It smells like brains in here...

Dear blog,

I am sorry I have neglected you so long. You mean a lot to me, I've just had to focus on some other priorities, such as finishing my thesis, defending it, and working on graduating on time. Yes, I know that means you got the short end of the stick. But, I'm back now. You know why? Because...

I PASSED MY THESIS DEFENSE!!!!

Sincerely,
Jess

I have been tragically remiss in tending to this blog and attempting to achieve tasks on my annual to-do list. I defended my thesis two days ago. The meeting began with a committee member saying, "It smells like brains in here." There was a supply of sheep's brains (similar to the one's I sold a while back) in the room where we met. The meeting was intimidating and brutal, but I survived (and passed with flying colors!).

Because of the majority of my time being devoted to school, and in particular, my thesis, I can only report two completed tasks. Two is better than one and definitely better than none, right? I attended a religious ceremony that is different from mine (Task 41) and learned how to pick a lock (Task 47). I attended my very first Catholic wedding. It was so beautiful and reverent. I also learned how to open a locked door. It wasn't exactly "picking a lock," per say, but it was very closely related. Without going into details, just know I didn't do anything illegal. I promise.

Even though I haven't fulfilled many tasks since the end of April, I have done some things that are definitely annual-to-do-list-worthy. For example, a few weeks ago I ate monkfish liver. Yes, dear friends, you read that correctly. Monk. Fish. Liver. Also, I've made some life changing decisions. I feel like a grown up for the first time in my life. Over the past few weeks, I've been yelling, "I DON'T WANNA GROW UP!!" sporatically, just like a two year old. And yet, I've come to realize I have no say in the matter, so I can either try to rebel and be at odds with the universe and myself, or just go with the flow and enjoy the ride. It is absolutely amazing how scary yet peaceful the latter can be.

Mama, I'm a big girl now.

Of Beethoven, Bodyguards, and Really Big Hair

Confession: I have now seen the Trans-Siberian orchestra in concert five times. And I intend to see them again this year at their winter concert for concert number six. I saw them last week during their spring tour of "Beethoven's Last Night" and I've just gotta say it was my favorite concert yet. Jeff Scott Soto (a musical crush o' mine) played an epic Mephistopheles complete with the creepiest evil laugh ever and midnight-black nails. I had to fight back tears as Rob Evan (Beethoven) sang "What is Eternal" (waaaay better than the album version, in my opinion). And something hilarious and unexpected to all parties involved occured: One of the girls was singing this really powerful, raw song from the Gutter Ballet about how run down she was from dealing with her current lot in life. Se began singing "I don't care" over and over in this really gut-wrenching way. Right after about the 5th "I don't care," this guy in the audience screamed, "BUT I CARE FOR YOOOOUUUU!" The audience, the band, and the great Al Pitrelli(who was playing acoustic guitar) all lost it, but she kept a straight face and kept on singing. I have no idea how she did that. But alas, the song was over for the rest of us.
After a mix of the complete "Beethoven's Last Night" with some songs from Gutter Ballet and their newest album, "Night Castle," I was a happy camper. I had another good concert to tuck away into my musical memory box.
Aaaaaannnndddd then, to make the concert even more memorable, I met them. After 5 concerts, I can now say I have met a good portion of the members of TSO.

While I did not have a conversation with each of them, I did talk with about 2/3 of them. Vitali, the Ukrainian keyboardist, told me, "I like ze curly hair. It looks veerry nice." I tried to get the nerve to ask him and Mee, the new female keyboardist, how long it took them to get the fast movement of Moonlight Sonata up the full speed, but instead I just stuttered and stumbled my way through the line. And then, there he was, with his massively big hair and black nails. I was face to face with Jeff Scott Soto. His first words: "I like the hair" as he picked up a piece of his own hair. I fought to keep from collapsing while trying to form complete words. "Thank you. I like yours too."

(There are two things JSS could have said to me that would have made my life. One was "Marry me." The other was "I like the hair." Seriously. I'm not making this up.)

After JSS, came Andrew Ross, who seemed a little perturbed at being forced to wait on us to sign autographs. I just smiled and told him, "Y'all did great" which I'm sure he already knew. I guess that was better than, "Fix the attitude, pretty boy." But other than his smelly attitude, everybody else was genuinely nice. I vaguelly remember some of the girl singers and meeting Roddy Chong, the fiddle player, but I was still spinning from my encounter w/ Mr. Soto. (I'm telling you, I am a huge fan.) I should mention that throughout this process, my friend asked me to take some pictures of her, which triggered some bodyguard to tell me not to take anymore picutres till I got to the end of the line- which was funny, because the people behind me were going waay slow, so the band in between had nothing to do. At the end of the meet-and-greet line came the one and only Mr. Al Pitrelli (yes, the same Al Pitrelli from Megadeth). My friend asked him if he had ever had someone ask him to sign a ketchup packet. Apparently he had not, as he and the girl next to him began laughing hysterically, exclaiming how cool it was to sign it and how ketchup was totally their favorite condiment. He told my friend to come around to the other side of the table and asked me to take a picture of them (which I did, even though the bodyguard gave me what might possibly be the worst look I have ever received from anyone I've not known by name. Really, it was so bad, I cropped him out of my pictures.). Al then told me to walk behind the table to take a picture with him, too. (See? Super nice!) I met Mr. Bodyguard face to face and he started scolding me. I simply pointed to Al and said, "He told me to." He had no response and left me alone. Turns out, it pays to have connections.
And so, without further ado, my proof that I a) met TSO and b) completed Task 51 by meeting another celebrity and not offending him or her this time.


