Routines

Last week, I developed a pretty nice morning routine. Wake up between 7:30 and 8 (considering the fact that I was on my way to the bus stop last summer at that time, this is great), get ready for work while watching Angel, leave around 9:10, get to work at 9:30 or so.

I knew TNT was changing their schedule today (Alias in the afternoon now!) and that Angel wasn't going to be on in the afternoon anymore, but it was still on the schedule for the morning. I had the wrong hour though, so imagine my surprise when it was NYPD Blue during my get ready hour. Grr.

I watched Buffy instead.

In my last entry, I forgot to mention that I got an abs twistboard. I love it. And for some unknown reason, I am watching Punk'd instead of sleeping.

Status Report

School inbox: 15,538 emails (note: total does not include other email folders on the system)

Daily consumption: one peach yogurt, 2 slices of pizza with oregano, chicken taco, chicken tamale, chips & salsa, rice & beans

Daily activity: walked all over Jersey Gardens going shopping, shoulder workout from moving lots of heavy clothes on sales racks

TV watching (since last email): The OC, SVU and Bones on DVR

Minutes past my bedtime: 68

Work tomorrow. First assignments. Going to be so tired in the morning. Time to sleep.

Hours

Wow, it's been awhile since I've posted.

It's only been one week, but it's felt like 3. It's only been training, but I've come home exhausted. I think my body's still getting used to getting up before 8 every day and a 5 day week. The last time it worked this hard, it was for Barbri and those were technically only half days. (The days were actually so much longer because of studying, but at least I could change into comfy clothes and lounge around all afternoon.) But it's been fun.

Well, that mostly covers the days. That, plus lots of food constantly available, means I have not lost the desired inches from my waist. Sigh. And there's no room for a balance ball on the apartment floor yet, because I haven't really unpacked. And that... would be because of the nights.

Which I've spent trying out a lot of new TV shows. I can't help it - it's premiere week!

And the DVR is so backed up with stuff I haven't seen yet! Not to mention the tapes I have which my mom so nicely made for me of things I missed in the pre-cable days. So behind...

Anyway, my current TV summary for the week:

Kitchen Confidential: Not too bad. I set it to record again for Monday to see how it goes. It amused me, but that's probably because I didn't take it too seriously. I can see why some people thought it was over the top.

Medium: The relationship between Push and Allison just wasn't the same as the first half of the episode. And it was a little weird not having it pick up exactly where they left off. But I thought it was pretty good. Nice twist.

Dancing with the Stars: Yes, I watched the dance-off. I had liked John before, but I was really annoyed and put off by his bitchiness about losing last time. He was such a sore loser! As if he was owed something. The results of the last one showed that Kelly won both the audience vote and the judges' vote, so I didn't think he needed to be so righteous. I hadn't planned to vote, but after seeing his attitude, I voted for Kelly, even though the line was busy the whole time. I think the whole thing was dumb anyway - a title is won when the competition's over, not in a "dance-off." Ratings ploy. Which was beat by... NBC of all networks.

Wife Swap: I don't know why I watch this show sometimes. There were some episodes that were good, but I think this one was a little ridiculous. Should have watched SVU instead.

Destination Lost: Good recap of Lost, and it was good to see what they were going to concentrate on in the early part of this season. And unlike the previous clip shows, they talked about the flashbacks!

Lost: Desmond? Walt? Creepy. The whole hatch thing? The opening of the show was so good. My jaw had literally dropped and I wasn't expecting it at all. Always good to stay away from Lost spoilers.

Invasion: I thought it was interesting, but it's definitely slow moving. I'm not as compelled to watch this as I am for Lost.

Survivor: Guatemala: I really feel bad for all these people in all that pain from having no water for days. That's got to suck.

Apprentice: I suppose it's a good sign for this season that Trump actually fired the right person for once instead of keeping them around for drama.

Criminal Minds: I liked it, but it's going up against Lost next week. I don't think very much stands a chance in that time slot. After all, Head Cases already got cancelled! (I thought that one was just OK, but of course, its viewership was down so much! Lost was on! It's not really competition...)

Threshold: I really like it! I think I like it better than Invasion so far, but it's got 2 hours up on that one. So maybe it's because I know more of the mystery here. But I really like it. I want to know more about what's going on! And the show is genuinely creepy.

Numb3rs: Watched it all the time last season and really liked it, but I think the cast changes weren't for the better. I also thought this week's episode moved really slow, and wasn't that exciting until the end. But I've seen them do better, so I know they can.

Still on DVR/tape: Prison Break, Bones, SVU, Apprentice: Martha Stewart, The OC, Reunion

Hmm. I've watched a lot of TV this week. No wonder I haven't unpacked yet!

