Winter Delights

Oh, upstate New York weather...tons of snow....cloudy skies...well today was busy, but good. Yesterday I castrated a dog, tomorrow I'll hopefully be spaying a cat. I even got home at a reasonable time. I was flipping through a magazine I get, "House Beautiful", and I stumbled upon Muji, a Japanese based store that focuses its design on simplicity whether it be furniture, clothing, or accessories. Sounds cool. Apparently they just opened up a branch in Soho....I want to go! Today I got tons of presents from friends...Stacy made me a calzone for lunch and a Korean extern was nice enough to make me Bulgogi! Jackpot in the food department.

Back to Blogging

I've been busy this week on surgery. Good times. I just watched "Good Morning Vietnam", surprisingly for the first time. Entertaining. Plus some of the scenery reminds me of the beautiful Philippines which is cool. Watching this movie reminded me of some issues that came up in an Asian American Women's studies class I took at NYU. The whole idea of the propagation of stereotypes towards Asian women: being submissive, excellent wives, and these exotic, mysterious "objects". It is an interesting topic; certainly these stereotypes are still alive and well. My Filipino relatives told me about growing up in the Philippines when the Japanese invaded and about the soldiers' interest in the locals. Then we all have seen the cinematic portrayal of GI's and the local female population in Vietnam...oh, and don't forget Thailand....and even if you go to Asian countries now, you can see what I lovingly refer to as "fever" in action. But again, not every non Asian man or non Filipino man who goes for an Asian girl is feeding into stereotypes, I know that...don't get me wrong, please! I am ALL FOR mixing it up as long as there is no scary reason behind it all. But seriously, I do think that it's an important point to acknowledge it and that goes for any type of person, right? A great example of the clash of cultures and Asian stereotypes can be seen in Stone's "Heaven and Earth". It can go wrong fast: hello mail order bride disasters and misogyny. But I won't say much more. Speaking of Asia, on a MUCH MORE superficial level, I stumbled upon this really funny Hello Kitty blog. And just to take it back, I must remind you of one of my favorite websites, Tokyo Decadance. Again, when you click on this link, and it asks to "install", just click no, and the website will load anyway. Have the volume way up. It's great fun. This segways to my next Japanese related item: we got Twinkie a new litter box---a Japanese one! It's the one in the photo above. It's by the brand Iris, and it has all these fun features like easy access to clean up (you lift the top) and a grid that catches litter so it doesn't track! It even has feet on the bottom...we got it at Petsmart and I love it...yes, I said I love that litter box. And remember, there should be one more litter box than there is cats in your household...so one cat needs at least 2 boxes!

Reminisce

Ah the memories of New York City. I was going through my address book when I stumbled upon a gem of a Thai restaurant in Woodside. Back when Chantima, my NYU roommate (now soon-to-be-lawyer), brought me to the authentic-hole-in-the-wall-Thai spot, the food was crazy. It was a serious trek from the village to Woodside, but it was worth it! The papaya salad was so hot my gums would throb and I lost all ability to hold a conversation. But, damn, was the food good! Back to my original story: so I was updating my address book and I wanted to make sure this place still existed! So I checked, and luckily Sripraphai is still there and apparently completely renovated! Before it was a no-frills looking place. But now it looks all dolled up. Chantima told me she recently went. Anyway, I HIGHLY recommend this place if you're lookin' for real-deal Thai food. That's one of the places I need to hit up when I return to NYC...hopefully it's still as good as I remember...Speaking of Thailand, I stumbled upon this interesting site that chronicles how the image of Buddha is represented differently in different parts of Thailand.

Friday

The Valentine's Day cake was a success...It's in the photo to the right! Really good and so easy to make, if you're interested, I highly recommend it: the chocolate ganache cake from Ina Garten. Marcus and I really liked the cake, and then I brought some over to my friends and they gave it their seal of approval. On another happy note, I'm back in contact with my friend Yukiko. We've kept in touch for YEARS ever since she moved back to Japan when we were still in elementary school, but in the past couple of years we've sort of lost touch, so I'm glad we're "re-connected". Today I'm going to skip the gym because I feel an unidentified illness of the respiratory kind coming on. Last night I watched a great movie called "Jindabyne". Excellent Aussie film about a group of friends who go fishing in the mountains and discover a woman's dead body. This weekend Marcus and I plan to cook brunch and maybe watch some movies.

