, I just added the picture of my tube sock bike on a previous post, but I waited too long, and now the post is not on the first page anymore. So here's a link to the post if you're curious.

Hello all! I'm here to tell you of my new obsession. I don't know what my deal is lately but I think my estrogen levels are kicking in...it must be the birth control. It's been too long since my hormones have been at their natural levels. Or maybe it's bitchy, yuppy Dallas getting to me. Anyways, here it is, the Pleated Fendi Spy in Cognac.



Just looking at it brings to mind the image of a cool English morning, with the delicate scent of lilacs in the air. Beautiful.

You see what I mean? I have gone absolutely crazy. I didn't used to know anything about clothes, etc., and now, in the short span of 3 months, I have been obsessed with $200 sandals, and (I'm embarassed to say) this $6000 bag that is so rare that even if I had the money, I would not be able to find it. Nor, do I think, would I actually spend the money if I had it...but you never know. Love is a many-splendored thing.

Aaron and I went to The Cavern last night to see some friends of his from college play. Their band is called Whitman, and I have a shirt of theirs that says, "My heroes have always been Indians." I still smell like smoke because I am taking a page out of Josephine's book and have not showered. Dwight also smells like smoke because we were cuddling last night when Aaron and I got home.
It was great getting to hear them, and for some reason the bar or the music or something, made me miss Austin so much--driving across the bridge over Town Lake...for some reason that stretch of road is what I tend to think of when I miss Austin. That, and walking at night with Aaron around the fountain near the art buildings. I think Aaron actually went into it once, when challenged.

Did you know that Josephine's full name was Marie-Josephe-Rose de Beauharnais? She was called Rose until Napoleon came along, and decided he didn't like it, and called her Josephine instead.

I am sitting here with Dwight on one side, and an electric fly swatter on the other, just in case any of those infernal mosquitos bother us. I already killed one, and it fell onto the couch next to me, where I left it for a few minutes, and then went to go pick it up. Lo and behold, it flew away when I touched it! Apparently the batteries need to be changed.

Breaking Dawn tonight! Woo-hoo!!!!!!!!

I have just discovered Napoleon Bonaparte's love letters to his wife Josephine. Here is one he apparently wrote when he woke up, to tell her he would see her later in the day.

Dec. 29, 1795

I awake all filled with you. Your image and the intoxicating pleasures of last night, allow my senses no rest.

Sweet and matchless Josephine, how strangely you work upon my heart.

Are you angry with me? Are you unhappy? Are you upset?

My soul is broken with grief and my love for you forbids repose. But how can I rest any more, when I yield to the feeling that masters my inmost self, when I quaff from your lips and from your heart a scorching flame?

Yes! One night has taught me how far your portrait falls short of yourself!

You start at midday: in three hours I shall see you again.

Till then, a thousand kisses, mio dolce amor! but give me none back for they set my blood on fire.

In another one of his letters, he apparently tells her to stop bathing five days before his arrival because he found her body odor sexy. Now that's love.

From cuteoverload.com, for you people who do not check it religiously, is a bebeh who is dreaming of nursing.


And...a howling pup.


In other news, I've decided that I'm going balls to the walls this next year for school, and treat it like a full time job. All the better to get it over and done with, with no possibilities of wasting more time. And maybe I won't hate it as much if I'm not constantly trying to get out of doing stuff. Three more years of laying down with the devil, and then hopefully an increased ability to get a cushy textbook job that could eventually become stay-at-home or something....I just don't think I'm cut out for the work force.
I feel like a lot of the reason I got burned out of school is because I ended up losing sight of what I wanted out of it. It's really hard to remember that I want an M.D. degree for reasons other than practicing medicine, when everyone else is there bragging about how badly they want to start working with 'real' patients, and profs are starting to groom you for ward work.

This past weekend, Jimmy & his fiance Kendra came up to visit for Aaron's birthday. We went to the jfk museum, ate out a lot, Aaron showed Jimmy GTA4, and on Sat night we went to the midnight movie at the Inwood theater, which was the 2nd Mad Max. I think Kendra quite disliked it, though we agreed that the feral kid was an amazing character. When the credits in the beginning showed 'feral kid' and the name of the kid who played him, I assumed it was just a nickname for an adult, but I still elbowed Aaron. Then, when I saw the real feral kid for the first time, it was totally amazing, and I was surprised that it took me 24 years to discover Mad Max. Of course, the Australian cattle dog that rode w/ him didn't hurt either.

Life is pretty boring right now, I need to work on getting Aaron and I passports before the school years starts, and am waiting for a cell phone repair from Sony Ericsson. But I'm looking forward to getting cheesecake tonight w/ a friend, and the Breaking Dawn release party on Friday at Borders. I will be up all night reading it, too...me and all the other 14 year old girls in Dallas. I am definitely more excited about this than the last Harry Potter.

Aaron insists that I have terrible taste in women...but right now I have such a crush on Maggie Gyllenhaal after Dark Knight, and...I don't think I'm wrong.
Maggie, if loving you is wrong, I don't want to be right.



and...I guess your brother is not too bad either.

nothing to do in Dallas after 9 pm. so bored. suffocating and panicked.
help!

