Anterrabae's Journal
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Tuesday, November 10, 2009
5:07PM
I got an interview for a lateral move to QA. I'm not sure about the etiquette on this: do I need to tell my manager? Or can I wait to see if I even get the job?
Friday, August 14, 2009
10:04AM
Would someone please explain to me why having a "government bureaucrat" standing between you and your doctor is so terrible, but having a private insurance company standing in the way is great? It must be nice to be so rich and healthy that you've never before experience being denied care because of a "pre-existing condition" or been kicked out of treatment in spite of your doctor's recommendation because the insurance company thinks that you're well enough, only to wind up back in treatment a few weeks later after you crash and burn. Must be nice indeed.
Monday, August 10, 2009
7:54PM
Hm. Just watched the previews for the new Vampire Diaries series on CW. It's my least favorite L.J. Smith series, but the fact that they're using Metric's "Help I'm Alive" for the trailer soundtrack is enough to get me to watch the premiere. :)
Monday, August 3, 2009
9:31AM
The fall semester is fast approaching and I still can't decide whether or not I want to enroll in a master's program. The pros: 1) There is a new regulatory affairs program at George Washington which is entirely online so it's super convenient, 2) The program focuses more on the clinical side of RA rather than biology, so I won't have to repeat anything that I already took at Georgetown, 3) I will learn more about my field, perhaps make more money, and at the very least give myself the educational background necessary to switch to RA if I want to get out of the lab one day, 4) My company pays for it entirely, as long as you maintain at least a B average, 5) Now is a good time to do it because Win and I have to be married for at least two years before we can adopt. The cons: 1) I'm not sure I will be able to balance work and school, 2) My Thai boxing will mostly likely suffer.. it's not like I'm training to fight one day or anything, but it has become an important part of my life and I'm afraid that my form and conditioning will tank if/when I have to cut back on classes, 3) It will chain me to this company for at least the next two years and while others seem to think that our job security is better now, I'm still wary, 4) It's making a commitment to this field, accepting it as my career, and I don't know if I want that.
Ugh. Adult decisions suck.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
8:15AM
Hmph. We purchased a king-size bed from the Room Store, and a memory foam mattress from Softpedic. After about a month of waiting, we finally had both in our possession yesterday. Now, let me tell you something about memory foam mattresses: they weigh a metric fuck-ton. And the delivery guy was apparently not allowed to enter our home, so Win and I had to figure out how to get it up the stairs to the bedroom on our own. It was a lot of work and my arms and fingers are still sore from trying to grip the plastic cover and drag it up the stairs. But whatever, we were so excited that it was finally here. Then we lay down on it. We'd read online that Softpedic was specially designed for side-sleepers and was very similar to Tempurpedic's "Celebrity" mattress, so we tried that one out at a store and found it to be extremely comfortable. Our Softpedic, however, is as hard as a freaking rock. I've been having pain in my right shoulder lately from sleeping on that side and not only did this bed make it worse, my left shoulder started to hurt as well when I slept on that side. And it was hot. Not only that, but the 1x1" dowels supporting the four horizontal slats on our oh-so-soundly constructed Room Store bed frame bent under the weight of the mattress and fell out. Awesome.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
11:39AM
Hehehe. Psycho girl is out for three days! We're going to get a Fudgie the Whale cake to celebrate! :)
Monday, July 6, 2009
4:15PM
Much fun was had this weekend. The summary..
Win and I took to the road on Friday morning and drove up to Hershey Park in Pennsylvania. After getting trapped on a busy road called "Memory Lane" somewhere outside of Harrisburg while in pursuit of a Wendys, we finally made it to the park around 1pm. We spent several hours riding all the wooden roller coasters, the hanging roller coaster, some carnival-type rides, and playing skee ball. I spent so much time screaming on the coasters that my voice was very scratchy by the time we left the park, and it only got worse over the next two days. Totally worth it, though!
After leaving Hershey, we drove up to Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, where we stayed the night so that we could get up early for a rafting trip with my brother and his girlfriend. The trip itself was awesome. The rapids were only Class I, so it was a nice, relaxing trip peppered with some exciting bumps. We managed to get stuck on rocks a couple of times, and struggled to get our raft off, but other than that, the paddling was pretty easy. Though I managed to fall out of our raft and onto a big rock at one point and had to be rescued by another raft. I hurt my back on that stupid rock, but I was laughing too hard at the time to notice.
