Small world.

Maybe this has something to do with NYC...but on Friday, I ran into someone I graduated high school with. My graduating class had only 60+ students but I ran into one of them. How crazy is this? I participated on a linguistic research study, and one of the participants looked kinda familiar. But I couldn't quite figure out who he was. Then, at the end of the experiment, he said "I know you!" Turned out, he was Keisuke from OIA (high school). I just couldn't stop saying, "Oh my god!!!" I talked to him and his friends for a little while after the experiment. I hope I will get to hang out with him sometime.

Another good thing happened on Friday...I got a new camera phone for free!!! So far, I'm loving it. It's cool to be able to take pics when I'm walking around.

Dave was visiting from Friday to Sunday. As usual, we had a great time. I wish I didn't have to worry about my school stuff, though. I was anxious over the grade for the assessment paper that I turned in last week. I really want to get an A for this class, so it's very important get a full score on this paper. But I really don't think I will...ugh. so worried that I might have screwed up on the paper... Anyway, back to the original topic. We went into the city on Sat. I did some readings at a coffee shop in the morning, while Dave read some magazines. Then, we went to this famous pizza place in SoHo--it was crowded, and most of them were tourists. We probably won't go back there again. I like that pizza place by Brooklyn Bridge better. Did some shopping in SoHo (or, at least Dave did). Had dinner in East Village, but this was another disappointment. :-( Everything was overcooked and hard. I think the best part of his stay was when we were just hanging out at my apartment, probably. sigh. Anyway, I hope he had a good time.

I might be getting sick...feel kinda warm, tired, and have sore throat. I'm gonna go to bed early tonight to be prepared for another crazy week.

can't believe...

today (yesterday?) was 4/20...i guess i grew out of it. so tired. my brain is fried. can't wait for the weekend. Dave will be in town, i think. time to collapse on bed.

what a relief.

I thought I failed the history and psy exam. What a relief to find out that I got an A- on it.
been quite busy and sleepy lately. Feel bit burnt out, too. ugh...the weather is nice but it's not enough to cheer me up. So much to do, and so little time to do them all. I had a cup of coffee around 7pm and could still go to bed around midnight--this is how tired I was.

Anyway, I'm happy to find out that I did OK on the exam. what a relief!!!

spring...or summer?

It was soooooo warm and sunny yesterday! It made me so happy!!! This is the kind of weather I love--70-80 degrees with lots of sunshine. I just want to take a nap at some nice park...perhaps, at the Central Park??? Cherry blossoms are at their peak, probably.

working on Assessment paper...ugh. It's nice that we don't have a final exam for this class but it's such a pain having to write 3 short papers. And, we have to give a presentation, which will be 20% of the grade. I know the TA's hate this class because they have to grade lots of paper! I hope I won't be assigned as a TA for this class next year...(which will be very likely, given my mentor is teaching the class)

So stressed out about work. too much to do! here are some stuff i have to do
1. write cognitive paper (20-25 pages)
2. run subjects for my reseach project
3. revise encyclopedia definition for the publication
4. write research method paper
5. study for cog psy and history finals

sooooooo much work!!! I hate school!!!!!!!

good weekend and bad exam

On Friday morning, I decided to take a bus to Hartford for the weekend. It's only $30/roundtrip by famous Chinatown bus, and I need to take some break from NYC. I packed up my bag and went to school to do some work. I love my laptop but not when I have to carry it to school/coffee shop/etc because it's sooooo heavy. Anyway, got a good amount of work done during the day, and had lunch with Chiung-Yi and Chloe. We went to this salad place called, "chop't" They make your own salad for you, just like at Cosi. Very fresh and tasty...but kinda expensive.

Got on to a Chinatown bus at 34th street on Friday evening. The bus went through Manhattan to Bronx--it was kinda nice to have a quick tour of the city. The scenery changed drastically from the Upper East to Bronx, though. The bus ride was about 2.5 hour because of the commuting/weekend traffic, but it wasn't too bad over all. Once we got out of the city, the traffic was pretty smooth.

Hartford is a mid-sized city (i think) but I felt like I came all the way to some country side and it made me realize how busy and crazy it is in NYC. Needless to say, I had a very relaxing weekend. Here's a quick overview of the weekend.

Friday night: got to Hartford and checked out Dave's apartment--nice sized apartment, and actually it seemed more cozy and comfy than his old apt.

Saturday: woke up early out of my anxiety over History & Systems exam on Monday. studied from 7am to about noon. went to some organic/vegetarian cafe for lunch. had very healthy lunch but killed the purpose by eating ice cream afterwards. studied bit more in the afternoon/evening. had dinner at some Irish bar. very nice weather!

Sunday: slept in and felt good. nice weather once again. studied in the morning while cable guys came to the apt (btw, they were hilarious). had lunch at a Japanese restaurant (chicken teriyaki and tempra) and studied at Starbucks. came back to NYC by Chinatown bus. the driver was a crazy maniac and drove 80 mpr on speed limit 55. i thought i was gonna die. but i got back to nyc in one piece and got back more than 30 minutes earlier, so it's all good.

woke up at 5am on Monday to study for H&S exam. I did really, really bad on the exam, and it almost made me cry. I still feel crappy about it. But since there's nothing I can do about it, I decided to start studuying for the H&S final, so I can bring up my grade a bit. so much anxiety.

