Christmas wish list

Music:

FRUIT BATS:
The Ruminant Band
Mouthfuls

NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL:
The King of Carrot Flowers

BEIRUT:
Gulag Orkerstar
The Flying Club Cup


SUFJAN STEVENS:
Seven Swans

CONOR OBERST

M. WARD

JOSH RITTER:
The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter
The Animal Years
Josh Ritter

ANDREW BIRD:
NOT Noble Beast

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE:
Strawberry Jam
Feels

ANDREW BIRD:
Soldier On
Armchair Apocrypha

DIRTY PROJECTORS:
Bitte Orca

THE MICROPHONES:
Mount Eerie



Other wishes:

1. Books
2. Earrings

3.Classic Low Moc(slippers) from Overland. Size 9/10. $59

4. J. Crew corduroys, sherpa hoodie, etc.
5. Sweaters
6. Blouses
7. Diesel jeans
8. Jasmine green tea
9. Snow boots
10. Radio for the shower/bathroom
11. Bubble wrap calendar from Blue Ribbon General Store: $19.95
12. 'Talk to Me' dry-erase board from AandGMerch.com: $24
13. 'Vintage Script Ohio' T-shirt
OR
'Bexley' T-shirt
OR
'Surf Ohio' T-shirt
from homageclothing.com $32

14.2010 Calendar Print from Flora and Fauna Press, L.A. $20

15. Pretty much anything from Humble.bigcartel.com (Tea towels are $12, pillows are $32).

Sizes: small or medium tops, size 4/6 long pants (except at J. Crew, where their regulars are really long already) 9 1/2 (usually 9 or 10 are fine) for shoes.

I feel as though I've fallen off the face of the earth...maybe I have?

Hi everyone. Man, Facebook sure has killed the blogging action in this family, has it not? Oh well. I don't mean to be so bad at keeping in touch with people. Last year was the year of the Brad, and this year seems to belong to Ben and Julie. But I LOVE you all.

New developments? I'm taking (organic) chemistry IV, biochemistry, microbiology research methods, and auditing physics to make sure I'm fresh for the MCAT. So that's all new, I guess. It certainly takes up plenty of time and energy.

Tonight I went over to a bass luthier's workshop in the middle of the woods outside Cambridge, NY. He is a friend of the lab manager of the college (also a very skilled woodworker) and is making some serious repairs to my bass, which was sitting in Laszlo's attic for three years. We worked on it for several hours tonight. It was so incredibly nice of him to explain what he was doing and allow me to help. It was awesome.

I am enjoying a completely new phase of my life...the incredibly-happy-to-be-single-what-was-I-thinking-before?-phase.

I have found four med schools in the UK that accept international students without science undergraduate degrees. Unfortunately, three of them are in Southampton, Nottingham, and Newcastle. I REALLY don't think I want to spend four years in Nottingham. Am I wrong?

Hmmm...can't remember what else I was thinking about before. Oh well!

Alright, already!

I don't like doing wish lists because it seems to make everyone really uncreative. I considered making this an all-book Christmas, but I thought you might not appreciate that, either. I don't like getting exactly what I ask for, because then there's no surprise to this. So, here are a few specific things as well as some options that are jumping-off-points to get creative.

That said, I have been sent three messages from Mandy in as many days demanding a list. So here it is. As you can see, music is much on my mind. As is warm clothing.


If you wish price were no object...

Photos of you and your offspring

Clock radio

EZ-pass transponder

A manicure

Tristan und Isolde recording (copied is FINE - best if it has the tracks listed, though- Birgit or Kirsten preferred but not absolutely necessary...please no American Isolde, though)

Sound system components (used is FINE) I need something better than my computer's speakers.

Tristan und Isolde score

Any amazing music you would like to share with me in audible or printed forms.

