madeleine

my itty-bitty little niece, 10 months old (almost 11), is soooooooooo cute. she's awesome. she's got wild hair, ginormously chubby cheeks, and tiny toes. she also poops like a maniac. good thing i don't have any diaper duties. she also sticks out her tongue, giggles and chuckles crazily, and goes PBBBBBT on her own. hahahahaha. merry christmas! hope zee holidays are still wondrous.

whoosh

that's the sound time makes.

some days and weeks seemed to linger on forever, but others passed by a bit too swiftly. and now, as i suddenly look up, it's late december, and i've lived and worked in dc/no.va for 6 months already. i know i know, in the whole scheme of things, 6 months is nothing. and all those people older and wiser will most likely grin at my innocence and the so-called significance of -- oooh -- 6 months... but to me, the 6-month mark post-undergrad is worth something.

i guess it's just a different type of adventure. different than if i had stayed in boston, different than all those in nyc, san fran, chicago -- or adrift on explorations in japan and australia and france and wherever else the airplane flies. washington, dc isn't entirely spectacular (maybe that's just coming from a soon-to-be-if-not-already jaded resident of the district area), but in some ways, it's kinda cool. there's a strange intersection of the political, cultural, and academic here that i failed to notice in other cities.. and somehow, it gets all mixed up and churned together, resulting in a swirly mess of craziness. but it's an interesting sort of craziness, one that you can't help but carefully sift through in order to better understand. i think i'm babbling.

anyway, if nothing else, there's one thing in particular that i've discovered and enforced. and it's the fact that people are the key to everything. sometimes, i don't like people, but let's face it, people can't be avoided -- and that's probably a good thing. i would've shot myself at mit if it weren't for the other kiddos there... and my 6 months here most likely would've been miserable if it weren't for the faces and personalities that i've come to know. i dunno, everyone just has these awesome experiences and backgrounds and stories, and there's nothing better than sitting around listening and talking and laughing. it's just so damn cool. throw in a splash of climbing or running or strolling or city-ing or food or alcohol (haha), and it's sometimes even cooler.

i'm not going home to tennessee this christmas. maybe that's a good thing, i'm not sure. i miss that down south town.. but in the recent past, i've noticed that it's not really home anymore. i know it well, but not really. there's that facade of familiarity, but dig a little deeper, and things aren't quite the same as i left them almost 5 years ago. so this year, i'm off to norcal -- that extended bay area on the opposite coast. dec 23rd thru jan 3rd: good luck to me in lugging all the gifts out there. happy christmakwanzaaukkah :) and whoosh, off to 2006...!

this is what happens when i'm the only one in the office

random thought: maybe i should be a writer. ha, who knows.

yesterday was tuesday. and for some odd reason, it was one of my most eventful tuesdays in a while. so here's the story -- because 1) no one's currently in the office and i have nothing better to do, and 2) it's fun to chronicle good times.

i was actually doing work at work.. stuff on the labor/hhs/edu appropriations bill (and yet-to-be-passed defense bill), and finding all the biodefense related money. woo money, can i have some? anyway, alan arrived late, only to discover a bag of yummy macaroons sitting on his desk from yours truly. he was surprised, i think, which is good, and he proceeded to thank me and eat the cookies for lunch. what a diet these people have! but it was even better that he didn't give me anything -- 'cause now i don't have to be worried about upcoming holidays and such. haha. testing the waters, you know? he coughed, per usual, but i only had approx. 4 hours of it instead of the usual 8. phew.

holiday partaaaaay (joke: what comes before part b? partaaaay! or as kevin would say, what comes before part f? partyyyyy! okay, the lameness stops here) at 4pm. lots and lots of random food, all of which was yummy and fattening. haha. and we mostly just sat around and talked. not bad, not too thrilling; i left around 5:45pm to go home for the night.

someone seemed grumpy, unsurprisingly. traffic on my way to the rock gym was absolutely freakin' redonculously STUPIDLY bad. it took me 25 minutes to get from the 495/95S split to the van dorn/franconia exit, a whole 0.5 miles. i can run 0.5 miles in 5 minutes. a car should go vroom vroom MUCH faster. and no accident, no police, nothing, just lame-ass DC traffic. whoopity!

