Wednesday, January 25, 2006

There is nothing worse than the sheer agony of being in love

Strange mood today, perhaps it is the pot of coffee that I drank earlier today. I finished watching the film "Love Actually" this morning and am feeling hopeful for humanity once again. There are many things that are quite brilliant about this film that explores all the different kinds of love that are out there in the world. If you have not seen it than you should because it is very touching, funny, yadda yadda yadda. I particularly enjoy the bits about the young brit chap Colin who embarks on a trip to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to meet and have sex with as many American women that he can find who will all be thoroughly mesmerized by his "cute" British accent. Upon entering a dive bar he immediately meets 3 very pretty women who would in real life probably never be caught dead there. Naturally, comedy ensues as stereotypes abound.

I am a bit addicted to this spider solitaire game that comes standard with the usual free cell, solitaire, pinball combo on pc's. I should be working, but we don't have a whole heck of a lot going on in the office right now so it has become quite a time occupying endeavor.

So the wife has been giving me some heat since I have not had a whole lot to do this past month and she has started school and been in field placement and doing her job for most of this month. Every time she brings something up as to how lucky I am to still have this time, I remind her that this will truly be the semester from hell for me and that the time off that I have now is well deserved. She will be done with school this summer and will be looking for a real job soon. At this point she just wants to be done and I cannot blame her. She works pretty damn hard with all of this stuff. So last night as a surprise to her I lit up all the candles in the apartment and made a nice little dinner (spaghetti with a traditional sauce (from Ragu) with some ground boca burger in it, a cucumber/onion/tomato salad and a side of curried mixed vegetables. A strange combination in words, but everything seemed to come together. We had a nice candle lit dinner with music and chatted with each other. It was brilliant and she was pleasantly surprised. I also set up this little dinner because I knew that since I start school tomorrow neither of us was going to be interested in putting something like this together for a couple of months just from the sheer exhaustion that we will be facing together on a daily basis.

In other news I've begun reading the next chapter for orgo, Conjugated unsaturated systems...a sheer joy. Gotta be prepared.

Please take a moment to remember "Nice Guy Eddie" who passed away suddenly at the age of 40. My sincerest condolences go out to the Penn family.

QUOTE OF THE DAY
Homer: Yeah, Moe, that team sure did suck last night. They just plain sucked! I've seen teams suck before, but they were the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked!
Marge: HOMER!
Homer: I gotta go Moe my damn weiner kids are listening.

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Tuesday

So here I am once again on this sweet day of a schedule my last full day of having nearly nothing to do. School begins this thursday and I am thrown right into it. Thursday consists of Morning physics lab followed by physics lecture a little break and then orgo lecture and then my world history class. Not sure what to make of the history class (damn cuny core requirements) but I am surely glad that I do not have all science and math this semester. Just mostly science...

This just in, I've just been informed that we are receiving a new dresser care of the fabulous in-laws, who believe said dresser to be ugly, that, or the father in law just doesn't like it. Let me tell you folks that I have been using this little dinky white thing that we purchased at Kmart or bed bath and beyond or something like that as a temporary....temporary as in almost 4 years now. I have all of my precious clothing mashed into it. It worked well but now it is going to go. woo hoo. I'll be stopping by the abode which has been out of commission for about two years or so (a story for another time).

Nothing new exciting to report. I am looking foward to getting back into the swing of things. I feel like I have been too lazy.

QUOTE OF THE DAY
Chris: I don't care what she says, I'm never going back!
Brian: Look you can't run away from your problems Chris. That's what I tried to do. I joined the Peace Corps and a day later I was two continents away.
Chris: Really?
Brian: Yep, but 6,000 miles and all the dope I could smoke still couldn't separate me from my problems. And this was good dope. I mean it was growing everywhere. Oh my God! This one time we got so baked we ended up eating all the food that the World Health Organization had airlifted in. Oh man those villagers were so pissed! They tried to chase us, but lemme just say thank God for polio.

Monday, January 23, 2006

Monday

So I spent the day reading about Newton's laws in one of the many MCAT prep books that have been provided to me by the good people at TPR. I've received all of my grades for the past fall semester except for orgo lecture. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I will still manage (somehow) to make it on to the Dean's List. Provided I get at least a B I will be ok. B+ in physics, A in Orgo Lab, and an A- in Calc 2. Not a terrible place to be in terms of GPA. Hoping that the 3.5 for the semester will come through for me, with my overall GPA just about 3.8 or so. The GPA dip is the hardest thing to watch these days considering I've been heavily perusing the MSAR book and checking the average overall and science GPAs for the schools that I want to apply to. I hope to god that I can keep this up. It is what I want to do, so it really shouldn't be a problem.