I just got Jordan's "dear jennifer" post, so I suppose I will try to squeeze one out. ; ) a blog, i mean, of course!
Today I had to brave the UT Southwestern campus to return the key to my carrel which was due about a month and a half ago. But it totally slipped my mind because I finished a month earlier than everyone else in my year, cleaned out my carrel, and then apparently blocked out any and all further obligations to that hellhole. So today I had to ruin the pristine slate of my summer and go to campus to turn it in. I tried to make it bearable, though, by wearing my most revealing summer dress (which used to be my sister's of course) and my ultra chic gladiator sandals.
Oh! by the way, I guess I never told you that I did end up getting some that I love even more than the $200 Matt Bernson ones. At Old Navy. Ridiculous!

Anyway, so that chore is done, so I can enjoy what's left of the summer, at least. I desperately want to go on a cruise with Aaron, but they are expensive, and I cannot find anyone I would trust Dwight with for a week and a half, that would be willing to dogsit. Grr. I need to make more dog-lover friends.

Speaking of Dwight, he has been quite a turd lately. I think he is feeling spoiled. So I must re-institute my NILIF regimen, as well as increase his exercise allotment. His limp has gotten better, which is a good thing, but I am still getting used to the resulting increase in hyper-ness.

Well, in other news, Aaron has some friends coming this weekend to celebrate his birthday with him, and I am working on cleaning the spare room. I have done quite a good job already if I do say so myself, and I have gone in there just to admire my work at least twice in the last 24 hours.

On the list of other things I am proud of, I stayed up late one night last week when I was feeling especially restless, and figured out how to put the rear derailleur back onto my bike. Aaron and I had taken apart this bike last year while I was still in school, to re-paint it, but we got distracted by other projects, and ended up with pieces of bike all over the house. But while I was in Houston having my wisdom teeth surgery, Aaron finished painting the bike for me, and put it mostly together, leaving the front and back derailleurs for me to do. And I did it!
So I will have a good bike to ride to school next year. Hopefully it will be easier and faster than my Hoffman bike, which was never really meant for distance riding.



Don't you think it looks like a tube sock?

list of other things coming up...
1. alkaline trio concert tomorrow night
2. waiting for a book I ordered from amazon to get here
3. waiting for Aaron's Vans purchase to get here
4. August 2nd, Stephenie Meyer's Breaking Dawn gala at the bookstore!

I've been pretty lucky w/ money lately...I have three instances as evidence.
1. I may have mentioned this before, but I've always like those dog beds with the walls, and I wanted to get Dwight one. But they're typically really expensive. Well, we finally found on at Target on sale for $26, I think, but when we brought it up to the cash register, it rung up as $6.
2. I recently went to Urban Outfitters and saw a purse I liked. It was on sale for $29.99, which I felt was still pretty expensive for a purse. So I decided I would buy it for now, take it home and try it on with some clothes to see if I really liked it. But, when I brought it up to the register, it rung up as $10.
3. Today, me and Aaron went to Petsmart to return some glucosamine tablets that we had bought for Dwight. They were $46.99 when we bought them. When the lady was making the refund, for some reason it rung up as $54.99. I told her she was refunding us too much, but she didn't seem to care. So we made $10 out of nothing! Score.

That is $50 worth of profit there. Not to sound like Uncle Moneybags.

I'm back in Dallas after a long stint in Houston. The worst thing about going back to Houston now is the extremely stressful necessity to be political and tactful about dealing with everyone's family in an acceptable way. Planning when to see who and where is like executing a battle plan. For me, it's not stressful to worry about when to hang out with my family as much as it is stressful to worry about who's going to get offended on Aaron's side if they don't get enough time with him/us.
Grr.
So I am having a much needed break from social interaction, and am spending my time downloading ebooks illegally. Oh dear, now that I've said that the government will be breaking down my door in exactly five minutes after I publish this post.
I am in the middle of the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer, and it is riveting.

School starts August 11. I've decided to go back and finish up (if three more years could be called finishing up), and the countdown to dread starts now.

Ahh, the internet. I have missed you during my 3 days of absence. I will relate to you what I have done in those three days.

On Thursday, we left Dallas late, at 5:30, late of course, and headed to Houston to pick up Aaron's cousin Becca. Once we picked her up, we took her on a midnight run to Taco Cabana. We were in trouble when we got to Aaron's grandparents' beach house, since we took too long to get there.
Then, after everyone went to bed (around 2:30 am), we took Becca and Dwight on a late night trip to the beach to introduce Dwight to the ocean for the first time. He was very brave, and didn't mind the ocean too much, even though it got his feet wet, and he hates that. He was actually very brave about many new things this trip, and didn't balk too much about stairs and bridges.
Then, the next morning we got up early, took Dwight to the beach again on the golf cart so I could see his reaction to it in the daytime, and then hurried back to decorate the golf cart for the 4th of July parade. Becca did not entirely appreciate her granddad's involvement in the decorations...but we made it to the parade anyway, and it was fun. I got to drive very slowly to Stewart's mansion, where we got watermelon and hot dogs and sodas.
Then, we went back to the beach house, and me and Aaron headed for the beach, right as it started raining. We got in the ocean anyways, and it was really surreal to feel the warm salt water around us, and the cold painful raindrops from above. We ran back to the house and took a hot shower in the outside shower thing. Aaron said my back was all red from the raindrops hitting it.
That night, we went back to Houston, and picked up my mom to meet my sister and Jordan and Tyler and Lauren (Jordan's siblings) at the fireworks thing at Eleanor Tinsley park around 7:30. We saw a frog as we were walking down to where they were sitting, and we were worried about it getting squished by the crowd, so Aaron and I saved it! I caught it (my first time touching a frog) and we put it in a plastic bag and let it go outside of the fence, where it started hopping towards the river.
After the fireworks, we went to Whataburger.

