Kind of a gross topic

Sometimes I get cystic acne. I know that's a disgusting thing to talk about. It happens mostly when I'm stressed or particularly hormonal. It's been this way for most of my life, and while two rounds of Accutane as a teenager made it so I can get by without a dermatologist's care, I still have flare-ups occasionally and probably will for the rest of forever.

I hate when this happens. Mostly because 1) it looks AWFUL; 2) it hurts; and 3) I am 29 years old, for pete's sake, and at some point it would be great if I outgrew this. Ugh. While this isn't some horrible affliction, it's still a problem; it affects self-esteem dramatically, and for someone like me, whose job it is to talk to and interact with people for a living, it can be really complicated. Fortunately, I've gotten pretty masterful with concealer and powder over the years, so I can at least lessen the startling effect of particularly bad episodes. I can't make it invisible, but I can at least make it so that, from a bit of a distance, it's not so noticeable.

This latest round, which started last Saturday, got me thinking...about why I feel so horrible when I'm in the middle of a breakout, and about what makes me feel better so I can get through it without just crawling into a hole and hiding. So, here are my tips for those going through the same sort of thing (holla, teenagers...or other 29-year-olds who wish they would outgrow this, too), and for those who love them.

Things That Make Me Feel Better When My Skin Isn't Cooperating and I Feel Ugly

• Wearing clothes I really like. When you break out, it is not the time to wear things that don't fit right, or that you don't particularly care for. Wear a really great sweater or something and hope it draws attention away from your face.
• Not having to talk to people in person. This isn't always feasible, but hiding really is a nice option sometimes.
• Makeup. I feel sorry for guys who are barred by social norms from wearing it. If I were a guy, I think I'd try to figure out a way to wear makeup anyway when I broke out.
• My husband. Because he never thinks I look ugly.
  
• My daughter. Because I really don't think she notices as long as she has someone to play with.
  
• Tylenol. Because it really does hurt.
  

Interacting with a Person Who Has Cystic Acne: DOs and DON'Ts

• DO try to keep your face-to-face conversations short.
• DON'T force eye contact; the person in question probably doesn't want to know you're looking at her, and so it's easier for her if she doesn't have to look at you.
• DON'T make any sort of comment about the cyst. This has always driven me crazy. I can understand why horrible kids in middle school would say stuff like, "Hey, did you get in a fight?" It's because we were all 13, and you just say mean stuff when you're 13. But worse is when someone tries to be sympathetic. "Wow, does that hurt?" is never appropriate to say. This is because the person with the cyst needs to pretend that you can't tell there's something amiss, and if you say anything about it at all, it breaks the illusion.
• DO compliment some other aspect of the person. See "great sweater" above.
• DO act surprised if the person says something about the cyst first. Appreciated comments would include, "Wow, I couldn't even tell" or "Really? I didn't notice until you said something." Even if this is sort of a lie, it will make her feel better.
  
• If the person in question is your kid, and he or she is not an adult yet, DO force him or her to go to the dermatologist. DON'T take no for an answer on this. This is the only time I think it's okay to break the "don't say anything" rule above. Your kid will be really annoyed at you, mostly due to embarrassment, but it's worth it.
  

So...I know it's icky, but I felt like I had a public service to offer here. Twenty years (no kidding) of dealing with this stuff makes me sort of an expert.

Christmas chicken

Merry Christmas! We have had a fantastic day here with the Christmas-crazy toddler. There were gifts, there was merriment, there was food. And that's what I wanted to post about, because today I cooked my first-ever whole chicken.

A couple of weeks ago it just sort of hit me that I'd never cooked a whole bird of any kind, and I thought I needed to try it. We've been trying to figure out a good Christmas dinner for about four years (ever since we stopped visiting out-of-state relatives on the actual day), with the only constant during that time being broccoli casserole. One year we had lasagna. One year we had ham. I kind of can't remember what we had last year. So roast chicken sounded pretty good, and appropriately Christmas-y. I'd just never cooked one.

So, after consulting with the Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook, my mom, my sister, and various people at work, and calling my parents from the grocery store to find out the difference between a "roaster" chicken and a "broiler" chicken (turns out the roaster is just bigger, but you can roast either one; do they just label them that way to be confusing?), I was ready to give it a shot today. And I must say, it turned out really good, and I don't mind saying I am quite proud of my culinary accomplishments.

My sister swears if you cook a bird upside-down, it keeps it from drying out. I believe her, but since the logistics of bird-cooking were new to me, and I spent a solid couple of minutes just staring at the cookbook illustration of how to tuck the wings (which I still don't think I did right), I just cooked our chicken right side-up. I didn't think I should try to get too fancy on my first chicken-cooking adventure.

I started off with a recipe and some recommendations from the cookbook, and then sort of made it up from there...I didn't have all the herbs that were called for, but I had some other ones, so I just went with it. Below is my "recipe," mostly so I'll remember it if I ever want to try this again (like, next Christmas):

Christmas Roast Chicken
1 "broiler" chicken (mine was 4.3 pounds)
About 4 tablespoons melted butter
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 garlic cloves, chopped in half
Half an onion, chopped in big pieces
About a 1/2 cup of celery, chopped in big pieces
About 1 teaspoon dried minced onion
About 1 tablespoon dried basil
About 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
About 1 teaspoon dried parsley
About 1 teaspoon dried thyme
Salt
Pepper

So, I remembered to pull the little bag of icky stuff out of the chicken, and I rinsed out the chicken and patted it dry like the book said. And after tucking the wings and skewering the neck skin (also like the book said), I stuffed the chopped onion, celery and garlic in "the cavity." That was kind of a gross thing to do, and I had to keep myself from thinking about it very much. (By the way, we didn't eat the "stuffing"...it was just to add some flavor and keep everything moist.) Then I put the whole bird in a cooking bag that had some flour and water in it. I rubbed the melted butter on the chicken (I would have brushed it on, but I couldn't find a basting brush so I just used my hands), and then the minced garlic. In a separate bowl (before all this chicken handling), I mixed all the dried herbs, salt and pepper, and then I put that on the chicken. I closed up the bag (and cut slits in the top) and baked it all at 375 for a little over an hour and a half. And it was really good.

Cooking a whole bird successfully makes me feel more grown-up for some reason. And with some mashed potatoes, our favorite broccoli casserole and some whole wheat dinner rolls, it made a very nice Christmas dinner. :)

Merry Christmas (again)!

Christmas song recommendations

I love holiday music. I say "holiday" because last year my friend Jen gave me the Barenaked for the Holidays CD (by the Barenaked Ladies) and I like the Hanukkah songs almost as much as the Christmas ones, although I confess I don't really feel the meaning of them since I'm not Jewish.

So on this, Christmas Eve Eve, I would like to offer a few of my favorite Christmas songs, because I can:

• Christmas Song - Dave Matthews: A new approach to the story of Mary, Joseph and Jesus that is both beautiful and incredibly moving
• God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Barenaked Ladies & Sarah McLachlan: I like this song, but I like it a lot better when they sing it...it's got a lot more pep
• Elf's Lament - Barenaked Ladies & Michael Buble: Just fun, and secular if you're not so into the "Jesus music"
• It Came Upon A Midnight Clear - Sixpence None the Richer: Another updated take on an old song that I really, really like
• The Night Santa Went Crazy - Weird Al Yankovic: Because it's hilarious, even if I can't listen to it with my daughter in the car :)
• Christmas - Blues Traveler: Just discovered this one this year, and I love it
  
• Darcy the Dragon - Roger Whittaker: If you are under 50 and did not grow up with my parents, you have probably never heard of Roger Whittaker or this song; while I admit that it, and the entire 1978 album it is on, is extremely cheesy, for me it means Christmas and reminds me of home
• Best Gift - Barbra Streisand: My mom always said this song makes her think of me, because I'm a Christmastime baby...and that makes me feel pretty cool
• I Wonder As I Wander - Barbra Streisand: It's okay to have Barbra Streisand on this list twice, because her voice is awesome (especially for Christmas music). And this is my number one, all-time favorite Christmas song, and nobody sings it better than her. Although my MIL sang this at church one year and I totally cried because it was so beautiful

Merry Christmas!

