Back from St. Louis

I hope everyone had a fabulous, relaxing, work free Thanksgiving. I know I did. I didn't do shit. Actually, that's not true....

I pretty much met all of the Scientist's family--his aunts and uncles, grandma, and cousin's family. They all seemed very nice, although I didn't get a lot of time to talk to each of them individually. His grandma seemed especially sweet, and for 90 years old she seemed really really with it (who still does crosswords at 90--the only person I know who will still be doing crosswords at 90 is Jake).

On Saturday night Steve and I went out with two of his friends from high school, Ice Cream man and his girlfriend, Candle Girl to the Hill, an Italian neighborhood in St. Louis. Everyone had so much pasta and toasted ravioli (a St. Louis thing; afterwards, everytime I told anyone that I had never had toasted ravioli they all got these incredulous looks on their faces and said, "REALLY?") we could barely move and punked out early. We're all 32 and 30 respectively and we're already going to bed at 11 on a Saturday night during Thanksgiving break. Christ.

It was, in all, a really nice, fairly stress-free weekend. I still love St. Louis and would not mind moving there with Scientist next year, and I got to spend time with people he loves while not overdoing it. Hopefully Christmas will be the same, although I doubt I'll be able to go to STL because of my shitty minimum wage job. GRRRR.....

Two Pairs of Jeans

You'll have to forgive me if this entry is a little loopy. I had a really nasty nightmare last night that I was being tortured in someone's basement, and, as a result I was awake for three hours in the middle of the night. Why is it that even if I fall asleep after being in the middle of the night, I still wake up super tired?

Our trip to Chicago was great. I got some good relaxation time in, as well as having a dinner with Brian twice. On Friday we went for some very mediocre Ukrainian food in Ukrainian village, and then went for some beer afterwards. I forgot to warn Scientist that Ukrainian beer is about twice as strong as American beer, so he was staggering a bit at the end of the night.

Seeing Brian was great: I've been thinking about Ukraine a lot lately, so regailing Scientist with stories and speaking a little Russian, was nice. I wish Brian could come to Iowa City and see me in my element, now that I've seen him in his, but alas, grown-up things like work and school have kept that from happening thus far.

We also had a great culinary weekend as well. On Saturday night we went for Indian food at a place called Gaylord India (its downtownish, on Clark) and had some super spicy Indian food, which was a nice change from Iowa City, where, unless we have our Indian friends with us, no one believes that we, and more specifically me, can handle seriously spicy food. In fact, when we were ordering one of our friends said to the waiter, "These two can handle it spicy." I ended up getting what I asked for. Any spicer and it would've made me cry. Literally.

On Sunday I ended up buying not one but TWO pairs of Levi jeans. This is a major coup for me for several reasons: a) I'm 5'2 so finding jeans that fit and I don't have to have shortened is difficult, b) these jeans totally fit well and look super nice on my body, and c) I got two pairs for $70 bucks, which ain't bad if you refuse to get cheap jeans that fall apart in the wash and make your ass look huge like you would if you bought them at Walmart. Honestly, this alone brightened my entire weekend.

Tomorrow I probably won't be posting, seeing as how Scientist and I are heading to St. Louis for Turkey Day and won't have access to e-mail quite as often as I do at home. I hope you all have a wonderful day with people you love, relaxing and enjoying time off.

Chicago

I know this is going to come as a big shock, but Scientist and I are going out of town this weekend.

Scientist is presenting at an Immunology conference this weekend, and since I LOVE CHICAGO and we're so attached to each other we can't even be apart for a weekend, we decided it would be best if I came. That, and I threatened to break up with him if he didn't take me.

So, off to Chicago we go. I'm super excited, not only because I love Chicago (I always thought it'd be nice to move there some day when I have a job or something), but because I'll get to see my bestest friend in the whole world, Brian. I haven't seen Brian in almost a year, so it will be super cool to hang with him in Ukrainian Village, the neighborhood where he lives, drink Slavootich, and speak in Russian.