The rest of the weekend was a lot of juggling and politics about who gets to spend time with who when. Which is always quite tiring. So I am glad to be back at home with my family.

Oh, one last thing, is that poor Dwight got bit by a tiny little schnauzer. It was quite a spectacle, I'm sure, since there were three schnauzers running around him, and one latched onto his armpit and was viciously shaking his head while his teeth were attached to Dwight's skin (so I'm told). I couldn't tell what was going on, and didn't notice Dwight was being bit but heard a lot of growling, and assumed unfairly that it was Dwight growling at the other dogs, and so I picked him up by the collar and was shouting "No, Dwight, NO!" After I realized Romeo (the schnauzer) was the growler and attacker, I felt quite guilty. This was made worse once I saw the sad bruise on his armpit later. Thankfully, he didn't attack back, since he would've done a lot more damage to them than Romeo did to him. I'm actually surprised he didn't because I've read that most pits, even if they are not aggressive, are reactive, and will fight if pushed. So I guess now we know that Dwight is the saddest pit in the world. Hopefully he won't be afraid of dogs now, but I don't think he was too traumatized, because he started playing immediately after we put him in the backyard.
I met Romeo the next morning, and he was very sweet, he laid next to me on the couch for a long time. Apparently he is the lowest dog in the pack at Seth and Jared's house. His nickname is Lonely-O. And he was probably determined not to be submissive to this new dog that was coming into the house. Traitorously, I thought he was very cute and sweet, and cuddled with him a bit.

This video was on cuteoverload.com and it made me tear up. It is also fashionably 70s. Or unfashionably. You decide.

So, here is a link to my sister's post about our trip to galveston, as promised.
Well, it is now 5 1/2 days since my wisdom teeth removal, and I still have to take pain pills! I am quite worried there may be something wrong, but perhaps I am just a wuss when it comes to discomfort. Quite possible.

Back in Dallas for the time being, and petsitting for Andi and Jeff's (Aaron's former housemates') cat, Zilla. She is that gray kitten we found a while back that they took in, and it is very interesting to be able to see the cat she's turned into. When we found her, one side of her whiskers were singed, and she was covered in car grease, and left kitten-sized black streaks all over our walls, some of which are still there. It is a little odd, actually, to see her walk by those streaks, totally unknowing that they were caused by her, some months back. Anyways, keeping my fingers crossed, but I don't seem to be having any allergy troubles with her. It is nice having a cat lounging in our sink and cuddling with me, I've always dreamed of such.

hello all! here i am, 4 wisdom teeth lighter, and high on vicodin. Actually, I don't know why people take vicodin for fun, it just makes me dizzy and sleepy, and my eyes see double. Oh, delightful.
The worst part about the surgery was when they put the catheter in my hand, and I could feel the cold i.v. fluid painfully traveling through my veins. The worst part about the recovery is the terrible freaking taste emanating from my wounds, which I believe is due to some medicated dressing the doc sewed into place.
I came to while he was finishing up, and could feel him jerking out the final tooth and sewing up my wounds, but was too out of it to care. Wierd, eh? And I'm usually so freaked out by stuff like that.

mm, well guess i will go drift into a sleepless slumber. I was going to write about my sister, jordan, and my galveston trip which was jolly good fun but am too tired. So, go to my sis's blog, which basically tells everything anyways. will add link later.

one thing i will say, is that i got some cute dream catcher earrings. despite the fact that aaron thinks dream catchers are tacky.

Wow! Aaron and I have gotten so many wedding anniversary wishes and cards and even a present! I had no idea anyone would pay attention to our anniversary other than us.

Happily, it has now been a year since we've been married, and nine years since we first met.
Sadly, I am in Houston for the week, and Aaron is still in Dallas. My appointment to get all four of my wisdom teeth out is on Thursday. We are having a going away party for my four wisdom teeth tomorrow in Galveston (Me, Monica, and Jordan. Yes, I am going to be third wheel.)
But, we are planning on perhaps going away for a weekend soon to celebrate.

Me and Monica went to the Galleria today, and I bought some awesome crop sweatpants to lounge around the house in, and a hooded sweater because I forgot to pack anything warm and everywhere I've been in Houston has been freezing, despite it being summer. I love them!!! Eek!! Aaron would ask why I needed another hoodie, though. I am a hoodie freak.

I am reading a lot, and enjoying being away from Dallas. But I will also be glad to be back, since then I get to cuddle my boy and my dog. Simultaneously.

Oh and a big shout out to Lydia, who is being Dwight's dog-walker for the week.

I just caught two tomcats to get neutered tomorrow. Score! It will be difficult to get them to the place though, since they're so heavy.

