the countdown has just begun

every time i visit my parents for extended periods of time, there's about a 4-5 day tolerance before i remember the joys of living on my own. don't get me wrong. i love 'em to death. they are the most amazing, thoughtful, selfless people i know. my mom has sewn full outfits for my sister and I to wear for our family reunion in Burma this winter and my dad goes out and buys dim sum the day before my visits home so i'll have some favorite treats in the morning the next day for breakfast. but after about 4-5 days of living with them, they start to revert back to their old ways of parenthood.

for example: my mom has taken to leaving out a vitamin for me to take every day since i've been home and has now reminded me, count them - six times - since last night to fill out some visa form for our trip to burma in december. i reminded her that i am now 27 years old and have been living as a functioning adult for quite some time now (believe it or not) and can remember to do these things on my own. my dad has asked about the parking ticket that, unfortunately for me, ended up getting mailed to their house now that my car is with them eight times since i've been back (today is my 4th day home - that's twice a day to the mathematically impaired, yo).

anyhow, i'm leaving tomorrow so all will be right again in the world. the imbalances of power in the relationship will go back to the equilibrium it once was before my arrival. their assumptions that i'm taking care of myself because they can't see what i'm doing will return, their sense of denial that i am spending a lot of nights with my bf will persist and their free-spiritedness in not having to "take care of their child" again will be restored. funny how life works.

G066 to Window 3 please

my morning trip to the DMV today was like a conversation with my parents about boys - it veered on potentially disasterous and ended up thankfully innocuous.

10 minutes (which ain't bad on a monday morning in DMV time) after being assigned "G066," i got a flash on the screen summoning me to Window 3. ah, good ol' Window 3 (okay, i don't know what Window 3 is for either, but at least i got a window). so far so good.

behind the counter is a nice enough guy. jokes around with me about how i don't have to update my weight (ah, hrrmph, i mean, it hasn't changed since hs) on my driver's license renewal. done in about 7.25 minutes tops. smooth sailing so far.

then he tells me to head over to Window 29 to get my picture taken. i take a look - it's about 20 people long. greeaaaat. i get in line and to my surprise, it's moving at a decent pace (again, in DMV terms - anything that's not a snail's pace is a decent pace). finally i get to the front and the woman says "you aren't in the camera system. please go back to the window that you got this processed and have him figure it out."

i knew it! i knew they weren't going to let me get away this easy! they had to make me sweat a little before i got my get out of jail free card.

i go back to familiar Window 3 - a woman is upset in line in front of me with the semi-pleasant guy behind the counter (surprise, surprise). 8 minutes later, he's finally done with her, takes my papers and goes back to where i was - Window 29. (hmm, not seeing efficiency at play here...).

he returns and greets me with a promising sign of sitting down, sighing, rubbing his forehead and looking down. he says "well, it looks like you are in the twillight zone of the DMV." (could there BE a worse place to be???). apparently he has processed me through one end of the system and i have not showed up at the other end and they don't know where i am in the abyss. and there's no way to redo the whole thing without finding me in the abyss first. i hate those darn abysses.

it was in this moment that i felt my blood rising and thinking "i can stay calm right now or turn into a raging bitch." it's that key moment in customer service that we've all experienced - that moment where if the guy in any way were to act like he didn't give a rat's ass about my situation, the scale would have easily tipped to bad, bad things.

thankfully, he was nice. somehow retrieved my file and even went personally to the camera window and took my picture. the day was saved! Window 3 - thankfully innocuous. hooray hoorah.

and the good times keep on comin'

if you haven't noticed, i've been blog-MIA the last month (you probably haven't noticed), but i'm slowly starting to get back into the swing of things and honestly, i miss blogging - it's like the journal i had in 6th grade, except it's public. and i don't draw hearts on it. and i'm taller. oh, wait...

some highlights from the last month:

THE INTERNSHIP: wrapped up my awesome summer internship. my boss treated me to a pedicure/manicure on my last day of work and we evaluated each other's strengths and weaknesses. the warm and fuzzies of nonprofit work - i love it! seriously though, i got to do some really great work for her and learned a lot about writing strategic business plans, board governance, the down and dirty operations of a start-up (and i mean everything) and met 16 other wonderful interns who offered me amazing perspectives on teaching, urban planning, law, religion, policy and life in general. i've also gotten over missing my 10-yr high school reunion for the internship (esp after i found out only 60 out of 500+ people went).

THE SUMMER OF FRIENDS: with my bay area friends, fellow interns and bschool classmates who spent there summer in the bay area too, there was lots of games, good convo, poker, dinners and drinks to be had. got to know a couple of really awesome new-founded favorite bschool classmates this summer - if only people could always be this cool...

THE RETURN TO ETOWN: not only did coming back to school (and Evanston) mean settling in all over again, it meant moving into a new apt with the bf. we started by getting lost on the way back from the airport (darn rental car directions) and ending up in Indiana (no, really). we didn't realize this until we stopped to ask for directions and the guy responded, "you mean Evanston, ILLINOIS?" On our first night back, we decided to cook dinner but neglected to realize after we bought all the ingredients that we didn't have a knife. my bf (very impressively) proceeded to cut tomatoes and onions with a credit card. that's right. i have my very own macgyver in da house.

AHOY MATE-Y!: Spent an awesome 7 days sailing through the British Virgin Islands with 19 other bschool classmates. snorkeled everyday. learned a little about sailing. had amazing lobster. barely wore shoes and pretty much lived in our swimsuits. yep, life has been good.

YA KNOW, IT'S FOR THE KIDS: during our community service day the first week back, we were tasked with cleaning up a community center and playground area in Cabrini Greens near the projects, one of the most impoverished areas in Chicago. we spent the next 3+ hours picking up 10 buckets full of broken glass all over the park and playground as the kids were playing in front of us (and we found empty, and full, dime bags too). it was really depressing to think that this was where the kids played, but in the end, i guess it was good to feel like we made a difference, even if it was just a small one.

That's about it for now - going to LA this weekend, can't wait to see the family and some of my friends again. hope everyone is doing well, happy friday!

sorry, it was inevitable

i apologize ahead of time for the grossness of this post, but it was inevitable. i just wanted to give props to dodger for being a great bf - yes, i said bf because in business school, we resort to acronyms often used by high schoolers. is that tmi?

reasons why dodger rocks:

• it started to rain this morning after i already arrived at school. dodger thought to bring me an extra umbrella just in case i needed it - this resulted in him carrying around a foam green umbrella with a handle shaped like a cute duck on it all day at school.
• i made him a shirt with a graphic/comic-looking image of me on it as a joke - it says "yellow fever" under it. not only does he actually wear it out (i wouldn't), he likes to point out to people that it's a picture of his girlfriend because he thinks its funny. to a bachelor party. and to brazil with a bunch of new classmates. and to class.
• he was a good sport and joined some of my new friends in a game of kickball today even though he was wearing a dress shirt and had dinner plans right after.
• he brought me a hot dog wrapped up in a soggy napkin (with condiments and all on it) because i was hungry.
• he smiles sometimes when i'm in midsentence because of the funny expressions i make (which he appreciates quietly).

of course there are other reasons, but in the last couple of weeks, considering we barely see each other with our crazy schedules, it's nice to know that someone is being thoughtful about you. love ya babe.