Don't worry... beeeee happy

As cheesy as the song is, it does make me smile. I figured I should at least write a quick post to say that I'm alive and well. Knitting here and there, but no real progress. I know I owe the blog some update pics of FOs (Crumpets, Reid) and updates on WIPs (irish hiking scarf, endpaper mitts). I've had a few cast ons (using tres campy and some stitch patterns from victorian lace today) but i haven't been bitten by the bug.

School continues to be tough and grueling, but I thought I could entertain some of you with the latest parent story. This one actually features my mom, who's usually more of a one-liner. Most people who spend a bit of time with me get to know some of my mom's quirky sayings... (some of which I recently found out are not quirky, just Chinese), such as "Nee won wuo, wuo won sei?" which word for word translates as "if you ask me, who should I go ask?" but really means "how the eff should I know?"

Phone rings. It's Sunday afternoon. I'm cozily ensconced in the research office at school. About 3pm.

Mom: CynCyn-a, where are you?
me: I'm at school, studying.
Mom: oh. You sure are at school a lot.
me: (thinking, I'm a student. Shouldn't I be at school a lot?)
Mom: Why didn't you pick something easier to study?
me: (thinking: what? is she crazy? she wanted me to go to medical school. Did she think that was gonna be a walk in the park?)
Mom: Hunh. I guess it's too late to make a different choice now. By the way, you know your paternal grandmother's health is doing well.
me: that's good...
Mom: you better hope that it continues to do well
** my grandmother will be 91 this December, and my maternal grandmother passed away about 7 weeks ago, so my mom bringing it up isn't TOTALLY out of the blue**
Me: well, of course.
Mom: you know, your father was THIS CLOSE to finishing his PhD, and your grandfather died at the exact wrong moment. Your father couldn't finish after that.
Me: uhh...
Mom: if your grandpa had died a year earlier or later, your Dad would have his PhD. I mean, all that work and he's that close, and he doesn't have his degree. *sigh* I can't even bring it up b/c I don't want to make him feel guilty.
Me: uh...
Mom: So, you better not let that happen to you! So you should hope that your grandmother continues to have good health.
Me: Mom! of course I hope grandma has good health. But, y'know, I think that I might have fewer choices about not finishing. I mean, yeah, it's too bad that Dad didn't get his PhD, but uhmm... he had something called a MEDICAL DEGREE to fall back on. I don't have one of those.
Mom: well, I just wanted you to know.
me: ok.
Mom: don't study too hard
me: (thinking, wtf? since when do my parents not want me to study hard? I thought the goal here was to kill me with the studying?) ok mom. bye.

Actually, I'm now reminded of another amusing phone conversation I had with my mom back when I was in college. She doesn't pull as many stunts as my dad, but when she does, they're doozies. I hope everyone is doing well. I know i've been missing lately, but I am reading blogs and trying to comment sporadically on everyone's. I'll be spending the weekend with my good friend Fairbairn (object relations theory) and some cognitive behavioral theory to conceptualize one of my clincial cases for a presentation due on Tuesday. Somewhere in there, Michigan will give me a heart attack as they play against Ohio State and I'll be saved from writing this damn paper.