e-Waste

Early this morning, baby C and dad actually went to Wal-mart and Frye's to dare the Black Friday crowds in hopes of picking up a laptop for something around $150. To no surprise, they were all gone and no one was available to help them out. Secretly, I had hoped they would come home with a story involving fistacuffs and hair pulling, but in reality, this Black Friday seemed rather low-key. In fact, every Black Friday since the dawn of internet has been low-key. Whatever happened to soccer mom's getting ugly or strangers holding each other at gunpoint for a Furby? It doesn't really feel like a Black Friday without a story. I think I was trying to live vicariously through them--you know, like experience the long lines without actually experiencing the long lines.

But anyway, since dad didn't get the laptop he wanted, baby C and I were thinking that maybe the four of us kids would combine our funds to buy him a Macbook! I mean, mom and dad are terrible when it comes to virus protection and compressing their computer, so at least by switching over to Apple, they'd never have to worry about that. Plus, there's the built-in webcam so they can Skype the Philippines, and I let dad borrow my laptop for a week and he seemed fine with the Mac interface. I haven't run this idea by N yet, but big C is definitely down. Hell, she was so down she went out to buy a MacBook Pro herself, hah! I'm glad she's converting to the likes of Apple, meh heh heh!

And speaking of electronics, since I was sick & bed-ridden all day, I was left to do some Black Friday shopping on Amazon, which btw, has awesome deals! I ended up getting a new printer. I consider it a school investment. I couldn't pass it up--it was 74% off and laser! I currently have big C's old printer, and when I say old, I mean like more than 8 years old. The trade off to getting a free printer was getting a printer that eats paper and is completely unpredictable when and how it'll print. It got to a point to where I had to print each page individually and for each one, I had to turn off and on the printer, insert a "sacrificial" page, and keep my fingers crossed that the printer wouldn't totally fuck up. At that rate, I could no longer consider it "free" when I was losing out on wasted paper, time, energy, and hair being pulled out as a result of frustration. I would end up having to get up early to print at school anyway and invest a good $40/mo just to print at the clinic.

But now, I have a new printer coming on Tuesday, yay! I also just learned that Washington and Oregon's Department of Ecology provide a free, environmentally responsible e-Cycling program for old printers and other electronics, including computers, monitors, and televisions. I may try to convince my parents to take advantage of this program for their old TVs, especially since they've been in talks of getting a new one for their room anyway. Hell, some of the TVs they have at home date back from our Houston days. I think one of them is so old, it isn't even compatible to the new digital format that took over the state, yikes!

post-edit: oops, I just learned that the e-Cycling program does not include printers, but Staples has a recycling program where you can take old electronics in and they send it out to recycling plants. You have to pay a $10 handling fee for bigger items like printers, but I figure that's not so bad considering I'd be getting rid of clutter and it's environmentally sound!

SNOW DAY!

Today was pretty awesome because not only did it snow (before Thanksgiving too! Looking forward to a white Christmas), but UW also decided to close campus. In fact, we just got word that it'll be closed tomorrow (Wed) as well, so I don't have to worry about my clinic, yay! *does happy dance* I don't care how old I am, snow days will always make me giddy as a school girl. To make things even better, baby C came home after graduating from basic training. To celebrate, dad treated us to rodizo lunch at the Ipanema Grill. Nothing to fight off the cold like warm, lightly charred hunks of meat served freshly sliced tableside, yummm.

During my trek downtown, I also managed to visit some old friends at the market, stock up on bulk spices, and pick up new jars to store said spices, so now my cabinet is occupied by more than just peanut butter, salt, pepper, and vanilla extract (what? I like to bake...).

The only downside really was that CL was sick, and being cooped up together in my little apartment, it was inevitable that I got sick too. Plus, I did dance around in the snow last night, so I suppose I could've gotten sick from that... but actually, due to my dancing in the snow, my upstairs neighbors saw me out their window and invited me up for some warm cookies and a cold beer, it was quite cozy. And speaking of cookies... now that I don't have school, I may just bake a batch of my own. I was thinking of staying up, knitting little snowmen into the wee hours anyway. How lovely would it be to have cookies baking in the oven, sitting on the couch knitting while watching "Pride & Prejudice" on the color-box?