Speaking of all things Ukrainian, on Thanksgiving Day it will be one year exactly since Brian and I left the land of borsht and vodka for Europe where we bumbled around for 3 weeks after our Peace Corps service ended.

I don't think I've fully absorbed the fact that it's been 1 whole year since I last saw Oksana, my host mother, Lubov Illinichna, my lovely Russian tutor, and Evgenia Alekseevna, my one and only ally at my school, along with a numerous other people I loved while I was a volunteer. It's hard to believe that's it's been so long.

I don't write about Ukraine too much on this blog because I'm still sort of processing everything that happened. That, and I realized during the course of my PTSD treatment that my entire Peace Corps experience was colored by the fact that I was desperately trying to come to grips with my accident and how much it totally fucked with my head, that, and I was trying to hide from everyone around me how much I still thought about it and how frustrated I was that I couldn't stop feeling anxious and scared. All that makes me very very sad....but that is for another post and another time.

AAAACHOOO!

Man, am I sick. My throat hurts, I can't breath out of the right side of my nose, my ears pop every time I blow my nose and my sense of taste and smell are totally shot.

This probably won't surprise a lot of you that knew me during Peace Corps, when I was sick constantly, but since arriving home I've only had a cold twice. Stupid me, I was under the mistaken impression that, because my immune system had taken such a beating for two years while I was in Ukraine, that now that I was back in the U.S. where everything is so god damn clean and people are crazy sanitation freaks (have you seen the handy wipes they have at the grocery store--completely unneccessary), I wouldn't get sick. Alas, not even my super robust immune system can escape the first round of winter colds circling this winter.

Election

It is nice to see we didn't screw up this election like we did in 2004.

I don't remember the last time I've as unpolitical as I am right now. Honestly, I don't read the paper more than once or twice a week and, as ashamed as I am to admit this, I didn't know a tremendous amount about the candidates I voted for. Now, that being said, I didn't just vote for whoever. I voted Democrat--as any good, smart American would.

I think part of the reason I've tried to distant myself from reading the paper is because of the war: I don't know how I feel about it anymore, and honestly, I'm so frustrated and confused about who actually did what, who said what and where the hell we're suppose to go from here, I've decided to stop reading about it. Maybe it's not the most responsible thing for me as an American of voting age to do, but its what I've chosen to do for now. But just for now.

Grey Bears

This weekend with Scientist's parents went super well. Friday night we went to Cedar Rapids and had some of the richest lasagna I've ever had in my life (Scientist had meatloaf, as did his mother, which I think, made everyone happy because it meant he'd finally shut up about how the great the meatloaf was and just eat it). Thankfully, everyone loved their food, so I scored points for choosing the restaurant.

As expected my mom and Scientist's parents hit it off. My mom and Scientist's mom, especially got along well. Another for the win column.

The rest of the weekend went pretty well also. I worked Saturday and Sunday morning at the butt crack of dawn, which kind of sucked, but I made fairly good tips for a Saturday morning.

Speaking of suck, don't even get me started on how the Hawkeyes played against Northwestern. Jesus. I can't believe we lost to Northwestern.

Then, Sunday night after the Grey Bears had left (that would be my cute nickname for Scientist's parents), Steve and I made ourselves a really great dinner. We used to do this all the time this past summer, but unfortunately our schedules have gotten sort of crazy these past few weeks and we haven't done made anything in a long time. Anyway, we made this Morroccan stew with ginger, beef, lentils and garbonzo beans and then a side of the yummiest zucchini frittatas. God, it was so good!

Next weekend will be, hopefully, equally as mellow. Then the weekend after that we're heading to Chicago where I hope to see my dear friend BRIAN (who has not e-mailed/called me in ages, ahem!) and where Scientist is presenting at a conference. The weekend after that we're going to St. Louis for Thanksgiving....It's going to be a full November.

This Weekend....

This weekend should be fun. Scientist's parents are coming into town for the Iowa vs. Northwestern game, so I'm most likely going to be busy doing stuff with them. Tonight we're going to CR to meet my mom and all 5 of us are having dinner at a place called Granite City. We went there for my birthday well over a month ago and Scientist is still raving about how totally awesome their meatloaf and mashed potatoes dish is, so he insisted we go back there again.