And on top of all those, there's been Bravo's Battle of the Network Reality Stars, midnight showings of The Amazing Race 6 (on DVR), and I've started watching Naruto on Cartoon Network. I really like it. Naruto can make me laugh out loud. I appreciate that. :)

On the DVR for next week:
- Saturday: Naruto
- Sunday: Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy
- Monday: Kitchen Confidential, Prison Break, Medium
- Tuesday: Bones, Amazing Race: Family Edition (2 hr premiere!), Boston Legal
- Wednesday: Lost, Invasion
- Thursday (need to use tapes too): Alias, Survivor: Guatemala, The O.C., Apprentice, Reunion, Without a Trace
- Friday: Threshold, Numb3rs

So once again, this was an entry all about TV.

In food news, Alvin and I went to an Indonesian restaurant near our apartment for dinner tonight and it was really yummy. We had spring rolls, an Indonesian chicken curry, and a rice noodle dish. We'll definitely go back.

I'm so tired and it's not even midnight. I feel so old! I'm going to do a facial mask and then head to bed. After I get my school inbox down under 16,000. I've been working on that this week instead of blogging, and I've only gotten through about 850 messages. This is taking forever.

Hope everyone's had a good week!

Thoughts

This is it.

Tomorrow is my first day of work. The first non-school fall. The real world. Whatever you want to call it. The first day of the rest of my life. That sounds melodramatic. A new chapter. Considering my high school graduation speech, that would probably be more appropriate.

Am I excited? Sure. Am I nervous? Absolutely.

Not about the place or the people, but about how different this really is. This is the very first time in my life when I've really entered a stage when there is no set or known ending date. Every school I've ever gone to, I've known when I should be done. When that stage of my life was over. Elementary school ended in '91, junior high in '94, high school in '98. My stint in New Haven would be 4 years, and school in Chicago would be another 3. But this? It's so different to enter into a new stage without knowing how it's supposed to end up! It's not a bad thing at all - just different.

I won't be writing about work on this blog, so this is it. After this entry, we go back to the regular fluff. :)

Some Quizzes

Your Inner Child Is Angry

You're not an angry person. But when you don't get your way, watch out. Like a very manipulative kid, you will get what you want. Even if it takes a little kicking and screaming.

How Is Your Inner Child?

Your World View

You are a cautious type, neutral, and rather insecure. You would agree with the idea that everybody has his price... And in your own case it would not be high. You are ruled by an inferiority complex and not easy to assess. How do you present yourself to the world? An idealist, a moralist, a conformist keeping up with the Joneses?

What Is Your World View?

Hmm. Not sure what I think of these. Back to the boxes.

Appearances

My new haircut is too short for me to manage, and my clothes are all too tight because I have gotten so fat. I am going to look so awesome on the first day of work. Sigh.

Commuting

Today, I was reminded of why I wanted to live close to work and not have a long commute.

Traveling from where my parents live to midtown can take anywhere from an hour to over 2 hours, depending on the time of day, traffic, and mode of transportation. For example, when I drove our new Ikea furniture in, it didn't take that long. But today (and last Monday), taking the bus, it took at least 2 hours to get in.

Today was a mess. First, I hadn't checked the schedule before leaving, so I didn't know that the x17 had stopped running at 3 pm and the x1 only ran once per hour after 5 pm. (And after 5 pm, I think there are only 2 express bus lines even running into the city. I had always thought there would be more, but apparently not.) So, arriving at the bus terminal at 5:10, we were stuck there. (Note: I know that I was not traveling at "rush hour" times into the city, but this is just a general gripe about how long the transportation takes.) Yes, I know this was my own stupidity, but why do they run so few buses?

Second, around 5:15, a bus driver from one of the express lines, who had just come out of the terminal office, told us that the next bus into the city would be in 8 minutes. We were confused since that wasn't right according to the schedule, so we doublechecked but he said it would be 8 minutes. As a result, we stayed at the terminal to wait for the bus instead of taking a bus to the train that would take us to the ferry that would go to the subway. He was wrong. The bus still wasn't coming until 6. We could have been almost to the ferry by the time the next bus left the terminal. This wasn't my own stupidity. I relied on his time estimate!

Third, our bus broke down. The steering went out in the front or something, and they had to send a replacement bus. It took so long that I thought either the next bus (the next hour!) would come or my dad would get to the location first, in which case we were just going to ditch the bus and go in the car in the morning. It also took so long that the ladies going to the play started whining to the bus driver as if it were his fault that the bus broke and nothing was happening, Alvin and I started doing crossword puzzles from old New York magazines, and all I could think about was how much I wished we were allowed off the bus to get White Castle.

