winter lesson #258

windshield washer fluid freezes.

it turns out there are two kinds of windshield washer fluid: the kind that freezes and the kind that doesn't. the former kind is usually put into vehicles driven in places that do not experience severe winter weather like, say, southern california. the latter kind is sold and used in vehicles driven in places like, oh, i don't know, wisconsin. being the responsible person that i am, i had taken my car in for a full inspection, oil change, tire rotation, new wiper blades, mani-pedi, fluid top-off, the works. in southern california. so i learned winter lesson #258 after my washer fluid reservoir was full of frozen washer fluid, one big hunk-a-hunk-a-chunk-a ice.

i also learned that if you leave your car in the airport parking lot for a week, the window-roll-down mechanisms freeze and you have to open your door to pay the attendant (lesson #259). winter is awesome.

let the recovery begin

written yesterday (sunday), posted today: sitting at the airport; waiting for my flight back to milwaukee. my flight is scheduled to depart at 4:28 but as i checked my bag the midwest lady told me the plane wouldn't arrive until 4:30. i told her i shouldn't have to pay the baggage fee since i was being inconvenienced by a late departure but she didn't buy it.

i'm taking advantage of the my wait to begin the recovery process (and drink a delicious, over-priced pumpkin spice latte). i can't even imagine how i would feel right now if i didn't like my family. but i do (like 'em). they're funny and intelligent and talented. my emotional exhaustion is primarily a reflection of my inability to maintain a high level of pleasant, social contact for days on end. very little alone time, constant noise and interaction, crisis resolution, sleep deprivation (playing beatles rock band with my cousins until all hours of the night was a necessary activity), and being confronted with the reality of mortality as i saw the grandparents who raised me, now in their eighties, dealing with all of those things that come with old age. in five days i went through almost an entire bottle of midol, purely for its excessive-emotion-reduction capabilities.

yesterday, grandma and i, and then later, my cousins, cousins' wives, cousins' kids, and i went to the marion mall to check out the day-after-christmas sales. being as fond of shopping as i am, my willingness to go with grandma is a testament to my love for her; my eagerness to go the second time is a testament to my love of books and the going-out-of-business sale at waldenbooks. my suitcase ended up at 49.5 pounds after i shifted two of the i-won't-say-how-many books to my carry-on (one suitcase is $20, one suitcase over 50 lbs is $75!).

last night a fuse blew on one side of the house and one of my cousins and i spent an hour looking at three different fuse boxes to try to locate the culprit (with a flash light, in the freezing cold, in our pajammers). i finally ended up reading out types of and amp levels of every antiquated fuse the house possesses over the phone to my uncle who was shopping with my aunt and another cousin in columbus. how they found replacement fuses in the middle of the night is beyond me (they had to go to three stores i found out today). so the power's back on in that side of the house and now my uncle has to return the space heater that contributed to the power outage in the first place. it was a little like christmas at the oswalds.

this morning we all went to church and then the house of hunan for chinese food. the fortune in my cookie told me to remember the date three months from today because something important would happen. so in case i forget, would someone please mark 27 march in his/her calendar? thanks. my aunt and uncle drove me and one of my cousins to the columbus airport after lunch and here i sit. surrounded by people and blissfully alone.

christmas with the family

oh, the cacophany of noise. ten adults, a four-year old, a two-year old, a toddler, an infant, two dogs, and a partridge in a pear tree. and did i mention my aunt has a collection of easily accessible singing stuffed animals? the four-year old thinks these are immensely entertaining and likes to push the 'push here' buttons on as many as possible at the same time. i think it's equally entertaining to hide as many as possible at the same time.

we started the morning with stockings and then had a lovely breakfast. knowing how well i do with large numbers of people and small children for extended periods of time, i took midol as a pre-emptive strike against grumpiness. worked like a charm and, although no one took me up on my offer, it might have been a good idea for more than just myself. won't mention any names or particular incidents in the kitchen...

