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sapphirerose77
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Name: Jen
Gender: Female
Interests: Reading (B&N is THE store), AIM, Neopets, dancing/listening to music, writing, etc.
Expertise: Editing, sleeping late when I get the chance, baking (lethal triple-chocolate brownies!), being a hopeful romantic <3
Occupation: Student
Industry: Other
Message: message me
AIM:  crystalrabbit7
Member Since:
3/8/2003
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| I don't remember what everyone else has put already, so apologies if I've repeated anything. In no particular order:
10. Sitting in the shade on a sunny day with a breeze running through your hair
9. The first bite of freshly-baked cookies/brownies/cake 
8. A heartfelt hug from a friend you haven't seen in a long time
7. Dancing to the music at a live concert
6. Singing along to your (or someone else's) playlist
5. The excitement of picking classes (yes, I'm SUCH a nerd)
4. Taboo/Mafia/Apples to Apples/Cranium with a bunch of equally nerdy friends (and on one occasion, one bewildered looking prefrosh)
3. Comfort food like mac 'n cheese or fried rice (I'm so Asian ^^; )
2. Making someone else laugh
1. A child smiling at you
Too busy to update much, between research/YSM/Phoenix...in short, I'm living life to the fullest and will be sad to see summer end, even as I'm excited to begin the school year. Maybe more updates later (with photos?) but now it's time to cook dinner 
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| Hm, long time no update, despite the surplus of free time I seem to have after lab every evening and on weekends. Highlights of the many good times so far:
- "Opening" party at Elissa's place, aka how many ppl can we cram into one medium-sized living room?
- Reunion weekends: Playing with 15-25 toddlers at a time (sooo cute!) and/or trying to get them to fall asleep the first week; greeting and giving directions to 70-ish-year-old ppl the second week (worked the class of 1956). It doesn't sound like fun but they were all fascinating people with incredible stories of what they had done...lots of politicians/diplomats, as well as the first Nigerian student at Yale (both undergrad and med school) and a few other brave souls breaking the racial and socioeconomic barriers at Yale when it was still mostly a legacy school. We even got to see John Kerry when he came for the 40th reunion luncheon across the street. Awesome food too, like a "shore dinner" Saturday night with heaps of lobster  Definitely working reunions again next year, maybe even head clerk-ing if my spring schedule isn't too crazy
- Game night: Apples to Apples and Taboo is so much more fun with people you know well, especially nerds like us =P We're going to be very good at Taboo by the end of the summer...five people trying to call the minibus at once was also quite amusing; we were on hold for at least half an hour because it was midnight on a Friday, and it was raining out. But everyone got home safely, so it's all good.
- World Cup watching: mostly at Axel's so far (US tied Italy 1-1!) but it might switch to our place this afternoon because we have central air conditioning 
- Jazz concerts on the Green last weekend: good weather, good friends, and good music. Maybe not so good dancing, but we all had fun hehe. Maybe going to the opera tonight if it's cooled down a little by then, and there are plenty more things to do in the second week of the arts festival
- Tina's surprise birthday party: remembered it was her birthday just before lunch; people sneaked into my room right after dinner, and we had Lithuanian coffee cake. Tina was so unsuspecting, she was in her pajamas. 'Nuff said
- East Rock picnic: Walked up to the park, hiked up to the top (they're called the Giant Steps for a reason!), and had a wonderful afternoon picnic (yay for wraps and fresh salsa ), bringing out some of our favorite old-school (or not so old) games (SPUD, anyone?), admiring the view (and realizing there's a lot of New Haven that actually doesn't belong to the university), and having near heart attacks when people pretended to jump off the cliff. We even got subsidized for the trip...I think Dean Segraves is amazed but glad that we're so motivated and organized hehe.
This apartment has permanently ruined me for dorm life...Tina and I are slowly getting better at cooking/baking (it was a lot of fun to be able to watch the banana bread baking because the oven has a clear door hehe) and it's nice to be able to make what you want, when you want to eat instead of having to conform to dining hall hours. The view is incredible (East Rock seems a heck of a lot closer from my window) and it's nice not having to deal with noisy/drunk neighbors (someone next door plays rather loud music, but I'm used to that by now) when you just want to go to sleep early. Oh well, that's what summer sublets are for - a taste of off-campus life so I have a living standard to strive for in the future *wry smile*
Lab is going fairly well, though the materials shopping trip on Friday wasn't very successful because we're not quite sure how we want to set up the new experiment yet. Caplab has officially started but we haven't started working with the capuchins yet since Derek's still trying to finish his paper for submission (sorry, can't bring visitors to see them). We're also trying to design a new experiment for them, though I don't think I know enough about capuchins to help much with that...I'm still learning how to tell them apart ^^;
That's about it for now...congrats to the MHSS class of 2006 (and all my friends in other high schools as well) for getting through high school and best of luck wherever you go from here 
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| - The Impossible DreamI don't know if my feet grew or if the shoes shrank, but the new sandals that fit perfectly when I got them chafed my skin and gave me several blisters after wearing them for about an hour this morning. I don't even remember where I got them, so can't return them (not to mention that would be just icky since I've worn them already)...maybe it'll be better after they're broken in, though that will probably be a rather painful process for me -_- At least there's always sneakers.