(From left to right) One of the female vocalists whose name I do not know, me, the one and only Al Pitrelli.


Me and Jeff Scott Soto

Ferris Bueller, you're my hero.

It is always a pity when really smart contestants on Jeopardy have absolutely no personality. Smile, man. Your neurons have won you 20,000 bucks, and your attitude is stinking up my television. Oh snap! He's losing. Final Jeopardy should be interesting. (In case you can't tell, I'm watching Jeopardy as I write a long-overdue blog post.)

Spring Break came and went. I went home for a few days for much needed friend and family bonding time. I saw my small, close group of friends from church and high school. It amazes me how much our conversations change each time we get together. Five years ago, we talked of college, boys, and being famous. Two years ago, we talked of graduating college, apartments, and roommates. A year ago, we talked of a friend's wedding, graduate school, and jobs. Last week, we talked of babies (one of the girls is expecting!), buying houses (another of the girls is buying a house!), and dream roles in theatre (another dear friend just finished playing Maureen in "Rent"!). It is amazing how some of our dreams have remained the same or even gotten stronger, while other dreams have morphed into something completely different.

I have always loved change, as long as I have complete control over it. But this growing up business I have no control over. As the very wise Ferris Bueller once said, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." No kidding, Mr. Bueller. I've come to realize that the older I get, the faster life goes. This is soething they don't teach you in your sophomore Life Skills class. Instead, they teach you how to plan dinner parties and tell you to always date in large groups.

And the older I get, the more nostalgic I become. Pretty soon, I'm gonna start saying stuff like, "When I was your age, I used to drive to school WITHOUT a cell phone" and "When I was your age, I didn't even know what texting was." I have also found that I have been drawn to activities that I used to participate in when I was eight. Which might explain why I completed task number 29 without even realizing it. I was hanging out in the backyard, enjoying a day that would make most summer days jealous, when I noticed an absolutely perfect climbing tree tucked away in a far corner of the yard. I was drawn to it like a kindergartener to a brand new set of fingerpaints and a clean white wall. You know, even though it wasn't as scary and high up as it was when I was under four feet tall, it was still just as exhilarating.
I'm thinking I've found a new stress-reliever.

(By the way, Mr. I-Don't-Know-How-To-Smile lost Jeopardy.)

Three Cheers for Tiramisu!!!

Today I made tiramisu (Task 27). Confession: I was a little concerned about eating it because it has raw eggs in it that go uncooked. I found some "kid-friendly" recipes that called for cooked or tempered eggs, but I wanted to make the real deal. And I am soooo glad I did! I ended up combining three recipes. The first was given to me by a friend from the Czech Republic (Thanks, K!). It's a true Italian recipe and was in grams and other such metric units, which is why I looked at a few other recipes as well. The second recipe was from Giada DeLaurentis from Food Network. The third is a recipe (Ristorante Piatti Tiramisu) from a website, "Tiramisu: Heaven in Your Mouth."

The recipe ended up being something like this:
6 organic egg yolks
3 egg whites (2 of which were organic... don't ask)
1/2 cup sugar
approximately 2 cups strong coffee
2-ish tbsp rum
8 oz. marscapone cheese
2 packages of lady fingers
Some unsweetened cocoa
Bittersweet chocolate, finely grated


1. Beat egg yolks, sugar, 1 tbsp and some rum until thick and pale yellow (about 3 minutes).


2. Beat in marscapone until smooth.

3. In another bowl, beat egg whites with a pinch of sugar until stiff peaks form (basically like merengue). Gently fold egg whites into marscapone mixture.

4. Put remaining rum (or more rum if you ran out earlier) into remaining coffee, pour into shallow dish. Dip one side of each ladyfinger in coffee mixture for 1-3 seconds (depending on consistency/thickness). I actually ran out of ladyfingers, so had to halt the process and fly to the store to buy some more. The first pack was very sponge-like, while the second pack was more solid until dipped in the coffee. But just make sure you don't soak them too long or they will fall apart. Line ladyfingers in a dish (I think I used an 8x8 or 9x9 baking dish.)


5. Spoon half of marscapone mixture on top of ladyfingers. (One recipe suggested sprinkling cocoa onto marscapone layer before repeating the layering process, but I did not do this.)