Back from the Hiatus

Woah. Where did time go? I've been having a great time the past two weeks. And I've neglected my blogging! Today's Valentine's Day (duh) and it's a great thing. I've baked a cake for Marcus and I, and we got Twinkie some special cat treats, because you know, cats love Valentine's Day, too! (But remember, chocolate is toxic to cats and dogs, so don't share that way). Since I last blogged, Stacy and I have planned to take a cake decorating class this spring. Last night Marcus, me and a bunch of friends went to "Trivia Night" at this local joint called Common Ground. It was a good time, and SO grad school, right??? Our team, Team Callipyge, won third place, which is decent for newbies like us. If you're wondering why the name "Callipyge", check out the link...it's a long story and stems from some drunk guy yelling out "Team Booty" one late night out in Syracuse. Anyway, Marcus was pretty good with the trivia. Well on my agenda today is to secure reservations with a dive shop in Cozumel, Mexico and watch a movie from Netflix. Then when Marcus comes home we can have dinner and hopefully my Valentine's cake (from scratch, the ONLY way to make a cake) will be good!

Valentine's Day Plans, Anyone?

Valentine's Day is soon! I love Valentine's Day, even though it's commercialized, deep down I'm a romantic, so the thought of celebrating all things love and potential for love, with some chocolate thrown in sounds absolutely perfect to me. If you don't know the history behind this holiday, there's a nice little synopsis on History.com. If you're "taken", have you thought of what you're gonna get your honey? I stumbled upon some pretty amusing (at least to me) gifts like the anatomically correct heart, the anatomically correct heart needlepoint kit, and the yummy looking red velvet cake. And if you're not "taken", who cares? Celebrate anyway. Speaking of love and lovely, did you see the impressive sonogram image? I'm pregnant! Just kidding. The sweet thing is Terry-a and Steve's baby, due March 23rd. Very exciting! P.S., aren't these plates hot??? Love them.

Behavioral Modification

I learned about two types of behavioral modification for animals: classical conditioning (a la Pavlov's dog), and desensitization, where you expose someone to a stimulus gradually, increasing intensity with the goal of decreasing their stress or reaction to it. Back on the ranch: I've been going to the gym every morning, and I've going to Wegman's after to pick up my lunch, a salad. To get to the salads I have to go into perilous territory: the baked goods aisle. Chocolate cakes, cookies, and the tempting Wegman's chocolate donuts. Jesus, if you've never tried their chocolate donut with chocolate icing on top, you have not lived! Well I've been really good and not giving into my temptations. So I realized that I've been desensitizing myself! And, I've been trying to decrease the temperature of the water I use when I shower. As you probably know, hot water can dry out your skin. Well that hasn't stopped me: I love close to scalding water. But I have been trying to use more warm water. So maybe all this behavioral modification will work out. Let's see...

Me Time: A Possible Career?

I have two weeks off now, which is great. I'm a busy-body type person...I love making lists and crossing things off the list, can't sit around for too long because then I think about all the things I could be doing. Is this a great thing? Not really sure! Well, when I have time off, I'm just all around a better person. I feel better, I'm calmer, and I look better because I get to work out on the regular. But when I have time off, I have tons of what I call "personal projects" that have been on the backburner. I have more short term goals (hemming clothes, clicker training my cat, baking, going to the gym regularly, selling things on Craigslist) and more long term goals that are not going to get dealt with anytime soon, but I plan to do (learning Swedish, becoming a certified skydiver, learning how to fix a car, learning how to use a hand gun, but just for target practice!...no joke). So this can become taxing. And of course I have my everyday chores like cleaning, working on my senior presentation for school, running errands. Not that I'm complaining! It's just that I realized if I could somehow transform this all into a paid profession, I would be so successful! I mean, damn...I am productive and motivated (I know, these are things that I want to do, though)! Anyway, as for today, I just came back from swimming and picking up a salad for lunch. I'm going check out what's on TV in terms of movie possibilities, clean our apartment, make some phone calls, do some hemming, and work on school stuff. I hope to cross some things off that list....! This is random, but have you heard of Catalogchoice? If you receive unwanted magazines from companies, you can sign up for free to have them removed. It's a pretty simple process and it supposedly works! So I signed up. Check it out...

