Today must be a cold day in hell

After a several year stretch of successfully avoiding the Non-Shoe Sports (see list #22), I am going ice skaing tonight after work with my coworkers. This is a big step for me. My aversion to the Non-Shoe Sports runs deep and has a long history. Why do I hate them so much? Mostly because I'm terrible at them. Flimsy ankles and a poor sense of balance do not a graceful skiier/snowboarder/rollerblader make. When I was a kid, roller skating birthday parties were my own personal nightmare. I was always the only kid who couldn't skate, so I'd hide out in the corner, and someone would always insist that they could teach me and end up failing miserably. I couldn't even stay up long enough to hokey-pokey. Skiing is even worse, because it's cold and it's fucking expensive. Not only can I not stay on my own two feet, I have a tendency to cause tremendous crashes, whether careening into the popcorn stand at Roller Kingdom or knocking down an entire line of people waiting to board the ski lift. Not fun. Wish me, and more importantly, my coworkers luck tonight, because I told them if I severely injure myself or anyone else, I'll never forgive them for talking me into going.

Addendum: Due to inclement weather conditions, we abandoned the ice skating plans and went to Matt Murphy's instead. I was very happy with the decision.

List #22...Non-Shoe Sports

The following sports involve wearing something on your feet or standing on something that is not a shoe or a cleat, and have thereby been categorized by yours truly as Non-Shoe Sports. As a rule, I hate them and will avoid participating in Non-Shoe Sports at all costs.

1. Skiing
2. Snowboarding
3. Ice skating
4. Rollerskating
5. Rollerblading
6. Skateboarding
7. Surfing
8. Waterskiing

New blog

My friend Meghan just started up her own blog, A Wink and a Nudge and a Just Kidding
Yay! Another thing for me to look at instead of doing actual work!

Good news for public health

A new vaccine for rotavirus, which causes severe diarrhea and dehydration in infants, has been recommended by the CDC. Although rotavirus is not a major problem in the United States, it kills an estimated 600,000 children a year in developing countries. A rotavirus vaccine manufactured by Wyeth in 1998 was pulled off the shelves because it was linked to an increased risk of intussusception, a flipping of the intestines that requires corrective surgery. The new vaccine, made by Merck, has no serious side effects.

Summers resigns as Harvard President

Harvard President Lawrence Summers has resigned before having to face a second no-confidence vote by the governing board. Summers has been at odds with several faculty groups and set off a storm of controversy last year when he suggested that innate differences between men and women could be the cause of the lack of women in academic sciences. Personally, I think his comments were blown out-of-proportion and that he honestly meant to stir up a dialogue and not imply that women can't do science. The lack of female faculty members in the sciences is a problem that does need to be addressed. Physics and engineering are still male-dominated fields, but in the life sciences, graduate students and post-docs are overwhelmingly female. Here at BU, over 80% of the graduate students in my department are female. However, higher level positions (faculty, Principal Investigators, etc) are still largely dominated by men, especially at Harvard. Why? Are more women going into biotech instead of staying in academia? Is it due to slow turnover (for the most part, faculty positions don't open up until someone dies or retires)? Or is there still a bit of good old boys club mentality among those doing the hiring? Probably a combination of these and other factors. Maybe Summers' comments upset people, but they did bring the issue to light, and I don't believe he deserved to be fired because of them.

List #21...What I Eat and Drink When I'm Sick

1. Gatorade (lemon-lime flavor only)
2. Ginger ale
3. Saltines
4. Chicken noodle soup

What are your comfort foods?

Weekend Recap

Friday: Went out to dinner with friends at South Kitchen and Wine Bar, the new(ish) trendy restaurant in South Boston. It was fun, but I probably would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't been fighting off a cold. After dinner, we stopped pretending to be sophisticated and went to Tom English's Cottage (no relation to celebrity restaurantier Todd English, unless he has a sketchy little brother who runs the bar across the street from my apartment), where we drank pitchers of beer, played the jukebox, and watched the Olympics on TV. The highlight may have been watching the women's snowboard cross with The Final Countdown playing in the background. Not sure if anyone else caught the final, but American Lindsey Jacobellis had a strong lead and was on her way to winning the gold medal, when, on the very last jump, she tried to do a trick and totally biffed it, allowing Tanja Frieden of Switzerland to pass her for the gold. Serves Lindsey right for being a big show-off.

