Ramblings

Heh heh, its been a while, no?  I've got good excuses.  Trying to plan when and where and how to have my wedding (a week after I graduate medical schoo, in the church where my parents got married, reception in a lovely garden...), trying and suceeding to apply to residency programs (interviews scheduled at 9/10 places that I applied to!), trying to shine like a star during my BUSY but AMAZING month with the Family Practice Hospitalist service.  Turns out Family Medicine inpatient floors are WAY better than regular Medicine floors, or at least at my hospital they are!!

Anyhow, I've been busy, but knitting.  I'll do pictures later, but now I feel compelled to steal from Sarah, one of my maids-to-be and someone that I wish were closer to tell me how to do this whole wedding thing...Anyway, I always loved these things when they were emails, and couldn't resist sending them on.

48 Things You Could Care Less About

1. FIRST NAME? Mia

2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? Mia means "mine" in Italian (and Spanish, but my parents didn't know that), and my dad is Italian.  I was NOT named after Mia Farrow.

3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY?  Uh...Saturday when I realized I had bounced my rent check.  I hate being stupid and irresponsible!

4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? When I try it is pretty neat and legible, which is more than I can say for most doctors, and I'm determined to keep it that way, so yes.  I do like my handwriting. 

5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCHMEAT? I like Tofurkey deli slices.  Yes, that is tofu that tastes a bit like turkey, but really is good just because it makes a more filling and tasty sandwich.  Tofurkey is the best of the veggie deli meat brands, the others tend to be slimy and not too flavorful.  I also highly recommend Tofurkey for Christmas and Thanksgiving.  It is SOOO good. 

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?  I hope so.  Some of my friends are a lot like me, so I THINK so. 

7. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL?  No.  I have some old ones, but sometimes I find them and rip up the stupid pages.  I know that is counterproductive to keeping one in the first place, but that's the way I am.  Sometimes the past embarrases me. 

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yeah.  Despite having so much strep that I eventually got rheumatic fever in first grade, I do indeed have my tonsils. 

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? No.  I have a gut crushing fear of jumping from high places, and would be paralyzed with fear.  Also, I have a bad neck/upper back from a run-in with a canoe and I don't need it to bother me any more than it already does. 

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? I go through cereal phases.  But if nutritional value were not an issue, I would have to say Golden Grahams, although I NEVER eat it because it is JUNK. 

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Most of the shoes I wear daily (Dansko clogs) don't have laces.  But sneaker and running shoes...nope, I just slide them off.  Unlike Sarah, I have silly little feet. 

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? In some ways yes.  Like in the hospital doing mediciny things.  But in some ways I'm a big wimp, just ask my fiancee. 

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR? Ice cream I don't eat.  But sorbet, I do.  And favorite flavor?  Ben and Jerry's Chocolate, or Emack and Bolio's Passionfruit.  Also, in Italy they are kind enough to have soy gelato, and that I'll take in any flavor.  Chocolate, pistachio, hazelnut...hmmm.  I need soy gelato. 

14. SHOE SIZE? 7.5. 

15. RED OR PINK? Pink looks better on me, although for years I HATED it.  Now I like it.

16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF?  Although overall I'm organized, I occasionally royally screw up (see the part above about bounced checks), and although I keep the kitchen in our house clean, I tend to be a bit of a clutter bug in other areas of the house (my desk...). 

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST?  Right now, planning my wedding, I wish so much that my Nana was going to be there.  She would have danced the Irish jig.  I also really miss my college friends, you know who you are, because we were like PB&J for 4 years, and now I hardly see them, and there are some things that only they understand. 

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? Eh.  I want to see it on more blogs...

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS, SHIRT AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Shoes: Dansko "Cordovan" color-a reddish maroon.  Shirt: white with pink stitching down front button placket.  Pants: Grey with white and pink pinstripes. 

20. LAST THING YOU ATE? An apple. 

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? Disco Inferno by 50 Cent.  I have a strange fondness for bad hip-hop.  

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? A green one, not too yellow-green, more blue green. 

23. FAVORITE SMELL? Garlic in olive oil on the stove, Christmas dinner smells, wool with lanolin, Cape Cod beaches, my finace after he gets out of the shower, ginger.

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? My dad. 

25. THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE YOU ARE ATTRACTED TO? Eyes.  Eyes.  Eyes. 

26. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON you stole THIS from?  I adore Sarah.   I miss Sarah. 

27. FAVORITE DRINK?  Water, Odwalla Limeade, apple cider, recently Red Rose Tea.

28. FAVORITE SPORT? To watch: Baseball and then football, and college basketball but only if it is Indiana or Umass.  To play: field hockey on a crisp fall day. 

29. EYE COLOR? Blue. 

30. HAT SIZE? Huge.  I don't know mine, but it is huge.  Huge. 

31. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? Yes.

