Have you ever really needed a moment of calm? I did today.
So I felt the urge to post this video.
I always thought that the idea of random college roommates was an insane idea. Let’s take two strangers who may or may not have anything in common and cram them together in a tiny little space during one of the biggest transitions of their life. Let’s see if they survive or end up driving each other to the brink of insanity.
Okay, sure, a lot of these random pairings do end up working. But then I end up hearing the friends that had to deal with months of torment as their roommate did all sorts of crazy things.
It’s as though someone thought it’d be an interesting social experiment and convinced the rest of us that this was a practical idea.
Kind of like red eye flights. In theory, a flight overnight seems like a fantastic idea. 99% of the time, you end up doing nothing during a flight. Why not sleep and make the time go by faster? An additional bonus is that the airlines are able to ferry more people around, therefore they are able to make more money.
After my recent experience with the red eye, I can name several reasons why taking a flight like this by choice (silly me) is masochistic.
Here are four:
- You are in close quarters with, most likely, a RANDOM STRANGER. Yeah. Imagine sitting on a park bench next to someone, arm to arm, passively aggressively vying for space on your already too small space. Sometimes, if you’re really unfortunate, said person might…”overflow” into your personal space and guess what? There is nothing you can do about it.
- Sleeping in the seated position (even with the 10 degree incline) is just not natural. Helloooo, swollen feet and cankles.
- People do funny things when they sleep. In fact, I would say that sleeping next to someone is one of the most intimate things you can do. I would like to keep this roster of people strictly to my family, significant other and closest friends. On a red eye, you end up doing this next to a stranger (yes, see #1). So now not only are you vying for personal space, you also experience the joys of someone snoring, drooling, twitching and…from unfortunate first hand experience…farting during their sleep. AWESOME.
- Babies love to cry at the most inopportune time. You know, like when you’re trying to sleep. So why, dear God, why do people bring babies on this flight?
Basically, it just costs you more to fly. Oh, I don’t mean price. I mean emotionally, physically, and mentally. And what’s even better is the fact that they play an in-flight movie. That’s nice of them…to the 1% of insomniacs that forgot to bring another source of entertainment. For the other people that may have forgotten their eye mask, I can only say FYL.
I think it is time that I go find some water and food.
I’m feeling a cold coming on. Wasn’t it just a few weeks ago where I had to recuperate from a summer cold? I feel like my body decided to give me hell … just because it would be very ill-timed.
As a lot of people who interact with me during this time may notice, feeling not-so-great has a direct relationship with my mood. And, as expected, I tried very hard not to be a little thundercloud of grumpiness (but not so sure about how successful I was).
Now that I’m finally home in pajamas on the couch and under a blanket, I feel a whole lot better. A vitamin pack is calling my name (Thanks, Terry!) and I do believe I see a bit of silver lining.
On a random side note, as I was starting to spiral down into a full blow pity party, my mind suddenly started to think about what it meant to be successful. This also has to do with another conversation I had with some people earlier, but I won’t delve into that too much. At any rate, sometimes I find myself frustrated with myself because I feel as though I can clearly see my limitations. However, my aspirations for success and greatness (or what I think is success is greatness) far exceeds what I believe my capabilities to be.
This all boils down to the fact that I tend to latch onto that one sadistic deadly sin: envy. A part of me wishes I were as innovative as the entrepreneurs out there making billions, or as talented as the A-list Hollywood royalty. I would love to be a best-selling New York Times author, giving speeches around the world. Alas, a little voice inside of me whispers one word that makes me shudder…mediocrity.
Even around my peers, sometimes it’s hard to not compare myself. In fact, comparing myself is the one thing that I tend to do, despite the fact that I know it’s not healthy AND beyond the point. After all, we’re all different people given different talents. Whether or not we’re a gas station attendant or the next Stephen Hawking doesn’t really matter, as long as we try our best, right?
At least, that’s what I have to keep telling myself. In the meantime, I’ll just try not to drive myself crazy by constantly playing the game of “Keeping up with the _______.”