Tea

Socks

Earrings

An original haiku

An opportunity to dance


Slightly pricier:

Opera tickets (x2 to share with Brock - anything but obstructed view)
Things at the Met that I would love to see before Feb 23rd:
Eugene Onegin
Orfeo ed Euridice
Lucia di Lammermoor
Rigoletto
Il Trovatore

Any lovely clothes or especially warm clothes (even hand-me-downs)
(size 4 pants and tops or small tops, please take into account that I have a slightly long torso and slightly long legs)

Waterproof boots

Awesome heels
(size 9.5 or 10)

A massage

Blender (used is FINE)

If money is no object...

Camera

Leather boots

Kaplan MCAT prep course (Not a joke)

A hefty bribe to OSU med school admissions officers.

AND AS ALWAYS...

Books!

Second-hand stuff will be totally, completely acceptable and appreciated.

I know you won't believe this...

...but I think I may have lost the desire to bite my nails!

Altogether new

Yesterday my friends Carin and Conor (the really nice engaged couple from Davis, CA) took my friend Scott and me rock climbing in northern Mass. It was amazingly fun and un-scary...I wish that I'd taken advantage of all the people who climbed in Santa Fe. I only did a couple of the easy climbs, but I'm going to try to practice on the climbing wall here and make this into a hobby. It's such an enjoyable way to spend a day!
I'm going to be in Ohio for Thanksgiving (shout out to Ben and Julie, as always!) and the weekend before that, I'm going to New York to see Brock.
I really had such an enjoyable, stress-free weekend of reading for pleasure, drinking tea, walking in the woods (saw three amazing deer who walked right across my path), climbing cliffs, and thinking about how incredibly blessed my life is. Life is so good.
Still not sure what I'm going to do for field work term...Brock offered for me to stay with him, so my options now include Bennington (working for a professor in her lab), Ohio (doing who knows what) and New York (volunteering in Sloan-Kettering's integrative medicine center). If I'm in New York, you'll still have to come see me, Sam and Susie!

I can't believe it's actually today! (Part II)

Wow. Nice speech, Barack. I was one of the weepers last night. Congratulations, everybody...especially friends who worked for the campaign.

I can't believe it's actually today!

I want to take a moment to express, in the final moment, my excitement at the prospect of having a thoughtful, well-spoken president, and the first black president. I think that Barack will win today, and I know that when he does, the incredible, wonderful, almost laughable idealism of all of us who support him will turn into the realism of living with the consequences of the government's decisions for another four years.

But this morning, waking up to the last day of coffee and polls online, I feel truly hopeful that having an intelligent person running this country will make a difference here and internationally, and that electing a black president will make a difference in the way that American children see themselves and their opportunities. Anyway, I want to put it on the record that I am hopeful today.

Me too, me too!

I want to go to graduate school in the UK, too! Half the family lives there now, it seems. I don't think it is very practical for me to apply for a medical degree in the UK, but I may do it anyway.

I've been a little down the last couple of weeks. I miss the ex-boyfriend terribly and am trying not to focus on that...but it's difficult. On top of that, he and his sister have un-friended me on Facebook. I'm not sure why this upset me so much, but it has.

School is going well, but I have been more distracted this semester and am a teensy bit concerned about my ability to focus on chemistry. My microbiology and animal physiology classes are fascinating, and have been stealing my energy and attention away from chemistry.

Election election election. I'm planning for the best and ignoring the possibility that the worst could happen.

I still haven't been able to find a lab to work in during field work term. This is very upsetting, but not the end of the world. I'm going to have a lot of research experience from research projects I'm doing here for my microbiology and chemistry classes...so I guess I could spend field work term volunteering and studying for the MCAT.

I'm planning to take the MCAT on Wednesday, August 5th. I REALLY need to do well on this test. Never before have I been afraid of a standardized test. I am now. It really freaks me out that it is on a computer. I love the sensation of penciling in bubbles.

Also, I had to reassure Grandma Callahan that everyone really does love and appreciate her...maybe a certain sister of mine (not Jennie, who talked to her only a couple weeks ago) should send her an email?