My parents might have a heart attack

As many of you are well-aware, I have a documented dislike of all things seafood: If it came from the ocean, I didn't eat it (with the exception of crab rangoons, though I'm sure that was imitation crab and barely any at that). Since Tuesday is our White Coat Ceremony, many of my classmates have family coming into town. My dad's flying in Monday night. :) Anyway, Emily invited Amber and I to go eat with her family. They had made reservations atMcCormick &Schmick's Seafood. It is a super-nice restaurant and expensive to boot. There was a small listing of non-seafood items (maybe 6 on this HUGE menu) but I decided to order fish. Why? Well, I thought maybe the problem isn't seafood, maybe I just don't like bad seafood. I can't imagine the "best" specimens are flown to SD on a timely basis. There was much wine (oh my) and calamari and wonderful sourdough bread (mmm!). Eventually dinner came and my mahi mahi (in bacon butter!) was wonderful. I also tried the seared tuna Amber had and the tilapia Emily ordered. So, at the end of the night, I tried 4 seafood items and liked ALL of them. I'm afraid to call my mom, because I think she'll faint from the shock. She's been trying to get me to eat fish for ...shesh, probably a good 20 years. And, at the end I had this strawberry mousse shortcake thing. Mmmm... Anyway, the best part of the evening? Emily's dad (a prosecutor) picked up the check. He's super-nice. And fish? I don't think they're evil anymore...though I still don't like shellfish. ;)

What? Bad drivers in MD?

So, they've now done a "study" on where the worst drivers are. The article is here. South Dakota didn't do to bad, but I'm *shocked* to see that MD is 44. If only there were some kind of test we could make people take to ensure that bad drivers didn't get licenses...

An interesting question in the age of "blogging"

While there are blogs for the purpose of commenting on political and social events, I've noticed that my posts are often about myself and what I'm up to. Since blogs are often a sort of "public diary" do they count as "communication." Let me be more specific: when I say "communication" I mean of the type that happens between friends. So, if someone has my blog address and I post about what's going on in my life (and don't call, email, IM, etc.) can I consider myself "in touch" with my friends? While a blog does have the ability to allow comments, my thought is no. However, I'm interested in hearing the thoughts of some of my more "techno-savvy" friends.

While normally I don't post for the sole purpose of directly people to other people's blogs, I would like to recommend that everyone check out Nikhil's latest post. It is amusing, timely, and also brings up an important question: How long do you think it will take Eric to read and respond?
In the spirit of Preakness on Sunday, I've provided the following odds:

50:1 He responds within the next 24 hrs
40:1 He reponds within the next 48 hrs
20:1 He reponds by the end of the weekend
5:1 He responds by the end of May
3:1 He reponds ever
2:1 He never responds
1:1 We get engagement annoucenents in the mail...After the wedding

Kitties!

As an advocate of all that is cute, I suggest you check out the kittenwar website. It's cute and cuddly and unlike Kennon's baby seals, they won't blow up if you click on them. :)

Baltimore is scary

Where to begin... The evening started well. I went to a movie with some friends. We saw Look at Me (yes, yes, it is French and has subtitles) and it was FANTASTIC. I laughed and laughed, and the the man behind me who snorted did kinda make the "frenchness" 3D. ;)
We left the theater, and while at a stoplight, we got hit on by a car of guys, who I'd like to point out were probably undergrads and thus too young for us...hehehe...Oh yeah, and 2 of us are engaged and the other 2 are already in relationships. So, we're laughing pretty hard, since we handled the "being hit on" pretty nerdily.
We're driving along, about a block and a half from home, when I look out my window and notice there's a kid reaching back like he's gonna throw something and then Bam!, something hits the windshield. The windshield is pretty cracked and there are some glass shards in the car. We pull over at the security guard booth (about a block and a half) and he was...less than helpful. Essentially he tells us he's here to protect the hospital, not the med students, but he will call the cops for us. Eventually a police officer arrives, and I feel pretty bad for this guy. He's been up for 40 hrs or so already and he's been pretty jaded by Baltimore (not being from here originally). Anyway, since we're girls and this is what we do, we were joking about going to find those boys and "spanking them" (they were probably between 10-15 yrs old). However, as the officer was kind to point out, had we stopped, they would have killed us...or worse, since most of the kids in this area of Baltimore carry firearms. :S He then told us not to drive here after dark...to which we had to respond, "but we live here! We were just trying to go home..." So, at the end of the evening I've learned several things:
1) Baltimore is scary
2) If this is the worst thing that ever happens, then we should count ourselves lucky
3) Baltimore is scary
and 4) I would like to point out that he did confirm my suspicion that the ice cream trucks sell drugs. Man, it's great to be right...

Best Job in the World

I suppose most of you remember how excited I was when I got the chance to go to Atlanta for the CDC fun-ness. Well, my job this summer trumps even that! Why?
1) I'll be in an area (Baltimore) I already know well
2) Most of my class will be here, so I'll have plenty of fun people around (AND I won't have to study for the MCAT)
3) My office is in the Inner Harbor, right on the water. Seriously, the location is AWESOME
4) I can take the metro from my apt this summer to work
5) This time I get paid
6) I get paid more than my rent, so I'll actually be able to save some money for furniture and the like
7) I'll get to take trips down to DC as part of this job
8) I might even get a paper out of this job
9) There are also a whole bunch of reasons related to the subject matter with which I'll be dealing. I could go on about it, but I'll instead direct you to their website. :)

I would like to point out, that the sucky part of this job will be a lack of Chris and family in the area...:( However, it sounds like people are coming to visit me...hooray!

Change in Plans

So, the original plan was to come home this summer and myabe bum around. However, I have recently gotten an offer I cannot refuse. So, I'll be in Baltimore most of the summer. I will be home at least once (for my parent's 25th anniversary over the 4th of July weekend). I'd say more about it, but I'm still tired from the all-the-desserts-you-can-eat at Vaccaro's. Mmm...desserts.

Bad Timing

For those of you who saw the new Family Guy episode, you know that there was a part in which Gepetto bends over in front of Pinocchio and tries to get him to lie. Yeah, it was pretty bad. Anyway, DiGiorno's has a new commerical out and it's Gepetto and Pinocchio and Pinocchio lies about the new pizza and his nose is all over the place. While I may have found that amusing before, now I'm just disturbed. :S

Another reason We (Nikhil and I) love Aimee Mann

Aimee Mann has taken up boxing. In fact, she likes it so much that her new cd "The Forgotten Arm" is actually named for a boxing term and the album tells the story of a boxer and a girl. I've heard some of it (you can listen to the tracks on her website) and what can I say? It's Aimee and therefore I like it. Anyway, it sounds like the lithe songstress can pack quite a punch. I'd say that her new-found skill will come in quite handy as she tours this summer. We all know how crazy those moshpits can be...

Poor Baby Jedi

Here's an article about the upcoming Episode III (there may be some "mild" spoilers in the article.") In the article it says:
Young Jedi knight Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) completes his transformation into blackhearted villain Darth Vader with a bloodbath against old allies, the body count including a corridor of "youngling" corpses _ Jedi children cut down by his light saber.

:(!! Poor Baby Jedi...

Audioslave

Thought you guys might want to check out the new Audioslave single "Your Time Has Come." You can download it here. (And yes, this is a free download...)