And just like that, Christmas is over.

Christmas is over! Already?
What.

All those weeks building up to it and all of a sudden, it's all gone. But this year, Christmas was decent. My parents and I spent Christmas with my dad's old friend from Shanghai. He and his family flew in from Chicago to see New York City and catch up about everything and reminisce about the old days. It was nice. We had a lovely Christmas dinner and then spent the evening walking and shoving our way through Rockefeller Center and Times Square. It was annoying and at some points, a little terrifying, but enjoyable overall I suppose ;p

My boyfriend, the Unibomber with one of his Christmas/anniversary gifts.

Christmas dinner. Turkey (it's not undercooked as the picture might suggest, the recipe I used calls for breast down while roasting. Makes the breast meat all juicy and tender), biscuits, stuffing, gravy, lobster fruit salad.

Home of the Rockettes. And Santa. The tree changes colors!

Some craft store we passed by. I thought this was neat.

Liz Lemon, I miss you. Can't wait for more 30 Rock!

Rockefeller Center and the famous Christmas tree... And the ridiculous amount of people. CRAZY.

Saks Fifth. I almost got trampled to death while trying to make my way toward Fifth Avenue. At one point, I could have sworn my feet left the ground, and I was just being pushed along by the crowd. I was SO ready to punch someone in the face. People were being ridiculous. REEEEEDICUUUULOUS.

GE building in all its glory. *Cue 30 Rock theme song*

Times Square: the Great White Way.

Playing with the widescreen setting.

Beautiful red roses from Dan for our 1 year anniversary. I can't believe it's been a year already. It feels nice.

And so just like that, Christmas has come and gone. The year's almost over. It's a bit surreal how fast time has passed and how much has changed. I think 2008 was an overall good year for me. There were a few ups and downs, but I survived. I gotta say, I'm looking forward to 2009.

I smell change.

It's finally over! Hurrah, hurrah!

Finals week is finally over! It feels so good to be done. No more rocks and volcanoes. Woot.

The snow is really fluffy and white outside. I was so compelled to throw myself into the snow to make snow angels on my way back from my exam. But.. I didn't do it. I know, I'm such a wimp. But I'm almost positive I would have looked like a psychiatric ward escapee (AND it is possible. There is a mental asylum nearby) to some poor helpless passerby. I really wanted to play in the snow though. It looked so picture perfect and soft, like a blanket of cotton balls on the ground. I kicked a ton of snow balls/clumps; it was oddly satisfying. I would have taken pictures but I didn't bring my camera with me to my final, so no photos of the snow. Ohhhh well. There will always be more opportunities to take pictures of snow. After all, winter lasts until April here in Rochester. AAAACCK. I hope that is not true this year. Please please please.

Anyway, leaving in a couple of hours for NYC. I hope it won't take too long to drive back down. Dan's taking the long way home. Shouldn't be too bad. I'm crossing my fingers.

The snow is falling, oh a-falling.

It is snowing buckets outside. Like ridiculously. I went outside earlier, and it was pelting me from every-which-way. The visibility is terrible. I am looking out my window right now, and I can barely see a thing. I can faintly make out the outlines of the trees. I think it's going to snow something like 9 inches today. Or maybe more at the rate this is going. Lovely. It is going to be a pain walking to my exam tomorrow morning. I am so going to fall on my butt. I need snow boots, because the boots I wear are terrible for the snow (and probably not meant for such rough weather) and my socks always get wet and I always slip and almost fall in them.

This geology stuff just makes me want to procrastinate right now. I don't care about estuaries and fjords and all that jazz. I just want to bake cookies and watch TV and run around singing and dancing. Anything is better than geology right now.

Actually, looking at the snow makes me want to start a fire in the fireplace I don't have and drink hot chocolate and be all winter-y.

