Cupcakerying… December 6, 2012

Don’t be fooled, I made up that word.  But that doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t happen.  (Unlike fetch.)

So last night as I was helping Mac with his math homework (what is it with kids refusing to write out their work?), we were talking about Barney (the kid is obsessed with HIMYM) and he decided to start writing a blog.  At the age of thirteen he does not have much (well, he has none) experience in such escapades as his role model writes about.  So I showed him my blog to give him inspiration.  Apparently I’m boring.  It’s hardly worth following my blog.  So I decided to change that.  And by change that, I mean that I decided I would blog today.  And add pictures!

Last Sunday afternoon, Susan and I went to a cupcake decorating class.  We bought the Living Social deal a few months ago and were finally able to coordinate schedules.  Tis the life of two busy grad students!  (Ah, feels good to say that.)  So we went, we cupcaked, we sprinkled, we ate a lot of frosting.

 Please ignore my crazy-glasses face.  For some reason I am even more unphotogenic when wearing my spectacles.  This had made me seriously consider taking a modeling class here in LA (I’m sure they occur as frequently as public urination in this city) in order to get over this hump.  But then I realized that my ego and my brain waves probably couldn’t handle it very well.  Perhaps an afternoon with YouTube will be the solution…

So that was how I spent my rainy Sunday afternoon.  (Can we all just take a moment and sigh at the greatness that is a rainy weekend day?  If only it was acceptable to not wear pants and be wrapped in a blanket out in public.)  This weekend I have more sweets on the docket…attempting to bake some holiday treats for all the Cali-people in my life before (mini-dance) I leave next weekend for the Midwest.  Party!

Our more-than-fabulous instructor.

In which I explain why I’ve been crying all day… November 8, 2012

10 years ago my life changed.  But not nearly so much as 22 years ago, 18 years ago, and 16 years ago.  That was when I found out that I would become a big sister (and again and again).  9 years ago these life-changers greeted me at the door with a pan full of brownies.  I will never forgot.

Each year I celebrate my anniversary.  Another year event-free, another year closer to a cure.  So this morning I was woken to messages of love and encouragement from various forms of family.  I bawled all morning.  (I blame Mitt Romney.  For no particular reason other than his creepy smirk.)  Amanda asked me how it felt to mark ten years, for her it seemed like only last year that I was diagnosed.  The ten years has gone by quickly.  Much has changed.  But in all honesty, I can’t remember life without diabetes.  It seems foreign that people can order a regular soda with dinner and not think twice.  I don’t know the last time I’ve left the house with no supplies in hand (or purse or satchel or man friend’s pocket).

But in further honesty, it hasn’t been too bad.  I have my family (both blood and carefully selected) to thank for that.  Because I do remember my life before my sisters.  And I’d rather do shots (and not the good kind).  So thank you family for all your love and support for the past ten years.  And also the fifteen before that.

Now, to grab a pumpkin latte and study for genetics…

The best charity organization… November 7, 2012

The bus is often full of, well, characters.  For the most part the moment I leave my house  until I arrive at my destination, my ears are plugged with my rather eclectic (and pathetic) music collection.  Luckily I have fear of overly loud music destroying my ears, so I keep the volume at a reasonable level where I can still hear the rumblings of the city around me.

It was absolute great fortune that I did so yesterday on my way to school.  Let me set the scene a bit.  I was waiting for the bus stop and heard a woman yelling about how she wasn’t going to pay for a service that she didn’t receive.  I gawked, naturally.  However, I noticed that she was talking the building.  Then the bus came and we boarded.  She continued to ramble about people putting her down and the government stealing her from Europe and taking all of her family’s riches.  Then she pulled two pieces of paper out of her bag and started to wave them around.  ”This is who you need to contact to get whatever it is that you need or you want.”  She had filled one side of each of pages from top to bottom.  The other side had red printing and looked like it had been pre-addressed.  It had.  To Santa.  ”This is the person that you talk to in order to get whatever you want: food, a new dress, your family.  This is who you need to ask.”

