My Daily Bus Ride

I'm currently working on gathering pictures for a post about how my mom is the greatest hostess in the world but need to gather a few more pictures for that. Instead, I thought that I'd blog about something that goes through my head nearly EVERY DAY.

I ride the public bus to school. I actually really enjoy it. I get to read and feel generally good about the environment. I live pretty far from campus, so normally when I get on the bus there are plenty of empty seats. As more and more people get on the bus, I'm always torn. I generally don't want people to sit by me because they might crunch up against me and start to infringe on my part of the seat or they might smell like a mix of BO and ethnic food. (SN: this is not a racist comment. Merely a description.) Then there comes a point where as people are filing on and not taking the seat next to me, that I start to feel like the last kid being picked in gym. Why don't they want to sit next to me? Don't they like me?

Adult Gummy Bears

In college Marcia and I used to make adult Jell-o, this was my first take at adult Gummies. But I love gummies and booze, so why not? This link was my inspiration. Being a poor yet resourceful PhD student, I decided to substitute the coconut rum that I already have on hand for the vodka in the recipe. I also decided to try a variety of gummies to experiment and see what works the best.
That's all my gummies marinating in coconut rum.

A couple of notes:

1) After about a day of marinating, I was a little disappointed in that the gummy flavor had gone, so basically what I had was coconut rum flavored gummy textured candy. However, after another day (or two) the fruity gummy taste came back so it wasn't so hard core booze tasting. I don't really understand the science of how this happened, but whatever.
2) The marshmallowy backed gummies (typically frogs or strawberries or whatever) didn't turn out that great. The opaque marshmallowy part gets weird.
3) The gummies get big.
See? The alcoholic one is on the right. I wish I had a picture of the gummy worms. They got HUGE, but I had eaten all the non-soaked worms before taking pictures.
4) I don't like that you're supposed to keep them in the fridge. I don't like them cold.
5) They are pretty potent (and delicious.)

Otherwise, pretty awesome. Especially when you're a stressed out grad student. (Of course, these are only to be tried for those over 21.)

Worst of Winston

1) One word: Bustier. Who wears a bustier to a Winston-Salem bar? Not a club. A bar.
2) The Notre Dame pep rally. Kind of pathetic. A leprechaun alum that wasn't exactly peppy. Music issues. Some old guy messing around with power point. Not really setting the standard.
3) It was freaking cold. I booked this trip figuring it would be a little warmer than Minnesota, but it wasn't. While I was bundled up for the game, my legs were still freezing.
4) The hotel internet that went out every 15 minutes or so. Kinda difficult to get homework done.
5) The hotel's air alternated between heat and air conditioning, so one minute it was stifling hot and the next it was frigid.
6) Oh, did I mention that my flight out of Greensboro was delayed, and I was going to miss my connection, AND they couldn't find me any flights to MSP that night so they had to put me up in a hotel? Not only was my flight at 5:25 am, but I had to wear clothes that I had already worn and go straight from the airport to school. BLECH!
7) Found out that the Marketing Summit is a bucket of hell. I feel like I dropped my kid off at summer camp and showed up at parents weekend only to find out that she's now a crack whore.
8) The $10 meal voucher that US Air gave me. You know what meal you can get at a Marriott restaurant for $10. NOTHING!

I can't think of a #9 or #10, so I guess that must be pretty much it.

Back in the Dash
This past weekend I trekked back to Winston Salem for the much anticipated (at least by me) Notre Dame/Wake Forest football game. The trip ended up being unequivocally good for my battered PhD soul. There were good moments and bad moments (and some bad moments that were good just because of the humor involved with their badness). I'm going to write this up in my standard Best Moments/Worst Moments format rather than a narrative.

Best Moments:
1) CHICKEN POT PIE!!! Ok, I know that I've blogged about this before. Pure deliciousness. I'll also lump sushi and a Cookout Milkshake in here as well, so that I don't waste 3 numbers all on food. I had also been on a self-imposed sushi hiatus since Labor Day, so it was so good.
2) Seeing the new Notre Dame helmets in person. If you don't know about the whole new helmet thing, you can read about it here. I've said a lot of bitter things about the helmets on facebook because I'm mad that the painting tradition had to go, but they do look really good in person.
3) A Notre Dame victory. While I really couldn't have lost either way, I would've taken a lot more shit if Wake had won.
4) Lots of friends in town. Both Notre Dame and Wake friends. I tailgate hopped to 3 different tailgates enjoying beer and brats and buddies along the way. (I hate the word buddies....it reminds me of Memorial Day in high school band, but that's another story...I just felt I needed another "b" word to go with beer and brats.)
5) Notre Dame fans everywhere. We sure do know how to travel. There was also a blimp in town. Justin, one of my Wake friends, said "A blimp!?! We've never had a blimp at a Wake game before?!?!" I turned to him and said "you're welcome."
6) Joining up with the current Wake MBA second years, for a few holes of bar golf (their scoring was a little different than how wikipedia describes it, but you get the idea). One of the later holes "sleeping with a waitress" was a hole in one. I informed the second years that I found this sexist and was informed that beer golf is a "Gentleman's Game."
7) Staying in a Marriott for FREE on Sunday night. I LOVE Marriott beds. (For the reason why I was in a Marriott for free, see the worst list.)
8) Running into "Donkey" aka Tom Timmermans at the game. His nickname comes from the fact that he looks like Donkey from Shrek. Apparently Mattie Carroll was out at the bars on Friday night, but I missed him.
9) The cute old guy on the plane ride from MSP to CLT. He was on his way to Aruba to celebrate his 50th wedding anniversary. He was sooo happy. He told us fantastic stories and ended by saying if I ever needed anything while I was in Minneapolis to call him. So cute!
10) Meeting Andy's dog Appa.
Seriously is that not the cutest dog you have ever seen! Not only is he cute, but he's soft, and well behaved, and loves to cuddle. Everything he does is pretty much adorable. He was dragging this stick that's twice his size around Andy's yard. Too cute.

Well, this blog has dragged on long enough, and I'm tired, so the "worst of" post will wait till another day. Hopefully tomorrow, but no promises.

Random Thought of the Day

There are all these posters around the halls of school advertising different research projects that they need people for. The one says "Attention: Cocaine Users with Attention Problems. The University of Minnesota is looking for healthy 18-55 year olds to participate in a study." It always makes me wonder how using cocaine doesn't immediately disqualify you from being "healthy"...it's cocaine.

So I market tested this blog on Kathleen and her response was "I'm totally healthy minus this pesky drug habit!" ha