is it friday yet?

this week seems like it is going by sooo slooowly.... i think it had a lot to do with that night of three hour sleep and the following night of trying to make-up a reasonable-sounding 20-minute presentation on divorce and the proper family treatment for divorcing families. there's actually plenty of research on the former, but not so much on the latter, so i just plugged my hope-to-be future profession -- therapeutic mediation. even with all the hot air i threw into it, i was actually the only person in the class to finish the 20-minute presentation in 20 minutes. i'm not sure what that means... other than perhaps that i talk really fast when i'm nervous.

last night i thought i was only going to have energy to come home and flop on the couch, but mil guilted me into doing laundry and then a couple of friends, crimson and the archivist, encouraged me to meet them to go dancing. (i really couldn't say 'no' given that they were going to a place aproximately three blocks from my apt.) it was actually quite fun despite my fatigue. i'd never been to a dance where guys would just come up and ask you -- just for the fun of dancing. (I actually didn't even know that guys could go dancing of their own accord.) they even asked old married broads like myself. mil didn't join us because he got stuck with the task of folding laundry and cooking dinner. (and, yes, i do have the best husband in the world). i think he was a tad jealous when i showed him photos of another guy twirling me around. perhaps next time he'll let the laundry get wrinkly and come join us anyway.

in other news, can i tell you how poorly suited i am to be a bridesmaid? seriously, i go to bed at 11pm -- even on weekends. in college a late night for me was 12:30. i don't know where the hot spots are in town, and one martini is enough to make me drunk for about twenty minutes and then want to crawl into bed. i'm really hoping that the spirit of studio 54 somehow joins me next month when i have to be perky through several hours of late-night, pre-bridal excitement.

i will leave you today with this -- a very pretty pic of one of my mom's very pretty flowers.

mmmmonday

in school, i used to think monday hurt. but i think it hurts more now that i'm an adult. i didn't sleep at all last night. i very nearly posted at 3:30am this morning. (can i tell you how hard it is to type when you've netted 3 hours of sleep??) and as those of you who know me, 3:30am doesn't usually exist for moosk. 3:30am is frequently catagorized along with mythical creatures and zombies -- it may exist, but i have yet to see it. i wasn't even pulling an "all-nighter" which i have also never done because my body and brain just give out on me around 12:30am, like it or not. no, last night i went to bed around 11:30, and woke up around 1:30am as if it were 9am. there was no drifting back and forth between dreamworld and reality. i was awake, and i was thinking. now thinking is not good for me because once i start, i can't stop. it starts small: do i have to go to the bathroom? but that will involve waking up... but i think i have to go... but the air conditioning is too cold... i'll wait. it gets more intense from there: oh, crap, i forgot to ask about camps in my group last week and tomorrow i'm meeting with the mom who asked me. i wonder what i should tell her... i could say i forgot, but that would make it seem like i don't really care that her kid won't go to camp. do i really care? i guess it's better to lie. maybe she's already gotten a camp. d*mn that afternoon cup of coffee! after about an hour in this delusional state i start to worry about bigger things: am i pregnant? (as you know from my previous post, this is an ongoing fear for me.) maybe that's why my stomach's all gurgly. maybe that's why i can't sleep. how will i tell my folks? would i have to quit school? is that a bad thing? oh, crap, i've got to pee! it was at this point that i figured it best to turn my attention to my presentation due tuesday and didn't stop working on it until my brain ceased to function.

yeah, it's not pretty. i survived though. the sad part is that this lack of sleep will make it even more difficult for me to get my presentation done tonight. i want to sleep now, and it's only 11am. argh, %^&$in' monday!

anyway, sorry for the barely decipherable post. i will do my best to return to you in better spirits. at least i have my hot n' spicy cheez-its to look forward to...

brick, part 2

i don't know what to say today other than that times square is a foul and disgusting sorta place. i can't believe that people choose to go there when there are places like central park and the met. if you want theatre, there's better theatre off-broadway (and -- shh -- less expensive). if you want lights, there are better lights in las vegas (but then again, some might say that the strip is even more of a hell hole). if you want hookers, they've moved downtown, and if you want peep shows, well, then you're in the right place.