climbing was grrreeeeeeeat :O) i finally finally finally made the move -- grabbed the hold in a nelson-and-oscar-labeled "controlled lunge" -- on this damn slanted bouldering route that i've been glaring at it for the past 3 weeks. over the lip, and voila, sent! sweetness. and i gave everyone their "named" macaroons. yay. played around on a few others, made it further, traversing, got some good turning in on the slants. left my harness + atc at the gym though, poop. eggs afterwards was uber-lovely as usual. there was: jen, ocean, jason, oscar, nelson, vegas, me, amy, opie, nate, crazy, jack, katie, gomer, and.. curtis? ellen didn't make it (sadness), but we had some awesome stories. particularly about balthazar (BOO), and bloods becoming boobs, and the ever-disturbing chesty larue. hahahaha. these guys are great. for new years eve, some of the dudes are going to polly esther's (some crazy-ass club in town, which i originally thought was "polyester's") -- and then, for new year's day, they're going to oscar's for poker. but i don't think ANY of them will be sober enough by then. man, there's GOTTA be photos :)

can i go home yet? i think i'll be leaving early today.

ps. the macaroons have been received with wild acclaim. should i reserve the right to label the recipe "CONFIDENTIAL" now? mwhahahaha.

holiday disaster

CNN.com: "Johnny be gone: Damon leaves BoSox for Yanks' 4-year, $52M deal"
boston.com: (analysis) "For Sox, a little off the top"
foxsports.com: (analysis) "Red Sox's 2006 season is crumbling"
nytimes.com: "Yanks add centerpiece in Damon" bitches.

i think i'm gonna cry. it's true -- i WARNED YOU ALL -- the red sox are dying. kevin millar's gone, bill mueller's gone, embry and ding-honk and freakin' (waah) damon are wearing (gag) pinstripes, the pitchers are disappearing, the awesome gm has run off, and beware, the beantown is THIS close to revolting. fenway's gonna be empty, and the team we once knew by heart (barely 2 years back) is scattered and torn apart and damnit, they're all working for the man. ugh, the man! i almost feel bad for the new signees 'cause we have no clue who the hell they are, and more importantly, we're still pining for the old roster. ahhhhh, baseball!

yankees GRR. how could you?? you stole him! red sox management needs a ginormous kick in the ass -- HELLO, WAKE UP! stupidheads. this is NOT a good christmas gift!! manny, where are you headed off to? papi ortiz and varitek are the only ones left!

projected season lineup for the yankees:
CF damon (sniffle)
SS jeter (ew)
3B a-rod (butthead)
1B giambi (lardbutt)
RF sheffield (creepy)
LF matsui (scary)
C posada (yo mama)
DH b. williams (old man)
2B cano (boo)

steinbrenner, way to go, way to buy your team, way to be a burglar! johnny damon, what happened?!?! just 7 months ago in may, he said: "there's no way i can go play for the yankees, but i know they're going to come after me hard. it's definitely not the most important thing to go out there for the top dollar, which the yankees are going to offer me. it's not what i need." hobag!! liar liar, pants on fire -- you get COAL in your stocking.

mr. smoot!

i've discovered that i'm taller than mr. smoot, the retiring chairman of the American National Standards Institute. hehehe. dear oliver is also, perhaps more famously known for, the namesake of the measurement of the bridge "to hell" (or away from, depending on where you're going).

salute to smoot!

ahh, mit. we're so weird.

sniffle?

it's like boston.com was reading my mind: "sick and tired at work"

well kinda. definitely the graphic though.

T minus 5 working days

please please make this week FLYYYYYYY past. vacation is.. oh oh oh!.. sooooooo close, but i can't quite grasp it yet. so here's the plan: monday whoosh, tuesday whoosh, wednesday whooooosh! thursday almost, FRIDAAAY!

man, go fast.

sugar and spice?

last night, vegas told me -- "steph, at first, you were all sweet and nice and kinda quiet.. but now i've realized that.. man, you're sarcastic. i never knew that you'd be so sarcastic."

this comment came after i told jack that gently petting the hold wouldn't really help him climb the route. okay, so i'm sarcastic.

two weeks ago, vegas told me -- "steph, you're sorta nutty."