Overall, I'm glad that I went to Hartford for the weekend. I felt so refreshed! :)

MORE beautiful weather

I can't say this enough...what a beautiful weather!!!! I love, love, and love spring! I know the weather won't stay this way for long but I'm enjoying so much! I wish I had more free time to just sit outside and relax, though. Hopefully, I'll get to do it once the school is over.

Bit burnt out from babysitting. I go to 2 families and will start a new one tomorrow. The total hours per week is about 10, but it seems much more than that because I have to go across the river to Jersey City. This supplemental income is definitely helping me, though.

Want to buy nice spring shoes. Want some spring clothes. Anything spring is good!

Again, had a good meeting with my mentor. I'm so motivated about my research project! It's kinda draining thinkin about conducting interviews but I'm confident that I will get very interesting results. That's the beauty of qualitative research--there are so much to be discovered because the data is not just bunch of numbers.

Been staying up late these days (till 1am or later), and I've been pretty tired. I don't know how I used to do this last year; going to bed at 1am and getting up at 7am. I ended up staying up till 1:30am last night, too, working on NY state tax return. ugh. I should wrap this up and go to sleep soon...

wanting to do something this weekend...at least, go out for dinner on Friday night.

beautiful weather

It was such a beautiful weather today! I love spring and summer. love warm weather more than anything else. Only thing I wished for today was to have windows in my office. spring has come??? warm weather always makes me happy!!!

It's only 11pm right now but i'm sooooooo exhausted because I stayed up till 1am last night. I'm gonna call it for a night and go to sleep in a bit.

daylight saving time

It's really nice when it's still bright at 6pm. I love daylight saving time! I sometimes think that I operate by solar energy...I get so energetic when it's sunny and bright.

Had a busy day. Submitted the IRB application this morning, did 4-hour babysitting, went directly to class, and did some work after class. I'm exhausted! It's almost 1am now. The funny thing is, I'm not even sleepy. The time change is messing up my sleep schedule. Last night, I had trouble falling asleep and had a hard time getting up this morning.

I just realized that I have a History midterm next Monday. I guess no more trip to DC this coming weeknd, then. Plus, Chiung-Yi won't be able to go with me because she was sick over the weekend and have so much work to do. Too bad. Maybe I can go see cherry blossoms in Brooklyn. Heard that Brooklyn Botanical Garden has beautiful cherry blossom trees.

should go to bed now because I have so much work to do tomorrow. sigh...

this is too funny.

This is just sooooo funny, and I had to tell someone about it. But since I don't have that many friends, I'm turning to my blog. hehe. I don't think I wrote this on my blog before, but I check profiles on online datin services (e.g., match.com) just for fun. (in fact, I found one of my ex-boyfriends on one of those services before--that kinda cracked me up!) Anyway, I found someone I know on one of the websites...someone I know from school! How do I know? Because his pictures were posted. What is more...my friend thinks that this guy likes me!!! Should I e-mail him and tell him that I want to meet up??? Perhaps, we can meet at school??? hahahaha.

I'm considering on-line dating stuff. After all, it's not too different from meeting some random people at parties, right? I still have a bit of aversion toward online dating but maybe I should give it a shot???

I went to the mall this morning to get a new modem for our cable internet and to do some shopping. Sunday morning is the best time to shop, I think. The mall was pretty much empty. This is probably because a lot of people are at church in the morning. I would love to go shopping next Sunday as well. When I talked to my mom a few days ago, I got about $600 for New Year's money (otoshidama)...so I have a bit of spending money. Oh, wait, I'm gong to DC next weekend!!

getting old?

Alex's b-day party was nice and relaxing...it wasn't as wild as he wanted it to be, though. Only 8 other people showed up to the party, and I wish more people showed up. Alex seemed disappointed because not too many people came :( Anyway, the party was okay. Had 3 beers (yes, I was successful in controling alcohol intake). I left the party 1am and got home around 2am. I hate latenight subway services because I have to wait for trains froever!! Anyway, I slept in this morning till 10:30 or so, which is very unusual. But I was still exhausted all day andeven had a 3-hour long nap! I think I'm getting old..can't do any more of those late night parties. (well, I stayed out till 4am last weekend...I don't know how I did it.)

Meeting with Dr. Schober went well. He signed my IRB form, so I'm gonna submit it on Monday.

It's raining so hard today!!! I got soaking wet on the way back from school. Need to do laundry and go grocery shopping but I guess I have to postpone it till tomorrow.

April fool's day

I so much want to play practical jokes on people!!! It's April fool's day and it's also Alex's b-day today. Oh, I need to pay rent, too. There will be a b-day party for Alex tonight at Billy's apartment. I don't know how many people will show up, but it should be fun. I will try to mingle with bunch of strangers. And, I have to keep remind myself about the meeting with Dr. Schober on Sat at 2pm. Don't drink too much, Shihoko !!!!!

I might go to DC next weekend to see the famous cherry blossom festival...this idea just came up to my mind yesterday, while I was doing work at the lab. I really miss cherry blossom season in Japan. We, Japanese people, have strong attachment to cherry blossom :)

My mom told me that she'll pay for the airfare if I decide to go home this summer. yay! It'll probably have to be in late June or early July because the comps will be in the mid June. I can't wait to go back to Japan! I miss all those crazy fashion in Japan, good food, mom's cooking, etc. And, it'll be fun to meet my sister's boyfriend. Maiko told me that her boyfriend really, really wants to meet me because he's also studying psychology. Should I present myself as a mean sister??? hehehe.

Looking forward to this weekend for some relaxing...(and some partying!)