Fillings

So, today I had to get three fillings in my teeth. This was a crushing experience because I feel like my teeth are betraying me. I have been very, very good to them for as long as they've existed. I brush at least twice a day. I floss every day. I use a fluoride mouthwash. And until a year or so ago, I'd never had a single cavity.

And then I got one. Not a bad one, but it still required shots and drilling and general unpleasantness.

Then last week I went to the dentist for a regular cleaning. I love getting my teeth cleaned. It is just the most refreshing feeling, and I wish I didn't have to ruin it by eating soon after. The hygienist said I had "excellent" at-home care and that I should keep doing what I'm doing. Hooray! And then the dentist came in and said I had three - THREE - tiny cavities.

Our dentist is awesome. He's really, really good at what he does and it doesn't even really hurt when he gives you shots. There are many, many dentists closer to our house than this guy, and we go to him anyway. But I still think this all might be his fault, because I never had a cavity until I started going to him. Okay, I don't really think that, but it was funny to tell him so. I also told him that everything was falling apart because I'm turning 30 next year. He laughed at both things. And then he told me that I shouldn't feel bad about my cavities, and to come back for three fillings.

So I got three fillings today (all on the top), and my face was mostly numb for quite awhile this evening. It was actually pretty hilarious because one side of my nose ended up being numb, so I tried to crinkle my nose but only one side crinkled. That was weird, and funny.

Stupid teeth. I've taken such good care of them, and this is how they repay me. Argh.

No more teachers, no more books...

You know the tune:

Joy to the world!
I'm done with school
At least for six whole weeks!
My paper's done
My PowerPoint, too
And even my final exam
And even my final exam
And even, and even my final exam!

Wahoo! Now I can be totally distracted by Christmas without feeling guilty for neglecting schoolwork. And I'm off school until the end of January...so happiness reigns in our house today.

I think I'm going to go read People magazine and not use any brain power at all. (Vic, if you're reading this, hang in there, girl. You're almost done, too!)

I am the champion

Today was a big day for me...we had a holiday cookie baking contest in my department at work, and I won "Most Delicious" (for my baked goods, not me personally). I would like to stress that there were no rules for this contest; however, I still feel like I may have cheated a little bit because 1) I didn't actually make cookies, because I'm not that great at baking cookies and am much better at baking other things; and 2) I started with a boxed mix. But I still won, which made me feel better than it probably should have. (When the best thing to happen to you in your professional life in recent memory is that you won a completely informal cookie taste test - and you are not any sort of pastry chef - you have to admit that things could be better.)

However, the very best thing about today was that there were like 22 kinds of cookies to taste in our department, so we were all on happy sugar highs and in very good spirits. :) I ate a very large salad for lunch with a lot of green vegetables on it, so I figure I've compensated enough for the massive amount of cookies I ate.

Here, for your enjoyment, is my now award-winning recipe, which I got from an "America's Best Brand-Name Baking" cookbook, but which can also be found pretty easily online (and not just here; I Googled it because I didn't feel like getting off the couch to actually go get the cookbook from the kitchen and copy the recipe):

Cheesecake-Topped Brownies

1 large (family-size) box fudge brownie mix (Mine was Duncan Hines, about 21 oz.)
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
1 tablespoon cornstarch
14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Ready-to-spread chocolate frosting (the recipe says this is optional, but I think it's absolutely mandatory)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Prepare brownie mix according to package directions. Spread evenly in well-greased, 9 x 13-in. pan.
2. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, margarine and cornstarch until fluffy. Gradually beat in the sweetened condensed milk, egg and vanilla until smooth. Pour evenly over the brownie batter. (I know it sounds like this might not work, but don't worry, it does.)
3. Bake 45 minutes or until top is lightly browned (keep an eye on it after about 40 minutes so it doesn't get too brown).
4. Cool completely. Spread with frosting. Cut into bars. Store in the refrigerator.

In my experience, making these the night before you want to serve them works really well. Frost them, but don't cut them; keep them in the fridge overnight and cut them the next day.

Mmm, brownies.

P is for procrastinate

I admit it. I'm out of gas for this school thing. I am ready for a break. My brain is tired. I've been battling a cold for more than a week and a half. I am still fervently interested in the things I'm learning in class (I'm a nerd, but I really, really love going to class), but when it comes time to apply them in the form of a big ol' final project I'm supposed to turn in six days from now...I'm not into it. I would much rather be doing other things. Like looking at the Christmas tree we just put up today, or thinking about what gifts we're going to get people (especially the very fun, Christmas-crazy, almost-three-year-old in the house). Or reading my favorite blog. Or blogging, even though I don't have anything terribly interesting to say. :)

Luckily, right now I have a very good grade in my class, so if I can kick butt on the take-home final (which seems to be reasonable, given that, since it's a take-home, I can look up all the answers), I will have bought myself a pretty nice cushion for the grade on the project I can't seem to get into. I just have to actually finish it, and I should be in good shape.

I get six weeks off from school after this. I am so ready for it. I'm going to sleep in on Saturdays (like, past 7:00) and maybe read entire books for fun.

But first, there are the next six days...and the big project due at the end. Bleh.

That's enough London...

So...we're back. We've actually been back for a week, and I can't believe it's already been a whole week since I was in London. Back to reality, I guess. That's the worst part of vacation - when it's over. Although this time, it was okay that vacation was over because we both missed Hannah.

Our flight home from London last Tuesday was wonderfully uneventful. The only glitch was when Brock unknowingly bought carbonated water in the vending machine in the gate waiting area, and we both almost gagged when we tried it. The bottle said it was something like "England's preferred water" or "famous water" or something, but it was disgusting. Water is supposed to be still. If it's carbonated, you're supposed to add a bunch of high fructose corn syrup and carmel color so you get a nice Coke. That's just the way it is.

Anyway, I didn't sleep on the plane home at all, because it was during the middle of the day, so I read half a novel and watched Hairspray on the little in-flight entertainment thing. I liked Hairspray, although John Travolta as a very large woman is a disturbing thing. Very disturbing. They did feed us lunch and dinner, though, and both were pretty good, so I didn't have any complaints about the flight.

The best part about coming home was seeing Hannah. :) Brock's parents were wonderful and drove her home for us, so she was here when we got home from the airport. She yelled, "Mommy!" and gave me the biggest hug ever! She kept randomly hugging both of us for the rest of the evening. And she'd go, "That's my dad! Do you see Hannah's dad over there?" It was pretty cute, and nice to know that she missed us even though she had fun while we were gone. We're still working on backing off on some of the extra-demanding attitude she seems to have developed while we were in London, but otherwise we're pretty much back to normal.

And then Wednesday it was back to work, which felt weird. I mean, the first day after vacation is always weird, but it was odd sitting at my desk and thinking, "Just yesterday I was in London." We have to go back sometime. :)

Thursday I came down with an awful cold, which I still have, which made it definitely feel like vacation was over. I kept joking that I got the plague from all those medieval buildings we were in, but I'm pretty sure it was just the 8+ hours of recirculated air on the plane. Whatever.

When's the next vacation? I'm ready!

London: Big Finish

It was our last day in London today, and it was a big one. Here's what we did:

• Houses of Parliament/Big Ben
• Westminster Abbey
• St. Paul's Cathedral
• Tried (and failed) to see the Temple of Mithras
• Shakespeare's Globe Theatre
• Harrod's

We got started fairly early and made it out of the hotel by 9:30. We stopped to buy a muffin for me and a Coke for Brock, and then we walked to the Houses of Parliament. We didn't go in, but Brock got some really nice pictures. It's funny; I thought I'd kind of gotten used to seeing Big Ben off in the distance, but up close it is really spectacular. There's not a square inch (or centimeter or whatever) on the whole Houses of Parliament that doesn't have some kind of detail going on. I told Brock I thought it was from the "more is more" school of architecture, but that sort of sums up London, really.

Westminster Abbey is right across the street from Parliament, and we were both really excited about going there. I wrote in my journal that the weight of history there is overwhelming, and it really is...I mean, you're walking where people have walked for centuries, and every place you turn is a tomb or monument to some fantastically famous person from the past. It was a little awkward...at first I tried to avoid walking on the tombs, but it's sort of impossible. So, sorry famous dead people buried in Westminster Abbey. I tried.