Just chillin' in the apartment before going to lunch and then to work - today's job is setting up Payne Whitney for the 300-ish alumni's kids that will be showing up tomorrow and Saturday so we can entertain them while their parents run around campus reminiscing. Summer's been pretty quiet so far, not counting the hectic moving from Silliman --> L-Dub --> apartment. Last weekend was interesting, working the senior reception at the President's House (aka standing at the door repeating variations of "Welcome to the President's House! The first floor is open to the public and the reception is in the backyard") and then the honorary degree awardees' dinner at the British Art Center (got to see former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor come in with an escort of federal marshals). Most of the PoS people are back now, though, so we'll start the weekly (or more than weekly) get-togethers soon, starting with dessert at Elissa/Hao/Madeleine/Monica's place Monday night 
At least I'm not surviving on granola bars, crackers, yogurt, and various fruits anymore...Mom went nuts and brought up a trunkload of enough cooking supplies to get me through at least the next two weeks, plus Tina and Steph are bringing up more stuff when they move in this weekend. Good practice for Swing Space, though I will definitely be quite spoiled by the spaciousness of this apartment compared to next year's rooms -_- Free bread from Cafe Attticus is awesome too, though yesterday they didn't have any leftover (I'm guessing they're baking less now that most of the students have left) but I got two muffins instead =P
The first week of research has been fun - I ran my first bunch of preschoolers through controls for Experiment 3 and it's so hard to keep a straight face sometimes. One girl told me she had met a baby dinosaur and it was all I could do not to laugh. Diana and I spent the last few days trying to come up with new experiment designs, which was considerably last fun but still entertaining, especially when we were imagining how the kids would react to various situations. We're also trying to make Derek (1) get more sleep, and (2) get outside more often, but that's a whole 'nother story. Poor guy, he has his hands full trying to guide us along with running around for presentations and still coding/analyzing data from the last set of experiments.
Other than that I've been catching up on sleep, reading, and craftwork...reread Dune and the three prequels while in L-Dub, and a few nights I finally finished the Winnie the Pooh bib. Most of it had been done since winter break; I just didn't think of doing the outlining until I saw it while packing. Maybe I can give it to Melinda and Scotty for their daughter ^-^ The next project is quite a bit more ambitious, but its design will remain semi-secret until it's done, just in case I get frustrated and give up for a while ^^;
Hope everyone has survived exams (or is surviving the last month of school if you're unfortunate enough to be on the quarter system) with sanity intact and if you're bored on a free weekend or something, come visit 
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|  | Currently Listening
Rent (1996 Original Broadway Cast)
By Jonathan Larson, Jeff Potter, Anthony Jackson, Daniel A. Weiss, Ira Siegel, Kenny Brescia, Steve Skinner, Adam Pascal, Aiko Nakasone, Anthony Rapp, Byron Utley, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Fredi Walker, Gilles Chiasson, Gwen Stewart, Idina Menzel, Jesse L. Martin, Kristen Lee Kelly, Rodney Hicks, Stevie Wonder, Taye Diggs, Timothy Britten Parker, Wilson Jermaine Heredia
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- Seasons of LoveMetroNorth round-trip ticket: $28
Metrocard: $10
Dim Sum: $8 per person
MoMA admission: $12
Rush tickets to Rent: $20
An awesome day in NYC: priceless
An impromptu trip yesterday with Terrence and two of his crew buddies, the half-joking objective to broaden Kirk and Henry's horizons, especially since Kirk had never been to NYC before and hadn't even been on a train for years. We hit up Grand Central -> Chinatown -> Central Park -> MoMA -> Times Square -> Rent ... I think that goal was accomplished admirably It was especially funny at Dim Sum for Terrence and me to order things that they would probably never try otherwise; for a while they were the only Caucasian guys in the whole restaurant, as far as we could tell!
