This was, without a doubt, my most heavily researched and well-planned endeavor. The only hitch was when the oral surgeon’s scheduling system cancelled me after my 24-hour courtesy call. Luckily they “squeezed me into” my original appointment time. The best laid plans of mice and men, right?

Side note: do mice make plans? You’ve got to figure that with all the research labs they assist in, a Pinky and the Brain situation ought to have happened by now. (For the record, it’s a reference to a poem Burns originally wrote in Scots. And now we’ve both learned something nicht.)

The downside to research is that, well, there is a lot of information out there. Google “dry socket,” and you’ll learn of the terrifying condition the hygienist warned me about 5x. I wasn’t brave enough to look at the image results, but let’s all hope it is nothing like the backs of my mouth currently.

Before I’d had it done, or even scheduled, I’d taken an informal Facebook poll of people’s experiences getting their wisdom teeth removed. Answers ranged from “I swelled up like a less furry extra from Alvin and the Chipmunks” to “I ate a cheeseburger the next day.” My takeaway from that was that informal Facebook polls are just as good as WebMD when it comes to scaring fraidy cats like me. WebMD may have the board-certified doctor advantage, but these Facebook people? I know them; clearly these disasters strike anywhere!

Eventually, after taking a couple more in-person polls and consulting with two oral surgeons (my dentist’s recommendation wasn’t in my insurance plan), ultimately I had to just let go of “preparing” for wisdom teeth removal and just trust my body. We fell asleep during a really difficult root canal, so I felt okay only taking local anesthetic and closing my eyes.

Only time will tell how the recovery is, but I was off Tylenol by the second day and I’ve reintroduced some solid foods such as pizza, grapes, and chicken wings. I’m also pretty sick of chocolate pudding. As long as obsessively looking at my teeth holes in the mirror is a normal part of post-surgery recovery, I should be okay.

Note, I have not included bars, ice cream/specialty, on-campus dining, or fast food chains.

Stuff Yer Face – My standby favorite
This is casual comfort food (strombolis, aka bolis) and decent draft beers. They also have a dish called “potachos” that you may regret after eating, but will thoroughly enjoy the process of consumption. They’re nachos, but made with kettle fried potato chips—hence the name. There is cheese, ketchup, beef (you can ask for vegetarian without), sour cream, and all the fixings on top to make it a really, really filling and huge appetizer.

It’s a good mix of college students, families, and locals. They also have an outdoor seating area, and the odds are pretty good I’ll take you here if you come visit.

Via Vita – Poor business model, delicious foods
This is tucked under a hair salon across the street from Stuff (see above) and you’re likely to miss it, and even if you see it, it’s likely to be closed. There’s a theory that the proprietor(s) must be independently wealthy, because there’s no way you can run an establishment as lackadaisically as this and still be making enough money to thrive.

That being said, if you are lucky enough to catch it when they’re open (try going after noon) you can have delicious crepes, savory and sweet, as well as fabulous waffles for dessert. They have a decent tea selection and the prices aren’t too bad. The best way to do it is to split a savor and a dessert, because you won’t be able to finish both by yourself.

Harvest Moon – A slightly classier standby
This is across the street from Old Man Rafferty’s, which some people swear by. I really only like the desserts at Rafferty’s, so Harvest Moon is where I go when I want food. They are also a micro-brewery, so you can have delicious beers too! In fact, you can’t really get anything else. They have two light beers in bottles, their brews, and a full bar (liquor and wine). Their brews tend to be hoppier, although I don’t like IPAs and like them, so don’t write it off.

Get a beer sampler to go with the giant nacho appetizer (to share!), a burger with sweet potato fries, or pad thai. It’s an eclectic menu!

Sahara – MEAT, Mediterranean style
There are a couple Mediterranean style restaurants in town, but Sahara’s is my favorite (unless all you want is a gyro, in which case Efes or King Pita at the Rutgers student center may be a better bet). They’re sit down with very generous portions. Don’t get their Turkish coffee, because it’s watery.

Also, vegetarians, fear not. My best friend is vegetarian (not pescatarian), and she loves Sahara’s too.

daryl – Fancy foods, great service
This is American cuisine, beautifully plated in a lovely ambiance. It’s right around the corner from the Heldrich hotel and I would go here instead of their own restaurant, Christopher’s.

The waitstaff is incredibly friendly, and the menu isn’t overwhelmingly long. I went with two appetizers and that was the perfect amount of food. Try the duck meatballs in yogurt sauce!

Frog and the Peach – There’s a reason they get rave reviews (and cost so much!)
Again with the gorgeous ambiance, including a converted greenhouse that looks absolutely magical at night with fairylights twinkling. It can get a little warm though, with baseboard heat, so be forewarned!

Their menu has a good mix of meat and not, and the desserts are also fabulous. Definitely try their chocolate volcano cake!