In other news, my hamster Twinkie died this past Wednesday. Kind of sad. She was a year and two months old. She was a cute little ball of fluff, minus the somewhat scary red eyes she inherited from her momma, Congee (yeah, I like to name my hamsters after food, so what?). I'm going to miss her. I've had her since she was a little itty bitty baby. RIP Twinkie <3

6 AM

Oh hi, how are you? Why am I up so early, you ask? Well. Let me see...

I NEVER WENT TO BED.

Mmm, yeah. I ache all over, and I'm still not done with my wretched final paper. Stupid two parts. Stupid Japanese history. AGGGHH. I want to rest my head on a pillow and close my eyes and drift off into sweet, delicious sleep. I'm so close to being done. Just a LITTLE more information (read: BS) and then this will be over. OVERRRR.

I think I'm losing it. I'm so exhausted. I'm so tired that I don't feel tired. Everything is just a blur. But listening to the Wicked soundtrack makes me happy.

WHY AM I BLOGGING WHEN I SHOULD BE WRITING MY PAPER?
Ahhhh.

A small burden lifted off.

SO, I don't feel as screwed as I did several hours ago. Dan, Camille, Vicky and I have decided on what I should do. I am going to take my geology final on its actual date, which is next Saturday. So, the reason why I said tomorrow morning in my earlier post is because my professor is really nice, she scheduled an alternate test date (tomorrow morning) for my class since the actual date is so late. So I think most people are taking the exam tomorrow morning, but because this paper is just so awesomely kicking my butt, I am just going to take it on Saturday. Dan was planning to leave for NYC on Saturday anyway, so it kind of works out.

But yeah, I guess that works. Kind of. I've written 2 pages so far... 6 more to go. Ackk.
Must go read up on the Japanese history I should have been learning in class this past semester. HAHA. I am such a bad student :p

Why does life hate me so?

I am such an idiot.

Earlier today, after wandering around for a considerable amount of time looking for a place to study, I discovered that the final paper I have to write for my Traditional Japanese history class (which I would like to mention is due TOMORROW) is actually supposed to be 8 pages long; not the 4 pages I had originally thought it was supposed to be. Wow, that was a really long sentence. So yeah. This take home final exam has two parts. I thought that it was two questions, and we had to choose one to write about. Man, I was so misled. I should have read the assignment carefully. Epic fail on my part. Sheesh. And on top of this paper, I also have to study for my Geology final (4 more chapters to study, oh JOY) tomorrow morning. So I pretty much felt everything crashing down on me when Camille told me the dreadful news about the final paper. Good thing Camille told me when she did, or else it would have been a total disaster if I had, oh I don't know, found out TOMORROW. That would have been even worse...

Life hates me. It really does. UUUUURRRGGGGHHHH.

Finals week, here I come...

Is it already finals week? Fall semester is coming to an end? What? When did this happen? Only 3 semesters left as a college student. That sentence is quite daunting. I am so not ready for finals week. Monday is going to eat me alive. I just feel so overwhelmed right now. But at the same time, I feel like I don't have the right to complain about my workload because there are a lot of other people who have so much more to do than me. I just want to get it over with.

I feel really annoyed, and frustrated. Fed up. Tired. Hopeless. Cynical. Lethargic. Apathetic. I just don't give a rat's ... Yeah. Which totally sucks because it is taking away from the merry holiday season. I usually love December because I love Christmas time and the hustle and bustle of the holidays, but ever since college started, I've been feeling it less and less every year. Blargh.

In other news, I am slowly starting to fall in love with Tina Fey. She is amazing.

Left 4 DEAD

Killing zombies is my new favorite activity, alongside the old favorites: baking, sleeping, and swimming (which I've been neglecting to do since summer ended). It is a very addicting game; me and everyone in 731 have been playing this game with a dedicated fervor since we got back from Thanksgiving break. At first, I was hesitant to play because it looked really scary and I was too wimpy, but after playing it a few times, it's actually a really fun game. I never liked first person perspective video games, but now I don't mind it so much. I've gotten much better at the controls and I've really taken a liking to shooting zombies in the head. I started playing on normal today, and it feels mighty good. I wish I could play right now instead of studying. Doesn't saving humankind sound much more noble than studying for my final?

