things are largely f'ed

So a lot of stuff has been going on lately - both bad and good.

Last week a lot of shit happened at work. It started on Wednesday when one of my coworkers was training another. There was an argument about the integrity of how the training was happening, the trainee left and had a discussion with our boss about it. At the time they came to a good closing point ending with productive ideas about how to fix the problems and it seemed things were resolved amicably for the most part. We all went to lunch in a shocked but thrilled mood. Then we came back from lunch and hell broke loose. Our boss had another chat with the trainee, questioning the trainee's story, integrity, and everything. Apparently it was a swear-fest, and an unpleasant experience. Trainee took the rest of the day off (understandably).

Which brings me to Thursday. The day started off fine, extremely tense, stressful, and awkward, but fine overall. And then later in the day I hear that the trainee coworker has been asked to resign. Trainee obviously refused (why should he/she??) but the rest of us were shocked. At least I was. I mean a simple dispute that seemed to have been happily resolved, in one day, turned into someone potentially losing their job. Wtf?? Stress and tension in the lab increased exponentially.

Friday, the thought of going in and dealing with trainer and trainee supposed to be training together again and not knowing how to diffuse situations gave me such a tension headache that I called in an hour late. That gave me enough time to solve the awkwardness that could have resulted from trainee/trainer. Overall the day seemed better though. I think the absence of the boss and no new drama helped to increase the stress.

Saturday I spent the morning Christmas shopping (mostly at Target - what an amazing store) and the evening at a Christmas party of one of Tom's Air Force friends. It's kind of weird because she was an '05 Rochester Mayo graduate, and one of her high school friends is the elder sister of the current girlfriend of one of my sister's ex-boyfriends. Well if you can make sense of that sentence you are a genius. Before we headed out to the party, however, I got a phone call from home with some terrible news. When I was in kindergarten through about 6th grade my best friend was Brenna and we practically lived at each other's houses over the summers. The phone call was informing me that her father had died to bone cancer.

Sunday was the big Lord of the Rings marathon at the Riverview Theater. Tom, Hannah, and I were there from 10:30 am to 10:30 pm, watching the first two extended editions, and the final regular edition of the LotR movies. We ate popcorn, candy, hotdogs, and pizza. It was an amazing, but ridiculously long day. And man I had a sore butt by the end of it! Between two of the movies I got a text from home that just showed a picture of Belle laying on her bed with a bandaged paw and a cone shaped E-collar on her head. I immediately called home and discovered that she had torn the webbing between two of her toes and had to go to the emergency vets to get stitches. Ugh!

Monday was back to work and the madness there. Strangely enough, other than trainee updating his/her resume and looking at jobs, it was pretty normal. It was like the madness of the week before had just evaporated. Unfortunately it hasn't, it just lurks under the surface waiting to strike. Spent all evening cleaning and doing laundry before my aunt and uncle came up the next day - they had an early flight on Wednesday so were going to stay at my house the night before.

Tuesday things were good as well. A bit hectic for me though. I left at 3pm to head down to the airport and caught the 3:45 shuttle to Rochester. Was picked up by dad and then headed to the wake (friends' dad remember?) with both the parents. Afterwards we ate dinner at Arby's, then drove over to Owatonna. There I was picked up by my aunt and uncle on their way up from Iowa and they drove me back home. They slept in my room and I stayed in the twin bed in the guest room.

On Wednesday I got up early and drove them to the airport and then headed to work. Got there early because of how early I took them to the airport, but got right to work. Had a busy morning doing behavior training and then dissections. The afternoon was more laid-back, some rotarod training and graph-making and candy-eating. Eventually headed home, quickly packed, and began the drive back down to Rochester. Luckily the weather didn't turn bad until a little south of Cannon Falls. Then it got pretty bad - mostly visibility issues with the thick snowfall. That and people just don't know how to drive in snow. It didn't get too slick until closer to Rochester and by then it was too late to claim me as a victim.

Now the days have started to meld together at home, spending time bonding with the family. Yesterday (Thursday, Christmas Eve) I slept in (yay) and spent the day doing who knows what. At around 5 pm we all headed out to TGI Fridays for dinner (our usual tradition of going to Timber Lodge couldn't happen since apparently they went out of business). It was okay, but not fantastic. We then came back home, fed Belle, then went to church. Came home, watched our traditional White Christmas, and then I headed to bed.

Today I woke up around 8:45 am, headed down, and watched tv with dad while waiting for Megan and Sara to get up. When they finally did, we opened stockings full of candy (yum) and then ate breakfast. Finally got around to opening our presents from Santa - and hooray! A bunch of stuff I needed and of course the things I wanted as well. Hooray for the selfish materialistic side of the religious tradition! Spent the rest of the day being completely lazy, reading my book and watching movie marathons on tv. Now the rest of the family is at a movie in theaters and I'm at home alone with Belle. I just didn't really care enough about the movie to want to spend the money on it. Even though my parents probably would have paid. But still...

So now I've finally done something of an update. I hope you all have a great holiday season!

Go Vikings!

Just so everyone knows, the reason Tom is now mentioned frequently is because we are seeing each other/dating/in a relationship. kthx

Been a pretty busy weekend - and a weird week leading up to it.

Unfortunately, I don't remember much of what happened last weekend or this past week other than some weird work drama. And even that is fading - I mean I remember that there was weird work drama but I don't really remember what it was.

On to the weekend then!

On Friday night Tom and I went to Amanda's housewarming party. It was kind of fun and kind of awkward but we got to meet a lot of Amanda's friend (including her bf). Also got the grand tour of her house (cool) and see how funny she is while intoxicated. Not to mention showing off our awesomely ugly sweaters we got at Savers.

Saturday was the first action-packed day. Mandy (friend from Culver's) drove up from Rochester and we headed down to the Mall of America. Spent a little bit of time wandering around the stores but then proceeded to go ride the rides at Nickelodeon Universe (formerly Camp Snoopy). We started at the weird Spongebob roller coaster that had a straight up ramp and then a straight down drop (we're talking 90 degrees both ways). That was intense, but short. We also rode the log chute, the ghost hunters ride, the formerly Screamin' Eagle, the old Pepsi coaster, and the crazy scary Avatar Airbender ride thing. After we finally stopped riding, we headed over to the Rainforest Cafe for some delicious dinner. We got to sit right next to a fish tank that had a huge moray eel in it. It was creepy but awesome. Then we went up to the movie theater and caught the last showing of The Princess and the Frog, which was surprisingly good! Got home, showered, and went to bed.

Woke up early on Sunday (10am), got dressed, and headed to the VA with Mandy. We parked there and caught the Light Rail up to the Metrodome. Wandered around outside for awhile, Mandy got her face painted, but eventually decided it was much too cold and headed in. Took lots of pictures and had great seats - even with one of the end zones on the Vikings side on the lower deck. It was a great game - a lot of tense moments and weird calls (and fake TD's) but we ended up beating the Bengals 30-10. Afterwards we had a packed/hectic train ride home. Mandy headed out to try to drive during the lighted hours and I've spent the rest of the evening doing absolutely nothing. Other than updating this of course.

And now I have nothing really to talk about. For how long it's been since I last posted, this post sucks. Oh well.

Snow Snow SNOW

So it snowed today. As in, snow stuck to the ground, traffic ground to a halt, slippery to walk in, put on my winter boots for the first time today snow. Granted, it's not even an inch thick, but it's definitely there. It's finally starting to feel like December.

Speaking of which, it's December! Holy cow. Not sure where this year has gone, it went so fast.

Of course, a few months ago I probably would have said it's just dragging on, but time's relative anyway right?

Like these last couple of weeks have flown by. Last week we had a short week - just Monday through Wednesday at work and then Wednesday night Tom and I drove down to Rochester. The drive was horrible - it was rain/sleeting during rush hour traffic the night before Thanksgiving leaving the Cities. So what should have taken us 1 hour and 10 minutes took nearly 2 hours. Or I'm exaggerating, but it really was pretty bad for awhile there. Got home and then went to BWW's for dinner - Sara was working, mom and dad came to chat, and Megan met us there as soon as she got home. It was nice. Later that night we all played Apples to Apples - and I'm pretty sure I lost both times. Oh well, it's still a fun game.

On Thursday (Turkey Day) I was supposed to get up and put the turkey in the oven, but no one woke me up so mom and Sara just did it. Most of the morning was spent sleeping or waiting for the dang turkey to finish cooking. Although at one point I did drag Tom and Belle out in the freezing cold to go to the dog park. It was very cold so we only lasted about 15 minutes. Afterwards we ate dinner (yum), watched football (boring), ate pie (yum) and watched TV/napped. Later Jackie came over to say hi to everyone, meet Tom, and of course play with Belle. Eventually she had to leave, and so did Tom (he had to work on Friday). I stayed up until about midnight and then headed up to go to bed. Then I get a call from my mom (who was camped out at Walmart for the Black Friday deals) asking me to join her because my sister (who was with her) was hanging out with a friend (or wanted to). So I put my clothes back on, grabbed Eclipse (yes I'd been rereading the Twilight series), and headed to Walmart. Waited in line all night, sitting uncomfortably in the aisle reading. Finally got what we were in line for, and I headed for the exit while mom continued to shop. It was a madhouse - but I got home and slept for a big part of Friday. I also managed to get a new phone activated (Tom's old LG Voyager - it's pretty sweet) and I got most of my hair chopped off (10 braided inches to Locks of Love).