I have enjoyed, immensely, my time off over the past month. I really did take it really easy. Played with the PS2, mostly Hockey, in addition to the wife and I burning through our Netflix queue like there was no tomorrow.

So now it is confession time. I like the show "Grey's Anatomy". I can't believe that I do, but I do. For some reason the characters are pretty engrossing and the story lines are reasonable in terms of their believability. Initially I thought the show was going to focus a bit more on the medicine, but it quickly turned into a quirky show about...relationships. Now this should have made me stop watching it, but I'm hooked. I tried watching a bit of ER this past week, and found it to be very disappointing...ingratiating as a matter of fact.....and since I haven't watched it seriously for over a year now...I think I can let it go. The last straw in terms of quality was Anthony Edwards leaving the show. I don't consider myself much of a TV watcher, but I will continue to watch GA on ABC at 10pm...wow what a plug. Lost is the only other show that I watch...we were able to breeze through the first season on DVD and caught up with the season thanks to the great people at itunes and we can now watch the show on regular tv with all the other nut jobs that are obsessed with it. I think we were really spoiled though, because it was difficult to get over the fact that there would now be commercial breaks when we watched.

Other things you may or may not want to know about me since I've come to know and love all you loyal readers (all 3? of you)and hopefully I won't have to fill out one of those emails that we all get for awhile:

I like the movie pretty woman (I..I don't know why)
My favorite color is blue
I don't have a favorite flower
I don't agree with anything that comes out of the mouth of Dick Cheney
I vote regularly
I like books, currently reading Red Storm Rising by Clancy
Currently listening to XM comedy
Last movie watched: Like Water, For Chocolate
I think Ellen Degeneres is kind of funny
Magazines like Intouch weekly, US, and People should be used for kindling
If gay people want to be married they should be married..why is this such an issue?
I think there are too many awards for the denizens of hollywood and yet I can't wait to find out who will win the oscar for best short form documentary.
I don't get star struck anymore (chalk that up to working in the theatre business for over 6 years)
I miss having money and hanging out with people I used to know when I wasn't a student. (wah freakin wah you dolt, you're following a dream). Seriously though I miss these people and you know who you are.
I can be a real arrogant prick sometimes. Maybe some day I'll be an arrogant prick surgeon. Heh heh heh.
I officially have a year and a half left to get my BA in biochemistry.
I enjoy cartoons. I am a 31 child.
I have been married for a little over a year and a half and I love it.


QUOTE OF THE DAY
Peter: Aww things were going so good for me and Stewie, but now he hates me again. Brian what should I do to win him back?
Brian: That depends. Do you want my advice or are you just asking random questions again?
Peter: What's a hypotenuse?

Friday, January 20, 2006

Feelin the school house blues

So I did not do as well as I would have liked this past semester. Am I disappointed? Yes. Am I discouraged? No. Do I still want to go to Med school? Yes. Did I fail any classes? Nope. So I still have a lot to be proud of (what better forum to talk myself up than my own blog?) This coming semester will be one hell of ride that culminates with the first round of the med school application process.

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Code Index # 258465839, Series 12-V, JKLTRXXBNK

Why is it that every time that the president makes some kind of speech about progress in Iraq (and oh yeah, we're still in Afghanistan) a ton of people start dying from bombs and attacks. Perhaps it is the sound of our presidents voice which sets off the spree of violence. There have been the usual casualties of war, but nothing quite like right after some speech is made about positive progress. Weird.

Got my first grade back from this past semester and am relatively pleased that I no longer have any more math classes to take. I am anxiously awaiting all of my other grades with a sense of quiet dread and accomplishment. I am just glad that the semester is over and can now focus on looking ahead to this semster with additional quiet dread as I face the MCAT, med school applications and classes that I have this coming semester. And so for now I am merely looking at my MCAT prep books, but for the most part I am taking it pretty easy.

The folks are coming to town next week. woo hoo.....

Boring post. sorry all...just not into it today.........

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Jesus Loves You, Boobies and Fireworks...our holiday trip now in 3-D!!

First of all let me tell you all happy new year! I hope that this year is a bit more tranquil for the world than last...of course will northern California currently being drowned...it does not seem likely. Alas.

