updatez

This quarter has found me something of a mess. Hence my infrequent updating. Hence the heaviness on my chest (which you didn't know about, but now you do.) Hence etc.

The upshot is--I'll get over it. Obviously.

Now for some (none-too-personal, but still totally intriguing) of what you missed:

a) I have very special eyes, apparently. I had an appointment with the... ophthalmologist? Or, to be really specific--the contact lens eye doctor. Actually, I guess she's the president of the American Contact Lens Association, or something fancy like that. She's kind of a big deal. Anyway, because the U of C hospital is kind of a big deal too, I got an appointment with her to be fitted for new, less irritating contacts.

I got poked a great deal by the intern, who told me I had spherical eyes (good, normal) and it wasn't a problem with the shape. The doctor, however, when she finally came in, had something of a panic attack when she started messing with my eyes. "LOOK AT THIS!" she instructed the intern, as I stared into my own large green glassy iris as reflected in a bright light. The intern cooed, impressed. "We need to get her out of her contacts, now," the doctor said.

So here's what's been wrong with my eyes: I had blood vessels growing down into my cornea. My eyes have been, effectively, starved of oxygen because of the contacts--because they have, evidently, "unusually high oxygen demands." Me & my unusually high demands. In addition to this, I have some kind of semi-intense mysterious allergy for which I've been using drops since a few months ago (and which has gone down). And, on top of those things, I had infiltrates--my corneas were apparently inflamed and had accumulations of white blood cells.

Amazing.

The doctor suspended my contact lens use, and gave me strange whitish drops to help my eyes get oxygen. She floated some possibilities--Tigasons, pinkeye--and made me another appointment (which was last Tuesday). Due to my white drops + allergy drops + no contacts regimen, things are back to normal and I'm getting fitted next week for special contacts that deliver oxygen better...somehow. I also have to change my solution (she said something about hydrogen peroxide) and keep using all sorts of drops. But I'm glad. I effing hate wearing glasses all the time. They're so... obstructive.

I don't know why I wrote about that in such detail. Except that it's obviously vividly fascinating.

b) If you get a chance to eat out soon, and you have some opportunity for variety...

...eat Korean food.

Last Saturday I went with some friends to Koreatown (which happens to be waaay-the-hell that way from where we live--think switching from bus, to train, to different train, then walking a mile). It's located in Chicago's Northwest side, nestled amongst a spattering of different immigrant communities. The walk takes you past a legion of Middle Eastern places with Arabic signs, then past a number of Spanish signs, until you're in Asialand. The left is finally on Bryn Mawr, and then everything is in Korean, and everyone looks Korean. We went to the Tofu House, because my friends love me enough to cater to my wayward vegetarian ways.

And oh. The experience of it.

It was small and unassuming at first, but the waitress sat us in our own personal room, with a rolled-up bamboo-like door, in case we wanted privacy. She brought us warm tea (instead of water) and heavy menus. We ordered 1) vegetable tofu soup (me), 2) miso tofu soup, and 3) two bip-bim-bops. My soup came literally boiling in a heavy metal or stone bowl--with a raw egg for me to crack into it myself, and with a side of rice in same sort of bowl, the bottom layer deliciously hardened and steamed. Everything else came similarly boiling, and she placed all kinds of pickled things for everyone in the middle of the table.

The soup was amazing, thrilling, wonderful. It was spicy but not too spicy. It was thick with vegetables. But the best thing was the tofu. Somehow, this place had managed to make the tofu really good.

Now, I eat a lot of tofu. And I will be the first to say that it's not exactly the food of the gods. But this soup--this tofu--I've craved every day since last weekend.

It came down to about $10 per person.

c) I got a new iPod, and now whenever I walk anywhere, whatever mood I'm in, I want to hear one song: "Unless It's Kicks" by Okkervil River. It's a wonderful walking song. It's a wonderful anything song.

d) My hair got longer.