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.)

Christmas

An inexpensive thank you gift sent to my Developmental Biology aka Embryology professor for taking the time to write a letter of recommendation.  Thank you card was included, though not pictured.  I had no idea whether a gift is appropriate or not...I didn't want it to be construed as a "payment" but chocolates seem harmless enough, and if he doesn't want it, I'm sure his grad students would appreciate free candy.  The candy was only $10, and the box of chalk was like $0.75 (all USD).  I bought the chalk because he always used colored chalk to differentiate tissue types on his diagrams in lecture.  

A patient gave me chocolates :) 

She and her husband are such nice people.  

Picture courtesy of "Angel S." on Yelp

Friends and I went to Kokkari Estiatorio, a greek restaurant.  I had the braised lamb shank with orzo and myzithra cheese.  It was huge.  Expensive, but huge.  I wanted to grab the shank by the bone and bite into it, but that would have been a super un-classy thing to do in a classy establishment.  It's also my first time seeing bottles of wine sell in the 4-digit price range.  If I had a grand of cash to blow on anything, I would spend it on something that wouldn't be out of my system in less than a day.  Miraculously, my bill was under $50 including my portion of the appetizer and tax+gratuity.  The food was really good though.  I'm sure their wine is also really good, but I didn't have any, which explains how I was able to spend less than $50.  

My attempt to be witty and creative for the white elephant gift exchange failed miserably in a way I could never have imagined.  Actually, the gift wrap was well-received....the rest not so much.  I tore up a Victoria's Secret catalog to wrap the box and adorned it with a Ferragamo-style bow.  The box contained two bottles of sparkling wine and a lacy thong that would be received with humor from the girls if a girl picked it, and mild embarrassment from a boy if one of them picked it.  I didn't anticipate that "Allen," who I had no idea was coming, would steal it from his ex-gf, pop the sparkling wine cork, spill wine all over the panty, use it as a napkin after eating my cheese puffs, and then make a fool of himself after finishing the entire bottle.

Facepalm.  Some people never grow out of their teenage years.

Next year I won't try so hard....or at all.

My spoils from white elephant:  A HUGE tub of cheese puffs (which I took to work), butter toffee & caramel popcorn, a kiddie air-hockey set, a pair of chopsticks (from my friend's white elephant at work, of course), and coasters.  

As for studying....I'll get to it eventually...hopefully....today........maybe..................eek.

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!