Boy Stories: The Crush

Ok, so I am single. In my experience here in grad school, I find that the guys I think are cute/funny/nice, you know, worthy of my attention are not available. Many of the single guys I have met, um, let's just say I understand why they are single.


So, there is this one guy I very casually know. Emphasis on the very. We'll call him Cute Boy. He is just super adorable. He seems really nice from what I can tell. I definitely have a little crush on him. I have no idea if he is single or not.


See, the problem is, usually when I get that initial little crush on a guy, I can't speak to him. I get so shy and nervous that I can't say anything at all, because I know if I open my mouth, stupidity will flow out. Or if it's not completely stupid, I will be talking at warp speed and he won't understand a word I am saying. Either way it's a lose-lose.


This guy, when I am around him I have to really try to not stare at him. I feel like all I do is stare at him--and that can be a tad bit creepy. Because I'm sure I'm making some strange face when I stare at him. Which is then extra creepy.


But...I swear there have been a couple of times that I have caught him looking at me. I could be totally insane...and...wrong. But I don't know. I'm so dorky and cliche that if we make eye contact at all...I look away (and probably blush or something).


I just wish I knew his dating status. You know, someone say something about Cute Boy's girlfriend/fiancee/wife/male companion/etc. or lack of girlfriend/fiancee/wife/male companion/etc. Because then I at least know whether or not to still be dorky and cliche. Because the second I find out a guy is not available, my brain can turn off the crush and all the dorkiness and 12-yr-old girl behaviour that comes with the crush.


For instance. There was this guy here at the med center. He was tall and cute and dreamy. The one time I more than just said hi to him...I was so nervous...like seriously on the verge of hyperventilating. Anywho, I found out later he was not single via a conversation about his fiancee (now wife). And you know what? I can talk to him so easily now--and we get along really well. Once the crush was no more, I am my normal, charming self.


Now, if anyone leaves some comment and says something like "just go talk to him" or "grow some balls" or something (yes, you Erin...). Oh...you do not know me at all. I am a chicken. I am not bold.

I will continue to be nervous and dorky around him. 'Cause that's how I roll.

And probably why I don't have a boyfriend. Heh.

Quads of Hate

Softball.

Still going on. Although now the "regular season" is finished for us...and the playoffs start next week. They have typically been the type where you have to lose twice to be out. So we have at least 2 more games. Plus we have no idea who are when we are playing yet.

Anywho, so I blogged before how I have been generally not wanting to play (sorry, too lazy to go back and find the post and link to it). The last two games we have been tight on players...which meant I had to play. I got put at second at both games. I am comfortable at second. It's fine. I'm not terrible...but I'm not winning any golden gloves either. My one complaint when playing is the guys yelling during plays. Or I should say yelling at me (not in an angry way..in a "the game is in full swing and I need you to hear me" way). See, in my head before the batter gets a pitch, I mentally go over a couple of scenarios. Like if I catch a line drive and there are people on base, which base I am going to turn to to try to get a double play. Because then it's just doing and not thinking once the ball has been hit.

So, a guy came up to bat. Many guys doubt that girls have any softball skills (sometimes true, sometimes not). So if they are the type who can hit wherever they please...they like to aim at girls thinking they can't make a play. This guy was up to bat. Dude...I so saw how you were standing in the batters box. You were aiming to the right side. There were runners on first and second. I decided that if it was a line drive I caught, I would go to first to try to get the second out (would be more natural being a righty and being more natural to throw in that direction). If it was on the ground I would go to second and hope the shortstop could get the double play (even though that would put a runner on third). I was READY.

So the guy hits the ball...and it is a line drive straight at me. I caught it and had already turned my body towards first...then the shortstop (and I believe others too) are yelling "SECOND SECOND!" See, they do this and my brain doesn't work in warp speed like that. By the time I look and process the person is already back on second. Then...people are yelling "FIRST FIRST!" so by the time I turn and process (and I did throw because the girl on first had ran a little further from the bag), it was too late, she got back in time. I was irritated because if they just don't yell at me...we would have had two outs. But whatever...we got one.