Really not too sure what else I did on Saturday - I think Jackie and I hung out again and actually went to see New Moon in theatres (I'd already seen it once with Tom).

Sunday was spent packing and helping mom unload her car full of candy (she spent Friday night through Sunday morning at Lynn's making candy for Christmas). Eventually figured out who was taking me home (Megan, for a bribe from dad) and headed out. I drove to the cities and then she drove from there to Eau Clair. Thanks to her early Xmas present (a GPS) she didn't even get lost! I think... to be honest I don't think I've talked to her since but I think I've seen her online so she must have made it back safely.

This week has been filled with work. Except for last night, which also included Lord of the Rings Monopoly and vomit. Mmmm. Good times.

And now I'm off to lunch! Have a good one!

Karma

So I should probably pick up where I left off, but I don't really remember much of what happened that weekend. I know I headed out of the reception early to go let Belle out, but that's about it.

On Wednesday it was Veterans Day, which meant the majority of the VA was empty. We decided to work because 1. we had/have experiments running and 2. now we can take the day after Thanksgiving off. Okay now I need to add some background here: not sure how much I actually talked about orientation when it happened but Amanda and I sort of bonded with this guy named Tom during orientation - we were about the same age and just hung out there. Afterwards Tom and I talked, texted, exchanged books, etc. So after work on Wednesday Tom came over and we watched a few episodes of Firefly before heading over to the Riverview Theater to see District 9 (awesome movie). And yes, it was a date, don't die of shock!

On Thursday Sara came up after work and her, Tom, and I went to eat dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, then went to see The Men Who Stare at Goats (funny, and weird). Sara tried to convince us to go to a club but since Tom and I had to work we nixed that idea.

Then on Friday Sara spent the day touring at the U with Amber (from Megan's grade) while I was at work. Afterwards, Tom came over again and he and Sara made pancakes and ramen. Spent awhile just hanging out and watching Sara pick out what clothes to wear and then headed over to the VA to catch the train downtown (we had promised Sara we'd take her to a club on Friday). So we wandered around downtown searching for any 18+ club and finally found one called Karma. Paid the cover, went in, finally convinced Sara to ask a guy to dance, and then watched/supervised. Not really my cup of tea, but I'm sure Sara had fun. The club was full of Asians (random) and really loud music. The guy Sara danced with was decent, although he did force Tom and I to join them on the dance floor. That was embarassing... Eventually we headed back home, and met an interesting drunk/stoned character on the train. He was harmless but fairly entertaining.

Saturday morning Sara left before I even woke up (luckily she left me a note - I was out!). **Mice are done running so I'll continue this saga later... hopefully... **

See sometimes I do actually come back to things! So where was I... ah yes. Saturday was pretty low key from what I recall. Went to the Cardinal Bar to hang out with Tom and a bunch of his friends (was a birthday party of sorts - complete with drinking and karaoke).

Don't really remember what happened on Sunday - was even more boring than Saturday probably.

Monday I worked, and Pat (boss) was back from AZ to make our lives a bit more difficult. On Wednesday we were halfway through dissections when he told us to stop and start a whole new behavioral testing method on them that we had never done before, never even done any background research on, and didn't have the equipment for. And we still had to finish the dissections afterwards. Needless to say, I got out late that day. And it sucked because Tom invited me up to his place because his roommate was making dinner (it was good too). Yesterday (Thursday) Pat ticked us all off. He basically told us to report to one of the people in the lab who doesn't really like to train us properly until it's absolutely necessary, works a weird schedule that no one else is sure about, and is fairly antisocial. And then he claimed Alaina (the only one who was actually helping train us and teaching Amanda and I the ropes) hasn't been working hard enough. WTF. Sigh. Frustration.

Today was pretty nice, but a bit boring. It was just me, Alaina, and Joe in the lab - Amanda was closing on her house today and Katie is on her way to Costa Rica. So a nice laid back day - I researched some dentists and doctors that are in my health insurance network. Will have to do that soon... it's weird being a grown-up. Later tonight Tom and I are going to Jordan's brother's band's show. That wasn't confusing at all. Oh well. For now I'm just chilling out waiting for Jordan to call.

Chex Mix

Not much happened over the week, but some things did happen this weekend! And considering I just updated less than a week ago, I'm pretty impressed that I'm here already.

So on Friday at work we decided to go out for lunch. Mostly it was because we hadn't yet since Amanda and I started and we won't be able to for awhile now that our projects are getting underway. So we went to Matt's DinerI got out of work early and furiously cleaned and finished packing and managed to finish just as my mom got here. Then I drove home and got to see my puppy (and family) again. Megan also came home for the weekend, and brought her boyfriend Kory, so it was a full house. Was kind of depressing going into my room again, all empty and boring. Anyway, so got home and just dad was there (and Belle) so we hung out for awhile and then headed out to Mr. Pizza, where Sara, Megan, and Kory met up with us for some delicious food. Afterwards we headed home and played Apples to Apples (dad won by a landslide) and Clue (dad and I won). Then Kory, Megan, Sara, and I watched Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (actually Sara and I fell asleep halfway through, but we attempted to watch it).

On Saturday I slept in, then got up. Good story eh? Dad and Kory went golfing and mom, Megan, and I worked on sewing projects (sort of). While mom was helping Megan, I took Belle to the dog park where she surprised me by wanting to play fetch for the majority of the time instead of playing with the other dogs. There were these two little boys who asked me if they could play fetch with her and I happily agreed. Eventually we headed home and she was exhausted. Then, mom and I went to JoAnn's to get some polar fleece. I'm going to use that on the back of my tshirt quilt so I don't have to have 2 layers (the middle layer and the back). So instead I'm just going to use the polar fleece. We picked out this sort of dark blue, purplely, starburst kind of patterned fleece. I think it's pretty, and it goes well with the tshirts. Mom will probably just finish it for me though, which is kind of lame for me but seeing as I don't have a sewing machine, it kind of makes sense. Anyway. Eventually I got ready for the wedding reception of my old babysitter. She was our neighbor at our old house (where I lived before I was 5) and used to babysit me and my sisters. She has been with this guy for awhile, they've built a house together and had 3 kids and went and got married a couple weeks ago in Puerto Rico. So all 6 of us headed to the dinner and then Sara headed out early. She's the Century High School Volleyball team manager, and they were playing in sectionals on Saturday night to go to State. After we finished eating the 5 of us went down to the civic center to watch the game. They lost the first, won the next two, and lost the last two. It was intense, and I pretty much lost my voice cheering. Afterwards we went back to the reception. I got nailed in the head with the bouquet, took some pictures, ate some cake, and**** here is where I saved the draft, intending to finish it later, and never came back to it. So I'll just post it as is and update again later - it's late!

Pirate!

Hey look it's only been 2 weeks since I last posted! I fail...

So the weekend after my last post my mom came up and dropped Belle off with me while she went to the MoA. It was so fun, I walked Belle over to the Minnehaha Falls offleash dog park. It was amazing! So huge and wooded. And tons of dogs there, plus the back side runs right along the river so she got to go swimming and everything. It was a lot of fun, even though we had to walk there and back. Apparently it wore her out though because she slept the whole way home. So that was fun, unfortunately I left my camera at home so didn't get any pictures of her running around. Then on Sunday Sybylla and I went and got pumpkins, cleaned them out, and carved them. She did a creepy flamey face and I did a bat. They were pretty cool. When I got home Jordan and his girlfriend were carving pumpkins as well!

Then last weekend was Halloween. On Friday night Hannah and I went to a sweet church to watch an SPCO (Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra) concert titled "Frankenstein!!!" It was crazy! They were playing kazoos and reciting bizarre poetry and it was awesome. Then on Saturday I got my pirate costume on and got in the Halloween mood. I lit the pumpkins, turned on the outdoor light, and then the trick-or-treaters started coming. I only had a small bag of candy, because I was planning to go with Hannah to her friend's house to help with the candy-handing-out. So I ran out pretty quick and then turned off the outdoor light but the trick-or-treaters just kept coming! They were persistent, so I had to close the blinds and hide from them. Eventually Hannah came and we went to her friend's house where we watched Adventureland (hilarious and weird) and High School Musical (I know). Then we drove over to McMahon's Irish pub (on Lake Street) and saw Tom who was DJing (guy from work) and had some drinks. Diet Cokes to be precise. We were having fun talking and listening to the good music when this old guy with a handlebar mustache started leaning too close to Hannah and insisting we try the UV Blue that the bar was giving out free samples of. When he talked to the bartender to get her to give us some we said no and she didn't listen! Just poured 2 for us. Well I drank mine but right after that we left and went home. Was a pretty fun Halloween overall - and then Daylight Savings hit and we got an extra hour of sleep! Woohoo!

