Super me

I don't know why I have the sudden urge to do everything right. The house has to meet a certain threshold of organization, the Christmas decorations must be up before Thanksgiving and just perfect, Thanksgiving must be planned and executed according to plan, N's birthday must be beautiful, must get the right cake, must decorate correctly according to mental plan. Christmas presents must be bought and must arrive before Christmas Eve, presents must have a personal touch. Even then, I am critical about how i could have done things better, planned better, gotten started earlier, etc.

Heck, it's not like anybody is grading me. But I like it when people notice I've done a good job. There is no excuse for not getting stuff done. If there's not enough time, then stop watching TV, stop wasting time somewhere else, but get it done. I am the conserver of traditions, and the CEO of this family.

I want to be the best of two worlds: the stay-at-home mom who is working full-time.

If only I could apply such dedication and such performance to my studies, I'd be less stressed all the time! Schoolwork is coming in second to home life right now. It's a unique year, when else will I have as much time as now with a full-time paycheck?

Let's see if 2008 is better than 2007...

My First Meme

I've been tagged by Academom for a meme.

1. I am constantly surprised by the things I don't know about raising a child even though I am the oldest of 6.

2. I have recently started to cook all the time. Not for pleasure, but for variety and ease of cleanliness.

3. I am slowly against my will becoming a perfectionist. And very critical.

4. Did you know I graduated cum laude from Chemical Engineering?

5. I consider myself happy. In varying degrees sometimes, but happy.

6. I am very self critical but I am able to see my good qualities as well.

7. I found it incredibly difficult to come up with seven facts. Not because I don't have enough to put out there, but because I had a hard time selecting a set of seven. I felt all seven had to have a degree of connectivity, even though they ended up not having it.

A month later

So almost a month after my last post, a lot has changed. I've started school full time. Now my schedule is not my own, but my professors'. Everything revolves around due dates, papers, group projects, and the shadow of the thesis. Just like undergrad, except I have a family household to run now. There's bills to pay, appointments, service calls, oil changes, dinners, grocery shopping, quality time with a husband, quality time with a daughter, etc.

I am slowly falling into a routine of doing it all. Because in the end, you just get up and do what you have to do, whether you are single or married with 7 kids.

I guess I've gotten spoiled. After engineering, I was so burnt out I needed a rest. And I got one, an 8 year rest. Now it's time to go back in and show everyone my neurons are still firing. I was surprised to find out they are still firing!! I'm understanding the material, I'm even understanding the undertones of the material, but I'm still trying to figure the people out.

I think I have a thesis topic, it will have something to do with infectious disease I think. Not anywhere near my area of expertise, but that will just make it interesting I guess. I just keep thinking, it's only for a year. I can sacrifice a bit of time and sleep for a year. After a year I'll have my master's and I'll move on.

I got my first paper back, I got a 94%. Not bad. There was still that twinge of "why didn't I get 100%?" but I'm trying to squash that voice. I am going to learn to accept it and move on.

N in July & August of 2007

I know everyone loves pictures, so here's some of my favorite subject (no, not me...), N!!

Photos of Inarú - July & Aug 2007

A new endeavor

I have not forgotten about you, dear blog. It's just been busy lately, is all. I've been packing up my office the last few days, archiving files, tying up loose ends. I was also checking in to my next assignment: a Master's program.

I will be studying full time for the next year in pursuit of a Master's degree, in a program sponsored by the State Dept. I will have little time, but I will continue to attempt to post entries of interest. Classes start next week.

I am really excited but extremely nervous. It's been so long since I use my noggin', I may have forgotten how! I'll have to start flexing that muscle again...

I need rehab

Okay, it is official. I am addicted to Facebook.

I log on several times a day, even at home, and I NEVER used the pc at home. Now I'm going nuts scanning all the old photographs I can find and "tagging" all the people whose names I can remember.

It is definitely better than MySpace and Friendster. It's easier to find people, classmates, coworkers, etc, and has a cleaner look to it. It is consistent, so you always know where to find stuff on people's different profiles. And I'm sorry, but those layouts are very annoying and distracting on MySpace!!

Best of all, ads are subtle and off to the side, I haven't gotten any spam in my inbox yet (like the crap I get in MySpace!), and it just looks more grown up and elegant. The fun applications are cutesy and kitschy, but it's easy to get rid of them to clean up your page. And my virtual garden and aquarium are growing nicely, thank you.

It almost makes me wish everyone had a facebook profile, it would make it so easy to plan get-togethers, reunions, and share photos. I feel like I fell off the face of the earth once I graduated from college and lost contact with everyone, and even worse when I went to China. Now I feel like I came home to find everyone there, a little older, married, with kids, with serious jobs, but there all along after all.

So, will someone show me the way to the nearest Facebook Rehabilitation Facility?

Stranger Than Fiction

Last night we saw a strange movie for Will Ferrell. It is not his usual slapstick comedy. Stranger than Fiction is about a boring IRS dude who has no life, but starts hearing his life narrated as he moves through life. He hears a woman's voice narrating his actions and thoughts. Eventually, his life is no longer routine, and he starts doing new things, getting out of his routine and his comfort zone. And suddenly, he hears the narrator say he will die. He realizes he doesn't want to die now, because his life just got interesting.



The narrator's voice ends up being a real writer, who is writing a story about the IRS dude. Believe me, it is much less complicated than it seems. It is not a typical Ferrell comedy, and if you are expecting one, you will be sorely disappointed. On the other hand, if you watch it with an open mind, you will find it cute. Not an Oscar winner, but cute.