32. FAVORITE FOOD? Tofu, black beans, guacamole, my mom's stuffing, crusty bread, potato anything, brussels sprouts, broccoli, asparagus.  Scallion pancakes.  Pancakes.  Chocolate soy milk from Trader Joe's.   Can't chose just one.  I love food. 

33. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? I personally like happy endings, and a good romantic movie always gets me teary eyed.  However, my honey likes the scary movies, and I have to say that watching them with him is pretty fun, because he will simultaneously be very snuggly and protective, but also try to scare the crap out of me by startling me.  Never gets old.  

34. SENSE OR SENSIBILITY? I'm Elinor too, like Sarah. 

35. SUMMER OR WINTER?  Both please.  I do hate when it is super hot and humid in the summer, unless I'm near the ocean, in which case I'm in heaven.  Winter is fun, although this year I'm guessing that my 40 minute commute will make life less fun than usual...

36. HUGS OR KISSES? Hmm.  Hugs from friends, kisses from my fiance.  But I like his hugs a whole lot, too. 

37. FAVORITE DESSERT?  A nice fruit sorbet, or a piece of good chocolate. 

38. WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Oh, let’s skip these next two. It doesn’t matter.

39. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND?

40. WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING?  The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair.  A book on EKG interpretations.  

41. WHAT’S ON YOUR MOUSE Pad? I had one from my mom that was vases from Taipei.  She got it while in Taiwan at a conference in her honor. 

42. WHAT DID YOU WATCH LAST NIGHT ON TV? Last night was laundry night. TONIGHT we will watch Jericho, which we don't much like but are kinda hooked on, and LOST, which we adore and can't live without.  

43. FAVORITE SOUNDS? Baby noises.  The voices of my family. The click of
the needles.  Regular heart beats!  When dogs "talk" to you.  A fan at night to sleep with.  Church bells around Christmas time.  Christmas songs around Christmas time.  When I make my fiance REALLY laugh.  Waves.  Thunder.  Running water.  Guinea pig squeaks. 

44. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Beatles. 

45. THE FURTHEST YOU’VE BEEN FROM HOME? Italy.  Junior year. 

46. WHAT’S YOUR SPECIAL TALENT?  Knitting?  Cooking random stuff that somehow turns out good?  I don't know.  

47. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Chicago, Illinois.  My poor little mom was in labor with me for 36 freaking hours. 

48. WHO SENT THIS TO YOU?  Sarahkins. 

So who out there has heard of the movie "A Scanner Darkly?"  I went to see it on Friday night with my boyfriend and his friends, and I found that it was one of the most profoundly depressing movies I've ever seen.  The rest of the group thought it was funny, and I think that most of it was SUPPOSED to be funny.  But I'm on of those people who experiences movies (and books, too I guess) in a very personalized way.  I internalize too much instead of just taking it at face value.  Like the book Bridges of Madison County, which I will forever hate because of a bad association with an ex.  Or, the movie The English Patient, which I hate deeply because of more bad associations with a different ex.  Sarahkins remembers how much I hate that one, I think!

Add a new one to my liste, but this one I don't hate, I just don't want it to exist.  A Scanner Darkly is a movie about drug addiction in the future.  The movie focuses on a group of friends and their use of the drug "Substance D," which has the unfortunate effect of destroying your brain when you use too heavily. 

Maybe if I were not currently doing an elective in which on a daily basis I interact with Worcester's most down-and-out heroin users, I would have thought the movie was funny. 

Maybe if I didn't see real people who lose their houses, their wives, their jobs, their lives because of addiction, I would have liked the scene in the movie where they are all high and can't figure out how many gears are on their new bike.  Is it 6 gears plus 3 equals 9?  ha ha ha.  It was a funny scene, but it made me want to cry. 

Maybe if I didn't pretty strongly believe in the power of methadone and suboxone (the new and improved pill form of methadone), I would have thought the ending twist of the movie (I won't give it away) was interesting and compelling.  Instead, I found it annoying and again, depressing. 

So if you go see this movie, take a step back from the gut reaction to laugh at the antics of people who are high, and to get caught up in the witty dialogues.  Just think about what it would be like to LIVE that movie. 

The pictures, by the way, are of where my yarn stash and sewing machine now live.  The bookcase needs a little work...

I should have put somewhere in that last post that my boyfriend does NOT agree in any way with the ways animals are treated by the meat industry. He's also always been REALLY supportive of my veganish-ism, and when his family takes us out to dinner he always checks the menu before to make sure I'll be able to eat something.

Someone sent me a comment and said that he was wrong about rights being only a human construction. I'm not going to outline the details of our discussion, and besides, he's the philosophy major, not me. But I have to say that I agree with my BF on this one. I believe that humans ought to treat animals well becuase it is the correct thing to do. Anyway.

