The Bug Genocide

Because I'm too lazy to post something of real substance, here's a transcript of my IM convo between my friend JW-M and I tonight (he's in Beijing right now, sadness) to entertain you all:

JW-M: niiii haooo
Me: dude!
Me: what's up?!
Me: :P
Me: a centipede just crawled up my wall in front of me
Me: i deftly dealt with it
JW-M: good
Me: aka, I smushed it against the wall and disposed of it in the toilet
JW-M: /eat
JW-M: oh
JW-M: alas
Me: though, there's a centipede-smear on the wall now =/
Me: i refuse to eat anything with an exoskeleton
JW-M: i see
JW-M: crunch crunch
Me: ugh
Me: ::twitch::
. . .
Me: did i tell you about the suspect-cockroach in my apt?
JW-M: lol no
JW-M: was it like scurry scurry
JW-M: and then did you kill it good
. . .
Me: JW-M
JW-M: what
Me: i need to break into the chem building
JW-M: wat
Me: and steal all the insect pheramones
JW-M: wut
JW-M: lol ok
Me: so i can lure all the bugs away from my apt
Me: where they'll mate themselves to death
Me: far away
JW-M: sounds fun
. . .
Me: i suspect rollie pollies hiding in my plant's soil
Me: eeeee!
Me: i felt a gnat crawling down my arm
Me: stupid creatures
JW-M: they prolly do
JW-M: what is your bug problem today
. . .
JW-M: its only like one month until the bug genocide anyway
JW-M: thank god
Me: OMG
Me: THE BUG GENOCIDE
Me: i can't wait

For those wondering, the "bug genocide" is the day when it suddenly gets cold (also the first day of frost on the ground). Since the bugs don't usually see it coming, there are like NO bugs after that day for a few weeks at least, because they've all died. It's wonderful. *waits patiently*

Words To Live By

AG-F told me the other day that our old lab is slowly closing. :(

MAP-F is going to be leaving the lab soon. Last year 3 post-docs left: LC-F (back home to Brazil), BE-F (for a professorship position somewhere in Illinois), and NS-F (for a lab position in California). And QF-F will be leaving soon when she graduates with her PhD. She's my favorite person in the lab - such a calming and industrious influence while at the same time being highly amusing. My old researcher, MMC-F, doesn't want to stay and went on several interviews last year even while she was pregnant with her daughter (she's really cute in the pictures, btw). The only guy in the lab, SD-M, also doesn't want to stay and has interviewed at several places. Neither he nor my researcher got any positions offered to them. Now this leaves only MB-F and AV-F left, but both of them are part-time researchers. AV-F actually teaches middle school science, which is really cool.

So there it is. Of the "original" 9 lab members as I know them, it'll be down to 2 within the next couple years. And there are no undergrads working in the lab anymore, as far as I know! There's always been 1-3 undergrads in her lab for at least the last 5-7 years. Anyway, this is all besides the point, sad though it is.

The point of this post is that as I was going through my old folders and cleaning my room, getting the last bits settled, I found something I copied from my researcher's desk that someone had emailed her. Read carefully the following:

"As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn't supposed to ever let you down probably will. You will have your heart broken probably more than once and it's harder every time. You'll break hearts too, so remember how it felt when yours was broken. You'll fight with your best friend. You'll blame a new love for things an old one did. You'll cry because time is passing too fast, and you'll eventually lose someone you love. So take many pictures, laugh much more, and love like you've never been hurt. Because every 60 seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you'll never get back.

Don't be afraid that your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin."

I think these are words to live by.

Drunk

Umm, I think I'm still drunk. First of all, don't judge me. I'm "sober enough" to type this and I hope coherently.

So anyway, I think I'm more than tipsy but less than full drunk. I mean, some of my senses are dulled whereas others are slightly enhanced (?). Touch - dulled. Smell - dulled. Sight - unchanged. Hearing - dulled or enhanced depending. I mean, I have a little trouble typing this without erasing a lot of errors. And it take some effort to stand up straight. Anyway . . .

My friend, KS-F, organized a little get-together for some of SPH guys at a local bar. So I took the bus down, which took HALF AN HOUR. Just to let you know, the bus usually goes the same distance in 15-20 minutes. So I arrive like 20 minutes late, oh well. I get a rum & coke and over the course of 3 hours, I drink another shot of the happy hour special and like 4.5 full glasses of beer. Yeah . . . totally at least a bit drunk.