And now I’m hungry! Anyone from the area have other favorites to suggest?

That, for the record, is the ultimate doom and gloom perspective on to-do lists. And, as someone with 3 bouncing around (I’m including the unwritten one in my head of things that I haven’t written down yet), I am an amateur expert in the field of how much a to-do list can screw with your head. For example, if you look at how I am staking up against my current 2012 resolution list-in-perpetual-revision:

Okay, it’s not that bad. Isn’t it nifty when things you say (like to-do lists help give perspective), are actually true?

It just feels like the end of the month appears out of nowhere and, instinctively, I flinch because I’M NOT READY YET, THERE WAS STILL ALL THIS STUFF TO DO AND, AND, AHHHHHHHH.

But then, after you’ve scared the neighbors with your awkward high-pitched distress sounds, you take a deep breath and look at your calendar and realize, oh yeah, I did do stuff!

Maybe it wasn’t necessarily “the plan,” but the plan didn’t take into account being invited to go skiing in the Catskills which put me in the perfect place to meet up with an old friend. We’ll gloss over the detail of my being 2.5 hours late due to dinner taking longer than expected and Hunter Mountain being very far north. So I was really, really tired, didn’t get to write or clean my room properly for another week, but I got to go back on the slopes after a multi-year hiatus (because last year’s cross-country adventure doesn’t count, unless you think the elliptical is a good approximation of downhill skiing, in which case you need to reconsider your approach to the sport) and I got to deepen some of my relationships. I had to let one resolution lapse so another could advance.

And I’m starting to think that’s the key to resolutions and to-do lists: not all items are equal in value and sometimes it’s like chess, where you sacrifice a pawn to ultimately win the game. Maybe the milestones aren’t linear, and you’ll only hit some. Maybe that’s considered failure, or maybe I need to add “be more flexible with lists” to my to-do list.

Consequently, there are a couple filler links here and then a real post in the next few days.

• Mapping Stereotypes – Color-coded maps that tell you what’s out there, depending on your stereotypical approach of choice.
• 5 Things to Taste in Chicago
• Picasso’s Home in Spain
• Bicycle Portraits – Bicyclists and the cities they’re from
• Baie de Somme – Somewhere French and very, very pretty

Planners are the only reason I know what I’ve done and what I’m going to do. My enthusiasm for seeing people can sometimes override the practicality of meeting up with five separate people in four different parts of Manhattan on a Thursday afternoon because I’ll be in the city and texted everyone I know there. I have considered the merits of sleeping less (although I love it) because it would free up more time to do things, and there is always food in my car so if I forget to allocate enough time to eating—well, at the very least I won’t pass out behind the wheel.

It’s not that every day is a crazy bustle, it’s just that my schedule is clumpy: some weeks everything is happening and I get to see everyone, whereas others I sit at home and debate picking up another tv show. Planners keep me going through the busy and anticipating during the slow.

And, if it’s slow, there’s always that to-do list of mine. A couple months ago I started keeping a personal rolling to-do list, in mirror of the one I have at work, so that everything I need to do is in one place and each section starts with a date. If I think of it, it goes on the list.

Mostly this list is mundane, but it’s something to keep me going and not panicking because WHAT IF I FORGOT TO DO SOMETHING IMPORTANT. Well, not only would have I forgotten to do it, I would have also forgotten that I had to do it. So, ipso facto, it didn’t exist!

Source: Mlkshk.com

Sometimes I use my planner as a to-do list too, making notes to Future Me about deadlines and possible penciled in adventures. So it probably comes as no surprise, especially after my 2011 reflection post, that I LOVE new year’s resolutions. You date them and instill within them a year’s worth of reflection and optimism. At the end of the year, when you look back, they are the clearest signposts on the road, however paved or twisted, that you’ve spent the past year living.

Some of mine have been rolling resolutions of years (read 10 good books; make a thing a week; a piece of fruit a day) with limited success (Goodreads tells me I’ve succeeded; still need to be more consistent; usually pretty good, pomegranates after this post), and others are fresh for this year. I’ve added dates when I can, categorized them by type, am considering deadlines and travel partners, and really looking forward to another year.

This is probably my most ambitious year, resolution-wise, and, undoubtedly, my most neurotic, resolution-wise and not life. I’ve even set an intention (be more thoughtful in word, action, and, um, thoughts), a sign that yoga twice a week will be good for me as well. But, I’m also considering it a master to-do list, a living document of goals and ambitions. I realize that not everything may be accomplished, although non-negotiables will be annotated as such, and new things may be added as opportunities arise.

What matters most is that in 362 days with 52 weekends, I’ll be able to reflect upon 2012 and feel the same sense of accomplishment and optimism that I feel now thinking about 2011. Once again I will have cultivated new things and nurtured those I am blessed enough to have in my life already. Plus, it’s a leap year so there’s extra time!

