Potpourri
Thurs night, I went to a random women's networking event to which I was invited by a chick from the last MITEF event I went to, mostly bc it was a tasting (and discussion) of MarieBelle chocolate. I'd been eating chocolate all week (emergency visit to La Maison du Chocolat on Tues, dark chocolate marzipan baudino on Weds, leftover baudino on Thurs), but MarieBelle is quite something. She knows her market, making unusually combinations of flavors that appeal to the jaded palates of New Yorkers. I thought the cardamom confection tasted more like caramel than cardamom, but since caramel is one of my favorite flavors, this worked out well. Most interesting, they had 4 chocolates - and 4 recommended pairings. They recommended a French chardonnay with the lime truffles; champagne with the passionfruit; port with the dark chocolate ganache; and cognac with the cardamom. Unfortunately, they did NOT have samples in the goodie bags. Oh well. More importantly, I randomly met a chick who grew up in the next town over, went to MIT, was friends with my sorority sisters - who I'd never met. It was fabulous and I just know we're going to be lunchfriends.
I was grateful my father forced my mother to take me straight home from the train station this time and after hearing about last week's insomnia, I think my mum was glad too. She commented I had dark circles under my eyes and when I woke up (after 11 hours) the next day, she'd been telling her sister about it. *sighs* I told her about my brain doc and my current career woes. Even though she specifically asked if it was emotional stuff that was keeping me from sleeping, she didn't really want to talk about the former. However, she is pushing (hard!) for me to hire my sister's matchmaker. Later in the weekend, she bought me a large bottle of melatonin, unasked - I gotta go read up to find out how that stuff works.
I was mostly home to see the orthodontist for a follow-up to his model building. Turns out my upper teeth are lovely, just about right - and the treatment for the lower teeth (which is what brought me to his office) might mess up the upper teeth. He's very conservative, he doesn't do Invisalign, and he thinks the enamel is too thin to strip enough off the lower teeth to give me a rounded arch. *sighs*
Spent the afternoon playing with my baby cousin. She's so much bigger than she was last time we went to the park together - she wanted to try the rock climbing wall at the playground and I was trying to help her, but she decided she's too short. Boo. You're never too short to climb. Later in the afternoon, when we were back at my grandparents' house, she asked me to call her mom to pick her up, which I thought was a little rude, so I told her I'd only do it if she could spell her mother's name. At first she couldn't remember her mother's name -- and then she asked my mom how to spell it. (She just learned to spell her own name, but couldn't recognize it on my phone bc I used lower case letters.) It was adorable and probably an example of why you shouldn't leave your children with me. The best part of the day though was at dinner, when her mother started making the oysters and calamari talk to me: she's been sick for a while, so it was lovely to see her so animated. Got back too late to go out though and went straight to bed.
Sun I went to Race to the Ends of the Earth at the AMNH. I've been critical of most AMNH exhibits, but this one's terrific. It's a dramatic story and they use every trick to keep visitors of all ages engaged. I bet I learned more from this exhibit than if I read about the two guys. One thing that's been on my mind is that it's hard to give Scott credit when you know how badly it turned out: in a warm museum, it's easy to say, "well, duh, you didn't plan for enough food and in expedition planning, you need to maximize your window." If Amundsen had been unlucky, maybe we'd be mocking his single point of failure transportation. That said, there's a big difference between people who've been training for something their entire life vs. someone who fell into a job. I'm so glad Buzz Lightyear highly recommended it to me: I might not have gone otherwise.
Ironically, I went straight from the museum to Patagonia, to redeem a coupon I got at last week's AAC dinner. I mostly went bc I was curious what kind of bag they were giving out this year; they were out though, so they gave me one of these instead. I have too many plastic bag replacements as it is, but the blue is so pretty!! And I immediately took it to the farmer's market, where I bought mustard greens, lamb sausage, tomatoes, yogurt, black sea bass, and apple bread. I need to remember to never eat black sea bass again, bc it's got too many bones (even Esca couldn't get them all out). The mustard greens were way too pungent, in a bad way, and I could barely finish my salad.
Spent the rest of the night working on a photo book of my Cascades trip. Stayed up until 3 - and then was up until 11 on Monday to finish it, but I made it in time to redeem my GroupOn. I'm rather pleased with the result and can't wait to see the pictures in print.
I was grateful my father forced my mother to take me straight home from the train station this time and after hearing about last week's insomnia, I think my mum was glad too. She commented I had dark circles under my eyes and when I woke up (after 11 hours) the next day, she'd been telling her sister about it. *sighs* I told her about my brain doc and my current career woes. Even though she specifically asked if it was emotional stuff that was keeping me from sleeping, she didn't really want to talk about the former. However, she is pushing (hard!) for me to hire my sister's matchmaker. Later in the weekend, she bought me a large bottle of melatonin, unasked - I gotta go read up to find out how that stuff works.
I was mostly home to see the orthodontist for a follow-up to his model building. Turns out my upper teeth are lovely, just about right - and the treatment for the lower teeth (which is what brought me to his office) might mess up the upper teeth. He's very conservative, he doesn't do Invisalign, and he thinks the enamel is too thin to strip enough off the lower teeth to give me a rounded arch. *sighs*
Spent the afternoon playing with my baby cousin. She's so much bigger than she was last time we went to the park together - she wanted to try the rock climbing wall at the playground and I was trying to help her, but she decided she's too short. Boo. You're never too short to climb. Later in the afternoon, when we were back at my grandparents' house, she asked me to call her mom to pick her up, which I thought was a little rude, so I told her I'd only do it if she could spell her mother's name. At first she couldn't remember her mother's name -- and then she asked my mom how to spell it. (She just learned to spell her own name, but couldn't recognize it on my phone bc I used lower case letters.) It was adorable and probably an example of why you shouldn't leave your children with me. The best part of the day though was at dinner, when her mother started making the oysters and calamari talk to me: she's been sick for a while, so it was lovely to see her so animated. Got back too late to go out though and went straight to bed.
Sun I went to Race to the Ends of the Earth at the AMNH. I've been critical of most AMNH exhibits, but this one's terrific. It's a dramatic story and they use every trick to keep visitors of all ages engaged. I bet I learned more from this exhibit than if I read about the two guys. One thing that's been on my mind is that it's hard to give Scott credit when you know how badly it turned out: in a warm museum, it's easy to say, "well, duh, you didn't plan for enough food and in expedition planning, you need to maximize your window." If Amundsen had been unlucky, maybe we'd be mocking his single point of failure transportation. That said, there's a big difference between people who've been training for something their entire life vs. someone who fell into a job. I'm so glad Buzz Lightyear highly recommended it to me: I might not have gone otherwise.
Ironically, I went straight from the museum to Patagonia, to redeem a coupon I got at last week's AAC dinner. I mostly went bc I was curious what kind of bag they were giving out this year; they were out though, so they gave me one of these instead. I have too many plastic bag replacements as it is, but the blue is so pretty!! And I immediately took it to the farmer's market, where I bought mustard greens, lamb sausage, tomatoes, yogurt, black sea bass, and apple bread. I need to remember to never eat black sea bass again, bc it's got too many bones (even Esca couldn't get them all out). The mustard greens were way too pungent, in a bad way, and I could barely finish my salad.
Spent the rest of the night working on a photo book of my Cascades trip. Stayed up until 3 - and then was up until 11 on Monday to finish it, but I made it in time to redeem my GroupOn. I'm rather pleased with the result and can't wait to see the pictures in print.