We left for the bus terminal at 5. We got to the door of the apartment at 8:30. This is why, when it is not inbound rush hour, I used to tell people they needed to give me at least a day's notice if they wanted to meet up in the city so I could arrange my schedule. It wasn't being demanding - it's just not feasible to get in on short notice! Especially when, on top of all the public transportation, it's necessary to drive or take a decent walk to get to the public transportation.

3.5 hours!

Granted, today was especially bad because of the unexpected breakdown. Also, it's Olympus Fashion Week and the UN people are all here creating traffic jams. (We saw some Rwanda van right before we got off the bus.) But still... it's been this bad without all of that stuff happening. I've sat on buses on Friday nights trying to get back to SI, and it's taken 3 hours. You really start to go stircrazy, and sometimes you just want out of the bus right in the middle of the highway because you're too restless to sit in your seat anymore. At that point, you really have to retreat into your iPod and try to go to sleep. I'm getting irritated thinking about the traffic!

Anyhow, people at work last summer said that, because of the long SI commutes, I'd probably end up having one of the shortest commutes once I started working. I had a feeling they would be right, mostly because I can't stand being stuck on a bus. So I'm in walking distance of work. And that's how I wanted it. I really didn't want to be stuck for 2 hours in an uncomfortable seat listening to people drone on about how they didn't understand Phantom of the Opera on Broadway and it didn't make sense until they saw the movie.

So much unpacking still to do that it makes me want to scream. I'm once again wishing for that magic wand that will put everything away. Nice and neat and organized.

Comments

I love this comment from a NYT reader:

"How sad a commentary that the willingness of President Bush to accept responsibility for the failures of his administration has to be treated as front-page news."

Dryer Update

I am dumb. No one stole our dryer sheet. It was stuck wrapped up inside a Scotch-Brite microfiber cloth. How that happened I have no idea, as it was just sitting on top of everything in the dryer and it somehow got wrapped up inside the cloth, but it was not stolen. Good.

Wash and Dry

I don't get it.

How does a mattress pad come out of the washing machine (twice!) more dirty than it went in?

When I put it into the machine, it was fairly clean, just pretty dusty from the move and our old apartment. (It was from the futon, so it was underneath another cover, but it was exposed during the move in the truck.) When I took it out, there were black marks all over it! I'm hoping it's just lint because after the second wash, we tossed it into the dryer, but it was ugly!

Since it was all part of one load and the other stuff in the washer hadn't been much, we just let the stuff sit in the dryer while washing the mattress pad a second time. I figured, who's going to take our pillowcases that won't match anything of their own or my old underwear or our dish towels? Well, I guess I underestimated people. Someone stole our dryer sheet. I know I brought one down the first time, and I know I put it in the dryer. Yet, when we went down for the second wash, it wasn't there. But no other dryers were on. So ... someone just stole the dryer sheet for the hell of it? I'm so confused. Person, it's just a dryer sheet. If you can afford to do $2 loads of laundry, you can afford a frickin' dryer sheet. I was just annoyed that I had to come back upstairs to get one after knowing I had one in there before. I'm so not used to laundry rooms anymore after having in-unit washers and dryers for 2 years. That's a part of the old apartment that I really do miss. (Unlike, say, the carpeting which trapped hair and wouldn't release it to the vacuum.)

On the plus side for laundry rooms, I love dryers with windows and I could spend the entire 48 minutes watching the clothes toss around in circles. I know, I'm strange.

More unpacking and cleaning up to be done. I just ordered the windowsill, separating mass mailings from real mail. Now to get rid of all the unnecessary boxes all over the floor by the door...

Keeping Busy

Can you believe that, because of this whole unpacking thing, I've only had like one piece of candy all day?

That's crazy for me. (Although I think I might have a second in a few minutes.)

This unpacking thing can really keep you busy. Although I suspect we would have gotten more done if we had remembered where the desk screws were instead of spending close to an hour searching boxes for them. I had found them back when we were looking for the bed screws, but then we couldn't find them anywhere and started going crazy.

Most of the clothes are either unpacked or in our windowsill high laundry baskets. (Whether they fit is another story. I haven't looked into that yet.) But at least something's done. Trying to whittle down what's in boxes in the living room, but I think we're going to have to put the bookcases together first before we can do that. But there's not much room to put the bookcases together. Annoying.

