October

October has been a rough month.  Thank you for the words of support regarding my grandma's passing.

I had a lot on my plate in October, and it didn't help that I was struggling to maintain my self-esteem as a student.  I am wondering if maybe I just need more time to adjust to studying again.  I've been out of school for four years, and maybe I am no longer used to memorizing information as quickly because I am out of practice.  I was very depressed because I only barely passed our first exam, and the only reason I did better during the second exam was because my cadaver lab practical exam score boosted up my total test score significantly.  I really liked dissection though.  I thought it was interesting to see all this variation in different bodies, and even though dissection takes out 3-4 hours of my day, once I find something, I will know it forever.  

I think my physical exam workshop instructor picked up on the fact that I was kind of mopey and offered his time to talk about M1 year and to talk about his current M3/M4 students.  I think I'll take him up on that offer, just to gain some perspective from someone who's been through that experience and now works with students.  

Some things I need to work on: improving my life balance.  I'm fixing my sleep schedule now.  I also need to get off my butt and get back to running, buy a gym membership, or do exercise videos at home.  I may just settle for doing Insanity at home until the rain lets up, then try jogging again before it snows.  I want to buy a gym membership but I'm reluctant to enroll because I'm trying to be frugal.  I'm finding it hard to read ahead of class.  If I'm lucky, I finish one set of reading before one of my classes, but I've never pre-read for all of the next day's classes.  

There have been moments when things are good.  One of my classmates realized that we've been very isolated this past month due to our study habits and went out for hot cocoa one night.  We had our lab practical and multiple choice test on the same day, and I didn't feel like cramming last-minute information into my brain (although I probably should have).  Instead, I made pumpkin pancakes (from a box mix, but still good).  It's hard to make pancakes and eggs on a stainless steel skillet without burning it...but I did it.  I forgot to buy maple syrup, but I had fancy honey and it was just as good, maybe even better than maple syrup.  

Also, it's my first time being in the midwest, so I got to experience a real autumn.

Now all the trees are naked and I track leaves indoors every time I come home.

California Academy of Sciences...and Ice Cream

Will preface this by saying thanks to Solitary Diner and Ah yes, plans and other non-blog-o-sphere friends for the input on my job situation. I have decided to leave, and am trying to hurry things along. There are just too many things to deal with that shouldn't even be problems, like, "Hey, I thought I submitted my direct deposit for the second time last month, why hasn't it kicked in yet?" Or, that one time I overslept and asked my coworker why he didn't call to remind an elderly, forgetful patient to come downstairs, he responded, "Why should I? It's not my fault you were late." If I knew he would be such an ungrateful prick, I wouldn't have covered for him all those 15+ times (not an exaggerated number) he missed work by leading exercise classes that should have been his responsibility.

Anyway. Oversleeping is bad mmmkay. Moving on...ice cream!!!

Friend of mine had her wisdom teeth extracted, so naturally I briefly crawled out of my hermit hole to laugh at her puffy cheeks to celebrate. We went to the Ice Cream Bar. They make their own ice cream and the soda is made right in front of you.

Brownie sundae with one scoop of bourbon and caramel  ice  cream and vanilla ice cream.

Zombies! Vampires!!

I read Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith in the past four days. I preferred the Abe Lincoln/vampire hunter mash-up. It read more like a drama/biography, and I liked the photographs of 19th century vampires thrown in for good measure. It had a little bit of a conspiracy theory plot thrown in too. I can understand why people liked it so much. I think I reserved this book from the library in March, and I just picked it up on Friday.

P&P&Zombies felt kind of over-the-top because the author threw in ninjas and Shaolin kungfu, but the original book was pretty light-hearted and Mrs. Bennett was pretty over-the-top as a character...so maybe it does fit. It was still a fun read, especially because I imagined Colin Firth's version of Mr. Darcy slaying zombies. teehee.

Both books were pretty fast reads. Maybe 3-4 hours each day over the course of 4 days, with a good chunk of that reading occurring during my bus commute and lunch breaks.

The Nom-of-the-Weekend: Chinese desserts

Black sesame paste (black sesame seeds blended into a paste and then cooked in a pot) with glutinous rice balls

From the establishment's Yelp.com page

Mango sago with fresh mango cubes:

From the establishment's Yelp.com page

It's basically a mango slushy (crushed ice, mango juice and mango bits blended) with fruit and sago. I had to look up sago to find out where it comes from. In desserts, they're small transparent pearls. Apparently, it's made from the starch extracted from the spongy centers of tropical palm plants. They don't taste like anything, but I like to have it in these desserts.