And not to toot my own horn, but I am awesome for getting Dan this game as an early Christmas gift =)

Pie anyone?

My current state of health has left me raspy, and reluctant to say much; and it reflects on my willingness to write. And so here are pictures I took on Saturday while I was making the sweet potato pies - crust and filling. Enjoy. Be back when I get my voice back.

Changing the world, one slice of pie at a time...

Okay, not really. I don't think I'd be able to change the world with pie. Maybe it's possible, but somehow I just don't think I'll be the one to do it. I might be able to the brighten the worlds of some people who like pie, but I think that's it.

And speaking of pie, I am psyched for tomorrow! Why you ask? BECAUSE, I am baking sweet potato pie for Christine's potluck tomorrow night! Perhaps it doesn't sound that exciting, but if you're a loser like me, you'd be excited too because I'm going to make my own pie crust... Yeah, I know. It's not that big of a deal, but I'm looking forward to it.

There are so many baking "things" (I don't even know how to define it) I never got to do when I was younger. My parents never used the oven much. I never really did the whole baking cookies and cupcakes for class with mommy or whatever they show on TV commercials. I didn't get into baking until I started college, when I had the freedom to experiment since my parents couldn't stop me from buying ingredients and trying recipes. And what did I discover in my freshman year? That I really enjoyed the whole domestic deal; the cooking, the baking, the satisfaction of knowing people liked what I made. I fell head over heels in love with it. And I am still somewhat enamored with it, so that's why I am looking forward to making sweet potato pie. And because I know that even if some people might not like sweet potato pie, Cindy and Dan will enjoy and appreciate it, so that's all I really need. Hahaa. Sad life -___-;;

I hope mine will look this pretty.

Screw this, I'm just going to be a housewife.

If I ever uttered, or even thought of mentioning such an idea, I think my mom would slap me up side my head and disown me.

Ok. Maybe not that extreme. But she would not be very pleased that my [almost] four years of college has led me to become a housewife. Not that there is anything wrong with being a housewife. I wouldn't mind being one. It's just that being from the kind of family I come from, I am expected to be both a housewife and a career woman. And let's throw in mom just for the hell of it. I mean, my mom is able to do all those things, so why not me? Why. Not. Me.

I am very tired. My back aches. My eyelids are screaming to be closed. My shoulders are slumped. My posture is absolutely terrible. This paper just cannot seem to wrap itself up. I've written 8 pages, and I need two more so I can finally be done with it. But I feel like I've been drained and squeezed of any possible information I can write about. Actually, I feel like all I've done for the entire paper is write from the book. I haven't really been paying attention. For all I know, I just paraphrased my sources and made it into a paper. I don't know. I think I am losing my ability to write coherently.

I hate writing papers.

I'm much better at ranting on blogger. I think.

Every driver's travel nightmare

Although I am not a driver, I can sympathize with those who had to drive yesterday because it was pure traffic hell. It took 11 hours to get back to Rochester yesterday. Not to mention, it was raining the ENTIRE trip back. Uber depressing. Dan, Oronde and I left Brooklyn around 2:40pm and we did not get back to Rochester until nearly 2am. It was ridiculous! I was (and still am) so exhausted from yesterday's trip. What normally takes about 5 1/2 to 6 hours stretched itself to a torturous and maddening 11 hours. But at least I had good company. I can't imagine how it must have been for solo drivers. I think I would have gone mad.

Here is a picture of one of the many signs we saw while we were on the highway:

I'm so tired. Monday is a long day for me; full day of classes and a 3 hour lab. Oy. And I have to finish that wretched term paper. Ugh x 1000. I can't wait for the Boar's Head Dinner on Thursday. And Thursday means that I have no term paper to worry about because I have to get rid of it by Wednesday.

Thursday, oh Thursday, can't you come faster?

Totally random tidbit: I had a macaron for the first time on Saturday, and oh oh, I think I am in love <3