I had the coolest day on Saturday!
First, I will tell you exactly what I was doing Friday night, and actually a lot of Friday day. I was on my couch, obsessively looking on ebay for a mood ring. Then, Aaron saw the Lucky brand mood ring (the only modern mood ring that didn't look cheap) and decided that he really liked it, which made me like it a bit more, because I had thought he would make fun of its gaudiness.
So then, I got really excited about the Lucky mood ring, and kept looking it up on the internet, very excited about when the Lucky boutique would open in the morning, 10 am.
Then, we went to sleep, woke up, and went straight to the store (like 5 mins after they opened), and bought it. They had to go in the back to get them, which is strange, since, if you have it, why don't you display it?
Then, we drove to Andi & Jeff's place, because Aaron was invited over to watch Jeff change the brakes on his Element, which they just bought (matching cars!! we must be best friends!!!) and I was invited over to play. While we were driving out there, Aaron teased me for looking at my ring so much.
So we stayed around and chilled and changed brake pads, and had Subway for lunch, which was all really nice because they live in the outskirts of Dallas, and it feels like the country out there. The weather felt so nice, and the air actually smelled fresh. And the neighbors have goats, horses, and peacocks...
While I was there, I noticed the backing was coming off the stone on my ring, and so when we got home, we got Dwight in the car, and went back out to the West Village, which is only 5 mins away from home, to exchange the ring for another. We walked Dwight around the West Village, where he met another pit bull, and both dogs were quite well behaved. Dwight pulled a little, and I had to say, "He's nice, he's just excited." And the other owner said, "Imagine that, an excited pit bull."
And then I got to the store, made the exchange, and then we all went home to take a nap and wait for my parents and sister to arrive.
And then they did, and after getting them settled, me and Aaron went to the Rancid concert, which was awesome!
I feel like I was in a car accident, which is always a sign of a great concert. And Tim did a song for Jordan, my sister's bf, because he met them at their hotel in Austin and told them he knew people who were going to be at their Dallas show.
Then, we got home after the requisite stop at mcdonald's for a large coke after the concert, and watched tv w/ my family. After we put my parents to bed, me and Aaron each took showers, and then cuddled up in bed to talk to my sister, who was sleeping w/ us on a sleeping bag. It was so cozy to feel all clean and tucked into bed, after being sweaty and hot after the concert. I actually stripped down in the car right after the show and changed into a shirt I had bought, since I was all wet from sweat (other people's and mine) and water they had sprayed on us to keep us cool.

So it was one of the best days I've had in a long time.

And then today, we went to the Inwood Theater to enjoy their living room theater again, and saw The Happening. And, here's the most bizarre case of synchronicity ever! The Happening had a mood ring in it! Freak show. I wonder if I saw the shape of it subconsciously in a preview or something and it reminded me of how much I loved them as a kid.

Oh, and just to give readers of this blog some closure, I didn't end up getting any sandals. Due to overwhelming negative feeling towards both pairs, and my own ennui with them after all that frustration. Instead, I used some of the money I had saved up for them for a craigslist ottoman, and my mood ring.

Today Aaron looked so hardcore, he was asked to remove his gang colors at the mall. The security guard (who was black, like many of the other mall patrons) stopped, looked at Aaron, shook his head and smiled a little, and said, "I'm sorry, sir, but we don't allow bandanas here." At first I thought Aaron was going to fight it, but then he just took it off. It was pretty funny since we were there looking for a mood ring for me, and Aaron kept offering to ask store employees whether they had mood rings in stock for me. Yes, he is a hardened gang banger.

Another random funny moment was after me and Aaron went to Baskin Robbins to have ice cream and we both walked out with the signature little pink spoons in our mouths. So we were playing with the spoons in the car, and since I was slouched over in the passenger seat a bit, and my shirt was riding up, I said, "Aaron, eat my belly fat so I can have a small belly." And so he started pretending to scoop my belly with his spoon and eat mouthfuls. Then, a car pulled up next to us, and Aaron looked really embarrassed and said it was one of those moments that you would kill to catch someone in...
"Oh my god, was that guy scooping that girl's stomach and pretending to eat bites of it? What?!"

In other news, I am currently obsessed with mood rings. What happened to the good quality ones? Nowadays, the only ones I can find are the ones near the cash register stuck in a sponge base, that cost $1.99. Sad. Actually there is a Lucky Brand Jeans one that is super gaudy that I am considering purchasing.

Today at Target, this cute little girl about 7 or 8, with mass of untamed curls, walked through the store with her mother and younger brother, repeating, "Hey batta, batta, batta, Suh-WIng, batta batta." It was super cute.

Both of the kitties are at their new homes now. The tortie went home yesterday, and the gray tabby today. The gray tabby, who we called "Li'l Grey" and the vet spelled "Little Gray" is now named Toby. I don't know the tortie's name yet.

We are enjoying the peace and quiet, but I will miss the sounds of little pattering feet as they play in the living room. When it gets to be unbearable, I will just have to convince Aaron to foster more kittens!

Today when we went to make the exchange at the shelter, we browsed the dog area, and saw the cutest little puppy--tiny, and yet so dense! Here's a picture of him:

He was in the same cage as this boston terrier mix puppy.

Me and Aaron took out the little pit puppy and cuddled him, and then when we put him down, he kept whining. And so the boston terrier mix went over to the pit puppy where he was whining, and laid down next to him, and put his head on the pit puppy's back, to comfort him. It was the most human thing I've ever seen.
And it reminds me of when we went back the second day to see Dwight at the shelter, there was a little border collie puppy in the same cage as him, and they kept each other company. I felt bad adopting Dwight and leaving the other puppy all alone.

On another note, Aaron and I attempted homemade blueberry muffins for the first time last night! They turned out quite well, considering.
And tonight--homemade enchiladas for dinner! Which will surpass all Dallas enchiladas, but perhaps not surpass the enchiladas from Polvo's in Austin.

