a few months ago I got some email from Yale about some trip- it was like a medical relief mission in the dominican republic or something. Sounded great, but I didn't read the email in time and totally couldn't go.

But there must me some new travel program going on or something, b/c then I got another one about some safari in africa. I mean it sounds amazing, but it's $5400 and that doesn't include airfare. Or the "optional hot air balloon safari and champagne brunch in the serengeti" which is an extra $500.



I guess for the most part yale alumni do pretty well for themselves. The back of the alumni magazine is full of classified ads for ridiculous vacation homes etc- far out of the the reach of most "normal" people. Myself included.

Must be nice to have crazy money, and the time to take crazy trips.

Someday, maybe....

Here's just the first few days:

DAY BY DAY ITINERARY
October 10: Fly to Africa
Depart the USA for your flight to Tanzania. Arrive late in the evening the next day.

October 11: Arrive in Africa, Transfer to Arusha
After arriving into either Jomo Kenyatta Airport in Nairobi or Kilimanjaro Airport, you will travel on to Arusha. Arusha is approximately 4-5 hours from Nairobi, and approximately 1 hour from Kilimanjaro Airport. Spend the night at Serena Mountain Village near Arusha.

October 12: Lake Manyara Safari
After breakfast and a short orientation briefing, depart for Lake Manyara National Park and check-in to Lake Manyara Serena Safari Lodge. After a relaxing lunch at the lodge, enjoy the afternoon wildlife viewing in Lake Manyara National Park, famous for its tree-climbing lion, elephant, hippo, giraffe, and smaller animals. Tonight you will enjoy a festive welcome reception before dinner and spend the evening at Lake Manyara Serena Safari Lodge. (B, L, D)

Holy crap! have I really not posted in >2 weeks?! Hmm. Well, more later, maybe (probably not, I am super stressed and studying/working non-stop) but I thought this was post-worthy...

I can't remember if anybody posted this yet, but just in case they didn't:

(wait for it)

(wait for it)

(wait for it)







STEVEN COLBERT IS COMING TO UB!!!

tickets go on sale 2/4.



Stephen Colbert Added to UB Distinguished Speakers Series
Addition comes with James Earl Jones' cancellation of April 4 lecture

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Comedian, satirist, actor and writer Stephen Colbert has been added to the spring lineup of the University at Buffalo's Distinguished Speakers Series.

Colbert will speak at 8 p.m. April 4 in Alumni Arena on the UB North (Amherst) Campus.

Award-winning actor James Earl Jones, who originally was scheduled to speak on that date, has cancelled his appearance to star in a new Broadway production of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." UB hopes to invite Jones to participate in a future season of the series.

Ok, Paul's last post just reminded me of this...

This is a quote from the story "six to eight black men" by David Sedaris. The whole thing is here:
and I swear to god it is worth reading. It's a story about traveling, and talking to people in other countries about their traditions, and this time he got a Dutch guy talking about Santa. It is piss-your-pants funny. Really. Go read it.

The words silly and unrealistic were redefined when I learned that
Saint Nicholas travels with what was consistently described as "six
to eight black men." I asked several Dutch people to narrow it
down, but none of them could give me an exact number. It was always
"six to eight," which seems strange, seeing as they've had hundreds
of years to get a decent count.

The six to eight black men were characterized as personal slaves
until the mid-fifties, when the political climate changed and it
was decided that instead of being slaves they were just good
friends. I think history has proven that something usually comes
between slavery and friendship, a period of time marked not by
cookies and quiet times beside the fire but by bloodshed and
mutual hostility. They have such violence in Holland, but rather
than duking it out among themselves, Santa and his former slaves
decided to take it out on the public. In the early years, if a
child was naughty, Saint Nicholas and the six to eight black men
would beat him with what Oscar described as "the small branch of
a tree."

"A switch?"

"Yes," he said. "That's it. They'd kick him and beat him with a
switch. Then, if the youngster was really bad, they'd put him in
a sack and take him back to Spain."

"Saint Nicholas would kick you?"

"Well, not anymore," Oscar said. "Now he just pretends to kick
you."

"And the six to eight black men?"

"Them, too."

The first time I read this story, I was beside myself laughing. But the crazy part is- a couple weeks later I was playing Trivial Pursuit, and got the question: "What country thinks Santa rides on a white horse and travels with 6 to 8 black men?" I shit you not.

And finally- wikipedia backs it all up, so you know it must be true.

so...
I know of a pair of ice bowl tickets for sale.
Not sure how much they're going for.
And I think they've been posted on Craigslist.
But I figured I'd throw it out there, since apparently they're not easy to come by....

Anyone?

Oh, peeps...

Hello there. It's been a while.

It is january. It is crunch time. I freaking hate it.
I have a big humongo exam on 1/26. We have it once a year, every year. It is a bit of a stretch (but not much) to say that my career could depend on it. So why, oh why, have I barely started studying? (answer, b/c it puts me to sleep.) I do this every year, put it off put it off put it off, and then freak out and cram for the last week, and do a shitty job. No one to blame but myself, but I hate it.