So the lesson here is that the government can help us in mysterious ways.  Without their Letters to Santa program, this woman would have no hope.  What with the Japanese woman (who is not Japanese, mind you) stealing her identity and then trying to kill her when she returned it and the American government forcing her to come here she is benefitting from the program.   Well done America.  Well done Santa…

Rain, rain, go… October 11, 2012

…on forever!  Okay, so maybe not forever but for a day or so anyway.  I have been (unnecessarily) whining the past week or so about how hot it is.  My yelps have been answered.  The past few days have had a bit of a chill in the air (at least during the early and late hours while I’m out in the fresh, foggy place known Aw “the outdoors”).  And this morning…wait for it…it’s sprinkling!

Fortunately it’s not a monsoon because I have taken to walking to a farther bus stop in the mornings (busy girls gotta burn calories somehow) and then would have altered my mood entirely.  Which I definitely couldn’t have on a Thursday with awesome science to observe, a controversial speaker to listen to, and my favorite class with my favorite professor to attend.  Plus I’m wearing my new New Girl inspired dress.  So it’s looking like a pretty good day.  Now, to see a man about a warming cider…

God knows… September 23, 2012

A few months ago I was stuck in a great dilemma.  I was at Barnes and Noble and had to decide which book to buy.  It’s one of those  never-ending problems in life, where I just make a quick decision about what is best at the time and then hold on to the hope that I’ll soon be back to collect another addition to my library.  Lucky for me, Dan quickly came, saw the agony in my eyes, and spoke the magical words, “I’ll buy you any book that you want within your current vicinity.”  I think I died a little; that was definitely a piece of heaven.  I had two books already in hand: The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Noose and The Red Herring Without Mustard.  I also happened to be standing in the H section and grabbed the three Joseph Heller books I didn’t already own.  It was a magical day.

The first book I cracked open was God Knows.  It was a good choice.  A combination of the quirky writing I love of Heller’s (based solely on my high school read of Catch-22) and a bit of historical non-ish-fiction, it quickly became one of my all-time favorites.  It is the story of Old Testament David, told in first-person so that you hear him whinge and talk about his on-again-off-again relationship with God.  He is a strong king yet a desperate old man just wanting Bathsheba to love him.  It has a  juxtaposition of lines such as, “That’s another thing that pisses me off about that Michelangelo statue of me in Florence. He’s got me standing there uncircumcised! Who the fuck did he think I was?” and “Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: it might have been.”  Pure poetry.  (The second quote, the first one is just silliness.)

I flew through the book and hated to put it down.  Like Catch-22, God Knows bounces back and forth in time and really emphasizes the humanness of David.  King James Bible-ly accurate, the story brings the character to life and makes him easier to relate to.  My recommendation?  Read it.  If not for the quintessential Heller, then for the brush up on the Bible.  So really, it’s a win-win…

Another one bites the dust… September 22, 2012

I’ve been a smidge busy over the past few months knocking down a few targets on my 30 before 30 list.  I have to admit, this list has been a nice way to set and track a few goals that I would have otherwise probably just passed over and never accomplished.

I love caramel.  (Ugh.  I am drooling just typing the word.)  Mix it with some chocolate and I am done for.  However, I’ve always heard about how difficult it is to make.  Challenge accepted.  The opportunity presented itself to make some when Heather came to visit and requested Better than Sex cake after I badgered her into picking a dessert that I could make.  I have no idea which recipe I used to make the caramel, but it was easy and it worked!  I was super nervous about burning it or making it too runny or it just turning out like a brownish crap.  Luckily, I used the candy thermometer my parents gifted me a few years ago and managed to get it right on the first go.  I knew exactly what temperature and color I needed to reach before taking the sugar-water off the burner (I did a lot of background reading before I started.  It was a full-on caramel-making study fest.) I’m quite proud of it.

Next on the docket is to paint the canvases I bought to put up over the bed.  I mean, I have all of the supplies and a few ideas, so really it’s just my laziness (and the comfy-ness of naps on the couch) that is holding me back.  And quite frankly, that’s an excuse I was almost too embarrassed to admit to (but alas, I seem to have no shame.)

I’ve also been reading up a storm, so get excited for all of my book reviews to come soon!  But for now there’s a fluffy puppy that needs some snuggles and buffalo chicken pizza that’s getting cold.  Good thing none of my goals involves losing my few pounds of cushion…

Puns and science, my two favorites… September 18, 2012

Bahaha!

(Posted in the grad hallway, found here.)