Anyway, Westminster Abbey was by far my favorite stop on this entire trip. It's totally Gothic and spectacularly beautiful, and I still sort of can't believe I saw where Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots and Henry VIII and all these other people I've read about in books are buried. We got the audio tour, and I'm so glad, because without it I don't think I would have known where to look or what I was looking at half the time. It's really too bad you can't take pictures inside, although of course I understand why. One of the sort of amusing things to see there was "the oldest door in Britain," which dates from 1050 (!). We also saw the room where they used to keep the country's gold standard, which I think was from around 1090. I just can't believe I was walking around someplace that's been around for almost 1,000 years. Whoa.

After the Abbey, we got on the Tube and made our way to St. Paul's Cathedral. We stopped for lunch at a pizza place across the street, and Brock gave me a hard time because I was teasing him for considering pizza for lunch yesterday (given that we're from one of the world's great pizza-eating regions). However, today pizza sounded good, so it wasn't silly anymore. :)

St. Paul's is also beautiful and amazing, with the added dimension of being really tiring. We climbed all 530 very tight, mostly spiraling steps to see the Whispering Gallery, the Stone Gallery and then the Golden Gallery all the way at the top. It was worth it, but if you had a vertigo problem you'd never make it! The views were awesome and again, Brock took some great pictures. Like the Abbey, you can't take pictures inside, so we just bought a bunch of post cards and a snow globe for Hannah.

After that, we attempted to find the Temple of Mithras, but we're pretty sure it was obscured in a construction area so we didn't get to see it. We walked all around, but didn't find anything that looked remotely like the ruins of an ancient Persian god. Just a lot of cranes and large construction equipment. Bummer.

Next up was a walk across the Thames to go to the Globe Theatre, which was a little touristy but worth the trip. We had a nice tour and learned that they built the theatre using Elizabethan materials and methods, which was one of the reasons it took so long to construct. I'm sure that builders in Elizabethan times knew just what to do with plaster that had cow's hair in it, but I imagine modern tradesmen had some trouble dealing with it. :)

Then we had to walk over to the London Bridge Tube station, and I got a little wiggy because we got out of the bustling tourist areas and into some quieter parts of town...Brock pointed out that I should probably be more nervous IN the busy tourist areas, but I generally feel more comfortable knowing I'm among bunches of other people who also "aren't from around here" and probably don't know where they're going any better than I do.

We took the Tube to Harrod's, mostly because I just wanted to see it since it's so famous. It is huge and overwhelming, and I don't see how people normally shop there. We didn't buy anything because it was already expensive, and the exchange rate is awful. We did, however, stumble across the Chocolate Bar, where I had the very best hot chocolate I have ever had in my life. It was "Italian hot chocolate" and was just dark chocolate and cream. It was very thick and very rich and very delicious. That perked me up, because I was getting pretty tired by that point and my feet had started tingling from all the walking. We did find Toy World on the fourth floor, and I took a picture of Brock with a giant crocodile hand puppet.

After that, it was back toward the hotel. We stopped for some "take away" dinner and then came back to the hotel to put our feet up. We ended up going out again for a short time to check out the London souvenir shop around the corner, but it was all pretty cheesy tourist stuff. I mean, if you know someone who collects teapots or something, it's fine, but otherwise there's not much reason to bother.

So...tomorrow we're heading home. It's been a wonderful trip, and I can't think of a single thing I want to do that we haven't done. If we had more time here I'm sure we could explore much more, but we managed to pack a whole bunch of really cool stuff into three days. And I miss Hannah, so I'm looking forward to seeing her tomorrow and giving her the souvenirs we bought for her. Hopefully she a) remembers who we are and b) isn't too mad that we left her.

More observations:

• I'm not sure why, but every time you order a Coke in a restaurant they put a slice of lemon in it. I like lemon in Coke, but it's different. As a side note, Coke in Europe is YUMMY because they put real sugar in it. But like Brock says, you definitely feel like you have to brush your teeth afterward.
• Brock's sense of direction and map-reading abilities are mind-boggling. I would literally have been lost without him, because I have no sense of direction whatsoever. He just walks around like he knows exactly where he's going. We never got lost once.
• I really wish I had a British accent. Everyone here sounds SO COOL. I was sort of thinking in a British accent after awhile, but I tried to make myself stop because it even sounded silly in my head. *chuckle*
• Avoid the Tube at rush hour. It is quite overwhelming.

London is my kind of town. :)

London, Day 2

I LOVE London.

Today's highlights included:

• King's Cross Station - Platform 9 3/4
• Lunch with Andy
• Covent Garden
• The National Gallery
• Buckingham Palace
• The London Eye

We started off a little later than we'd expected, since we slept about 12 hours last night. We were really tired and jet-lagged, I guess. Anyway, we made our way to King's Cross (using the trusty Tube) so I could get my picture taken at Platform 9 3/4. Since there's really not a wall between Platforms 9 and 10, as it says in the Harry Potter books, the brilliant people at King's Cross just made Platform 9 3/4 out of a nearby wall. There's even a "trolley" sticking halfway out of it, which I thought was clever. So Brock took my picture looking like I was trying to make it on the Hogwarts Express:

We had a little break back at the hotel, then Andy, whom Brock knows from the online game he plays and who lives about 2 hours away, came to meet us for lunch. He and Brock had never met in person, so that was cool. He was very nice and even treated us to lunch at a yummy Italian restaurant (thanks, Andy!). Then he showed us around Covent Garden, which is a really fun shopping district that hadn't even been on our list of things to see, so that was a good treat. There were several very interesting street performers there. :)

After Covent Garden, Andy left, and Brock and I went to the National Gallery. If you were really, really into art, that place would be heaven, but Brock and I know just enough to appreciate most of it, so we were able to see all we wanted to see in just a couple of hours. It was cool seeing such old, famous paintings, though. Our favorite was a "cartoon" (drawing made prior to making an actual painting) by Leonardo da Vinci. Neither one of us can really articulate why. It was just really cool. And we saw paintings by Michaelangelo, Renoir, van Eyck, Monet, van Gogh and a bunch of other famous guys.

We took a break in the Gallery's cafe after that for some treats and a rest. Brock had chocolate cake, and I had treacle tart. I got it because I read about it in Harry Potter. I didn't know what it really was. Actually, even after eating a whole slab of treacle tart, I still wasn't sure what it was, but it was tasty. (Later, on the phone with my parents, my dad looked it up and said it's molasses, which makes sense in retrospect. For some reason, while I was eating it I thought it sort of tasted like a lemon bar.)

After the Gallery, we walked through St. James's Park (I would have skipped the second s, but that's how it's written on our London map) to go to Buckingham Palace. It was very pretty and peaceful, even though it was dark by that point. The Palace looked very pretty all lit up. It's hard to believe people live there. I think it would be very weird having people outside your home taking pictures all day. Of course, it would also be weird having a monument to Queen Victoria in your front yard, so I guess I can't really relate to the royal family at all. Anyway, it was neat.

And our last stop of the day (after another rest period - our legs were getting tired) was the absolute coolest: we rode the London Eye! Wow, was that awesome. Even though it was dark (because we just couldn't fit in riding it in the daylight, especially since it gets dark at like 4:00), the views of the city were spectacular. Brock got some really good pictures. And since it wasn't at all crowded, there were only about eight people in our carriage/pod thing and we had plenty of room to walk around and check out the views. It was a little scary if you looked down or up too much, but if you just looked straight out, it was great. My favorite thing we did today, definitely. :)

We did call home to see how Hannah was doing. She was taking a nap, so we didn't get to talk to her, but she apparently thinks I'm at work and hasn't asked about Brock yet. So I guess she's having fun. She also said she wants to go to London. We'll definitely have to bring her someday...after our bank account has a chance to recover.

