I mean both like the tree and the animal noise

The answer is bark, if you were wondering.

Anyways, today was a fairly random and themeless day, I'm afraid, so today's post will follow suit.

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One good thing about today-- I'm making burritos! Burritos are one of my primary weakness, next to garlic dill pickles. They move to number one culinary weakness when I've been drinking (but every other items of food is pretty much tied for second place at that point in time). Double bonus-- they are real homemade burritos-- not microwavable.

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Having lived on my own for nearly six months now, I often find myself adhering to a few stereotypes about cooking.
First is that of the bachelorette. I cook fairly detailed meals when my guy is over (Thai food, seafood, etc), but when I'm on my own, it feels a bit weird to cook elaborate meals for one, so I will have something boring like salad and a sandwich or a veggie burger for dinner.
The second stereotype is related to the lack of self-care associated with graduate school. It is kind of a taken for granted aspect that for at least a month or two of each semester you cook absolutely nothing that take more than 10 minutes-- so you eat a whole lot of pasta, soup, or 3 minute ichiban when things get tight. Or takeout.
Last night, feeling especially empowered, I decided to take the time out to make myself an especially good meal. I made asparagus, mashed potatoes, and lemon salmon. I was feeling all proud, shaking my fists at society and its stereotypes.
... and then I realized that my salmon was totally undercooked and I had to throw it out.
An enormous pile of mashed potatoes as a primary dish isn't quite the same.
Perhaps self-care and I aren't meant to get along!

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I had another "why-the-hell-am-I-in-grad-school" moment (or five) today. Pretty much a weekly occurrence right now.
This one was triggered by a class panic about the ethics oral exams, in which we are grilled by three examiners about how to best respond to ethical dilemmas. It is all pretty intimidating, considering the tremendous responsibility inherent in my future job, the huge number of codes we need to remember, and the fact that there are often no "right" answers to the dilemmas. Plus people started throwing out stats like "Is it true that 80% of the test-takers don't pass on the first try without revisions?"
Gah.
My guy made fun of me when I tried to explain my stress. Apparently stressing about an exam that is in two or three months is neurotic. I had no idea... I think the population I sample to make such judgments isn't exactly representative.

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It was sunny today!!!
I jumped the gun a little and got a big iced mocha slush.
It was so cold I had to put on mittens to hold it.
I guess I should have thought about the fact that it was snowing the day before.

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A participant in one of our online surveys sent me an email saying that some of our questions offended her. This was actually super upsetting to me, as what offended her was the very nature of what we are trying to combat. I guess one person out of hundreds isn't that bad, and other evidence suggested that she may likely just misinterpreted it and didn't read it in a lot of detail, but it was still really disconcerting.

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Should I feel guilty that I consider myself a genuine music fan yet, unintentionally, seem to like every song Justin Timberlake puts out?

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Do years of friendship override nearly a year of really bad behaviour?