I have a weird metabolism when it comes to alcohol. See, I don't have that "Asian gene" that makes me go bright red. I've checked in the mirror. So I can drink a fair amount without getting drunk. But what I drink tends to hit me like 30 minutes to 2 hours later, so I have to be careful. I think that shot and 1.5 glasses of beer is starting to hit me now . . . I also sober up rather fast, though I'm by no means sober right now . . . at least I'll sleep rather well tonight (I think).

So interesting thing. My friend, PC-F, who I don't actually know that well, I find her kind of hot. And PM-M, he's rather attractive too. I think they might have a "thing" with each other, I'm not 100% sure. They would make a cute couple and the thought makes me a little jealous. I sat with PM-M on the bus back to my apartment, as he lives a bit further out than I d0.

He was clearly more drunk than I. He did drink more, but then again he had more mass to him so he could handle more comparatively. We were on a bus with pretty much all freshmen, as the buses going to north campus merge into one bus after midnight. Some poor forsaken freshman threw up at the back of the bus. Gross. I'm glad I'm not that drunk . . . Anyway, I find myself saying some random things out loud, though I was always aware of what I was saying (?). Wow, that too way too many edits to get rid of the errors. Anyway, PM-M was starting to slur his words, I was a little at the very end.

Wow, I almost was tempted to lean in and kiss him. Thing is I'm not actually that attracted to him. This must be the alcohol. Also, there was this freshman girl sitting across from us. PM-M pointed out how slutty all the freshman girls dress. It's true. And she had nice breasts that I was staring at . . . at some point she disappeared, she must've gotten off the bus. I was also tempted to tell him I was bi at the very least, but I still had enough control to stop myself. That wouldn't have gone over well on a rather full bus.

Well, I think I'm done now. I'll probably read this later and be like, "Wtf." Oh well. I also have a meeting in the morning at 10:30am . . . I must be sober for that. So sleep now I think. Good night. :D

Was That A Cockroach?!

So I go to wash my dishes. And in the sink, crawling around, is some brown insect. It scurried really fast up the side of the sink, around the corner, and towards the back near the wall. I think it was a cockroach. I lifted the cutting board and there it was, hiding. I tried to crush it with the cutting board but instead knocked it back into the sink. I gave a loud yelp (this was made more amusing because my roommate was just unlocking the door) because I was fairly sure this was a cockroach. You see, not many things get to me. I'm seldom grossed out by anything and I can suppress most things. But a cockroach?! In any case, I then proceeded to "flush" it down the sink.

Now I'm paranoid. I have my eyes on the lookout for any signs of an infestation. I need to break into the Chem building where they house that super-concentrated cockroach pheramone. With it, I could lure all the cockroaches in the apartment complex out to a distant place where they'll basically mate themselves to death. Really, I only need one tiny drop. Barring that plan, I'll call pest control.

I'm such a biology major, lol. Other signs? When I say "evacuate" instead of "empty" my backpack and refer to bus stops as being "downstream" or "upstream," and even identifying a "promoter" to the buses. Yeah . . . In other news, I think I may have found a work-study job in a lab somewhere. Yay!

Haha, Nice Try

This was going to be a glorious post about my epic success, that is how my desire for ice cream > rain. Alas, that wasn't meant to be.

At about 10:42pm I made my way to the bus stop. I noticed that the bus should be arriving at the bus stop at about 10:45pm and I was at least 5-6 minutes away. Then it started raining. Hard. Like, downpour hard. I walked a little faster, wanting to be under the bus stop shelter thing. I see the bus coming around the corner and I start running, sprinting as fast as I could with an umbrella in hand.

The bus must've been a little late, as it was around 10:47pm or so when the bus actually got to the stop. University buses are always chronically never quite on time, usually either 2 minutes early or late. My jeans were pretty much soaked from the knees down and my shoes were a bit squishy inside. No matter, ice cream awaited me at Stucchi's.

I get to Stucchi's only to discover that it's closed! Gah, no matter. Barring Stucchi's there was always Ben & Jerry's. Well that was closed too. Gah, no matter. Barring Ben & Jerry's there was also Starbuck's, whose pumpkin spiced latte I recently discovered and love. Well that was also closed. I wasn't holding much hope for Expresso Royale coffee either.

Well, SR-F was kind enough to take me to Kroger's grocery store where I'll just buy a tub of ice cream to take back to my apartment. But what is this? Kroger's was closed too!! Apparently this Kroger's closes at 10pm, wtf?! So after an hour out and about, looking for ice cream or coffee, I ended up back at my apartment empty-handed and un-satiated.

Epically failed attempt. You win rain. ::shakes fist at sky:: Seriously, why're all these places on campus closed by 10pm or 11pm? Don't they know this is a college town and that things should be open at the very least until midnight?!

