The most wonderful thing to happen today

My amaryllis bloomed today.

House cleaning

Did you know saving all cleaning is a great way to avoid studying for a major test? Pretty bad, huh? Four huge loads of laundry, all the handwash and vacuuming later, I am finally sorta ready to study more. Why can't I do this better!! Ugh! But my apartment looks lovely. The floor is clean, the sheets are clean, the bed is made up.

Funny

It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.

Mark Twain,

Random funny

His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork.
- Mae West

Holes is jeans and other cool things

I got to do two fun labs today. And for once I don't mean that facetiously. If only I wasn't too tired to really enjoy it all.

During organic lab we preformed a Grignard reaction. For those of you in the know, that means we used ether solvent (extremely flammable) to perform an addition to a keytone, creating an oxide ion which was then protonated. Simply put, for the rest of us, we transformed nail polish remover in the alcohol (yes, ethanol, the drinkable kind). Actually, the final product is still to be determined, and the stuff we made it in is extremely toxic so don't go around setting up stills with plans to make it big on Malia's ability to acetone into alcohol just yet. I still think making and selling bathtub gin to get me through med school might be a good idea. Who know? Could definitely get rid of my debt (smile and laugh).

On to the newly made "Holey" jeans. Physics lab was about capacitance. Kinda fun. And really started to "see" this whole electricity thing. Unfortunately for me the chair with the cushion on it attacked me. I sat comfortable for a few minutes then moved the stool closer to my work station and leaned on it. Out the cushion came a screw, puncturing a small, and rather painful hole in the skin of my hand. Having not learned my lesson, I still sat on the dumb thing. It was a shock to me later that after I stood up, my rear complained. I found a newly formed, rather small, but distinct hole in my jeans. Ah well, not like anybody is looking for it but me!

Life shrinks or expand in proportion to one's courage.

Anais Nin

Vaccinated! Promise me everyone!!

This growing trend of naturalist parenting to not vaccinate is bad. Attributing statistically explainable increases in the number of autistic children with the increase in vaccination is appalling. I understand fear, but knowledge to date is still overwhelmingly in favor of vaccination as an amazingly cool thing that keeps people healthy! I am all for holistic ideas of parenting, choosing different ways of approaching life. But choosing not to vaccinate children for disease is NOT one of them. Propagation of preventable diseases, ones that could easily be irradicated, makes me unhappy. Children sick needlessly, makes me even sadder.

Long and short. Take care of yourselves. Get vaccinated.

New Show Questions Vaccination
Article from Forbes

Are sauted mushrooms really vegetables?

I am pretty sure that can't be included in my "daily 5."

When 26 degrees seems warm

I got home just now from spending the long weekend in New York with my best friend, Samantha. Getting off the Chinatown bus in DC the temperature seemed balmy and warm in comparison to the wind chill and freezing weather of NYC. I had wonderful weekend, attending a party celebrating Samantha's roommate's birthday and meeting some of her friends. Saturday we went out to eat at an "Irish" pub just north of Columbus Circle on the upper West Side. We lunched on shepherd's pie and chicken pot pie. It was fun, but I definitely feel the need to make my own shepherd's pie that is better! I know that I can do it! That night we mellowed a little, watching that wonderful film "Joe vs. the Volcano," a Tom Hanks classic. Then we went out to meet with friends on the upper West Side, enjoying some bad NYC service.

Yesterday (for those of you who know and care?) football playoff happened. We watched all day. Or rather, Samantha and later her friend Emily watched. I read and occasionally paid attention. Though I have to say I was disappointed when the Packer's lost, because then Emily felt forced to make disappointed faces and take pictures of them. Actually, that was kinda fun.

After the weekend with wind chills taking the temps under 0 degrees Fahrenheit, DC at 26 (heading into the teens tonight) seems balmy with out the wind.

The hazards of doing your own laundry

There is no one to blame when accidentally bleach your new favorite shirt.

Oh, the Weight Watcher's bagels? Taste dry and boring. But not vile. It must have been the Philadelphia salmon cream cheese. Bummer.

Did you know?