Anywho...that's a little side tracked from the purpose of this blog post. So we had two games on consecutive days (one was a make-up game due to the freakish storm that just hovered over part of the city for about an hour...) and I played second both games. And today my quads are like "I HATE YOU" with every step I take. They are so sore. Now, I know I haven't been going to the gym regularly and all lately...but this is some serious pain. I feel like I've been doing squats for two days straight.

Oh...but wait. I kinda was. When I thought about it, I do squat down a bit when I am getting ready for a play. So that means with each pitch I squat down a bit and come back up. Who knows how many pitches are thrown in a game. So that's how many half squats I did. And my muscles hate me now.

I also have some soreness right at the bottom of my ribcage in the front. Not sure why...but there you go.

And yeah, my back and arms and calves and butt and hip flexor and pretty much everything is at least a bit sore. By my quads HATE ME.

Which is why I have decided enough pansy-footing around and am getting myself back to going to the gym regularly.

Starting tomorrow. Heh.

You can't handle the truth!

I have a link to PhD comics over there to the right. See? (it's the one that has the link "the story of my life"). As a grad student...that stuff is pretty true to life. It's....eerie. It's like they are watching me.

Anywho, from time to time, certain comics fit perfectly with something I did. The comic posted on Friday is one of those.
(I can upload pictures from links with NO PROBLEM...but from my computer...NO!) See, me and two other students in my department are working with a faculty member to design a course to get us teaching experience (since we have no required teaching). The three of us met with the course director about the proposed layout of the class. We were not terribly thrilled. Essentially we were just TAs and would not get any opportunity to present a lecture. We talked for an hour with the course director and came up with some suggestions for changes.

The next day, we get an email from the course director with the subject line "good news." Well, good depends on who you ask. Some parts of the course design were better, some were not. For the grad students, it was a ton of work with very little reward. I spoke with one of the other students interesting in teaching and we were on the same page about what we thought about the current course design and came up with a counter proposal. We decided we only needed to send one email between the two of us, so I said I would do it being the senior grad student.

I didn't intend for it to be a long email, just basically say "hey, I talked to so-and-so and we think we should change this and this, keep this. what do you think?" That's the gist of what I intended to say (except, you know, with better grammar).

The email turned into a long, eloquent email. I mean, I was quite proud of it. I did pat myself on the back about it. Granted, it took me a day to write it. That's not constant writing (or typing), but I would type something...go do some lab work...reread it, add something, edit something, lather, rinse, repeat. By the end of the afternoon I felt it was ready to be sent. I am glad I let it stew all day because there were some things that popped into my head later in the day that were very valid points to make that just weren't there in the morning.

I sent the email to the course director, because I figured any reply would be to the three students and they could read my email then. The course director thanked me for my long and carefully thought-out email. I patted myself on the back...AGAIN. Heh. We got a little more compromise in the class layout, and it was enough for me to be ok with (because honestly, the semester is starting soon and we could go back and forth on nitty gritty details for months--and the party being a stickler isn't going to change being a stickler...even though other faculty members have agreed that he is being unreasonable!).

I talked to the same student after the course director's second reply and we kinda agreed that the layout wasn't the best ever, but ok enough. Then the student praised my email! More patting of my back! She said she wouldn't have made half of the points I made (I think my favorite point in the email was that all parties involved needed to be happy with the results and benefit from the class--students taking the teaching class, the teaching class course director, the class director of the course we are invading and the students will be teaching). I did confess that it took me ALL DAY LONG to write (because, it wasn't like I wrote that sucker on the fly) but that I was happy with it.

So, although it took me a day to write one email....it was a damn good email.

Oh, and side note. So one of the sections I asked to "teach" was a section my advisor covers (and he already mentioned he was more than happy to to give away his lectures). And he just talked to me and said he'd work with whatever the class guidelines were, but that he thinks we really need to teach an entire lecture--and especially two lectures back-to-back--to really get a grasp of what it's like. Plus he asked if anyone else was interested in teaching in that section. I think he just really wants to pass off his lectures to someone else.

Five-fer Friday

Ok, last week I gave you some things people have said to my face and a list of people who said them. This week I will give you who said what, and the story behind them.