Lots of things to keep me busy and away from the TV means that I had not yet realized that I forgot the tapes of Prison Break, The OC, and Reunion back in SI. (At least, it appears that I have done so.) But in my watch-the-unmarked-tapes activity, I am now on tape #2. Tape #1 had the TAR4 finale, which I finished up this morning, and then we let the tape run through "Dangerous Liaisons" and the start of "Tequila Sunrise." Tape #2 had the final episode of the real Iron Chef, a lot of AI2 stuff (the good season!), and now I'm on the 4th episode of TAR4. I've seen all of this stuff before, but it's good to watch it again. I think I might actually not tape over Tape #2... at least not until TAR4 comes out on DVD. [Plug: Please buy TAR1 on DVD! If enough people buy it, then they'll probably put out more seasons!]

I love the Amazing Race... and it's fun to watch these old episodes. (Just watched the part with the champagne FF.) Although I would love to actually have TV and be watching tonight's new TV... like Bones, House and Supernatural.

Other than that, been keeping busy today by visiting Circuit City for Alvin to get a wireless card, meeting a mayoral primary candidate's mom (if you've seen the ads, you know who it is) on the UWS while walking around, having Indian food for lunch and empanadas for dinner, and looking out the window.

Trying to get on a new schedule... I think I'm going to head to sleep soon (and wake up early). While watching more TAR4... I wonder how many episodes are on this tape!

Staging

CNN reports "breaking news" right now! "President Bush will address the nation Thursday at 9 pm ET from Louisiana, the White House announces. Details soon."

(1) This will preempt a show I wanted to tape. Bush and his damn prime time announcements to try to repair his image. At least this one isn't as useless as the war "status report."

(2) Will this one also be staged like the last photo shoot? Will they set up a "rescue scene" just for him?

(3) It's doubtful that he'll admit that his handling of this whole thing has been crap. Why haven't more people seen just how bad this administration is doing with this? Who are those people who actually "approve" of the job they're doing here?

(4) I wonder if Bush forgot Mississippi even exists.

Sigh. I know I'm supposed to stay away from the news, but the red bar was unavoidable...

At least my tape is now playing the TAR 4 finale!

Tapes II

What's going on in the city tonight? The sirens have been non-stop for the past half-hour... or is it like this every night?

Back in my first year of law school, I used to live near a hospital on the south side of Chicago, so there were always tons of sirens and the helicopter was frequently overhead. I got pretty used to it. There weren't as many sirens in my apartment building the next 2 years, and I was over 30 floors above ground, so I'm not sure if I'm used to it anymore. I'm sure it won't take long.

And now Boy Meets Boy is over, and it's a new Queer Eye. The one where the guy proposed and it made me cry and she looked like she was going to say no. This tape really is so old.

Tapes

"Tomb Raider: Now Playing"

How old is this tape?!

Television

What happens when a TV addict has no cable during one of the first weeks of the fall season?

Trouble!

Cable guy is coming on Friday to set everything up, but there's so many premieres before then! I feel terrible, but I had to leave my mom with a list of things to tape for me - Prison Break, Bones, Supernatural. I was hoping to get a wire hanger antenna working here, but so far, no luck.

In the meantime, since the TV is sitting on the dresser and I'm unpacking, I can't just sit there with it blank. So, I found a lot of the VHS tapes that I packed. I packed them and had no clue what was on them. This would be a good time to find out.

I'm just letting the tape run. So far there was the last 10 minutes of a Queer Eye episode from their hot summer, and now it's the premiere of Boy Meets Boy. (Why did I tape that? And this tape is so old...) We'll see what's on next!

In the Way

I do not want to try the new Chocolate Chex Mix.

Why not? It has nothing to do with flavor or anything. It's because their ads on menupages.com are driving me crazy. Every time I see a restaurant name and go to click on it, the ad descends and I end up accidentally clicking on it instead. I am sick of seeing Chocolate Chex Mix.

I had a small spinach salad for lunch today with chickpeas, carrots and cheddar cheese. It was yummy. I walked up and down a few blocks looking for someplace to eat, but there were too many options, and I ended up diagonally across the street from the apartment building. All that walking in the 90 degree heat (so hot for September!) just to end up across the street.

Off to unpack and clean some more!

Online

Thank you, linksys, whoever you are. I won't be able to put in my own internet until the end of the week at the earliest, so I hope you're always around and always on. :)

What a Day

What a day today has been.

Did a ton of errands for the apartment - went to Ikea, Target and Costco. Got a dresser, bookcases, lots of essentials, and lots of food for the freezer.

Had a ton of car problems mostly caused by other people or external circumstances - a guy purposely (at least it seemed so by his smiling) tapped my car from the back while stopped at a red light (other side had green but the sign says wait for green) in Jersey; then another lady hit my car from behind coming out of a parking lot (only cosmetic damage, but still); then drove in circles all over the crowded section of the city looking for someplace to put the car so we could carry in all the stuff we bought. Sigh. It was good to put my car safely back into the garage. What a day.