We finished rafting mid-afternoon, and drove over to my brother's apartment in Hoboken. There, we got to spend some time with Elizabeth and Eddie, two of my favorite people. Perhaps it was blasphemous of us to go out for pizza instead of having a barbeque on the 4th of July, but goddamn, Pasty Grimaldi's is sooo good. We got to watch the NYC fireworks display from my brother's 9th-floor balcony, and the view was terrific. We even got some decent pictures of it.
The ride home on Sunday was quite long, but I was happy to see my kitties waiting for me at the door when we got home. All in all, one of the best 4th of Julys ever. :)
Thursday, July 2, 2009
9:24PM
Gr, I'm so frustrated. We've talked to my relatives and to Win's relatives, and no one knows what happened to the actual card basket we had at the wedding. We hoped that maybe whoever had the basket might have the missing cards as well. But no one knows anything. I wouldn't be surprised if one of the staff members stole a few cards out of the basket in hopes that there might be cash in there, but I can't imagine that they would take the entire basket. So basically it all just vanished into thin air. So angry with the designated present-collector. He had one freaking job to do. If we wanted to lose cards, we could have done that quite well on our own.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
11:39PM
It's about that time again. Time when I start getting tired of my longish hair and contemplate a new haircut. That usually entails cutting off a good deal of my length, which I know never turns out well. It looks great in the salon, but I can never recreate it at home. Also, when my hair is shorter (ie, above my shoulders), the ends flip up and out, especially since I always have to tuck it behind my ear to keep it out of my face. The only way to avoid this is to try to blow dry it so that it curls under instead of out--a style my brother lovingly referred to as my "lesbian hair cut". Not very flattering either way. Sigh. I wish my stupid hair would just hang straight when it was short instead of kinking every which way. I'm hoping maybe my stylist has some suggestions, but again.. I'm sure it'll look good that day and that day alone. Gr.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
8:39AM
Oh shit. Our designated card and present collector for the wedding apparently did a bang up job; I just found out that we are missing some cards. :(
Sunday, June 21, 2009
10:32PM
Hm. I must be crazy. I'm starting to toy with the idea of going back to school again. My company will pay for courses in a related field, so I've been looking at MS programs in biotechnology and regulatory. I stumbled upon an online certificate program at some school in Philadelphia for biomedical writing for regulatory. It basically teaches you all about FDA documentation and the applications/reports biotechs have to write for the FDA. It's four courses and if I like it, I can apply those courses to a full MS degree in biomedical writing. I don't know.. it would make me more marketable, but it's also sort of committing myself to biotechnology and regulatory for the rest of my life. Not sure if that's what I want. Must think it over some more.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
8:59PM
Hmph. I stopped wearing shorts long, long ago when I was very overweight. Now that I am in better shape, I was thinking that maybe I could get a pair of shorts and finally stop suffering through the summer heat in jeans. After doing some reading, it seems that no matter how thin I am, I can never wear shorts because I have a pear-shaped body. Apparently, if I want to stay even moderately cool, I'm supposed to wear skirts. That sucks! Skirts require nice blouses and nice shoes and who the hell wants to spend their weekend in that??
Saturday, June 13, 2009
5:32PM
It's been four weeks since the wedding. Win's mom called this morning to ask if I was pregnant yet. I'm wondering if this is going to be a monthly occurrence.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
12:51PM
I just finished reading Twilight. It was...pretty awful. I mean, maybe it's too much to expect for a book written for a teenage audience to have any kind of character development, but still, giving me a reason to actually like the characters would have been nice.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
I don't think that I can write a good narrative of the wedding adventures, so I'm just going for bullets here..
Thursday
* Cleaned house.. well, just bathrooms and floors, and straightened up.
* Received flowers. Cut stems of all the flowers, seared the stems of the hydrangeas, scrambled to find enough buckets to store all the flowers. Learned that there is nowhere to buy food for cut flowers at 9pm on a Thursday night.
* Picked up Elizabeth from train station. Took her out for late lunch at the Olney Ale House, much to Win's chagrin.
* Picked up dress from cleaners.
* Watched a lot of funny videos online.
Friday
* Got manicure and pedicure with Elizabeth. Learned that Elizabeth is klutzy enough to ruin a manicure approximately thirty seconds after it's done. Learned that I am klutzy enough to ruin a manicure approximately ten minutes after it's done.
* Went to mall to get engagement ring buffed and polished. Drank smoothies and ate pretzels, contemplated the ugliness of current women's fashion trends. Unimpressed with engagement ring's sparkliness, suspected that jewelry store did not in fact polish the ring.
* Checked into hotel. Lugged a car full of crap up to two-room hotel suite. Started running into lots of family.
