I'm back in Ann Arbor after a semi-gluttonous holiday weekend in G-Rap. Hey, I'm definitely not complaining. My mom is a Food Network junkie and far be it from me to discourage her experimentation with gourmet cuisine. She made phenomenal stuffed mushrooms, a black bean soup, a grilled veggie platter, dainty tea sandwiches, and strawberry bruschetta with powered sugar and chocolate shreddings on top. Mmmm. My food-centered weekend also consisted of lots of homemade cookies, a Cadbury's bar, a few cocktails, and Steak 'N Shake french fries. Oy. I have to seriously detox this week...and run a few miles.

All in all, my extended weekend was nice. It was sunnier than it has been in a long time despite weather reports of rain all weekend. I sunned myself on the deck a little, ran errands with my parents, lounged with my pupster, and hit the bar with some EK friends. I'm now having Monday-off-induced day dreams about bumming around once I'm done with work. My at-work partner in crime Brad is on vacation for the next two weeks (two weeks?!) so I'm stuck here wallowing in misery for a while. Only 8 more weeks to go. Yahoo!

Also, I'm feeling pretty drained lately. Pardon the ambiguity but the last few weeks or so have been incredibly emotionally draining for me. I know that I'm of no help to anyone if I'm burnt out and emotionally exhausted so I'm trying to recharge this week. I'll definitely get around to that mud mask and Josh and I are trying to plan a mini trip to Chicago in the next few weeks just to get away (and to go to Ikea!). I could use the break...and some cute new kitchen knickknacks :)

The plan now is to play tennis this evening and then hunker down for the Pistons game. Lets not even get into that.

Hasta la vista for now.

xoxox

AJ's last night out in Ann Arbor for the summer was Wednesday of last week. We decided over drinks earlier in the week that we needed a "theme night" at the bar that night purely for our own amusement. After racking our brains for an easy but catchy theme (we threw out all of the decades because they're over done and "everybody wear all green" because it's too St. Patty's Day-ish), I had a Eureka! moment and thought it would be hilarious to dress up like the visible spectrum of colors, i.e. the rainbow. The idea seemed hilarious at the time, maybe because we'd had a few drinks already, but I never could have expected it to turn out so well (see pics below). We decided to blend I and V (indigo and violet) to just purple for AJ and even though Sara dropped by unexpectedly, her brown couldn't have fit in better! It didn't come off completely without a hitch, however; we gave Sheila vague instructions in a voicemail to wear blue when she came to Ann Arbor on Wednesday and because she didn't know for what, she showed up wearing a baby baby blue shirt ("more grayish-white than blue" according to AJ). Fortunately I had my trusty denim coat and multi-hued chaos ensued. We're never going out without a theme again!

ROYGIVB!

Orange you glad I'm yours, Wanton?

Sheila and I (or blue and green, respectively)

Oh weekend, you sly coquet! I think about nothing besides you all week and then all of a sudden it's Sunday night again and I must wait another five days for your company! *sigh* Actually, this weekend has been quite restful and action-packed for me and I definitely enjoyed the sunshine yesterday. Josh and I did quite a few interesting things including but not limited to playing tennis, looking around the Ann Arbor Book Festival, going to the outlet mall, eating street vendor hot/veggie dogs, and reading out in the sun on the Diag. We also did some serious garage sale-ing on Saturday much to the dismay of my mother (..."just don't buy any stuffed animals, Soniya...they carry disease"). Although we weren't looking for anything in particular and we are quite inexperienced garage salers (read: no bargaining skills whatsoever) we had a good time and came away with a couple of fun purchases. I made a great bruschetta for dinner last night and Josh impressed me by making teriyaki-marinated grilled asparagus (with very little help from me!). All in all, it's been quite a relaxing one and I'm really looking forward to having an extra day off next weekend. I think I'll read a little before bed and shoot for some sound sleep tonight. Here's looking forward to a good week and a holiday weekend :)

xoxox

It's here! It's finally Friday and I could not be more thrilled. It's a gorgeous day outside and is supposed to be even nicer tomorrow. Guess who'll be at the driving range bright and early tomorrow morning? I can't wait.