1. "You have a good tongue"--The high school teacher. It was my high school band teacher to be exact, and he was complimenting me on my ability to play a series of short, fast notes well (thus, having a good tongue...while playing the flute). Unfortunately, he gave me this complement in front of the entire class...which included high school boys. Thus started a barrage of comments and a month or so worth of teasing.


2. "You play dumb beautifully"--The cute boy. This guy was seriously good looking. He actually did some modeling (mainly print stuff) for some major designers. I was talking to a friend of his. His friend kept saying something about redheads. Neither one of us was a redhead. I honestly had no clue what this guy was talking about. I kept trying to figure out what redheads had to do with anything. I guess I was naive to not realize we were having a somewhat sexual conversation dealing with the "carpet vs. drapes" thing. Actually, that conversation still leaves me confused to this day. Later, the cute boy made some comment about my conversation with his friend. I told him I had no idea what we had talked about. And he said that I played dumb beautifully. Too bad I wasn't playing.


3. "That is the nerdiest thing I've ever seen"--my advisor. Now, my advisor is a science geek. He really is. I had just joined the lab and we had weekly lab meetings. Back then when I cared about organization, I made a special notebook for lab meeting notes. It was just a small 3-ring binder. To decorate it, I printed a picture of Dexter (from Dexter's Laboratory) with a quote of from the show written above the top of the picture. The quote was "Today is a great day for science." I thought it was funny to have as a decoration for my lab meeting notebook. My advisor saw it and told me that was the nerdiest thing he'd ever seen. I muttered under my breath how he must not pay attention TO HIS ENTIRE LIFE. He who made glass plates for pouring gels at home (that is...he made the plates at home...not that he pours gels at home...). There is some saying about stones and glass houses that fits here nicely....


4. "You have book smarts...AND street smarts"--The valedictorian. Of the class ahead of me actually. He was comparing me to the valedictorian of my class (I was the salutatorian). He said the valedictorian of my class just had book smarts...but I had BOTH. I think he meant more common sense wise as opposed to, you know, being...street smart. 'Cause white girl from the 'burbs isn't very "street wise." I thought it was funny. And enjoyed him praising me over the valedictorian. I am evil like that.


5. "I've never met a bigger airhead in my life"--the ugly boy. So, this guy was a couple of years older than me and a kid of some friends of my parents. His family (he has 3 sisters as well as a brother) were staying at our house for a few days one summer. He spent the entire time saying mean things to my face. He also informed me that I was stupid, ugly and that I should be one of those airplane traffic people (the ones with the wandy things that direct planes) because I gesticulated ALOT when I talked, in addition to being an airhead. He seriously spent the entire time being cruel to me. So, being the self-respecting 13ish old that I was, I ignored him. I can still see the look on his face when they were leaving and he was smiling and waving bye to me and I gave him my best angry teen stare. His face fell. What did he expect? I mean, I was glad he was leaving...but good lord you just spent 4 days being an asshole to me! I always wondered if perhaps he was being mean because he liked me? I dunno...he just seemed a bit too mean for that. Anywho, I have never seen him since (I've seen all of his siblings and parents since then).
   

An honorable mention was not said directly to my face, but written to me in a year book. This girl seriously wrote something very close to "Nicole, At first I thought you were weird, but then I got to know you and you are really nice. Have a great summer. See you next year!"

I mean, I admire her honesty...but heh. But come on...can't I be weird and nice?

Thank you, kind sir

Dear cute guy driving the BMW,

Hi. I would like to thank you for the blantant checking me out Monday afternoon. It made my day. It's nice to be driving home and have some cute guy sticking his head out the window of his car to check me out. Good times.

Thanks,
Nicole

Huh...is that right?

Ok, so this weekend I was working on installment #2 of Nicole vs. Cupcake. I was making chocolate cupcakes with a strawberry chocolate ganache filling frosted with chocolate ganache and vanilla buttercream. Yes, I know.

This cupcake was just not in the cards.

First off I had a horrible time finding non-gross strawberries. As in...packages that didn't have horribly bruised--or even moldy--fruit. I finally found one that was usable.