As far as work has been, it's been really slow. I'm kind of getting upset with it because we don't really have much to do and so we sit around and waste time for a lot of the day. Also, as late as I leave (sometimes 7:55am or later) I'm still always the first one there and no one seems to care if they get there on time or not. Which I sort of understand since we're not doing anything but I feel like I have to at least get there as on time as possible. And then we've also been getting out early which is nice but weird.

Then today we got a new batch of mice that we'll be starting a new project on. Unfortunately this strain of mice is EVIL. So evil that today when we were weighing them 3 separate mice bit me. None were provoked, but luckily they also didn't break the glove/skin barrier. Just left some bruises, and the fear of handling them again. Later tonight Hannah and I went to the Riverview theater to watch District 9. I had forgotten how totally awesome that movie is! That movie is totally awesome! If you haven't seen it, you need to.

And on that note, I'm going to bed. Goodnight!

What season is this?

So, it's been about a month and I have no excuse. It's not like I've been really busy with life or work or anything, I have had plenty of time to update here but just haven't felt like it.

So, list of big news to cover:

1. Job

2. Twins

3. Hannah

4. Sybylla

5. Books

6. Computer

7. Snow

So there are a lot of things I could talk about under each heading but I'll try to keep it short and sweet.

1. Job

So a lot has been going on with the job. Amanda and I are the two new people, Alaina has been there since last February, Katie has been there a few years, and Joe has been there for like 15 years. So the first project was testing different drugs on their ability to relieve pain. We used rats and fractures (to create the bone pain). Katie did the dosing, then Katie and Alaina would watch them for flinching behavior for a couple minutes, Alaina put them in the incapacitance chamber (measures how much weight they put on each leg), and then it was handed to myself or Amanda. We would paint their back feet with Crayola fingerpaint and put them in a cardboard box with a piece of paper at the bottom and have them run across the paper. After the paper dried we measured the length of each foot's stride, and then the widths of the strides. Basically it turned out no useful data but it was a learning experience for everyone. After we did the paint we would anesthetize the rats with isofluorane gas and xray them. Then we went back upstairs and analyzed and graphed all the data we had just collected in SigmaPlot!

Then on the third week we got Monday off for Columbus Day, and then Amanda and I had orientation training on Wed-Fri. A lot of boring lectures and videos but we did make friends with someone in Biomed (in charge of all the equipment), Tom. They had really good muffins on the first day of orientation. We also got paid on Friday, which was awesome!

This week has been really slow. Amanda and I are little more than useless without Alaina or Katie, and Alaina was in Nebraska on Monday and Tuesday and Katie was ill or at school for most of the week. The one thing we did work on was learning about a new project that Amanda will basically be doing involving pain and cognition. So we had been weighing and playing with a bunch of new mice, getting them used to us and learning what their normal mass is just to find out today that those mice were getting switched to a cancer project (that apparently I and Katie will mostly be working on) and we were getting new mice for the cognition one on Tuesday. So basically everything we did manage to do this week was for nothing lol. Other than figuring out how to use the activity boxes that test the mice intelligence (they have to push levers when lights come on to get a treat). I also managed to get a pedestrian key for the gate that I had been walking past every morning, that was really exciting and basically cut my already short commute in half.

2. Twins

So the Twins starting coming back in the league near the end of the season and I was lucky enough to have a good friend (Hannah) who's mother got the swine flu. Sounds horrible, but because her mom got sick they had a spare ticket to the second game against the KC Royals, on October 3 in the Metrodome. The crowd was huge and our seats were in the second to last row right behind home plate. It was a great game, boring at first but got very interesting around the fifth inning. And we pulled off a win! They then went on to tie with the Detroit Tigers, play a tiebreaker game in the Metrodome, and win the League! And then of course the stupid Yankees kicked our ass, but it was still a good regular season!

3. Hannah

So speaking of Hannah, it's been pretty awesome. We basically fell almost completely out of touch near the end of college, but reconnected a few times over the summer and now have done quite a few things together. Watching movies, going out to movies, the Twins game of course, and we're going to go see an orchestra concert sometime in the near future. She lives up here in Minneapolis as well - probably should have mentioned that. She's living in a 2BR apartment with her friend from college. They may be getting a cat soon.

4. Sybylla

And of course with me now living about 3 miles away I've also been seeing Sybylla. Not quite as much as I thought I would, but we have gone to see a movie, gone out to lunch, etc. I went to a fun restaurant called the Chatterbox Pub with her and her mom on her birthday. We played Apples to Apples (they provide games to play) and I lost. I also watched her cat Daisy for a week while her and her mom went to Kansas for a funeral. Daisy is so small and skinny I tried to trick her into eating more food. Shirley (Sybylla's mom) cooked chicken for me to give Daisy and I mixed in some dry cat food and nuked it all together. I also got to use their car while they were gone, which was awesome. I had forgotten how convenient it is having a car. We also went out to Sarah's birthday dinner at a Greek restaurant this past Saturday. The food was surprisingly good, I really need to expand my food choices. Sarah decided to have a hobbit birthday, which means she gave all of us presents that she got in Europe this past summer. I got a cute little Italian leather coin purse with a print of a painting of Florence on it. It's very soft and nice. Vicki was there as well, and it was nice seeing her considering I hadn't since my birthday.

5. Books

So this past weekend Half-Priced Books was having a huge sale at the Grandstand at the Fairgrounds. I finally mustered up the courage to get there via public transportation on Sunday later in the afternoon. And was so glad I did! I got there near the end of the sale which meant the prices just kept dropping. I ended up with 10 CDs, 4 videos, and 6 books all for a total of $3.21. It was amazing. Then this week at work they were having some sort of fundraising sale and I got 3 more books for $1. I should be set on the book front for awhile now.

6. Computer

So last Thursday I finally ordered myself a new computer. A Dell Studio Desktop to be precise. I've been talking about it for ages but my Mayo check came through and Dell was having a big online sale so I finally just went and ordered one. It arrived this Thursday (ie yesterday) and my wonderful neighbors were kind enough to sign it and put it in the house. I spent yesterday after work setting it up and installing some programs and loving its speed and gigantic HD screen. The only problem is that the speakers I ordered with it (external) worked for about 30 seconds and then stopped. Meaning I couldn't sit back and enjoy a nice movie unless I wanted to wear headphones, but I talked to someone today and Dell should be sending me a new set soon. It also has Vista, which I will be getting rid of as soon as I can get the free Windows 7 upgrade.

7. Snow

So for some reason this October has been ridiculous. Actually June through now the weather has been ridiculous. The summer was cold and dry, September was sunny and gorgeous, and October has been cold and wet and occasionally snowy. It snowed two weeks ago and then again today it was coming down for a few hours in beautiful big fluffy flakes. The kind of snow you want to see in December. It was just starting to stick to the ground when the snow turned back into rain and melted it all away.

As far as I'm concerned, I've been doing well, enjoying the freedom of living in the cities, cursing the lack of a vehicle, but overall excited about life. I've started perusing through grad school ideas, since our overall lab supervisor is a big pusher for further education, and just wondering where life will take me. How cheesy. On the other hand I may also be getting sick. Was extremely tired today (and no I didn't stay up that late playing with my new computer last night). I got home early, started working on this post, and then went to take what I thought was going to be a 30 minute nap. It ended up lasting almost 2 1/2 hours. I've also set this screen saver to go through My Pictures and can literally just sit and watch the pictures pass for hours. Ah memories. Also while typing this up I've taken a shower and started cleaning the bathroom. The toilet and sink are now clean and shiny, but the floor and the shower still need to be done. My room is also a sty, and I should be working on it now. My mom is coming up (I think tomorrow?) and so I really should clean things up before she gets here.

So I'm going to go do that. I hope. Or I'll find another way to procrastinate.

Hello real world!

So I realize it's been awhile, and a lot has happened, I'm just getting lazier in my old age (22).

Big events: Mayo, Spay, Book, Move, Job.

Went in to Mayo to finish my study. Spent a lot of boring time sitting around and napping, but hopefully that means I'll be getting a nice fat paycheck any day now. Of course they'll send it to Rochester but I'll get it eventually. Still haven't decided what to do with the money, but a desktop is sounding better and better.

So Belle got spayed on Wednesday. Same day as the Mayo study. I felt so bad for her. We (mom and I) went to pick her up after the Mayo study and she was all loopy/dopey. It was kind of funny because her eyes were half-closed and she'd just stand there and then start leaning. On Thursday it was a bit difficult with her because she was all excited and stir crazy but we couldn't really let her run around too much in case her stitches came out.

