india: ouch (1)

somehow, my arm has contracted hepatitis A and typhoid fever. arm is a little confused, because arm is still in canada, and did not go near any tap water or mixed drinks with ice cubes. arm hurts.

arm reminds me with a dull, throbbing, just-been-vacccinated pain: YOU ARE GOING TO INDIA SOON.

sacks, oliver

it's the kind of cold rain day outside that has been so far perfect for things like listening to mazzy star, eating oatmeal with maple syrup, responding to letters from friends, and having conversations with mikey the cat (who keeps asking to go outside, but then abruptly turning up her nose and walking away when i show her it is still a cold rain day outside).

my most recent conversation with mikey focused on the exciting events planned for this evening:

Keynote Lecture
Muki Baum Conference on Sensory Disorders and Therapy
6:30 pm (doors open at 5:45 pm)
Featuring: DR. OLIVER SACKS

as mikey contemplated my praise of 'Uncle Tungsten' and 'The Island of the Color-Blind', my anticipation for this landmark event in the history of my life mounted. oliver and i found each other approx. 5 years ago when i picked up one of his neurological case study books at the recommendation of a psychology prof. he rapidly ascended to my ranks of 'science hero'.

i need to go find something appropriate to wear.

thanksgiving

the visa for india has now been obtained.

next time i plan to travel to a foreign country, i think i may consider mailing in my application and passport rather than waiting for lengthy periods of time at the consulate. when i arrived at the offices around 10:00 am on a processing morning (applications accepted until 12:00 noon - i figured this provided plenty of time for me to pass in my pre-filled out form and photos), my bags were searched, and i was handed a number chit and instructed to watch the VISA display. a 8.5x11" sheet of paper with a large letter E was taped to said VISA display. i quickly inferred that this referred to the prefix on my number chit, which incidentally read B27. as the VISA display announced the turn of person E27 with a derisive ping sound, i edged my way through the crowds to one of the few available seats and hoped that the mysterious letters appearing on 8.5x11" sheets of paper beneath the VISA display did not comply with standard alphabetical order. luckily, this was the case. but it was a good 2 hours before i was summoned to the counter by my very own much-awaited ping. i'm glad i remembered to bring along my copy of this. together with the longest-eyelashed-female-baby i have come across in my life to date (sitting directly in front of me), provided ample entertainment for the waiting period. steingarten is brilliant. don't think i've laughed out loud so hard since i came across david sedaris last spring. to cut this tangential story short, i picked up my passport - complete with visa sticker - the following afternoon. what i don't understand is why they felt the need to plunk it down on page 13 of my otherwise empty travel document. can't they adhere to my obsessive-compulsive tendencies of order order order??? books to be filled are MEANT to be filled from page 1 to page n, in the serial order of {1, 1+1, 1+2, 1+3, ... , n-3, n-2, n-2, n}. right? i suppose i'll have to learn to live with this, as multiple friends have now informed me that passport stamping officers simply 'don't care' about such things. oh well.

music note #3

two weeks since i started in earnest, and still working on those grants. i have three to do, two of which are thankfully similar in format. this weekend i finally had a significant breakthrough, probably owing to the pressure of NEEDING to really finish by this coming friday. i wonder if cognitive behavioural therapy could alter my procrastination patterns...

grant writing is always made much more enjoyable/worthwhile by the following:

- long walks in the early evening, during which one contemplates one's human experience in an attempt to understand why one is truly worthy of receiving money from the government to study something

- grande non-fat starbucks lattes

- black hardcover notebooks filled with science and education-related ideas, compiled since last time one endured a grant-writing process

- house cleaning that gets done during Stage I Procrastination

- tasty muffins that get baked during Stage IV Procrastination

- an appropriate soundtrack

which brings me to the true reason for this post, my top 7 songs of the weekend, from iTunes playlist "Immunohistochemistry II".

1. with arms outstretched - rilo kiley (yes, still obsessed...)
warning: this song will actually make you believe you are sitting around a campfire with rilo kiley
2. conceal me - xavier rudd (thank you snad's picks 2004 for this one)
3. pink bullets - the shins (quickly becoming a fan of these guys)
4. the unwelcome guest - billy bragg & wilco (mermaid avenue)
5. the wrong girl - belle & sebastian (finally available on iTunes...)
6. cannonball - damien rice (new discovery: david gray-ish)
7. breathe in - frou frou (another new discovery: sort of bjork-ish)

and can i also just draw attention to what will likely become my next music obsession (after i tire of rilo kiley, not soon): Isobel Campbell (of Belle & Sebastian) in The Gentle Waves. think nancy sinatra slightly toned-down, but still delightfully head-boppy. if you're unfamiliar, check out Sisterwoman off Swansong for You.

time to fall asleep with rilo kiley forever running through my head.

up for this week: final menu plan for my Deconstructed Thanksgiving Dinner party, final touches on first grant app, apply for visa to go to india, finish all immunohistochemistry for experiment, set new routine of going to bed every night before 1:00 am, set new routine of getting out of bed every morning before 7:30 am. i can already detect incompatibility between several of said objectives...