Ok, this thing has been going around facebook, and I finally broke down and did it. Figured I might as well put it here too. It's one of those chain-letterish things where you're supposed to reply with 25 things about yourself.

1: I am painfully shy, but you might not guess it by how much I talk/write.

2: Buffalo is the 8th city I've lived in, even though my parents have lived in the same house since '74.

3: I have crushes on several people, and doubt they will ever know it, and miss a few others more than they will ever know.

4: I seriously overuse ;) and :)

5: I am a HUGE sap, and cry ridiculously easily.

6: I will tell just about anyone just about anything they want to know about me- but at the same time tend to keep my real thoughts/feelings to myself.

7: I voted for Nader.

8: I laugh when I'm nervous. I was once called Dr. Hibbert, and I'm not sure how I feel about that.

9: I once told someone that I'm not sure I can be friends with anyone who doesn't like the Simpsons. I think I sort of meant it.

10: I judge men by their shoes. Big time.

11: I am scared to death that I'll never get married.

12: I can speak Italian.

13: I just learned that both my paternal great-grandmothers were named Daisy.

14: My middle name is my grandmother's maiden name, and my dead older brother's first name.

15: Music is huge to me, and I think musical compatibility is important.

16: I pretty much hate rollercoasters, but I will still go on them if you want me to.

17: I idolize my father.

18: I have put "missed connections" on craigslist twice, and BOTH times the person answered!

19: I skipped first grade.

20: I am going gray, and do not like it.

21: I am not good at letting people know how much they mean to me.

22: I have always wanted a tattoo, but still have not come up with something important enough.

23: I would rather be hurt, than hurt someone else. This can be a problem.

24: I was recruited for hockey.

25: I am genuinely surprised that I could think of 25 things to say about myself.

Ok, my dad just sent this to me. And this may be a poor judgment call on my part, but I just had to share. Don't say I didn't warn you. It's really gross. I hope it's not real, but it kinda looks like it might be.
It didn't come with any story besides the caption "Don't fish too close to the bank".

Oh, how I love Mickey Avalon.

So filthy and fantastic.

Especially when mixed with happy little synth pop.

Please, listen to my new user sound.

"Dick Move" - Mickey Avalon vs. CSS

A sample line...

My dick.... parts the seas.
Your dick... farts and queefs.

My dick.... rumble in the jungle
Your dick... touched by your uncle

And in other news-
last night was MY LAST TRAUMA CALL AT ECMC. EVER. IN MY LIFE.
This might be the happiest day ever.

And, now I am on vacation for a week!!!!!

Too bad I need to spend every second of it cramming for my exam on Saturday.

But really. Go listen to Mickey.

1: 2 weeks. -6 lb. woot!

2: Paul just sent me this message he got by accident-
"For some unknown reason I was googling [name hidden from google] today. He is my great grandfather. My maternal grandmother was Auguste Vintschger whose brother was [name hidden]. Jr (I guess). What I do know is that Uncle Gus, whom I never met was married to my [name hidden]. I could not find this reference on your blog. But I guess we're related somehow. [name deleted] . I live in Palo Alto, CA"

Wow- random family I never knew about, found via estrip! [name hidden] was my great-grandmother's sister.
I also learned yesterday that someone has made a whole website about my family, going back to like 1550. Apparently there are only like 400 of us?! The site is hard to use though, so I might be missing stuff.

3: New Andrew Bird came out yesterday.
I love these lyrics-

From "Anonanimal"-

The seemingly innocuous plecostomus
Though posthumous
They talk to us
They talk too much

See a sea anemone
The enemy
See a sea anemone
That'll be the end of me
Vicious fish was caught unawares
In the tend'rest tendrils
Underneath her tender gills and

I will become this animal
Perfectly adapted to a music hall
I will become this animal

Anomalous appendages
A non-animal

4: Congrats to our new president, and good luck. I hope he can live up to even half the hype. And on that note, a completely wrong card, just to lighten things up a bit.

