is my family's home.) Well, since I'd started this blog to write about being thrifty and such, I might as well tell you one of the awesomest, cheapest (to me, at least) birthdays I've ever had.
First, my best friend, Good Panda, came up from the South on Friday. She's so awesome and came bearing candy!! She works doing manual stuff so she's super buff right now which is a little strange to get used to. PartnerPenguin picked her up, procuring peppermint pops. Then we all went to bed, because I party hardy.
I can officially be put down as the cruelest person in the world because I made my friends wake up at 7:30 on a weekend. We all met up and drove to distant lands to the Local National Park. I designed the drive so that we would watch the sun rise in a really perfect way. Win!!
We got to Local National Park, where I have a year-long pass to visit-thanks Dad! Local National Park was beautiful and empty because we got there so early. We walked the entire length of the park~3 mi round trip and I didn't pass out or be hurt or anything!! This is a milestone for me since I couldn't walk 100 ft in June, the last time I was hospitalized. I have walked without my cane for over a month. And most of the time, I'm doing really well.
My friends, however, maybe they're not so good at going outside and playing hiking. This might be because they are Math Grad students who all have Scholar's tans. But I had fun.
All this physical activity was followed by deliciously unhealthy Fast Food Restaurant. Oh for the love of milkshakes!!
Almost everyone then visited KittenMan's house who is so named because OMFGLOLBBQ HE HAS A KITTEN!! Her name is Azula, which is probably the only real name I'll use here because it's a great kitten name. We know she will grow up to rule the Fire Nation, but we play with her like any other kitten while she's still so small.
Then we all went home and took naps.
I finally figured out why I collect Math people like Pokemon. I figure if I catch them all, there is a decent chance one will create Pyschohistory and then we'll be set. Ignoring the fact that Physics isn't there yet and also that they'd need a social scientist to work tandem because they aren't, typically aware enough of how social sciences work....IT'LL HAPPEN, OK GUYS?! I just want reality to be like The Foundation series, but like the latter books where there are actually women; who are awesome.
I'm not really sure why I collect Math people, but I certainly do. One of them is the Romanean who suggested that it's because I like teaching them social skills. While that's certainly true for her.(;-P luv ya!)...I dunno about the rest. I guess because they're nice people and have an incestuously small friend pool so once you know one, you know most of them.
One thing I realized last year after talking to the teacher of my Math class was that he would have been a Senior in high school when I was a Freshman. In the time since graduating high school, he became a PhD candidate/student at Big American Brand University (which is fancy stuff) and...well...I'm two years younger and sitting in his class. This really bugged me when I figured it out.
But then I got to thinking more about it and the facts are thus: Since graduating high school, I have traveled to at least 10 states (not to mention moving 3000 miles from where I grew up), created art with an international artist, gotten a 4.0 GPA for 3 ½ years, met and stayed in contact with hundreds of people (quite a few of whom are my best friends), won tens of thousands of dollars in merit and performance based scholarships and maintained a stable relationship with the love of my life for 5 years. Oh yeah, and I also served my country(?)/community(?) by being an AmeriCorps Memeber on a 1700 hr term of service while self-supporting right after high-school. And last year I got admitted to Big American Brand University classified as an Independent financial status below the age of 24 and got Dean's Honor Roll first semester.
In summary, I'M AWESOME, that's what I'm doing with my life. I just need to remind myself of that sometimes. </rant>
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Um, food....I've been eating out a lot...Because Good Pandas don't grow on trees and when you get one, you need to feed her fancy-like.
Let's do an oldie-but-goodie that's diner tonight!
BBQ Chicken
This recipe requires finding cheap chicken at the store (I have been getting into thigh/leg sections after coming off only eating breasts for a year) and either: freezing them in individual plastic bags and taking out the air (works best but is most wasteful), or wrapping each piece in wax paper and putting them all in a freezer bag together.
2 pieces of Chicken, defrosted. Usually this means leaving the chicken in the fridge for a day or so till it's not frozen.
3-4 oz Trader Joe's Kansas City BBQ sauce. (If TJ's not available, I try to go for something without High Fructose Corn Syrup)
Before class in the morning: In a bag or a tupperware or something, put the chicken in. Cover with BBQ sauce and add about half as much water as BBQ sauce (if you put in 4 oz, use about 2 oz H20). Shake it up. Leave in fridge for the day.
After classes in the evening: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Put chicken in a glass (or Corningware) container and cover with the rest of the marinade. Cover the dish with tin foil. (I call Aluminum foil “Tin foil,” deal with it.) Cook for about an hour and a half. If you don't have a meat thermometer (chicken should always be at least 160 deg when cooked) you can check if it's done by poking it with a fork and making sure the juices run clear. If it's red, leave in oven till juices are clear.
Make sure when you're playing with raw meat to wash everything well and try not to get it on too many surfaces. I almost died of Salmonella as a little kid, t'was not fun.
A touch of absurdity for your life, in case your face is stuck in a frown. This song goes out to The Gayest Man I've Ever Pretended to Have Sex with Under a Bed While Running Away From Getting Strangled.
This is from the Romanian.
ReplyDeleteSo, as much as I love you, I have to call your bullshit, for the sake of all the mathematicians that have normal social skills.
1. I am the one who told you to get better so we can HIKE mount Diablo.
2. I am not pale.
3. Yes, there are mathematicians that are awkward. I am not one of them and neither are some of the people you tagged in your fb post.
Alright, otherwise lots of love.
To clarify:
Delete1-2) I was definitely not referring to you about the hiking, or the paleness. There were those among us who specifically told me that hiking was not their thing. I'm sorry that it was misinterpreted. I should have been more specific.
3) This is very true and I feel that I need to clarify part of what I meant. I was making a nerdy nerdy reference to Psychohistory, which was made up by Isaac Asimov which utilizes mathematics and Sociology to predict the future based on enormous population sizes and trending activities. I'm fairly certain (but I very well may be wrong) that any of the people I tagged have either Undergrad degrees or other graduate degrees in Social Sciences, which is the other aspect of this "science".
I'm sorry what I said was taken as anything but playful, of course you are not awkward (not any more than me and I'm a very awkward individual) and anyone who I tagged I consider my friend so I didn't mean to offend them.
Yay! Real happy that things are heading in a positive direction, especially your health!
ReplyDeleteI had been feeling bad that, (thanks to Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts, which has been mostly all-consuming for me for the past two weeks), I hadn't been able to do more for your birthday, but I was glad to see that, in the end, I was able to contribute, even though I hadn't actually known it at the time. :-) (Yeah, yeah, run-on sentence; deal with it. Or diagram it.)