Wolf Creek: Continues to be Disturbing

I LOVE me a good scare, so of course I love horror flicks. But it's so hard to find one that really freaks me out. Marcus is out of town, so I decided to watch a horror flick by myself to get the full effect! I watched "Wolf Creek", an Aussie film made a couple of years ago. It's about three college aged friends that take a cross country adventure across Australia and end up in the Outback. I've watched it before, but it was really disturbing, so I wanted to watch it again. This movie was criticized for unnecessary violence, misogyny, and for untastefully being released Christmas Day. You know, watching it a second time I can say that yes---there's violence, and yes most on screen violence is targeted towards women. But I think the violence is what this is all about, and I can argue that the reason for all this is that the person performing all the violent acts is just a sicko. So if you're down to be disturbed and freaked out, I recommend this movie. The worst part is that it's supposedly based on a true story. But in doing a little research it looks like it's been inspired by a few real life stories. Wikipedia also has a little blurb on it. Wolf Creek is actually a national park where one of the largest meteorite craters on earth can be found.

Humanity and Bread

I'm going to Michigan in a month to do an externship with a surgeon. When I was waiting to be approved by my school to go, I was scouting out some hotels to stay at. By the time it was approved, the only hotel I wanted to stay at was no longer available. Needless to say, this little trip is going to cost us, and this hotel was a great combo of decent price and the right amenities. So I called yesterday and the hotel clerk told me to call the sales manager and see if they could help me out, since I'd be staying for a long time. I spoke with the sales manager today and the moment she heard I was a veterinary student, she said "even though we're booked, you'll get a room". AND she gave me a great deal! She said that because I was going to be a veterinarian, and she loves animals, she was willing to do it. Damn, humanity is still alive and well. Sometimes when strangers are so nice it really shocks me (in a happy way). Onto bread: have you realized how GOOD really GOOD bread is and how it can completely transform a PB&J sandwich or grilled cheese into something transcendental??? Don't get me wrong, I was raised on Wonder bread. But let's face it, high quality bread is just satisfying! I'm going to miss the bread they make at Wegman's. My favorite is called marathon bread. It has bits of carrot, rolled oats, banana, and pumpkin seeds. They even slice it for you! And forget it, when you're making french toast, you gotta do it right...with GOOD BREAD! I was reading an article in Time Magazine about romance, love, and evolution. It was pretty interesting. Someone said that humans kiss in order to sample their partner's MHC (major histo compatibility), which is part of our immune system. If MHC's are too similar, it makes for a bad match in terms of evolution. There was also mention of men secreting testasterone into their saliva, so when they kiss someone, the other person takes in the testasterone which acts as an aphrodisiac. Pretty interesting. There were also articles about animals, homosexual relationships, and online dating.

It's Superbowl Time!

Ya! Just kidding, I have no clue when it comes to football, and I don't even know what teams are playing. My friends are throwing a Superbowl party, not because they really know about football either. It's for those people who will sort of maybe actually watch the game, but definitely watch the halftime show. So I'm going to attend this party and leave Marcus at home so he can actually watch the game in peace. Today I finished my last emergency shift! YES! Yesterday I went to Buffalo with Stacy and Sarah, another friend, to pick out bridesmaid dresses for Stacy's wedding. We ate at this really great middle eastern restaurant...it was so good, I think the best middle eastern restaurant I've been to. It was a fun, but taxing day! Well, better get ready for this whole "Superbowl" thing. Stephen promised me he'd teach me how to understand football, but only when it was an unimportant game that he didn't want to focus on. But we never got to do that...so Stephen, one of these days, right??? Ha ha.

AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! The day I've been waiting to blog about...the day I passed my licensing board exam! Today! Soon you can call me "Doctor"! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Anyway, I am so happy. Honestly, I didn't have it in me if I had to take that dreadful thing again! Well, PHEW. Now I'm going to chill, maybe watch something on TV or a movie (what else??!). It's absolutely nasty outside...I was going to attempt to go shopping, but the weather is just not gonna let that happen. We didn't have any heat this morning, but happily I came back to a toasty apartment. Sorry, not to harp on it, but AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!