It was my first visit to the new MoMA - I think I got my money's worth out of the admission fee. Picasso was slightly more sane and slightly more crazy than I had previously believed, depending on what period you're talking about. Van Gogh's "The Starry Night" was beautiful, of course, and I appreciated the Monet and Degas pieces - I hadn't realized they counted as "modern" art, though I doubt there's any specific definition...more like art that doesn't fit into any other established category (e.g. Renaissance). The sculpture garden was also pretty cool, wandering between pieces that ranged from a yellow steel something to a figure reclining above the pool that looked as if it could have come from ancient Greece or Rome. The building itself it amazing, especially looking down from the upper floors to see the cutout windows and patterns on the walls below. Overall, I found I liked "modern" art more than I thought, though I still don't think that a canvas of monochrome blue or red is legit.
Rent was meh but still fun, especially since the three guys had never seen it before. We were so lucky to win the lottery for $20 tickets...second row orchestra (aka second row from the stage) = awesome Maureen/Benny/Angel were excellent and Roger/Mark/Joanne/Collins were pretty good, but Mimi was only good in "Take Me Out Tonight." That's the only song that seemed to fit her voice well, with a really strong belt, but then again I've probably been spoiled by listening to the original Broadway cast recording so many times. Overall the cast felt younger, somewhat less experienced and more nervous than when I saw it on the Caldaro/Thaler trip two years ago. Still, good times, and now I feel like getting the movie again. Terrence had Musetta's waltz stuck in his head for quite some time afterwards...wonder if it's still stuck lol.
Not starting research today as planned because poor Derek is sick (any correlation to his recent trip to Harvard? ) so just reading and hanging out again...I really don't want to go outside in the icky weather (rain again, though hopefully no flooding like there is further north). Later, everyone...
P.S. Red Delicious apple + Nature Valley cinnamon granola bar = breakfast fun
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| It's funny how much I took fruits and vegetables for granted until I had to live without them for about a day and a half. After all, I used to have salad for lunch and dinner every day as well as a stockpile of apples in the fridge, occasionally supplemented by oranges, grapes, and the fresh pineapple chunks so kindly provided by the awesome SM dining hall staff. But after the meal plans ended Tuesday and I moved to L-Dub Weds, I've been living mainly off restaurant forays, various kinds of crackers, granola bars, chocolate, and tangerines, obviously not the most healthy diet. That last item was brought from home and ran out yesterday.
So today I made my first-ever trip to Shaws, obtained a "Rewards Card" and went on a health kick: apples, oranges, baby carrots, yogurt, and fruit juice. Basically, enough fresh stuff to last for the next week so my otherwise carb-heavy diet doesn't kill my summer aspirations of losing the weight I gained over freshman year. Price of maintaining sanity: a surprisingly small $9.92, though I admit I learned grocery sale-shopping from the best. The half-hour walk did me some good too, especially carrying all that stuff back
I would also like to report that the NJ Governor's Schools have been saved for summer 2006, thanks to all the alumni/faculty/parents/others who wrote Governor Corzine and their legislators as well as donating generously to the fundraising campaign. Hopefully some sort of endowment can be set up to support the schools for all future years as necessary.
Other than that, I'm just chilling on Old Campus until Monday (finally reading books that I want to read!), when I start research again for a week and a half until the alumni reunions start. I can't wait to move to the apartment next weekend and finally have a kitchen (I'm even getting a rice cooker, I'm that Asian, but so are my roommates so it's ok hehe) I can't remember if there's a full oven too, but if so, I will definitely be making some death-by-chocolate brownies and oatmeal cranberry /oatmeal raisin special cookies for group gatherings
First restaurant review for the summer: Diner 21. Kinda funky decor, like the two identical posters of a bitten green apple on the wall, but decent food at diner prices. I felt like breakfast, so I got a spinach/mushroom/red pepper/cheddar cheese omelet, which was nicely filled with above choices and not that greasy, either. The anecdote of the night was the servers spilling ice water on Terrence, but it sort of deflected off the table first so it wasn't as bad as it could have been, considering he was wearing a dark shirt and white jeans. Methinks I shall be returning again, especially since it's right across the street from Criterion Cinemas.
Speaking of which, first movie review for the summer: The Promise. In a nutshell, it's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with a worse-looking (not including Qingcheng in some scenes and Wuhuan), slightly over-dramatic cast and a cornier plot. I like it better than most reviewers, though, and the story is richer than the online synopses would make it seem. I don't want to give away the ending, but there actually is a deep meaning to the whole thing. The fight scenes aren't as intricately choreographed (though Wuhuan's razor fans are amazing) and the CG effects are blatantly obvious in some places, but overall it's still a pretty nice piece with lovely cinematography and excellent use of colors for symbolism and visual effect.
Time to get back to reading ^-^ Good luck with exams to those who are still in school, and to everyone else, have a wonderful summer!
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