Shaq vs.... A sandwich?

Watched Shaq vs. last night for the first time. It's a pretty ridic show: basically, the premise is this: Shaq challenges great athletes in their sport to play their sport and claims he's better than they are at it. Then, he visits them at home, challenges them personally, tries to get inside their head, and makes some sort of wager. He challenged Ben Roethlisberger to a quarterbacking contest - with their championship rings on the line. If Ben wins, he gets to wear one of Shaq's NBA rings for a week, and vice versa. Looks like it's going to be interesting. Shaq's personality could carry any TV show. Seriously. Well, OK. Maybe not "Dark Blue." Also awesome to check out: Royal Pains. The show is just too good, with Evan Lawson as my personal fave character. I guess I see a lot of myself in him (cheesy sense of humor, good heart, always trying too hard with women, extremely extroverted and a shameless self-promoter).

It's been a while, but I have triumphantly returned to Blogspot/Blogger (I guess they're the same website?) Also, Frogger > Blogger. Suck it.

For a first entry, let's have a little introduction. Maestro, the music!

Welcome back my friends
To the show that never ends
We're so glad you could attend
Come inside, come inside

A lot has changed in the last 5 years since I've been on this site. This got me thinking. What has happened since 2004? Well, a brief rundown:

2004:
-Finally broke things off with Ana at the start of the year. Worst relationship of my life? Gone.
-Returned to college after flaming out briefly
-Resigned myself that I would never make it to medical school with my awful GPA
-Met Karen starting in August. We went to see Muse/Interpol/The Cure with Chris at Blossom. That was a fun night.
-Caught mono from who knows where. Recovered. Aaaaaaaand punt.
-Went to Boston with my Dad for the first time. We had a blast! Cambridge is the best part of the city...basically a college town for hot nerdy white girls from Harvard, MIT, and BC. You can't beat that. The only downside? it was during the Democratic National Convention so traffic was hell. Still, a small price to pay and though I hate the sports teams of Boston, the city is very interesting and fun and...at risk of sounding fogeyish, historical!
-Worked at the library while going to school. My duties were pushing carts around, pushing books around, and pushing books around on carts. Etc, etc etc.
-Dota tourneys occasionally, though this was starting to wane as Allstars was becoming popular...which we hardliners hated at first, then grew to love.
-I got back into weightlifting in summer. I had really missed it, but I was going with my dad 3 days a week. This was awesome. His back is bad now so we can probably never do that again, but he's basically the reason I gained a lot of strength (of all kinds ;) )

2005
-World of Warcraft hits the market! OH BABY! It was fun for about 6 months and then I got tired of spending 4 hours+ a night at it. Started seeing parallels between WoW and Counterstrike in terms of time commitment. Told WoW "Gl hf eat a baby" and sold my account in late December for 100 bucks. Not bad for a pre-expansion lvl 60 rogue with molten core gear and nothing better.
-Quit the library to work 40hrs/week in the summer at tri-c as a lab tech. It was the easiest job ever conceived. I sat at a desk 8 hours at a time and waited for teachers to walk out of labs and say 'I need X" "I need Y." It was great for $15/hr. Karen's mom got me the job, ironically enough, after we broke up (see below)
-Karen and I break up. I took it harder than people probably realize, because breakups are interesting for me. If I've got other people around that I really love, I tend to deal with it very constructively. I only really had bad hurt feelings when I was alone...especially working at tri-c alone for hours and hours at a time. I had a lot of time to think and reflect, and I mull things over endlessly so this was not good.
-Started the band Everyday Superheroes because I thought it would be a great way to indulge my musical talent, meet new people, experience exciting new experiences, and play shows with Chris. Could there be ANYTHING better than playing a rock and roll show with your best friend as the drummer? Not a chance in hell. I sang, and played the lyre. Er, lute. Er, banjo. Er, mandolin. ERRRRRRRRRRRR guitar. (Jim Rome style buzzer) Played shows at the end of the year. Had the time of my life.
-Had a series of crazy flings in the summer and saw some GREAT concerts (Hot Hot Heat, Warped Tour etc). That whole year I must have seen 30 shows.
-Met Katie, who I am now engaged to, in November. As a volunteer for a psych experiment. Hey, I just thought I'd be getting Psych 101 credit...not a wife!!! SURPRISE! It was a package deal. Our first date is at Hunan Coventry. I get the Kung Pao chicken, and she gets the Moo Goo Gai Pan (I think). It is insane. (Side note: did you ever think of how many girls I either dated or was interested in that had names starting with the letter "K"? In chronological order, Katrina, Kim, Kaitlyn, Kelly (from Chris's camper...lived in York Pennsylvania...VAULT), Kristen, Kelly#2, Ana, Liz, Karen, Katie. 8 out of 10.
-Made Dean's list for the first time at John Carroll with a 3.9 GPA. Represented a true turning point in my work ethic.
-42 year old Biochemistry professor and his 25 year old fiancee attended our band's first show. Bought me 3 Christmas Ales before I went on stage. Was surreal experience.
-Began playing DotA Allstars. MONSTER KILL!

