Frilliness

Enough pleasant things happened today that it felt like a day where life rewarded me for attempting to have a life outside of lab. It started off with a nice morning where the neighbor's girlfriend's children did not stay over, thereby waking me up with their screeching on the two days a week where I'd try to sleep in. (I don't think I'm asking for much. Just until 8am is all I ask and my life would be complete. Which it was, today.) Despite of all the timing confusion and email last night I did manage to meet up with Ashley today (it's kind of crazy to think of how long we've been living in the same city together -- and I mean years-- and only met up now), during which I described my recent adventures in grad school and she flailed about wedding planning. I don't remember if I mentioned this before, but she's getting married in February and so she's up to her eyebrows in florists and invites and what-have-you. I promised to help do the placement cards (note to self: go dig out the calligraphy kit Anna gave me and try to find out where in the closet those bottles of ink have migrated to), though I did have to ask her to explain exactly what's entailed in a wedding ceremony, as that I've never been to one before. There's a sort of Mission Impossible feel to it, from what I gathered, and the sort of attention to colors that is frankly astonishing. (White is apparently passe, ivory is in, Ashley's dress is in "almond metallic" or something -- yeah we're not entirely sure about the name either -- but I gather that "soy" is not a romantic enough color for wedding fabric when compared to "almond".) This was made even more absurd by the fact that Ashley has never been to the wedding before either, and neither of us ever really figured out all the details to the enigma of articles of feminine mystique such as make-up and some kind of religious experience involving many pairs of shoes. The ceremony should be hair-raising -- and beautiful and touching -- once she stops panicking about how the wedding is eating her brain and "happy" is the only thing left. (She can't keep on panicking from now to February right? Human psyche can't maintain that high level of constant stress. My Psych101 instructor said so.)

Lunch was Vietnamese. Pho can be quite good but spring roll will never cease reminding me of eating a roll held together by serran wrap. Egg rolls are still better. I now know what a "brisket" is and that the population of trees in Yellow Stone Nation Park is largely coniferous, with a few hardy deciduous species such as cottonwood and aspen.

Speaking of food. Has anyone ever tried matcha? There's this green tea pastry recipe I want to try out but I don't think I can substitute in jasmine and I'm not sure if matcha is anything like plain green tea that you'd get at from Good Earth or something. I'm going to try to make sponge cake tomorrow, though I've never been able to get the hang of beating egg white until they become stiff. I think I should aim for an electric mixture someday. Or a contraption like the one from Annie that Kate and I accidentally creamed the potatoes with, that one time, back in Davis.