Weekend Adventures with Panda and Goat!

Hola Cheese Curls! Today I have some exciting adventures to share with you. Little goat (my roommate) and I have been frolicking around this weekend after an especially depressing week and abrupt Skype meeting with our advisor on Saturday morning. To relieve some stress, we decided to go to DC!

Driving to DC was not too bad, since we went on a Saturday afternoon and came back late at night. The drive was expected to be around 1hr 45min according to Google maps, which was just shy of our actual drive time. However, we did stop at the POTOMAC MILLS (aka Potato Mills) outlet, which was AMAZEBALLS. Seriously, what is the point of going to a real mall or even department store when you could drive an extra 30 minutes and go to the BEST MALL EVER!? Plus, it's an INDOOR outlet mall! I have never seen such a thing. It's nice during the winter, but actually it would be nice to walk around outside during the summer. Plus, the muck of children running around in the food court was slightly unappealing.

Anyway, the trip was a nice departure from our dear, quaint, *ahem* lovely Richmond. We tried to find a hair salon in Chinatown DC for Little Goat to get her hair cut, but apparently the "Chinatown" in DC is not real, as evidenced by a CHINESE website we found afterward (I guess you have to Google in Chinese to get any real information around here...ironic because Google and China hate each other). So we drove about 10 miles away to Falls Church, VA to get dinner. We ended up at a restaurant that had "Hong Kong" in the name but served Szechuan. Again, go figure.

SO HAPPY to find DC Chinatown! Before the disappointment in realizing that it wasn't a real Chinatown, just commercialized for tourists. Bummer.

IMPORTANT UPDATE! So to read more about our roommate adventures, especially in the arena of frugality, check out my and Little Goat's NEW BLOG! You can read it at: www.toomuchpanda.wordpress.com. Depending on the amount of traffic and website availability, we may purchase the domain and turn it into a full fledged website! SUPES EXCITING!

In other news, today I finally (I think) found a church that I want to attend on the regular. I have been church hopping around town and so far all the congregations are measly compared to the ones in Atlanta. Howevs, the church I attended today had a nice sized congregation. I ended up meeting two of the young adult members there, and apparently many people leave Richmond for the summer (if it's any indication of the quality of living here, as already evidenced by the degeneration of my life...sigh) so most churches in the area will cut Sunday School and move their services from 11am to 10am. No wonder everything was out of sync when I was trying to go to church! Hopefully everything around here will beef up come late August/early September and I can start meeting more interesting people. As it stands now, I think I will be coming back again. Phew! It's always difficult to find a congregation. We will see how this one turns out!

So things in lab are okay. The system in academia is so structured and yet inexplicable in a way. There are a lot of politics going on behind closed doors, which is seen much more as a graduate student in the field than someone who "likes" science and just heard about research and says, "Wow, that's cool!". Obviously, it is a VERY cool field, otherwise I wouldn't be wasting 5 years (or more, but hopefully not, inshallah) enslaving myself for minimum wage payment. Truly, according to my advisor it is the "last great apprenticeship of our time." But indeed, "our time" is now "past time", and the educational system must also adjust to fit the needs of a new generation of students. More on that later...but just something to munch on in the back of your brain.

Since the last time I updated, The Boyf and Dr. Rey visited us in Richmond, and we all parted for a brief vacation weekend over the Fourth of July holiday. It was refreshing getting away from Richmond (isn't it always), and seeing my family. Hair's wife and son successfully immigrated and arrived in America that weekend, so it was very busy registering them for new social security numbers and enrolling Little Hair for school (he is 8 and so cute!). Hair also celebrated his 35th birthday with a grand feast at our humble Peking Restaurant! And Padre finally enrolled in Medicare since he is now eligible. Life moves so fast!

Although things back in Qville are not so bad, the restaurant has been suffering. It's not really the economy but more of  a changing culture (a new "our time", if you will, in reference to my earlier paragraph). Even though we are the only Chinese restaurant in town, we only provide eat-in or take out. The eating-in part isn't really happening, since our air conditioning doesn't work very well in the summer and the heating doesn't work well in the winter (Hair is really a trooper for being able to handle the temperature fluctuations all year!). I tried to get Wifi, but it's a small town and I doubt many college students (or high school) would want to come and do homework at a Chinese restaurant. The vibe just isn't there. I had talked to Padre about starting delivery service, but our staff is low and we can't afford to hire another person just for delivery, unless it's guaranteed business. On top of that, online reviews are slamming us! I cannot believe how mean people are. There are some Google reviews that are just downright slander, so we will probably have to work on improving our online image. It's been difficult thriving without technology in an era where everyone is online. Since we are small, we are still a cash operated business, which is also tough for customers. Padre is willing to try Square, but again, we don't have Wifi (this may change soon; I am looking at getting a plan for his phone so we can run it directly from there).

Hair celebrates his birthday with Little Hair! Situated in Peking Restaurant...our little restaurant is filled with big memories!

Panda's life is starting to get stressful! With the restaurant business down and the academic environment lackluster, I am trying to find new ways to motivate myself. Hopefully our new blog will perk up my spirits! Also, if any of you Cheese Curls have suggestions, suggest away! I always love hearing from my readers.