On Thursday I also finally called the library to ask what to do about the book I lost. And it turns out someone had returned it! Woohoo! I don't even know if I ever talked about it here but yea.

On Friday night Gramma Karen came up. The rest of the family and her went to the homecoming parade and football game while I furiously packed.

As far as my quilt goes, it's nearly complete (the front side at least) but the sewing machine kept messing up and so I had to stop.

Back to the main events, on Saturday we got up and mom, dad, gramma, and I drove up to Minneapolis to move me into my new place. Megan drove over from Eau Claire and met us there right after we had finished loading everything in. My room looks amazing, the house is great, and my roommate is incredibly nice and laid back. We went to McDonald's to eat and then everyone but Megan left. Megan helped me unpack the stuff into my room and then we went to Target for some stuff I needed. Eventually Megan left and I spent the rest of the night finishing organizing.

On Sunday I spent the day riding around the neighborhood clocking how long it takes me to get to the closest grocery store and to the VA. Then Sybylla and her mom took me out to lunch at Noodles and then over to Target to get some milk. Went back home and worked on the paperwork the VA sent me. Eventually took a shower and went to bed watching Firefly.

Finally, today (Monday) I got up at 6:40am (way too early), got ready for work, sat around nervously waiting, and finally left at 7:30am. Got there extremely early and waited. Eventually the room filled up (interns, cafeteria workers, doctors, it was full of new employees from all over the VA) and for the first 2 hours all we did was the paperwork I'd gone over the day before. So I went downstairs and wandered around. Eventually we watched some dress code video and had an hour break for lunch. I didn't pack one so I rode my bike home and had a sandwich, which was nice. Went back to the VA and learned all about the benefits offered. It was intense, and a bit overwhelming. Finished with the orientation stuff around 3pm and then was taken (finally) to the lab. I got assigned a desk space and then spent the rest of the time going over more computer orientation stuff. I did meet the other new lab tech (Amanda) and another one who works at the lab who graduated from St. Olaf in '08 (Alana or Elena or something like that). Got home, hung out for a bit, and then rode my bike over to Oxendale's to get some taco cheese. Rode back home and cooked tacos, mmmm. Now just watching some Family Guy until I shower and get to bed.

I'm crafty!

So I spent a lot of yesterday and a good part of today finally doing something I'd been wanting to do since I was, like, 9 years old. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have finally started actually making a quilt out of old t shirts! I spent all the time picking out the shirts, ironing them, cutting them into squares, and arranging them in a semi random, semi patterned arrangement. I've got everything from Girl Scout camp to Australia in a variety of colors - and it really emptied out my dresser. This project came about when I was attempting to clean up my room in order to make packing a lot easier. Basically I emptied my dresser onto the floor, saw all the t shirts, and was inspired! Which means that now there are cut up pieces of t shirt all over the basement floor and the rest of my clothes are still covering the floor in my room. So much for cleaning.

In other news, I finally started the Mayo poop study I signed up for back in June. Basically they fed me some radioactive eggs on Wednesday morning and took pictures of them moving through my system all day Wednesday and in the early morning Thursday and today (Friday). Now I have to take a couple of pills for a couple weeks and then do it all over again. But hey - they're paying me for it! I haven't decided what to do with the money yet. I could be a smart, responsible person and save it for a rainy day or to help start paying off those loans. Or I could use it to buy myself a new, much needed, computer (desktop or laptop? It's so hard to decide). Or I could use it towards a brilliant vacation to somewhere I've never been! If you read this, vote on it! Help me decide! Or if you have another idea feel free to share it.

So Megan just called. Apparently her computer's virus/malware just crashed and now her computer keeps crashing and her school's IT can't even figure out what's wrong with it. And I thought my comp was bad - her's is barely a year old! I suppose I did have times when I freaked out about it - like when I got the blue screen of death. Luckily I had the kick ass Dell warranty. Not anymore though!

So I've got all the squares cut out and laid out and I really want to start sewing, because I know that soon I'll get bored with this project and then it will never get done. Like that other mitten that I never knitted. Sigh. Mom won't let me start sewing it without her. She's convinced we'll need to use like a special needle or something, but I just want to get the sucker done! It doesn't have to be perfect, heck half the t shirts have paint stains. But her, dad, and Sara are all at the Century-Mayo football game.

I just got done watching Two Weeks Notice (I love Sandra Bullock) and now I just found one of the best movies is playing on tbs - The Holiday.

Belle's been cute today - following me all around the house, playing with the t shirt scraps. Now she's sleeping in the bed that my mom made for her.

Hmm I wonder if this is an Imogen Heap song. It must be! I just heard part of one on the radio the other day as background to a new song. It was kind of infuriating because the announcer didn't give any credit to them, just to the dude who sang over their song. Now that I think about it, I probably lost all their music when I got the blue screen of death. I should work on recovering that.

I also finally managed to design Sara's homecoming tickets, that she asked me to do months ago. The first one I did was, according to Sara, too boring and simple. So then I did another and that one was too complex and cluttered. So she took both versions to the rest of the student government, and lo and behold, they chose my first design.

This weekend I only work at night, which is kind of nice because I can finally go outside and enjoy the nice weather. Of course I probably won't. Or it'll rain. But tomorrow morning, if it's not raining, dad and I are going fishing again. Hopefully we'll have better luck than last time.

I really want to see Gamer and Surrogates. They both look amazing. I finally saw Post-Grad with mom, Sara, and Emily L. It was funny, but of course everything worked out for her in the end. Which just looked like a big fat lie to me. That and she chose to leave her dream job for the guy she discovered she loved (the plot was a tad predictable), which no one ever really does. I like movies.

I'm drinking root beer through a straw, and I'm convinced the straw has a leak in it but I can't find a leak anywhere! It's really frustrating in a not very frustrating kind of way. Ouch, I just hiccuped while burping and something just hurt when they crossed. Ouchies.

I want a Jude Law. Or even a Jack Black, I'm really not picky. Actually he's very sweet in this movie.

I'm still feeling crafty. I should exploit that and go work on my latchhook pillow or knitting or painting or something. Instead I'll probably just finish watching The Holiday and then whatever's on after that until I finally go to bed.

I don't know if it's good or bad, but all the time I spent gaming while I was at school I now spend watching TV. And it's generally nothing all that good either. I watch crap like Project Runway and America's Next Top Model. But they show them on season-long marathons during the day and it just gets so addicting, and the next one is always on right after the first so I have to know what happens next! Sigh. On the latest ANTM one of the girls is from my hometown. And she won the first challenge! So if you watch that, cheer for Rae! She's my age too, but I don't know her. Apparently my dad knows her dad though.

So I'm probably definitely moving into a house about 5 blocks away from the VA with a 27 year old guy and his 2 year old yellow lab. I can't remember if I've talked about this before, probably have, but it's a really nice house. I want to get a nice big adult-sized bed. My parents were all for it at first, but now they're chickening out, which is one of many things that have ticked me off lately.

The freaking VA. I actually don't want to go into all the latest horrendous things they've done to me, but I'll sum it up briefly. Apparently, my birthday has been changed to September 30, I was offered the position first by the lab and then two weeks later by HR, and it's impossible to just get things done: it all has to go through someone else in another department after getting background checks, fingerprints, and physicals.

Sigh. And yet I'm still going to work for them because I also continue to get rejection emails from all around the US. So I'll put in my two years, save up every penny I can, and then fly my ass somewhere else. I should have done that back in June, when I still had 6 months before having to pay back my loans. By then I would have probably found a job wherever I flew to and could always have the amazing story as part of my life. Remember after graduation when I flew off to ______ for a year? That was so amazing. Oh well. There's some saying about regrets but I don't remember what it is.

The leaves are turning color. I don't know what made me think of that since it's very dark out and I can't see the leaves. But they are, and it saddens me. It can't be fall already! And I can't still be at home during the fall, it's just unnatural.

I think I've finally run out of things to talk about. Thanks for sticking with me so far! And remember to vote!

PS - I FOUND THE LEAK! It was in the bendy bit. I knew it!

Post #100

Yep, that's right. This is my 100th post on this blog. Kind of sad and impressive at the same time. If each post was a page, I'd have a 100 page book already written. Of course some are a lot longer than a page and some are a lot shorter, but they might even out. Anyway, a lot has happened since Kristin was here.



First of all, I can't believe it's already September. I don't know where the summer went but I am not ready for it to be over.



Well I spent the days after Kristin left mostly working at Culver's. On Wednesday I got an email from the VA finally officially offering me a job. And on Friday I emailed them back accepting it. Still not sure if that was the best move but it's not like I have any other offers on the table. Since then I've been looking for apartments in the cities close to public transportation.



On Saturday the whole family (including Belle) drove up to Eau Claire to move Megan into her school. We had to rent a U-Haul and because they double booked the size we wanted we ended up getting a gigantic one. It was freezing cold and we couldn't figure out how to put her stupid futon together but it was kind of fun. Went to Arby's afterwards.

