Happy Pesach!

After last night's Passover Seder, B's parents sent us home with lots and lots of leftovers, including two boxes of matzoh. So today, guess what I did?

I made my first batch of Matzoh Brei ever!




And it was darn good too. B and I are going to try to go without bread, pasta, and rice this week. Wish us luck!

Daiyenu!

Night Guard

I never mentioned that I finally got a Night Guard. I had bought one from the drugstore a while back, but it was incredibly uncomfortable and made things worse. So one day in January, B and I went in to see his dad for our first dental check-up in two years, and his dad kindly took a mold for me. Two weeks later I had my own, custom-fitted night guard. It fits over the top teeth, and it keeps my teeth separated at night. If I grind, I grind my teeth on the cushy plastic (instead of wearing my own teeth down).

It was a little difficult to get used to at first. It made me super-aware of how I normally clench my jaw, and indentations immediately formed in the plastic. At first I had to consciously force my lower jaw to relax and slide back a little bit. But B hasn't heard any grinding since I started wearing it, and there is less pain. Over time I have even stopped clenching so much, and I don't have to pop my jaw in the morning. I've even forgotten to put it in a night or two, and I felt my jaw slacken on its own. It's kind of an incredible feeling!

When I was taking voice lessons, this jaw lock was a major problem for me. I had to practice singing with a pencil between my teeth to force my jaw to relax. I wonder if I could do it a little better on my own now.

So in essence, praise the Night Guard! (Thanks, Dr. S, if you're reading this.) I may look like a 13-yr-old, putting my "retainer" in every night, but I don't even care. I feel *SO* much better, so the fact that it's unattractive or that it makes me lisp a little bit couldn't matter less.

Happy Bihu!*

And happy birthday, Mother!
In honour of spring, the new year, and most importantly my mom,
here are some pictures from the Orchid Show at the New York Botanical Garden:



The original slideshow looks better obviously -- bigger and higher quality -- but blogspot only allows up to 100M, sorry. Hopefully you can still get a sense of it.
The song is "Sunship Balloons," by The Flaming Lips.

*I know technically I'm posting this on the 15th, and that Bihu and my mom's birthday were the 14th, but I've been a little preoccupied. Better late than never.

The best laid plans

Everything is up in the air right now. I had two job interviews last week; I have at least two more this coming week (reminder: get suit dry-cleaned). One of these jobs has to work out, right?

Meanwhile I am cramming for my third orgo midterm on Monday. I had a bio test yesterday, and I'm really hoping I did alright on it. I wasn't too happy with my last bio midterm (made some stupid mistakes), so I hope I did better on this one so I can drop that one. Orgo... there may be no hope for me at this point. I am so behind on the material for this test. But I really need to recover by the final.

Only 3 weeks of class left. Boy, does that feel good. Well, I guess technically I'll be back in July for Orgo lab, but at least a month "break" (not too much of a break, as I hope to be employed). PLUS there's the MCAT in June, which I am trying to study for. My books finally arrived... I hope I can fit it all in!

And of course this means I won't be going to Vegas in June for H's birthday. Very sad. We're both turning 25 in June, so it would have been fun. We'll just have to celebrate again in the city after the MCAT.

I need a vacation. I've been feeling antsy, would like to get out of the city for a little while.

Dreamt about being back in Japan again. I had to take a Japanese placement test, and I couldn't remember how to write any kanji. I was so frustrated and ashamed and felt I had let Suzuki-sensei down.

Dis-ordered sleep

I've been remembering my dreams pretty much every night for the past week. One was entirely in Japanese. Last night's involved several people from middle/high school. There's one such friend who is often in my dreams. What does that mean? Does he represent something? What is my subconscious trying to tell me, or what information is my brain purging?

I've been responding to pretty much every job listing on the listserv. This morning I had a reply from the Sleep Disorder research center. Appropriate?

Meetings today.