I just

updated my blog profile to say I'm in Burlington instead of Brooklyn. I guess I'm really here. Updates on my med school adventures coming soon:).

Good Night Moon: An adult bedtime story(ish)

I'm home for a few days before the big move, and I've decided to clean out my closet at my parents' house. My bedroom has a lot of history. My brother and sisters have all shared this room with me or each other at one point or other while we were growing up before it officially became my room. As a result, even after moving out everyone seemed to have a claim to the closet and it became kind of a black hole for all the unwanted junk in our household. Now I get to clean it out. Besides all the random appliances, maps and globe, tape recorder, bags, and roller blades I've found so far, I realized I'm shedding a lot of my past history tonight. So to commemorate here's


A Conversation with a Closet

Good-bye first skirt I picked out myself. With you came the beginning of the end of an awkward period in middle school where the only items rotating through my wardrobe were two pairs of jeans and oversized turtlenecks that my brother had rejected.

Good-bye mint green and powder blue everything. You carried me through high school and most of college, but time has taught me that we don't bring out the best in each other.

Good-bye sparkly red built-in-bra tank top, you were with me through many an awkward frat party.

Good-bye overly trendy tops from studying abroad that I never really wore again.

Good-bye fluorescent blue clam diggers, we had some good times but they are definitely over.

You can stay rhinestoned Sagittarius T-shirt that's way too small for me. You too giant red sweatshirt that I got compliments on in middle school.

Good-bye size small and x-small. Let's be honest, there was never really a chance we'd get back together.

Good-bye counterfeit Polo shirt I bought in the Philippines. I'm not sure why I thought a fake one would be a good addition to my wardrobe when I never wanted a real one. In that vein, good-bye Havanas flip-flops and Couch bag.

Good-bye belt that loops around twice. I never really figured out how to wear you.

Good-bye godawful jeans, how could I have worn you in public?

Good-bye overalls and linty shawls. Good-bye torn and overly worn. Good-bye studded belts and whatever else. Good-bye clothes I never wear and good night clothing everywhere.

The end:).

I feel like I just viewed the Matrix

I was a resident camp counselor for a summer in college. One week a little girl who'd spent the whole week crying but suddenly didn't want to leave when it was time to go home asked me what I was going to do after she left. I explained that more campers were coming and that we held a new session every week. Her jaw dropped in shock that camp would go on with or without her. Well, at 25 years old I just had a similar moment of revelation:

I clicked that 'sign into AIM option' in gchat and signed into aim for the first time in almost 4 years.

It Blew My Mind.

I felt like I just opened a porthole to another dimension. There's a whole other world of people who are online at the same time as me that looks sort of like the world that I'm used to, but slightly different. Kind of like the goatee-ed evil people in the mirror universe in South Park.

It was too much for me and I quickly logged back into my comfy gchat dimension. My aim name is a little too uncool to drag into my mid-twenties anyway.


In other news, people still use AIM?

Same old

New educational methods aim to guilt trip kids into saving energy: TellEmoting Polar Bear

I think we've seen this before, anyone else remember Frank the Fish? To this day I don't leave the faucet running. I can't remember if Frank gets that credit or my parents or DuckTales.

To be fair, a polar bear affected by global warming is a lot more high concept than a fish who's lake is directly draining through my faucet. Maybe kids today are smarter than we were.

(As a slight aside: I do think these marketing campaigns work on kids to a certain extent but more as general reminders than direct messages. I don't think I ever believed my faucet was rapidly lowering sea level. I did understand that keeping the faucet running was wasteful and maybe bad for the environment, so it was something that I didn't want to do.)

Damn Straight

Last night (well I guess two nights ago now, I should really be in bed. Why is not staying up late watching television so hard?) Stephen Colbert confirmed what I have known all along: cilantro consumption just ain't right.

Here's the video:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Cinco de Mayo Precautions
colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Gay Marriage

I think by "soap" he means "grossness."

Dear Walk-in Hair Salon People,

Please stop trying to thin my hair without my permission. That is the work of tools.

Sincerely,
Diana

Itchy Links

How does scratching relieve an itch?

Itchy brains

Itchy news

Vindication!

Happy Friday:), courtesy of Elikabeth.

Awesome

I'm probably the last person to discover this guy, but I enjoy this.

Clueless

Me: Did you see what's going on with the bapineuzumab trial?

My Boss: No, where'd you find the article?

Me: Google alerts.

(I'll never be a respected scientist).

Maybe I'll start being a vegetarian:-/.

We Told You Chicks Are Good at Math: They Count, Add, and Subtract 80beats Discover Magazine

Posted using ShareThis

Especially in light of the fact that one of my bosses just asked me to send him a spreadsheet showing my work because he couldn't understand that I'd multiplied all the values by 4.

CyClone Milk is the perfect way to start your day.

My friend Liz just showed me this. I assume it's a hoax.

While I'm here, here's something else kind of odd. I'm a big fan of Owen and Mzee (and really any inter-species friendship story), but I think it's weird that they think Mzee has a hippo face on his butt.

Cover the Uninsured Week

is almost over...sorry for the delayed post:

http://covertheuninsured.org/

Stupid free brownies

One isn't enough, and 5 is too many. There's just no way to win.

Location, Location, Location

Two Part Post-

Part I: a haiku

On Oatmeal

In bowl so yummy
A glob falls on work report
Suddenly so gross

I had oatmeal today, and it made me think about how location can be important to perceived worth. Something might be part of a delicious breakfast, and a mere two inches away become slimy garbage that stains your papers right before a meeting.