I made the cupcakes Saturday because they needed to be fully cooled and prepped for filling before I made the filling and frosting. The cupcake batter tasted FANTASTIC! I was waiting for the cupcakes to be done, and started smelling them and went to check to see how they were doing. I turned on the light in my oven (open the door--heck no!) and to my horror the cupcakes were rising beautifully...except in the middle. I was hoping the middles were just a little behind. So I waited a bit more, checked on them again...and nope. Still sunken in the middle. I finally pulled them out to test them and they were done in the middle. They were so sad looking. I tried one later that night and it tasted delicious. So the recipe for the cupcakes is a winner...as soon as I figured out what went wrong to cause my craters.

Sunday I made the filling and the frosting. Since there wasn't any center to really cut out to fill, I decided to just combine the filling/glaze into just a puddle of chocolate to be covered in frosting. I tried a spoonful of the chocolate ganache (as much as I put onto 1 cupcake) and filled them and gave them a minute to get them set. Then I frosted it with the buttercream--which is the PERFECT basic buttercream recipe. I took my pictures and went to watch a movie.

Then...I started feeling sick.

At first I just chocked it up to an overload of sugar...although I just had the spoonful of ganache and a dollop of the frosting. But soon just the general queasiness turned into a headache and feeling serioulsy nauseated. I took some advil and ate some dinner...and that only helped a bit. But I was drinking some sweetened hot tea later that night and that was fine...so I began to think it wasn't a sugar overload.

And...I think I might have a mild chocolate allergy or something? I used some heavy-duty chocolate (like the 70% cacao stuff) for the ganache and maybe my body just cannot tolerate that much chocolate.

Even today, I woke up and had absolutely no desire to eat (I eat breakfast EVERY morning...except this morning). Thinking about that chocolate ganache makes me feel nauseated even now.

I've never been a big chocolate fan. I usually can only take it in small quantities and generally it isn't really intense stuff. Maybe my low desire for chocolate wasn't just a fluke? I don't know. I do know I'm not going to go to an allergist to get poked with stuff so they can tell me that I am mildly allergic to something.

But, with all that said...I now have about 7 cupcakes all ganached and frosted that I absolutely will not put into my mouth. And I have an aversion to let other people try my stuff without me taste testing it first. So I'm afraid I will have no deliciousness conclusion from this recipe. However, if I can ever post pictures...I will at least put those up.

And now...I think I might go puke.

Scientific Fantastic-ness...Maybe: Part 2

Ok, after the meeting earlier this week about a possible major shift in my thesis (which, some experiments need to be done to see if I can make a legal turn), there was another glimmer of scientific fantastic-ness today.

So much of my data has been weird and questionable at best. Which, most scientific journals aren't looking for weird and questionable. The one part of my project that is trudging along, yet is just ho-hum, nothing terribly interesting, would get me a first author paper in Billy Bob's Journal of Science Stuff, you know, a publication, but nothing remotely wow or in that great a journal.

While looking at some of my data and comparing it to previously published stuff, there might be some novel...and INTERESTING...stuff lurking in my ho-hum data. Again, this isn't definite, right now, it's kinda 50/50 whether it is or not. But just the possibility that my ho-hum data might be a bit more interesting...I am just in research heaven.

Plus...Dateline tonight! and the weekend!

I <3 Myron Rolle, and so should you!

Ok, so I am an FSU dork who anytime I see and FSU story...I read it. Good or bad.

I usually look at SI.com's photo galleries. I came across one a few minutes ago about a name I recognized--Myron Rolle--an FSU football player.

The photo gallery is of Myron's study-abroad adventures. You can see them here. They are all of the "portable dork" variety (that is, just pictures of you standing in front of something, not that Myron Rolle is a dork). And also, Myron Rolle apparently only owns FSU shirts. Heh.

There was also a link to an article by Stewart Mandel about Myron Rolle. Turns out this kid is going to finish his premed degree (yes...a premed football player!) in 2.5 years (and he currently has a 3.75 GPA). Plus FSU will most likely be nominating him for the uber-prestigious Rhodes Scholarship.

On the first page of the article, an FSU professor, Timothy Logan is mentioned. Apparently, Dr. Logan made a joke about the FSU football team in his biochemistry class...and Myron Rolle was in that class and came up to Dr. Logan after the lecture and informed him he didn't appreciate the joke. Hee! See, this is extra funny to me because I know Dr. Logan--I have been in that biochem class--I even did my undergraduate research in Dr. Logan's lab. The article also mentions that Rolle is working in Dr. Logan's lab...in addition to being a student athelete...which, when does this guy sleep?!?