Some observations:

• American credit card technology is pretty far behind the times, it seems. Everyone's card here has some special chip in it, and they don't have to sign for anything. (This confused the clerk at King's Cross when we were buying snacks today, because Brock's primitive American card doesn't have a chip.) Also, when you pay with your card at a restaurant, they bring a little card reader right to your table, and you can punch in the tip yourself. They don't have to take your card anywhere.
• Today's Fun British Phrase is "Way Out." Nothing says "Exit" here; it's all "Way Out." I love that.
• I don't know how people drive in London. The streets are really small, and they don't make any sense, and there are a million giant double-decker buses to contend with. I'll stick to walking or the train, thank you.
• The light switches in our hotel room are backwards; you flip them down to turn them on. It also took me awhile to figure out how to work the hair dryer this morning because you have to hold a little trigger button to get it to work. This seemed unnecessary and also made my finger tired.
• Treacle tart is very yummy; no wonder Harry Potter likes it.

I can't believe tomorrow's already our last day...but we're having such a great time!!

LONDON, Baby, Yeah!

You're supposed to read the title of this post a la Austin Powers. Go ahead, read it again. :)

We're in London! Wahoo! So, that's my surprise vacation destination, and I still kind of can't believe it.

Today we got to our hotel about 1:00 local time, I think...and we're both tired, so we just went to see a few things this afternoon. We saw the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge, and London Bridge (it's not falling down; it's also, unexpectedly, just a regular bridge), and we walked around Trafalgar Square for a bit. I had real English fish and chips for dinner (preserved for posterity in the photo here), which was AWESOME (but also not that much unlike fish and chips at home...except that these were in LONDON). Also, I found it funny that that tiny patch of green on my plate was considered a "mixed salad." It was like three lettuce leaves and a cucumber. I guess perhaps they're not so into the lettuce here.

Tomorrow, we're having lunch with one of Brock's friends, and I think we're going to check out the National Gallery. The National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery are really close to our hotel. When we were walking from the Underground station to our hotel, we saw Big Ben. I almost fainted. Okay, not really, but wow - that was the moment I really felt like I was in London.

My favorite phrase from today is, "Mind the gap." The recorded voice on the Tube says this at almost every stop, and it just makes me laugh. It's so British and polite to "mind the gap." We minded the gap very well and negotiated the Tube without any real trouble. Brock has this weirdly accurate, innate sense of direction that enabled us to find everything we were looking for, and once you find the right station, the train is pretty easy to figure out. You just have to mind the gap. :)

My husband is the best ever. Period.

Oh, my bags are packed...

...I'm ready to go...somewhere...

I can't believe I still don't know where we're going!!

I get one more hint tomorrow, and the last one on Thanksgiving. The good news (for me) is that I now get to find out where we're going before we get to the airport, because Brock wants to ask me some sort of mysterious question about the mysterious mystery place we're going on vacation.

But that means, as of now, I still don't know where we're going. I have to say, the suspense is really starting to get to me. :)

Surprise vacation

We are very, very near the departure date for our vacation. I haven't blogged about it at all, because frankly, I couldn't stand to think about it too much...I really need a vacation, and it seemed better not to get too worked up about it until it was almost time to go. But...it's almost here, and I am now not just daily, but basically hourly, bugging Brock to tell me where we're going. This is because he booked the trip in August and wants the destination to be a surprise! How cool and amazing is that? But it means I am in quite a lot of suspense. (Although, if you do happen to know where we're going, DON'T TELL ME. I love surprises and I don't want to ruin this one.)

I have gotten several clues:

• Brock knows someone who lives near our destination (not terribly helpful; he knows someone almost everywhere)
• He's never been there before
  
• It takes more than 2 hours to fly there
• It's not warm there
  
• It's not Las Vegas or Portland (long story about Portland, but I know it's not Portland)
• The people who live there have "distinctive accents"
• We're taking public transportation while we're there

So I figure it has to be a fairly large city, at least. There is a vocal contingent of people at work who are sure we're going to New York City, but I'm not completely sure about that - Brock used to know someone in New York, but she moved to Tokyo. Plus I think the person he knows who applies to this trip is a guy. And I don't think he knows any guys in New York, but I'm not certain. I really don't know where we're going, though.

I get my final clue on Thanksgiving...Brock says it will either be really helpful in narrowing things down, or it will totally confuse me.

This is way fun!

Adam Viniateri

Dude, I thought you knew how to kick a football.

I was wrong.

To the Colts offense, I say: Valiant effort at the end there, guys. I know you tried hard.

To the defense, I say: You were awesome.

And to the amazing number of injured Colts, I say: Please get well soon. Or at least use your down time to somehow punish Adam Viniateri. Maybe write mean things on his locker, or hide his helmet, or soak his socks in mayonnaise.

I think it might do him some good to have to hitch a ride back to Indy. From San Diego. Give him some time to think.

It's really so much simpler when you have no hope of winning. But to have hope, and to have "the best kicker of our time" on your team, and to have him miss a kick that someone's grandma could probably make on a good day, is just mean. :P

An open letter to the Indianapolis Colts

Dear Colts,
I'm watching you "play" against the San Diego Chargers right now. I'm sure you know this, but you're not doing very well. Okay, you're really playing terribly. LaDainian Tomlinson just scored a touchdown to make it 23-0 and I think it's not even halfway through the second quarter. Peyton Manning has thrown, at current count, four interceptions. Or maybe it's 40. Or maybe it just feels like 40. Anyway, you're kind of sucking.

I was mostly okay after last week's loss to the New England Patriots. Really, I was. It was a good game, you played pretty well (could have been better, of course) and you at least showed what happens when the Patriots actually have to play a good team - they have to fight to win, which they haven't had to do all season. I was glad you made them do that.

But this? This is not cool. I'm not even paying attention to this game anymore. It's too painful. I mean, who are these people on the field in Colts uniforms? What's going on? I really think the defense is doing okay, but at this rate, they're all going to be dead tired by the third quarter. And the offense is...really bad. Surprisingly bad.

So get with the program, okay? Think of me. I've been a Colts fan for more than 20 years. I lived through the infamous 1-15 season and ALL of the Jeff George years. I know you won a Super Bowl last year, which was awesome, but I hope you don't think that was actually enough to repay me for my years of suffering. So please, please...whatever you did to get ready for the game this week, NEVER do that again. You're allowed to be a little "off" once in awhile, but this is not acceptable.

And here's a special message for the "special" teams: you guys need to practice harder. Seriously.

One more thing about the oven

Brock went to make dinner Wednesday night (chicken stir fry - yum!), and the middle burner wouldn't light. He's pretty sure all the burners worked when the oven was delivered.

Stupid oven. Good thing the new one comes tomorrow!

Why I love Backyardigans

Because my sick child, who is stuck feeling miserable with a virus, loves Backyardigans. And they make her giggle, even though her nose is running, and she's coughing, and she has a fever. So kudos to you, Backyardigans, and keep it up. Hooray for Pablo, Tyrone, Uniqua, Tasha and Austin. You all rock.

Admitting you made a mistake

We got a new oven a couple of weeks ago (the last of the appliances we had to replace after The Incident involving the installation of our new floor in June). Last night, I finally admitted to myself - and to Brock - that I hate it. I HATE IT.

The oven in question is a Premier 36-in. gas range. It replaced our dead Tappan 36-in. gas range because that model, when we went to replace it, had gone up in price $200 from when we bought it four years ago, and we had to buy a fridge, dryer, microwave and toaster all in the last four months. (I know toasters and microwaves aren't expensive, but it's the principle of the thing.) It just seemed like too much money. So we decided to try something new.

Did I mention I HATE IT?

It started at delivery: a weird, very faint gas smell emanating from the range. We had them come fix it, no problem. Also, the griddle cover that came with it was all beat-up and peeling, which was weird, so we called the store and asked them to send a replacement. No problem.

So, then we used the stove. The burners are really touchy, and there's not much room between High and Off. Hmm. Guess we can learn to deal with that.

Then we used the oven. It took more than 30 minutes for it to reach 350 degrees, which seemed a bit excessive. Also, the entire oven got so hot; I mean, you could very easily burn your hand on the outside of the door. This made us both very nervous about having Hannah even in the kitchen while we were cooking. We've always kept her away from the oven, anyway, but our old one didn't get hot on the outside, to the point where you thought it might start melting things nearby. Hmm. Pretty annoying.

Thursday night, I made taco casserole. I turned the oven on at 5:50. By 6:20, it hadn't reached the desired temperature yet. Hmm. Still annoying.

