tonight.

i came home from a night of studying in the library to a house that smelled [and still does] like delicious bulgogi. woot! i was so excited.
except that james ate all the bulgogi. there is not even one bite left for me.

which led to this:

james: babe! i want a hug!
me: and i want some bulgogi.
james: well we don't always get what we want. except for me.

this week = SOPs and GLPs.

i got the job. :]
so it looks like i'll be spending this week going over tons of SOPs and GLPs. fun stuff. for example, my new boss warned me that there is a 24 page manual on how to take a pH. sounds pretty joyous. heee.
but i'm excited. the job is really flexible, which is nice since i kind of have a crazy schedule between class and teaching. right now, they just really need someone for 8 weeks because one of their workers is going home to japan for a while. once the 8 weeks are over, we can see how things look for the future. it's really perfect for both of us because i don't know how my summer will pan out with summer school and whatnot.
so yeah. i'm excited. like i said, it's been a while since i've done much analytical chem stuff. i had james give me a little refresher on hplc and gc/ms. have i ever mentioned how nice it is to date someone in the same field!? :]

james and i considered seeing monsters vs aliens in 3D tonight. we've both really been wanting to see something in 3D, so it almost doesn't even matter what movie it is. but with a late breakfast [he didn't wake up until i was home from my interview] and an early dinner, i told him that there was no way that i could eat popcorn tonight. he was a little puzzled, and i explained that the last several movies i've been to have been popcorn-free because i've been too full from dinner. at least half the reason i enjoy movies is for the movie theater popcorn, so i told him i'd rather wait for another night when i will be hungry for popcorn. ha. i am ridiculous. i know.

i guess it's time to study now. ack.

he's home. i'm happy.

so happy that j is home. :]

he is on a crazy schedule. aside from the already insane time difference to adjust to, he nearly pulled an all nighter last night. he decided to go out by himself to the college district in seoul for his last night. when he got off the subway, he met some canadian guys who teach english there. so he ended up hanging out when them all night. on his way back to his aunt's house, he fell asleep on the subway. classic. so two hours later, he made it back in time to pack up his stuff before it was time to leave. silly boy. :]

we are going out to breakfast in the morning, then i have a job interview for a local analytical chem lab. how random is it to have a job interview at starbucks? i'm hoping that means it's more of a casual discussion/explanation of the job than an actual serious interview/evaluation of me. just in case, i think i'll do a little review of my lab techniques book tonight. it's been a while since i've done anything other than molecular bio/dna stuff, so i need to brush up because i'm 99.9% sure that this job will have nothing to do with dna.

then i really need to study for my exam. i told my lab group that i would help them study this time because they give me a hard time about doing well. the problem is that i usually study the night before the exam, so i'm not really prepared to help them out before the exam. so yeah. i need to put in a couple hours with my book tomorrow.

okie. off to bed now.

blah.

feeling totally blah tonight.
just ready for j to come home mostly.
but there are other little things getting in my head, heart, and under my skin.

i'm debating between calling it a night and just going to bed or trying a little art session.
the problem is that if my art session is unsuccessful, it will only lead to more frustration and more of this blah feeling.
and i can't find my canvas paper in the mess that is supposed to be my studio. ughhh.

otherwise. i've been listening to "chasing pavement" by adele on repeat tonight.
hard to say if it's helping or hindering my mood, but i can't help but push the replay button every time the song finishes.

that's all for now. :/

eta one hour later: i grabbed a piece of 4x6 photo paper and played around for a bit. i guess the art session was tiny bit of a success. my mood has already slightly improved just because of the fact that i now have paint under my nails. :]

dinner adventure.

tonight i decided to try dickey's bbq based on michele's recommendation.

i had the brisket, which was fabulous, plus mac and cheese [yum!] and criss-cut fries, which are an old favorite. i wanted a pickle just based on michele's review, but i was too shy to dig into the barrel by myself. i realize that's weird, but that's just how i get sometimes. i'm not a good solo-diner, but i'm trying to get better about it. tonight was a big step for me. it was also quite the adventure.

the man who ordered right before me moved tables after i sat down... to the table directly in front of mine. then he sat so he was facing me. oh dear. so i just got out my phone and texted deepa about the awkward situation. while i was texting, he dropped off some silverware for me, and said "lady, please" in the most proper manner in what was later decided to be a british accent. i thanked him and proceeded to just pretend to be very busy on my phone for the remainder of the meal, so as not to make eye contact. still i felt like i was being watched. eek. once the british man was done eating and had left, the guy who took our orders came out to clean off the table. he looked at me and said, "i thought for sure that guy was going to ask to eat with you."
and i said, "yeah. i was kind of afraid of that myself."
and he said, "well if i were him i would have asked. [to which i thought: huh!?] he probably just chickened out or something."
and i said "yeah. who knows. did he kind of remind you of sylvester stallone?"
and he said "hmm. i'm not sure, but did you hear is accent? was it british or australian?"
we decided it was british, as i mentioned. then the guy asked me if i wanted some peach cobbler or pecan pie, on the house. well. who am i to turn down free dessert? so i now have a lovely piece of cobbler in the fridge for later tonight. i seriously ate so much though. it's going to be a while before any kind of food sounds good.

as i was finishing up some last bites, a man wearing a long fur coat, a hooded sweatshirt [hood on], sweat pants, and slippers came in and grabbed two ice cream cones and served himself some ice cream then sat down at a table by the door. dickey's gives you free ice cream with your meal. i guess this guy decided it was free ice cream period. as i was leaving [i passed on the ice cream for the record], he asked me for spare change. sigh. that's when i really knew the place was legit. michele got to see the cops, i got asked for change.