Now, I must tangent a bit to get people to understand how absolutely fabulous Dr. Logan is. He is a laidback, funny guy. He's very personable and he's really a great inspiration to me. I never told him so, but that man has made a huge impact on me and on my career path. He is a phenomenal teacher--and I hope that I can eventually teach as well as he does.

I was just so tickled by this article. It's great hearing such a positive academic story about FSU football. Rolle appears to be a smart and ambitious guy. I wish him good luck and I will definately be following up on this kid in the next year to see how he does!

Five-fer Friday

Today's Five-fer is a list of things people have actually said to my face. At the bottom of the list I will give a randomized listing of the people who said them. Next Friday I will say who said what and give the story behind it. But in the meantime, you can make wild assumptions! Fun, right?

1. "You have a good tongue"
2. "You play dumb beautifully"
3. "That is the nerdiest thing I've ever seen"
4. "You have book smarts...AND street smarts"
5. "I've never met a bigger airhead in my life"

Here are the people who said these things, in random order: the valedictorian, the high school teacher, my advisor, the ugly boy, the cute boy.

Blog Envy

I got jealous.

In my futile attempts to upload photos to my blog, I notice all you other bloggers (cough, cough, DR. JOY, cough cough) seemingly posting photos with no problem.

Why?

WHY?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

I tried making the image files as wee as possible. But blogger still says no. I actually verified my email address thinking blogger was holding a grudge. Blogger says: NO!

I'm convinced it is my laptop. This vile thing. I try to be nice to it (except those times when it really annoys me and I bring the "fist of wrath" down hard onto it...what? it deserved to be punched), but it is a petulant child.

I know I cannot type my thesis on this. There is absolutely no way that is going to happen. So, hopefully in the next couple of months, I'll be spending money I so do not have and buy a new laptop. Then, when I finally graduate and get to send this lame excuse for technology falling, in a ball of fire, to its tragic demise, I won't be left laptop-less.

And maybe I'll get some more pictures posted.

I have one more thing to try and get the photos posted, but if that doesn't work, then I'm afraid no photos for you! At least until I get that new laptop.

Scientific Fantastic-ness....Maybe

Another day, another failed attempt to upload pictures to blogger.

Today I had a meeting with my advisor and another committee member. We met to discuss whether or not I should take a sharp left turn with the rest of my thesis.

Our lab, the other committee member's lab, as well as published data support my preliminary data (and the left turn)...it's just that it goes against the (primarily assumed) dogma of the system I am working on.

This other committee member is more of an expert in this field, since this has been what her research has focused on, whereas me and my advisor kinda got in at the same time (so...about 4 years). This other committee member was telling me what her new hypothesis was...and I had to contain the urge to jump out of my seat and bang my fist on the table and say "you are SHITTING me!" (but in a good, excited way!)

What she was saying was something that had been rattling around in my head for about two years now. At least the basic idea of it, not necessarily eloquently stated. I thought it was just some hair-brained thought of a grad student....not something potentially scientifically sound.

It is also extra startling because me and this committee member don't always speak the same language. There have been countless times I think I am being clear and she is like "what do you mean?" And I clarify the point more...and she'll say "I don't get what you're saying." And then I get frustrated and want to beat my head against the wall. She's not mean--I don't mean to imply that at all--it's just, we don't speak the same lingo. But man...today we were on the same page.

Nothing definite has happened yet. The concensus was that the left turn is a good direction for me to go...assuming a couple more preliminary experiments go how we think they will (barring from experiments being assholes and just not working,.

It will be a TON of work to finish between now and spring graduation (and would look like graduating just in time for spring 2009 as opposed to a little late for fall 2008...), but the potential publication would be worth it.

Then my advisor would FINALLY let me go to the meeting I have been wanting to go to for 4 years and I will get eaten alive for telling all these scientist "well...your data wasn't wrong...just...not right." Heh.

PROOF!!!

I am STILL having issues trying to upload photos of my cupcake making. If anyone has any hints or whatnot...PLEASE...let me know. Because anytime I hit the "upload" button....it just sits there and eventually times out.