Yesterday, the replacement griddle cover came. It was just as beat-up and awful-looking as the first one. So I called the store again and told them the story. I talked to a nice guy in the parts department who ended up being the same person I talked to when I ordered the replacement. He said he had to call Premier to get it, and they said the peeling white stuff was actually just a cover. It was supposed to come off. I told him, "Okay, what's under the peeling white cover is silver. My oven is white. That makes absolutely no sense. Either this part doesn't come in white, which is stupid, or somebody is lying to you." He told me I should call Premier myself and explain the situation, that maybe they'd just shipped the wrong thing - twice (once with the oven, and once separately). He said they were probably closed for the weekend, but I tried the number he gave me anyway. It was a cell phone.

And that's when something snapped in my brain. I did not want this oven. I wanted this oven gone.

I called Brock at work (it was early evening, and he wasn't home yet) and told him what was going on, and how stupid it all was, and how I wished we'd just sucked it up and bought the other oven because I really didn't like this one. He said, "I wonder what their return policy is."

So I called the store back and asked. They said 30 days, and it didn't matter if you'd used the appliance.

I called Brock again. I said, "I'm still mad, and we can return this stupid oven and get a different one. Let's go tomorrow and do it." He said okay. I would have gone right then if I could (I'm one of those people who finally makes up her mind to do something and then can't stand waiting to do it), but Hannah needed dinner and it just wasn't practical.

Then I called my mom and complained about the oven some more. Brock came home. We called his mom and I complained about the oven even more. I really hate this oven. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone - ever - and if anyone from Premier happens to get this on their Google blog alerts, I sincerely hope they think to question why they're even selling an oven that gets so hot on the outside it could send you to the emergency room if you weren't careful.

We bought our ovens - all three of them, now - from Abt Electronics. As much as I hate this Premier oven, I LOVE Abt. Everyone should go there and buy appliances. They have free, fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies on Saturdays and Sundays. Their salespeople are helpful and know what they're talking about. They have a ridiculously huge selection of just about anything that plugs in. And today, when I walked up to the customer service counter and said, "We got this oven, and we're not very happy with it, and we want to exchange it for a different one," they didn't question me at all. Our original sales guy came back to help us and just said, "No problem, we'll get it taken care of." I didn't have to give a lengthy explanation (as I have here) about why I hate the oven. He just wrote, "Customer doesn't like oven" in the account notes, put in the order for our new oven, and handed us the receipt to take to the checkout. No questions asked. The best part was that the new-new oven was on sale, so we actually, in the long run, saved a couple hundred bucks by buying the wrong oven first, then going back to get this one. Hooray for Abt! Buy stuff there. They treat you right.

Our new-new oven is coming on Saturday. It's an exact replacement of our original one, so I anticipate being happy with it. And then, maybe, I'll make cookies. :)

Whose bright idea was this?

Oh, wait...it was mine. The bright idea I'm referring to was painting our bedroom blue with a striped wall four years ago when we moved into our house. Okay, actually, it was a supercool paint job, worthy of Trading Spaces, if I do say so myself. I really liked it a lot. And because Brock, Robin and I all worked on painting it at the time, it really didn't take very long to do.

But this summer, we got a really fab, new, chocolate brown microsuede duvet and awesome red sheets (keep your comments about red sheets to yourself; they rock and I don't care what you think about them). Chocolate brown and red don't go with medium blue, dark blue and green stripes. They just don't. And last weekend, I finally hit the critical point where I decided it was time to suck it up and paint the bedroom, as I'd been intending to do for months, so that, well, everything would match.

I took Halloween off from work so I could work on this project (I was planning to take the afternoon off, anyway, to take Hannah to the kids' Halloween party at Brock's office, so I just made a day of it). I actually kind of needed a mental health day, anyway, and there really is something therapeutic about being in the house ALONE (which I hardly ever am), with MY music cranked up really loud, doing something that requires absolutely no thought.

I went to Home Depot in the morning and picked a beautiful, medium beige-y kind of color called "oat cake." That may be my favorite paint name ever, just because it's fun to say and really sort of nonsensical. I have no idea what an oat cake looks like...but I guess it's the color of my bedroom. Anyway, picking up the paint and supplies went very smoothly. There was a really funny moment when a man asked the guy at the paint counter why they only carried white paint. I have no idea how you get to be in your 40s (which is about how old this guy looked) without knowing that paint colors have to be mixed. I tried not to laugh out loud.

Anyway, the reason I was kind of cursing the blue color (and the stripes) was because I was painting beige over it, which is significantly lighter. So I had to prime the whole room. By the time I finished that, it was time to get some lunch (almost 1:30 already) and then get ready to pick Hannah up from daycare. (I really enjoyed my Taco Supremes from Taco Bell, by the way.)

That meant I was putting the first coat of actual paint on at 8:30 Halloween night. I finished about 11:00. Brock and I slept on the couch since our bedroom 1) smelled like paint and 2) was covered in plastic drop cloths.

So I put the second coat of paint on Thursday night, starting about 8:00. Finished up at 10:30, decided two coats was enough, and cleaned up. I was done around 11:00 again. We slept on the couch again Thursday night.

So basically, I painted our room three times. However, it does look very pretty, and I like it a lot. It looks, somehow, more grown up than it did before - which I think is good, but also maybe a little sad. Like I'm too old for crazy stripes on my wall anymore. We're going to have to get some artwork, and I asked my mom to make us some red curtains, and then it will be perfect. If I had more energy, I'd take a picture and post it, but I don't really feel like it. *chuckle*

I would like to take this opportunity to thank our closet: thanks for being there, and for taking up a whole lot of space on one of the long walls, so that I wouldn't have to paint quite so much. I saved that wall for last all three times, and it was nice to have it go quickly.

I don't feel like painting anymore for awhile.

A is for Ahhh

I got an A in my first grad school class! I was excited, but mostly relieved. Turns out I can do this!! When I was an undergrad, I never would have posted my grade in a class for the whole world to see. I wouldn't have even really talked about it with my classmates. But now, hey - I have a full-time job and a family, and that A feels WAY more valuable than any of the As I got as an undergrad.

We went out to dinner last night to celebrate. We like to celebrate things around here. :)

Done!

Sales meeting is done.
Group paper and presentation are done.
Research paper is done.
Final exam is done.
First class of graduate program is done.
My brain is done...I'm going to go read People magazine and try very hard not to think about anything at all for a couple of days!

Random update

The status of stuff at home:
Hannah has a cold. So do I. She is (as usual) dealing with it much better than I am. She is just not a whiny kid, or she hasn't learned yet that you can totally milk it when you don't feel so hot. Either way, she makes me feel like a wimp. *chuckle* We've gotten to spend some time together the past few days, though, since we had all that time in the car over the weekend AND I actually left work more or less on time yesterday and today. Brock is not sick, which is good, and is currently, at 9:35 p.m., at the grocery store buying milk because we are almost out. He takes the best care of us.

The status of school stuff:
My research paper is done; that is to say, it's as good as it's going to get. It is not the best paper I've ever written, but it'll have to do. I don't have time or energy to make it any better, so I surrender. My group paper is also pretty much done; I felt like I had to do a lot more work on it than I should have, but I think it, also, is as good as it's going to get. Someone else in the group is responsible for finishing the PowerPoint, my part of which I already gave her, so I am choosing not to worry about that. So now I think I just have to study for the final - but in super-happy-oh-so-great news, we get to have a cheat sheet for the test. This is fabulous because, while I get all the concepts, memorizing everything is just more than my mucus-addled head can handle. So if I can just have something to remind me of things, I think I should be okay. I still have to study, though. And make my cheat sheet.

The status of work stuff:
My presentation and handouts for our fall sales meeting are pretty much done. I haven't practiced my presentation yet, but it's pretty much a variation on the theme I do every year, so I don't anticipate anything too weird happening. Usually I just practice it in the car on the way there the day I have to present (it's an hour drive from home), and I'm good to go. Luckily, I really like giving presentations, so I don't freak out too much about them.

