Some things never change...

I was mad at Carlos for using unnecessary curse words at me about an hour ago.

BUT! Thank goodness my good ol' buddies were there help to sooth me. Initially, I was going release my negative energy by blogging about how inappropriate he can be, but after completing my last drafted blog, I found myself browsing through the old TaNaTaR website. http://www.geocities.com/tanatars Wow. We have grown so much since our last entries, but some things never change. Taline is still the most boy crazy and MOST talkative of all of us. Nancy is still Ms. Happy-Go-Lucky-Optimist. And Thu is still the biggest ball of sass wrapped in a cute little package. *Beware*

I don't have anything to say, except that I do miss our fun days together and I hope our relationships never fade. I also hope that each of us can look back at our memories and enjoy them as much as I have.

Lots of love,
Regina

Domestic man?

A few days before Carlos' recruit came over, I wanted the apartment to look presentable which meant sacrificing a couple nights of studying to clean and do laundry. But Carlos was really considerate and offered to vacuum which reduced it to one cleaning night for me.

A couple days went by and he didn't do a thing. I nagged and nagged, and thought I would have to get the entire apartment cleaned up and hour or two before the recruit arrived. To my surprise, that morning, Carlos not only vacuumed our entire apartment, but mopped the kitchen and living room floor, and washed ALL the dishes in the sink. (Normally Carlos chooses to wash only the plate he ate off and maybe a glass. He rarely ever washes the cutting board, knives, or pots and pans he used.) I was extremely impressed and thanked him for his cleanliness.

The next morning, I went to the kitchen to wash our dishes. And I couldn't help but notice this awful smell coming from the sink. I thought it was the kitchen rag, cuz it does stink if it doesn't dry properly. I smelled it. Nope, wasn't that. Turns out that it was the freakin sponge! Ugh! It wreaked! In all my dishwashing years, I have never ever smelled a stench like that from a sponge no matter how old the darn thing is. Again, it was very sweet of him to pick up some household responsibilities, but he sure has a lot to learn. Oy vay.

Note to self: Maybe I should stop talking smack. It's not like I'm perfect. =P

Lent

The season of fasting, giving alms, and prayer.

In the past I never gave lent much thought. I just knew that I had to go to church, get my ashes and give up something that I love. Usually it was something physical, like chips and soda, meat, and well, those are all the significant sacrifices I can remember. This year is going to be much different. I want to focus on my spiritual side of life. Forget about what I don't have and haven't done, but focus on me and who I am today. I find it ironic that I'm 23 years old and I still haven't figured out who I am and how to express myself. So I'm going to take this 40 day journey to find myself, and be a better me.

Spiritual fasting: I will give up being insecure. (I got this from church today, and it hit really close to home.) The last couple years, I doubted myself, my skills, my knowledge, my ability to speak, and my future. I will be confident!

Giving alms: I'm going to fulfill my recent yearning to help the community by helping St. Cecilia's. I won't be as involved like I was at St. Jane's, I'll just start small. When I have more time, I'll take on more responsibilities. Perhaps in different communities.

Prayer: Something I haven't done on a regular basis since my junior of college. My nightly prayers before then may have not been meaningful and may have been rushed at times, nevertheless they were still prayers. It was a time for little pep talks with God, some meditation, and reflection. I plan to pick up that habit again starting tonight.

I know I'm not supposed to proclaim my sacrifices to the world, but you are the only one who reads this. So I think that's ok. Anyway, hopefully this will be the best self-improvement Lent yet.

On a physical note, since Lent is also a time of abstinence, I have suggested to Carlos that we give that up. Yeah, he thinks I'm weak-willed, but little does he know. If anyone breaks, it's gonna be him. Muhahahhaha!

Tearing my hair out!

I can't take it anymore! I want a school to invite me for an interview already!!! Or they can all reject me! I don't care! Just tell me the final verdict!

It's so hard to study for the MCAT again when all I'm thinking about and hoping for is an interview from a school. Ack! Arg! Aglibrtle! Aghhhh!

I don't want to have to retake the MCAT, reapply, reselect schools, or ask my recommenders for letters again! This whole process is so frustrating! And so embarrassing if I don't get in anywhere! M#$%^&F#$%^&*! B%^&*! AGH! AGH! AGH!