Here is something I'm working on very sporadically, and this picture was taken before I ripped it out and started over on size 2 instead of size 1. But these are the Northern Lights Mittens, in my own interpretation of the colors. Green, more green, purples and some red. I haven't gotten too far on the new version because I've not had much time for knitting this past week. Tonight I will, and will have to decide what to work on. I am a bit obsessed with colorwork right now.

On Wednesday, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06.

Weird.  I almost want to set my alarm to wake up. 

Here is the inside of my recently completed Lopi sweater. I REALLY like the way it looks on the inside, almost better than the outside! I'm just so proud of my stranding work. I think I'll design a sweater that is intentional inside-out Fair Isle...

Psych sucks somewhat less than before. This week I'm with the doc that I'll be with for the next 5 weeks, and he is very nice and friendly. However, the patients all still make me want to cry, so that has not improved.

I had a funny conversation with my boyfriend last night, as I was describing visiting my parents. They are "babysitting" my cousins' guinea pig, who is very cute, but who causes me great allergic reactions after about 3 minutes of holding him. My boyfriend and I have been talking about the "future" a lot, but we often have funny ways of thinking about it. Case in point:

Me: Yeah, so I was really allergic to the guinea pig, I almost had an asthma attack!

BF: Oh no! What happens if you are allergic to dogs? How are we going to have a dog? If you are really allergic, we couldn't have a dog.  That would be really bad, I think it would be all over between us!

Me: Oh, that's nice. Look, I'm NOT allergic to dogs, and I don't think that I'll become allergic. But what if I did? It would be a deal breaker if I was allergic to dogs?

BF: Think of it this way, what if I suddenly became allergic to children?

Here are my two cute cousins and my uncle Rob (check out his band Boston Blackthorne here and on iTunes!) playing their instruments for us on Christmas day. I adore my family. I adore my boyfriend. Together, they made me so joyful and thankful during this holiday. I had a wonderful vacation, during which I did really nothing except buy yarn and open presents! I also started feeling a little stressed out about my stash, and about my lack of personal exercise motivation. I thought a lot about my goals for this year, and realized that they are analogous. I'm on a food diet and a yarn diet. I need to exercise more and knit more, which should make me happy!

Category 1: FITNESS. Before I started surgery, I was really good about exercising. I wasn't about to run any marathons or win any fittest student awards, but I was in decent shape. Then, surgery hit me like a brick, and I was lucky if I worked out for 30 minutes a week. During OB I was no better, and just a tiny bit better during Pediatrics. Now for 6 weeks I have to report for duty around 9 am. Over Christmas break, I worked out almost every day, and I hope to continue this trend. I'd like to eat a bit better, lose some weight and become toned again. I plan to get up at 6 am and go to the sucky but free school exercise room--hopefully the smelly dude who sometimes is there will still be sleeping! :o)

Category 2: STASH REDUCTION. Seriously, the stash is getting out of control. I knitted a truly heroic number of holiday knits, and somehow managed to give them away without pictures. One mistake rib scarf for my grandfather, a "lacey" pattern scarf for my great-aunt, a ziz-zag scarf from Modular Knits with matching mittens for my sister, Fleece Artist "Favourite Mittens" for my mom, some mittens for my grandmother...you get the idea. It was insane, but all presents were finished more or less in time for the big day. Since then I've made lots of progress on my Eris, and have started two new projects.

Rosedale United:
This pattern and yarn is ADDICTIVE! What you see there is about 1 full day worth of knitting. Most of this was knitted yesterday during a full day of lectures called "Interclerkship." Some more was done today in between orientations for Family Medicine. I forgot how much I LOVE Noro Kureyon. This is color number 162, and even though I can see the ball of yarn and tell which color is coming next, I keep on wanting to knit MORE and more and see what the sweater will look like! I'm almost done with the body and will move to the sleeves soon...Knitting this makes me think about that crazy sweater from Interweave Web patterns knit with Kureyon. Of course, I can't make it until I use up WAY more stash...but I do have the color picked out...maybe.

Lace Leaf Pullover:
From Teva Durham's book, also from Interweave Summer 2005. Ever since I saw this sweater I knew I had to have it. I found the yarn for it at WEBS, it is one of their new lines-Valley Yarns Shelburne. The picture does not do justice to the yarn or pattern, both are lovely. I've finished the lower part of the body and almost both sleeves. Hey, at this rate, I'll have room in my stash in NO TIME.

Today I came home from school later because I'd been in the library working on some research for a report I have to give tomorrow. I noticed that my bedroom light was on, and thought that I'd stupidly left it on, which is something I NEVER do. I'm all about conservation. But when I opened the door, I found my boyfriend was there, sitting at my desk! For those of you lucky enough to live in close proximity to your loved one, this may not seem so exciting, but for ME, this was about the best thing to happen in several weeks! It totally made up for the boyfriend-less football watching! It totally made my week! Thanks sweetie!