Just to show you that I was able to upload a photo at least once...here is my dog.

She's a basset hound named Georgette. This is her best pouty face. Isn't she cute? Any shiny?

She likes: people, kitties, red dot (a laser pointer), walks, people food (not veggies), routines (trust me, she gets a little out of sorts if her routine is upset), naps, chasing people and/or kitties, hunting lizards, being a thief (I am still missing a sock...I am convinced it is buried in my parents backyard).

My parents have "temporary custody", which after 5 years, means that I will never get my dog back. My parents are too attached to her...and she has my parents wrapped around her little paw. Plus, she has spent almost all of her life at my parents house where she is free to roam inside or in the backyard as she pleases. With me, she would be confined to an apartment. So it's ok that I won't ever get her back...especially when I go home and she ignores my parents in favor of me. Heh. She knows who's boss!

My laptop sucks.

Ok, while I was waiting on stuff to finish last night, I decided to work on the cupcake blog I've been threatening everyone with.

So I get it all typed up, and just needed to put the pictures in. (I had finally transferred the pictures from my camera to my laptop). But after trying 4 separate times blogger was not able to upload my photos. I'm pretty sure the reason is my laptop.

See, there is something amok with my laptop. This is terribly shocking considering that this laptop is: 5 years old, has had 3 hard drive crashes, has had the hard drive wiped clean another 2 times, has had a battery replaced, has had a fan replaced and really, wasn't that great of a laptop when it was new.

Sometime last week I got this little warning that my memory was almost full. It's not a huge hard drive and I know it will be on the fuller side...but I checked and I had less than 200MB of free disk space. Which makes your computer angry and really slow.

So I did a little housecleaning and deleted unnecessary files and uninstalled some programs I NEVER use plus moved some files that I want but never use onto my external hard drive (which is a whopping 250GB). I wound up clearing up about 7GB of space. That should be fine.

Except....

That free space I cleared up was decreasing, and it wasn't because I am adding stuff to my hard drive. I am down to a little under 3 GB of free space. I'm not sure exactly why it is doing that, but I have a sneaking suspicion what it is....it deals with my computer not being able to download Microsoft patches. So I think my computer kept trying to download the patches (several times a day) and it was somehow making some file(s) every time it tried. That's the only thing I could think of that was causing the slowly decreasing free space.

So I took it down to by BFF (best fine friends) down in the academic computer department. I told them the problem...they fixed the downloading issue. And suggested I move some of my iTunes files onto my external hard drive. Pffft. I told him he should just put one of those 80GB hard drives in my laptop instead.

I have tried again to upload the images onto blogger, but blogger is not complying. I made the picture files smaller in size. Blogger still is like "whatevs". And the whole point of the Nicole vs. Cupcake posts was to show you the pictures! Because really? How dull is "I made some cupcakes...they were good!" So dull. But..."I made some cupcakes...they were good...AND...here is a picture of them" is fantastic!

Before when I was playing with some blogger features I was able to successfully upload a picture of my dog. So I know it works. Perhaps blogger is just having some issues with stuff last night/today.

But never fear, I will try to upload the pictures again. Eventually they'll have to load...right?

Five-fer Friday

I am working on my third 12-hr work day in a row. I am getting tired and worn out. Yes, I am a pansy who likes an 8 (ok...6-7) hour workday and spending a relaxing evening at home leisurely eating dinner, watching stupid television shows, having a nice long shower and reading some in bed before I actually fall asleep. But 12 hour work days automatically cut the day in half. That leaves me 12 hours for everything else...including sleep and eating two meals and basic hygiene needs. Like last night...I got home, ate dinner (standing in my kitchen) while I made my lunch for today. Then I got a shower and went to bed. 9 hours after I got home last night I am back at school. Meh. I am soooo looking forward to tonight because I won't have to go back to school for OVER 48 HOURS! Plus...Dateline! Woot.

So today's Five-fer Friday is 5 signs I Just. Don't. Care.