I live in Washington, DC? How incredibly random is that! Most of the time you just get in the groove. Go to school. Go home. Study. Sleep. Go to school. Today I desperately needed some things from beyond the scope of my 2 mile world. I rented my Flexcar (actually its now a Zipcar, ugh, I miss the old company). Driving slow because the increasing amounts of snow, I followed the usual path across the Key Bridge, through Rosslyn, past the Pentagon. It was a beautiful wonderland, cobblestone streets covered, bare branches painted white arching across narrow byways.

My way home was different, however. I learned a new way home from my cab ride from the airport that cut a great deal of time. Coming across the Memorial Bridge from tranquil and beautiful Arlington cemetery, seeing the wonder of the Lincoln Memorial through the heavy, snow filled clouds. It reminded me how beautiful this city has been designed to be. How incredibly amazing it is. Even the Kennedy Center and the Potomac River looked dramatic against the backdrop of a gray scaled city.

How crazy is it? You get used to seeing the same thing, used to a city. You don't see the wonder of it until something random changes, like unexpected sun, or snow. Then all the world is a magical.

Malia's new time waster

This is the amino acid game. Try it! Its great fun!

Biochem looks like fun

Today I had my first biochemistry lab class. We went over basics and lab safty. Then we prepared a buffer. Simple stuff, but fun to play with chemicals. That class does truly look like it is going to be fun.

Weight watcher's bagels

Don't eat them! 'Nuff said.

The Year of Magical Thinking

As I was talking with Mary Alyce just now, I was reminded of a book, then later a play I had heard about on NPR. Called a year of "The Year of Magical Thinking" by Joan Didion. I looked it up online to remind myself of the storyline and found this on Amazon.com. I thought it was amazingly interesting and intuitive. While I think reading this book may be a bit above what my heart and mind has to give right now, it does look like a fantastic book.

Amazon.com: The Year of Magical Thinking: Books: Joan Didion: "propelled Didion into a state she calls 'magical thinking.' 'We might expect that we will be prostrate, inconsolable, crazy with loss,' she writes. 'We do not expect to be literally crazy, cool customers who believe that their husband is about to return and need his shoes.' Didion's mourning follows a traditional arc—she describes just how precisely it cleaves to the medical descriptions of grief—but her elegant rendition of its stages leads to hard-won insight, particularly into the aftereffects of marriage. 'Marriage is not only time: it is also, paradoxically, the denial of time. For forty years I saw myself through John's eyes. I did not age.'

Links to think and maybe snow. . .

As it stands right now I am in four (count 'em!) classes. Organic chemistry, o chem lab, biochemistry, and physics (biochemistry and physics both have a lab section included). As at the start of any new semester with mostly new teacher (two of the four) I feel hopeful that this semester will be the one where I learn to be organized, streamlined, a quick learner. Not airy or flighty or easily distracted (See me in four months to see how it goes wrong this semester :0)

I like my new biochemistry teacher who seems to have a quiet and quirky sense of humor. Not that I don't think she will have a hidden difficult coming soon. But the class shows definite possibilities of being "doable" in terms of load.

Physics is the same teacher, equally incomprehensible sometimes, where I have moments of brilliant insight that keep me going (and not failing) through out. I think in a different setting (one that did not involve physicists) I would really love physics. Alas, there is no such setting, and all physicists seem to make no sense to me, so physics becomes of self-taught struggle. Electricity right now. Which could work, right?

Organic chem lab is the same prof, same routine, just as hard. Really, really hard. But I survived that one ok. Tomorrow I meet my new teaching assistant. They are the ones who really call the shots in that class (15% of the grade is totally based on their evaluations of students). Pray, ok?

Fourth, and final, is organic chemistry lecture. An evil form of torture made to make even the toughest among us cry ourselves to sleep; so bad atheists turn to God in hopes of a passing, reasonable grade. Alright, say the initiated, it can't be that bad! Au contraire. My class is looking worse by the lecture, and we have only had two so far. Luckily, God and I are already tight so the initial awkwardness of that first desperate cry is gone, and I can go straight to the "help, help" part when that is needed.

In all seriousness, to those who have prayed for me and wished me luck and the best through these sometimes ridiculous classes, I thank you. I am here and smile because of those prayers. And I am sure, for today, that I am where I need to be, doing what I need to be doing. At least this part of my life is uncomplicated. Hard work; sleep; hard work; consider breathing; eat while working; sleep.