On Sunday we got up early again, this time to drive up to the Metrodome to watch the Twins beat the Rangers 5-3. We parked on the street and walked over and hung out at the food plaza for awhile, then watched the game and lost our voices cheering. The fans were great - the wave went all the way around the stadium 4 times before dying. Mauer was kind of having a sucky day but the rest of the players were doing pretty good. After the game, I drove home and first mom made me drive around the neighborhoods where I looked up craigslist ads for places to live. Basically we were the drivers everyone hates, slowly driving past houses, getting lost following the GPS. Finally convinced them to let me drive home.

Monday I got up later - on my 22nd birthday! Got dressed and headed up to the cities again. This time I went to Sybylla's house where I met her and Vicki. Then we headed to a church for the shuttle to the state fair. Spent the day at the fair, eating fried food on a stick and seeing animals and walking around. We saw a sheep give birth to triplets, I ate a footlong corndog, got a bucket of delicious cookies for my birthday along with all you can drink milk for $1, rode down a giant slide on a potato sack, watched a pond full of fish, and a bunch of random state fair fun with the roomies. After that, I went over to visit one of my potential living situations. It's in a 3 bedroom house with a 27 year old guy and his 2 year old lab. It's also about 5 blocks away from the VA - yay walking distance! His name is Jordan and he is really nice. I could easily see myself living there. It is a little more expensive than I wanted though.

Tuesday I slept in and did nothing all day but bring Belle to the dog park and then to puppy class.

Today I got up early and went to Mayo to do a screening. They had to take blood and I got a bit light-headed. It took forever, and every time I go there it's going to be like at 7 am. Ugh. At least the study is going to pay well. Then I took Belle to the dog park, and then came home and I was going to start packing stuff up. That didn't work too well though. Then went to work and had to train a 14 year old with ADHD. UGH. She didn't pay attention, was slow as molasses, and then proceeded to tell her friends who came in that she was "learning quick" and "hardly needed any more training." I wanted to strangle her and just do it myself. I hate training. Luckily she was only there until 7, and then I got to have more fun in drive thru and then set and then just helping people start closing. At some point I stupidly agreed to work until 8 tomorrow, but I did get to get off an hour early on Saturday (we're going up to the cities to see a Lynx game).

Now I'm just watching some George Lopez and wondering what to do. Getting tired though so I may head to bed early. Sorry this post is so late - I actually started it last night and forgot to finish it. Good thing it autosaves!

Weekend with Kristin

So this has been a very intense weekend, and yes I know I'm skipping over what's happened since the cliff incident. I'm skipping it because basically nothing other than me working every single day between Friday and Thursday happened.

On Thursday (20th) night after work I went to see District 9 with some people from work. Well at least it was supposed to be some people from work but some of them backed out at the last minute so it ended up being just Josh and I. Josh is practically the only non-manager at Culver's who has worked there longer than I have. He also just graduated college and, like me, is looking for a job. So we went to the movie and it was amazing. Such a brilliant idea and so unique from every other alien movie out there. I really recommend seeing it.

On Friday I started preparing for Kristin to arrive. Kristin was one of my best friends while I was in Australia and lives in Greenbay, Wisconsin. Why I haven't seen her before this weekend is a mystery of poor planning on our part. Anyway, she came on Friday afternoon and we ended up bringing Belle to the dog park and then going to the mall. Saw Hannah working at the pretzel place and then went to Maurice's for Kristin to get a new shirt. Wandered around for a bit and then ate dinner at Applebee's while watching the Vikings play for the first time with Brett Favre as quarterback. He sucked. On the way home we stopped at a redbox to get a movie - Push. Didn't end up watching it but played cribbage instead. Then went to bed in the basement.

Was woken up very very early by Belle whining, and of course since it was Saturday no one else in my family got up with her (to be fair, mom was away on her girl's weekend and Sara was camping). Took care of her, went back to bed for a little while, and then woke up early and got ready to go to the Renaissance Festival. Unfortunately there wasn't an actual address listed, which made it hard to find using the GPS. Kristin drove and we got there just before they opened the gate. We got in, picked up a schedule of shows and events, and planned out the day. It was brilliant - we got to see so many amazing shows and got great seats to the joust! We also ate good food there and Kristin got a few neat souvenirs. We left about 30 minutes before it closed - it was just so much fun! We got home, ate food, and then watched Push. It was pretty good, but felt like it wasn't really over when the movie ended. Rearranged our sleeping arrangements and went to sleep a bit early.

Woken up again by Belle but this time dad got up with her the second time so it was alright. Kristin was feeling a bit sick so she showered and then napped for awhile as I showered and ate breakfast. Also got coupons for the MN Zoo, which was where we were headed that day. This time I drove, and luckily since it's well known, year round, and has an actual address we got there with no delay. We toured the outdoor exhibits first - smart move considering how hot it got later in the day. Started with the tigers and worked our way around the loop. We then went inside to see the sharks and dolphins, and spent a lot of time watching the dolphins play. One of them swam up and splashed the crowd, all on its own! They were so graceful in the water, not to mention playful and fun to watch. We then went through the tropics trail and then over to the bird show. That was really exciting, and amazing what they can teach birds to do! Finally we got something to eat and headed back to Rochester. Kristin packed up and left for Greenbay and I crashed.

Today (Monday) I worked from 11 - 3:30 (was supposed to work until 4) and then came home, showered, took a little nap, and then went over to Hannah's house at 5 pm. There we watched The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers before finally calling it quits. One can only handle so much Frodo! We also talked a lot about how depressing it is to be unemployed and not going back to school. She works at the pretzel place again tomorrow and, since I don't work, I'm considering popping over to say hi. Well after the 6 hour marathon at her house I came home and watched the end of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days with Megan and Sara and then came up here to post this entry.

Over the weekend I took 342 pictures and about 11 videos. Insane. Well that's all there is, and I'm still tired from the weekend, so I'm off to bed soon.

Hanging over the cliff's edge

So today was so exciting I had to post about it. Last night Megan was sad because she had no plans for the weekend, so she and I tentatively planned to go tubing in Lanesboro today. So I set my alarm to go off at 10:30 am and went to bed.

This morning I woke up, found out that Megan was still sleeping, and so went back to bed. Woke up later and we started getting ready to go. We got dressed, started packing up towels and sunscreen and Megan looked up the directions and tried to find some tubes that weren't popped (unsuccessful in that). Eventually we managed to get into the car and get going around 12:30.

Headed south and got stuck in road construction traffic and so it took us about 40 minutes just to get out of Rochester. We kept going and started to see some rain clouds on the horizon. This is when we realized we never actually checked the weather for today. So since my aunt and uncle and cousin were down camping at a campsite near Lanesboro we called to see if it was raining and it was. We decided since it was just scattered showers and still hot we'd just keep going anyway. On the way we saw a sign for the campsite our relatives were staying at and decided to head there and just go tubing on that section of the river.

We were going up the long narrow drive up to the place when all of a sudden a huge semi truck came barrelling down the middle of the road. Megan was driving and she started moving towards the side of the road since it was narrow and we'd only both fit if we hugged the sides. The truck moved over a little but not nearly far enough and so to avoid an accident, Megan pulled over just enough so that the left wheels of the car went off the road. Unfortunately, since we were back in the hills and the road was going up the side of it, where the road ended so did the ground. Which meant the wheels were basically hanging over empty space. Okay that's a slight exaggeration, it did have a steep drop but the wheels were on ground, it just happened to be very muddy and slick and the car sank into it and basically the stuff underneath the car was resting on the asphalt.

A man and his kid who drove up behind the semi actually stopped and helped keep us from totally freaking out as I climbed into the back and out of the car and Megan set the emergency brake and climbed out as well. He corroborated our story and even remembered the kind of truck so we could send angry phone calls to the company. Called our aunt and uncle and they came and really took care of us. They called the tow place while we called our parents and our parents found out we have towing insurance and so a guy came out and hooked up the left side of the car to a crane and the right side to a tree on the other side of the road and he pulled the car up and over and there (luckily) wasn't any damage to the car.

Drove it up and parked in the campsite parking lot and there Megan and I just ate our packed lunch and tried to calm down from all the stress. Then went and played volleyball with our relatives and their friends and then borrowed some of their tubes and went tubing. Eventually got too tired and cold and headed home.

Got home and Belle was super hyper, which of course means no one did anything with her all day. So I took her to the dog park for about 30 minutes until it started raining. Then we headed home.

Well that's about it for today, other than watching George Lopez and reading Flowers in the Attic, which is a really depressing book.

I also managed to get some sun on the river, hooray for vitamin D!

Drama at the Dog Park

Sigh. So I'll start off with a story from tonight and then backtrack and try to fill in as much from the last 11 days as possible.