Going back out to the city early tomorrow with a lot of my stuff and don't know when I'll be online next. It all depends on how early I can set up our apartment's high-speed and/or whether I can pick up anyone else's wireless from our apartment. :) So much to do, it feels like moving is never going to end!

Aloe

After trying it at Alvin's parents' house, this is one of my new favorite drinks:

It's made by a brand called Paldo, and it's really good. If you've ever had those lychee fruit jellies, it tastes exactly like that, with little aloe vera crushed bits in it. I was skeptical of aloe vera crunchy bits in HK, but it's actually really good.

Brought some of it from the nearby Chinese grocery store to the restaurant tonight, and it was a total conversation piece. From people saying how it's good for digestion to waiters picking it up to look at it, to other people asking what was in it... it definitely attracted a lot of attention. I think I might have to bring one every time!

Rinse and Repeat

This happens every single time.

I'll go for a long period of time where I only wear elastic pants. (Last time, it was the bar exam. This time, it was moving.) During that time period, I'll be more active than before I began the elastic waistband stage. As a result, I start to feel like maybe I am more in shape and have lost 1/4 inch off my waist or something.

Then, after this period of many days of elastic, I put on a denim skirt. It is so damn tight and so uncomfortable and I can't stand it and all I can think is just how fat I've gotten and how I was so wrong about being in better shape and my goodness, I am so fat.

After the bar exam, I felt okay about it though - I knew I had been sitting on my ass studying for way too long, and was going to get in shape afterwards. This time? This time, I was pretty active between the bar exam and moving, and I start work in a week and none of my clothes are going to fit. This is fabulous.

I just want to wave a wand, say a few commands and have my new furniture be bought, storage units arranged, everything unpacked and unnecessary crap in the garbage. Would that be so wrong?

Hogwarts

They're making a collectible Harry Potter iPod with a Hogwarts crest!!!

But I already have an iPod. *sigh*

Quotes

"So many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway ... so this is working very well for them."

According to this NY Times article, that's a quote from W's mother.

What?!

She says they want to stay in Houston and are overwhelmed by the hospitality. Well, of course they want to stay in Houston. Aren't their homes, like, under water? Or surrounded by toxic waters because of all the people who died? And overwhelmed by hospitality? I think, having gone through a disaster, people are glad for any sort of welcoming hospitality and very grateful that they aren't stuck in New Orleans!

The headline on the article was "Barbara Bush Calls Evacuees Better Off." Well, sure, maybe some of the ones who got out are living in better conditions than they did before. But what about all the people who couldn't get out? All the ones who died? And the undertone of the quotes, to me, is like saying, "stop complaining about the administration's response, look at these evacuees we got out of the area, they're doing so well now, they should be grateful the hurricane hit so they could live better." Yeah, again - what about all the people who had to die?

Argh. I have to remember that I'm not supposed to read real news.

Hello from South Bend

Today was the big moving day. Picking up the truck, loading it up and driving out east. It's late and I'm tired, so here's a brief summary.

Time I hoped that we would leave: 10 am

Time I planned for leaving: noon

Time I figured we'd leave: 2 pm

Time we actually left: 8:15 pm

At least that was the time we left the loading dock (thank goodness we were able to use the freight elevator all day). We had some errands to run in the city and then we set out by streets to the highway. Having missed the entrance ramp to the highway we wanted, we went backwards toward the previous entrance and saw that it was a parking lot of traffic. Decided to go an alternate way by streets (yes, nothing like driving around the south side of Chicago late at night), but tractor trailers were coming down the entrance ramp, exiting the highway, and everything was blocked off by the cops. Followed signs to another entrance (each time, getting closer and closer to the Indiana border) but that one was also blocked off.

Listened to the news to find out that a tanker overturned in the toll plaza for the bridge to Indiana, creating an accident of over a dozen vehicles. And apparently, because of the level of severity of the accident, there were at least 15 ambulances on scene, and the whole highway was shut down. What a mess. One police officer gave us some alternate directions, and we ended up following a FedEx ground truck over the border. That was nice. (Edit, 2:00 am: Here's a link to information about the crash. Check out their images - it was a terrible looking accident...)

But after 38 hours awake (with only a tiny power nap), we were exhausted. Had dinner in Portage, IN (could Hardees be slower? And why do BBQ sandwiches come with mayo?)... and now I'm writing to you from South Bend. We were hoping to make it to Toledo, but I was having the sleep deprivation pseudo-hallucinations and fell asleep 5 times between Portage and South Bend. (No, I wasn't driving! If I had been the one to drive, we would have ended up staying overnight in a casino just over the border, I was so sleepy.) No crossing the Ohio border for tonight.