Instead, I’m going to watch this video, drink my vitamin-packed water, eat something heavy and try to sleep as close to 12 hours as possible to ward off this tiny bug.
Curiosity might have killed the cat, but I think that the little boxes on websites kill productivity. And it’s due to curiosity (that fiend) who nudges me to click on these enticing and random stories.
As a result of my curiosity or mild adult ADD (I can’t tell which) I tend to find the most random things - like the daikon that Japan rallied around, or the super cool Forbes infographic that shows migration patterns.
But of course, out of all the random places that I peruse on the Internet, one of the deepest black holes of procrastination would have to be either sites like eHow or something to do with health.
I always thought that I had a random overactive imagination as a child. If I felt a random pang, I would contemplate if that meant that some internal organ was surely going to fail or trigger some sort of reaction that would plunge me into a seizure (only to be brought back again by the paramedic *cue the dramatic music*).
Sometimes I wondered what it would be like to break a bone (knock on wood). For those of you who have and swear by the fact that it’s NOT fun, I believe you. But, as I discussed with someone recently, as a child you feel left out over the silliest things….glasses, braces, broken bones….and although I was blessed with none of those (*ducks and covers as verbal curses are hurled my way*) at the time, I really wanted to fit in. Even if it meant that I looked funny.
Ironically, I ended up looking funny after all my peers had their vision/teeth/whatevers corrected thanks to puberty. Oh, Mother Nature…you diabolical tyrant.
Anyway, as a result of the combination of my mild hypochondriac ways, fascination with doctor shows and laziness/inability to even contemplate the field of medicine, websites with articles about health were like a field day for me. As silly as some people may think it is, I’m already starting to panic as age beings to wrap its cold clammy hands around me, making everything sag and sit funny.
All of this build up is to delve into my latest idea of drinking from the hypothetical fountain of youth - um, somewhat literally. In short:
I’m drinking a lot of water to be healthy!
I’ve always heard snippets about the benefits of drinking water. Truth be told, I never really liked water as a kid. I used to prefer any sort of juice, real or fake, apple or orange (or grape, or mixed…you get my point) over water. Heaven forbid, I would even take a Coke over water.
After awhile, I noticed that I would sometimes be dizzy in the mornings. Or I would get mild headaches. Finally, after an urgent trip to the doctor thinking it might have been meningitis (the benefit and detriment of having a med student as a roommate, given my aforementioned ways) when it turned out to be EXTREME dehydration, the message started to sink in.
Uh, of course, it took a few years for it to sink in.
Anyway! I started on my regiment of trying to consciously drink water. So far, it’s had some benefits. I noticeably feel a lot more awake in the afternoon versus the normal 3pm slump, and it’s nice to take a breather and walk around the office (you can read about how horrible it is for your health is if you have a regular desk job here…I told you I had issues). The downside?
I have to pee. A LOT. If I thought health sites with headlines like “FIVE TIPS TO STAY YOUNG AT ANY AGE” weren’t detrimental to my focus enough, five trips (yes I counted) to the bathroom is probably a lot higher up on the list.
I thought it was weird, but my friend said it was because my kidneys couldn’t handle it. I called him a liar. Then I googled it. According to WikiAnswers:
Your liver is the organ that deals with metabolizing fat, and your kidneys deal with straining the toxins out of the water you drink. However, if you do not have enough water in your system already, your kidneys will not be able to do their job. In this case, your body shifts some of the work over to your liver.
We all know what happens when we are working on a project and someone comes over and dumps their half-finished work on the pile; our project doesn’t get the attention it needs. Same here. Your liver was dealing with fat, but now it has to do that AND deal with the extra filtering that the kidneys would normally do. So the efficiency of the liver is compromised, and it winds up leaving a lt of fat in your body that normally would have been burned away.
Interesting, isn’t it? Here’s more:
It may be inconvenient at first because you will have to pee more often, but the reason that you are running to the bathroom is actually great; your body is finally letting go of all the old, toxic water that its been holding onto. The water that you are drinking is usually not the first water that you excrete after being dehydrated. Now your body knows that you will be replacing the water, so it isn’t panicking and storing it, it is letting go to make room for the fresh, clean water you are sending in. After a few days or a week, the bathroom trips will slow down and your body will get into a great rhythm, which includes reduced appetite, more luminous complexion, and better muscle tone, as well as a more efficient metabolism.