Things have been quite slow today at work since the timing of my experiments has been off this week. I'm not complaining though--I've taken care of some housekeeping issues and am happy to coast on in to the weekend. I've stayed late 6 of the past 7 Fridays...oy. The plan for this afternoon is to go play some tennis after work and definitely do my anti-stress mud mask sometime tonight. Besides that, the next two days are a blank page. Yahoo!

I simply can't believe next week is the last week of May. I've felt so time-disoriented since I graduated a year ago that I keep thinking it's March (the weather sure has felt like March!). I also cannot believe that my sister has been living abroad for 8 full months now. I didn't think I'd make it through her stay abroad with my sanity intact but she'll be back in the States in just a few short months. Luckily, I can keep up to speed with her via her weblog. I laugh to tears almost daily reading it. I'm hoping we can both blog about some European shenanigans this summer ;)

Well, there's not much more to say. This post is pretty lame but I can't be a comedic genius all of the time. Catch ya on the flip side :)

xoxox

I've figured out what it is--well, one of the many reasons actually--that keeps me unfailingly patronizing Starbucks as opposed to non-corporate monoliths: consistency. It is without a doubt that I can be sipping on the same quality tall vanilla nonfat latte at any Starbucks between here and Timbuktu (and I'm sure there is a Starbucks in Timbuktu) with the same amounts of flavoring, sugar and espresso and all at the same temperature. Sure, that's really terrifying if you look at it from a corporate globalization point-of-view but I was strikingly disappointed with my chai from Amer's this afternoon. Amer's hands down has better chai than Starbucks, it's just that I know I'm playing a caffeinated version of Russian roulette depending on who happens to be making my drink any given day when I hop over to the famous Ann Arbor joint. Some days it knocks my socks off (did I just write that?) and other days I get a cup full of frothy milk. Although I'd like nothing more than to support an independent, fair-trade coffee shop every time I need a fix, who wants to pay $2 for warm milk?

xoxox

I had a pleasant weekend with days packed full of activities and a few nights of good rest. I finally had the chance to pick up a couple of things I've been needing for the apartment and for myself (okay...I didn't need a mud mask but I thought it might be nice!), so that's a relief. Little by little, I'm planning on making some nice decorative improvements to the apartment over the next few months--only what my scant budget will allow, of course--but I think it's starting to feel more homey already :)

Josh and I were racking our brains last Friday for something fun, cheap, and different to do this weekend now that our beloved cheap movie theater has bitten the dust (*tear!) and we've fallen into this tired pattern of watching basketball, renting a movie, and grocery shopping on the weekends. I don't need to be seeing Broadway shows every weekend or anything but it helps to refresh me for the week ahead at work if we do something exciting, particularly since the weather has been so crumby lately. We decided to see an IMAX at the Detroit Science Center downtown since we've been meaning to go for years. The Forces of Nature IMAX was pretty cool since it's projected on an IMAX Dome setup, basically like a planetarium, that literally makes you feel as though you're inside the movie (read: motion sickness for me). We were a little queasy after descending thousands of miles into the Earth's crust to watch the birth of a volcanic eruption but enjoyed it nonetheless. We didn't enjoy the rest of the Science Center as much, however; we were both quite disappointed by the noticeable lack of biology and chemistry principles on display. They worked physics to a T, even having sophisticated demonstrations on polarized light and standing waves. Even worse, though, was the featured exhibit entitled Target America: Opening Eyes to the Damage Drugs Cause. Josh, being a biopsychology major, was thrilled to check out this exhibit which we assumed would explain the biochemistry behind the affects of drugs on the body (dopamine mimicry, dependency, etc.). Much to our dismay, the exhibit featured an enormous amount of information on drug trafficking and narco-terrorism but very very little science. It even went so far as to have enormous photographs of Osama bin Laden, the September 11th attacks, and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq next to those of known Escobar affiliates in an attempt to draw loose inferences between the "war on terror" and the "war on drugs." Much of the language of the exhibit was ambiguous and factually nebulous. Needless to say, we were less than surprised to see that the major sponsors of the exhibit were the government and military organizations. Shame on the Detroit Science Center for inviting an "exhibit" of such thinly-veiled propaganda that has very little to do with science. They can be expecting a letter from me in the near future.