It occurred to me over dinner that part of our exhaustion probably came from not having eaten much of anything at all. We kept trying to get packing done, so in the 24 hours prior to eating at Hardees, the two of us collectively consumed 2 sandwiches, 2 bottles of Gatorade, and one granola bar. That's it. How sad.

[I did say quick summary, didn't I? Hmm.]

I kind of liked the moving part of the whole experience. Carrying things, placing them in the truck, trying to make them fit as best as possible. It felt good to exercise. In contrast, packing is just so tedious. It never seems to end. We weren't fully "packed" until we decided to leave the apartment, and even then we left some stuff behind (e.g. cleaning supplies that we're sure the cleaning people will gladly take to use, seeing as how they did that with one of our new cleaners when we were moving last year!). The apartment seems to explode with crap, and it never seems to end. Unpacking is also pretty tedious, but at least there's a fresh start, and you're not coping with how much of a packrat disaster you are.

But after this whole experience, I have one thing to say: I own a LOT of stuff, and I fully intend to go through it and get rid of all the stuff I don't need or want or use while unpacking. For real, this time. After all, I "discovered" a box under my bed when I was moving out that I don't think I saw all year. That type of thing is unacceptable! And in addition to getting rid of stuff, I want to be more organized. (Okay, so that's two things.) I fully embrace my packrat status... but from now on, I want to be an organized packrat!

And now, back to the present...

I've never been to South Bend before. I had hoped to take a weekend or day trip while living in Chicago to visit Notre Dame, but I never made it there. Now I'm in South Bend by circumstance, but probably won't have time to see ND. Oh well. :)

Shower, sleep (finally! It's been ages!), and then heading east again in the morning!

Packing Sucks

Still not done.

Not very happy.

Sunrise was pretty.

At least now I can see the living room floor...

Charity

There comes a time in the packing nightmare when you either (a) don't care anymore and feel spiteful and want to throw everything in the trash or the charity bin; and/or (b) give up on any semblance of organized packing or cleaning out of your crap and just throw everything in the nearest box so you can go through it when you're moving in.

I'm pretty sure this happens to most people. I keep cycling between (a) and (b). I go for (a) when my tiredness hits me stronger, and I go for (b) when I'm bored and sick of this whole thing. I just don't want to regret throwing something away that I might later really want.

I have hazy memories of trying to move out of my senior year room at Yale. The dorms had this terrible policy where you had to be out of your room, completely moved out, by 12 noon the day after graduation. Painful, if you ask me. Especially since you want to spend the night of graduation saying goodbye to your friends who you might not see for a really long time! I'm a slow packer, so needless to say, despite my parents' 3 car trips to pick up my stuff and putting some stuff in my uncle's van, I still wasn't done packing near the deadline.

The pressure was high to get out of the dorms, and I had my parents yelling at me for not doing it earlier and for having so much stuff left that it might not even fit in the car. I was sort of going crazy at that point, because I worried that something really important might not make it into the car! I figured that, worst case scenario, I'd carry as much as I could handle with me on Metro-North and my parents could drive the car.

We did make it out of there (although it was after noon) with everything in the car, but I remember a big trash bag and me just tossing stuff in there out of spite. Like, "you say I have too much crap and want me to get rid of stuff? Fine! I will!" But no one suffers from that except me. The next year, I remember looking for something that I was so sure I had at Yale, but couldn't find anywhere, and the only conclusion I could come to is that I must have thrown it out in the moving. I was sad. I had regrets about speeding through and trashing everything. I wished I had paid more careful attention. But sitting here today, I have no idea what that thing was.

This time, I started piling up the finished stuff in the intersection area of the apartment and let the finished stuff curve around the wall into the living room, going across and up the wall. Then I realized there was a big problem. There's barely enough room for us to walk by the boxes, much less carry the futon. And the furniture has got to be what goes first. So, since we're not done packing, we have to finish... and then move all the boxes across the room, so we can disassemble the furniture and carry it out.

And my goodness, it's 4 am. I think I want to cry. Sigh.

Best Laid Plans

The original plan was to finish packing all the "stuff" by this afternoon at the latest, disassemble all the furniture, and head to bed around 10:30 pm.

HA HA HA HA HA HA.

Yeah, back to packing.