* Went to Science Center for rehearsal. Was overwhelmed by the sheer number of people there. Gawked at strange prom dresses of students having pictures taken there. Had visions of strangling step-mother, half-sister, and photographer for being so late. Was overwhelmed by craziness of rehearsal, the thousands of questions asked of me, and was very unsure of how everything would go on actual wedding day. Felt much better after Lisa played with my hair--the old trick still works! Giggled at how cute little ring bearer, Matthew, was when he refused to go down the aisle without bribery with candy.
* Went to Mick O'Shea's for rehearsal dinner. Ate a ton of brushetta. Laughed with some of my favorite people. Snickered at how lost Win's parents first appeared at American restaurant--welcome to my world! Found out that Chad and Kaoru have been together for two years. Two years!! Was by Win's niece Samantha that I have a "lasagna nose". Was unable to stop Lisa from telling our Hopkins friends about my terrible choices in boyfriends.. before Win, that is. :) And my god, so much extra food!
* Went back to hotel. Checked out my brother's and Laura's suite, which was waaaaay better than mine. TV in the bathroom that can swivel toward the tub or the toilet? Can life get any better? I submit that it cannot! Proceeded to get rather drunk with my brother, Laura, cousin, and sister on red wine and screwdrivers. Argued with my brother over the awesomeness of the name Nikita.
* Applied huge glob of toothpaste to blemish on cheek.
Saturday
* Woke up to find that toothpaste had burned my skin, leaving a huge red blotch on my cheek. Went to salon and was very happy with my hair. Everyone else's was great, too (and that includes you, Elizabeth!).
* Went back to hotel. Took advantage of my bride status by requesting that someone fetch me some peanut butter cups.
* Had my makeup done and was thrilled that she completely covered the blotch on my cheek.
* Ate Wendy's and played travel Scrabble with Lisa and Katy. Bezoar is not a real word!
* Started to get dressed only to find that I had left my corset laces back at home. Totally freaked out and snapped at my mom. Continued to freak out while Elizabeth started to use my detachable straps to tie me in the dress. Finally relaxed when I realized that it was actually working. Nearly cried in relief. Elizabeth = Magyver.
* Boarded shuttle bus and went up to Science Center. Met up with my dad and was escorted up to the holding room. Couldn't breathe very well at all. Paced a lot. Finally ushered down to the back entrance of planetarium. Completely relaxed the second I saw Win standing at the end of the aisle.
* Ceremony was everything I wanted. Chad surprised us with meteors in our fake sky. Got married!
* Got a tad bitchy during pictures. (I hate having my picture taken and I still couldn't breathe well in the dress.) Finally went up to cocktail hour and was hijacked by Win's family who insisted we take the same family portraits that we had suffered through at the Chinese wedding banquet three weeks beforehand. Was blessed with two beautiful rainbows in the sky!
* Did intros, first dance, and father/daughter dance. The kids ran amok with their bubbles. Nearly cried again during wedding toasts.
* Finally got to change dresses and was able to breathe again.
* Barely ate or drank anything before I started to dance.
* Power went out, but thank god for Jake and my uncle Charlie's quick thinking. They saved the night.
* Danced A LOT. Visited with friends. Danced some more. And then some more. And then some more.
* Was mad that waiters had started to disassemble our wedding cake before we even got to cut it. Had to go through cake cutting ceremony with very mutilated cake. At least it still tasted good! Tossed bouquet to wrong Elizabeth.
* Danced some more!
* Stomach finally rebelled from the lack of food and water and constant dancing, and I threw up. Woooo! At least it wasn't from drinking too much. That would have been way more embarrassing.
* Was very happy when the night was over and got to go back on the bus.
* Enjoyed some more quality time with my family in my brother's suite and forced myself to eat a bunch of crackers.
* Finally got to go to sleep!
In conclusion
I have the greatest friends and family in the world. I loved my wedding and I'm glad I got to experience being a bride, but I never want to do it again. :)
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
6:19PM
Wooooo! They're gone! They're gone they're gone they're gone!!!!!!!! And we got to take off the wedding bedding, box up all the shit they decided to decorate our house with, and tear down the Chinese symbols on our wall and our door. We have our home back! :)
Monday, May 18, 2009
6:14PM
So.. we come back from our wedding to find out that Win's parents are staying with us for the week. They didn't ask, they just brought their stuff and took up residence in our guest room, and basically took over our house. The TV, the kitchen, and I come back from running errands today to find out that they've put stuff in our display case and have taken it upon themselves to decorate some of our basement. So messed up!!!!