6. Add one more layer of ladyfingers and marscapone mixture, then sprinkle cocoa and/or shredded chocolate on top.


7. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

8. Enjoy!


I must admit, this tiramisu was GOOD! I totally recommend that you try it! Have you ever made it before? Or eaten it before? Does the fact that is has raw eggs in it bother/scare you?

Task 6: 100 Things I Want to Learn About- Part Two (26-50)

26. Wallace's Flying Frog
27. Strange ice cream flavors around the world... horseflesh ice cream? No thank you.
28. Firewalking
29. Whirling Dervishes
30. The Pig War
31. Greek priestesses
32. Oyster Shucking
33. Oligodendrocytes versus Schwann cells for neural recovery (Recommended by my biopsych professor)
34. Bird masks worn by plague doctors in the 14th century
35. Members of the Nazi SS had their blood type tattooed on their armpits. Another article here
36. The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus
37. The new fish species found at bottom of ocean near Antartica
38. Amok (or mata galap) in Malaysia
39. The legend of the Yeti
40. Myanmar
41. Vatican Secret Archives
42. Irish Elk (And here too...)
43. Leonor (Eleanor) of Castille
44. William James Sidis, possibly the smartest man in the world, and a child prodigy
45. Cranberry harvesting
46. Bikelophone
47. Bowafridgeaphone
48. Pearl diving
49. What to do if I ever meet the Queen
50. Liechtenstein

Creativity is my anti-drug.

It amazes me how much I psychoanalyze myself. Basically every person I meet who finds out I'm being trained as a therapist asks me if I'm psychoanalyzing them. I usually put on my best Freud impression and ask them, "So... how does that make you feel?" just to make them nervous. But in reality, I rarely psychoanalyze someone beyond what anybody would do naturally without their permission. I mean, I hate it when my professors start psychoanalyzing me and trying to give me therapy during a meeting or casual chat. I assume most other people would prefer I not do the same to them. Instead, I focus on myself and why I act/think/feel the way I do. I overanalyze, hypothesize, and soliloquize usually to the point of driving myself crazy. While there are hundreds and thousands of things I have not, and probably will not, figure out, I have come to some pretty solid conclusions about some dimensions of who I am and why I am that way.

For instance:
I thrive on creativity. If my opportunity to be creative is stifled in any way, I wither away into something resembling a zombie with a bad cold. Seriously. I lose motivation, energy, and immunity from infectious diseases. The year I stopped dancing was also the year I ended up with about 4 varieties of sinus infections and colds. It took 4 attempts at heavy antibiotics before I was back to normal. I blame this on the loss of a creative outlet.

So, all this to say that I have found I MUST always have a creative outlet to keep me happy and healthy. Within the past few years, my creative outlet of choice has been a mixture of dance, theatre, and music. But recently, all of my outlets have been smushed, so to speak. This summer proved my body is too old and crippled to endure much dancing; grad school has taken away anytime I might have been able to devote to theatre; and piano has taken a backseat to all of my other responsibilities. So, sadly, I have recently found myself outletless. And fighting off the early (yet still noncontagious, nonthreatening) symptoms of a cold.

However, these past few days have proved to be a silver lining on the dark cloud of my creativity-starved existence. Tonight, a friend and I will be checking out the local choral guild. I haven't been in a choir in probably 5 years. I haven't sung formally since summer. Actually, I haven't sung classically in probably 2 years... Wow.

Anyway, I have also begun attending more classical music recitals and concerts, like I used to. I hadn't realized how much I missed not only performing, but also being in the audience. There's something so rejuvenating and, well, therapeutic about a well-played sonata.

And... a few days ago, I learned how to play the trumpet (Task 44). As a French horn player, I had the basic skills already in my back pocket, but was surprised at how different the two instruments really are. A musician/grad student friend of mine offered to teach me how to play and, starved of creative outlets, I of course agreed. I'm no Maynard Ferguson, but now I can fairly confidently play elementary etudes and duets. I also was reminded that there is a trumpet back home, so maybe I'll keep it up. Maybe this will be a new outlet to add to my inventory.

No wonder people tell me I'm weird...

Last week, I took the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) as part of my internship. It turns out that I have a personality type that is only found in 1% of people. This explains so much. Additionally, I am supposedly the same personality type as Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, Meryl Streep, and the Olsen twins. Part of the explanation of my type says that those with this personality persuasion are "often nontraditional" and may be misunderstood, because our thinking patterns are very different. We thrive on creativity, originality, and logic (Somewhat contradictory, but I guess that is why we are so difficult to understand). As I was reading the summary, it seemed very accurate. It also seemed to made sense with regards to my drive to complete an annual to do list. Variety, new experiences, and learning new things that others see as pointless are all parts of who I am as well and, in turn, why I choose to attempt to complete these lists.

Isn't psychology fun?
Have you taken the MBTI? Did the results seem to be accurate?