LoL#3: Burritos, 22, 911, and Back to Burritos

I have a confession to make:

I love frozen burritos. That is I love frozen burritos once they're heated to gooey perfection and served as dinner on a stylish paper plate. I share this only because I've recently learned that some people are disgusted and perhaps even revolted by frozen burritos. I don't care what you say or how bad they are for me - there's nothing like getting home late from work and two minutes later helping yourself to wonderful microwaveable burritoy goodness.

"Burritoy"....that's a cool new word. Of course it kind of looks like Burri - toy as opposed to Burrito - y. Oh well. This is one of those elbakerone rice-a-roni problems again.

Speaking of great new words I'm gonna throw out a shoutout to the super spiffy Mike B for invention of the word "marf". Still haven't pinpointed a definition but it gets mondo kudos points for being fun to say. Especially as a substitute curse word. Also gonna give a shoutout to Colleen (aka The Younger Unger) who just got added to the list because Emily passed on your "hi" to me. And shoutouts to Jackie K and Heidi E too because I can't remember if this is the first or second time they're on here (along with apologies because I probably spelled at least one of their last names wrong).

Sooooo....what else is new with me.....Oh yeah! I'm old! (Shoutout to myself I guess?) Yeah so I turned 22 and had one of the most fun birthdays I've had in a while (let's just say that last year was NOT hard to top....). It was cool cause I got to celebrate with my whole crazy family (minus my brother who was away on a business trip) plus my future fellow Northwestern employee (hopefully!!!) Karrie M and the aforementioned super spiffy Mike B (yes we're still dating for everyone who asked for an update on "the boy"). Anyone who doesn't know my family, Mike, or Karrie might have a hard time imagining how crazily fun it was but I'll try to give you a breif glimpse of one part of the evening.

Somehow the conversation turned to what type of animal research we do in my lab and I mentioned that we work with mice and rats but that they're animals speciffically bred for research purposes. In fact I went on to explain that the mice we use are genetically altered hairless immunodeficient mice - more commonly referred to as transgenic nude mice. Leave it to my sister Anne to chime in with "Transgender Nude Mice??!?!?" Which then prompted my other sister Laura to comment on what exactly we remove when we perform surgery on them.

That's my family for you though. Crazy beyond all sense of reason, which is probably why I love 'em so much.

I feel like I should also have something to say about the whole one-year anniversary of September 11th, but nothing I could say can really bring any new meaning to any of it. I actually wrote a whole paragraph reflecting on my attitudes from last year and my looking back on them this year but here's where I censor myself. I can't explain all of it so I'd rather not explain any of it. I'll stick to the present and say Chicago was...odd on Wednesday. Union Station was the emptiest I've ever seen it and even optimistic susie sunshine me couldn't help but cringe driving past the Sears Tower imagining if tragedy had struck closer to home.

I guess that's about all I have to say for now. Sorry for my more somber tone. Except for the burrito stuff. That was about as random as I get. But I really do love 'em. In fact I'd have to say that Mexican food is actually my current favorite. And those of you that know firsthand how psycho-mentally indecisive I am, can take that as a sign that after 22 years maybe I actually am starting to figure out a little something about who I am.

Or maybe I just like burritos.


Til Next Week,


lisa :)


P.S. I also have to give a shoutout to Greg M because first of all he said he always laughs at how long my P.S. notes are and secondly because he answered my rhetorical question of "who puts alcohol in a vial marked H2O" with the amusing comment of "an alcoholic". Hee hee. I thought it was funny. I also learned today that the ethanol that we use in our lab is from a new supplier than it was 10 years ago. The reason they switched? The old stuff was a drinkable grade.... heh heh...that'd be a FUN lab! ;)

P.P.S. I'm also currently seeking good books (preferably fiction) to read on the train cause I'm all done with Lord of the Rings - e-mail me back with any suggestions!!!