1. Taiwan
2. Vermont
3. Lake George, NY
4. San Francisco
5. Atlantic City
6. Scotland

I attended:

1. A late gift exchange in January and an early one in December, pot lucks at both
2. An International Food and Restaurant Show in New York City
3. Couchadelphia
4. A surprise birthday party
5. An amazing thesis presentation about the psychology behind research laboratory design, and how scientists really don’t like socializing (even when their buildings force them to)
6. Ag Field Day and the NJ Folk Festival
7. A panel for Girl Scouts about Women in the Sciences and Engineering, as a Bachelor of the Sciences Finance major working in Information Technology
8. A tie dyeing party
9. A family picnic with homemade Jamaican food
10. Two going away parties
11. One welcome home party
12. Two 5Ks, one I directed runners and one I ran in 35 minutes
13. Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool!
14. A 4 hour lunch at a local Afghani restaurant
15. A 25 mile bike ride
16. Reunions for a college dance troupe, a college art/lit mag, study abroad, and overseas volunteer friends
17. Trivia at a hole in the wall bar in Princeton
18. A birthday party at a cowboy bar
19. A brunch at a Pakistani buffet with 4 different beef dishes in a row, rose water ice cream that tasted like perfume, and pink tea that was very pink and not very tasty
20. A lovely New Year’s Eve at friends of a friend’s apartment in the Lower East Side, to cap of a year with many, many trips to NYC

I saw:

1. Black Swan
2. Riverdance
3. An exhibit on war photographers, modern Chinese photography, 9/11, Harper’s Bazaar photography, and Depression era photography at the International Center for Photography
4. A Doctor Who premiere
5. My college Chinese Dance Troupe perform, with the Filipino cultural dance group and their accompanying buffet dinner
6. Marina & the Diamonds
7. Harry Potter 7, Pt 2 at midnight
8. Savage Beauty: Alexander McQueen at the Met
9. A nighttime community production of Hairspray at an outdoor theatre
10. Sufjan Stevens, in Brooklyn, perform his newer electronic dance album complete with crazy props
11. IKEA twice in one weekend (lingonberry sauce and meatballs are delicious all the time though)
12. Rocky Horror, live, and lost my Rocky Horror virginity
13. And tasted art at the Princeton Art Museum
14. Frank Turner at Theatre of the Living Arts, which has a fancy name
15. The Muppets Movie, at midnight
16. Sherlock Holmes 2: A Game of Shadows

Overall I’d say it was a good year, and I look forward to doing even more in 2012. Hope you had a great one too!

Like they say, there’s nothing quite like it. Except, I’ve never really seen any other cities at Christmas, so perhaps it’s just hometown bias. Click any picture to see it larger.

It’s the holidays, a time when even us non-religious folk get wrapped up in the magic of sparkling lights and gift-giving. Because everyone loves gift giving!

It’s the receiving of gifts that’s trickier, because, even if they don’t intend for it to, every gift given demands a partner. Or maybe that’s just me.

I’ve been blessed to know some GREAT (and sneaky!) gift-givers who’ll still get you something—even after you’d explicitly planned not get gifts outside of the exchange(s) (yes, sometimes plural!) you’re mutually participating in. But, how can you be upset when someone gets you a great gift? You can only try and repay the favor. It’s just another sign that:

Source: Unknown

(What’s ironic is my next post will be all about the planning I’m doing for next year, in terms of adventures and things to do! It’s all about finding balance, and I’m pretty sure that’s a moving target.)

WastedRita

I might need this tattooed behind my eyelids—or maybe not since I don’t blink enough when staring at the monitor. The cause for my bloodshot eyes isn’t glamorous.

You would fight for this pumpkin pie, right? Baked by Jodie.

Food is also less judgement impairing than alcohol, although I will admit to some difficulty in thinking when full of delicious food. As a bonus, there are no angry full people, just sleepy ones.

The process of getting to full is a communal one, everyone can eat and even at a basic level comment on food. You run out of topics? LET’S DISCUSS THE SOUP!

Autumn potluck

Or, better yet, let’s just MAKE soup. Busy hands are just as effective AND they produce food—two for one!

I’m lucky that I have friends who agree with me, on the power of food, the joy of cooking, and the pure thrill that comes from trying new foods. The past couple of months we’ve hosted an autumn potluck, where the pie was eaten, and also a Saturday brunch at a Pakistani restaurant, courtesy of a great Groupon discount and verification from actual Pakistanis that the food was authentic and delicious.

The pink tea was not a winner, but the four types of beef were.

Trying new food as got to be the best ice-breaker of them all: no one really knows what to expect and there are always some delicious, some suspicious, and some downright hilarious things to be found.

Buffets are particularly good for this, or sharing family style, so everyone gets a chance to sample.

Sometimes food is just funny.

What’re your thoughts on food as a social lubricant?