So around 7:30 tonight I decided to take Belle to the dog park and mom decided to join me because she'd never taken Belle there before. So we got there and she played with a cute little bloodhound for awhile and then found a cute little 3 1/2 month old black lab puppy to play with. They were playing nice together and mom was busy chatting up the owner of the other puppy when Megan, Sara, and Emily L. came and watched her play. Of course this was a bit overwhelming for me because I usually go with her alone or maybe with Megan. I don't tend to chat a lot with other owners and am very non-confrontational. A few weeks back for example there was this basset hound puppy that plays a little too rough. Megan was there with me and it just pulled or bit down a little too hard and Belle would yelp and run away (or try to) with her tail between her legs. So last time I just would pick up Belle and walk her over to a different group of dogs to play with. This time however, the basset hound was back and its owners weren't watching it hardly at all (they were sitting at a picnic table 100 yards away). Well it came and interrupted the little lab puppy playtime and started barking at them and again playing too rough. Mom got worried and tried to pull the basset off of Belle and kept saying "no" and just kept trying to separate them. The basset owners noticed and the guy started yelling "she's just a puppy, she's just barking." Which of course inspired mom to yell back something about how she wasn't just barking and how she knows because she goes to puppy class and so there was a mini yelling match between mom and this guy and then the girl got a bit involved and then I did too but meanwhile he came over and put his dog on a leash and walked it away. Of course that inspired a lot of gossip between us 5 and the black lab puppy's owner. Because of how defensive he was and how quick he was to try and defend his dog it makes me think that it had happened before. You'd think he'd learn to watch his puppy and try to teach it to be less aggressive instead of just defending it and letting the behavior solidify itself in this poor puppy. Once that dog grows up it won't have any excuse for its aggressive behavior and its owners will regret not training it properly. Anyway, the basset hound owners just walked their puppy over to another picnic table full of people to probably talk about us. Sigh. There's never any drama when I take her by myself.

As far as these past 11 days have been, I seriously haven't done anything of note. One night I went over to Jackie's (when Sara had her Holy Spirit class reunion party at our house) and we watched Legend of Zorro. Yesterday Jackie and Natalie (her sister) and I took some old paperback books to this new used bookstore where you can trade in your old books for store credit and then use it to buy other used books from them. It was great, I got rid of about 7 books (big deal for me) and got 3 new ones. Afterwards Natalie went to her friend's house and Jackie and I went downtown to return some library books and run some errands. Then I went home and went to let out Becky's dogs (fat old black lab and hyper little shih tzu) and then to meet mom and Belle at her puppy class. Belle lost one of her teeth at the class (she's supposed to lose them all by around 5 months).

Later last night I was catching up with some people online and then got into a texting argument with an ex which was incredibly unpleasant. It's just that he doesn't get me at all lol. Keeps thinking that when I say I don't want to talk to him it's because I still have feelings for him. Sigh.

I really don't know what else to talk about here which is incredibly lame. Considering how long it's been since I last posted, I really haven't done a whole lot.

Went to the funeral and saw my cousin who got bit by a (brown recluse?) spider and had to go to the ER three times to get the bite cleaned out and get some good pain drugs.

Right now my sister (Sara) is practicing for her danceline tryouts tomorrow by dancing to this horriblely annoying music.

Dad and I are watching Extra. Not really sure why. Also watching CSI: NY which is about a stalker who got killed by one of the people he was stalking and I totally don't blame her.

I'm bored and I think I've been bored all summer. One thing I have been doing lately is playing Spore. I got the game when my hard drive crashed only to find out my computer can't handle it. But apparently my mom's laptop has a good enough video card to play it so that has been my latest addiction. I haven't been as obsessive with it as I would be just because I have to use my mom's computer to play it.

Last night there was supposed to be a big meteor shower but I went out during the supposed peak time and didn't see a thing. It didn't help that the moon was so full and bright and it was freezing outside. I wish I could curl up in a sleeping bag next to someone and just stare at the stars all night.

I had to reapply for the VA through like usajobs.com or something and I just got an email from them saying that I qualify for the job, but it's not a job offer. Wtf does that mean? I don't even know what to expect from them anymore. I don't really want this job but I do want a job and I'm sort of assuming after all this bs they've put me through they darn well better give me one.

R.I.P. Aunt Betty

My grandma's sister-in-law (my dad's Aunt Betty) had been sick for awhile. Last weekend my parents went down for a day to Iowa to visit her, and she wasn't doing so well. Yesterday her kids made the tough decision to take her off life support. So now we're going down to Iowa on Sunday for the wake and the funeral on Monday. The only good part of this story is that now she's with her husband, my great-Uncle Dick, assuming there's an afterlife of some sort.

Tuesday I went bowling with Hannah and Liz from Century tech. It was pretty fun, caught up on a lot of gossip and actually bowled really well. I broke 100 both times - although the first time the computer was cheating for me and kept adding 1 pin to whatever I actually bowled (not every time, but often enough, and once gave me a spare). First game I got 111, second I got 121. We only played two games but ended up spending 2 1/2 hours there just talking and catching up. Hannah is sort of in the same boat as I am. She was an English major and is trying to get a job in the cities. She's going to move there (if all goes well) in September. Liz is going to vet school at Columbia in Missouri, while living in an apartment with her boyfriend. At first (since she has no undergrad debt) I was thinking she had it made. Then she informed me that she took out a $50,000 loan just for the first year. After that I started to feel bad for her, although she at least has a plan.

Wednesday I didn't do much, but later that night I hung out with Jackie again. We went to DQ again and then off to Cinemagic to see The Ugly Truth. It was pretty funny, but I think I was expecting more. It also had a very confusing conclusion. I couldn't figure out what the moral of the story was. Be yourself? Be a slut? All so confusing.

On Thursday I worked from 11-5:30 (was supposed to work until 8:30) and walked home afterwards. Then took Belle to Foster Arends park where mom was having a work picnic and had a swimming lesson. Belle first jumped into the little lake and immediately sunk. And then clawed her way to the surface and figured out how much she loves to swim.

Today I woke up very very early to Belle barking her head off around 5:15 am. Took her around 20 minutes to quiet down and that much again longer for me to get back to sleep. Then she started up again around 7:15 am after mom and Sara left for a tour of the U of M and finally I got so fed up with it I just yelled "BELLE! THAT'S ENOUGH!" And she stopped! It was amazing. I still slept badly this morning because one of the neighbors was getting their house re-roofed and it was soo loud and noisy. Eventually got up, took a shower, started some laundry, and then headed down to the Apache mall to see if I could catch Hannah at work at the pretzel place. No luck there, but I did get a book (one recommended by Joel, The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin). Then came home, took Belle to the dog park (where she made friends with a malamute named Balto) and then came home and got ready for work. Worked until 10:30, came home, and started the long stupid application for the job at the VA. Took awhile to finish (all the normal stupid ridiculous application stuff that is all on my resume anyway). Now just working tomorrow 11 - 8:30 and then Sunday 11 - 2 and then down to Iowa.

PS - I can't believe it's already August.

Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down!

"Though we adore men individually, we agree that as a group they're rather stupid." ~Mrs. Banks from Mary Poppins.

Just watched that tonight after work at Jackie's house. Been spending a lot of time with her now that she's back from Washington and wishing I wouldn't have to ever stop. Come on Chicago Zoo! Hire me!

I also finally reconnected with Hannah, we watched Coraline and played with Belle and are trying to make plans to go bowling with the old CHS techie crew sometime, but it's hard because some of them don't live here anymore and we're all old.

This is going to be a short post. I really have been hanging out with Jackie a lot (we played Myst, went to DQ, and just hang out) but other than that just working and watching Belle grow.

Still don't know what I'm doing, still not sure about the job thing at the VA but I keep finding more things to apply to.

Went to the library to try to find American Psycho but it was already checked out and going to be on hold for someone else once it's back. So instead I went to my normal route in the SciFi/Fantasy section and picked up the rest of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series as well as a series by Anne McCaffrey that I've not read yet. So far the McCaffrey set is pretty good - and different from her other stuff.

I did end up getting a 0.75$ raise at Culver's - woohoo! Makes working there a lot more worthwhile. I mean if I think about it, if I worked there full time and stayed at home with free room and board I could save up quite a bit. But I'd also go insane so maybe not quite a good idea just yet.

It's amazing to me how quickly time passes. Especially since I'm not really doing anything during that time. I work, eat, sleep, watch tv, stare at my computer screen, and read and not necessarily in that order.

A few days ago I actually went to the RAC and did a circuit and thought yea I'll do this more often and get better and track my progress. That was on the 22nd and today is the 26th. Haven't been back since. Damn me and my laziness.

Apart from the weight gain my hair is also continuing to grow. It's getting pretty long, but I've decided I won't cut it until I either go back to Australia or figure out what I'm going to do next year. I have a feeling it's going to get very very long.

Belle has a vet appointment tomorrow and I have to bring in a fecal sample. Looking forward to that.