The Crushing of Souls

I feel like we grad students have such a bleak look on things academic, especially my friend AG-F (and I, to a far lesser extent). She's getting her Master's in genetic counseling here and that program here is one of the most intense in the nation.

So you'll pardon us when we walk by the diag and see freshmen sitting there, playing on their guitars and singing. And when I'm on an overly-crowded bus to central campus and I hear a girl recount how she ate some nachos that didn't agree with her and threw up in her dorm room. Or when there are way too many girls who are way too dressed up for no reason in the middle of the day.

And our response to all this? Just you wait, you'll see. Once classes are in full swing they will crush your souls. No longer will you have time to play your guitar and sing on the diag. No longer will you have the time nor energy to put on make up, select your tightest fitting outfits, and sling your purses rather than your backpacks over your shoulders. And to you, girl-who-talks-about-throwing-up, I'm sure your friends don't want to hear about your exploits with the trashcan. And I'm positive the rest of the bus doesn't want to hear it either.

Oh, and while I was at the library printing and filling stuff out, there was this freshman girl at the table over. And she was on the phone with her boyfriend for almost 2 hours straight. And she kept sobbing and telling him how she loved him, and how he shouldn't be doing whatever he's doing to her. It was kind of pathetic really, I had to fight the urge to go up to her, close her phone, and tell her to just forget about him and study. I hope that never happens to me, in a very full library of all places.

Ugh, I can feel myself detaching from central campus and all the undergrads. And in 2 weeks, grad school will hit me full force. I can feel my social life slipping away already . . .

Week Before Grad School: the Aftermath

I'm so procrastinating right now. I just don't want to do my readings, haha. This is so not me. Anyway, the aftermath of last week/early this week.

The Roommate
We have the most amusing communication methods. You see, our primary form of communication is notes/memos to each other that we leave in the morning or night. One of us wakes up way before the other and leaves a note for the other to read. Our next line of communication is via email, followed by phone calls. Since we don't see each other for like 90% of our day, the only time we've actually talked face-to-face has been late at night really.

And so, I'm quite amused. He's pretty easy to get along with, which is good. We kind of keep out of each other's way and just remain polite and all.

School of Public Health
Oh man, some of my classes are intense! I'm glad I'm exempting out of the intro biostatistics course - as I see it, the fewer biostats courses I take the better. But I think I will enjoy all my courses, at least to some degree. I did, however, have to fight the urge to instantly drop one of my classes when I saw the name of one of its guest speakers. You see, I took environmental journalism last fall semester with 2 horrible instructors. Horrible. And one of them (the "dumber" one) is the guest speaker. Sigh.

I really like my public health genetics and my pathophysiology courses though. The PHG (public health genetics) professor is so funny to listen to. She breaks out chuckling every few sentences. What a riot! And my pathophysiology professor is African-British, so he has that amazing accent. Plus he says some really funny things sometimes in class.

I did also find out about what could happen to my MPH if I go to med school. Apparently, there have been several people in my place before, many of them in my HME sub-program. So my credits are good for at least 4 years, so I can come back to finish my MPH degree after med school if I so choose. The question now is, should I? Or even, would I? I don't know . . . after 4 years of med school, I don't know if I want another year of public health before going into my residency. Well, I suppose I do have options now and I have 5 years to make my decision.

The Apartment
So, after several emails, 2 of them with pics attached documenting the sheer grossness of my apartment, things have finally reached a conclusion here. At the same time, I emailed a friend's dad who is a real estate lawyer and has dealt with such issues. I was one day away from going to Student Legal Services to see what legal action I could take against my irresponsible landlord.

On Tuesday morning, my dad called the office himself and talked to the two managers. After several volley of words, a stubborn tug-of-war, they agreed to have my apartment cleaned by 6pm on Tuesday, September 2nd, as well as refund our August rent. When I returned to my apartment later Tuesday evening, they did indeed come have have it cleaned. Victory!!

I did, however, sweep the kitchen floor for the remaining dirt and debris (as they only did like an 80-85% job) and I disinfected the toilet again. I have high hygiene standards and, damn it, they will be met!

Other
So I emailed the director of MCW to see if my deposit form and money had been received. They indeed have, so that's taken care of. I should get something in the mail telling me what to do next sometime late this week or early next week.

The two undergrad professors I emailed have agreed to write me letter of recommendations for my GSI application (some places call them TAs). With a bit of luck, I will be a GSI teaching some undergrad course next semester. This means that my public health tuition becomes free AND I get a decent stipend. Woot!!

These past couple days things have been falling into place quite nicely. Now, I should shower and maybe read more . . . but who am I kidding, I won't do that until tomorrow. XD