Sweet. I can’t wait to drink my way to a skinnier, muscular and more luminous me.
And apparently I ought to move to Seattle or Austin.
After it took me such a long time to finally finish the previous book in the Inheritance cycle, I decided to indulge in a bit more of the fantasy brain candy and devour the third book - Brisingr.
I really do have to had it to Paolini - after all, I could hardly construct my first “novel” (calling the 50,000 mashed up garble of words a ‘novel’ is being overly generous, like calling my tofu creations fine cuisine…anyway, I digress) let alone a full three with actual characters and a story line. A story line with a PLOT and a CLIMAX, oh my.
Overall, the Inheritance series has been a pretty okay series to read. I don’t devour them as quickly as I did the Harry Potter series (insert forlorn sigh of longing for old friends) nor did I think it was nearly as richly constructed as The Lord of the Rings. But…all grousing aside, it has its moments. Much like my thoughts on Eldest, it wasn’t so poorly written that it made me want to gouge my eyes out and sterilize them in saline water … like the Twilight series.
The third book had a bit of a muddled and slow start, trudges a bit in the middle, has a really fantastic “ah-ha!” moment where things tie together near the end, and then of course a rather “meh” wrap up. It felt as though he was trying to run a marathon, and realized that he ought to hurry and finish near the end before people packed up their things and went home because they were bored. There were a few scenes where I mentally just wanted him to hurry things up, and as usual I skimmed over some of the intricacies in his storytelling that really don’t matter in the long run.
I’m not quite sure how children 12 years (give or take a few) could sit through it. Then again, maybe I’m just not as dedicated as children these days.
Recommended? Eh, I guess. The only major downside is that I have to WAIT for the NEXT AND FINAL BOOK. At least waiting without bated breath is a lot easier to handle than it was when I nearly tore down the doors of the local Barnes and Noble for the final installment of Harry Potter.
Dear Paul -
I’m an asshole. And the funny thing is, I can imagine you smiling at that and shaking your head and saying, “no, you’re not.” Because that’s just how you are, and always have been.
I still remember all those times that we chatted into the night over coffee at J’s. Remember the random nights where we’d watch episodes from adult swim? Or drove around the suburban neighborhoods of Carrollton, trying to figure out things to do? We’d visit Erin at her work, grab meals, play video games…and even had a random midnight swim with friends.
You were there when I needed a friend, always lending an ear or giving a hug. You took off your shoes when you visited my house. You reassured me, you laughed with me. And you were there with me through tears and more.
Because that’s the type of person you are: You are one of the best people, ever.
I miss you.
Thank you for your friendship, and for you being you.
I’ve been informed that it’s been awhile since I’ve posted. I sat down a few minutes earlier to hammer out a post evaluating the goals that I set for myself, but then I decided that it was too boring. I thought about commenting on the ridiculous events happening around the world like the oil spill, the manhandling from a North Carolina senator, USA’s tied “victory” with England, or even Microsoft’s new Kinect…but then I realized, why not just write about whatever I want?
This past weekend was both lazy and busy at the same time. Ended up spending a good portion of Saturday cleaning and cooking, and later at night got together with friends for some food, chatting and of course a bar crawl in the neighborhood. Sunday was squandered away with a nice long session of sleeping in (I’m quite a pro at that) and then an escape to suburbia where the BF and I spent the afternoon in Barnes & Noble in Emeryville.
Call me simple and nerdy - but something about stacks and stacks of books upon shelves in a florescent lit room really makes me feel comfortable. I guess I always associated the fake lighting with school and libraries.
Anyway, it’s also been awhile since a food update. Not much to report, except that I did start to discover the joy of cooking….vegetables. And ok, it’s not really even cooking. As my friend Vivian used to say: it’s adding heat to things.