Random other stuff:
While I have a fond place in my heart for our Dell laptop, as it was a Valentine's Day present from Brock four years ago, it is also four years old and slow as molasses. And I hate the space bar, which has always been a little funky. I have to use it for school stuff because it has Word and PowerPoint and all those Microsoft tools of domination on it, whereas our cute little Macbook doesn't. And just so you know, I tried Google Docs, and it totally doesn't work for papers that require a lot of formatting. So I tried to "stick it to the man," as it were, and couldn't.

I am so excited that it's not yet 10:00 and I am actually done with a bunch of stuff. I may go to bed early tonight. I should probably start organizing my notes to study, but I don't feel like it...and I have to stay late at work tomorrow, anyway, since I have to kill time before going to the sales meeting's opening dinner. So maybe I'll do it then.

A lot (and sometimes nothing) can change in 10 years

Saturday was our 10-year high school reunion. Since Brock and I were "high school sweethearts," we have the great advantage that we only ever have to go to a reunion for one class at one school, and we both know everybody because there were only about 87 people in our class.

We drove down to Indiana Saturday afternoon. Thankfully, I got out of class early on Saturday, so we didn't end up being as late to the reunion as we thought we would be. It started at 7 and I think we showed up about 8, after dropping Hannah off with my mom and dad for the evening.

You have to understand that we're from very small towns, and a very small high school. I started school with some of those people in preschool when we were four. What's kind of odd about that is that you can know somebody for 14 straight years, and then completely and utterly lose touch with them in a matter of months (or days or weeks) after graduation. What I really understood from this reunion is that there's a big difference between friends of convenience and friends of choice. When you're from a small town, your pool of potential friends is automatically smaller; there may not be a whole lot of people just like you, so you just do the best you can with what you've got. When you get away from the small town and meet more people, you have more options, and you can find the people you have a lot in common with, who will probably be lifelong friends.

I only have a couple of those "lifelong friends" from high school, and we're not even that close. We manage to stay in touch sporadically and I like to know what's going on with them. But I didn't have a lot in common with most of the people I went to high school with while we were still in school, and it seems like I really don't now. They're all nice people; I think I always did a pretty good job of getting along with everyone. But we weren't ever really great friends.

That said, we did have a good time at the reunion. There were a lot of people I really enjoyed catching up with, swapping kid pictures with, etc. I got to see one of my best friends from high school (one of those I manage to sort of keep in touch with), who I hadn't seen for a long time, and she and I had a lovely time getting really drunk on a bottle of Crown Royal she brought with her. I think this, alone, did a good job of redeeming my reputation as an uptight smart girl with a lot of the non-uptight people I graduated with. :)

Brock had a good time talking to some of his old friends from school, and a depressing time talking to others - that's where the "a lot (and sometimes nothing)" can change comment comes from. Some people were exactly the same, which was fine - they were pretty cool in high school and seem to be doing well. Some people were a bit different, although I wouldn't say anyone had changed enough that there were any shocking developments. And some people were exactly the same, and it wasn't so good. You hoped people would kind of get it together and do well in life...and they didn't.

There were a lot of people I would have liked to see who didn't come, so that was disappointing. And there were a lot of people there who I never talked to much in high school; so I talked to some of them at the reunion, but I would have felt weird running up to a lot of them just because I recognized them and finding out how they were. I was curious, but it's an odd relationship dynamic. It's kind of like, "After 10 years, would you think it was stupid if I came up and talked to you?"

Overall, our reunion was...interesting. I had a lot of fun. I'm really glad we went. And I especially want to thank Lindsey and Amanda, and whoever else worked on planning the reunion, for getting it together so we could actually have one (I don't know if it would have happened otherwise)! But I think I can wait another 10 years before we do it all again.

STRESS

Some disjointed thoughts about why I am stressed, and think my hair may be falling out faster than normal:

I have a research paper, a group paper and a group presentation due, and a final exam, 9 days from today.

Group members 1 and 2 (one of those is me) have completed their portions of the group project. Group member 3, for unclear reasons, has not. We were all supposed to be done yesterday; the idea was that then we'd have a couple days to put all the pieces together, we'd review it as a group before class on Saturday, and then hopefully be more or less done with two things a whole week before they were due - leaving a week to work on our research papers and studying.

I don't think it's going to work that way.

Our high school reunion is this weekend, so I'm losing my weekend to nostalgia. I am really looking forward to the reunion, but bummed about the timing. I could use Saturday and Sunday for schoolwork instead of driving.

And the last three days before all this stuff is due is my company's fall sales meeting, which I have to go to and prepare a presentation for.

Tonight Hannah didn't want to go home with Brock because she wanted Mommy. I've been staying late at work the past few days to try to get some schoolwork done while I'm actually awake, coherent and capable of rational thought. I haven't seen Hannah much as a result, and it is clearly getting on her nerves as well as mine. We did get to spend some time together this evening, but I have guilt. On top of stress.

Brock has really had to take care of a lot of the home stuff this week with pretty much no help from me. He's wonderful and doesn't mind at all, and is so encouraging I think I'd never make it without him...but I also feel like I'm not contributing as much as I should. Even though I can't contribute anymore because there's just not enough time or energy.

On the up side, we're getting our new dryer tomorrow. So we can at least go back to doing laundry normally. There's a little less stress, I guess.

Okay, back to Paper Writing Land.

Either the best or worst customer service ever

So, I have to get a blood test to check how my thyroid's doing (or, more accurately, how the hormones I take to make up for my deadbeat thyroid are doing). Thanks to our new insurance plan, my endocrinologist wasn't allowed to actually take my blood at his office; instead, I have to go to one of the vampire shops where all they do all day is take people's blood and ship it off to various testing facilities. So I called the nearest location today to make an appointment for my test. Turns out, you can't actually schedule your appointment with the person who answers the phone. There's a special number for that, or you can schedule your appointment yourself ONLINE.

Wha?

So I went to the website and very easily chose - and reserved - my very own appointment time. I got a confirmation page to print and everything. No going back and forth with the person on the phone about what time might work or not. No settling for an odd appointment time just because I didn't feel like digging into a more convenient option. But also, no actual person.

I'm leaning toward thinking this is a fantastic development in medical care...but part of me thinks you ought to be able to just call the place you want to go and talk to someone about when you want to come in. Is this awesome, super-convenient service, or just a cop-out so they don't have to pay someone to answer the phone and make appointments?

And if the person AT the testing office doesn't schedule appointments, why does that person even need to answer the phone? Why else would anyone be calling?

This is simultaneously terrific and perplexing.

Hooray for Dad!

My dad's surgery went great! Everything went according to plan and he's doing really well. He will most likely be able to go home from the hospital tomorrow - yippee! He'll have several checkups in the next weeks and months to make sure the stint the doctor put in to reinforce his aorta and cut off the blood supply to the aneurysm is doing what it's supposed to, but right now all signs point to "Wahoo, it's over!"

I'm back home after a very tiring trip (we left my parents' house at 4:50 a.m...which wasn't so bad until my car, which lives on Central time, told me it was really 3:50 when I started it up this morning), but not for long. I leave first thing in the morning for a (thankfully short) business trip. It will be much easier to focus now that I know my dad's doing okay.

Thanks to everyone who said prayers or thought happy thoughts for my dad today. They worked! :)

Whew.

Tests and papers

I realize I post a lot about school here...but it's a major new force in my life, so that's why.

This weekend I had my third class, at which I had to hand in a paper, give a presentation based on the paper, and take a midterm. I think the paper and the presentation were okay. I studied like a maniac for the test (or at least, I tried to remember how to study) and it seemed to go okay, too. However, I did have kind of a breakdown Friday night that involved wailing, "There isn't room in my head for all this information! There's nowhere for it to go! I can't do this! I'll forget it all and I'll fail! I should just quit now!"

Brock handled all this extremely well. He told me I should go to bed and get some sleep, then get up early and study. He turned out to be quite right about this, as the early morning studying was way more effective than the late night studying, and all that info was perched at the front of my brain come test time - perfectly poised to spill out onto my test paper and away from my memory. I'm waiting to see how I did, but I don't think it was awful so I was fairly pleased. Considering I had to absorb seven book chapters and about 10 hours of lectures in just two weeks and then take a test, I didn't think I could have done any more to prepare, anyway.

