Take THAT Airbus!

HA! Air India makes a huge deal with Boeing

Mandatory food labels have saved nearly 13,000 lives.

Stadium vendors ARE baseball fans.

Lojack is a good deal, even if no one ever steals your car or knows you have Lojack.

Professors like: replicants
-- not realistic (ok, I stole that one from Matt's notes via Carrie)

Tonight's exciting plans: little brother's confirmation.

Apparently, rat-tails are still cool

I went to the Gap outlet today to buy little huddy a birthday gift. The family in front of me in line had two boys with large, bushy rat-tails-- they were more like squirrel-tails actually. I remember when I was that age (elementary school) I thought rattails were how the kinda cool, kinda rough bad boys wore their hair. My mom thought they were just trashy. Until today, I thought the rat-tail craze was an anomoly of where I was living at the time (Orlando in the '80s). Breaking news: rat-tails are still in fashion in pockets of rural Virginia.

Not just a trade issue

The new Airbus A380 completed its first test flight today. In my opinion, the plane looks obese and I'd be scared to fly on it. Unless it had a bar and gym on it as well...

bugs and fevers

today in cost-benefit class (which deserves its own rant) my professor described what an IUD was in detail AND where NOT to insert birth control pills (even though pills can technically be absorbed through a mucous membrane).

speaking of oxidizing, cramp-inducing copper IUDs, my stomach has been hurting today. i thought i might have contracted an intestinal bug from my carpool-mate who threw up on the way to school monday morning, but i think it is because i am taking an oral typhoid vaccine. i also will be forced to take malaria medicine this summer. i never caught it before while in india, but the US Gov't has their precautions.

guddu had malaria once. he was shivering and we kept piling blankets on him even thoughthe temp was over 100 degrees. that summer he also was posessed and had to have the ghost exorcised by the village doctor who poured oil in his ear. this doctor is fairly successful-- he cured my fever once with some cloves and a few chants.

my dad also had malaria once when he was in the Vietnam War. he also got hit with a grenade on his arm and killed a viet cong lady. he almost died shooting her-- he was "walking point", saw some rustling, and as he was firing away the magazine was tightening around his neck. but he was ok. and he was ok with going to war, too. and with killing someone. and i see him as strong for not being emotionally destroyed by all of that.

Mood Off

people put me in a foul mood this morning. too much complaining, critiquing and making fun of others. what an awful environment.

luckily, the foul mood started to disappear around lunchtime. other people's insensitivity (be it directed at me or not) should not ruin my productivity.

what bothers me most is that people will always behave in such a bully-esque fashion. i will try not to get sucked into the maya of it all...

scary wildlife

last night i saw a special on PBS about billfish (marlin, swordfish, etc.) i don't think i want to go swimming, nor eat fish anymore.

i'm also afraid of:
monkeys
wild dogs
insects that make loud noises
insects that sting
insects that jump in unpredictable directions (cricket-spiders!)
sharks
snakes
fish
jackals
seagulls that swarm
rats (especially big ones on train platforms, small mice are ok)
possums
jellyfish (even the benign)
crabs (when i step on them in the ocean)

and the list goes on...

inventory check

feeling kinda cruddy. need to count my blessings:
roof over my head
sunny day
good, quality food
good, quality husband
good, quality family
plenty of money, but not too much
no physical deformities
ample water and electric supply
clean bed
decent grades
bright future
internship secured
no (major) mental disorder
straight teeth, good vision
no known allergies besides mold

yep, life could be much tougher.

10K

I had the most amazing morning!

I ran the Monument Avenue 10K in 51 minutes, 12 seconds. I was doing 8:15 miles!!! I am so proud of myself! Lemme gloat: in my division (females 20-24-- so all those little college girls) there were 771 runners and I finished in 70th! I was 491st for females and 2,152nd overall!!! (Keep in mind there were over 12,000 runners total!)

I would love to do the VA beach 1/2 marathon, but I will not be able to train in India for that. Running in India involves waking up at 4:30am, fending off wild dogs and monkeys with rocks, wearing pants in 100+ heat, and ignoring the stares of the stunned ("Did a white girl just run by???"). I could do it if it wasn't for the wildlife.