No 2:30 feeling later

Lately, my daily schedule has consisted of the following:

• around 1200a: pass out, usually while doing homework. This often leads to falling asleep in awkward positions and drooling on textbooks
  
• 300a-400a: wake up to finish work
• 700a-800a: get ready for class
  
• 800a-900a: head to class
  
• 830a-600p: function anywhere from zombie-esque levels to euphoric exhaustion
• 600p: fight urge to pass out
  
• 605p: "nap" on desk (by which I really mean, pass out again. Beginning to get accustomed to textbooks doubling as pillows)
• 800p: dinner
• 930p: homework
• around 1200a: pass out
  
• repeat cycle

I'm really trying to regulate and get caught up on everything, but at this rate, I might just have to get use to something like this, yikes! While this style of living certainly doesn't seem to be the healthiest, I really do have to wonder if it's optimal. Hell, if it works, it works, so why fight it right? Or is this the sleep deprivation talking...?

Meat is murder. Tasty, tasty murder

I got my first organic produce bin today! I'm so excited to cook all sorts of things with this stuff now. I'm not a very good cook, and I know even less about preparing vegetables, but I just ordered this vegetarian cookbook on Amazon. CJ and I have made some real delicious stuff from this book (i.e., amaretto cake, sweet potato au gratin, cream of leek soup), so it was about time I owned a copy for myself.

What I'm really excited about with this company is that each bin is already set. They own various local farms and whatever they deliver depends on what's in season and ready to harvest. It's like a fun mystery of organic fruits & veggies! I don't know what I'm gonna get til it arrives, it exposes me to crazy & fun food items I probably wouldn't have thought to buy otherwise, and lets me experiment with different recipes. In fact, their site offers a "Recipe of the Week" with each bin, so one of my goals is to make what they're featuring. And this week is:

Roasted Winter Squash and Spinach Salad With Toasted Almond Dressing

Courtesy of Gourmet

post-edit: in case it wasn't clear, I do eat meat, mmm

Of hotdogs & peglegs

I'm reminded yet again why I'm doing what I'm doing! Let me clarify: I just had another session with my client today, and it went really well. Not only did he rock it out, but I felt like I accomplished what I set out to do. Admittedly, I still felt hesitant during the session, but after getting feedback from my supervisor, it gave me confirmation and more confidence in what I'm doing. In fact, she even commented on how my approach addressed some issues that I had not originally even intended it to, but that it was beneficial in the end. I don't mean to sound so cryptic, but that's the nature of my job (HIPAA). I guess what I'm trying to get at is that I came into today's session with some goals, and I accomplished them & then some.

We also got our first exams back today. Unfortunately, I didn't do so hot in that... surprisingly, though, I'm not too phased. I think I'm still riding this post-session high, hehe! Perhaps not the best approach, but with how crazy school has been, at least let me indulge in this glowing moment of accomplishment, hee!

Disbelief

Sometimes I feel like such an imposter in grad school. Today, we had our first midterm for our "Childhood Articulation and Phonological Disorders" class, which we were all equally stressing about. Still, my being overwhelmed must've been apparent because a few of my classmates commented on it. I know I was stressed because for one reason or another, I didn't study as much as I would've liked. That's natural. But I think on top of that, I have this secret, underlying anxiety and sometimes I wonder how I got in.

For instance, studying with some of my classmates today and in the past, I feel that though everyone is more or less struggling, that they have their study habits down and can retain information easily. There's some stroke of genius amongst my peers. I think I lack that. Ever since I could remember, my grades and performance in school have been decent because of working really hard to achieve what seems like par for others. Like, for example, in middle school, I was that kid who stayed up til 2 in the morning to complete what my classmates did til 900p.

Granted, I don't want to sound dramatic here. To be fair, I've been warned that this is a common feeling/insecurity felt by first year grad students the world round. But I guess I've always felt pretty slow, and that was really apparent today. That's what makes me wonder how I got to where I am because it seems like most people need a balance of natural genius and hard work. I worry that being older, I just don't have the energy I use to to work hard and if I don't have that, what am I left with? Perhaps this is a sign that I need to start drinking coffee... nnggg.

Gap face

I was really hoping for this weekend to be productive, and it certainly started that way, but man am I exhausted right now! I've still barely had anytime to study for my exam this Monday and I was hoping to get some in now, but I've been entertaining a kid and that's exhausting. Did I mention that I don't even like kids? So trying to entertain one is like working at the mall: you pretend to enjoy what you're doing to make people you don't even like happy. It's mentally draining, but I suppose I'm at least getting good practice for when I'm gonna have to work with kids in the clinic.