this one came after i partially unwrapped a drinking straw and shot the other end of it across the dinner table, brushing right past oscar's eye and nelson's ear... all in front of the waitress. oops.

i think my personality is finally revealing itself. 4 months in, all the veneer has been wiped away, and my "sarcastic, nutty" self is being shown to all my new friends. and as such, i think i'm scaring them all away. ruh roh.

haha.

which actually makes me wonder. do i really come across and "nice and sweet and kinda quiet"?? i don't really think so. i can definitely be kinda quiet in certain situations, but eventually, i'll bust out with something ridiculous, and alas, "quiet" can no longer be applied to my personality. not only that, i'm typically one of the first to say hello -- so really, "quiet" never really worked in the first place. guess it all depends on the context. and the other people in comparison.

sarcasm.. hmm. sarcasm came in high school. and it was overwhemingly, 400% enforced in the evil environment of college. so i'm not that nice, but nice can be kinda boring. hehe.

nutty? hmm.. i like nuts, does that count?

all the boys...

... are leaving or in question or have already left. oh redsox. :-\

ten thousand meters for me

this past weekend's exciting event was:

a 10k!!!

yup, a 10k run. a 10k race. i ran 10 kilometers, better known as 6.2 miles. and not only did i run the whole damn thing, i did it at 8am on a 28-degree sunday morning in december. how's that for insanity?

haha. a few of the climber clan are also apparently into running, and since september, for some reason i can't explain, i've been doing some running on my own. i guess i resorted to it after coming across exorbitant gym/health club fees and realized that ... well.. running's free. HA, the asian in me came out.

so in the midst, i was also somehow convinced to sign up for a 10k. i dunno how it happened; me, who's hated pavement+knees+pounding+sneakers for the past 7-8 years and would easily drop dead after 2.5 miles.. i'm now running. the world is coming to an end.

anyyywwwaaay, the 10k actually turned out to be a ton of fun. :) hehe, and i was definitely on a slight high after accomplishing 6.2 miles. wooohoooo. and afterwards, we all chowed down on dim sum... mmmm. and then i promptly proceeded to pass out for a long nap. sweet sunday :)

that's the after-race shot with tammy, opie, erin, me, vegas, oscar, and jason. yes, some of those are nicknames.


this is super-awesome: i had a number!! currently hanging from my bookshelf. :D


this is what ~1000 other crazy nuts look like from behind at 7-8am in december.

hint hint, nudge nudge

if i were to walk into work one morning, wearing a surgical face mask and carrying a bag of cough drops and a bottle of lysol air sanitizer, do you think my boss would get the hint?

today, as he stopped over to my desk, he mentioned to me that he was getting sick. har har har. i laughed... 'cause what other kind of response could i have emitted??!

"no shit, sherlock."

you call this snow?!

guys,
i have something to admit. this week, i suddenly realized that 4 years in boston has made me.... a snow snob.

yes, a snow snob. one of the worst kind.

with forecasted warnings of "winter weather" and "snowstorms" in the DC area this past week, i got all excited for some thick, white, fluffy stuff (and a snow day or two on the side). but after nothing appeared on sunday... and monday night brought only a measly 2 inches of the wet stuff, i became a bit disappointed. this isn't real snow! this is pitiful snow!!!

even better? it's the way that drivers and gov't workers and grocery shoppers freak out when the flakes hit the ground. alas, you people haven't seen a real winter yet. a cashier at trader joe's on sunday asked a customer if he was worried about the upcoming weather, and he just stared blankly in response.. before saying "i'm from massachusetts." end of story.

last night, another ~2 inches of wet, sloshy snow hit the ground... and today, schools are cancelled, work is delayed (i'm not complaining about this aspect AT ALL), and snow plows were sitting on the roads at 11pm last night, all prepped and psyched about scooping, sanding, and salting. oh gracious me.

i guess i'm just used to the 20-degree 2-foot blizzards that come stomping on boston. and announcements that logan is closed, all flights are re-routed, and oh yeah, classes are still in session. haha.

i can still see the sidewalks around here. that ain't winter, dear.

