My kind of Razz Matazz

I'm back from my whirl-Windy City trip and sitting in my apartment in the Deuce. I'm here just for the day and without schoolwork or Josh to distract me (the latter in a good way!), the plan is to do some major spring cleaning today. The study notes from my last final are all still sitting on my dining room table and the Easter baskets from Josh's parents are still unpacked and strewing clumps of green plastic grass everywhere. Tomorrow morning I'm catching an early flight to Boston and will have lunch in the city with my friend Tony before heading over to Worcester for my sister's big 25th birthday bash. The theme for the party (of course there's a theme--she's a Palit!) is "Rubik's Cube" and each guest must come wearing solid-colored-but-mismatched articles of clothing. Whomever can swap and collect the most clothing of one color by the end of the night wins a prize. Certainly a fun idea even though I'm not sure how I feel about swapping clothes with complete strangers in my case. We'll see ;)

At any rate, my mini trip to Chicago was great. We shopped, visited a few classics like The Field Museum and Shedd Aquarium, and dropped by a few places new to us like Navy Pier and The Cheesecake Factory. We just missed the Pompeii and King Tut exhibits at Field by a month but "Evolving Planet" was pretty sweet and Josh and I got embarassingly excited at the immense Cambrian fossil collection (Solomon, my nightmare became a reality in many of those exhibits!). We saw a huge Komodo dragon at Shedd and although Komodo's are the only existing natural predators of humans (meaning they intentionally hunt humans), it didn't seem too terrifying with its stubby legs and lazily sunning itself on a rock. Hmph. That's not to say I'd ever want to come face-to-face with one in the wild, though...*shudder*

Below are a few aquarium, museum, and skyline pics. Also included are pictures from our night out after our last final, first to Goodnight Gracie's for a date auction to benefit breast cancer research and then on to Delt Sig and Skeeps. Three cheers for winter semester being behind us! Expect some great pics when I get back from Boston and although a day early,

Happy Birthday, Tanya!

xoxox

Me and the blonde Beverleys!

A group pic at Goodnight Gracie's

One town that won't let you down, it's my kind of town.

The view of Lake Michigan and Navy Pier from our hotel

Josh and Sue the T-Rex, the most complete T-Rex skeleton ever discovered. Her skull alone weighs 600 pounds and her tail has over 40 vertebrae -- humans have 33 in their entire spinal column.

Here's my size 6 foot inside the footprint of an alasaurus (or something like that). It must've been pretty hard for dinosaurs with feet like this to sneak away from crime scenes back in the day, ya know?

Contrary to popular belief, chameleons do not change color to camoflague with their environment but rather in response to hormonal/chemical changes in their bodies. If a cute potential mate is nearby, the chameleon might turn bright colors to attract them or if a female is pregnant she will turn black and orange.

Penguins are my absolute favorite animals and this guy got to get in the penguin cage and play with my fave birds as I watched helplessly through 3 inches of glass. I guess "playing" isn't as accurate as "hosing down penguin poo from the habitat" but he still got to hold them and let them chew on his gloves. Poo hosing or no, this is definitely my dream job.

Catch me if you can!

Hello loyal readers! I'm presently blogging from Grand Rapids, Michigan 3 days into my glorious break from school. I'm short on time as I'm leaving for Chicago in less than two hours (and I've neither showered nor packed...yikes!). Josh and I will be spending two days in the Windy City shopping, museum-hopping, and hopefully catching up with our buddies Carrie and Libby who lead glamorous lives in the city. After this mini-trip I'll be back in Ace Deuce for a day scrubbing my apartment on hands and knees and will leave for Boston on Friday, my sister's 25th birthday.

As always, my trusty little camera will be in tow. Behave yourselves and I'll be back in blogging-action soon (assuming I'm not killed or fatally injured by one of the new Komodo dragons at Shedd Aquarium!).

Ciao for now!

xoxox

Exchange of the day

Me: I'm just really into the Constitution.
Shveta: Eh, I don't think I remember what's on the Constitution. But I hate history, anyway.
Me: History?! The Constitution's, like, every day life!