anyway, i had a brief invasion of brick today. he's supposedly off at another university doing research there, but he has been spotted with suprising frequency in our neck of the woods. this afternoon as i was beginning to plan my escape, my only colleague, duck tape, mentioned that he very nearly got cornered by brick in the hallway. i asked if i should avoid leaving the lab for a while in order to prevent an unfortunate run-in. he said that i had nothing to fear, so i decided to chance a trip to the bathroom. as i walked the fifty feet to the ladies' facilities, i felt especially jumpy -- seeing his devilish grin popping out of doorways, but i made it there and back without incident. unfortunately, just as i my nerves were recovering from the trip and i felt that i had enough good fortune to make it the 200 feet to the building exit, i heard the telltale grinding of the lab doorbell. (if i had skipped the trip to the restroom, i could have been gone by now!) i knew it was him. there was no place i could hide. i was panic-stricken because by now the frightening image of that grin had grown all out of proportion in my overactive imagination. not knowing what else to do, i went to the door. i thought, at least i have duck tape to deflect some of the mindless (and i mean truly mindless) repartee, and i have an excuse! i'm just leaving! woo-hoo! i'm home free. so i open the door. the momentary triumph is quickly replaced by the reality of him standing there, and me having to talk to him. "um... hi, brick!" (trying to hide the pain i feel inside) "oh, actually, i'm just about to leave..." (said with feined disappointment) "...it's great to see you though..." "...oh, you'd like to walk with me...fantastic!" (duck tape! duck tape! where the hell are you?!?!) once i realized i had no other choice than to enjoy his companionship for the walk to the subway, i decided that i had to move as quickly as possible. my usual twenty minutes of checking through notes and reading the news one last time before i leave was cut out, and i bolted out that door as fast as my little chinese slippers would carry me. the chat was about as pleasant as expected. turns out he's proposing to his girlfriend of three months and things are wonderful! (the grin actually got more frightening as he recounted how wonderful things have been for the last three months -- hell, izzy was wonderful for the first three months.) anyway, given his religious background, my guess is that brick will be procreating soon, so tell your young'uns to beware.


she's watching you...

a day with the green monster

and, no, mil -- not that green monster. saturday some kind friends humored me and my inability to say good-bye to my childhood. we went to rye playland. a little old amusement park in westchester. we had a grand, ole time and found a new friend along the way. he didn't mind me posting his photo on the blog.



that one is my favorite shot, but of course, i'm not one to stop and just one picture...



this was mil's favorite ride:



and i managed to get my wish -- a canon sd400. unfortunately, due to reasons mentioned in the previous post, i was not allowed to bring it to the amusement park, so i am adding a little photo to show off my new baby's colors. enjoy!

ow.

i just scratched my face with a binder. yes, you heard correctly. sad, isn't it? this is my level of coordination. this is why mil won't let me use sharp objects or eat/drink while using my computer.

anyway, once again i have gone mia for a few days. this seems to be my trend. in psychobabble, one might say that it is intermittent reinforcement -- which makes it even more desireable... or one might not.

when i get home, you will get to see the wonders of my birthday weekend. oh, and it was wonderful. those of you who were there will get to reminisce. those of you who weren't will learn envy. ...or not.

i think i'm very noncommittal today. i miss my little red squiggly lines that tell me when i am spelling something inccorectly.

i learned that the second year resident/almost mommy is 1 year younger than me...almost to the day. that makes me a little bit sad. like i should be doing more with my life. don't worry, i'll get over it. and you will, too.

in other news, mil has put in his pitch for why doctors are so much more ideal boyfriends/husbands than IT guys. it's something to the effect that some doctors only have to work 2 days a week and be on call for a third. well, at least one doctor he knows has these wonderful hours (a cardiology resident, no less). plus they have better stories to tell at the end of the day (how many times can you hear a story that ends -- "so, turns out the guy didn't have his computer turned on!"?). so, there you go, surprisingly doctors make good bedfellows. (mil, honey, i think you were preaching to the choir.)

well, that's all for now. will try to get weekend photos up later...

