Monday night at 8pm, after Human Anatomy Lab:

 

(Wiping off the board)

Doc: So how long does it take you to walk home, Dat?

(packing books and lab manual into biker bag)

Dat : About 25-30 minutes..more on the 30 side in rain like this.

Doc: Oh, so with all that walking and riding, you're in pretty good vascular shape.

Dat: Yep. Use to be in better shape, but with work and class, I'm maintaining.

Doc: Never enough time in a day.

Dat: I use to be a fat kid, big fro, plastic brown glasses.

Doc: No! I would have never seen that. What made you get in shape?

Dat: Girls.

Doc: How true that is.

26 years old and I'm still living.

When I went to London my Junior year at GW, I booked the flight to arrive a few days before my program started. I got a hotel room for two nights as well in the Earl's Court area. I remember thinking how exciting it will be to not only go to London, but to have a few days by myself to sight see and explore. I can walk the streets and be anonymous for a few days without  schedules or obligations.

Upon landing at Heathrow I remember thinking how absolutely terrified I was. Did I fill out the right visas? Am I taking the right tube line? How do I get LBS? Though, I was still excited about the city.

When I finally got into the city, checked into the hotel and dropped off my stuff, it all hit me. This is what one call's free-will. I walked the neighborhood and stopped in at a fish and chips shop. It was almost an authentic London experience, except I suspect the people working the Fish and Chips counter were Vietnamese like me. I checked into a cyber café (which also become one of my favorite coffee shops) and e-mailed everyone I knew. At night I went to the local pub and made conversation with the Australian bartenders. This was all good except I was still by myself, unassociated and without. Being anonymous for too long in a city can consume one, yet it's also liberating. Like we need another person to confirm ourselves. Though, I do think everyone should travel at least once in their lives.

I guess that is how I would describe turning 26. I have my family in Boston, and things are going well with B. We're moving in together and her family surprised me with a little celebration on Sunday over Easter lunch, which was really nice. School and work are going well. And I have good friends far and near. But at 26, no one really questions your decisions. You're free to choose to do something without really having to answer to someone.

Lunar Eclispe

Some interesting information I found out about the Lunar Eclispe that happened last night:
 
The defeat of the Persian king Darius III by Alexander the Great in the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC was foretold by soothsayers when the Moon turned blood-red a few days earlier.
 
Stranded on the coast of Jamaica, the explorers were running out of food and faced with increasingly hostile local inhabitants who were refusing to provide them with any more supplies.  Columbus, looking at an astronomical almanac compiled by a German mathematician, realized that a total eclipse of the Moon would occur on February 29, 1504.  He called the native leaders and warned them if they did not cooperate, he would make the Moon disappear from the sky the following night.  The warning, of course, came true, prompting the terrified people to beg Columbus to restore the Moon -- which he did, in return for as much food as his men needed. He and the crew were rescued on June 29, 1504.
 

ICKY LIVES

ICKY IS ALIVE!!

 

I already has him in his burial box. I thought it would have been appropriate to bury him in an old tea box named the Black Pearl, since we did host a pirate party for his first molting back in October of 06. So late at night I hear scratching coming from the box and almost shit in my pants. It was ICKY! I pick him up and his outer shell fell off and inside was a freshly molted, naked hermit crab!

 

I felt really guilty and am a little traumatized by the nature of events. I got him some new sand and a heating pad for his cage. What an emotional roller coaster.

RIP Icky

Work sucks and my hermit crab of 2.5 years just died.

I should have stayed at TPW for another few years, even if it meant being part-time, making chump change and not having vision benefits. I believe the death of Icky is directly related to my busy work schedule. Those bastards killed Icky.

 

It could have been his change in diet. I use to feed him this special crab food that stunk. I switch to flakes with coconut and he loved it at first. Then he just stopped eating for about a month. I 'm going to check if the food was made in China.

 

Though, he had a good life a large cage, a log to roll around, a climbing wall and a little wading pool with a palm tree.

 

I'll always remember his molting. We threw him a pirate party. It was pretty awesome

 

Classes start next week and i'm strangly looking forward to them.

We can't really commute in together any more since I wake up at 5:45 AM and try to get to work by 7 AM. But we try to catch a commute home together, especially on the quiet days. She sends me a message or I send her a message, 'hey, ETD (estimated time of departure)?' and we'll debate it over. If she sends me the message, I know anymore then half an hour and she'll reply back, 'okay, I'll just take off now.' It's not a big deal for me to stay later though. I get overtime pay and perks like dinner and a cab home, but the twenty minutes of company is nice.

We meet on the corner of 17th and Connecticut, her side of the street. It's cold and she waves me to the escalator and we race down. We sit next to each other on the train. I take her work keys and tease her, and when I put them back I take her lip gloss. She doesn't notice until I make fun of her big bag. And we talk about our day. She pokes at me leg telling me about her crazy boss. She picks her cat's cat hair off me while I tell her about her crazy cats morning shenanigans.

Merry Christmas

"Holy Shit, what a year," He says looking at his cup of Starbucks coffee, black, no sugar.

11pm, the Friday before Christmas after a 13 hour work day, 60 hour work week.
He picks up his phone and speed dials number 4.
"Hey, just finished my exam. Did okay, got a B. Yeah, exhausted.  Hey, I'm going to go pack, just come by whenever."

Must print out flight ticket, pack. Shit. My clothes are all still dirty. Pack them anyway. Am I forgetting anything? Must go Christmas shopping tomorrow.
11:40pm. I need a beer.

I'm home now. Sitting on the couch and eating a chocolate chip cookie. It's 10:45 am and feeling pretty good. Merry Christmas!