I think my mom and Scientist's parents will get along really well. My mom's job is very similar to Scientist's dad's job, and since all my mother does any more is work (much to my chagrin), they'll have plenty to talk about.

I spent all day today cleaning, doing laundry and working out. Normally, I wouldn't have cared but, I needed to get all my stuff done by 4:30 when Scientist's parents are suppose to arrive, plus I've had a long two weeks of school and I was really looking forward to unwinding with some coffee and a book. Alas, I'm a big girl and I stuff I needed to get done, plus I had nothing to read. Oh well, at least I got the coffee.

Seriously Irritated

Okay, so I skipped my Biostats discussion today, which, in and of itself is not good or really excuseable, but, in this case, is totally understandable. Here are the reasons why:

First, I took an extremely difficult Epi test (Epi= Epidemiology for you non-public health folks) today which fried my brain completely. I was so frustrated afterwards: I studied quite a lot for that damn test and I'm not sure I'm even going to get an A.

Secondly, I'm still pissed about getting the exact same score on my Biostats test as I did on the last one even though (again) I studied like a madwoman, re-worked all the problems on the homework (and got them all perfect) and paid close attention to everything my professor and TA said. I know I shouldn't be too irritated--the class average drop 10 points and mine stayed the same.

Finally, the College of Public Health.....Jesus, where do I start? I turned in a new (sort of) letter of intent for the Global Health program today in hopes of being admitted to the GH program for spring 2007. I had gone around and around with the new secretary about whether or not I needed to submit a new application or application fee for my most current effort (this is to get into department I should've been admitted to anyway, but whatever). I explained to the new secretary that the old secretary told me that, no, I didn't need to fill out anything else or submit any new materials, seeing as how nothing else had really changed other than the fact that I was being cool enough to put forth a lot of effort and take two math intensive classes, which, truth be told, are really hard for people IN the program, let alone for a poor shmuck like me who has had no math at all since high school.

Unfortunately, even after clearing this up I get a call this afternoon from a woman with a really urgent sounding tone in her voice saying I needed to make sure I filled out a new grad application for the Grad Admissions office right away. I patiently explained my situation, and that I had been over this before with both the new and old secretary and we had determined that no, I did NOT need to fill out a new form, but this woman insisted I fill out a new form. When I told her, in my I'm-really-trying-hard-not-to-scream-right-now voice that I was told explicted that I DID NOT NEED TO FILL OUT A NEW FORM by the old secretary (who had been there for years) the new woman said, well, that's too bad but "there was nothing I can do about it now, retroactively". This...well, this pissed me off.

So, I dragged my ass out of bed, called Graduate Admissions and was promptly told that no, I did not need to fill out another form. All admissions needed to do was send a new recommendation form to the College of Public Health to be filled out by whoever regarding whether or not I will actually be admitted to this damn program. Then she asked what program I was applying to. I told her and she said, "There is no Global Health program." I tried to explain to her that it was housed, so to speak, in a different department, but this woman kept cutting me off and telling me she didn't know where to send the form because the department that houses the Global Health program doesn't offer an MPH (um, I'm pretty sure this isn't true, but I was not about to argue with her). After explaining again and again everything I know about the program I know exists, and to which I'm applying to this spring, I gave up.

After I got off the phone with this woman, I was ready to throw the phone across the room. These people really do not know their heads from their asses, and in an effort put everything in its place, they've completely organized themselves into disorganization. On the surface everyone looks like they know what their doing, but really, they don't.

Eventually, I got a call from the woman at grad admissions saying she was sending my grad application materials to the department that houses Global Health (um, I TOLD YOU TO DO THAT TO BEGIN WITH) and everything was cool. I asked her if I needed to fill out another application. She said absolutely not and she didn't know why I was told to do that to begin with, since the College of Public Health already has everything they need anyway.

So, you see, I ditched my class so I could go to the gym and sweat out my frustrations. Don't you think that was the right choice?