Tape

I'm bopping around to Super Freak by Rick James, but I'm sad. My roll of packing tape that I bought yesterday has run out. This wouldn't seem extraordinary, as I have been doing a lot of packing, but if you keep in mind that I barely packed anything between waking up this morning and fireworks, it hasn't been that long at all! Oh well. Good thing we were already planning to go to Target tomorrow. Let's see if a third person thinks I shouldn't be allowed to have my empty gift cards back.

Boxes

EGGS

That's what the boxes we picked up from the grocery store say in BIG letters. EGGS. And we have 3 boxes like that. Yay!

Messy

I was feeling better about my packing until I came across a large rectangular box in the bedroom filled with random crap that I had to go through. And the problem is that it's not all crap that should be thrown away. Sigh.

More mess on the floor.

But I did take care of about 70% of the toiletries on the cart and just about all the books in the corner I was talking about. We're going to go to the grocery store to pick up some more boxes, and then I think I'm going to work on clearing off the bookshelves. That will be the next task. Finish the bookshelves and finish the metal cart in the bedroom. Now that I've made a huge mess on the floor with the contents of the big rectangular box...

This is never going to end!

Lava

I'm Lava!





You're the hard, soft and classic Rock of the iPod's Lava iSkin!


What color iPod iSkin are you?

Coherence

I do not pack coherently and it's making me crazy.

A little of this corner, a little bit of the books over there, some clothes over here, go through some crap in the other corner... this is why I'm getting nothing done! It's my darn short attention span!

Must... focus...

So I think I will try the whole accountability thing I tried for exams and whatnot. If I say and plan out what I'm going to do on the blog for a certain time period, I think I'm more likely to do it. So this may mean many more posts.

Right now, I will pack up some more books in a brown box and then clean all the beauty products and toothpaste boxes on the metal cart. And somewhere in there, probably watch the fireworks too. I give myself about 1.5 hours, max, and then I'll be back here.

Pairs

I am slightly alarmed that I am missing a shoe.

Not a pair of shoes, but a shoe.

I'm not a huge shoe person anymore (I used to love shoe shopping and I don't know what happened), so I don't have a lot of shoes. And this is my nice pair of party shoes. This is not good at all.

I know I had them this spring when we went on the cruise. And I'm relatively sure I have either seen or worn them since then. How does one shoe disappear?

Silver Spoon

Tonight, Alvin and I went to Silver Spoon for another meal in our "favorites" series. We've actually only been there once before, but I often talk about their banana blossom salad so it feels like we've been there more. The food is so good, even if our entrees were a little on the spicier side (for me) today. Yum.

For appetizers, we got banana blossom salad (my favorite thing there) and tod mun (fish cakes). The banana blossom salad was just as I remembered it, and the flavor is so unique that it's hard for me to describe. It's a little citrus, a little coconut milk, kind of fragrant... just really unique and very good. The fish cakes were yummy.


For entrees, we got one of the same ones as last time - pad taley, a combination seafood dish that costs about $8. Today, we tried tiger shrimp, which is cooked in a tom yum soup type sauce. Spicy, but very yummy. You could definitely taste the soup flavor. Last time, it was winter and we had the tom yum soup and it was perfect.


Dessert time! I had seen the sweet sticky rice with mango on the menu when we first started, and we got the last one. The sticky rice was exactly like the coconut sticky rice I had last summer at Spice Market that I loved, and is the same flavor as the sticky rice ice cream I had last summer at Asiate. Brought back memories of summer lunches. And it was so good. Alvin got peach sorbet in a peach. Also yummy.


Tomorrow we're going for more "favorites" food and bubble tea! Hurrah!

Feelings

Ah, the joy of packing.

I just packed a Smirnoff box full of shoes, my old film camera and a pocketbook.

I am so bored.

Day of the Week

Earlier today, when we went for lunch at West Egg and packed, I thought it was Thursday.

Tonight, after going to dinner with one of Alvin's good friends from high school, it really felt like a Saturday night.

So confusing. The days just all blend together. Pack. Eat good memory meals. Pack. Eat. Pack. Eat. Sleep. Pack. Throw crap away. Every day seems the same.

And it's not like TV could help me figure out what day it was. After all, Comcast got rid of the Sci-Fi channel on regular cable so there was no Sci-Fi Friday. And TNT is airing Forrest Gump (which I watched 1.25 times tonight) every night this weekend, so the fact that it's on would clue me in to nothing.

There's a good amount packed... but the apartment still looks full. Part of the reason is that there's been not much rhyme or reason to how I packed or the order. Maybe I should have started at one of the end of the apartment and kept going. Oh well.

I really want to be done with packing by Monday afternoon, furniture disassembled and everything. There's a long way to go. Sigh. But tonight, unlike last, I'm going to attempt to sleep before 5. Good night!