Saturday: Still fighting off a cold, I lounged around on the couch most of the day. I watched Fever Pitch and enjoyed it, even though the movie wasn't very good. Jimmy Fallon was terrible; the role would have been perfect for Adam Sandler, who was fabulous with Drew Barrymore in The Wedding Singer. There were too many unfunny gags, many of which involving physical comedy (girl falls off climbing wall, etc.), that were obviously scripted in to get a laugh and end up failing miserably. The only two believable characters in the movie were the two rowdy female fans who sit near Jimmy Fallon at Fenway. So, why did I like it? It was fun to see all of the Boston scenery- hey, I've been there!- like Bill's Bar and Sonsie, and of course, all of the Red Sox stuff. I was actually at the game where they filmed the scene in which Drew Barrymore runs across the field at Fenway (they asked everyone to stay after the game ended and cheer while they filmed the scene), so it was neat to see that, and, along with the rest of Boston, I was at the parade, footage of which is shown while the credits are rolling.
Despite my cold, I played soccer on Saturday night because it was the first game of the season, and I'm the captain, so I had to show up to meet with the leauge coordinator to sign the roster and pay. We didn't have any subs, so I ended up playing the whole game, but we played well and the other team stunk, so we won easily. After that, I went out, and ended up doing shots and playing Keno at a tiny little dive bar in my neighborhood. And I wonder why I'm still sick...

Sunday: I spent the day lounging and movie watching (Lucas...depressing how low Corey Haim has sunk), then cooked dinner for three friends.

My "Real" Blog

When I started writing this blog, I had to decide whether or not I wanted my parents to read it. I opted against it, because I knew much of the content would not be very parent-friendly, and I didn't want to have to be censoring myself all of the time. My mom knows that I have a blog because she's heard my cousins talking about it, but I don't think she really knows what a blog is, and she doesn't know the web address or how to find it. My brother-in-law Adam decided to create a blog for me that he could show my mom. Here it is. Seriously, check it out. My favorite post is "I am now an Episcopalian."

You'll never look at a hot air balloon the same way

My sister Eri was looking into hot air balloon rides in the San Diego area and stumbled across this company's "Special Rides"
Scroll down a bit until you get to Mile High:

For those who belong to or have ever wanted to join the "Mile High" club, we offer a flight in a private balloon at a mile high (5280 feet). This is the ultimate ecstasy. We offer comfort and discretion. This flight is honored with "mile high" pins for him and her. Call today to reserve because this flight take considerable scheduling considerations.

Um, ew! Comfort and discretion? What about the hot air balloon opeator? Does he just turn the other way? Or does he climb out of the basket on a rope ladder? And who would
A. actually do this?
B. and then wear their "mile high" commemorative pins?

I'm disturbed.

In Gob We Trust

In honor of the wounded-but-hopefully-not-dead Arrested Development, here's a video for you all. The Final Countdown.

Lovin' the luge

Matt Lauer and Al Roker from the Today show donned spandex suits and rode the double luge. Here are some more photos from Gawker.

"They got intimate with every wall," said U.S. Luge spokesman Jon Lundin, who said Lauer's left leg was heavily padded to absorb blows. "They cleaned it up in the second run. They had a blast."

Love the Lauer. Love the luge.

Love is blind

Here is a portrait of my roomate Maria, painted by her boyfriend. It looks just like her.

V Day Recap

So, late yesterday afternoon was looking pretty bleak, seeing as I hadn't heard a peep from Bim and I hadn't made other plans because I'm an optimistic buffoon. I was headed home for a depressing evening alone with Jonny Weir and Camille. This VD was shaping up to be one of the worst: ranking somewhere in between the one I time actually had a boyfriend and I gave him a shirt and he gave me a big, fat nothing and the time I ended up making out with a guy I met at a bar who told me he was engaged, (I thought he was joking around, because what kind of engaged guy goes to a bar alone on Valentine's Day?) only to discover a couple of months later that he really was engaged when I ended up sitting behind him and his fiance at Easter Mass, and I had to sneak out to avoid an incredibly uncomfortable "Peace be with you." Luckily, right as I got on the bus, my friend Nikki called (cue Handel's Messiah), and we decided to go to Sidebar for $6 pitchers and 10 cent wings. We were joined by Nikki's roommate Theresa and her cousin Elise, the two loudest people in the universe (I say that with love, girls), and good times ensued. Several pitchers later, our boisterous table had joined forces with the other patrons to form the Sidebar Lonely Hearts Club (no band, though), led by a guy named "Next." Anyone named "Next" deserves to be mocked outright. I ended up having a blast, and Bim even called in to report that he had sprained his ankle playing basketball. The only bad part of the evening was the fact that I had to get up at 6AM this morning to teach dental students how to Gram stain. And now my head hurts and I have a ton of work to do.

Conan + Tarja

Here's my favorite VD story of the day: Conan O'Brien gave a Valentine's Day gift to Finnish president Tarja Halonen. Last year, Conan endorsed Halonen in Finland's presidential election because "she looks like him" and campaigned for her on his late-night show. She won, and American's favorite red head comic (take that, Carrot Top) has become a popular figure in Finland.

Which candy heart are you?

Your Candy Heart Says "Cutie Pie"




You always seem to have a hot date, even though you never try to meet anyone.
A total charmer, you have a natural appeal that keeps you in high demand.
Your ideal Valentine's Day date: multiple dates with multiple people
Your flirting style: 100% natural
What turns you off: serious relationship talks
Why you're hot: you're totally addicting

What Does Your Candy Heart Say?