Part II: departures and arrivals

I'm in the denouement of my time here in NYC, and I'm starting to feel more poetic about everything. I've decided to start filming and posting all my trip departures and arrivals. Cheesy I know, but whatever, I like the way it looks. I wish I'd started earlier because I would have a pretty good collection. For now, a trip often travelled over the past few years:

Here's me leaving western Mass.



And here's me coming to NYC (I exercised creative use of the zoom so get excited.)

Here's one more of coming to NYC just for kicks.

I'm a neurotransmitter

Being a grown-up is fun

This weekend I went and visited my nephews (I have two now!). They're like new pets that I don't have to clean up after. Actually, I guess they're more like new babies that I don't have to clean up after. Well, really, they ARE babies that I don't have to clean up after.

Anyway, that was a good time. Then I came home and gave my fridge a much needed cleaning. I found my ipod shuffle, a long-lost hair barrette, and something that I might have found beautiful had I found it growing at the bottom of the ocean. Unfortunately, it was instead located in one of my favorite pieces of tupperware (REAL tupperware, not reused take-out containers), which I had to sacrifice because I was too scared to clean 'it' out.

Lesson learned.

Happy Fall!

I'll admit it, I don't like Halloween. I know I'm going to sound like a loser, but I don't think I've had a fun Halloween since I was 10. My Halloween memories are full of being left behind at frat parties by drunken friends or having to fight Japanese subway style onto the third bus that has passed at 2 am Boston for an hour long ride home. Besides, every Halloween since college I've moved into a new apartment, and we all know how much fun it is to move.

I do, however, love candy and always will. I'm going to reach back to one of my earliest Halloween memories and name a girl I knew growing up, Katie S. In kindergarten one day she brought in a singly wrapped orange pumpkin candy for a snack. It caught my eye when she bit into it to show our teacher, Miss Colton*, it was actually a marshmallow. Katie S. would grow up to speed through life and master karate and buy a house and have a baby by the same age most of us are proud to rent an apartment with 5 roommates, but I didn't know any of that then. I only knew I wanted that marshmallow pumpkin. I wanted it so badly I had a dream around then where I had one of my own and when I held it up to show my classmates they all accused me of stealing it from Katie S. (Yes, I really remember all of this).

Every other Halloween or so since then, I remember that Marshmallow Pumpkin and wonder where it came from. Of course, marshmallow peeps are always prevalent, but it couldn't have been a peep since they're not individually wrapped. Was it possible I imagined the whole thing?

Then the other day I saw these in a Duane Reade:
I promptly forgot the toothpaste I'd set out to buy as the memories all came rushing back to me. It had been awhile since I'd last thought about them, and I wondered if I still wanted them. Plus, I'm trying to be Eco-friendly, I don't really think individually packaged marshmallows are necessary for someone who lives by herself. But, if I didn't buy them, I'd always wonder about what might have been. So, against all odds I picked them up and set them on the cash register counter. They rang up at a startling $4.32, but I convinced myself that $4.32 is a small price to pay to indulge youthful dreams.

They were TERRIBLE! They weren't marshmallowy at all, they were chewy and weirdly vanilla flavored. I stuck them in the freezer where I stick everything that I don't know where else to put in my kitchen, and there they'll stay indefinitely. Halloween had made a mockery of me again! Boo Halloween and all its eternal disappointments! I'm just going to hole up and wait for Easter, the only holiday that produces candy worth acknowledging (besides Christmas and Valentine's Day).

In other food news, I'm going to the Big E this weekend, and everyone else should too! It's the greatest fair in the world, ask any carnie.

*I normally refer to women who are not Mrs. as Ms., but we actually called her Miss Colton (it was the eighties).

I forgot

to mention the best part about my successful bubble tea experience from last week (see previous post). Upon completion of my drink, I realized I had to call my college roommate who introduced me to bubble tea and is the only individual to ever try to help me overcome the flaws in my bubble tea consumption. We're good friends but we don't get to chat much because she's busy with medical school on the west coast. Anyway, as I'm picking up my cell phone to call her to let her know her support was not in vain, I notice my phone is blinking because someone is calling me, and of course it's my college roommate just randomly calling to keep in touch!

I'm not a phone person, so I didn't answer right away. I called her back after listening to her voicemail and we had a good talk. It's so weird how often it happens that you're just thinking about someone, and then randomly cross paths with them.

I'm into listing things these days.

I just realized I had a pretty good week last week. Here's a list of the highlights:

1. One morning, I scored over 1000 points playing Parachute on my Ipod. I was only shooting for 100+ points, but I think the game malfunctioned cause they stopped dropping parachuters on me. I just kept shooting those helicopters, so I count it as a win. I like to pretend the helicopters are rats and the parachuters are spiders.

2. I got a bubble tea and for the first time ever, I finished the boba at the exact same time as I finished the tea. Normally I drink all the tea before I realize what I'm doing, and end up with a ton of inaccessible, delicious-looking boba at the bottom.

3. My lab presented at ICAD with exciting results. I didn't get to go but I helped with two posters and my supervisor was only supposed to show them for half an hour each and he ended up staying for four hours for each because there was so much interest. It was pretty amazing to see all the work from the past two years summarized on a poster, but I don't feel like going into that right now. I will say that when my PI was showing one of the posters to the clinic girls I got so excited I clapped by accident.

4. My PI was taped for the 'marketwatch' section of the Wall Street Journal online, and I'm in the background which gave me something to tell my parents about. Check it out:
Me me me me me
I show up somewhere between 2 min and 50 seconds and 3 minutes and 11 seconds. I was fairly taken to task by my lab friends for not wearing gloves, but to be honest I wasn't really working.

I should really go work on my secondaries...(this is how I seem to end all my posts).