May I Complain please (I mean what else would I do?)

A couple of days ago I made some ribs for dinner, and on a whim I put several cut up apples into the baking dish as well. I did nothing to the apples, other than placing them into the oven, but after baking there for about 2 hours they came out tasting so unbelievably good that I ate every single slice of apple that I made, and completely forgot about the ribs. So I was all excited about this revelation about how delicious baked apples are, and how they're just like a desert, but healthy. So today, since who wants to turn on the oven when it's freaking 90 degrees out, I figured I'd try the express method and attempted "baking" the applies in the microwave. Well, what do you know, but they are NOTHING compared to the oven-baked apples! Thus, I am terribly dejected over this. Anybody have any suggestions for a speedy way to prepare baked apples?

I know you all expected me to whine about studying, but just because I am feeling a tad gracious today, I have decided to spare you. But please don't think for a moment that there is no complaining to be done on that account, for there certainly is plenty.

Today, after my lecture, I was sitting in a law school cafeteria and indulging myself by reading David Copperfield, because besides Oliver Twist and Domby & Sons when I was much younger, I haven't read anything else by Dickens. So even though I am an adult and way too old for this book, you cannot imagine the pleasure that can be derrived from reading it a bit at a time, when all the rest of your waking hours are spent reading about law. So what I am trying to awkwardly express here is that the few moments that I am able to read the book are precious. And then, this guy who went to law school with me came up to me and asked if he could join me, to which, of course I very heartily replied that he could, because I don't want to make the same mistake as I did in law school and not make any friends.

He asked me what I was reading, and when I told him he said (as could be expected): "wow!". I have this sneaking suspicion that he said "wow" because he's never heard of David Copperfield and because it is a thick book, he thinks that it is impressive that I am reading it, or just plain impressive that I am reading voluntarily, and NOT because he is wowed by how I'm way too old to be reading Dickens. Maybe I am totally off as far as jumping to that conclusion, but something tells me I am right.. And so he sat there and was blabbering on and on about something, and I guess I was appropriately annimated and nodded and smiled at all the right points of emphasis, because he just kept going and going. And unfortunately, what kept going and going in my head was that I was wondering what it is about me that makes him think that I am interested in all this stuff that he has to say? And also how I am so weird for having that in my head, and that instead I should just be sociable and have a conversation and not wish that he would leave so that I could get back to my book.

But at some point something he said triggered some kind of positive response in me (I mean genuinely, because I was outwardly positively responding the whole time), and I actually began to enjoy our conversation, thinking "phew! at least some normalcy here!" And during our conversation, he told me how his impression of me was that of a very sociable person, how while he never spoke to me in law school, he saw me around and always thought of me as the girl "who must know every single person in our class and is friends with everybody." How ironic, when it is the absolute opposite of the truth, and when even the beginning of this very conversation was too much for my law-school-related anti-social nature to bear. So I don't know why I am writing all of this, except that on some level this exchange made me happy. Because I know that I AM actually a sociable person, but just haven't been able to be comfortable enough in law school to allow that personality trait to come through.

On an entirely different subject matter, yesterday I underwent my first cosmetic procedure. I was going to post some before and after shots, but I never took any before shots, and my "during" (as in bruised) shots (which I took today) didn't come out that scary, so I am afraid the effect would be lost. And as for "after" shots - we'll need to see in about a week or so. But without any further mystery, I had some very visible blood vessels under and around my nose removed by laser. Well, granted they weren't REALLY visible to anyone unless I pointed them out, but the doctor right away knew what the problem was. And they've been bugging me for a long time. I was feeling pretty guilty for finally deciding to spend so much money for such a vain thing, but miraculously the doctor did it free of charge. Not because he thought I was cute or anything, but because my future sister-in-law is his assistant. So I feel as if I found around $500 lying on the street, which made me giddy for several hours, until I saw just how aweful my face looks (but supposedly that will go away, as mentioned earlier). For anybody who is curious - it did not hurt, in fact it was not scary at all! It was like being shocked, and every time it happened I would jump a little from being startled, but there was hardly any pain. So perhaps this is my entry into the world of plastic surgery, although I strongly doubt it because this is probably the scariest voluntary medical thing I would ever have the nerve to undergo.