I tried to not let that ruin my weekend and felt good last night that I got so much accomplished...including relaxing a little. The cashier at WalMart yesterday even noted that I seemed like I'm "a very organized person" because of the way I had a very comprehensive list of items to buy and the tidiness with which I loaded my purchases onto the conveyer belt. She said I "have it together." Hooray for my mild obsessive-compulsiveness! :)

Have a good Monday.

xoxox

Here are some cute pictures from Solomon's birthday celebration at Dominick's and Charley's (blek!) a few weeks ago. Technical difficulties caused this postponement in their posting. Fortunately, I'm a weblog genius and figured out how to convert formats all on my own. Enjoy!

Sheila and I

Bottoms Up Josh & Hal!

Sheila and the birthday boy Solomon :)

Group shot at Dom's

Quote of the day:

Mom: I got a new recipe.
Me: Oh, for what?
Mom: A pasta. With snail sauce.
Me: Ewwww.
Mom: What? Snails are vegetarian. They only eat greens.

Brilliant. After finally talking to my sister on Sunday about our tentative trip to Europe this summer, my horoscope yesterday read:

The lure of far-off places has gotten to you. It might have been one too many tough days lately, or that phone call from someone you've been missing. Either way, how about giving in and going somewhere?

Even better, this is my horoscope for today:

You've finally made the decision: You're going. You're just not sure where you're going. Give yourself plenty of options. Spend some time on the Internet checking out everywhere you've ever wanted to see.

Yay! :)

xoxox

I haven't had a lot of time to blog lately so here are some notes and a few quotes from the past few days:

1.) My Dad (albeit a few years too late) has recently become fascinated by and obsessed with Google. I admit that it is indeed worthy of all of its praise; however, one can no longer have a casual disagreement with the man without him suggesting a cyber duel. When I didn't believe him that telephone cable was laid on the floors of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in order to achieve transoceanic telecommunications, we Googled it and got this website in .29 seconds (Dad - 1, Sonya - 0). Google was also on hand when Dad didn't believe Mom's claim that Sikkim was indeed an Indian State (it is but previously was independent--a tie). I shudder at the tought of my Dad Googling for statistics on the strength of the U.S. Dollar the next time I ask to borrow 20 clams.

2.) An exchange with Emir, my 8 year-old Bosnian, know-it-all neighbor:

Me: Wow, that's a fancy new bike, Emir.
Emir: Yeah, I know. It cost $140.
Me: $140? I don't even think I have $140!
Emir: *pause* That's a nice boat over there (looking at our neighbor's driveway).
Me: Yeah, that is a nice one.
Emir: That cost $17,000.
Me: Ah, gotcha.

3.) I saw this website in a news article on cnn.com yesterday. It's called "Little Miss Matched" and sells unmatched, zany colored and patterned socks in odd-numbered packages (available in 3 socks, 5 socks, etc.) to encourage girls to be creative, expressive, and distinct in the way they dress. How cute! I'm seriously considering buying a pack of 5 since I always lose an odd number of socks every time I do my laundry!

4.) After talking on the phone with my sister:

Me: I miss Tanya.
Mom: Tell her to come home. Enough research is enough.
Me: Mom, on this Mother's Day I'd like to thank you for always being so supportive of our goals and dreams.