So, I'm really trying to stick with this move more/eat less business. So far so good, I'm down about 4lb.... The other night I went to Coles, and was SO jealous of the big juicy bacon cheeseburger and fries on the other side of the table, while I munched on my salad with dressing on the side.... But, I was good.... And I've been exercising, even if only a little, every day (well I've missed two)... I just keep looking at cute clothes and stuff and imagining how worth it it will all be when (not if! WHEN!) I can look hot in a bathing suit....

I haven't bought myself any new clothes in FOREVER, b/c I don't have the patience for shopping and have no fashion sense, but I just got a new catalog today (that I'd never even heard of- Boden??), and OMG I want about 75% of the things in it. Seriously, it's worth looking-
example- I want the dress AND the purse-


The thing is, I never cook. I end up eating a lot of Lean Cuisine type things, and cereal. And the food at work is so awful, and it hasn't even been two weeks but a cup of bland vegetable soup and a lousy salad with the only "lo-cal" dressing option is getting boring...

So I was perusing the weight watchers menu section... and wow, I'm almost inspired. They have a "staples" shopping list, that I really should just go out and buy. It will cost a ton initially, but then it would be so nice to actually be able to make something on a whim, without requiring a trip to the store.

Some of these "make stuff healthier" cheater recipes suck, because they take all the deliciousness out, but some are really good. I think this will be my first venture:

Thai chicken and string beans-

Ingredients
3 cup(s) uncooked string beans, washed and well-drained, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 spray(s) cooking spray
2 tsp jalapeno pepper(s), seeded and minced, or 1 medium Thai chile, seeded and minced*
1 medium garlic clove(s), peeled and smashed
1 cup(s) light coconut milk, divided
2 tbsp green curry paste, **
1 tbsp packed brown sugar
1 tbsp fish sauce, (nam pla; see note)
1 tbsp lemon grass, minced**
1 pound(s) uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into thin strips
2 tbsp basil, fresh, minced
2 cup(s) cooked brown rice, or cooked jasmine rice, kept hot

Instructions
Steam green beans in a steamer basket on stove or in a microwave, until crisp-tender, about 5 minutes. Drain well; set aside.

Coat a large skillet with cooking spray and set over medium heat. Add jalapeno or chile and garlic; cook, stirring frequently, about 1 minute. Add 3/4 cup of coconut milk, curry paste, brown sugar, fish sauce and lemon grass; bring to a simmer.

Add chicken and reduce heat to medium-low; simmer, stirring occasionally, until chicken is cooked through, about 10 minutes. Add string beans and basil (mixture may separate). Add remaining 1/4 cup of coconut milk (sauce will be smooth again). Simmer until hot, about 1 minute more; remove garlic clove and serve over rice. Yields about 1 cup of chicken-string bean mixture and 1/2 cup of rice per serving.

I love it. :) I did a lot of christmas shopping at the Onion store this year, and actually almost bought myself that exact bottle, but I think they ran out.

Voila!


And I gave this to Dan:


And these to my BIL:


Hmmmm. Well pix are not uploading. [what's wrong paul? they're all sitting down there saying 0 percent complete. x2. They're only ~30k .jpg files...]

But Santa Drew gave me a water bottle that says "I will never take this camping"

I gave Dan a tshirt that says "Your favorite band sucks"

And I gave BIL a T that says, randomly, "Owls are assholes" and a coffee mug that says "I enjoy Colombia's second finest export"

Ok, so once again I spend my free time yesterday NOT doing chores (I mean really, so what if the christmas tree stays up one more day...)
and instead, did fun things.

Saw Slumdog Millionaire -> FANTASTIC

went STRAIGHT from there to Gran Torino -> ALSO FANTASTIC

then came home and watched a few episodes of Flight of the Conchords -> FANTASTIC,

and then fell asleep on the couch.
Woke up at 3 and went to bed.

