week 8: Jason Mraz - I'm Yours

Another week and a half of presentations, problem sets and papers. Slacking off the first seven weeks here has definitely caught up with me, sigh. Luckily this will all come to pass soon. (soon: United flight 959, departing London Heathrow at 3:25pm on December 12.)

This Tuesday, a friend and I went to a taping of The Paul O'Grady Show, which is more or less the British equivalent of a daytime talk show (less Oprah, more Ellen). I got all excited thinking we would get to see a 'real, live movie star' 'up close and personal'; instead, we got John Barrowman and Fern Britton. (Exactly. Who the hell are they?) Well, lucky John Barrowman is a musical theater star who has a fan club that follows him everywhere he goes (I have another word for that) and was naturally sitting in the front row of the audience. And apparently Fern Britton is a regional newscaster who caused quite a stir when she lost half her body weight and attributed it to diet and exercise, only later admitting it was gastric bypass, who's now written a memoir of her tribulations. Show-stoppers, the pair of them. OK, despite the lack of celebrity, the taping was quite entertaining. The comedian hired to energize the audience was a hoot, and both guests and host were funnier off-camera.

In other news, I'm 20 now. Oy, that's a big number. Too big. I wish I had something more profound to say as I bid farewell to the first two decades of my life. I'll think of something later...

My friend who's studying at Cambridge came to visit last weekend. We went to see WICKED on Friday, which was amaaaazing. Definitely lives up to its hype. I had no idea that the musical was based on a novel written in the 90s. Even so, I loved how it seamlessly connected with the original movie's plot and managed to incorporate all the original characters, in surprising and clever ways. The songs were majorly catchy, too.

On Saturday, we went to the Tower of London, which is hailed as a must-see site for any tourist visiting the city. Sadly, even after walking the grounds for nearly two hours, I can tell you neither when it was built nor what exactly it was used for. In my defense, however, I think it was destroyed/rebuilt quite a few times. Exactly when, who knows. I had forgotten how intriguing (and complicated) English history was until now. Speaking of which, there were a lot of war artifacts on display, including sick torture devices and suits of armor. Henry VII, for instance, was a big jolly monster of a king, and his suit of armor is striking testament of that. Whereas poor Charles I, by my estimation, was severely vertically challenged.

Later, we went Christmas shopping, and I bought gifts for the fam. (Yayyy.) It makes me so happy that it's that time of the year again... time to break out the festive decorations, re-make the "Christmas Carols" iTunes playlist, and (window-)shop with a mission: to find the perfect gift for every single person on your list. Is Jeanne sucked into holiday commercialism much? That's a blind and blissful "hellll to the yes".

Since my friend gifted me an Asian cookbook (among many other things), we were inspired to cook and decided to make pineapple fried rice. Which, in hindsight, might've been setting our goals too high. How can you possibly screw up fried rice, you say? Many ways. Start by overcooking your rice. Forget that your wok is not sizzling hot. Add wet vegetables to create a porridge-like consistency. And there you have it! A congealed pineapple, vegetable and rice 'stir-fry' (that's putting it nicely). Nevertheless, the mush was tasty. Which is probably why I'm now emboldened to prepare an entire (Chinese-)American Thanksgiving menu: turkey with sticky rice and date stuffing, delicious (?) mashed potatoes, and some variety of pie. A few of my hallmates and I will attempt this daring feat on Friday. Looking forward to it, but have learned not to set any expectations when it involves me and a kitchen.

I have to say: Sheila... is a saint. And a sage. At the very least, she was exactly what I needed to knock me out of my miserable, catatonic state. Which, looking back, was quite a low. Not to mention a lame place to be considering how lucky I am to be where I am. An outside opinion always helps to put things in perspective.

Happy Thanksgiving! Holidays are the best when spent with the people you love most :)

- JT -