5.) Much to my delight, Josh and I picked up lattes from a drive-thru Starbucks Sunday night in Okemos. I couldn't possibly be happier about this and can only pray that one comes to Ann Arbor. I can't even count how many times we've teamworked our way to a Starbucks fix by running in while the other circles the block. Hooray for an even lazier way to drink overpriced coffee!

That's it for now. Have a great afternoon :)

xoxox

Yikes. I've had a serious case of nacrolepsy these past few days and it ain't pretty. I'm so tired I almost feel asleep on hold making a phone call today and actually did fall asleep in the elevator yesterday...going up 3 floors! I've been slumber slacking this entire week which unapologetically culminated in a 7 am doctor's appointment this morning. Fortunately it's Friday and I can hopefully get some rest this weekend.

The plan tonight is to clean my room, have a relaxing dinner, and probably go see a late showing of Crash with the crew. There's nothing like a controversial film about racism to get the party started on a Friday night! Don't worry, we're planning on having a casual dialogue to exchange thoughts and open up a discourse surrounding these issues after the movie. Ewww, I'm kidding, but it's kind of a testament to my geekiness that you all probably thought I was serious. *sigh*

At any rate, I'm heading back to GR again tomorrow midday to hang with the rents on Mother's Day weekend (just tell me what you want, Mom, and we'll all win in the end). My Mom should be a little less jet-lagged this time and even though I want to hear all about her trip, I'm really looking forward to eating some homecooked food, holla! Ah hem...of course I mean that I'm planning on making my Mother breakfast in bed to show appreciation for all of her love and the sacrifices she made in raising two children. But some enchiladas couldn't hurt either.

That's all for now. I'm practically falling asleep on the keyboard over here despite chugging a huge soy vanilla latte this morning. Atleast in that event you'll know what woe;ijrweoldjfmppppppppppppppppppp means.

xoxox

Here's a fun pic from a night out on the town recently. More to come!

Huge shots at (blek) Charley's

Hi bloggers. I'm back. Let me catch you up to speed:

1.) Three cheers for my Mom being back in the States. My Daddy and I picked her up from the GR airport on Monday afternoon and although exhausted and jet-lagged, she certainly didn't hesitate when we suggested a greasy American pizza lunch buffet on the way home. I'm glad she's back :)

2.) UM graduation was this past Saturday and I celebrated by having dinner with Carrie and Libby and then a few drinks at their house where Stephanie (now with an M.P.P.!) later joined us. I'm thrilled for all of my newly-graduated friends and am hoping that I'll be able to see them frequently where ever their adventures take them. I'm already banking on a trip across the pond sometime soon (wink wink, Carrie!)

3.) In devastating news, the Village 4 second-run movie theater has officially closed for business. I inadvertently discovered this as I was looking up movie times in hopes of catching a cheapie last weekend. Needless to say, I was on the verge of tears. Josh and I spend so much time seeing mediocre movies there, particularly during the summer months, that we don't know what to do with ourselves now. To add insult to injury, Josh insisted on driving past it that evening simply out of disbelief. What he found was a blank marquee outside of the theater and a loose leaf sheet of notebook paper hastily taped to the front door upon which was scrawled: "Village Theatre is out of business closed." Oh the humanity!

4.) I am perpetually feeling exhausted. I'm not sure if I'm not getting enough rest now that I'm working out more or what but I always feel heavy-legged and droopy-eyed. To make matters worse, I am a horrible sleeper. Every night I wake up a few hours into my "sleep" and realize that I've been half awake the whole time. Or I either toss and turn all night, get a sore shoulder from sleeping with my arm under the pillow, have nightmares, or something else. I can't even remember the last time I had a good night's rest. I might have to resort to doing my Yoga for Relaxation video before bed again or something.

5.) Free pizza tonight at Dominick's from 7-10 for grad students. I'm definitely an honorary grad student since all of my friends are and I'll actually be one in four months, right?

I just lost about a quarter of my post and am beginning to slip into my post-lunch food coma. I think I'll end here even though there was a lot more I wanted to write. I'll get back to ya.

xoxox