2006
-Played a few shows with the band at the start of the year. Loved every one!
-One of the most triumphant moments of my life: After 5 1/2 years, I finally got my shit together academically and graduated college from JCU with a B.S. in biology.
-I moved to working weekends only at tri-c for supplemental income.
-Began an internship at Sherwin-Williams in May 2006, thought it might transition into a full-time job. It did not.
-Forced to quit the band for time reasons (grad school). Not happy, but recognized it as necessary. Plus, the music was not really going anywhere. There were a myriad of reasons. Chris and I had this discussion. Our bassist sucked. I got tired of writing everything myself and being the only real "motivator." Although in the end, grad school was really the tipping point. It did end up taking about 55 hours per week. (plus drive time)
-Prof at tri-c named Denny Sampson basically told me I was wasting my scientific skills and talent by not going to graduate school. I concurred, and spoke with my future mentor Crystal at CSU in July. She laid out a Master's level project for me. I was hooked. Began M.S. in Cell & Molecular biology.
-Katie & I continued dating and our relationship deepened. It was rocky at best in the first half of 2006 but improved considerably after summer. She had mono in summer and was basically dead for 2 straight months. Enlarged spleen (seriously, do most people even know what a spleen is?), high fever, light sensitivity, high white blood cell count, vomiting, severe lethargy to the point of catatonia? Sounds like a winner. We didn't see eachother for a month while she recovered.
-Moved to Brunswick Hills, where my parents now hate it. Warned them at the time about the kind of small-time hilljacks that live there, but was ignored. Also personally hated living there as it is in the middle of nowhere and a drive to anywhere.

2007
-Dove more into graduate work. Went through a very difficult series of experimental failures, but eventually recovered and learned how to succeed.
-Rediscovered going to the gym. Loved it.
-Went to Browns games with Kevin from our lab.
-Rediscovered skiing. AWESOME SAUCE!
-Turned 25. More of a milestone than you think. Received heartburn, a slower metabolism, and more waistline padding as the gifts that keep on giving.

2008
-Finished my M.S. in Cell & Molecular Biology! Am I a scientist yet?
-Went skiing with Chris & Eddie a couple times. So fun!
-Rediscovered Magic: The Gathering when Shards of Alara block came out. Began Winston drafting with Chris.
-Started playing Rock Band at Chris's on his awesome projector. This might be my favorite video game of all time. Seriously. A great bonding experience for friends.
-Rock Band 2 comes out, and improves on an already great experience. The DLC (downloadable content) feature of the game is what makes it even better. Can't wait for RB: Beatles!
-Got engaged to Katie.

What am I doing? I'm an adult? Oh my God? I really want to do this! Do I really REALLY want to do this? Yes! No! Yes! I'm really doing this? I'm really growing up? I'm scared. I'm excited. This is great! This is terrible! I can do so many things that I could never do before! I can't do anything I used to do quite the same anymore! This is going to be a huge challenge. I like challenges! I hate challenges! No I don't! This is the exact thought process that goes through my mind each and every day.

-Had an enormous fight with my dad about said engagement. Realized it was just about him having to finally let his only son grow up all the way. Loved dad more afterward.
-Wrote thesis, it is now published on OhioLINK. I am happy & proud of this fact!

2009
-Began working at the Cleveland Clinic as a research scientist. Is it fun? OH YES! I get to do hamster brain surgery. Every single day. Seriously, is that messed up or what? I really enjoy my work, and to be honest, it's good experience for med school. You have to incorporate anaesthesia, surgery, and science. It's an art. For those interested: I research tinnitus, or chronic ringing in the ears. It often presents in those in the military (especially in battlefield situations) or those who are around loud machinery for extended periods of time. We've found that animals exposed to loud noise for 4 hours exhibit a hyperactivity in one of the auditory nerve's inputs in the brain called the Dorsal Cochlear Nucleus. My job is to test a drug from a German company that supposedly suppresses this hyperactivity. It's already in Phase IIb clinical trials in humans, and we're working to elucidate its mechanism of action as well as its efficacy.
-Planning to get married Nov. 7th. Fiancee has already hinted at what my possible wedding gift will be, and I am not at liberty to say what it is...but in a word, insane.
-Honeymoon will be in Cancun. Oh yeah! I know, I know...don't drink the water. LOLLERSKATES.
-Continued Rock Banding.
-Played in a couple Magic PTQs. Went 6-2 in one and nearly missed top 8, went 2-3 and dropped in another. Had a lot of fun both times. I love Magic! It's such a fun logical/intuitive game. I really think it works just as well for both left and right-brained people. The nature of the game is that sometimes random processing (right-brained) and sometimes chronological processing (left-brained) are each in turn advantageous.
-Wedding planning takes up a huge amount of time. The hardest? Honestly, getting relatives coordinated. Especially when your family is scattered all over the country like mine.
-Moved into my own apartment for the first time ever. So fresh to death. Located in Rocky River, and so much less of a drive to anywhere.

Anyway, I plan to write a whole lot more. Like maybe weekly, or even more often! It's all a question of time. It's no longer a question of motivation.

Any memories you'd like to add? Funny, exciting, or otherwise are ALWAYS welcome!

-Alex