These can all be made at home. It's easy, just time-consuming.

Homeroom

Next stop, Homeroom macaroni and cheese restaurant! 90% of the menu is some variation of mac and cheese. The remaining 10% are sides, beverages and dessert. All pictures were stolen from user-posted pictures from the restaurant's www.yelp.com webpage, because my pictures aren't as good. The restaurant is in Oakland, CA. I rarely go there for food because San Francisco has plenty to eat and I have to pay toll, but I had to go there for an orientation and met up with friends who work in that city.

The restaurant's main decorative piece. The arrows show where certain things were brewed/grown.

Spicy mac and cheese. I don't remember what was in it exactly, and the online menu hasn't been updated. Mine had a lot more red pepper flakes though. I also asked for them to sprinkle bread crumbs on the surface. As far as I know, all of them are baked in the oven for a certain amount of time...so food does take a while to come out.

I also ordered the Veggie pot pie to go for whoever wants to eat it at home. I did take a bite out of it though. It was deeeelicious. 

I took this picture with my crappy phone. 

Another thing that I thought was cute was their "frequent diner cards." Some stores or restaurants have a card for frequent customers. Every time you eat there, they give you a stamp and after 10 or so visits, you get one free meal or free item. This restaurant bought those dewey-decimal card cabinets that school libraries use to keep track of their books. It's cool to see it again, but I never liked going through the cards. Actually, I hated school libraries in general. There were always boogers on the books. Or a squished bug. I always used my allowance to buy books because they would be booger-free.

This last item was a gift from a friend. He mentioned that there is a Pyramid brewery near his work place, and offered to buy me one of their specialty beer brews. I usually like the Pyramid brews I've tried so I said "hell yeah!!" I was expecting a pint-sized bottle or however much a wine bottle can carry. I wasn't expecting a whole jug. The best part was having everyone stare as I carried it out of the restaurant.

Angry Bird plushie for size comparison. 

I'm also excited by the fact that this jar looks reusable. Hooray for practicality! I had to pay for his dinner because he bought me a giant jug of beer.

I get really excited about beer in general. Not enough to be a snob about it, but close. I have a lot more fun going to breweries than wineries...even if I'm the designated driver. I've given up on wines. There have been a few wines that I have liked, but not enough to want to consume a full glass or buy a bottle. It may also be that most of my friends prefer red wines, and I've noticed that red wine tends to give me headaches. Then again, cocktails make me nauseous unless they are mixed with real fruit and fruit juice...not that syrup crap.

Okay, I admit it, I'm a food snob.

The total amount of nom-ery for one person, including a non-alcoholic beverage, is about $15-$18 after tax and tip. For the Bay Area (which includes San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, and other places I don't care about-kidding!), it's a pretty good price. I can eat out for less without resorting to fast food. I still have to budget very carefully, otherwise it's easy to exceed $100 or even $150 on dining out each month. In general, I try not to dine out at restaurants where the meal exceeds $20, and I'm only willing to pay $40+ for a meal if it's a special dinner. There are also certain times of the year when I dine out a lot, and months when I never eat out.

If or when I make it into medical school, I definitely won't eat out as much. I gotta eat all these things now!!

The Last Summer (Maybe)

But before that, a picture of our baseball ball park with a rainbow. I haven't been to a game in a while.  This picture was from the days when each ticket was $1 off every time one of the pitchers, Tim Lincecum, struck 

out a hitter. 

Yesterday was my med-school-bound friend's birthday + going away party. It was also held in conjunction with her little brother's birthday party. It's not in this photo, but there were four cakes. One birthday cake for each person, a medical school cake, and a random cake-sized fruit tart just for funsies (!!). The medical school cake was a Napoleon cake and the round dome pictured is a Princess cake.

I don't know what it is with her mom, but she cannot or does not judge how much food to order for the number of people coming. Three cakes is really, really not necessary and four is just too much. It's not just the fact that some of it probably gets tossed, but also because my friend will make us play a horrible, horrible  game that involves making the loser eat food.  (I say "horrible" in a very tongue-in-cheek way because, you know, true hunger and starvation is genuinely terrible)  She always picks the food item that our group collectively did not like.  This year, it was the princess cake. The cake is way too sweet for me, even without the marzipan coat. We played a card game this year. Each person had to guess whether his/her card was higher or lower than everyone else's card, without knowing what his/her own card was.  The player has the opportunity to keep the original card or swap from the deck and hope for a higher one. The two people with the lowest cards have to eat cake.  I can proudly say that with two people colluding against me, I was the last man standing, winning by the narrow margin of cake icing and marzipan. She is a sadist. 