I looked back at my old notes in my MSAR (a guide med schools) and I was so confident back then. I thought I was the shit. What I used to think of as my "back-up" schools are now the ones that I hope will have the heart to send me an invitation. Why? Why?! WHY?!

...

Okay, so I have to calm down. I know it's not the end of the world (although right now I'd rather have it be the end). I guess I'm just really upset because I don't have a back-up plan. Right now, I only see myself as a damn good physician and nothing else. Man, I hope someone sees something good in my application for this cycle. Or else I'm gonna go f'n insane and my unfortunate boyfriend and family will have to deal with a depressed Regina for a while.

bleh.

Something random:
"So today, Jesus teaches us that we should be good. Surprise, surprise, surprise."
Fr. Thomas (A priest from my parish, St. Cecilia)
lol....I thought that was hilarious!

Breaking the ice

February 16

7:30 pm
Carlos wanted to go to lab for just half an hour to change a couple things for his experiment. And I decided to tag along because I needed to get a couple books from work anyway, plus I could finish up my taxes while I waited for him.

7:35pm
We get to our car and find this:

(This is actually someone else's car in a very similar situation...poor guy. Although our car was completely covered with snow.)

So we started chipping the layer of snow on the roof away. At first, we were having quite bit of fun. We pretended to be super heroes and made grunting sounds with each chunk of ice we chipped off the roof. Then we started digging away with a plastic shovel around the tires and hit ice. That's when we pulled out "the club" and used it as an ice pick. After about an hour of chipping, cheering Carlos on, stepping on the gas to no avail, we both gave up and resorted to pouring hot water around the tires.

9:00pm ROUND TWO!
After Carlos re energized himself with cereal, we came back with 5 gallons of steaming hot water and cooking salt. (Where did the gallons come from, you may ask? A milk and water container from our apt, and couple OJ containers which I dug up from the shared apartment recycling bin.) After the water pouring we moved up about five inches...not bad. A lady interested in taking over our parking spot, gave us a larger shovel and about a cup of "ice melting salt." Yeah...I don't think the salt helped. Anyway more chipping, revving...and nothing. Then a really nice guy, Matthew came up and offered some help. With a little bit of car rocking and a couple pieces of wood he had behind his work place, we finally got out of our spot. Phew!!!!

We thanked the Matthew a bigillion times and in the end we found out that he was a man of God and he spends most of his time performing good deeds and helping the common man. He gave us his number and a book about the teachings of the bible. We thanked him again, wished him well, gave the shovel back to the lady waiting for our spot, and were on our way.

10:30pm
About 200 feet up, we felt that we needed to make sure that the lady could get into our old parking spot ok. So we back up. Turns out she got stuck in the ice too. Feeling blessed with Matthew's aid, we wanted to reciprocate his kindness upon another in need of help. So we tried rocking her car, using the wooden boards, and her car wouldn't budge.

Eventually, she called her boyfriend to come down and help her out. The boyfriend was more of a nuisance than useful. He kept telling her, "Why did you try to get in this spot? There's no way out. We'll have to AAA you out. No way, no way." Nothing but negativity was emanating from him. Now Carlos and I really had to prove him wrong. If we rocked out, so could she, darnit! So we rocked, she gave it gas, we rocked some more, more gas. Almost there! Carlos and I exchanged a little smirk, knowing that only we needed just a little more. We all grunted and pushed with all our might! And we got her out! A huge sigh of relief and big smiles ran across all our faces, all except the boyfriend.

11:00pm
We shook hands with the boyfriend, who silently admitted his defeat. The lady gave her immense appreciation, wanting to give us a monetary reward. Carlos politely refused and replied, "That's why we helped you, because we didn't have to." He and I left the scene with a good conscience and pride.

Ten minutes later:
We arrived at his lab only to find out that his experiment would take an hour to finish rather than half an hour. Since we were both tired, we knew that was not going to happen. So instead we left the lab and rewarded ourselves at a nearby bar with beer, nachos, and a quesadilla for our hard work.

Our car now:

No snow on the tires!