So our holiday trip began with a trip to Newark airport...always a joy where people treat you like an idiot...checking in online the night before means jack squat when you have luggage to check...you end up waiting in a line just as long as the check in line...fabulous planning. Most businesses that I know, especially service industry businesses often hire extra staff to accommodate the higher volume of traffic that often comes in conjunction with the holidays. What I don't understand is why it seems that every year there are less people working at airports during the holidays. Why? WTF? It's not like they can't see this coming, I mean the holidays pretty much happen the same time every year right? Who the hell is running this show? My favorite part of all of this is the "personal" message from the CEO of the company thanking you and trumping up his airline as the most professional etc. As we boarded, there seemed to be some confusion as to the seating which was absolutely hysterical. One person came on and called for a couple of passengers to come up because they had been upgraded. Five minutes later another person grabbed a couple of passengers and tried to take them up to the very same first class seats that had been given away just five minutes ago....what a bunch of maroons. And naturally as is the case with every freakin airline, they were oversold, this I really don't understand either. I know they are all inches away from bankruptcy, but do we really need to overbook flights, I mean how many people are not going to show up for their flight and how many people are on standby already....c'mon folks!!!???

Anyway, Houston was fun (70 degrees, gotta love xmas in the south) played some golf.....actually had someone say "howdy" to us one morning...I gained a little weight and clogged the arteries a bit with all the fried food and bbq that I was treated to. If you are looking for the best bread ever it is the jalapeno cheese bread from Goode's BBQ, which pretty much goes with anything except PB&J. We experienced the child from hell...now I am all for children, in fact I plan on having some in the future, my hope is that I do not have this child. Screams, lots of screams, screaming was this child's way of asking for things...for everything....wow...it was not fun....I can only imagine what traveling on a plane must be like with that child. We saw King Kong, which would have been a great film if they had shortened every single scene by ten minutes. It also seems that Mr. Jackson had a conversation with Mr. Lucas about special effects, because it was very much over the top. Good casting, good acting, good cinematography, but they could have left a lot on the cutting room floor. I shudder to think how long the DVD director's cut version is going to be. We went bowling and I managed to retain my family champion trophy by ten pins.

Off to the lost city of Atlanta, where the airport is hell, but the people are just so damn nice. Picked up our rental car and headed via the 85 (I-85 for those of you not from california) and we were in the midst of god country. I was afraid to turn on the radio, because I didn't want to be inundated with jesus speak and we are all sinners yadda yada yadda. The billboards are the most interesting things around, all kinds of crap for g-o-d, fireworks, lotteries, a "In God we trust,United We Stand" (haven't seen that in awhile) and our personal favorite Cafe Risque which had billboards on both sides of the highway for a few miles "Topless, Topless" which became the catch phrase of the vacation. "Trucker discount/showers" which I'd rather just leave at that. "Breakfast, lunch, and dinner", I find it difficult to believe that any man would be able to actually sit down, eat pancakes, eggs, bacon and coffee served to him by a topless waitress, ok it's not that hard to imagine, but what kind of woman are on at the morning breakfast shift, or even the tuesday afternoons at 2pm shift? This place was in the middle of nowhere Georgia and we were very nearly on the verge of stopping there for lunch just because we were so damn curious (thankfully the wife and I thought better of it). Highlight of the drive: A georgia license plated SUV with a Kerry/Edwards sticker on the bumper...never thought I would see that.

Greenville, South Carolina...a nice place to visit. The wife thought she could live here, I said there is no way in hell and after a few short hours...she realized it. Not that it is such a bad place, but the wife and I are a particular breed of thinkers that would have a difficult time living there.....you must remember that it is the home of Bob Jones University (google it) and that is all I will say. The grandparents were happy to see us and have us around, which was great. Saw a cousin of mine too whom I don't often get to see which was nice. Lots of good food as usual and time well spent. My grandfather is simply a nice man, who tells a lot of the same stories over and over again, year after year, but I still love him. Yeah you heard me, I love my grandfather, you gotta problem with that?

Driving back to Atlanta (Topless, Topless and no we still didn't stop). Checked into the hotel and watched some movies, had lunch at Johnny Rockets and dressed up for a wedding/New Years Party....it was a lot of fun. Drank too much, as is often the case on New Years, but didn't really pay for it the next day thankfully. The wedding was a lot of fun, one of the more exciting ones of the past year that we have been to and the only one that comes sorta close to rivaling our own wedding in terms of the food, our food was better, but this was really damn good.

The trip home was relatively uneventful...we coasted into the rental car return area on fumes, which was fun, checked into the flight and headed back to Newark. The longest vacation we have had together in a year and a half. It was nice to be back in our own bed though.

The following day we took a bus to the bronx in order to pick up the bird which is another story.

Back to work and no grades back yet for the semester....damn....4 months to the MCAT and 6 months to the start of the med school application process...god help me.

cheers.

QUOTE OF THE DAY
"where do we go
where do we go now
where do we go
ooo...ooo...ooo...where do we go
where do we go
ah...where do we go now
ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, oooooooo
where do we go now
ah ah where do we go now
where do we go
sweet chi-ei-ei-ei-eieieieiei---ld of my-e-ine"

"TOPLESS, TOPLESS"