I am the best spy evar.
I have found a home for both kittens now! A girl wants the gray tabby and a guy wants the tortie. Pretty much what I figured, as the tortie is definitely a guy's cat--totally playful and fierce. The guy came around to see her today, and as he left, I thought..."Hmm, he sorta looks like the guy who brought the cutest brindle pit bull puppy to the crawfish boil a few weeks back, and blew me off when I wanted to pet it because he was using the puppy to chat up some blonde chicks."
Granted, I got almost no impression of the guy holding the puppy, as I was enchanted with the pup, but for some reason, I just started worrying that this was the same guy. Which wouldn't be a problem, just blowing me off...a propensity for blondes doesn't rule out a good pet owner, but when I asked him about the dog (right before he blew me off) he said he got it from a pet store. And I got the distinct impression that once the summer was over and the puppy was no longer as adorable, he would give it up, being the busy med student he was. And a pit bull puppy from a pet store? Totally unnecessary. They are a dime a dozen at shelters, and on the streets.
Anyways, so I went on some people's facebook photo albums and did some spying, and found the guy holding his pit bull puppy in the background of a picture, and found a picture of future kitten owner guy, and it's obviously not the same person. Mind now at ease.

I've been really intense ever since I stopped school. (The spying I just did is one example.) I think I've lost the ability to chill out. I think a mile a minute about totally pointless things, and it's really tiring.

I have also been obsessing about 'spaces' (i.e. totally pretentious way to refer to a room.) I have become enamored with the idea of ottomans. So much so that I have actually typed in the word ottoman into flickr. I found some really good cozy pictures of rooms, and am quite jealous. I have zero interior design abilities.

I am so sneezy today. I have sneezed at least 30 times just today. I actually quite enjoy the sensation, and every time I think about that, I remember a kid in my fifth grade class who was really sad that year because his parents were going through a divorce. He sat behind me in class and once, I overheard him sneeze and then say, "The only time I am happy is when I sneeze."

It's the cat allergies acting up. I'm surprised it has held off for this long. I was miserable for the first two days we had the kittens, and then the allergies pretty much disappeared. But now they're back.

The kittens are having solid poops now! We took them to a real vet, and started feeding them boiled chicken only and it cleared up within a day. You can't know how happy I was when I saw the first solid poops in their litter box. I truly rejoiced, and even almost took a picture.
So hopefully I can find homes for them before I have to return them to the shelter, so I don't have to imagine them staying in a tiny cage for days on end waiting to be adopted.
Never again. I can't take the worry and clean up.

This past weekend me and Aaron went to Trader's Village in Grand Prairie. (I had to look up whether it's in Grand Prairie or Grapevine because I can't get those two suburbs of Dallas straight.)
I've been wanting to go for quite a while, because I imagined ninja stars, old star wars action figures, and other odd collectibles galore. Trader's Village did have those things, and even had some illegal butterfly knives and switchblades for $3 each...but I was still disappointed.
(That said, are those things really illegal or is that just something parents like to tell their 13 year old boys to either dissuade them from buying them, or to maintain their interest in these relatively harmless weapons in hopes that they will not feel the need to move on to true illegal weapons such as AK47s and C4?)
Anyways, I went with the intent of buying some protection in the form of a large hunting knife with a thigh-sheath. I don't know why I possess such a desire, but, as Elissa will testify (if she remembers the conversation), that I've wanted one ever since middle school.
And I found one. But by that time, I was so sensory-overloaded with 5 for $10 bras, huge tapestries adorned with tigers, and hoochie-mama jeans that you couldn't try on before you buy that I didn't end up buying it. Because despite their being some odd collectible things, the majority of the stalls were car tires, furniture from the early 1990s, ATVs, and "exotic pets." I saw one WT vendor lady telling some hispanic guys--"This snake is a great starter pet. Even for a kid!" And I saw another hispanic guy leaving the store with a two-inch lizard...in a harness. No cage, just a harness. Like he was just going to bring it home in his pocket or something.
And, it was so freaking hot, I felt like the cement was just a large baking pan and the world was an oven.

Anyways, that was my weekend. It was actually a really fun adventure, but Trader's Village just didn't quite live up to my magical dreams of it.