Friday, May 8, 2009
9:44AM
So I walk into my office this morning to find a life-size cardboard Anderson Silva, the best pound for pound UFC fighter in the world, standing next to my desk. Scared the crap out of me! My office mates got him for me as a wedding present. I'm going to scare Win with him when I get home. Heh heh heh...
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
9:45AM
Oh, how to describe the Chinese wedding banquet? Let's see.. a few weeks ago, I asked Win if the banquet was going to be any fun. I mean, his family was really excited about it and seemed to think that we should be excited too, so it had to be a little fun, right? Win's answer was no. There was nothing fun about it. And people, he was right.
The craziness started at 7:30am, when I got up, stuffed two Pop Tarts in my mouth, and started to get myself and my mom ready. Win's sister Wendy and his sister-in-law Irene came over to the hotel at 9am to do my hair and makeup. Win came to pick me up at 10:30, and his nephew drove us the 45 min into the city to the restaurant. We walked up the stairs and holy god, that room was a hell of a lot smaller than I had been imagining. They had stuffed 30 tables full of people in a long, narrow banquet space with a stage up front. And it was insanely loud.
The first hour was portraits. We stood on the stage under really bright, really hot lights, while various families crammed in next to us for picture after picture after picture. Each of Win's aunt's and uncle's family had to be done. His dad is one of thirteen siblings. And then we had to take portraits with other groups, most of whom Win didn't know. His dad's various business partner and such, I think. They kept saying that this was the last picture and start to let us go, but then they'd think of another one and call everyone back again. Even in a strappy wedding dress, I was sweating like crazy, and I never would have guessed that a veil could be so hot, either. And the entire time, the MC had the microphone right up against his mouth and was shouting into it in Chinese. Once the portraits were finally done, we were sent to the back of the room and there were formal introductions. Then they made us kiss in front of everyone.. and then they made us french kiss in front of everyone. And then they made us dance, which was fine, but they also disregarded the fact that my parents have been bitterly divorced for twenty-five years and made them dance, too. Awkward...
Next came the tea ceremony. I had to change into my beaded, polyester two-piece outfit with three-quarter length sleeves. We stood up under those stage lights again while members of Win's family came up one by one. We would bow three times and offer them tea (in Chinese.. yeah, my Chinese needs work), and then they would give us a gift. The gift was either cash in an envelope, or gold jewelry, which my lovely cousin Elizabeth had to put on me. So there I was, sweating my ass off, when I realized that I was also sweating off my stick-on bra. By this time I hadn't eaten or drunk much of anything in about six hours and my knees were shaking, and I had to keep my arm tight against my sides to keep the bra cup from falling onto the floor in front of everyone.
Next came the toasting. Thankfully, Win's brother was able to run to the car and bring me my duffel bag, so I could change into a normal bra for my next dress, the one-piece red dress. Unfortunately, though, without the stick-ons, I couldn't wear my blue dress later. But least my red dress was comfortable. I had to wear all that gold jewelry, though, which was really heavy and everyone said I looked like Mr. T. So Win's parents and my parents, and the best man and maid of honor, and Win and I, went around to each of the thirty tables and toasted with them all. Thank god we were drinking Coke or I would have been completely smashed after five tables!
Finally, the formalities were done and there was only thirty or so minutes left. Just when we were about to sit down and eat something, the MC put on dance music and everyone was urging us to go up and dance. All the little kids and some of my family came up as well, and that was actually fun. So okay, there was one fun part of the banquet. After the dancing, the lady who owns the restaurant started singing. It would have been nice if it weren't so loud. Luckily, we had to go to the back of the restaurant at that point, so we could start saying goodbye to everyone as they left. Sort of a reverse receiving line. The place cleared out really fast, though. And it was finally over! Yay!!!!
On the ride back to Win's brother's house, we just sat there feeling totally shell-shocked and unable to believe that it was only 4:30pm instead of midnight. Craziness. On the way back home, I made Win stop at McDonalds to get a large fries. Those were seriously the best fries I've ever had in my life.
Now on to the American wedding! That, I'm sure, might be just as exhausting, but at least it will be more fun and Win and I will actually be married when it's over. :)
(P.S. Elizabeth, you are a godsend. I so owe you!)
Saturday, April 11, 2009
9:46PM
We drove up to Philadelphia to rent my two-piece dress for the Chinese banquet. As I feared and warned them repeatedly, not a single garment in the store fit me. They made me try on three skirts, and I couldn't even get any of them buttoned. We had to pay a shit-ton of extra money for them to let the skirt out four inches in the hips. I was completely freaking out and then I just realized that there's nothing else I could do but laugh. I mean seriously, this whole thing went so completely wrong that it crossed the line from awful into comically awful.
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