I always loved that wilted spinach that Asian restaurants served. So, finally, after visiting the local Asian market with some friends, they encouraged me to buy a bundle of spinach.
I thought that amount was ridiculous…
Anyway, I thoroughly washed it and heated up a pan.
Then, drizzling a little bit of vinegar and throwing in some minced garlic, I stirred around the leafy greens until they took on the familiar wilted look in restaurants.
Not too shabby! Though next time I would definitely add a little bit more vinegar and garlic, but overall it was a really nice pairing with some rice and salmon.
Another recent favorite is chopping up cucumbers and then marinating in vinegar, soy sauce and sugar. Also pairs very nicely with white rice (and, yes, I know I know…white rice isn’t good for you….but I can’t help it, I grew up with it for 20+ years! Old habits die hard, and so do acquired tastes over two decades).
Next dish up - maybe a stir fry. Oooo. We’re getting all fancy up in here.
On a random side note, I just have to say that I have a love/hate relationship with purchasing things on the Internet. Love because they usually come cheaper, hate because I don’t get instant gratification, love again because having things arrive at my door is like a random day of Christmas, and hate again because it just makes me want to spend more money. My latest purchase (which I have sadly yet to use) is my new Wacom pen and tablet:
Squeee! I couldn’t wait to get it open to start doodling my little heart away to add some pizzazz to this blog…but unfortunately, I am still trying to get Adobe Illustrator. Sigh.
Hopefully it won’t be much longer….!
Okay, random thought here — I still find it pretty amazing when I think about the changes that occur in a mere four years. Four years is the difference between high school and college. It’s the difference between a new college graduate and somebody who has been working for a solid amount of time. In fact, it’s the amount of time (I would say) between the phase where friends are getting married and the phase where they begin having babies. Luckily, I feel as though I’m still at the beginning of the flurry of weddings.
Anyway!
I promised myself that I would have a productive weekend, and in a sense I did. On Saturday the BF took me shopping (along with two willing friends) and he helped me make some pretty awesome additions to my scant wardrobe. On Sunday, I went to a pole dancing class (yes, you read that correctly…and yes, it was ONLY FOR WORKING OUT PURPOSES ONLY) and went grocery shopping. Unfortunately, my productivity should have been more focused on cleaning instead of eating.
As for the eating part - I finally had Shabu Shabu for the FIRST TIME and it was amazing. So amazing, in fact, that the same friends who went with me on Saturday night wanted to go again the next night. Who am I to say no to a pot of boiling miso soup chalk full of kobe beef and vegetables??
Deeeelicious. Of course, the first evening was slightly ruined due to the obscenely loud and raucous table of 30 people behind us (at one point two shirts went flying — luckily they missed our table and didn’t end up in my pot of food, otherwise there would have been hell to pay *shakes fist menacingly*). Despite the cacophony, it was still a fabulous meal.
I also promised myself that I would start cooking more. I was quite pleased with the meal I made tonight (soft tofu with thousand year egg, topped with a tiny sprinkle of soy sauce and fish furikake, a present from Gogo) along with wilted spinach cooked with vinegar and minced garlic. Oh, and marinated chicken and some rice. Sounds boring, but definitely did the trick.
Yum, yum!
A few weeks ago, I made one of my first attempts at cooking. This was all inspired after I was thoroughly traumatized by Food, Inc - and I swore to myself that I would cook wholesome food that was in season. At the time, artichoke was in season. Hooray! I thought it would pair nicely with a walnut chicken salad.
So, with newfound determination to buy the best ingredients possible, I headed to Whole Foods and assembled my arsenal of organic food.
I ended up cutting off the bottom part of the artichokes and boiling them, since I didn’t have a steamer.
The salad was a spring mix topped with some anchovies, feta cheese and a little sprinkling of balsamic vinegar.
After salting and peppering the chicken, I cut it into cubes for the food.
Unfortunately, I have this problem where I like to do a little bit of…improvising. It’s something that BF absolutely hates, since he’s one of those people that follow the Alton Brown school of thought (i.e. meticulous measuring and no deviation from the recipe). I love chicken salad, and I like beets - on a whim I decided to throw some beets in the chicken salad. I mean…c’mon. I like beets in REGULAR salad.