Coloring

Your Blog Should Be Blue

Your blog is a peaceful, calming force in the blogosphere. You tend to avoid conflict - you're more likely to share than rant. From your social causes to cute pet photos, your life is a (mostly) open book.

What Color Should Your Blog or Journal Be?

Well, my blog's blue, isn't it? (Sort of?) Nice quiz result.

Restaurants in Chicago

Since I've mentioned Alvin's and my plan to visit some of our favorite restaurants, I thought I'd write up a list of my favorite restaurants in Chicago by cuisine and also an overall list of where I would go if I only had 3 days to eat in Chicago. This is all procrastination from packing, of course, but I rationalize it by saying that it's important because I'll never do it if I don't do it now, and I'm waiting for my washer to finish.

I tried to try lots of different places in the city, but my time was pretty limited because of school, so I was nowhere near as adventurous a diner as I wanted to be. But here's my list of favorites.

Favorites by Cuisine

Armenian: Sayat Nova (Streeterville)

Brunch: Wishbone (W. Loop)

Bubble tea: Joy Yee's (Chinatown)

Caribbean: Calypso (Hyde Park)

Chinese: Evergreen (Chinatown)

Dim sum: Phoenix (Chinatown)

Diner/Cafe: West Egg Cafe (Streeterville)

"Fast" Food - Chicago chains: Portillo's (River North - hot dogs, Italian beef, chicken sandwiches); Burrito Beach (multiple locations)

Fish and Chips: Duke of Perth (Lakeview - AYCE certain nights)

French: Brasserie Jo (River North)


Greek: Greek Islands (Greektown)

Indian: India House (River North) (I didn't get up to Devon as often as I should have)

Italian: Osteria via Stato (River North - prix fixe, outside of that one - no idea, sadly)

Japanese: Sai Cafe (Lincoln Park - sushi), Katsu (NW - everything)

Korean: Hae Woon Dae (NW - BBQ), Korean Restaurant (Ravenswood - bibimbop)

Malaysian: Penang (Chinatown)

Mediterranean: Pili Pili (River North)

Mexican: Cafe El Tapatio (Roscoe Village - also the only Mexican place I've ever been to)

Mexican - Quick: El Norte (River North - good tortas)

Middle Eastern: Cedars of Lebanon (Hyde Park), Kan Zaman (River North)

"New" American ("firm lunches"): Naha (River North)

Pan-Asian: Joy Yee's (Chinatown)

Pizza (Chicago style): Lou Malnati's (multiple locations - I usually got delivery)

Sandwiches: Jimmy John's, Potbelly (multiple locations for both)

Southern: Dixie Kitchen (Hyde Park)

Spanish/Tapas: Cafe Iberico (River North)

Thai: Silver Spoon (River North), Thai Pastry and Thai Avenue (Argyle)

Vietnamese: Tank Pho (Argyle)

If I had 3 days...

Day 1:

• Breakfast at West Egg Cafe (the omelettes and pancakes are yummy, but I would probably get a turkey burger; the corned beef hash is really good too)
• Lunch at Portillo's (my choice would be a charbroiled chicken sandwich, no mayo, add honey mustard)
• Dinner and snack at Joy Yee's (seaweed salad, noodles, tapioca freeze)

Day 2:

• Breakfast/brunch at Wishbone (andouille chicken hash is really good)
• Lunch at Jimmy John's (my choice would be #4, no lettuce, no mayo, add onions, add dijon, add cucumbers, add oregano) or Potbelly (turkey and provolone with onions, tomatoes, oregano)
• Dinner at Greek Islands (everything there is really good, but you've got to start with saganaki; big menu, friendly atmosphere, great food)
• Dessert at Coldstone (out of habit)
• Late-night
  snack at Korean Restaurant (they're open 24 hours - bibimbop at 3 am is the best)

Day 3:

• Skip breakfast, we went for Korean late night!
• Lunch at Silver Spoon (unfortunately, I haven't been there in awhile, but I hope they still have their banana blossom salad)
• Dinner at Sai Cafe (spicy white tuna crunch roll!)

And at the end of those 3 days, I'd have gained about 10 pounds. :) Happy eating!

Fees

I'm going through random papers on my desk (to "pack") and I found this graduation notice from the university. (Actually, it's more of an acknowledgement of our "application" to graduate.) The last item in the notice reads: "Please note that students who apply to graduate in a specific quarter but who subsequently do not graduate then are assessed a $50 fee."

So not only do you think you're graduating, but end up not graduating, which really sucks, but then you have to pay the school $50? I think that's crazy.