Still having issues with my dreams - things I could swear I don't want in my conscious state keep cropping up while I'm unconscious. Not to mention the glorious impossible realities that persist in dreams. Sometimes I wish I would never wake up.

Well I don't know what I'm rambling on about or why I even bothered to post today, but it has been awhile and maybe if I wasn't so lazy I'd do it more often and you'd get more fine details of my mundane life. As it is... this is all you get!

It's July Minnesota! WTF

It is freezing today. And of course, today is the day I woke up at 6am to go up to Lake Pepin to go fishing with my dad on our boat. It was cold and windy and we only caught 6 fish in the 5 hours we were there. It was fun in the sense that I haven't been out MN fishing in a long long time, but miserable in the sense that it was freezing cold, windy, and wavy, plus hardly any fish.

After we finally decided to call it quits, we headed back to the launch where I dropped dad off at the dock to go get the car and trailer and I drove the boat around in circles until he backed it into the water. Drove the boat up onto the trailer (crooked) and then when dad tried to straighten it out I had to get into the car. Unfortunately it was still in the water so I tried to jump to clear it and dad tried to help me time it between waves but I totally failed and had one leg soaked. Had to take off my sock and shoe in the car before my foot froze *although it got pretty cold anyway!*. Slept in the car, and when we got home, after emptying the car/boat and saying hi to Belle, I went to my bed for a 2 hour nap before work. I was freezing and feeling very cold-fever-sick-ish. Kept feeling that way even after I woke up, ate leftover mac and cheese, and went to work. 45 minutes later, after being very morose (as opposed to my usual cheerful self) at work, I got sent home and spent the rest of the evening (so far) watching House with Megan (until she left) and looking for jobs online.

Probably time to mention the fact that I haven't updated in a long time - and really for no reason other than laziness.

Not to mention the fact that not much has happened. At all. Basically I've just been working at Culver's, trying to get ahold of the VA (they finally replied this past Monday - with not a lot of information, saying they'd get back to me by the end of the week but haven't heard since), playing with Belle (puppy class, dog park, training), and seeing the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

I went to it with Megan, Sara, and Sara's friend Amy. Megan and I went at 10:30 and were almost out the door in the line. I dressed up in a witch hat and my Gustavus grad gown and some other people were Hogwarts ho's and some full on awesome costumes. We had a nice Hagrid/Dumbledore duel in front of the theater before the show started (Dumbledore won). Overall the movie was very fun and pretty good up until (SPOILER?) the Burrow exploded. Wtf? Kind of destroyed the plot after that. And totally skipped the final battle scene, but whatever it was still enjoyable as a movie.

For the 3-4 days prior to the movie coming out my dad had managed to read the entire book. That was impressive, and made me want to reread it as well. I was already reading Angela's Ashes and The Dragon Companion but decided to start rereading it anyway. So now I'm reading 3 books and not very into any of them.

Belle just farted. And it stinks. Gah. Dog farts are the worst.

Seriously I can't think of anything else to share. Which is incredibly sad considering I haven't updated in 10 days.

Oh well, I guess life can't be all that exciting always.

Groundfish Survey Part II

So I'll finally pick up where I left off from my journal and then (hopefully) share a bit of what I've been up to since coming home.

6/26 at 2:00 pm

Another long day with hardly any breaks. I slept like a log and completely missed my first alarm - good thing I have a backup! No new species really - other than a pretty spotted crab. There was also a teeny crab that I put in a vial to keep. I think I'm finally getting used to the rocking ship - either that or it's getting calmer out. I did see a couple of waterspouts today (tornadoes over water), which was both exciting and scary. No one else was worried about it though. One of our trawls today was 70 kilos and 50 of that was shrimp! Ugh. We started getting really behind after that (like 2 trawls behind) and yet again no breaks. Lunch was pretty good - fried catfish and salad and fries. The dinner tonight is spaghetti but I probably won't request any. Hung around outside a bit after eating/showering but not a lot going on. I may go to bed early, but now I'm going on one more wander.

6/27 at 2:53 pm

Getting late again. Was an awesome day though! We had tons of long breaks and one haul was super tiny (like 3 kilos). We did have another mud haul but still. It was good timing too because I slept terribly - for some reason I just kept waking up. Sometimes I had weird dreams too. Anyway, nothing too exciting during work - except a lot of talking with Joel. He was a big Ursula LeGuin fan and so we talked sci fi for awhile. Had a nice French dip sandwich for lunch and started my laundry after that. Then I watched Scrubs with Alonzo for a bit but then he fell asleep and I nearly did too. Switched my laundry and then wandered around outside for a bit. Good timing too! I walked out to the deck outside my room, started staring at the water, and a dolphin came! It just swam right up to the front of the boat - they I mean. There were at least 3 and 2 were a mother and calf. So awesome! Tried and mostly failed to get pictures and they swam to the other side of the ship. I ran down and across and finally saw them swimming behind the boat like they were following it. They soon lost interest though and swam away. After that I sat on the deck reading for awhile. Came in, tried to get my laundry and it wasn't done yet. So I took a shower, now writing in here, and then I'll go get it and climb into bed. Off I go.

6/28 at 1:24 pm

Had another rough night. Woke up every 2 hours-ish from bad dreams - and most had something to do with Jazzy. I miss her. So I'd wake up sad, remember she was really gone and then get sadder. Work was busy but not hectic - mostly just steady. A couple of horrible mud tows, but luckily not too much shrimp. Finally saw sharks today - we were stopped to haul in the next trawl and had just dumped the latest one and 3-4 sharks came and swirled around eating the dead fish (~4-5 ft long). They also stopped shortly after the sharks to go diving.

Interesting timing, which sparked a lot of discussion about sharks and shark attacks. Emailed home, ate lunch (fried fish with skin on it - good but ew) and showered. Went outside where Walter (cook) told me I'd get a better view from the top. So I finally got adventurous and climbed to the top - literally above my room which is on the top inside section/floor. And there I took pictures of the line of rain intruding on sunny skies.

And then I started to get wet. So much for sunbathing! Came back in and decided to write some postcards and head to bed early. (PS - planning on starting a list of species in the back of this)

6/29 at 1:30 pm

Long shift today. Slept bad last night - nightmares about sorting fish in my bed! Closed the porthole but that didn't help. Small break at the beginning - good because Joel and Casey overslept, Joel got in at 11:58 pm and Casey at 12:19 am. Then steady/busy until ~9:30 am. Then we were practically done, other than bongos/neuston. Saw an octopus in an old Budweiser beer can and caught a HUGE snapper - 26 inches long and 5 lbs of fillets. Also sliced my left middle finger open while putting shrimp in the freezer. All the fish and saltwater kept stinging it until I found the band aids. Went through two before I got the brilliant idea to cover it with duct tape. Didn't come off then until I took it off for my shower. Nice. Ate grilled cheese for lunch (+ a salad) then showered, got dressed, and went outside. Gorgeous day. Sat on the deck and started the species' names list in the back. I'll keep adding as I remember. But I'm doing them all 100% by memory - no cheating! All of these things I currently have memorized (not for long I'm betting). Haven't decided yet if I'll go back out and read, go out and up and read, or just read here and sleep. After starting the list I went to the dry lab and emailed people. I'm so desperate for outside communication! Ah well, I'll end it here.

6/30 at 12:59 pm

See emails. Tacos and sleeping pills from Aspen for lunch - no apple at breakfast. Overslept this am. Autobahn on History Channel at lunch. Nonstop work until 10 am - drills. Sleep. I hope.

*** Inserting the email sent home for this day here***

Today has been a really hard day for me. Last
night I hardly slept at all - and for no reason it seems. I just didn't
sleep - my brain wouldn't stop thinking of random stuff! I finally got
to sleep for about an hour between 5-6 pm and then woke up again and
didn't sleep until 10 pm. And then I slept until 12:40 am - which meant
I was late for my shift. Aspen (roommate who's on the day shift) came
in and woke me up and then I scampered. Luckily they hadn't had
anything to do yet but the trawl started coming up as I finished a few
bites of cereal.

Since then, we've been working nonstop until around 10 am. Quick break
for breakfast but we had a huge trawl come in (11 baskets - we usually
 have between 1 and 4). And there were about 3000 shrimp in it - which
have to be individually counted and measured. After that we started
falling behind - first just one trawl behind and then 2. And then the
computer froze on us! Luckily we eventually caught up right around 10
am which was good timing (or evilly planned) because then we had a fire
drill. I felt so bad because all of the day shift had to wake up and go
to the assigned spot.    

Directly after that we had an "abandon ship"
drill. Luckily we didn't have to try on the survivor suits this time,
but it still took awhile. After that, Aspen headed back to bed and I
went back to work. Which meant cleaning out the wet lab with PineSol to
try to get rid of some of the smell. And then back in the dry lab to
sit. Yay sitting.