1. I am wearing the same jeans as I did yesterday. And they are jeans that I probably shouldn't wear in public in the first place(ok--to be completely honest--even if I was bright eyed and bushy-tailed I'd still wear these jeans in public...heh). But these jeans were the first ones I got to on the floor (I would have had to walk another 10 feet to get to clean jeans). I figure 3/4 of the items I am wearing are clean. So...whatever.
2. I didn't brush my hair this morning. I slept on it wet last night. It has weird kinks in it. At least it is clean.
3. I'm not sure I put on deodorant this morning. Normally I do a "check" if I am not sure(which involves me sticking my finger in my armpit and smelling to see if I can smell the deodorant....and that is the only reason I wear scented deodorants). I didn't even care to check. I took a shower last night, I'm not running a marathon or doing vigorous activity today. I won't get that smelly.
4. I saw this guy I have a small crush on...and due to the lack of people at school at 7:30am...he clearly saw me. If you haven't gathered from items #1-3, I'm not looking swell today. Normally I would have thought something along the lines as "well...that doesn't help for him to see me like this." But my only thought when I saw him was "meh." Today, I could care less about your existence cute boy.
5. Normally when I am feeling mentally and physically drained, I like to watch this particular episode of Gilmore Girls titled "The Incredible Sinking Lorelais" which, is an episode where both mother and daughter are feeling mentally/physically/emotionally drained and have little mental breakdowns. Lauren Graham's performance in the end of this episode (she plays the mom) makes me cry every time. It's a nice release. BUT...the effort of having to physically put the DVD into the DVD player feels so taxing that eh...I'll just watch Inside Edition or whatever. If I get home that early.

I don't scream so much, as ponder, for ice cream

Last night, I went to the grocery store to get stuff for food this week. I have been religiously using a list as of late hoping to stop myself from buying random stuff that I will just put in my pantry/fridge/freezer for all eternity.

All I had left on my list was milk (for my morning cereal and chocolate milk). Just in my natural route I passed the ice cream section. I got to thinking I didn't have anything sweet in my apartment for when I wanted dessert (turns out...my brain was telling lies!). So I was looking at some gelato stuff. Non-traditional flavors, which interest me. Don't get me wrong, I love the basic flavors, but I only eat little bits of ice cream at a time on my own, so I feel that something not-so-normal fits the bill. But nothing I saw really said "BUY ME AND EAT ME!!!!!!" So I moved on.

Next I stood looking at the Ben and Jerry's selection. My absolute hands-down forever favorite Ben and Jerry's flavor was called "Cool Britannia". Sadly, this flavor is now a member of the flavor graveyard. It was vanilla ice cream with strawberries and chocolate covered shortbread. In high school me and a friend would go and grab a pint and eat it while we watched the boys play intramural soccer (there were no soccer teams at my high school and the school allowed this after-school league as a chance for the guys to prove to the school that there was enough interest in starting a boy's team). Yummy. The ice cream that is....not the boys, really.

As I looked there were some interesting flavors...but still nothing that said "BUY ME AND EAT ME!!!!!" Until my eyes rested on the Creme Brulee flavor (sorry...not sure how to make the accented letters). My brain said "I like creme brulee". So I bought it.

Of course when I got home and put the ice cream in the freezer I saw the remaining chocolate chip cookie dough I had made last week and froze because I was just too lazy to bake it all. So, since my cookie dough was more perishable (not chocker-box full of preservatives) I decided that it needed to be used first. But I still had to at least try the new ice cream. And it is really like creme brulee-in a carton. Fantastic.

In other news...I know I have been a bad blogger. I have all these promises of posts with pictures...and I swear...they are coming...soon...ish.

Lunch Envy

For lunch today, I had a Lean Cuisine pizza that had been sitting in my freezer since who-knows-when. It was old enough that the "best by" date was three months ago. But it was buried in the bottom of my freezer, so I decided to give it a whirl. (see....I went to make myself some lunch for the next couple of days last night, and upon realizing that my bag of frozen chicken tenders were freezer burned beyond belief...I decided it's time to clean out my freezer).

The pizza was ok. I think it was fine quality-wise...it was just kinda eh. Edible, but not terribly satisfying.

Then I come back to lab where the newbie is eating some homemade chicken and dumplings...and it smells absolutely delicious.

Stupid Lean Cuisine Pizza....