New Things!

So I'm going to keep a running list of new things I'm trying:
1)  I ate a house salad
2) I ate shrimp scampi with linguine
3) I watched Dancing with the Stars today with Raechel
4) I went iceskating outside in NYC

Upcoming:
1)  Watching the first Twilight movie that I borrowed from Rae (still refuse to read the books, but who can resist a good love story?)
2) Perhaps a new haircut

A miracle!

Oh my goodness! A miracle just happened.  This weekend, I was faced with a take-home midterm, an oral presentation worth half my grade I hadn't even started researching, a ton of data analysis for lab, and group project work to do for a meeting tomorrow.  This weekend was busy, so I only started to tackle this today around 4 pm.  And I am just now finishing my take-home midterm.  I was all set to go to bed, wake up around 6 am to start researching my presentation, skip class, skip lunch, just to work on the presentation.  And then I had no idea how I was going to do my group project stuff before 6 pm tomorrow.

But, oh my goodness, I just got an email saying that my class tomorrow night where I was supposed to present is canceled!  Like, I can't even begin to say what this means.  I was already feeling pretty dejected and hopeless because of this weekend, but maybe this means I have at least a little bit of good karma in this world.  I'm so relieved.

Convenience and Laziness

Is it bad that if I go to a website for an event and it doesn't have a quicklink to add it to my Google calendar, I am much less likely to add it to my schedule, and thus attend it?  hehe

Rubbers

So we're studying rubber (like the polymers) in my statistical mechanics class, but the professor has a British accent (he's like a Liam Neeson twin), so everytime he says "rubbers" with his accent, it makes me think of what that means in the British language, and I have to stop myself from giggling in the middle of class.

Moving

So two of my good female friends are moving to DC in the near future.  In short, this makes me sad.  Like, all I want to do is whine about why life is unfair.  Conversations with girl friends keep me sane and put my life in perspective.  I just want to collect everyone who means anything to me and build a big house and we can all live together and never have to move across the country.  That would be my utopia. 

Updates

Apologies for the lack of posting.  It's gotten pretty hectic recently, with classes, TAing, fellowship applications, starting research, traveling to New Haven and Hopewell, going to the gym, and doing stuff for the Engineering Graduate Student Council.  It would inspire me to write more if people actually commented at all ; )  Anyway, my roommate is away for the week at a conference in Austin.  And, don't get me wrong, my roommate is pretty amazing, I barely even know she's there--she's quiet, neat, studious, and kind.  But there's just so much more freedom when I have the place to myself.  I can listen to videos on the Internet without shutting my bedroom door, I can leave my shoes in the front hallway, the shower head is always adjusted to my height, I don't have to wash my dishes right away.  It's just nicer. 
I've also been busy with lots of Princeton stuff.  There's more people to hang out with now that I'm in NYC, so we've been going to happy hours, restaurants and pregaming parties.  I even hosted one, which was a lot of work but a lot of fun.  And then there's all the university stuff, like Homecoming and the Yale vs. Princeton game coming up.  It makes fall a very busy season : )  Too bad Columbia's homecoming was on the same day as Princeton's. 

NYC Living

So today the Columbia library (Butler Library) had a wine & cheese reception for PhD students.  It wasn't as lame as it sounds.  They had candy corn, wine, cheese, crackers, cookies, and brownies. And it was great to meet other non-engineering students.  After that, there was a happy hour at Covo Lounge (135th St) for Women in Science at Columbia (WiSC). I took the 1 subway up to the 137th st stop, and then walked a block and then walked down a ton of stairs, because there's basically a huge cliff on the western side of Manhattan.  Anyway, Covo had great brick oven pizza and we had tons of tickets for free drinks so it was a good time.  Some guys even came out to support WiSC (aka get free pizza and drinks).  But I'm still learning the ropes of the subway system -- a couple weeks ago, I was taking the 2 uptown, and since there's been a ton of construction, the 2 and 3 have been making 1 local stops.  So I figured the 2 would stop at 116th St - Columbia University.  Not so.  The 2 line has a 116th St stop -- but at Malcolm X Blvd.  Let me tell you, a white girl should never be on a Malcolm X Blvd after dark, no matter what city it is.  So while I was waiting for a taxi, which apparently are very rare in Harlem, this guy comes up to me and tries to tell me that it's not a bad walk back to 122nd and Amsterdam.  Yeah, right, buddy.  He even offers to be my 'escort'.  Haha, um, no thanks.  I get in a taxi and and get dropped off at my door -- that $10 was definitely worth it to not have to walk through Harlem alone late at night.  Anyway, that was my first subway mistake, and today at 137th St., I walked down the stairs, swiped my MetroCard, and then realized that I was on the uptown platform -- and I wanted to go downtown -- and there was no way to get between the two without paying again.  Uggh!!  So I took the uptown train to 168th, where there was a free transfer.  Not too bad, but annoying.