need more calcium?

I'm feeling annoyed for no specific reason. Calcium deficiency? maybe. Stressing out about the comps? yeah, probably. I'm going to take some calcium (yogurt and vitamins) after finishing this entry.

I'm a frequent customer at Starbucks in my neighborhood. As usual, I was studying diligently at Starbucks tonight. Then, one of the guys who works there talked to me. He said that he was curious what I was studying because I'm always studying there. hahaha, I guess I go there too often. I should have asked him some questions, too. He probably thought that I'm a stuck-up b****. I'm afraid that I lack social skills...I really don't know what to say to strangers most of the time.

Starting from tomorrow, I will be house/cat-sitting for my mentor. She and her husband are going to some resort town in Cali--I'm so jealous! For the next 10 days or so, I have to work my ass off for the comps. yikes.

I really don't recommend grad school to people who hate studying because it never ends in grad school. summer break, spring break, etc. are the time to catch up on work, not the time to relax.

mass updating

So, here's another mass-update.

last Thurs: had our first study session for the comps. felt a little overwhelmed, but I went out for drinks with Chiung-Yi afterwards and felt little better

last Fri: went to school late but got some work done. moderately satisfied. took a Chinatown bus to Hartford to spend weekend with Dave. to my surprise, he cooked dinner...and dessert! It was pretty yummy. It tastes special good when someone cooks for you, ya know. made me super happy.

Sat: went to a street fair in W. Hartford. here, I made a fatal mistake. walked around for 2 hours without sunscreen on. stupid me. I think it was the first weekend this summer to have a nice weather, and I was too happy to even think about sun protection. i was baked and turned into a boiled lobster. ugh. drove to a winery in New Hartford. tasted some yummy wine. very satisfied. it would have been better if the mapquest direction was clearer and didn't get lost. for dinner, we went to this Mexican restaurant, then went to a outdoor bar, next door. very, super good Sat.

Sun: woke up at noon and still felt that I could sleep more. sunburn was killing me and decided not to go home. wearing a shirt was painful enough, and there was no way i could tolerate 2 hour train ride back to nyc. had a lazy, relaxing day. had a lobster tail for the first time in my life--quite yummy. pizza for dinner, yum.

Mon: slept in till 9am ;-) did some work at coffee shops, and finally sent the speeding ticket back to the court. i got this ticket in middle of nowhere ny and they don't tell me how much i have to pay until i send the ticket back to the court. very strange. anyway, finally made it back to nyc at night. it was kind of a relief to be back to the city.

Today: babysitting--same old stuff. i've started to freak out about the comps. i will put more effort and time into studying tomorrow. but for now, i just want to relax because it's too damn hot!!! my apartment turns into a sauna during the summer time. bad air circulation, i think. but it's definitely better than miserable cold winters!

vacation

I finally finished first draft of methods paper and turned it in before I went to the Niagara Falls for Memorial Day weekend. phew... Trip to Niagara was fun. My roomies and I decided to save one night stay at a hotel by leaving 3am on Saturday. We drove for aobut 8 hours and finally got to Niagara around 11am on Sat. It was a long drive, but was kinda fun at the same time. When we were driving in middle-of-nowhere NJ, we almost ran out of gas. This happened around 5am, and every gas station we stopped was closed. Then, we realized that there's no self-serve gas station in NJ. ugh. stupid NJ state law--they do nothing right. Anyway, we were close to PA when that happened, and we had enough gas to make it to PA. lucky us.

Falls were AMAZING!!! It would have been better if the weather was nicer, but no complain. We still had a great time. Since all of our visa status were in-between, we could not go to Canadian side. sigh. That was the only regret. We were still able to get on to the ship that goes really close to the falls and that was actually so much fun. After spending a few hours at the falls, we went to rest at our hotel.

In the evening, we went to downtown Buffalo. Accoridng to a driver at the hotel, so much is going on in downtown. so we were looking forward to a night of crazy fun. But when we got there, it was like a ghost town. there was nobody walking around, except for this one street. Anyway, we decided to go to Anchor bar to enjoy buffalo wings. Their wings were really good!!!

On Sunday, we went to Finger Lakes to tour some wineries. Oh, boy, we had so much wine!!! And, they were all pretty good. Also, the weather was really nice! If we didn't have to rush through the wineries, we would have had a picnic by the lake. I purchased a bottle of wine called, "Niagara." It's a very sweet, fruity wine. It will be nice to go along with a picnic on a sunny day.

On Monday, we drove back to NYC. The traffic wasn't as bad as we thought. It was a great opportunity to chat with my roomies and to get to know them better. But bad thing happened. I got a speeding ticket!!! It was the first time ever in my life to be pulled over by a cop. ahhhh. I was sooooooo scared. :-( According to the police, I was going 82 on 65. ugh. I'm soooo mad at myself for getting a ticket.

Anyway, other than the speeding ticket part, the vacation was filled with fun. Moreover, we came back home safely. Overall, I had a great Memoridal Day weekend!!!!