If I Were to Write a Test Right Now

The first question would be...

1. Would you rather*:
(a) Eat fish sticks for lunch and dinner everyday for a month (February counts). Fish sticks for breakfast would be optional.
(b) Eat a meal from Sonic that I purchased and sent to you on the next business day (note: I would probably buy it on a Saturday)
(c) Become a vegan

My best friend from IL and I worked together for nearly 6 years and during our downtime (i.e. the majority of the day) we would write each other faux mid-terms that included questions like the one above. While feeling low the other day, I wrote her a test. It was the first one in over a year. I had such a hard time thinking of things to write that it almost made me feel worse. I used to be so creative (or so I thought). Unfortunately, now my brain is so math-focused that I find it difficult to think about anything else. I hate it!

In an attempt to prevent further deterioration of my creativity, I signed up for a French class next semester. One of our degree requirements is to obtain the ability to read in at least one other language. The department strongly recommends that we take our language classes during the summer, but I am sticking it to the man and taking it when I want to take it.

I remember going through undergrad thinking why do I have to take all of these nonsense classes? How is Tolkien and Fantasy Literature going to help me in the future? When am I ever going to pull out my Women in Scripture notes? Now I know the answer: to keep me sane. If I took all classes in one area back then, I would have never finished. Plus, enrolling in those random classes helped maintain the flow of my creative juices.

2. Life is a Highway. Naturally, you want to drive it all night long. What kind of car do you want to drive it in?



*Answer: (a) but for breakfast you choose to eat a meal high in fiber to cleanse your insides

Where's Gloria Gaynor When You Need Her?

There are less than two weeks left of school...then finals week (blah!). In order to get myself through it I have allowed "I Will Survive" to play in the back of my head throughout the day. Luckily, I got through my presentation last week without any noticeable mistakes. Unfortunately, there were so many questions to be answered throughout the presentation that I did not get to finish. Thus, I have round 2 to look forward to tomorrow afternoon. On the upside, I have two other people working with me to get through this paper so I hopefully I can count on them to help field the questions from the audience.

I cried in a professor's office yesterday. It wasn't a hearty cry. It was a I'm so frustrated that my eyes fill up with tears and they drop down my face while I'm talking/listening to you type of cry. That happened at about 11 am so they pretty much set the tone for the rest of my day at school. In total, my eyes leaked out my body's frustrations five times yesterday (all of which occurred at school). In my defense one of the five times, I sort of laugh-cried. I was talking to one of the few other girls in the department and we started laughing about the fact that I couldn't stop them from coming. We also talked about our professors' goal of breaking us graduate students down to nothing so that we lose all confidence just so hopefully years from now we will truly know what we know. I think they are doing a great job of reaching their goal.

Enough about that. My life has not been totally upsetting these past few weeks. For instance, I have had great pleasure observing a pair of my mathlete peers that recently started dating. The girl is 20 and the guy is roughly 26. I guess you could say that they make a good couple since they both apparently give the BIGGEST most obnoxious looking hickeys I have ever seen [on a person's neck]. Oh how I love being surrounded by socially awkward people that reach their hickey stage in their early to mid 20s.

I Wish I Had the Option of Conning Somebody into Calling Me Out of School...

I have to give a presentation in my research group today. There are roughly 10-12 people in the group, 3 of which are professors. Our group is "studying" a newer area of mathematics called Tropical Geometry (as my Russian professor likes to say, it's "hot"). I use the term studying loosely as understanding anything that goes on in our meetings requires several years of prerequisite courses that neither I nor 4 of the other first year graduate students in there have been exposed to. I guess you could say the purpose of the group is to throw us unexposed people in with the experienced people so we can talk and get a feel for what is going on in mathematics today.

Either way, I am extremely nervous. I do not mind talking in front of people...as long as I know what it is I am talking about (makes sense, right?). As a group we are going through a paper titled "Automorphisms of Free Groups and Outer Space". If you can tell me what those words mean I would be grateful as I have no idea. Ok, correction: I know what the words mean but when putting them together I become lost.

The goal of my presentation is to get an idea of what a specific example of "outer space" looks like. Unfortunately this is not outer space in the sense of astronomy, but in topological space (again, somebody please tell me what that is because I am not entirely sure.)

I planned on putting the finishing touches on my presentation last night, but after taking a test, spending 10 hours at school and returning home to realize that I left my house key in my office, I knew that doing anything other than laying in the tub and putting songs onto my new Ipod (yay I got it finally!) would cause a mini-nervous breakdown. Instead, I decided to go to sleep at 8:30 last night, which I was able to do with ease and without taking any kind of sleeping medication. So, I woke up at 5:30 this morning and I have felt great all day....until about 15 minutes ago when I realized that I have less than 2 hours until my presentation.

Now I want to go home, crawl into bed and hide under the covers...Save me!