all in all, it wasn't an experience that was very encouraging of future solo-dining. still the food was good. i will definitely go back, just not alone. plus, if james would have been there, i definitely would have been brave enough to get a pickle. or at least i would have made him get one for me. :]

in other news, i went to the dentist today. good times. the hygienist asked me if i used an electric toothbrush, to which i replied no. she then told me that it looks like i do, so i much do a really good job brushing. even though i'm not 10 anymore, it was nice to hear the praise. i decided that it was cause to reward myself with a trip to the scrapbook store [treasured memories too is my new local favorite]. i picked up some of the new basic grey porcelain collection. this paper reminds me ever so slightly of one of my favorite cosmo cricket papers, but these colors and totally new and different. i was instantly in love with it. :] plus they had some new thickers. they weren't even out yet [neither was the basic grey], but i got to dig through the boxes, which made me a happy girl. i seriously enjoy digging through boxes of new product waaaay more than just pulling it off the wall. it's like a little treasure hunt. plus there is the feeling of knowing you are one of the first to have it. who doesn't like that feeling? heee.

alright. i have a date with a pile of papers that need some grading now. sounds like fun.
oh and tomorrow night is the regional science fair, alyssa. i'll say hi to mr. ochs for you. :]

yum. revisited.

this one is called pb no j. and that frosting is divine. it reminds me a little bit of adam's peanut butter cup fudge ripple cheesecake, which i make it a point to pick up when i am near a cheesecake factory aka in s.f.
i'm rather happy that i can get a little something that comes close to the magic of adam's peanut butter cup fudge ripple locally now. and for $1.50 too. what could be better. :]

tomorrow = back to school.
i'm pretty happy about that. i feel like i've been living in a fog the past few days. i need to get back to a routine.

also yesterday = one week until james comes home. woot!
i had another mini crisis last night after the power ordeal. helix was flipping out in the direction of his tail. so i took a look and noticed a red area on his belly. closer inspection uncovered three scratches. i have no idea how they got there, but he was clearly bothered by them. the whole area was pretty red. i was really wishing james was home at that point because i felt so bad for helix. this morning, i checked the area again and the redness is gone, there are just the scratches left. so now i have to keep a close eye on him to make sure he's not licking or biting the area like he was last night.

ok. back to my cupcake. :]

p.s. wth is the deal with this snow!? no more snow, ok spring?

yikes.

the power went off tonight. it turned into quite the adventure.
my sister was already asleep, so i had to deal with it alone.
for some reason, this time i got totally spooked beyond the normal level. it totally set off helix too, who was running around growling at everything. we had the fire going, so i had a tiny bit of light to work with, but it was still so dark. and i was getting creeped out by every little thing and all of the odd shadows. i worked up the courage to go grab the flashlight so that i could turn off the alarms on all of the battery backup things on all of the computers. but the flashlight wouldn't turn on once i finally located it. great. no batteries. so i decided to grab my phone to find some matches to light a candle, but it was so dark i couldn't locate my phone. so i had to open my laptop and use it to find my phone to find some matches to light a candle. then the candle wasn't in it's spot. what!? i still have no idea what happened to the candle that's always on the kitchen counter. hmph. i was able to find another candle and then eventually find a flashlight that would work so that i could go turn off the alarms on all of the battery backup things. they had already woken my sister up, who called me to figure out what in the world was going on around here. once i got the battery alarms turned off, the house alarm started going off. and i have no clue what the code is. but guess who knows the code? my sister who happened to be in town [downstairs in bed, in fact] and on the phone with me. so i tried to turn off the alarm, but the siren started going off instead. nice. i tried again, and was able to turn it off thankfully.
so now i can finally get back to the episode of house that i was in the middle of watching. :]

oh and i have a little scrappy thing to share.


may asked me to be a guest designer for the fiskars crafts website. :]
i used some of the new heidi grace papers and fiskars punches to make a layout about my sister and me. i struggled quite a bit with this layout, but i was happy with the final result. it was fun to use my sewing machine a little bit too. you can see the article here.

i've been really wanting to make a quilt these days. anna maria horner has some seriously cute fabric and a fabulous looking quilt design. and amy butler has a few free patterns up on her website that look amazing as well. i actually fell in love with some amy butler fabrics at a local fabric store a long time ago. a little while later, i started noticing her branching into the scrapbooking world as well. i never became a huge fan of her scrapbook items [aside from the big scrapbook tote bags, which don't count because they aren't paper. i have *ahem* two of those.] but i still love her fabrics.

ok. time to see what happens to the baseball player on house. :]

yum.

this one is a vegan chocolate cupcake. tastes just as good as a non-vegan cupcake to me. :]

yenh and i saw duplicity tonight. we kept looking at each other throughout the movie saying "i'm so lost!"
it's definitely one of those movies that doesn't come together until the end. i need to watch it again. i'm pretty sure james will want to see it, so i'm in luck. :]
there were several previews that had us excited too. namely a new johnny depp film [heeee!] and the taking of pelham 1 2 3, where it seems that john travolta plays a bad guy. both look pretty intense. ok extremely intense.

i was able to talk to james for a couple minutes again today. he and his brother did a bit of shopping in the city, which seems like it would be an adventure. there is a lot of bargaining for prices. carol explained this to me once before when i had james' parents bring me back the mini polaroid camera. i tried to find out how much it would cost, and she said it's hard to know... it just depends on the amount of bargaining. i guess they don't have msrp in korea. :]