Nora, The Piano-Playing Cat (www.ravenswingstudio.com)

Price and Prejudice

My hopes of going to the US Open this year was crushed after finding out how much the tickets cost. The ticket price for courtside seating (i.e., great seats) to the championship match is around $2000 per person. The promenade seats (i.e., very very very very far from the court) are approximately $250. Gulp. Even the earlier sessions are not cheap. Subscription tickets are more reasonable but they're still around $1800 per person. Unfortunately, they only offer promenade seats for first-time subscribers. You eventually get better seats with your yearly renewals. Oh well.

I am reading “Pride and Prejudice” for the umpteenth time. :) Despite having read the novel 4-5 times, it still makes me feel giddy and romantic. I am afflicted with perpetual infatuation for Mr. Darcy.

Weekend of food and love

My usual perkiness has returned since submitting the first two chapters of my dissertation. The dark cloud looming over my head vanished quite instantly and brought back the jester in me along with the warm sunny weather. James remains undecided whether he prefers the hypomanic version or the dysthymic version of me. :) My dissertation committee chair(man) recently returned my chapters with very encouraging feedback. Things seem to be going along as planned…so far so good… However, he did point a stern finger at his watch as a gesture to stop procrastinating on my IRB proposal.

Two weekends ago, I attended a 3-day seminar on Psychopharmacology taught by one of the few prescribing psychologists in the country. Her background is very cool and awe-inspiring. She is a Lt. Col in the U.S. Army but only started wearing the camouflage in her 40s. The class was informative but draining. She was an excellent teacher and our class was saddened by the news that she was deployed to Iraq less than a week after teaching the course. I ought to send her an email just to let her know that her class was appreciated and to wish her well.

Some psychoanalytic thinkers equate food with love and affection. This sentiment applies to the weekends I had last week and this week. After our grueling 3-day class on the mechanism of actions of psychotropic drugs, I invited my girlfriends to have lunch at Panera Bread. It has been a while since the gang got together because of our hectic schedules and heavy workloads. Maria excitedly talked about the new guy she’s going out with who is uber-educated (undergraduate from MIT, masters from Stanford, and law degree from Harvard). Annie wanted to hear everyone’s opinion about her engagement invitations (her soon-to-be fiancé is Vietnamese and I just found out that Vietnamese culture also practices ting hun or formal engagement announcement parties similar to the Chinese tradition). Cherie is of the belief that an engagement ring should cost three months of the guy’s salary (James commented that this was obviously a marketing ploy staged by De Beers). Christine still flourishes in her ability to find the time to travel while the rest of us can barely keep our heads above water. Needless to say, it was one of the most fun and relaxed lunch dates I’ve had in a while. As hard as we tried, it was difficult to keep our vow not to talk about school-related stuff. On a weird note, I somehow disclosed that I have this neurotic phobia of being eaten alive (by sharks, lions, anacondas, and bears). I think that came up when somebody suggested going sailing, going camping, and something about a safari trip. Anyway, I miss hanging out with my friends.

The next morning, my alarm went off earlier than usual because I promised Jen a trip to IHOP. I have been Jen’s “big sister” for more than two years now. My crazy schedule has prevented me from seeing Jen since November 2006 so her Christmas gift came a few months too late.

This past weekend revolved around food again. :) James and I visited his grandfather yesterday to celebrate his 95th birthday. His parents, aunt and uncle, and very pregnant sister were there too. Aunt Peg brought a huge cake so we decided to give every resident a slice of the cake which they all seemed to enjoy. Though I’m pretty sure they had forgotten who was celebrating a birthday 10-15 minutes later for nearly 60% of the residents suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. I am very excited about my sister-in-law’s pregnancy. Christine and Tim decided not to find out the baby’s gender to keep some element of surprise. Everyone seems to think they’re having a boy though. Tim’s last name is Cook so the running joke has been that if they have a son, they should name him Emeril Cook.

Afterwards, mom, dad, Christine, James and I went to our favorite Italian restaurant. Our waiter, Carlos has been serving James’ family for more than a decade (James’ paternal grandfather had been going to that restaurant since they opened 30 years ago!) We frequent that restaurant so often we’re on a first-name basis with half the servers and the owner.

Overall, I think food is a great way to get people together… and also a very strong motivator to get back on the treadmill…