Emma Thompson is your typical neurotic, chain-smoking, quirky, depressed writer. Well, at least she is all those things when under stress. At the end she looked very normal and well-adjusted. Dustin Hoffman as professor is semi-credible. He almost seemed an older "Graduate". Will was cute as a strait-laced IRS auditor, and Maggie Gyllenhall was perfect in her role. Except that Will and Maggie looked a little odd as a couple. Am I the only one that feels Will looks a little awkward in his body?



Adal didn't like the ending, felt it was too Hollywood-y. But hey, THEORETICALLY speaking, if the whole movie goes on about someone's almost-inevitable death, it would make sense to not kill the guy. If you kill the guy, there is no twist. I don't know, it felt okay to me. But hey, try arguing with a writer, a person who studies this type of thing. I can only relate from the reader or viewer's side.

And I loved the little special effects embedded in the movie!

Middlesex

I just finished a great book by Jeffrey Eugenides, who also wrote The Virgin Suicides. This one was called Middlesex.


It is basically about a Greek family who emigrates not from Greece, but from a Greek-populated area near Smyrna, now called Izmir, in Turkey. If anybody has ever talked to a Greek, well, they hate Turks and everything that has to do with Turkey. To be honest and unbiased, it went both ways, with both Greece and Turkey dishing it out. The Ottomans were cruel to everyone in the area, especially Armenians, so maybe the regional hate towards the Turks was warranted. Who really knows who started it?


The book is about the immigrant experience in the Detroit area. It is about a Greek family, and all that being family implies, and I enjoyed understanding the Greek expressions used in the novel. It is also about a Hermaphrodite (?!?), but believe me, it makes sense once you read the book. It is also about finding out who you are as a person, no matter what gender you are.


It was written from a semi-omniscient Cal Stephanides, grandchild of the original immigrants from "Smyrna". S/he narrates events predating her birth as if s/he had been present, making for a unique perspective.

Catching up!

Sorry! I was enjoying my family who was here for 3 weeks only : ( and taking advantage of so many able-bodied people to move my furniture up and down stairs, put together IKEA furniture, and put art on my walls.

I have art on my walls! You don't understand. I haven't had my art or decorations up on my walls since we lived in Greece. I didn't want to ruin the great paint job in the MD house since I knew we were selling it.

So I lived two years here without art. Now I have art! And a real living room! And Inarú has a PLAYROOM! Yes, can that child be any more spoiled?? She has a bedroom and a playroom. With her own TV and DVD player. S-P-O-I-L-E-D.

I miss them so much, my family. It's so unfair to be so far away. I mean, I wouldn't mind at all if my mom and dad moved in with me. I would move to a bigger house and make it more comfortable for them if I had to. They are really my life. Friends are great, but my family really make me happy.

Anyway, enough homesickness. I don't want to cry yet AGAIN...

Once upon a time in Mexico...

A and I just got back from a vacation in Mexico. We didn't go to Cancun or Acapulco. We went to Matamoros, in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, right across the border from Brownsville, Texas.

I hadn't mentioned anything before because it was a surprise for one of our best friends from college, Hector. His wedding was on July 6th and we didn't tell him we were flying in. But his face was worth it! To see the shock on his face when he saw us at the airport was so worth it... So we arrived to jump head in to the wedding preparations and the gazillion errands that had to be done, to include the completion of one wedding dress.

We had such a great time, just hanging out and getting away from our jobs and the stress. And of course, being with friends is the best way to spend your vacation.

Having not gone to a touristy part of Mexico, and spending our time hanging out with locals, we got a real taste of how people live there. It was frustrating dealing with local businesses, since they seem to operate on their own time. The dress, which the local bride wanted to have in hand a week before the wedding, was not ready until 7 pm the NIGHT BEFORE the wedding! And there was no excuse, not a single excuse for not having it ready. And so it went with everything else. The bride and groom had to go to each and every service they had requested (i.e. flower store, caterer, dj, band, trio, photographer, videographer, etc) and REMIND them the day before that the wedding was the following day. But not that it mattered. The bride and groom were ready to go before the flowers were set up in the church. There were no mantels on the tables in the reception hall until after everyone arrived, luckily there were some nice appetizers outside the hall. The photographer arrived literally photo finish to the ceremony. And so it went. And yet somehow it all got done, everyone drank, ate, danced, and was merry.

Most shocking to me was how people just like you and me, i.e. plain average middle class, lived there. Houses are usually delivered with the basics: no paint, no floors, just a husk. And most people don't have the money after buying a house to install tile flooring or fancy cabinetry. And when they do, well, the workmanship was not what I expected. We stayed at a beautiful villa where the reception was held, like an old-style Rancho, with a pool and several buildings. I immediately notice the corners did not meet, a basic construction no-no. Also, the grout between the tiles was not neat, and there was grout all over the tiles, making it look dingy and old when in reality it was brand new, the newly painted cabinets had dripped paint all over the backsplash, and on and on.

I was expecting to see dirt cheap prices for everything, but in reality, most items were more expensive there in Mexico than in the US. Allowing for the considerably lower salaries, how did people survive there??

After all, everyone had a great time, and I'm sure we'll all be talking about that wedding for years to come. It was a memorable and fun vacation, and it was also an eye opener for me.

Everyone should go to another country to see how other nationalities live, we would gain incredible insight into our own lives.