Ugh, my stomach hurts just thinking about cake. I don't want to eat cake for a long, long time. 

This might be the last summer where 90% of us were together in one group, because this sadist friend was kind of the common denominator for the girl-group and guy/nerd-group.  I'm not particularly sad about seeing people go. I think more along the lines of, "Hey, that's cool. You get to do something really cool and maybe fun."  Mostly, I hate that feeling of being left behind, doing not-fun and not-cool things.  It's a lame feeling, but I'm not the only one who thinks that way.  

As my friend puts it, "Who will we have wine-jug parties with now?!?! The two of us can't finish a whole jug of wine!!" 

Love Me Some Oysters

ETA: oops, didn't realize the font settings were smaller than usual. Fixed!


Big "thank you!!" to Solitary Diner for including my blog on her list of "Lovely Blogs" =)  


My list is pretty short, as most of them are pretty well-established already or are of the "web comic" persuasion. 


Ah yes, plans  has a kewl blog about life, medical school and living with neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome (which is well-documented compared to my own blog entries about my torn glenoid labrum, because I was lazy). Also, she's funny :D She was also an Art History major, which I also think is cool because, why not? 


Never Seconds has a huge reader base, but I like it. It's run by a young girl from Scotland and her super supportive dad. She posts about her school lunches and allows kids/parents/teachers from around the world to chime in and show pictures/reviews of the kids' school lunches. They also raise money for an organization called Mary's Meals to feed children in Malawi, Africa. 

Today, I waited a really, really long time (close to two hours) for seats at the Swan Oyster Depot. The time went by pretty fast, since I was talking with a friend, nicknamed Dogs/Dogga, the whole time, but yikes. I haven't waited that long for anything since going to Disneyland. We each ordered a half dozen oysters, pictured below, a shrimp cocktail and a bowl of clam chowder. I loved the clam chowder. The clam chowder didn't look appetizing, but it had a lot of clams in it and tasted really good. I don't think I like shrimp cocktails at all...and for some reason it was really filling. I could have had more clam chowder!! darnnnnnn. 

For the oysters, I liked most of them. I don't know anything about oysters, and couldn't really hear what our server was telling us, but Dogs and I gave them nicknames based on flavor. There was "tide pool flavored" aka light and refreshing, "tropical sea flavored" aka also light and refreshing, "ocean flavored," and "deep blue sea" (the two biggest ones) which was okay. Our least favorite was "Fish-counter flavored," because it was like the smell of a fish market but in your mouth. I don't think that one was as fresh as it should have been. I've actually never had raw oysters before, so I didn't know what to expect. The ones I liked were light and smooth, and tasted good with lemon juice. 

Tomorrow, it's back to focusing on my secondary applications. I have three to work on. I've started on one, been brainstorming for the second one, and the third one will be accessible on Monday. I've slowly been doing research on each school. I'm not sure what would be the best way to organize info. So far, I've been typing up an outline for each school on a Word/Google document that lists the mission statement, principles, and unique aspects of the program that stood out to me. I also list any special requirements for the secondary, or just things that I should take note of just in case, like the maximum number of letters of evaluation. It seems like a huge waste of time, but I think if I didn't make this a systemic process, I'll get my apps mixed up. I also think it helps to have a clear view of each school's values and differences in curriculum and electives. That way, I can write a response and tie it to an anecdote that is both relevant to me and what this particular school stands for. 

That's what I learned in B.S. 101. Just kidding. :P

Holy Beer Batter Garlic Fries, Batman!

Beer batter fries are crispy, delicious golden morsels of goodness. I just wish it came with more garlic, so I could part the crowds of the Jazz Festival with a breathy "Hhhhhhhhhhhhhello there." Beer batter mushrooms are also good, which I've had on a separate occasion. All I need now is for someone to make beer batter sweet potato fries. Somebody make it so!!!

I also ate deep fried kool aid, which is basically a donut made with mixing Kool Aid "juice" powder into donut batter. Kool aid itself is icky because it's pure sugar with artificial fruit-flavoring and the blue and purple ones stain your teeth. But the donuts were good.

For the record, I don't regularly eat things that are fried.