gift opening started in somewhat-organized rounds but quickly descended into madness and mayhem as my uncle decided things were taking too long and we should all open at the same time. two cousins playing santa, two cousins' wives trying to keep up with two small children each, four small children who didn't want to be kept up with, two dogs with new plush squirrels to chew on, one sick cousin, two great grandparents, two grandparents, and myself. it was awesome.

the kids were (and are) adorable; super excited about their new toys, more excited about each other's toys. three different sizes of batteries had to be found to begin playing - after scissors, twist ties, and teeth finally got the objects out of the packages. hours later, they're back to playing with the toys grandma and grandpa (my aunt and uncle) keep at their house and that belonged to their parents (my cousins) when they were kids.

we had a big, formal, yummy lunch of paella (rice, shrimp, chicken, olives, beans, clams, other stuff) and three kinds of pie for dessert: crapple (cranberry-apple), pecan, and mincemeat (surprisingly popular around here). i think there's some leftover pecan - sounds like dinner to me!

biostatistics

ode to flavia

she has two children I love to adore,
i'm hoping she'll have at least two more,
ziva is precious and smiley and warm,
blake is rambunctious and like a storm

blake's saying new words, he's a little man,
'daddy home' he says about her husband sam,
she likes volleyball and pizza from costco,
she doesn't like cold, 'specially the snow

she texts me pictures of the cute kids,
and recycles everything, even lids,
she makes me food and brings it to my house,
watches ncis and sneezes like a mouse

i'm glad she's nearby with sam, ziva, and blake,
one night she even made me a steak,
that's true, it's not just a rhyming line,
you should be so luck to have a sister like mine

the ox and lamb kept time

par-rum-bum-bum-bum

someone's making money off of this. genius.

this week in review

let's see...

• tuesday i was riding a bus that almost got into a collision. we had to pull over, disembark and get on the next bus that came by.
  


• tuesday night madison experienced the worst blizzard since, like, 1885. 17+ inches of snow. i was snowed in my apartment until wednesday night around 8:30 when a plow finally came by and cleared the area in front of my garage.
  


• wednesday was my first ever snow day. no work, no school. everything in madison shut down. the university even cancelled classes which hasn't happened in, someone said, 30 years. i think it was a degree that day. i stayed inside.
  


• thursday the roads were horrible because of the storm, traffic was unbelievable, i missed the bus and had to drive to school. on the way, i slid on some ice and ran into a parked car, shattering its bumper. barely a scratch on my car and no injuries. i'm convinced the cold contributed to the utter decimation of the bumper because i barely bumped it.
  


• friday i was terrified to drive anywhere but i did. i went with a couple of friends to see the movie invictus. it was pretty good but morgan freeman's accent was embarrassing. and someone did not do their research on south african culture because people were giving and receiving with one hand all over the place. seriously? a matt damon-morgan freeman budget movie couldn't afford a couple of researchers?
  


• saturday had lunch with flav and the kids. blake said my name!!! he's saying all kinds of things now, the best of which is my name. he hasn't put aunt and penny together but he says penny pretty clearly. he's a genius.
  


• this weekend i'm working on two papers, a biostatistics assignment (the last of the semester, woo-hoo! except the final), and a take-home final for another course. all of that is due this week and my biostatistics final is due the 22nd, thus concluding my first semester.

so overall, it was a pretty eventful week. will be glad when this coming week is over and even more glad when i submit my biostats exam. and now, back to homework.

my first real snow

flurries, my you-know-what. we got a real snow! here is a pic of my car's first real snow (this was pretty early, there was a lot more snow in the morning). the scary part was driving in my first real snow. i did fine until i pulled onto my little street where not too many cars had driven and the snow was a bit icy. i missed my driveway when my tires didn't turn but it all turned out ok. it's s'posed to snow pretty much all week but we'll see.

two more weeks of my first semester! aaahhh!!!

it's snowing!

it's snowing today! my first snow! i'm told these are 'snow flurries' and not real snow but as i see it, perfect little snow flakes are falling from the sky, thus it is snowing. they landed on my car as i drove, on my lapel as i walked, and on the windows of the library as i studied before class. snow!