Oh, and want to hear about the most recent injustice in my life?
So back at the end of April, I fell in love with some sandals. They were beautiful, and in a fit of passion, I ordered them online for $200. While waiting for them to arrive, I decided to take on some extra work hours to pay for them. In fact, I am at the library working now partly because of them--I had planned on quitting my library job when my classes ended since I no longer needed the time at the front desk to study. But just as I was considering buying these shoes, they asked me to officially announce my last day. So I chose the end of May rather than the beginning. Also, I felt bad to be leaving them possibly short-staffed, so that was another reason.
In any case, I have been working to pay for those shoes. And at first, it seemed like it would work out really well--the shoes arrived the day that I was supposed to take my last test of the semester. And they began to represent exactly what I intended them to represent, freedom and summer and having fun in skimpy clothes. But then, just as I was putting them on for the first time to go out in the world with them, Aaron noticed that two studs were very loose and on the verge of falling out of the straps. Now, with any other shoe, I could've gorilla-glued those suckers in, and probably not thought much about it. But the more I thought about it, the more it stuck in my craw (lol-Maine fishermen speak) that I'd paid $200 for shoes that I would have to glue together. I do not want to contribute my workmanship to something that should've been taken care of in Brazil! By the supposed sexy Brazilian men who make sandals shirtless! (Surf the Matt Bernson website, they actually say that.)
So I sent the pair back for an exchange, and the guy who emailed me was super nice about it, and promised to send me another pair. However, as it turns out, those were the last pair in my size (suspiciously so, perhaps a twice-returned pair? A lemon?) and he was very vague about when they would be back in stock. So I have been waiting a full month. And then last night, I checked the website, and the website says, "Available July 2nd." I was really happy until Aaron reminded me it was not even June yet. See, I had not even conceived of it taking so long, and had assumed they meant June 2nd. I mean what are these brazilian men doing? Not their jobs, obviously!
So I cancelled my order. Aaron told me I should email the guy and say, "I don't think you should be making interest on my $200 while I wait for 2 months on those shoes."
Anyways, so here is my dilemna. I went shopping for replacements today. And found some ok ones, but I just don't know. Urbanoutfitters.com has the ones I originally wanted in stock, but I don't know if I even want them anymore. Because they don't represent freedom anymore, they represent another F word. Not the one you're thinking...it stands for FRUSTRATION!
So help me out. Should I settle for replacements that are considerable cheaper or should I just bite the bullet and order the original ones again? The kicker is my sister suggests that the original ones might shorten my legs a bit due to the thick ankle cuffs. (Not everyone can have legs like Ashley Tisdale...) I am ashamed that I know who Ashley Tisdale even is, but I swear, it's only because of the shoes!

Here they are:

These days, we've been either watching Carnivale or waiting for it to arrive in the mail. It is not quite the masterpiece that I am used to from HBO, per Deadwood and Rome, but still quite good, in fact, Oscar-worthy in comparison to the crap they call most broadcast tv.

Speaking of broadcast tv, Jim didn't get to propose to Pam at Toby's going-away party after he paid for all those fireworks! I was so looking forward to the payback that would be, unbeknownst to either Jim or Pam, after what Toby did last episode. (This is starting to sound like my sister's stories back when she used to come home from elementary or middle school--"Oh my god, John So-and-So totally was telling Michael that Linda was cute!" To which, just to annoy her, I would say, "John Who? Do I know or care about these people?")
Anyways, this episode of the Office was a return to the extreme awkwardness of the first season. I was literally pinching and biting Aaron as he sat next to me to get through those moments. And, how hot is the new HR lady? She reminds me of some of my English profs back in college.

So moving on, I have an interview tomorrow at a vet office in Carrollton. Hopefully it's a part-time job and I won't have to go through the painful process of convincing myself I want to work full time.

Also super stressed due to the two little kittens I talked Aaron into fostering. Well, just stressed about one in particular. He is tiny, the size of a softball, and always wants to balance on a human body part. He has tried my foot as I am using the restroom (we keep them in our bathroom when they are not playing or eating), the back of my hand, and my arms crossed over my chest.
"Oh, how cute!" you say. Well, it is...except that he has drippy diarrhea and constantly leaves streaks everywhere he goes.
The other (a tortie) is twice his size, and really, ready for adoption, but I worry the little one will get depressed without his companion. The tortie is awesome in that when she is really happy and playing, she will make a trilling sound that is nothing like a meow. Sort of extra-terrestrial, gremlin-like.

Now that the war-zone of school is over, I actually find myself missing it. What do I do with all my free hours? Well right now, cleaning kitten poop and feeding kittens so they will make more poop for me to pick up. But other than that, nothing! Everything was made sweeter before, with the knowledge that I should, at every moment, be studying. If I took a couple hours to read a book--delightful indulgence. Now, it's just a given that I can read until my head explodes, and somehow, that takes some of my enjoyment away. I even miss using my little study corner with a window view. It's currently being used as a place to dry some of my shirts.
Oh, but I know I would regret it if I continued second year. I would curse myself like I did when I was studying for the first neuro test or the first and second anatomy test. Or every Wednesday, having to get dressed up for colleges class in too-tight pants. Incidentally, those are the pants I have to wear tomorrow.
Maybe I should start studying to take the GRE just for something to do. It should be a fun challenge--like going back to 6th grade after you've finished 8th?

My laptop optical drive just went out as well. I'm really thinking about selling it after I finally get it back this time and get a dell laptop w/ the proceeds. It'll practically be a whole new laptop by then--new harddrive, optical drive, fairly new battery (though I'm fairly sure it's slowly but surely going out again), new top case.

ugh.

I'm on my second week of 'summer'! I finished my last neuroscience test on Thursday, May1st, and I can't believe it's already the 12th. It hasn't really felt like anything special, because I've still been working at the library on a lot of nights.