Woke up again at 415 to drunk texts from friends, and was depressed b/c it was time to get up.

Then at like 5 of 6 got texts asking me to come out... friends were still out partying, while I was on my way to work.
boooooo.

But aside from that- great day.
I am also in a facebook faceoff which is very entertaining. Some nutty chick who is stalking a friend of mine and thus hates me since I'm his friend, called me nobody and fat, and I said I'd rather be fat than stupid and crazy. We went back and forth, then I deleted all my messages so now all that's left is her craziness, and it makes no sense with half the convo missing. (not that it made much sense to start.) Ahh, fun to be juvenile for a bit. (she had it coming, I promise.)

Go watch all those movies/shows!

Not now, RIGHT NOW!

:)

Well, round one bloodwork- all negative. Yay.

Felt a little pukey this morning, but I'm not sure if it's the meds, or the thai/wine/beer/no sleep from last night. either way, pretty much better now, except that food tastes gross.

And finally, an ecard that I could send to a few people these days...

Macworld is today. Apple's last. And sans Steve Jobs. The announcements don't look all that exciting to far, except as (e:fing) mentioned, Picasa for OS X. Oh, and that the songs from the itunes music store are now going to be available DRM free (for a price), which is kind of huge news.

What else...

Have to admit I'm a little hurt that I wasn't invited to Timika's Pearl street dinner, particularly after being her secret santa and asking several times to get together. Just throwing that out there.

And while I'm being a cranky bitch...

the new boy seems to be seeing someone new. And I am furious with myself b/c I find this makes me upset. I think I am a serious emotional cripple. I mean really... it's irrational and unfair for me to tell him that I don't want to see him anymore, and then be upset if he goes out with someone else. PARTICULARLY since I realized that despite what I might think, I have not been sitting home pining for him, and have been putting myself out there too, with varying degrees of success.

And the most awesome news of all....

Was in the OR yesterday.... doing a dumb little case that was "below me"- i.e. not a "Chief level" case, but something that would usually be delegated to the interns... But, I didn't have anything better to do, and felt like operating, so... I went in.

Enjoyed the case.

Until the end, when I stuck myself with a needle. No big deal, happens more often than it should. I was wearing two pairs of gloves (which I don't usually do). Didn't even think it went through the gloves. But at the end of the case I took my gloves off and inspected my finger, and there was a tiny drop of blood.

The kicker...

The guy has HIV and Hep C.

The chance of me catching anything is miniscule. But, it's not zero.

So... I am on a lovely anti-retroviral cocktail (complete with prophylactic anti-nausea meds) for 28 days. Have to have blood drawn to check my liver functions every two weeks (to make sure the meds don't put me into liver failure), and have to be tested for HIV/HepC at 2wk, 4wk, 6wk, 2mo, 4mo, 6mo and 1 year or something crazy like that.

What fun. And I thought the 9months of TB meds I took last year was bad enough. Stupid occupational hazards. :( I already had a skin cancer scare and a pap smear scare last year (that were negative, for the record), but I don't feel like having to worry about this.

But, better to be safe than sorry.

It was a low-risk incident (tiny scratch with a tiny needle), and he's a (relatively) low risk patient (his HIV and Hep C viral loads are undetectable), but... he's still positive and they now recommend the meds for just about everyone, even if the source patient tests negative, so...

I figure I'll sleep better at night.

Assuming I'm not up all night puking.

(but hell, maybe a month of GI distress will help me lose some weight. Silver lining, right?)

fun fun fun...

(and for the record, I think it's kind of huge that I am putting this out there, but I thought it was a good story. I still may take it down. But please do not take this the wrong way. I am not HIV+. You do not have to fear me and talk shit about me. K? I promise.) (not that anyone should/would fear or talk shit about people with HIV, but you know what i mean... don't want the rumor mill to go crazy here.)