The jazz fest was fun but I only walked through the streets to listen briefly to different bands play. Most of the bands were playing slow blues, while my friend and I were more in the mood for upbeat music. There was a lot of food at the festival, which I didn't eat.

I'm still working on my personal statement. I'm getting sick of it. If this was paper, I'd crumple it up and eat it in a fit of rage. There are a few people looking over my statement (thank you!) but it's still tough. I've also gone to the Student Doctor Network forums and asked one of the volunteer proof-readers to take a look. I may take that reader's advice with a grain of salt. I gave the recommendations a fair shot, but given the way I write, I think it just introduced a lot of redundancy. I like what I have now and feel that it best preserves the flow of my P.S given my writing style. That may change tomorrow.

At a certain point, very soon, I'm just going to abandon it in favor of submitting my app.

The other day, a friend asked me how I summoned the discipline to work constantly at my app/MCATs. I told her that her point of view is probably distorted, because we spend everyday comparing ourselves to other people. I think working part-time helps, as opposed to being a full-time student in her case, because I have extra hours in the day to live life. And by that, it means I go to the gym, take the bus home, and shower. I don't have to study for classes, or do homework, or write a thesis or anything like that. And occasionally make time on a weekend for jazz festivals. More importantly, I'm not where I want to be in life. For me, that's the biggest motivator of all.

I didn't say all those things to her though. Being the sucky friend I am, I just told her to "suck it up and do it" :P

Food Cures Everything

"Mingle smash!"

That's how I felt most of last week....There's a certain individual (not a patient) that my coworkers and I have to deal with occasionally - chip on the shoulder, thinks everyone is out to get him, lies, doesn't listen to explanations and then accuses you of withholding information, acts entitled and calls you racist if you don't concede to his demands.  Some adults are worse than kids, I've learned.

After dealing with him I treated myself to not one, but TWO Philly cheesesteak sandwiches (not in one day though).  Oh yeaaaaah.  I've never been to Philadelphia, and so I don't have a frame of reference to judge whether a sandwich is "authentic" or not, but good eats are still good to me even if it's "fake."   The second place I tried was kind of disappointing, though.  I'm not a glutton but that sandwich pictured below was pretty damn skimpy.  I was actually sad.  I always thought it was an unspoken rule of thumb that, for hot sandwiches made fresh, the white part of the bread should never be visible.

Trying to stay focused on studying...It's tough :[  I like listening to Audio Osmosis lectures (by Examkrackers) and reading their study guides to get the facts memorized and learn mnemonics.  For practice problems, Kaplan has better problems that get me used to the "MCAT lingo."

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!

New Year's Eve was pretty subdued for me...I studied, I procrastinated, and I briefly attended two NYE parties, both of which are pretty subdued compared to previous years.  Someone brought pretty cupcakes, but I had so much food I never got around to eating them:

omnomnom

...All that icing scared me too.  I'm not really into these fancy shmancy cupcakes, although they are pretty to look at.  I like regular cupcakes with regular chocolate/vanilla icing and sprinkles.

Next up, I went to another friend's house for our annual NYE's Bad Movie Bash.  Last year we watched Kazaam with Shaquille O'Neil, this year we picked Troll 2, which was so terrible it was hilarious.  I'm not sure if we'll be able to top it next year.

Another present from a patient - mini almond cookies!!  I have no idea what this brand is called.

My coworker (CW) and I also received another box of chocolates.  It made up for the fact that we had to work on a Friday.  When CW asked if I was going to share the chocolates I glared and said, "Hell no!  You crazy?!  We had to work today!  They goin' in MY belly!"  (Evil Boss made the two of us work, but the rest of the office got the day off.)

And finally, I caved and paid an extra $10 ($72 total) to buy this Clipper card, which the city sells as a pass for all the local transit systems in the area:

It's $62/month for unlimited use of all the bus systems that travel within the city.  The extra $10 gives me access to the Bay Area Rapid Transit aka subway system, which gets me from work to the gym MUCH faster.  I still have to transfer to a regular bus line to get home, but at least I can circumvent all the homeless people and crazy people that take the bus in and around the office =/  Now, if drug stores like Walgreens would just install a Clipper reader so I can use it to pay for things like juice and water....
(Hong Kong's Octopus card is a pre-loaded card you use to pay for bus fares annnnnnnd you can use it at many of the local chain stores to buy food.)

