Friday, August 25, 2006

Whine whine whine

Sweet baby Jesus, I'd forgotten how much I hate applications. I hate them. I hate them alot.

I recently learned that deadlines for applying to several schools I was interested in are around September 15th. Say it with me now: Ahh. Ahhhhh! It seems as though I'm the last one jumping on the application train, too.
Oh God.

Why, why am I always scrambling around to get things done? Why can't I ever do things properly?How on Earth do other people manage to be so on top of things?

Perhaps the worst part of all of this is that the last time I applied to university was a mere two years ago, and I really don't feel as though I've learned anything since then. I still get confused by the whole process, and end up crying with frustration in front of my computer.

On top of it all, I still have to submit a scientific paper to my professor by the end of August (I haven't started), I'm scheduled to get my wisdom teeth removed next Monday (it's my first operation), and I still haven't finalized my September courses. I'm going to take a nap now; maybe when I wake up everything will be okay.

Saturday, August 19, 2006

MCATs

Aaaaand... 10 hours after they began, my MCATs are over.

That was long. And hard. Harder than I expected. But, I am alive (thank you all for your concern, and for putting up with my drama).

Now if you'll excuse me, I believe I have 3 months' worth of summer to catch up in 10 days.

Friday, August 18, 2006

So, about that exam tomorrow...

Oh God.
I am nervous nervous nervous nervous nervous.

It doesn't help that everyone has been lovely and I know that this is all blown way out of proportion and really not that big of a deal. Right.

Right?

Thursday, August 17, 2006

More David-isms

I just have to post this, because it made me giggle, and also because it's allowing me to procrastinate for a few more minutes.

My friend Dana went to get her hair cut by David. She was, as you can imagine, thrilled, and walked into her appointment clutching a picture of her dream haircut.

That was a mistake.

David took one glance at the picture and shortly announced: "You don't want that haircut."
"O...kay?" Dana replied, confused.
He then proceeded to work on her hair with the same zeal he showed for mine. To top it off, he straightened, gel-ed, and blow-dried the entire thing when he was through with it (something I'd asked him not do do with me). As Dana stared wide-eyed at her new, amazing hair-cut, all she could think was: Oh no! Now old ladies are going to scowl at me from the street!
But rest assured, it really does look great. And, like myself, she loves it now that she's had a little bit of time to get used to the change.

But perhaps my favorite part of the whole exchange was what happened on her way out. David was triumphantly grinning at his creation, when all of a sudden he starts frowning.
"Now, we're really going to have to colour this next, you know."
"C-colour? But! This is my natural hair colour!"
David sighs before retorting with:
"Oh God sweetie, I know."

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Recipes

With the MCATs three days away, it's hard to tell if I'm working hard...

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...or hardly working!

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Emily gave me candy for my birthday, and I've been munching on them all day. Speaking of which, the birthday was splendid, but that's a post that is going to have to wait until next week.

I actually wanted to share a few tried-and-true recipes today. If exams have taught me anything, it's that eating properly is possibly the most important thing to keep up if you're feeling stressed out. Anytime I give up on cooking and rely on ramen noodles, I know the situation's bad! So here are some quick and easy exam recipes that I've been using recently...

Fajitas!
This one's very easy. All you need is: chicken breast, a tomato, red or orange peppers, onions, mushrooms, salsa, sour cream, lime juice, and whatever else you feel like tossing in.
Slice and dice all of the ingredients (except for the salsa, sour cream, and cheese, which are added as condiments), fry them in a pan with a bit of oil, and wrap everthing in a burrito. Be warned: don't try and wrap them in pita bread, like we did. The results in one messy ...fistful... of food! But oh so yummy.

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Gazpacho!
Another easy summer classic: combine one cup of tomato juice, a tomato, half a cucumber, onions, half a clove of garlic, half a green pepper, celery, (and any other vegetable lying around really), a tablespoon of red wine vinegar, a tablespoon of lemon juice, and finally dried estragon and basil. Combine everything together in a blender and purify!
Serve cold with crumbled crackes, diced cucumbers and tomatoes. Mmm.

Zucchini Bread
Ok, I'll admit I stole this recipe from www.allrecipes.com. But it really is amazing-- moist and sweet and really easy to make.

Happy cooking!

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Scents

Well, I was at the grocery store this morning (yes!! I finally went shopping! It was actually rather enjoyable; I have no idea why I put off getting groceries so spectacularly every time... But that isn't the point of this post), when the strangest thing happened.

I could smell my mother.

More specifically, I could smell my mother's perfume, the ever-recognizable Ysatis, by Givenchy. Before I knew it, my knees felt like jell-o, and I was frantically looking around trying to locate the source of the scent. It turned out being a little old lady, and I could help but feel a little dissapointed, even though I knew that my mother was currently halfway across the world.

I never can get over how strongly our sense of smell is tied with our memories and emotions. Which smells mean something to you?

Friday, August 11, 2006

Uh oh

Sorry about the silence, guys. The truth is that I get virtually no work done if there's a computer around, so I'm basically trying to keep my distance.
I'm reaching a critical point of laziness. So far, I've run out of...
-Fruits
-Vegetables
-Pasta sauce
-Bread
-Meat
-Shampoo
-Soap
-Toothpaste

...Don't worry, I actually went out and bought soap etc. yesterday (I figure that, yes, I'm french, but I wouldn't want to perpetuate that particular myth). The food situation, on the hand, is worse than ever. I'm running out of milk, too. I think that will be the last straw.
I did cook up some mean chili with whatever I could find lying around the kitchen (canned beans!), but chili is hardly something you crave for in mid-August.

So the MCATs are in 8 days, woo! The thing I've discovered about exams is that there's no point getting a panic attack over them, because in the end, you're either prepared or you aren't. At this point, I'm just taking a bunch of 8-hour mock-tests so that the day of (hopefully!) even if I panick, I'll be able to fill everything out of habit.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

47 degrees.

It's too hot to sleep. Waaah.