The end result turned out to be a funky pinkish chicken salad and a limp looking dark green artichoke. BF called it alien food. Sigh.
At least it was edible.
And yes, I do find it ironic that most budding chefs post pictures of their masterpieces, and I’ve been posting pictures of my simplistic endeavors and…let’s be honest…failures. Ha.
My poor future children will be building plenty of character when it comes to food, I can assure you of that.
Wow, sooooo…it’s been quite awhile since I’ve had a book update. And it looks like I need to read about 38 books in the next 6 months in order to even reach HALF of my initial goal of 100 books. Haha. Ummm.
Right, anyway…I finally picked up the second to the Eragon series, Eldest, after more than a year from reading the first one. As an avid fantasy fiction reader, I have to say that I greatly admire Christopher Paolini for having the endurance, patience and imagination to sit down and write all of these books. A lot of people I know have mentioned that they think his books are “okay” and “not that well written.” But, compared to the Twilight series (shudder) I have to say that I didn’t cringe at his writing style.
Sure, there were some parts where I thought he was struggling a bit…and I did skim over some pages here and there, but overall I was very taken in with the story. Much like most series go, the second book had a lot of really good development. [SPOILER ALERT] One gripe I do have is how Eragon overcomes his hardship with a magical dragon miracle. Really, Christopher? C’mon. Couldn’t you have thought of some other way he could have overcome that obstacle?
Anyway, the last twist at the end was rather riveting, and it does make me want to pick up the next book, Brisinger, to see how he’ll resolve the conflict. Like the Two Towers in The Lord of the Rings, the book by itself isn’t the BEST but it does a good job of setting up the pieces for the next installment.
Would I recommend it? Well, obviously yes IN CONJUNCTION with the first book, especially for readers who are fans of fantasy fiction.
We’ll see how the third book goes.
It’s hard to believe that it’s already Wednesday, and I’ve been back in the Bay Area for two days after my excursion home. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m getting older (and thus days are a smaller percentage of my whole life) or what, but it really felt like this past weekend FLEW by.
As always, it was fantastic seeing family and friends…and the trip back home was even more special because there is a new member of the family coming shortly. It’s funny and a bit sad when I think about it…the last time I saw my cousin she wasn’t pregnant at all, this time I saw her with the baby bump, and the next time I see her there will be a little wiggling human who is related to me.
It’s times like these when I really miss being around family and being able to see them whenever I wanted. Thank goodness for Skype and webcams….the baby will probably think that I am a 2D person for a good portion of his early life. At least he (hopefully) won’t freak out when he sees that I am three dimensional.
Anyway, Friday was mostly work and getting prepped for the surprise baby shower. It was the first baby shower that I have ever participated in, let alone throw, so I wasn’t sure what the proper etiquette was. Regardless, it turned out to be a great time - and I LOOOOVE throwing surprises!
In addition to the presents, the cake, the food … we played the obligatory “smell the diaper” game. For those of you who have NEVER heard of this game, you basically melt different chocolate bars into…diapers. And then you make your guests guess what they are.
I don’t know about you, but it did turn out pretty realistically….grody…
Sunday was mostly spent hanging out with family and friends and then jam packing in even MORE family and friends time on Monday, before my flight.
The only small downside to Memorial Day in Texas is getting used to the 90+ degree Texas heat after being away for 7 months. I’m starting to feel as though I’m losing my Texan-ness (if that exists) since I whined to my mom multiple times that it was just sooooooo hot.
And then she told me the weather in Texas was actually cooler than it had been. Yikes.
My friend also mentioned that I seem paler than I have ever been before. I guess that’s what happens after 2 years living in a fog - and not just a mental one. Har.
Anyway, family and friends aside….the other highlight was the FOOD.
Chick-Fil-A, Rudy’s Barbeque, and Popeye’s Southern Style Fried Chicken, biscuits, mashed potatoes and corn. Oh, and not picture of course is Fat Straws and home cooking.
I do love Texas.