I have to say, though, that I really have to learn APA style. We didn't have to use it for this paper, but we do have to use it for another paper. I used MLA as an undergrad and now at work I use a weird hybrid of AP style, corporate style and "Jessie style," as appropriate. So when I sat down to write my paper for school I was questioning all kinds of things...like do you put one space after a period or two? Do you indent your paragraphs or just put an extra return in between them? How do bold and italics (two of my favorite writing tools) work on a college paper? It just amazes me how much my writing style has changed in the past seven years.

On another note, for those of you who read this but whom I don't get to talk to very often, my dad is having surgery for an aortic aneurysm on Thursday this week. I will be down for that so I can hang out at the hospital with my mom and my sister, and then I have to drive home and be ready to catch a plane for a business trip early on Friday morning. So that's going to be kind of crazy. We're all just hoping surgery goes smoothly and Dad doesn't get too cranky without food or coffee in the morning. This is a real danger that I don't think the medical team fully understands. He seems like a really sweet, easygoing guy until you take away his caffeine, and then bad things start to happen...so please think happy thoughts for my dad on Thursday that all will go well.

It's like riding a bicycle...sort of

Tonight, I kind of remembered how to "do" school. It was a major breakthrough, because I'd been having serious anxiety and stress over it. I mean, I have a paper and a presentation due plus a midterm exam this Saturday, and it'll only be my third class! That's because I'm taking this accelerated course (7 weeks instead of 14). In essence, I've had about 5 weeks of lectures in just two. The great thing about this is, in 5 more weeks, my class will be over and I'll start a new one. The bad thing is, there's really no time - particularly if you've been out of academia for awhile - to remember how to do stuff like papers and midterms (presentations, on the other hand, are no problem, since I have to do them a lot for work).

I still don't feel like I have a very good system in place for getting everything done. In undergrad, I went to class, went to work, came home, studied/did homework, and then did it all again the next day. That was kind of it. I mean, sure, I had fun on the weekends, but that was different. Now, I get up early, get myself and the kid ready to go, drop her at daycare, go to work, pick her up, make/have dinner, hang out with the family, put her to bed, then try to do my reading or studying...which so does not work, because after all that I'm tired, and I end up falling asleep on the couch with random highlighter marks all over my book where I dozed off and scribbled.

But tonight...I started getting back in the swing of things. I worked on my paper, with helpful feedback and perspective from my fabulous husband (the topic is one that's close to his gamer heart, having to do with brand positioning of console game systems), and actually started feeling like I remembered how to do school work. At least a little bit. We'll see when the grades come in, I guess...but I feel, for the first time, like I might have some teensy semblance of control over this thing.

It's a wonder anybody ever goes back to school when they have families and jobs. This must be sort of like pregnancy and childbirth - in the throes of it, you're like, "Why on earth did I think this was a good idea?!" But after it's over, you go, "Oh, that's why."

Of course, if I were getting my degree in nine months instead of, say, four years, that would be nice.

Cheating cheaters who cheat

I should really be getting ready for work right now, but I just had to find a minute to say something about the New England Patriots.

It's no secret to those who know me: I am a passionate Patriot anti-fan. This is partially due to the fact that I am, and have been since about the age of 5 or 6, an even more passionate Indianapolis Colts fan. The two teams were division rivals for years and the Patriots regularly beat the Colts, and so I hate them (not as people, but as a football team). One of the best moments in my life was watching the Colts pull out a come-from-behind victory over the Patriots in last year's playoffs. I also enthusiastically enjoy watching the Patriots lose to just about anyone else.

So the fact that the Patriots illegally used sideline video last week against the Jets, and maybe previously against other teams, is both somewhat vindicating and really pathetic. I mean, I may hate the Patriots, but they're good - so why even bother? They don't need to cheat. But they did, and they are officially Cheating Cheaters Who Cheat, and I hope everyone knows this and stops talking about what a revolutionary head coach Bill Belichick is. He's acted kind of like a jerk through this whole thing and he deserved his big fine ($500,000). The team deserved their fine, too ($250,000) and I'm happy they're also losing a draft pick or picks. They acted like idiots and they cheated, and I don't care if they never used the video inappropriately (as they say) - they shouldn't have done it. So there. There' s just no excuse, and they all should have known better.

As a side note, I really wish everyone would stop fawning over Tom Brady. He's good. But really, give it a rest. He's not a god.

Britney...

It's just so, so sad...

My first day of school

I survived my first day of school! Actually, it was very good - quite interesting, and I already feel like I learned something, which is an improvement over many first-day classes I had as an undergrad. It was sort of odd actually sitting in a class and talking about things that were immediately relevant to my career; it felt more like a professional development seminar than a college class. I mean, I have a liberal arts degree, and I do think that's valuable in many ways, but honestly - I took a lot of weird electives that aren't really that pertinent at this point in my life. I actually took a few classes that were so irrelevant, I kind of don't remember them that well. (I just now remembered I took some kind of basic sociology class...and I know I got an A in it and I vaguely remember talking about Karl Marx.) So my point is that it was refreshing to be learning things I know I will actually use other than in a game of Trivial Pursuit.

I was very nervous yesterday about starting school. I've been nervous all week, actually, but I was really nervous yesterday. I was really paranoid about oversleeping and being late, with the result that I hardly slept. At one point, I was so sure my clock was broken - stuck at 4:45 AM - that I actually got out of bed and looked at my watch AND my cell phone. They all said 4:45, so the problem was just that I couldn't sleep. I finally gave up and got out of bed at 6:40.

In a way, it was a very funny echo of the other first days of school from my past...I wore my favorite t-shirt, and I carefully packed all my school supplies in my new bag, and I was happy about having new pens. The big difference is that I'm much more willing to talk to new people now than I ever was during old school days, so I actually got to know a few of the people from my class a bit.

I think this is going to be a really good thing. A lot of work, but good. I'm feeling much better now that day one is over. I have a paper due in two weeks and four more chapters of the book to read, but I'm taking tonight off!

Killer popcorn

I get that the story about the guy who got "popcorn workers' lung" after eating two bags of microwave popcorn a day for 10 years is compelling. (Here's the story if you haven't read it.) But I think the media is getting a little wiggy about it. I just saw a teaser for it on our local news, and I imagine a lot of other people are seeing it on their local news broadcasts, too. Really...there's nothing better to talk about? I appreciate that it's interesting, but why can't they just position it that way, rather than, "Popcorn lovers beware...a killer lurks in your crunchy snack"?

I think if you eat two bags of popcorn a day for 10 years, you're in trouble, even if you don't get popcorn workers' lung. The article says this guy lost 50 pounds (and can breathe better) after cutting microwave popcorn out of his diet. Hmmm...so maybe they should do stories about how eating that much popcorn isn't good for you, anyway, rather than focusing on some crazy thing that you're unlikely to get unless you do, in fact, work in a popcorn factory.

Although I suppose they should figure out how to remove whatever it is that's bad for you to inhale...just on principle, inhaling the aroma of your food should not be a health hazard. Besides, why didn't anyone care about popcorn workers' lung when only the popcorn workers were getting it?

I'm glad we just bought a spiffy new popcorn popper. We don't add any diacetyl to our popcorn when we make it, so I guess we're probably safe - for now, anyway...

T minus 3 days

Three days till I start school. I bought a really fabulous new messenger bag (chocolate brown with aqua hibiscus flowers), a new lunch bag (because my class is more than 5 hours long and I will starve and get cranky without snacks), new pens, new highlighters, a new binder, a new folder and a new notebook. I will say this: shopping for school supplies is just as fun as it was the last time I had to do it, ca. 2000. I also am just as picky now as I was then. I spent several minutes searching for the perfect pens. But I'm officially excited about starting school now that I have fun new gear.

My first time management conflict: I am supposed to read the first three chapters of the textbook prior to Saturday's class. I haven't done it yet. I thought I would do it tomorrow, but the Colts season opener is tomorrow night. I'm looking at this as an opportunity to recall a process I perfected at Purdue: reading while watching TV. You do what you have to do.