I could fall asleep right now, but the trawl just went in so we have a
30 minute break. Hopefully by the time we finish that we'll be about done.

Earlier I had some lemonade, and it was mostly gone when I noticed there
was a fish scale in it. Which prompted a short debate over whether or
 not to drink the remaining lemonade. In the end I decided to drink the
 rest of it while avoiding drinking the scale. I call it compromise.

Only new and interesting creature has been a shark sucker - black white
and gray fish that is usually stuck on bigger sharks. Other than that
just shrimp, shrimp, and more shrimp. Well we had all the other stuff
too but nothing else new.

Currently we are about 30 miles due south of Sabine Lake - I think
Louisiana but it could be in Texas. It's a bit rainy out but off and on.

Planning on finishing work, eating some lunch, finding some sleeping
drugs and going to bed. 

7/1 at 3:05 pm

Today has been a great day! Not that I slept any better (even with the sleeping pills) but I think I at least slept for longer. Had a nice-paced day. Started and ended with breaks but busy in between. Not behind or rushed, just consistent. We caught a big spade fish - funny in comparison to the size we usually catch. Joel and I took pictures of ourselves with it next to a strategically placed fishing pole.

We also caught some little black tip sharks and I saved some croakers. All big hauls today - closer to shore. All the seagulls are back too. Dumped one haul when next was coming up and saw sharks go after the old and dolphins following the new in. They came right up next to the boat (dolphins) and some people got some good pics. Since I failed at picture-taking I opted to get some video. Haven't watched them yet (battery died and is charging now) but I'm hopeful! At around 10:30 we finished and were told the next station was 90 minutes away. Score! So Joel and I went to the lounge and watched National Treasure: Book of Secrets with Vinny (engineer). After that we ate lunch (noodles and fish and double chocolate cookies) and then back to the lounge to watch Hot Fuzz. Which was hilarious! Casey came and watched the end. Then I showered and went out and up to read on the top of my room for awhile. Cloudy sort of but still got enough sun to feel sleepy (hope I sleep!). Overall it's been a great day and since tomorrow may be my last shift I hope it goes just as well (if not better!).

7/2 at 9:51 pm

Yes, it's about an hour and 1/2 from when I normally wake up and I've been awake for 22 1/2 hours. Normal shift - one triple dip but not too much shrimp so no big deal really. Nothing too new or exciting during the shift - other than sharing pictures! I miss home but I'm going to miss here too. Lunch was burgers and salad, then watched Apocalypto - weird but good. Then Casey and Keith watched Wanted and Joel was in his room so I started laundry. Watched a bit of the movie then wandered around/read outside for awhile.

Talked to the attractive ensign Aaron for awhile, watched the CTD and trawl go in and out from the deck outside my room.

Saw one dolphin when talking to Aaron and a shark earlier when I threw a couple of dead croakers over - but nothing too fantastic. I'm so tired! Found Joel again at dinner - I just had a potato and chocolate fudge cake (omg). After, I went down to the dry lab and heard the rest of Joel's scandalous advisor drama. Back in the lounge watched part of Bangkok Dangerous (Nicolas Cage) with Vinny, Aspen, and Joel. Now bedtime for me - screw the postcards!

7/3 at 11:58 pm

Got up - bought a t-shirt and said goodbye to Casey and Aspen and most everyone else. Hung around the ship for a bit - got online and no one had emailed me :(. Joel came back and then we walked to the beach (long and HOT walk). Got there and set up under nice umbrellas with chairs.

Joel went in the water and I sat and a dude with a clipboard came and asked if I wanted to rent the umbrella and chairs. I was like hell no and moved my stuff and went out to the water.

Didn't stay there as long as I'd have liked to - Joel got too hot (and little did I know it but I was getting toasted as well). Headed up and found a piratey beach bar and had some frozen margaritas (not as bad as I thought).

I spilled water all over the table and Joel got wings which took forever to arrive. Then started the long, scenic, and semi-depressing walk back. Stopped at a Foodmart once just to cool down. Was walking around in my flip flops and got blisters in between my big toe and second toe on both feet (one just popped and oozed - nice). Walked back to the boat and then showered. Then went with Alonzo and Joel on the long traffic-ridden trip to Walmart so Joel could get a cooler for his fish samples. Got back and took pictures of the "Capt. Joel" boat and then I watched The Bourne Identity with Jared and Alonzo while Joel wandered around Galveston. He called and invited me to dinner and so I went out and met him. Couldn't find a place and the Quiznos was closed (next to pink Elvis lofts - wtf?) so ended up taking a long circle to a Japanese place so Joel could have sushi. Sushi?! After the trip we've just had that surprised me, but whatever! I had the most boring salad. Our waitress must have been new because she kind of sucked. Didn't get the chicken on my salad and Joel was shorted a lime but whatever. Headed back to the ship, talked for a bit, and then Joel headed to bed while I started packing/cleaning/throwing towels in the laundry. Timers are set to go off at 7 am tomorrow so hopefully I'll get up and won't forget my starfish. Can't wait to get home!

List of species:

Stenotamus caprinus - scaly, silver fish

Portunus spinicarpus - spiky brown crab with long arms

Callinectes similus - green crab with blue and white, bigger claws

Trichurus lepturus - cutlass fish

Lagodon rhomboides - blue and yellow striped fish (my favorite!)

Porichthys plectrodon - brown/gold with electropores

Peprilis burti - butterfish, silver, smooth

Solenocera vioscai - long horned shrimp

Calappa sulcata - crab that fits together like a stone, orange

Bregomacerus atlanticus - little, silvery minnow

Synodus foetens - lizard fish, long skinny and brown

Amusium paprycium - "funny papers!" scallops

Lutjanus campechanus - red snapper

Micropogonias undulatus - croaker, green/gold, non-forked tail

Upeneus parvus - goatfish, pink with black and white striped tail

Pristimopoides aquiloneres - pink fish

Serranus atrobanchus - small, pinkish, tiny

Loligo peali - squid, pointed mantle

Lepophidium brevibarbe - eel, gold with black edge

Raja texana - skate

Muscalis canis - dogfish shark

Penaeus aztecus - brown shrimp!

Trachypenaeus similus - smaller shrimp, rough carapace

Urophycis floridanus - hake, gray and black

Centropristus philadelphicus - like a bass

Hildebrandia flava - long, thin eel, gold

Polystira tellea - spiral shell

Anasimus latus - spider crab

Cynoscian nothus - white trout, narrow anal fin

Cynoscian aeronarus - white trout, broad anal fin

Lolliguncula brevis - squid, broad mantle

Bollmania communis - minnow with hake-like tail

Selene setapinnus - moon fish, big forehead

Chloro. chrysurus - yellow top and tail

Callinectes sapidus - big version of similus

Leiostomatus xanthuras - like croaker but forked tail

Opisthonema ophelium - sparkly blue and green top, silver bottom

And ladies and gentlemen that's all I wrote!

Not much has happened since coming home. I worked my shift at Culver's - luckily the manager I had the argument with wasn't working on Sunday. I ended up getting off a couple of hours early which was nice. I'm scheduled to work everyday this week except Monday and Wednesday. Went in on Tuesday (rode my bike) and worked for about an hour before they sent me home. They keep overstaffing the place and weekdays are not very busy. Later that day I went with mom to Belle's first puppy class. It was kind of fun and kind of a joke. The first 30 minutes of the class was spent watching the puppies just play with each other, which was really cute. Belle is very social! Then we took them outside to potty, then back in to learn "sit." Belle pretty much knows it though so that was kind of a waste. The class went well over the time limit and the teacher told us it probably would every night. Then why don't they just say that class is from 6 - 7:30 instead of saying it's 6 - 7 and then going over every night? Seems to be poor planning or advertising.

Tuesday night I went to see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen with both my sisters and their boyfriends. It was a little awkward, and I think I'd have enjoyed the movie more seeing it with different people, but it was still fun. The movie was lacking a lot of the class of the first one. I mean, the random corny bits were just a little too much. And why were the Decepticons all of a sudden speaking English half the time? I did like that Optimus kicked a lot more ass in this one than he did in the first one. He was definitely much cooler.

Today I didn't do a whole lot. I baked cookies - that lasted a few hours. Hopefully the cookies themselves will last longer than my last batch did. Cookies seem to disappear quickly in this house - but I hid three bags in freezers this time. After that I took Belle over to the dog park and she had a blast. Of course the ground is all muddy so she got pretty dirty but I think it was worth it to see my little 12 week old lab trying to take on a fully grown mastiff. She is such a brave little dog! She also made good friends with an 11 week old huskie. She's definitely not shy! Watched some of the Twins game and then went to the RAC where I watched all the way until the top of the ninth inning. Then I had to shower and head home - and I'm still not sure how they did. I should go check that. Apparently they lost. Oh well, at least it was close!

Now I'm heading to bed (probably). Still no word from the VA or any of my other jobs (other than another almost instant rejection from Mayo).