pre-med students and the people who love them

clearly i was overly eager to get back to watching the last eposode of six feet under (season 3) last night. i apologize for not providing adequate support for my assertion that IT guys are the way to go for you single gals out there. our reasoning (disregarding the fact that the individual who suggested it -- who shall remain nameless -- might still have lingering feelings for an ex who's recently resurfaced and just happens to be an IT guy) is that IT guys make a decent living, have pretty normal business hours, and they can fix your computer to boot. to be fair, I think an IT gal would be equally groovy, but most guys are intimidated by chicks with more techno-chops than they. now you may counter,"hey moosk, aren't most IT guys cursed with the social skills of 13-year old boys?" to that i say, "perhaps, but are social skills really all they're cracked up to be?" seriously, (as i cave more deeply into stereotype) you don't really have to worry about the IT guy having to sleep his way up to VP or needing to recount his sexual conquests in the boardroom. this is good. some of you might think that academics have similar advantages, but clearly those of you who'd think that have not worked in academia. the number of professors who sleep with their grad students is astounding (it's definitely more than 50% in my particular department).

as mil read last night's post over my shoulder, i think he felt a bit miffed that i would pick a profession other than his. perhaps he worried that i might one day run-off with the IT guy from our department. fortunately, our IT guy is way surly and a tad malodorous, so our marriage is safe. no, the IT guy thing is more hypothetical than practical. that said, if you happen to be dating an IT guy and would like to weigh in on this conversation, i'd be more than happy to hear from you. i'd also be happy to hear from guys/gals who'd like to weigh in on ideal professions of girlfriends/wives.

here, i'll get the ball rolling: well, i wouldn't want to date a social work student because she'll never make good money...

if you could choose...

tonight some friends and i were talking about what would be the best job for a boyfriends/husband to have. we all agreed that med student (mil) and lawyer (metsfan/cat's husband) were not top picks -- sorry fellas. in fact, even a doctor is not wholly desireable due to the crappy hours. musicians of any kind were nixed -- successful musicians are away too much, and unsuccessful musicians have overdeveloped egos. actors are too self-absorbed (and generally have no reliable income). bartenders are out too late and have too many women hitting on them. stockbrokers, traders, i-bankers are all too immature and alcoholic (or worse, drug addicted) to make good partners. the only profession we could all agree on was IT guys -- specifically the few IT guys who have enough social skills to meet ladies like us in the first place.

who knew, right? well, there you have it. i'm going to bed. wee...

impending birthday

next week i will be 28. i'm not sure what this means. i think it means that i will officially by in my upper 20s -- precariously close to the big 30. mil has already made the march into the 30s and seems to be proof positive that 30 can be a good thing. actually every over-30 person i know says that the 30s are better than the 20s any day of the week. sometimes i actually feel like all of these annual celebrations are a little lame... i just feel like rounding up at this point.

in other news, i still don't have a puppy. doesn't look like one will be joining the family anytime soon. i guess i'll just have to enjoy photos like these for a few more years.


my b-day request for this year is a new digital camera. after admiring everyone else's on the net (and realizing that i can't request the camera i really want because it is several times the gift budget), i realized that smaller might be better. anyone have any camera recommendations? i'm thinking the nikon coolpix s1 or the canon powershot sd400...
lemme know...

slleeeeppppyyyy

so tired, but i missed my blog, so i thought i'd say 'hi.'

today's topic: what i miss about cable --

saturday morning cartoons
the cosby show
rosanne
law & order (24 hours a day)
sunday morning cartoons
bbc-a
saturday afternoon cartoons
the daily show
sunday afternoon cartoons
i really miss cartoons...

ok. that's all. i can't keep my eyes open..........

festing

today i have the honor of attending my boss's festschrift. a festschrift (or "fest" as the "in" crowd calls it) is a celebration of a person's life work academic-style (read: lots of powerpoint and comparisons to freud). so far this "honor" has involved staying up late friday night detatching and folding seating cards with mil, waking up damn early on a saturday (7:15am to be exact), quickly detatching and handing out name tags that were NOT in alphabetical order (why no one thought of doing this before the fest, i do not know...) -- oh, and did i mention that the place where we are having the fest is not air-conditioned?? in 90 degree weather with 150 steaming bodies???, finding out why there is no a/c (to no avail), trying to make a non-working microphone work (makes sense, right?), finding someone who has a key to a storage room that apparently has chairs in it, and most recently, finding a cup of coffee for a speaker (who works at this university and knows damn well where he can find a cup of coffee -- note: he waits until after the lunch hour so he can ask just before my good friend goes on for her talk; note 2: i am not a waitress; note 3:it's 90 degrees out!). later today i get to look forward to setting up the computer and seating cards at the dinner (because why have a dinner without powerpoint?). final note: this event does not end until at least 9:30pm -- that's 13+ hours of powerpoint and freud comparisons. no one is going to want to talk to me tomorrow...