I am particularly interested in tomorrow's Colts game because I have Marvin Harrison on my fantasy football team. My dad has Peyton Manning, and we're playing each other this week. Last year, by some magic, I had Peyton AND Marvin on my team, and I won the league (some would say under dubious circumstances, but I say this: not everyone can be a champion, and I understand that it's hard when it's not you). My team needs some work this year, but we have a good foundation.

I suppose school is going to affect my fantasy football management. And my Guitar Hero II habit. Because really, I do have enough time to get schoolwork done...it's just that there's more fun stuff to do.

You rock, Barack

I have a crush on Barack Obama. Don't worry, Brock knows this, and I think he's okay with it. Right now I'm watching The Daily Show from last Wednesday (hey, I know it's a little late, but that's what DVRs are for), on which Barack Obama showed once again why I have a crush on him. He's smart, he's funny, and he's darned cute. I haven't yet decided if I think he'd be a good president, but he's a lot more appealing than a whole lot of the other goofs who think they're running (you know, the ones who get to be in 47 debates now, and by next November no one will remember who they are, if anyone ever knew who they were in the first place). In the interest of full disclosure, I will say that I have voted for Barack Obama before, so obviously I think the guy has some good things to say. The thing that scares me is that, in a country that could elect our current president twice, I have little faith (although a lot of hope) that somebody like Barack Obama can cut through the clutter and make people pay attention...and believe that the mess(es) we're in can get fixed.

By the way, I can't take credit for the title of this post. Some people in The Daily Show's audience yelled it when Barack took the stage, but it pretty much sums it all up. Rock on, Barack. Rock on.

Ack.

I decided to start graduate school this fall. The more accurate way to put that is that I thought I might want to go to grad school, and then my family thought it was a great idea and got really enthusiastic about it, and that kind of rubbed off on me, so now I'm going. Tonight was orientation at the university and it pretty much freaked me out. I'm simultaneously excited and terrified - remembering why I've always liked school but also totally afraid that with work, husband, kid, family, friends and my need for an inordinate amount of sleep, I may not be able to hack it.

I'll figure it out. I'll do okay. (I say this not to convince you, but to convince myself.) But it's been quite awhile since I had to worry about a syllabus or reading chapters and chapters and chapters of dry textbooks at a time. Of course, I was one of the weirdos in college who actually did ALL of the reading for every class, without fail, and then made color-coded notes. But school was pretty much my only major or difficult responsibility then, and things are different now. So I'm kind of freaking out.

In a related note, university libraries have come a long way since I graduated from Purdue in 2000. Then and there, you could only look up library materials using a computer IN a library, and then the book/journal/whatever that you wanted may not actually even be in the library you were in, but rather in any of the dozen or so other libraries on campus. Thus, you could spend entire weekend days running around campus, trying to get all the resources you wanted for a paper. Oh yeah, and then you had to pay four cents a page (using your Copy Card) to photocopy journal articles. Now apparently you just go to the library website, look up what you want, put in your student ID number and get online access to journal articles. If they don't have the book you want, but another library does, they'll just get it for you and tell you when it's in. Do you know how much of my life I wasted going in and out of campus libraries? I felt old when I learned about the library at orientation this evening. ("Back in my day, we had to actually walk across campus to the library and then PAY to photocopy pages!")

I'm still freaking out. I'll be okay.

"Oh sh*t!"...my storm story

Yesterday there was a gigunga storm at my office. A "major weather event," as it were. Two important things to note here:
1. I have a long-held, inconsolable fear of tornadoes.
2. I am not all that great in personal crisis situations. (I actually do okay with other people's crises...but the ones involving me are another story.)

What we had wasn't actually a tornado, but it was bad. Somebody said it was a "microburst." If you don't know what a microburst is, Wikipedia has some good, albeit very science-y, information. I was on the phone with my husband when the storm hit, and I inadvertently threw the phone when the electricity went out (this is right after someone screamed, "Run for the stairwell!" and right before my panic attack officially began). Apparently, although I thought the phone was dead, it wasn't...Brock got hold of me on my cell phone and informed me he was still listening to the storm through my dangling land line. (I also threw a piece of cake I'd just been eating because it was someone's last day at work...and found out later I had actually hit the trash can.)

So I spent the storm huddled in a stairwell with my work buddies, freaking out. On the other side of the stairwell wall, outside the building, was what you see in the photo above. Ack. There was a lot of damage in the surrounding area, and it was terrifying. We were just right in the middle of this very localized, straight path of destruction.

It's actually a really long story, but since it's a day later and I'm much calmer about the whole thing, here are simply some highlights and general observations:
1. I'm fine, and my family is fine, and all my friends are fine, and everyone I work with is fine.
2. I know at least two people whose cars were completely totaled by giant trees that used to be in the ground...and aren't anymore.
3. I never heard a weather siren, which kind of makes me mad.
4. I picked the wrong day to wear a skirt and sandals.
5. I actually saw a funnel cloud when a second wave of storms hit. It was way up in the sky and far away, but it was there. And I'm not the only one who saw it, so I know I didn't have a panic-induced hallucination.
6. My friends Jen and Doug, and our daycare provider, are all awesome people who came through in an emergency. The first two got me home safely while my car was being held hostage by a downed power line (car is fine, power line is not) and the last one made it so I didn't have to worry about my daughter at all during the whole thing.
7. I hope I'm never in a real tornado, because this not-really-a-tornado was enough to freak me out for maybe forever.
8. I saw wind literally blow in every possible direction at once. Big trees in the same parking lot fell in several different directions. It looked like a movie.
9. I will never, ever understand people who go outside when it's storming like that. THAT'S WHERE THE STORM IS, PEOPLE! STAY INSIDE LIKE YOUR MOTHER TOLD YOU! And for goodness' sake, don't go out there with your umbrella up, unless you want all your friends to start calling you "Rod," as in, "Lighting Rod."
10. I'm really glad it's all over.

Here's what's wrong with the Egg McMuffin

Are you listening, McDonald's?

I love Egg McMuffins. I specifically love the Sausage McMuffin with Egg, although I've never understood why they don't call it the Sausage and Egg McMuffin. It's a lot easier to say. But anyway...I hit the drive through this morning for a McMuffin because I didn't have time for breakfast at home, and it sounded good. (I could have bought breakfast at work, but that's complicated because then I'd have to remember to take my dirty dishes back to the cafeteria.) I know I shouldn't eat McMuffins, and I really, really try not to do it very often, but sometimes, a girl's just gotta have a McMuffin.

So here's what's wrong with them: it's the cheese. It's totally in the wrong place. I like cheese on my sandwich, breakfast or otherwise, to either be right under the top bun, or right on top of the meat, if there is meat in the sandwich. (Example: bun, pickles, CHEESE, hamburger, bun OR bun, CHEESE, turkey, bun.) A Sausage McMuffin with Egg goes like this: muffin, egg, sausage, cheese, muffin (or vice versa, but that's also totally wrong because everyone knows egg on the bottom in this situation is just weird). I think McDonald's has two options if they want to make this right: muffin, cheese, egg, sausage, muffin OR muffin, egg, cheese, sausage, muffin. I would prefer the latter - wouldn't the melty cheese just do the trick to hold the egg and sausage together? - but either would be better than the current configuration, in which the egg and sausage don't stick together and the sandwich layers slip, and then the buns don't match up anymore, and then it's really frustrating, especially when you're trying to eat it in the car.

So that's what I think about McMuffins. And you know how yesterday I said I'd try to post things that were remotely interesting to other people? Clearly I didn't mean that, or I wouldn't have just spent hundreds of words on a very fattening, terrible for you, yet utterly delicious breakfast sandwich.

I am not a psychic eggplant

I always said that Psychic Eggplant would be a great name for a punk band. Since I have finally come to terms with the fact that I will never have a punk band named Psychic Eggplant (except on Guitar Hero II), I decided to use the name for my blog instead.

I probably won't post consistently, or maybe even often. I will try to post things that are at least remotely interesting to other people. But the bottom line is that with a kid, a husband, two cats, a job, a house and however many other responsibilities, I just wanted somewhere to talk about whatever I feel like talking about.

Here's what I think is awesome about blogs: they completely encourage the narcissistic tendency to talk about yourself as much as you want. Real life is not like that. Awesome.