admission

I just found out today that one of the students I interviewed got into Harvard, and I'm so happy for her -- out of all of the candidates I've interviewed in the past three years, she's the one I liked best (and, I admit, the one who reminded me the most of myself). I hope she chooses Harvard, and I hope she loves it.

gloves

Boyfriend got me a pair of boxing gloves (plus a pair of blocking mitts for him) so that I can burn off my extra energy and punch out my frustrations from time to time.

85

Any day can be improved with 85 minutes of massage.

80

This week, we are finally getting a couple of days with temperatures in the 80s.

compliments

Sometimes you have to take compliments wherever you can get them. I had my annual checkup today, and was oddly flattered (and somewhat amused) by the nurse practitioner's enthusiasm over my "great cholesterol," "perfect heart," and "wonderful blood pressure." She even complimented my breathing skills while she listened to my lungs. I should add that to my CV.

Also, (stop reading if you don't like TMI), I'm so glad that the NIH recommends Pap smears once every three years instead of every year.

pants graphs

Spotted on a whiteboard at work yesterday. I feel vindicated in my love of not wearing real pants (any pants that have a zipper or a button count as real pants) except when required by law or office policy.

Note that there is absolutely no intersection between "Times am happiest" and "Times I am wearing pants":

nom

I just saw this picture (originally from here), and think it's probably the most brilliant cupcake ever made:

twice

Boyfriend is not as much of a cuddle junkie as I am, so I'm glad he has indulged me for the past two days, rather than immediately jumping into the day upon waking up.

success

Dinner turned out really well, and there are even leftovers for later this week. Also, I discovered that I like feta cheese if it's made from cow's milk. It's just the goat milk kind that I don't like.

no pants day

Boyfriend and I went to see my sister and her family, and then went out to dinner with two of his friends yesterday, so today was my weekly "stay in the house and wear stretchy pants all day" day. It was something of a rough week last week, so I mostly indulged myself:

1. I slept in as long as I wanted to.
2. Boyfriend picked up an almond croissant and left it by my bed to eat when I woke up (he was already at the gym).
3. I had a video chat to catch up with my friends in Zurich.
4. I called my oldest friend for a quick catch-up, and found out that she is pregnant with her sixth child (our paths have obviously diverged a lot, but we still love to talk when we can, even if it's only a couple of times a year). She's thrilled, so I'm happy for her, but I'm also happy that I'm not her.
5. I made good progress on reading The Happiness Project, the book written by Gretchen Rubin (who has a blog by the same name, which was part of the original inspiration for me to keep this blog, as a reminder to myself of the good things in life). I've flagged a few bits in the book for further follow-up.
6. Partly because of my reading The Happiness Project, and partly because I've noticed how much making donations or reading good books have helped to improve my mood with immediate results, I did some poking around and made some lists of (even more) books I want to read and possible charities I'd like to donate to, so that the next time I want a quick pick-me-up, I'll be prepared, and I won't need to do any research, but can just go to the library or make a donation online, for a no-brainer source of instant gratification.
7. As I started to think about dinner, I mentioned to Boyfriend that I really felt like eating quinoa, and he offered to go to the store to buy some. I looked up a recipe online, and I'm going to be experimenting tonight -- I've never made it before, and Boyfriend has gamely agreed to try it out.

badge

Last week, when I was having a particularly frustrating day at work, I discovered that our internal work directory has a function where anyone can upload a little image and some text, and then direct that it be posted on anyone else's directory entry. It's called a "badge," and I had previously assumed that it was a function that required some kind of admin rights. It gave me a disproportionate amount of joy to create a few badges and put them on a few of my friends' pages. I've already started making plans for more of them. It was the highlight of an otherwise dark day, sad but true, but at least there was a highlight.

athlete

Our last team offsite was mini golf, and today we went bowling. Due to my extraordinary athletic prowess and legendary motor skills, I managed to get the high score at both. Maybe I should consider going into sports instead of law?

marmot

Work has been pretty rough since we got back from vacation. Tons of work, and everything seems to be urgent. A deal that I picked up on Friday got especially crazy, and I worked for most of Saturday and Monday on it, and then fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, the deal died Monday night.

What I wanted to share, however, is this wonderful painting, which reminds me of Boyfriend. This is what Boyfriend would look like if he were a marmot, and if he were wearing a golden helmet. It's set as my desktop wallpaper, and I love it.

rainbow

Big old rainbow, horizon-to-horizon, on the drive into work today, which made the 8:30 call more palatable on a Monday morning.

balance

Another thing that is helping ease me back into work is that our bonus checks were deposited right before I got back to the States.

transition

I don't think I've ever had a harder time making the mental transition from vacation back to work. Positive side effects, however, have been that I spent some time researching and donating to charities for disaster relief (I'm recommending the American Red Cross and the International Medical Corps, which both have at least 90% efficiency in use of funds) and also got my vacation pictures sorted and uploaded (they're on Facebook, if you want to take a look).

trip list

Because I wasn't posting while we were in the Philippines, here's a list of things that would have made this blog:

• Business class makes a huge difference when you're taking six flights, two of which are over ten hours long.
• The long-haul flights didn't have to make any refueling stopovers.
• We caught an earlier flight once we got to the Philippines, so that we arrived six hours early to the resort in Dumaguete.
• The outdoor shower in our room in Dumaguete was actually quite nice. I have no idea how they keep an outdoor shower so clean in the tropics.
• The dive shop in Dumaguete was run by Swiss guys, so it was the most organized dive operation I've ever seen. 
• Dumaguete has the most amazing muck diving (diving in small, sandy areas to look for tiny, mindblowing critters that are sometimes the size of a fingernail clipping).
• Despite the fact that I can get seasick in a swimming pool, for some reason (I am guessing magic), I experienced no seasickness the whole trip -- not on dives, not on the week-long liveaboard. Nothing.
• The mangoes. Oh, the mangoes.
• There were small scuba tanks available on the boat, which meant that for the non-strenuous dives, I was able to tool around with a less cumbersome tank on my back.
• I racked up another 25 dives.
• I made it through seven books.

sendai

Found out on Sunday that my high school host family (who live in Sendai, Japan) are all safe after the earthquake and tsunami.