Good things that have happened:
1. I passed Neuro w/ a B
2. Aaron and I started playing GTA 4. (We preordered it, got it on Tuesday, and Aaron opened it up on Thursday while I was in my test.) I have yet to get as addicted to it as I was to San Andreas. But I think we figured out why--I watched Aaron play San Andreas for a while in college before I ever started playing. And then, when I started playing, Aaron watched me play a lot. Or slept on the futon next to me as I played. I seem to remember an 8 hour San Andreas day...I went over to his and Jimmy's apartment around noon, we had lunch, Jimmy left, and I started playing the game. Aaron falls asleep next to me, and somewhere in that time Jimmy comes home to take a nap, and the next thing I know, it's 9 pm and we're wondering where to go for dinner. I think I was on the "learning to fly and airplane" mission by then.
Anyways, I've been playing GTA 4 alone a lot, so that's probably why it doesn't feel as fun.
3. I don't think I've mentioned the three black cats in the back of our complex that were abandoned by a family that moved. Me and Aaron got them neutered and their rabies shots from a free clinic, but were very worried that they would be taken away by Management (eek! Carnivale). We thought about giving them up on Craigslist to be barn cats, but were worried about how they would be treated, and whether they would be any good at catching rats, since they're sorta small, though full-grown. Well, about 2 1/2 weeks ago, the mom cat got sick, and this couple who had also been feeding them, had to take her in to be euthanized. And then they started worrying about the other two, and so took them in! And they are now living in the lap of luxury in their perfectly decorated home. (We went to visit the cats, and I was jealous of the peoples' interior decorator skills. Our house is just too haphazard.) So everything turned out really well, though the mom cat sacrificed her life to improve her offspring's.

Bad things that have happened
1. My laptop's harddrive went out. Like a couple weeks after my sister's went out. Thankfully, I had all my pics backed up, but other than that, it was a total loss.
2. Aaron's keyboard on his laptop has been messing up.
So we spent two days switching out computers at the Genius Bar (I use that term lightly) and they replaced both my harddrive and Aaron's keyboard totally. Still a hassle, but I got two Wild About Harry's meals out of it. yum.

Well, looking back on it, this was a pretty boring post. I think Dallas may be rubbing off on me.

A girl just can't win. If I go to a auto mechanic's with a male, everyone ends up talking to the guy, whether or not the guy knows anything about cars at all. This even applies to buying skateboards, bikes, basically anything other than a Special Edition Teen Pregnancy Barbie. That is the world of straight men--a patriarchal society.
But I live in a world of gay men. You'd think they'd be more willing to dust off societal boundaries, and share some "man talk" with me...you'd think. But no, Aaron still gets all the love. (Not surprising, I know, given the extreme interest gay men seem to have for his young, nubile body.) But even the ones that know he's married and--what's more--straight!, end up talking to him. Oh, I get a hello here and there, but Aaron gets stopped on the way out to have 45 minute conversations with people. Where are my lesbian compadres?!
What do I have to do to get some attention around here, strip down? Oh wait, that won't work either. Damn.

My sister's boyfriend singing in chinese, holding their bunny...I'm thinking youtube sensation.



I'm not sure what the original song sounds like, but I know I can understand some of the words just based on his rendition. I'll post a sound clip or video of the original if I can find it.

I must have one! I plan on zipping one up in my hoodie and taking it to the movies.

In other news, the hermit crab has reemerged from molting, and succeeded in regrowing his large claw. This is a hermit crab that we've had since I was in 6th or 7th grade. For its first 9 years, it lived in a 5in x 12in plastic container in our bathroom. My mom cleaned it religiously, since it basically became her pet after the first few weeks. Actually, back then there were 2, and then my dad bought another 2 to keep it company, but this one was the only one who survived. Then, my senior year of college, after my poor fish died, I brought the hermit crab to Austin and put him/her (I always think of him as male for some reason...) in the 5 gallon tank. Then, once we got to Dallas, it lost its large claw in a molt. I ended up doing some research on crabs (like, research that should've been done 11 years ago) and figured out that he should have salt and fresh water in his cage, that sand is important for molting, and what kind of food he should have. He's always lived on gravel, and apparently they're supposed to burrow in sand to molt, so now he's in a 10 gallon tank with sand and gravel and all the amenities that a spoiled hermit should have...even a bubbler pool, which I am jealous of, because I want a pool inside my house! Anyways, about a week and a half after he got his new cage, he buried himself in the sand and didn't come out for two months. But now he's back : )

Today me and Aaron went walking around the ghetto with Dwight. On one corner, a guy started asking Aaron for change--"33 cents, man, I gotta get some food."
Aaron replies, "Sorry, I don't have any change."
Guy: "What you talkin 'bout? It's right there." (pointing to Dwight's full poop bag)
Aaron: "That's dog crap."
Guy: "That ain't no boo-boo."

Oh and this weekend, we went to the Rio Grande supermarket down the street to get 6 for $1 avocados and 4 for $1 paper towels, as advertised. At the checkout lane, we found out that that's with a minimum $10 purchase. Lame.
But then on the way out we had some corn in a cup (+sour cream, butter, lime juice, salt and parmesan cheese) that was heavenly.

Currently working at the library, trying to study Neuroscience. Not only is it boring, but futile as well. No matter how much I outline, read, and print out pictures, I will never remember or even care where the f-ing thalamus is.

So bored...
I just got back from Austin, where Elissa had her wedding--it was definitively the most fun I've had in years. Two, to be exact, ever since I moved to this pit of boredom called Dallas. I can't even talk about what we did, because it will just depress me to think about how much fun it was, and how, for a very short weekend, I had friends and fun. : ( The world's smallest violin is playing for me.