Link from Emily Dickinson's Attic. I thought I might need to throw in a little sweetness after Sid and Nancy.

Happy Valentine's Day

You might be a nerd if...

you buy a t-shirt that says "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate." and wear it to work. Here I am:

and here's a close-up of the shirt.


Got it from Toothpaste For Dinner

But he did not shoot the deputy

Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot a 78 year old man while hunting quail in Texas. If I laughed when I heard about it, does that make me a bad person? Um, don't answer that.

Weekend Update

Friday- Went on a date, which I'm torn about writing about on the blog. I want to write about it, because hey, it's not like I'm ever discreet or private about anything, and it could provide entertainment for the rest of you, in a Dating Adventures of a Girl Who Never Goes On Dates (Except For That Time Her Older Sister Set Her Up With An Extremely Religious Nerd Who Kept Telling Anecdotes About The Family Priest and Needless To Say It Didn't Go Well) and Therefore Doesn't Know How To Act sort of way, but I'm paranoid that somehow the date (we'll call him Bim) will stumble across this blog and be weirded out by it. So if you're reading this, Bim, now you know that I have a blog and wrote about you, but it also means that you, along with William Hung, are stalking me over the internet, so let's just never mention it, mmmkay? Anyways, we went out and got pizza at Santarpio's, a well known traditional Italian place in East Boston where the only items on the menu are pizza and shish kebabs that they grill over hot coals behind the bar, and there's always a line outside the door, even in the winter, because the pizza is THAT good. After that, we went out to a bar in my neighborhood, and as we were leaving, I turned on my phone to check my messages (I figured that leaving it off was probably appropriate date protocol) and had three drunken voice mails from an old friend who was out at Murphy's Law, possibly the shadiest late-night bar in Southie. We went, and Bim was a good sport about it, even while being inappropriately grilled by my drunk loudmouth friend.

Saturday- Went in to work, went to the gym, shopped at Filene's (which is tragically going out of business), and nearly fainted in the Dowtown Crossing T stop. I should mention the fact that I am a frequent fainter, so nothing too unusual about that, and I managed to control it before I blacked out and hit the floor. I think it was a combination of the fact that I hadn't eaten since breakfast and it was 6PM (you know those people who say things like "Oh, I was so busy that I forgot to eat!" well, I am NOT one of those people. I get lightheaded and cranky if I go more than a few hours without food), and I was all bundled up in my winter gear and it was really warm and crowded on the platform and I felt hot and stuffy and claustrophobic, and I was reading a particular gory scene in Red Dragon, the first book in the Hannibal Lecter series. I started feeling nauseous and fainty, and my hearing was getting all muffled (the first sign of an upcoming fainting spell) and my vision was starting to blacken. I slumped against a pole and luckily a train pulled up and I managed to get on it and get a seat and put my head down until I felt better. I was very glad not to have collapsed because:

A. The thought of lying on the floor in Downtown Crossing T Station disgusts me, and
B. Considering I was dressed in gym clothes and a big puffy parka, people might have assumed I was a passed-out bum and not tried to help me.

I felt better later on and really was in the mood to go out for some reason, and I was starting to get depressed about the fact that a lot of my friends have moved to the suburbs or would prefer to stay in and do couple-y things rather than go get drunk at a bar with, say, me. Luckily, my friend Nikki called me up to say that she and her roommates were going out in Cambridge. I met them there, and we ended up at Redline and had a great time, drinking and dancing to some old-school classics like Poison and The Right Stuff. I even bumped into a cousin of mine who lives in London but was in town for a wedding, and it was almost like seeing a ghost, because I was staring at him, thinking that it couldn't be him because he lives in London, until he walked up to me and said "It's me, Matt!" and then I stuck my hand through him. Okay, that last part is a lie.


Sunday- Snow day! Here's a view of my street- I love the city during a big snowstorm. I slept in, and lounged around in my pajamas all day reading Red Dragon, only venturing out once to buy Diet Coke and Gatordae at the convenience store next door. I did walk a few blocks to have dinner at Maria's boyfriend's house.

Wow, this was a long post.

The Prince Files

So...I'm at work right now, and instead of playing with bacteria, I'm looking at Prince video clips on the internet.

Guitar Prince. The Purple One rocks out on While My Guitar Gently Weeps at George Harrison's induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I had no idea he was such a talented guitarist. Check out the smiling teenager in the background- he's Harrison's son Dhani. I also like how Prince throws the guitar in the air at the end of the song and it vanishes, because Prince is magic.

Modern Prince. On SNL last weekend.

Teen Prince. Prince, at age 19, on American Bandstand. Dick Clark has no idea what to do.

Chapelle Prince. Here's a hilarious clip from the Chapelle show of Charlie Murphy reminiscing about a game of basketball against Prince and the Revolution. Game. Blouses.

Courtesy of MetaFilter and Sore Eyes