Red Egg Party

A white bread bun made to look like a Chinese peach

Last weekend, my cousins hosted a Red Egg and Ginger party to celebrate the birth of their daughter, Chloe.  The Red Egg party is a traditional Chinese party that is similar to baby showers, except hosted about one month after the child's birth.  It was held at a local Chinese/Japanese food buffet restaurant.  There was another Red Egg party hosted adjacent to us as well as a one-year birthday party in another part of the restaurant.

Hard-boiled eggs dyed red and eaten for good luck

I really dislike coming to these big family-style restaurants because I've noticed that kids these days are REALLY BAD.  I know that some parents loathe bringing babies/toddlers to restaurants and airplane trips because it's hard to enjoy a meal AND look after a young child.  The kid will inevitably cry and it takes a while to soothe him/her.  I don't have an issue with that.  I have an issue with parents who let their kids run around like the restaurant is a playground, clogging up the aisles between tables and the exit route and seeing parents hand-feed a 7-10 year old because the kid's too busy playing on the iPad.  Ugh.

Anyway, I think I went through three plates of sushi and seafood, not counting dessert, such that I came home and rolled around in my PJs with food on my face like so:

"Ugggggh so fullllllll...my tummy hurts"

Last night, I had Christmas Eve dinner with a family friend.  It was kind of funny seeing my dad's childhood friend get drunk on wine.  Twenty years or so later, my dad's friend still makes fun of the fact that his daughter and I each ate ten of these egg tarts (pictured right).  They were bite-sized, so even the five-year-old me could shove a whole tart in my mouth.  I ate so many of these as a kid that I actually don't like them anymore....

Later, I'll be heading over to my relatives' house for Christmas dinner.  

Juggling gatherings with family/friends and studying is really hard.  Luckily, I have the Examkrackers Audio Osmosis MCAT-prep lectures to listen to at the car, and if I'm REALLY lucky, I can find a hiding spot to read for an hour or two.  Unfortunately, I don't think I can fit into the laundry room cabinets anymore (and surprisingly, I never tried to eat anything IN those cabinets.......)

Merry Christmas!   

Fridays....

...means MOAR FOOD TRUCKS!!!  NOMNOMNOMNOM

At this rate, I'm going to turn into a big manatee-like blob and I'll have to roll myself for transportation, which is great for going downhill but makes for some slow-goings uphill.

I like going to these food truck events, even though they suck money out of my wallet faster than my old college roommate can inhale her food during eating contests.  Some of the trucks are really cute, like the NomNom Truck:

This time I tried food from the Chairman Bao Truck:

Pic from the Mobi Munch Chairman Truck site

I love the pun.  The truck takes traditional Chinese cha siu bao and makes it into a taco.  The unfortunate result is that it defeats the purpose of cleanly shoving the entire bun into your mouth, but it was still delicious.   At first I thought the truck's popularity was all hype, I thought, "Maan, I can get an authentic cha siu bao for $0.60 at a Chinatown store."  But after trying it I actually liked it.  I also tried stir-fried garlic noodles from a truck cleverly named "An the Go" because I love garlic and garlic-flavored burps.  Mmmmm.  But despite spending all that money, I had to go back to my ONE TRUE LOVE, mac and cheese spring rolls.

Today I went back to studying.  Except for the past angst-flavored week, I have been pretty good about studying 6/7 days per week.  I've officially designated Friday nights as my no-work day so I can relax and catch up with friends.

Angst...and Food

I'm told I get pretty cranky and angst-y during the full moon phase.  Apparently I'm not as awesome as a non-Twilight werewolf so I typically avoid people during this time.

Despite that, I still went to a book signing hosted by Cat vs. Human author/blogger/artist Yasmine Surovec.

I also like cake

and then meandered over Gott's Roadside Burger for another ginormous burger and sweet potato fries

I stole this from the Yelp page again, because honestly, I'd rather shove a fresh burger in my face than take a picture of it  =D

MCAT class was cancelled tonight due to the instructor's illness.  I believe his other class had their potluck on Wednesday night soooooooo hopefully he didn't get food poisoning from someone's delicious goodies =O I should have studied more tonight, but at least I was really good about reading on the bus ride to/from work today.  The tough thing about MCAT classes is that I struggle to keep up with the workload and it feels like the information just goes into my eyes and out the ears.  I wonder if it's possible to hire a slave driver, like in that one Ben Hurr scene when the slaves are rowing the ship.  It looked really effective in the movie.

Where Did My Week Go?