Until a happier time...

Panda Is Sad

Right now the Georgia Tech vs. Clemson homecoming football game is playing, and I can hear the announcer from my open window. It’s also Halloween weekend and most people are dressed up in silly costumes and having a fun time. However, Panda is sitting at home, mourning the departure of a dear friend. 

Dr. Tittens left this morning to return to Germany. After 9 months in the States and only a little more than 2 months knowing me, he managed to have eight people take him out to dinner and the bars last night, and three see him to the airport this morning. Although I have known only him for a little more than 2 months, I have to admit that Dr. Tittens is one of my best friends. I think that has a lot to do with his character; some people just have good overall character and make friends with everybody. Plus a lot to do with this is that we both lived in the same apartment building, so we got to hang out almost every day. 

On a scale from 1 (mild irritation, aka when I run out of Sriracha sauce) to 10 (physical pain/high emotional distress, aka when The Boyf and I “broke up” this summer), I would rank Dr. Titten’s departure as a 7. Usually I am fine with not seeing people for a while because I move a lot, even my best friends. But my friends are all in the US, so even if it’s a few years, we can still keep in touch via Facebook or whatever. This is a really different situation because Dr. Tittens really isn’t in the same field as us (he is a medical doctor and we are in research), and somewhere deep in your heart you know that you will probably never cross paths in life again. I’m sure at some point I’ll be able to visit Germany or whatever country he ends up in, and maybe his kids and my kids can end up being GENERATION II BEST BUDDIES, but for now it seems highly unlikely. I guess I’ll get over it in a few days and hang out with the other best buddies in lab, but it really just won’t be the same without the funny German accent screaming “I know that you are UGLY” to LMFAO. 

I have been trying to console myself, but there is nothing to do. My internet is especially shitty tonight and I can’t even send out an email, The Boyf is away at some Halloween party (no doubt with terrible hair but he is a cowboy so at least the hat will cover it), I finished the last of the ice cream last week already, and to top it all off, there is a cockroach (I say ONE but there are probably more that I am remaining in denial about) in my kitchen that I tried to starve to death last week by not opening the cupboard, but I had to open it tonight to get my Nutella (you KNOW I am eating it right now with a spoon) and the damn bugger crawled right out. Actually, last night I randomly saw a guy with whom I had Chinese class back at Penn State while we were out, so we might end up hanging out tonight if I can pull my wits about me. But really, sitting at home eating Nutella by yourself on a Saturday evening is not the best spirit booster (although still delicious). Even the music on Itunes is starting to get depressing. 

So I decided to write this blog post to make me feel better! I know I haven’t updated for a few weeks, which is usually the case. But now that Dr. Tittens is gone, I have much more time to myself and therefore am back on the productivity scale. Let’s recap!

Previously I had been going on about getting my belly button pierced. Well…I finally did it! BY MYSELF! Holla back HARDCORE PANDA! And as predicted, I knew that no one would believe me. So here is video documentation. For real.

And also, my panda ring came in! I know I’m supposed to wait 6 months before changing the original piercing ring, but then again I DID pierce myself. So it was likely that I put the panda piercing in less than 10 days after the piercing. There was some swelling at the beginning, but luckily I am a HARDY PANDA and my body quickly recovered. Here, my tribute to Dr. Titten! The joke is that he is old enough to be my grandpa. Then when I have kids, he will be the crazy uncle running around, aka Papi Deustch! The ring is SO AMAZING. The bottom part is only partly attached to the head of the panda, so when I walk the bottom JIGGLES! SO. CUTE. 

Exhibit A: Panda on Panda!

Exhibit B: Panda Belly centered

Exhibit C: Panda Belly Jiggled! (the line was from my pants)

Alright, I am back! So I did find something to occupy me after all. Playing music always makes me feel better. Here’s a cover of “Domino”, originally by Jessie J, now by PANDA! It took me forever to figure out why I look retarded in most of my Youtube videos. It’s because I’m look down when I should be looking straight at the screen. Anyway, it should be good now. I wish I had a piano because it would be better for certain songs. But once I move out of here I’ll get a nice upright. 

Also I put in some chicken to cook! I had gotten a bulk pack of chicken two weeks ago and had it in the freezer. So I put some seasoning on it and it’s been cooking for an hour. But forgetful me, I didn’t get up to stir it and the sugar coagulated on the bottom and started to burn the pot. So I resimmered it with more water and now it’s good again. Now I am making rice to go with it. 

Food is done! Bulk packaged and ready to go to lab tomorrow morning. I am feeding cells with another best buddy at 10am, so I’ll have to make the 9am church service...so I should probably stay in tonight. Although I did had a FANTAZMO nap earlier so I feel way better. 

Happy early Halloween! I bought an “Alice in Wonderland’ costume online but don’t think I’ll be wearing it this year, although “the night is still young”. But my REALLY COOL costume is coming on Monday…I don’t want to ruin the surprise by showing you now, so I will try my best to post a picture of it on Monday when I wear it.

Okay little cheese curls! I feel much better now. Thanks for listening to me moping. I’ll get back to work now! And hopefully I’ll get some ice cream tomorrow in case I start feeling sad again.