Anyways, here's some things that are preventing me from total catatonia:
--Miss Guided: this show that comes on right before lost on abc. really hilarious, and is getting me through the weeks until new lost episodes come back on.
--The Mist: Aaron and I started watching it before I left for work, and the only thing keeping me studying now (except for this short blogging break) is so that I can finish it without guilt when I get home.
--books! I shouldn't be, but I am. I can't help it. They are definitely messing up my studytime.
--Aaron. One of the great things about being married is having a constant companion, that no one can prevent you from having--going home for Christmas? No more separate beds and bedrooms. Stay up as late as you want, whispering and giggling with your spouse! Very freeing.

p.s.
Why are all the terms for marriage partners lame?
1. husband--sounds so forbidding, like he may start deducting from your monthly allowance and bitch slapping you at any moment. Try it. Tell any telemarketer, "Well, I need to talk to my husband about this before I make a decision." See if they don't give you an awkward pause while they imagine what an ogre you must be married to.
2. spouse--rhymes with "louse." Need I say more?

Anyways, I think we should work hard and come up with some new ones. My favorites so far:
1. partner in crime
2. compatriot
..."Well sir, I must speak to my partner in crime/compatriot about this before I make any final decisions."
Much less intimidating, don't you think?

I just reread The Giver, which I first read as a kid in elementary school, and then multiple times after that. I didn't remember it very well, and wanted to read it again because Aaron has been listening to audiobooks sometimes at work, so we went to the library and happened to find The Giver as an audiobook.
The funny thing is, I remember feeling that the ending was hopeful--that Jonah and Gabe find "Elsewhere" and survive. But no matter how many times I read the ending now, I can't help but believe that they died. Despite the fact that Lois Lowry insists that the ending is "optimistic" and ended up writing a loose trilogy mentioning the fact that they did survive. I don't know if it matters what the author thinks the actual ending is, but rather what is true to the reality of the book itself. And I think they die.

It's sort of disturbing though, to know that I was such an optimist then, and such a pessimist now. Is this what puberty did to me? I still desperately want them to survive, but just can't make myself believe it.

Just now, I was having a snack of flaming hot cheetos, and Dwight was laying next to me on the couch lusting after my cheetos. He laid his head on my shirt and proceeded to drool on me as he watched me eat. The thing is, he never drools. But just recently, he has started drooling while watching me eat. I get a kick out of how unabashed he is about it. A human would be like, "Oh, excuse me, my salivary glands are in overdrive. Here, let me get that for you." (wipe, wipe, wipe away the drool on your shirt). But Dwight, he's just like, "Whatevah, I am cute and you won't mind." And then once the drool soaks through my shirt and I finally realize what's happening, and I say, "Dwight! You are drooling on my shirt!" he just lifts his eyebrows and looks confused, like, "What's wrong?"

Have you ever had a subject or word that seems entirely random pop up again and again for about a week in conversations, reading, etc.?

A few months ago it was the word "Namaste," which is apparently a Sanskrit greeting word...I saw it on a bumper sticker, and then Aaron's dad sent an email containing the word. Directly translated it means "The divine light within me greets the divine light within you," and neo-hippies around the world use it at farmer's markets and yoga classes...and maybe Whole Foods.

Just today, it is the word "nadir." Two hours ago I read it over Aaron's shoulder in a CNN article about Clinton vs. Obama, and I asked him what it meant. He didn't know, and I didn't care enough to look it up. Now, (working at the library and studying), I find it again in my Physiology syllabus. After 24 years of never having heard the word, it shows up now, twice in a row. I think it means I better figure out what it means, because I will need it someday soon.

From Merriam-Webster online search:
1 : the point of the celestial sphere that is directly opposite the zenith and vertically downward from the observer
2 : the lowest point

I will be sure to impress others with my formidable grasp of vocabulary by adding it to certain sentences:
"The nadir of my life up until now has been attending medical school."

On a separate note, here is a blog that has made me laugh a lot.

Things I'm sick of:
1. Rich white people who are too all-consumed with the size of their wallets and houses to have any common sense.
2. winter
3. school

Happy Valentine's Day!

In honor of Valentine's Day, I will relate to you my delightful experiences yesterday learning about giving women's pelvic examinations on plastic dummies. When I first walked into the carrels (where they set up for class) four plastic lady-mannequins minus head, legs, arms, torso...basically minus everything but the "private" area were laying on tables, exposed for all to see (plastic labias and all).
Then, a gynecologist starts talking to us about how to do the examination, but I ignored all but a few salient points, because I was dreading having to stick anything into the plastic vagina, much less my fingers (the "bimanual" part of the exam). The salient points that I did catch, however, I did for the benefit of you, my blog readers, for your comedic entertainment.

1. At one point, the lady said, "It just depends on where her labia are the floppiest." FLOPPIEST! That better not ever be a description word connected to my vjay.
2. At another point, the lady said, "The vagina is mostly soft tissue. Except the cervix. The cervix will feel knobby. Like your nose." As she pushed with her index finger on the tip of her nose.

And then we proceeded to split up into groups. My first station was the breast exam station, where they had six individual breasts with fake lumps in them. This part wasn't so bad. Near the end of this station, some random prof ran up, and said, (in all seriousness), "Did everyone get to touch a breast?" and absentmindedly squeezed the one closest to him.

My next station was, alas, one of the four plastic vjay models. I was freaked out when I had to do the "exam" on the model for the first time, but once I realized how un-lifelike the model was, I wasn't as freaked. The plastic was so hard that the edges of the fake labia scraped my fingers as I had to insert them. I began to wish that I had some lesbian experiences, because I wanted to know what a real cervix looks like. Not that most people let their significant others stick speculums up them anyways, though, so I guess I'm not missing much.

This exam is just another of the many reasons to get out as soon as possible.