In other news, I may have found the world's worst sweaters!  This site is actually nice because they have knitting graph paper, but OH MY GOD, the sweaters:  Sweaterscapes!

This Thanksgiving something HILARIOUS happened.  We found my little brother's diary from when he was 7 years old.  Many of the things he wrote in that diary were shockingly intelligent for a little guy, and all of the things that he wrote made me, my sister, my mom and my two cousins laugh so hard that we cried.  One of our favorites was the "crush meter" that he drew on a page to compare Lauren and Whitney.  Whitney got 50 out of 50, but Lauren only got 35 out of 50.  When he was in first grade, he was in a "gang" called Cheetah.  Their rival gang?   You guessed it, the Sex Grafede Club (are you getting the 7 year old spelling of the word graffiti?).  So of course, when we went out to the bars in Amherst and there were nametags from the ARHS Class of '95 10 year reunion, we made our own name tags that said "Sex Grafede Club Reunion 2005."  My brother got one that just said Cheetah.  Interestingly enough, Whitney was at the bar, and we really wanted my brother to tell her what all the hilarity was about, but he chickened out. 

In this picture, the tall dude with the beard is my brother, and the girl to the left of me is my sister.  Yes, she has black curly hair and doesn't look much like me, but every now and then some stranger will tell us that they can tell we are sisters.  I guess our mannerisms are similar, and so are our smiles. 

My cousins and I went to WEBS, where Noro Kureyon was on sale for $6 a skein, so I got enough to make myself a Rosedale United sweater.  The colorway (164) is new, I think, and is mostly greens and blues with some brown, yellow, grey and black thrown in for fun.  Also purchased were some holiday knitting yarns, for which I can not show pics just yet.  I'm also cooking up something for my BF's mom's birthday in a funkily dyed alpaca, but it needs to be done and blocked before I can show pictures!

When I think of Veteran's Day, I think of my Papa and Nana. Here they are in younger years. My Nana died last year on October 13th, and after being married to her for 61 years, you can imagine that Papa gets lonely. Last year my Papa came over to my parent's house when my brother and I were home. My brother got on the computer and looked up Papa's regiment and found a website by a very angry man. This guy had written about his bad experiences in the war. Usually, Papa does not talk about the war at all. He had a tough time of it, he got shot and got trench foot and had all sorts of heroic adventures that involved carrying people on his back through French forests. But that night at my parent's house he started remembering all sorts of things that had happened to him because of some of the stories that the website showed.

One was our favorite, which really shows that Papa had a charmed life. He was in training, still in the States, and it was a dark, cold, rainy night. His A company and B company were supposed to get in a raft and cross a raging river. Papa remembers seeing logs and lots of debris in this flooded river, and getting into the raft feeling much trepidation. Then, the commanders changed their minds and wanted B company in the raft instead, so A company got out, and B company got sent off. The raft flipped over, and the poor guys were weighed down with all their gear, and I think 22 out of 23 drowned!! Papa stood on the banks with the rest of the guys, they could hear the screams but couldn't see a thing in the dark storm. They could not help.

These are the stories that my kind grandfather had never told us. When one of his children could have gone to Vietnam, he enrolled them in college instead, and had a serious argument with my Nana's brother about War and the benefits or lack thereof. Maybe Papa doesn't wear peace signs, but I know that he does not believe that war is good for this country and this country's children.

My grandparents amaze me. They had such a wonderful life, full of so many blessings, eleven (!!) children, 29 grandchildren, 61 years of happy marriage...If my Papa had gotten in that raft, I would not be here today. Even though Papa is now 92, he's SO sharp, he remembers so many things about all of the grandchildren--did I mention that there are 29 of us?!! Thanks Papa, Happy Veteran's day! I'll try to work for peace for you.

This weekend was GREAT.  Great weather, great hike up a tough mountain, plus time spent with this little munchkin man.  He is my boyfriend's cousin's baby, and he does many hiliariously adorable baby things.  When he laughs, he wrinkles up his nose in a very funny way that makes me laugh, and then he laughs again and...yeah, lots of laughing happens.  Also, he can crawl like a normal baby, but instead he chooses to do an inchworm kind of crawling on his belly that just makes me want to kidnap him forever.  It is SO cute.  Plus, although he is only 8 months old, he is almost ready to walk, and if you hold his hands he will walk, only a bit crooked like a drunken sailor (also exteremely cute).  Someday I'll have one of my own...

I'm almost done with my damn secret sock pal socks, and I have learned that I HATE knitting for a deadline!! 

Next post I will outline my fall line-up for projects!  Oh the excitement.