I am hoping I can be joyful through the honeymoon phase of class. That is my prayer.

Snowing in Iraq

I think this qualifies as truly weird for sure. I was sent this by a friend of mine serving in the Middle East. Looks just like home, right?

As per my mother . . .

I already took something to help me drift off to sleep tonight. Hopefully tomorrow night I will be tired from a long class day. And I am hoping to have Aunt Janet over to see my apartment and for dinner.

Complain, complain

For the second night in a row I am up still at 5:30 am, inexplicably. I have really enjoyed having Aunt Janet in town for conference. Tonight we did dinner for the second time at Georgetown Five Guys (still the best burger I think I have ever had!) and going to see Bucket List with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. It was not a comedy quite like I planned, though there were definitely funny moments. I enjoyed it, though I think they could easily have made it simultaneously funnier and more soul searching and life defining. I think glossed over the difficulties of a death creeping up on a person. The premise was interesting and good at least.

I am still awake though. Ugh. I am annoyed as well! Is this delayed time difference problems? Now that I have had plenty of sleep or something . . . . that stupid high pitched whining from out the window is also driving me nuts. But I can't close the window otherwise someone will find me several days in the future, laid out on my bed, smoked like salmon ready for a cream cheese dip. My heat is up so high I just need to throw water on it and sell sauna timeshares. Got to love the East Coast and no climate control. And it could be worse. They could just not turn on the heat at all!

Getting into the swing of classes this week will help, increase the stress and sleep need.

Quote

Character is what you have left when you've lost everything you can lose.
- Evan Esar

Travelog swift and silly

As always at the last minute of a personal trip to see friends, there is a scramble to cram things in. And I tried. I was not, however, willing to sacrifice my last sleep in day of the vacation. People were busy scurrying around. I slept in. It was wonderful. Mom and I went to lunch at Taco Time. When my plans for last minute coffee dates didn’t come through, I cashed in my mani-pedi gift certificate from Christmas then ran to get my hair cut. It was wingding running. Pretty fantastic. I think, for now, that my hair look pretty good. It’s always nice to feel like at least you are looking well as you start a new year.

We celebrated Mom’s birthday two days early so I could be there. We had dinner at Buca di Bepo. It was great. Lots of tired jokes were made by everyone. The pictures can’t do justice to the laughter around the table.

This morning I didn’t wake until my Mom woke me despite my cell phone alarm. It was . . . sketchy. Silly me. It was snowing as Mom and I left the house, with some accumulation. The traffic, even at 6:30 am was clogging up on I-5. Yet everything all seemed smooth. (Are you waiting for the other shoe to drop yet?) I checked in, got through security in record time for Sea-Tac, and was waiting patiently. I checked my phone left on silent and noticed I had four missed calls. That is a large number, especially for roughly 7 am! My father and mother had called separately to inform me that I left nothing essential . . . except my keys! Luckily I was set to arrive early enough to as the super to let me into my apartment with the spare set. Dad fedexed the keys overnight. Silly Lili. Thank you, Dad.

No sleep leaves a hangover

I didn't sleep a night ago, because I was packing. I guess I got about an hour. Net result- today I have a hangover. I slept great last night. I arrived into my apartment fine. After yesterdays little no keys hiccup, it was really nice to see my apartment, take a relaxing bath, push past the fatigue to get all my bags put away and vacuum up all the annoying tinsel from my Christmas tree. I am fairly certain that I will never use tinsel again because it not only stuck to everything, came off everywhere, and disappeared into the farthest reaches of my apartment, it also clogged my vacuum hose, wrapped around the beater bar, and wound irremovably from the upper motor. Needless to say, I am less that please to realize I need to dismantle my vacuum to clear up the mess.

Today I slept relatively late, enjoyed the sun pouring through my shades, and the 60 degree breeze through the opening in the window. I even bothered to put on makeup this morning (though the hair needed to be pulled back, since it was irredeemably crinkled from sleeping on it wet).

My classes are predominately on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays with three classes back to back in one large lecture hall. Three hours, no breaks. Physics, biochemistry, and organic chemistry. In that order. By the end of the O chem today I just a little cross-eyed. Despite the lineup of nightmare classes, I am hopeful that with a lot of planning, a lot of work, and little or no sleep, I should be able to pull this off. We'll see! I am also open to dropping a class too.