AND I am finally working on my fellowship applications. For hand surgery. Hand is a good gig. AND, it's a "back door" into plastics. Which is what I really want to do. But, should I get sick of working too much for not much pay, I could stop after my hand training (i.e. skip the two more years it would take to do plastics) and probably get a good job and probably be perfectly happy.
But long story short, I thought I was ahead of the game when I went to start doing applications, only to find that I am FAR, FAR behind. Some deadlines are already past, and bunch more are due on the 15th. But they started accepting them in Nov. And you really really don't want to get it in at the last minute. But unfortunately, that's all I can do at this point. So now I'm scrambling to cobble together a stupid personal statement and do a bunch of copying and collating and mailing out 40 applications on monday.

AND my stupid bullshit research project is due 2/1, too, and it needs a lot of work, since I've totally backburnered it for, oh, a year.

So every night I get home from work, sort of sick to my stomach, and think "which of these very important things do I work on tonight? application, research project, or study?" And more often than not I end up thinking "fuck it, I'm tired, I can't study when I'm tired. I'll just do double tomorrow" and I go to bed. Thinking "I will study ALLLLLL weekend to make up for it." And do I? No.

Fortunately (sort of) this is Dan's shitty busy time at work too, and then he is going away for a week, so we can't really see each other, which is one less distraction. That's a bad way to put it, but it's true, b/c when he's around I'd rather hang out with him.

But so this morning I took my car in, because it was time for scheduled service. And one of my headlights keeps flicking in and out. I figured it's a loose connection, hopefully nothing huge. But that's it. Everthing is running fine, no big mechanical problems, etc.
Now, my car is an '03 and only has 25K miles on it. Not even. And my warranty just expired in April. So this is basically the first time everything has not just been included. But I figured 'it's basically an oil change. How much can it be?'
How much indeed-
$300!!!!!!! [I guess the 25K service is a little more than an oil change. But still, it's just routine, scheduled maintenance!]
Now that I'm out of warranty, maybe it's time to go somewhere besides the dealer. Unfortunately I don't know shit about cars, so I have no idea when I'm being ripped off, and somehow it just makes me 'feel better' to have the dealer take care of everything, with 'official parts' and all that jazz. Silly, I guess.
But ok, so $300 for my regular maintenance. And the headlight is, of course, working just fine now, and they can't find anything wrong with it, and don't want to go ripping it all apart for nothing, which I understand... but it means i'm supposed to go back sometime when it's NOT working, which is a PITA since it's out in clarence and I never have any reason to be there, and am not exactly overflowing with free time these days.
And I also mentioned that things felt a little slippery in the snow- could they check the tires? I don't know how long tires are supposed to last, but these are still the originals.
So he said "well, your rears are pretty much shot, but the fronts have a little left, so you could get away with putting the fronts on the back, and buying 2 new tires now, and the other 2 next year."
Ok, sounds reasonable. How much is two new tires?
$800.
EIGHT HUNDRED DOLLARS?!
Well, they're run-flats, so they're 3x the cost of regular tires. Why do I need runflats? because my car doesn't have a spare b/c it's so small there's no room for one.
I said "well what if I go to tire rack?" he said that would probably save me about $100. But it means driving across town, making another appointment, and not getting it done RIGHT NOW. And I am a big fan of RIGHT NOW.
So my options are-
spend nothing, and keep sliding around.
spend 800 and get some traction back with "all-season" tires, and avoid the need for snow tires, but possibly (probably) pay too much.
Buy a whole different set of snow tires for the winter (which is cheaper) and deal with the regular tires later.
Or the guy said that for the price of 4 runflats, I could probably get a set of 4 new "regular" (non-runflat) tires, PLUS a set of snow tires. And a membership at AAA in case I actually get a flat.
That is probably the way to go...
but changing wheels every winter is a pain, too, and I'd kind of like to just have one set that works all year... I've been fine in snow up until now, and that's probably just b/c these are nearly bald.

I wasn't really planning on dropping $300 today, let alone $1100.
Stupid expenses I wasn't planning on! Grr.
At least they gave me a loaner, I guess, so I don't have to sit there the whole time.

But- good news! As soon as I finish my stupid exam, I am on vacation for 3 weeks. I wanted to do something huge and awesome, like go to europe or australia or something just amazing, but as always I have procrastinated and made no plans and now it's in like 2 weeks.

But my parents just told me that their awesome friends are going to have their awesome humongous sailboat in the British Virgin Islands, and that they (my parents) have been invited to spend a week on the boat- and that the invite is extended to me. And all it would really cost is a plane ticket. Woohoo!! And I'm such a nerd that I love spending time with my family, so the fact that they are going is a plus, not a minus. So I'm really excited about that.

And, on a much lesser scale- I just found a mobile epocrates [drug-reference program] that works on the iphone, so I can FINALLY stop carrying around my palm pilot! YAY. It's web-based, and so not as good as the installable stand-alone app, but it's good enough for now. My pockets just got lighter.

Ok, I think that's about it for now. But I knew you'd all been missing my overly long overly ramble boring posts about mundane crap, so I figured I'd give you an update. ;)

Later!