the upshot of all of this is that while i am here festing, mil has been home doing laundry. yay, mil!

btw, dooce now has competition for my favorite blog. this one's got a good camera, adorable dogs, and he lives in france... almost too much to envy...

addendum

i found a funny, new comic this morning... no calvin & hobbes, but it made me chuckle.

also, what's up with "supernanny" on abc??? apparently, "nanny 911" wasn't enough nanny-action for the network-viewing audience. can no one come up with a new idea? this is ridiculous...

now really... good night... (or "buenos noches," as mil would say)

i now leave you to your moosey fate

i love zim. if you haven't ever seen invader zim, you've been missing out. in the episode i'm currently watching, zim sends his arch enemy dib into a wormhole that will leave him in... not a dimension of pure itching... not a dimension of pure dookie... but A ROOM WITH A MOOSE! scary, eh? yeah... it's funny... seriously.

so, sorry it's been a while. i'm feeling uninspired lately -- hence me here at home trying to do my genogram assignment in front of zim.

by any chance, were you curious about canadia? it was actually quite funny. on our flight to ottawa we had this great pre-op transexual flight attendent. now i like to think of myself as a pretty open-minded, seen-it-all kind of city chick, but i was a little bit (pleasantly) surprised that continental was open to such atypical flight attendents. now as i was trying to make sure that i responded in nothing but the hippest, most innocuous manner, the flight attendent in question proceeded to welcome us to "canadia." i thought this was pretty funny, so i released a little bit of not-quite-stifled chuckle. that's it. it was funnier in person, i'm sure.

anyway, this was my first non-western wedding, and i am now hooked. so nice to see something other than your usual white, organza nonsense (i'm guilty as much as the next gal.) here's a little peek at how amazing the bride was.


this was just party #3. the first night, they do this pretty laid back evening of food, singing, and mendhi (doodling on hands with henna). the second night is the really formal ceremony where the gals sit on one side of the room and the guys sit on the other. i tried to take a picture of mil, but all i got was a picture of the lace curtain that separated us. it was actually really wild to see my very goofy, westernized friend (aka "the groom") acting so formal and...well...religious. i just don't think of him that way. most of my friends are either semi-retired jews (meaning that they've given up on finding a "nice jewish girl/boy" -- notice it's never about "finding a nice jewish woman/man") or retired christians, so seeing a friend who actually practices a religion is something new for me. the third night is the big party where we ate heartily and danced even more heartily. the highlight was an indian version of "pretty woman." you haven't lived until you've grooved to the indian "pretty woman." that highlight was almost matched by the sight of my semi-retired jewish friend, feldogg, mc-ing the party and introducing himself to a room full of muslim folks by saying,"so dr. j (also muslim), mentioned to me a few months ago that he was looking for a young jewish guy to mc his son's wedding..." the room broke into hysterics. maybe feldogg can make plans to visit the west bank one of these days -- he might make more progress on the peace process than sharon... doubtless he could do better than bush. anyway, if you thought three parties was enough for any wedding, this crew proved that four is a charm -- even when there isn't alcohol (and remember, this is canada). it was an amazing wedding, and i have the marks to prove it.

notice izzy trying to avoid stepping on it... very cute.

anyway, i'm sure by now you've had your fill of moosk ramblings, so i will wish you bon nuit.

jaunt to canadia

to all my loyal readers (two of the three are here with me), i apologize for the lapse. mil and i have journeyed to ottawa for a wedding this weekend, and since it is a pakistani wedding, it is not a one-day affair. we came in for the mendhi on thursday afternoon, stayed for the nikah (not spelling that right) last night, and have a party tonight. i never knew home much fun it would be to doodle squiggles on my hand with a dye that does not come off for weeks. i have a hard enough time looking at my doodles in class, let alone for days at a time -- on my body. yay!

i will tell you the story of "canadia" when i am back, but just thought i'd apologize for the lack of blog-action in the meantime.