AHHHHHHHHH

cough cough cough cough cough cough cough coughcough cough cough coughcough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough coughcough cough cough coughcough cough cough cough cough coughcoughcoughcough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough coughcoughcough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough coughcough coughcough coughcough cough coughcoughcoughcough cough coughcough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough coughcough coughcoughcoughcough cough cough cough cough cough.

the.
most.
annoying.
thing.
ever.

seriously, i'd rather have him fart.

i am soooooo low-drama.

you people who are all freakin' soooo high-drama, leave me be! stop trying to balance it out -- dump off your ridiculous dramas elsewhere!

snore

4 years (and then some from high school?) of erratic and irregular sleeping patterns have screwed me for life.

for example, my approximate weekday sleeping schedule:
7:20am: alarm clock goes off
7:45am: finally peel open both eyes (not just one) and climb out of warm, comfy bed
8:20am: onto apartment shuttle bus, doze
8:25am: arrive at metro station, get onto metro, doze/drool again
8:50am: wake up abruptly, change subway lines
8:55am: get on new line, back to dozing
9:10am: wake up reluctantly, get off, walk to office
9:15am till 12:30pm: concentrate on staying awake and being productive
1-1:30pm: fight the food/lunch coma. fight it!
3:30pm: fight the "i'm sleepy for no reason" coma
5:45pm: back to metro, sorta doze/read/people-watch while on subway
1:30-2am: crawl into bed

rinse, repeat.

i'm still on a college schedule. (ie, weekend mornings? what weekend mornings?)

next

i just watched approximately 20 movie trailers online. i love when the bestest movies come out in winter. eesh :)

but there is one problem ... and it's that aspect of contemplation. movies make you contemplate, and i'm already good enough at contemplating on my own: no need for extra catalysts. i contemplate pretty damn well, i'd say. school made me contemplate. unless you're set on a direct path to success from the beginnings of high school, college -- and in particular, mit -- forces you to rethink all those previous plans that seemed right and simple once upon a time. and i did rethink.. and i still do.

december reminds me of last year, dec '04, when amidst joyous christmas shopping, writing term papers, and trying to enjoy my senior year, i found myself stuck in business suits and uncomfortably stoic heels, carrying around a dark-colored, crisp but plain folder into which numerous copies of my well-worked resume, printed on fibrous pearl paper of course, were tucked. it wasn't me.. and though the interviews weren't horrid, and i stuck with it through hours and hours of smiling and enthusiasm, i always came away less hopeful than when i first entered. that so-called path that i'm supposed to follow -- dictated by my degree, my background, my family, and probably most importantly, my education -- isn't clear. or rather, it's clear but terribly unappealing.

so this december, instead of bundling up and searching for downtown offices, HR reps, and notable professionals in boston's biotech, research, and consulting arenas, i'm in dc, bundled up and searching for... something else?

the job that i have now, albeit not the most thrilling thing in this grandiose world, isn't bad. i'm glad i took it. i'm exploring, i'm learning, i'm narrowing (or widening?) my options. but come june, i'm supposed to know what to do next.

next.

next please.

next?

i'm good at planning two weeks in advance. but beyond that, when i reach too far forward (like 7 months, for example), all the plans come tumbling down, falling into muddy water and dusty cracks because nothing solid is supporting them. i can't plan a future; it just comes. right??

i know this much so far:
i like cities. suburbs are always there for later.
i like both coasts.
i like the globe.
i dislike staring at a computer screen for 8 hours straight.
i like people. usually, at least. unless they're constantly coughing.
i like nature. and animals.
i'm not really fond of politics.
i don't like goals that "should be reached in 10 years time."
i like something more tangible.
i wouldn't mind returning to school.
i don't like stark, stringent, fluorescent laboratories.
i like looking up.

that's not a very long list. mmm, maybe i still don't know very much...

oh the quarter-life crisis.. and my tales at 22.

chronicles of flying mishaps, cont..

remember my chronicles from october?

yeah well, i'll continue to document them 'cause airlines hate me.

4) logan from dulles on thursday, november 24, 2005. delayed 1 hour and 15 minutes, transferred to another boston flight. otherwise, i would've waited another 20+ minutes. stupidheads.

to come: "chronicles of flying mishaps, part 3" -- because there's no way that it'll be smooth when i fly across the country on the friday evening before christmas weekend. haha, i can't wait.

in other news, it's DECEMBER!!