I've posted a few pictures below in lieu of writing a thousand words. Of course, I still have a select few:

- I've been feeling quite sick the past few days and am hoping that a little sleep and lots of fluid will heal me quickly. It's funny how I'm not too concerned about getting 100% better for the 2 remaining finals I have this week but rather for the mega-celebration planned for Thursday evening ;)

- Thanks to my vicarious friend Katie Z and her personal Friday Fiver comment-post last Friday. I'd love to hear your responses to the F.F. so send them to me as a comment!

- Yesterday my good friend Stephanie turned 25. I called to wish her a happy birthday but she had taken her motorcycle out for a spin. Lesson learned: don't assume that all government or public policy people are squares; that woman is one bad mama jama.

Happy Birthday, Steph!

xoxox

Josh sent me an article courtesy of BBC News which detailed the events of the first ever Piglet Olympics recently in Munich. As I've mentioned before, the animals are incredibly adept at learning new skills and even playing structured games. Although arguably exploitative, I just couldn't get over these pictures of the Pig-Lympics. At least football wasn't an official Pig-Lympic sport, if you catch my drift...

Piglet in a swim cap? Now that's just criminally cute.

I spent most of Saturday enjoying the beautiful weather by strolling around the Farmer's Market and Main Street stores. Peaceable Kingdom, one of my favorite Main Street stores, has a collection of hand enameled pins that are tiny and incredibly detailed renditions of bones, the eye, various organs, etc. by an artist in Juneau, Alaska. Health professionals must get a kick out of beautiful, miniature glass pins of kidneys and the like. Needless to say, I was thrilled to find a tooth pin that was not only affordable but anatomically accurate in terms of the different tissue layers and compositions of the surrounding bone, gingiva, and tooth itself. The pin has found a permanent home next to the "Veggies are Dope" pin on my oft-worn jean jacket which I plan on rocking all summer long.

Finally, me, Laura, and Shveta at the Brown Jug Friday night after a long week of two practicals, two finals, and a quiz.

TGIF!

And now for my favorite, weekly, self-indulgent post (because keeping a weblog all about me isn't enough)...The Friday Fiver!:

1. Have you ever ridden a camel?
No, but when I do I'd like to ride the kind that have two humps so that I could fit comfortably in between. Wait a minute...do those even really exist? (okay, just Googled it and they do. Hooray!)

2. When you are outside, what does the horizon look like?
Michigan has to have the flattest terrain in the world. The horizon here is your standard flat-sky-meeting-flat-grass deal.

3. Who is the last person to leave you a message?
My sister left me a message telling me the wonderful news that she received department funding to do her M.A. research in Calcutta this summer (congrats, T!) and my mom left a heartfelt apology message from the airport for forgetting to send me Easter candy this year. Not that we celebrate Easter really, she just likes to spoil me (and my teeth) rotten.

4. How many hours did you sleep last night?
A whopping 7 hours (see previous post regarding no IMS this week)! I feel ready to rock!

5. Chocolate: take it or leave it?
Shaaaa, hello?! Take it and run like a bat out of hell.

xoxox

"Sonya, come for a ride!"

Monday update = mupdate?

1.) 1 major exam down after this morning. If you're currently taking, have ever taken, are considering taking, or are just plain ol' interested in drugs to treat chronic heart failure, angina, or hypertension, I am now a wealth of information. I guarantee that if we talk anytime soon, I'll ask about your heart health or cholesterol and diagnose you with something or other. Lub dub.

2.) Josh's car repair estimate = $1500. I have half a mind to march downstairs and give our suspected reckless driver a piece of my mind. Who causes $1500 dollars' worth of damage in a tiny parking lot? Honestly.

3.) Two great nerdy t-shirts I've been meaning to post about. The first I spotted in the gym and the second biology-lovin' Emily owns and commented on:

- painting of Shakespeare in sun glasses; underneath: "Rebel with applause"

- "Gregor Mendel. Giving peas a chance since 1856."

