Wow

I'm two days into my new semester and it's already 1000x better than the last. My one required class is Systems Neuroscience, which is actually better than I anticipated, and the other is fMRI Data Analysis *swoon*. I had to submit a paper today about my rotation from last semester. This would have been easy except for the fact that I couldn't talk about anything I had done on my rotation. It was more like a review paper of the field, I guess, and the pertinent questions that I worked on during the last semester. I had a difficult time starting it, actually getting words on the page. Unfortunately, the perfectionist in me comes out when I try to write papers and I have an exceedingly difficult time moving onto the next sentence until I've perfectly crafted the one before. This is a terrible way to write. I tried my best to sequester these feelings and just write ad nauseam, but I still had issues. I ended up giving up last night, about halfway done, and came back to it this morning. Once I finally got all my words out, it was a breeze rearranging and finely tuning what I had written. I am a much better revisionist than I am a creationist (ha!).

Today I made a Rachael Ray recipe. Let me be the first to say that I find her to be possibly one of the most irritating chef personalities on TV. Paula Dean is a close second, mostly because I can't handle that much Southern twang or calories. Anyway, I love to watch the Food Network and she happened to be doing a rare vegetarian episode, so I suffered through. Tonight, I recreated her pesto pasta dish with asparagus and haricot verts. It was YUMMO. Just kidding. It was actually really good. I did make some changes out of laziness/necessity (didn't feel like buying a bushel of tarragon and parsley, the zucchini at Wegmans were surprisingly disappointing), but it was still great. Home made pesto is awesome. It has reignited my desire to create my own copycat version of the pesto spread from the Creeese Cafe that they put on Rittenhouse Sandwiches . Unfortunately, Brian came home and announced that I am not allowed to make it again because "the house smells like salad." Womp womp.

80 at heart

I think I might have turned 81 rather than 21 at my last birthday. I get grumpy when my upstairs neighbors have parties every night. Most of my hobbies are indistinguishable from that of an octogenarian: bowling, sewing, knitting. I just recently taught myself how to crochet, so add that to the list. Am I missing anything? Birdwatching, perhaps? I'll leave that to my cats for now. (Oh crap, add "cat lady" to the mix.)

My winter break is coming to an end. Three weeks is a really long time (especially when the most I ever got from Drexel was 2), but I haven't really done much. I've just been relaxing, which is a nice change of pace, but honestly gets boring after a while. Not so bored that I've started my paper that's due in a few days though... Oh well, some things never change.

I've been doing the Wii Fit everyday and enjoying the heck out of it. It can be super corny sometimes, but having the video game trainer talking to you actually does help. I've unlocked all the strength exercises and balance games, but still have a bunch of yoga poses yet to go. Those are the ones I was most looking forward to, but I guess the different categories don't unlock at an equal pace. 

Finally, in bizarre TV-shows-I-love news, Michael C. Hall and Jennifer Carpenter (who play brother and sister on Dexter) just got married.

Video games and other such life events

Right before Christmas, some idiot scumbag decided to break into my car hoping to find a GPS system. Instead, he took the stand for it, shredded the wires for my satellite radio, made off with my cassette adapter (which oddly enough was goddamn hard to find because apparently VW Jettas have their tape decks backwards or something), a $10 Philly parking card, and my registration/insurance cards. THANKS. Oh and then it rained afterwards so now my car smells of the many phyla of mold that have surely taken root. I lived at 33rd & Spring Garden for 3 years with the exact same stuff in my car and never had a peep (other than some jerk who destroyed my grill). I move to a nicer (so I thought) area and this happens. Oh, and then a couple days later there was a home invasion with bonus sexual assault a couple blocks away. Bah humbug. Now my car is fixed, I keep my glovebox locked, and we got the ADT system that was already at our apartment activated. So hopefully all will be well in the future and I'll stop having nightmares about being shot.

In questionably happier news, I have become somewhat addicted to the PS3 game Fallout 3. It's choose-your-adventure style where your dialogue/behavioral choices range from good to snarky to downright mean. I mostly just wander around doing odd jobs for people (e.g. recovering a radio tower, disarming an atomic bomb, etc.). However, I do not enjoy encountering super mutants, bloat flies, or feral ghouls, as they inevitably want to eat me and I have to shoot them and unfortunately I am not particularly good at that. 

Today is also day 1 of the South Beach/Wii Fit diet. This is my 3rd go around for SBD; I always lose weight, but inevitably do something stupid like start grad school and stop working out and put the weight back on. The Wii Fit is pretty damn fun. I was able to do a tree pose in yoga for the first time in my life today, so that's exciting. I also currently enjoy hula hooping and strength exercises that do not require the use of my arms (alas, I am weak). 

Next week, I start my lab rotation in the Epstein lab, which I am super stoked for. I am sad to be leaving the Chattlab though. Who knows? Maybe I'll be back.