Somehow I thought having class Monday/Tuesday instead of Tuesday/Thursday due to the Kaplan instructor's scheduling conflict would leave me with a whole week to do stuff/live a life/AND get ahead in homework.

I didn't get very far.

On Tuesday I finalized all my plans to meet with my former professors to discuss the possibility of writing me letters of recommendation.  I don't know why, but it was stressing me out waiting for them to e-mail me back.  I just really wanted to fit everything into one day without having to a) take a day off work and b) drive three hours and c) pay $10 in bridge toll fees just to meet with ONE professor.  I would do it, but it would suck, especially the toll fees.  I'll be meeting with my biochem and embryology professor on Tuesday followed by lunch with my former research PI; on Thursday I will meet with my old Asian American Studies professor a little closer to home while her daughter is in choir class (lol).  I'm looking forward to lunch with my old boss.  Cool bosses are hard to come by and he's freakin' hilarious in a way that only someone with a really dry sense of humor can appreciate.

I guess it worked out okay.  At least I have a car, but I will be cutting it close on Thursday.

Since I was meeting with my professors on Tuesday, I rushed to write a draft of my personal statement.
It came out okay.  I have been thinking about what to say, so in this case it was a matter of putting that down coherently on paper.  Now, when anyone asks, I can honestly say I worked on my personal statement.  Woohoo!  

One of the Board members from my old job finished her letter of recommendation.  She almost had the staff mail it to me AFTER I had explained in writing that it needs to be sent to Interfolio.

Thank goodness someone asked me to make sure.  I would be scared if it actually came into my hands, since I signed that confidentiality waiver and all and totally paranoid that the admissions committees will go all CSI on the envelope and ban me forever (And yes, I know that's overly dramatic).      

And now, for the Nom of the Week:

Super Duper Burger!  Off the restaurant's Yelp page

Artery-Clogging Goodness

Today I reviewed my basic Physics - vectors, scalars, math that I used to be able to do and now have to break into a sweat to figure out.  Also, I woke up at 7 to stare blankly at the AAMC website to wait for my turn to register for the MCAT.  I was able to reserve a spot in San Francisco, even though I forgot that the database doesn't officially support the awesomeness that is Google Chrome, and am scheduled to take the test in late March.  My class ends in late January, so it will be up to me to keep up my studying pace for another two months.

Since today was ridiculously hot, I went and met up with a friend to try out one of the Off the Grid food trucks.  There was a Creme Brulee truck, a truck called 3-Sum-Eats, an Indian food truck, a Filipino food truck, and a Southern BBQ truck.  The food is pretty pricey for someone that doesn't have a stable full-time job and for a place that doesn't have things like restaurant seating, but it's fun to splurge every now and then on something random.

I never made it to this sandwich because I decided to eat the appetizer, which was the ultimate artery-clogging goodness.

A pulled pork sandwich (pulled pork is under the ham)

Mac and cheese spring rolls were SO DELICIOUS.  It came with a cheese fondue dip, which I didn't even touch.  The cheese inside was surprisingly light and fluffy.  At first it seemed like a questionable thing to eat, but I thought it was worth a try.  It also came with a yummy pineapple-lemonade drink with mint and basil.

I ate this like an animal...With no shame.  I don't think anyone around us cared either.  I'm sure they ate it like animals too.  There are some things that you can forego dignity and propriety for, and this was one of them. 

Out and About

On Sunday I took an MCAT studying break to attend my cousin's baby shower (it was a male-friendly event, complete with football and beer).  I got the baby a little body suit from Pumpkin Patch.  Normally I don't get into the baby clothes, but I have to admit that the itty-bittyness is cute.  ALSO, the bottom of the feet had little paw prints on it, which was also super cute.   

Pumpkin Patch USA

Tonight I got dessert with a few friends, which was a good change and a nice, easy-going time out (besides work).  We found a new place called Purple Kow, which sells milk tea and tapioca/bubble drinks.  These were FREAKIN' HUGE.  I guess the supersize-fad finally hit the Chinese dessert market.  It was fun to try the place for the novelty, and even though the milk tea wasn't that great the coconut pudding they put in it was good.  I'll probably be waking up every few hours to use the bathroom =/ 

Courtesy of Sandy T. on the establishment's Yelp Page

Today I finished the Physics and OChem portion of the Science Assessment test.  The OChem stuff is slowly coming back (or at least looks familiar) but I am soooooo totally lost on physics.  Physics is the first thing on the syllabus though, so hopefully I'll relearn the concept again.