Half Empty or Half Full?

Actually it looks to me like it's either 3/4 empty or 1/4 full. I'm swaying towards 1/4 full*. If you are wondering, the answer is: Yes this is the exact wine glass I was looking for this weekend. I spent a decent chunk of my weekend scouring the area for this beautiful, large wine glass and I was without luck. Last night I even went online and searched for places to order from. Unfortunately, and rightly so, not many places deliver cheap wine glasses. Where did I find it and its partner glass (that's right I bought two)? Kroger, the local grocery store! What are the odds that on the day they decided to have a produce sale (big enough to mention in my blog), I happen to venture off into the wine section where they have a gorgeous wine display with these glasses used as fillers? As a mathematician, I naturally calculated said odds and here are the results: pretty high. Seeing as the wine aisle is two aisles before the ice cream aisle, I walk past them every time I go to Kroger, which is at least twice a week (hey a girl has to have something regular in her life). Plus, the glasses have probably been there the entire time that I have been shopping there, and I have never noticed until now. Well back to my school work...

*It doesn't matter. What does is that the bottle is EMPTY! :(

Feeling Low?

Then run from it while listening to Ingrid Michaelson's The Way I Am. Try not to belt it out. Just try. I heart her voice and I think you would too.

One of my guilty pleasures is listening to my Ipod. It's my escape from EVERYONE here. At least I try to make it my escape. My Ipod is several years old so the battery does not hold charge as long as I would like. Oftentimes when I am in my office I will just put the ear buds in even if the battery is dead to give the appearance that I do not want to be bothered. I figured it would be the nice of way of saying "Leave me alone, I don't want to talk to you or anyone else" without having to say it. However, seeing as nearly everyone here is socially awkward they don't read the sign so they just stand next to me until I acknowledge them. Sometimes I make it a game. How long will you stand next to me quietly waiting while I don't look up????

Anyway, I recently gave in and searched for a refurbished Ipod in my price range. Lucky me I found a good deal on an 8 GB Nano that should be delivered this week. The only pitfall is I could only find one in a gaudy sky blue tone. As long as I can actually tune people out with it instead of faking it, I'll be happy.

In other news, my wine obsession has been going strong. I actually do not have my own wine glasses, though. I have been using my roomies', which are plastic (thankfully so...she is clumsy when sober). If I am going to do this, I need the right equipment. What I really want is an unreasonably large wine glass of my own. My guests can use the plastic cups...unless any of you readers comes over to have a glass...in that case, maybe I should get two. I went on a mini hunt for my glass of choice yesterday, but came home with no such luck. Any suggestions?

Oh, Potential New Roommate stopped by Friday afternoon. She is a reporter for a local newspaper. She seemed like somebody I would get along really well with i.e. somebody that I would become friends with regardless of us living together. She seemed to really like the place, area, us, ...however she wants to think about the cost before she makes her decision. Keep your fingers crossed.

Que Shiraz Shiraz

Update: I have a latest mini-obsession. I started buying wine last week and since then I have been drinking a class almost every night.

My parents have become winos over the past few years and after I turned 21 (actually probably before) I would on occasion drink a glass with them during dinner. I was itching for a light buzz a few nights ago and I was not looking forward to the bloaty aftermath of a cold beer so I bought a bottle of wine instead. After scouring the local package store (i.e. southern liquor store; you can use that one with your friends and boggle their minds; it sure as hell boggles mine), I finally found one of my mother's suggested bottles. It's called House Wine. It is a delicious red made from a mixture of grapes. Plus, the label looks like a child wrote the name and then drew a big house in the middle, which just made it that much better.

Now I am sipping on a Shiraz. I couldn't place the taste of a Shiraz when I was at the PACKAGE store so I bought a trial bottle. If you have a suggestion of a wine you like let me know. Oh, and please keep it in a poor student's price range.

In other news, one of the roomies' boyfriends stayed here over the weekend. It just so happens that her bed is directly above mine. Needless to say I am happy that he is leaving in a few minutes as I will not have to fall asleep to the squeak of her bed tonight. I have not talked to her that much while he has been here, but I am not sure how long I can hold in my burning question: What intense non-sex act (she is a virgin; correction, as of Friday that was her status, now I'm not so sure) were they performing to create that much squeak?

Lastly, in my news, Loverboy and I have made the decision to live with each other during my summer break. I am looking for full-time tutoring positions around his apartment. On top of that, I am trying to find a third roommate to fill in for me during the summer and stay after Cat-Obsessed Roommate moves out in August. Know anybody?* If you do, send them to my ad on Craigslist.com (i.e. my second current obsession).

*Perhaps if you got a hold of Georgia Niecy, she would accept the offer.

I Need Advice

What is a good way to say, "Bitch, you drank the rest of my milk and now I am pissed at you?" without turning the situation into a big situation?