4.) Two conclusions from seeing my parents yesterday: they're the best M and D in the world and I'm a spoiled brat. My mom made a huge tupperware container of chow mein and numerous Indian dishes to help me out with cooking during finals weeks. My Dad picked up the pair of shoes that I had held in my name at a mall in Auburn Hills just because I couldn't find them here and I really liked them. And they bought me chocolate. And they kept refilling my Diet Coke and chocolate cake plate at the luncheon we went to. I'm well taken care of :)

5.) I had coffee with my dear college friends Carrie and Libby yesterday morning for not-long-enough. They were visiting from Chitown to do the Relay for Life (or more accurately, walk a lap then sit and eat a hot dog, as they said). It's always good to see them and they made me laugh. Hopefully I can make trips out to Lansing, Chicago, NY, and more soon.

6.) I need some rollerblading partners for the spring and summer. Josh, for being the athlete that he is, is surprisingly bad at "any contraption on [his] feet," as he puts it. I know the Beverley's are up for it. Any other takers?

Enjoy the beautiful day. Only 10 more days til a vacation! :)

xoxox

"the government had a warrant to seize their grills"

Wow. It's hilarious to see the word "grillz" on cnn.com.

The Friday Fiver is back!

It's been a while but I like doing the Friday Fiver when I remember to:

1. What's the weather like?
Rainy today but warming up in general. Spring has sprung! (though the pessimist in me remembers that we had a snow storm on my sister's birthday--April 28--two years ago)

2. When is the last time you felt appreciated?
Assisting my friend Evan in the clinic on Tuesday. He passed his boards and will officially be Dr. Evan in 2 weeks. He said that I'm the best assistant he's ever had and that he'll miss me a lot. I feel the same way! (about missing him, not about being the best!)

3. What is the last bad news you heard?
That someone hit Josh's parked car in our apartment building's parking lot, seriously scratching and denting the front driver's side and knocking the headlight out onto the ground where it was left without a note. We're not 100% sure but we have a strong suspicion of who did it. Unfortunately, there isn't much he can do.

4. What is your favorite sad song?
The Best Deceptions by Dashboard Confessional

5. Tell us about something you're obsessed with:
Chex Mix. I don't care when, where, or whether it's Bold or Traditional flavor, I just want to eat Chex Mix all day and all night long!

xoxox

Diet debauchery and 26 hours of freedom

It's Friday night and I have a choice between two nerdy activities for the evening: studying the cardiovascular system or watching my space documentary. In reality, I don't have a choice but to go with the former despite my burning desire to watch the latter--we have a rather large and important cardio exam on Monday and I've got a lot of work to do. The good--scratch that, GREAT--news is that due to a scheduling snafu and kind of unreasonable expectations, we are unable to fit the final physiology module for my science class into the last week of the semester. The entire respiratory system (1 exam, 1 final) has been moved to the fall semester which means...wait for it...26 hours of lecture is cancelled next week! Yaaaaaaay! Ah-hem, I mean, I am very excited to have free time during which I plan on studying for my other finals.

In other news, I have been devouring everything in sight since I got back from spring break. That stale joke about being on a "seefood" diet is basically my life right now (I guess that joke doesn't really work when it's typed because its premise is homophones). I guess that's not wholly true; I'm actually a very healthy eater and considering I'm vegetarian and somewhat lactose-intolerant, my junk food options are pretty limited. I guess I'm just surprised to find myself going back to the Star Crunch box and greasy Thai take-out leftovers more often than that fruit bowl. Hopefully the forthcoming warm weather will get me back into a fruit frenzy; a banana split counts, right? ;)

