My dear Melody finally took off for sunny California with her parents this afternoon. During the past few days, I barely found time to get any work done in lab as we scuffled back and forth between helping me settle into my new apartment, and getting her packed for the big move back home. And on June 5th, despite countless threats of rain from weather forecasts all around, her Commencement ceremony went smoothly without a hitch, and my girlfriend formally became a doctor. I even got a chance to join her family for her graduation dinner that night at East Ocean City, which despite my fears of its becoming a panel interview, turned out to be very pleasant and stress-free.

So in case word hasn’t gotten around to you, Melody and I are officially going out now (Yay!). It actually came as a surprise to both of us as well, and it wasn’t until the last couple of weeks that we discovered our feelings for each other. The tragedy is that she’ll be heading off to UCLA for her residency in a matter of days, so I’ve been trying to spend as much time with her as possible during the last week. After she returned from her California road trip last weekend, we took a short trip down to NYC to visit my home and my high school. I think she was most astounded by the Stuy building itself, a 10-story monolith set in the financial district of downtown Manhattan, certainly a world apart from the outdoor suburban high school setting of Northern California where she came from. Yesterday, we went to the New England Aquarium to pay homage to Myrtle the turtle, along with some of her friends. To top it off, we went to watch the new animated feature “Finding Nemo” the very next day, but not before a bunch of us took her out for some yummy pork ribs at B B Wolf as a celebratory graduation dinner. The movie turned out to be a pleasant surprise – probably the best flick to come out of Pixar Studios so far. Every character in the movie captured amazingly well what we had imagined those creatures would be like anthropomorphized (go S.A.T. vocabulary!).

What a crazy weekend in lab! I had wanted to take some time off from lab next week so I was trying to get as much work done as possible. Within the last three days, I was able to complete a DRG growth cone collapse time course, two neurite outgrowth experiments, and two separate biochemistry experiments, while PCR amplifying a gene from mouse cDNA library, gel-purifying the products, ligating and transforming to competent cells, and then picked clones, did minipreps, and verified the clones with restriction digests. Interestingly, this was all done while I was moving to my new apartment! With Leo and Jeff’s help, we were able to haul all my junk to my new pad yesterday, despite the brief period of rain that ironically decided to begin when we started moving and ended when we were about done. Some of my furniture also came in, including my new Simmons “Captivation” mattress, so I can at least start sleeping at my new home. Other significant events this week included two of my friends getting engaged, and a friend of mine getting a job as a night club promoter. He even got us free admission and free drinks at Bill’s Bar last Tuesday!

We finally closed on the condo this afternoon! Of course, the transition from dorm life to living alone will take a lot of adjustment… the first being the need to buy furniture. I didn’t realize how much it’ll cost to furnish this place until I started visiting furniture stores this afternoon! Kinda made me relieved that I didn’t invest in a bigger apartment.

Melody, Jeff, and I revisited Embassy Friday for yet another night of top-notch hip hop/reggae/top 40’s dance mix. This place is quickly becoming my favorite clubbing locale as both the attractive Asian crowd and mind-blowing, immersive dance music help redefine Friday-night-out for me. I did have a run-in with the bouncer that night when he told me I was dressed too casually, and almost didn’t let me in. Fortunately, after a bit of jedi mind trick, I was able to join my friends and dance the night away. It was almost a difference of night and day when comparing the experience with last friday night’s annual HST formal at the Charles Hotel. Though the hor d’oeuvres (can anyone actually spell this?) and Jazz music were quite enjoyable at the beginning, the dance afterwards totally blew. The music consisted of some rather bad Latin techno/trance stuff that wasn’t really possible to dance to. Oh, we also caught a showing of “Better Luck Tomorrow” last week. The movie received a lot of hype at the beginning ’cause it was the first major film starring an Asian-American cast that DIDN’T feature martial arts or other cultural stereotypes. Personally, I felt it was an above-average film though certainly not groundbreaking in any way. My Asian friends from Cali did remark how much the setting of the story reminded them of home. I guess it was quite different from my childhood growing up in Brooklyn. Of course, having gone out so often recently, I’ll really need to haul ass in lab now…

My exciting highlight of this week was finally signing the Purchase and Sales Agreement for the condo I’ve been after! In other words, I put 10% of the agreed price down and assuming no other problems, I should be able to close in a month! it was pretty nerve-racking signing the biggest check I’ve ever written! While the rest of the week was my usual work-eat-sleep routine, I did manage to have some fun on Friday, when my friends and I attended a showing of the film “Hero”, featuring an all-star cast including Jet Li, Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung, Donnie Yen, Zhang Ziyi, and Cheng Dao Ming. From the director of Raise the Red Lantern, Zhang Yimou, the movie takes place in the Qin dynasty and follows the account of a warrior claiming to have defeated three great assassins who had sought the life of the tyrannical emperor for many years. Overall, I found the movie beautifully-shot and impressively picturesque, but not really plot or dialogue-driven. The focus was on a stylistic representation of martial arts, where almost any scene could be freeze-framed to become a beautiful painitng. I spent the rest of the night with Melody and Bob clubbing at Embassy, which interestingly, was jam-packed with Asian-Americans that night. The music was a good mix of Hip Hop, Reggae, and Top 40’s, and the crowd was young and lots of fun. We tried to hit it up again on Saturday at Pravda where we signed up for a guest list to get us in for free. Unfortunately, the music was some trashy Euro techno and the crowd was definitely much older and sleazier. We left early and redeemed the rest of the night with food in Chinatown – the fail-safe backup option.

After a pretty long week getting the home inspection and mortgage applications together, I decided to take it easy and enjoy my friday. After finishing up a few experiments in lab, I headed over to the HST TGIF over at Boston Billiards where my friends and I kicked back with some buffalo wings, mozarella sticks, and a few games of pool. We then went across the street to B B Wolf for some ribs to celebrate my dear friend Melody’s birthday. We finally headed back to Vandy for a few more games of pool with a couple of friends before calling it a night.

After many days of negotiations, I finally signed an offer agreement with the condo sellers today!!! Within the next few days, I’ll have to get a home inspection and hunt for a good mortgage company. It’s all kind of scary making a decision on such a large investment. Hopefully, I’ve made the right choice. The unit belongs to a couple, and interestingly, the wife is actually a children’s book writer. She even has her own website! Check it out!

I went to a free-screening of the movie “The Core” this evening, which was possibly the worst movie I’ve ever seen … maybe second to a couple of B-movies. I guess it’s kind of tough trying to rescue a movie based on the premise of traveling to the inner core of our planet. I almost broke out in tears laughing at one point when the ship was stuck near the inner core and the crew members actually decided to walk out of the ship in space suits! HAHAHAH!!! After the movie, my friend Mary and I had dinner at a little cheap restaurant in Chinatown called Quality Cafe before heading back home.

My condo-hunt resumed this weekend with my parents coming up from NYC to help me attend various open-houses today. I was actually especially interested in a two-bedroom condo located about 15 minutes from where I work. It’s in a great area in Brookline, with an assigned parking space and a beautiful courtyard setting. The place is on the small side (713 sq ft), but comfortable. I’ll hopefully give the sellers a call tonight to make a verbal bid…