So now I am just left with organic chemistry lab class, normally on Monday afternoons. Then return home to start the study, eat miso soup, and have an early nights sleep. Despite the killer lineup of classes, there is two distinct advantages: I have a weekend again (hurrah!!!!!); and I have Thursdays completely free. Hopefully I will be able to use it wisely as a complete study day.

I will post my yesterdays reflections tonight when I return home, along with pictures of the celebration of Mom's birthday. I was too tired last night.

Hike Gold Creek part 1

Almost the end

Its just two days now until I return to the school grind. I can't say I am looking forward to it, but I am finally getting some "vacation" feeling time in. And here are the pictures to prove it.

Yesterday I took in the Seattle Wedding Show with my friend Robin who is getting married, as well as her mother and a friend. I can't say that I ever want to willingly do that again. What a nightmare. By the end my stomach hurt from bad (and a few good) wedding cake testings. There were a number of cool flower vendors. These represent just few of the pictures I took.

REI buying new hiking boots and renting snowshoes and poles. ToWe did cap the day well with a dinner at Claim Jumper, a place designed for overeating. Then Mom and Dad and I went shopping. Dad and I ended up spending close to two and a half hours inday we tried them out at Gold Creek up Snoqualmie Pass. It was great fun and very beautiful. I throughly enjoyed the chance to get out and about. I feel better today than I have in a while.

Hung out and had a great time... No schoooool!

Its coming, the elephant in the room (ok, just my mind!). School is coming. I leave on Tuesday to return to the grind. Ugh. But here were some pictures of my nights work. Dinner with the core group. Wonderful since we haven't all been in the same place together in several years.

Thank you Paige for this wonderful shot. I knew you wouldn't mind!

I changed my links to think again. I am not sure how many follow these. But I thought I would add a quote from the Institute of Medicine (a government research organization which has some really excellent studies on all modern medically related topics).

• Health insurance is more than a mechanism for spreading financial risks; it also promotes appropriate use of preventive and routine health care services that otherwise may be underutilized (IOM, 2002a,b).
  

Something to think on.

Pictures! And catch up for two weeks (almost!)

Christmas rolled in with a bang. I arrived early and rested up for the non-stop events of the season. When Christmas day finally arrived, Mom was laid low with a nasty cold and Dad and I cobbled together a dinner for all of us, which everyone enjoyed. Thankfully Mom was feeling somewhat better by the next day.

By the time the two weddings of the Saturday the 29th rolled around, Mom was mostly back to fighting form. I dressed for the rehearsal dinner on Friday for my friend Missa's wedding. There is a difference between the rehearsal dinner pictures and the later wedding pictures. I think we look less tired here. The night started out as a chance to eat wonderful dinner and ended as a bit of a happy tearfest when all the stories of Matt and Missa, childhood and adulthood, were dragged out and enjoyed, many of them cried over. It was beautiful.

The next morning we gathered together, dragging in slowly to to get ready. Hillary and I posed together after having our hair done, self-portrait extraordinary. By later the curls would be a bit looser (ie. coming out, pins falling, hair flying).
Missa and Matt pulled off the day beautifully and looked happy throughout. The minor stresse s passed and after so many years of dating, they finally tied the knot. Before the fact we took pictures down at Pike Place Market. Hillary and I enjoyed showing our horror at the "gum wall". One of the groomsmen tried to the place his gum highest on the wall. Despite the rain, we had a wonderful time! We frozen our bums off for sure!

Next up was the reception at the Space Needle. By this point we incredibly tired. But we all danced 'til our feet hurt!

Seattle Space Needle with wind rushing past!

As I have been promising forever

I know I have been slacking on the blogging. And tonight I promise to upload a bunch of cool beans pictures. And soon I will have links to all the other pictures of my goings ons. My aunt's wedding in Aberdeen passed well. My mother pulled together miracles with the flowers as usual. She is amazing. And the flowers for Missa's wedding (which was a significantly larger undertaking) came together beautifully as well! And Missa and Matt breathe a hefty sigh that they are finally married (we have been waiting forever, yet it came too soon!).

I will do details later. But my cousin and her daughters as well as mom and I are running to eat (at 4pm!).