Finally, I think I'm finally falling in love...with dentistry (what were you expecting, people?). I know this is inexcusably cheesy but I'm really starting to enjoy the clinical aspect of dentistry, the real hands-on work I'll be doing the rest of my life and that is completely obscured the first year of dental school. Don't get me wrong; I love science and having a strong background in it will only better help me treat patients systemically, not simply as a set of teeth. But the closer I get to my D2 year (yikes!) and as we begin to move into demanding lab work, the more interesting and relaxing the actual dentistry is becoming. I think this is the start of a wonderful relationship :)

Well, time to get cracking. I wrote in the last post that I would sorely regret not kicking it in high gear all week by Saturday. Um, let's just say that I hope I get a lot done tonight!

xoxox

-- calm before the storm --

I don't have anything important or even interesting to write right now. I'm just feeling kind of blue for some reason and thought blogging might help. This week is basically the calm before the finals storm. It should be one of those weeks where you could easily get away with not doing much at all but would regret it severely by Saturday. Hmmm...maybe I should start busting some tail now that I'm thinking about it.

I went to see the Michigan Pops spring concert last night as a little study break. I've gone to almost every Pops concert in the past 5 years because my buddy Carrie was a cellist for the group while she was in college. They celebrated their 10 year anniversary this spring and played some of their favorite pieces from the past decade, many of which I watched Carrie perform originally. I miss that zany girl. At any rate, every time I go to a symphonic concert I'm reminded of my own 7 years' worth of training on the violin and yearn to be an orch dork again. I'm giving some thought to trying to pick it up again after dental school. That and becoming fully fluent in Spanish. *sigh* Hopefully this old dog can learn some new tricks.

I'm going to try to hit the hay at a reasonable time tonight. Last night I tried to go to bed before 1:30 but I had to grab a snack and The History Channel happened to be doing a special on the filming of the 4 Harry Potter films. Needless to say, I started the week off with a sleep defecit. I definitely nodded off in IMS lecture at least three times today but who can blame me? We talked about alpha-adrenergic receptor blockers for 4 hours today. Ugh. Pharmacology is bo-ring.

xoxox

And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson...

Thank God for Netflix. I can't even express how much I love this service. Last night, after a tough Friday and years of vowing to pick it up the "next time we rent a movie," Josh and I finally watched The Graduate courtesy of Netflix. It was brilliant and hilarious and poignant. I'm so glad that we can have both new releases and iconic American classics delivered right to our door. Next up on the list (or "queue" as Netflix call it): Brokeback Mountain, Capote, and a documentary entitled For All Mankind about the race to get to the moon and the Apollo 11 mission (I'll just say it for you: nerd alert!).

At any rate, not much else is new. Tonight Kristin is hosting a D1 girls' night at her place while Sean hosts a D1 guys' night at his place to watch the Final Four games. It seems kind of funny to have a gender-segregated Saturday night and we're half-expecting Kristin's house to either get prank called or toilet papered. I'm taking homemade bruschetta to Kristin's and whipped up a batch of brownies for Josh to present to the sports fans. I figured that at an all-guy party there would probably be 30 bags of chips and not much else--I hope a dessert will be well-appreciated. It should be a good time and I'm looking forward to a night of relaxin' with my wonderful classmates.

Speaking of Mrs. Robinson, I got my hair cut this morning. I was casually chatting with my stylist (we were commisurating about how icy Ann Arbor roads get in the winter) when she mentioned that this past winter was her first time commuting to work as she had just graduated high school. Whoa, rewind sista. High school? I panicked initially, thinking: "I'm letting an 18 year old cut my hair?!" but then I realized that my patients will probably be thinking: "I'm letting a 24 year old fill my cavity?!" She did a nice job and I laughed to myself after I realized that it was less alarming that a teenager was cutting my hair than the fact that I'm almost 6 years older than her. Yikes! When did I get this close to my mid-20's? I have knee problems and am lactose intolerant; should I just start shopping for holiday-themed sweaters and turtlenecks now? Is that a gray hair I see?

*sigh* I guess I've still got plenty of time left to be young and carefree. I'll just keep telling myself that as I'm working on my sewing projects this summer and shopping at the Farmer's Market ;)

xoxox