First week of torture

This week has gone by incredibly slowly. Or slow. Whatever, it has just dragged on and on with seemingly no end in sight. Luckily, today that end is finally in sight.

The only good part about not having my favorite 2 coworkers here anymore is that there is a lot more for me to do in a general day. The bad part is that, as I mentioned previously, the days go by a hell of a lot slower. Not to mention that Tom's been gone this week as well. Right now I'm just waiting for his plane to land so I can go pick him up from the airport and get some lunch with him.

Katie's gone today (other coworker), off to her home in Milwaukee to make her hair appointment. So it's just Joe and I and next to nothing for me to do.

Yesterday (and this week) I looked around for cars and found this nice 2001 Prius on craigslist for just under 4 grand. I really want it, but I only have about 5 grand to my name. I need to get my tax forms from Culvers, the VA, and GAC so I can get my tax refund. That should be a big help this year, and maybe enough to finance a car for me. It would be so nice not to have to depend on people for rides.

I also have been toying with the idea of getting a pet rat. They're so cute and smart, and I desperately want something furry to love that I don't have to torture and kill. I think I might get one this weekend, now I just have to think of a name.

I've pretty much wasted this entire week. Other than grocery shopping (twice), all I've done is watch a lot of TV and take a lot of naps. Except for Monday. On Monday Vicki and Sybylla and I got together at Sybylla's house and watched a couple of Disney movies (Emperor's New Groove and Mulan). That was pretty fun. Oh and on Sunday I went to see 2012 with Hannah at the Riverview (it started during OT of the Vikings vs. Saints game - was so pissed they lost). I thought it was a pretty entertaining movie. A lot of ridiculous parts but also some good special effects.

The last thing I want to mention here is that I've been getting concerned about an AWOL friend of mine. Usually I don't worry when I have trouble getting in touch with some of my faraway friends, but this time seems different. I've even resorted to using Skype to try to contact him but no luck. So if any of you Australia buddies of mine have heard from our mutual Danish friend (or if he's reading this) please let me know!

It's never a good feeling to realize that a once-close friend could drop out of touch completely, to the point where you don't even know if they're still alive (and who would tell you if they weren't??).

That is all. I hope everyone had a good January!

PS - My deadline ends in 2 days. I think I'm screwed...

alone, so alone

Blah.

So, work has taken a drastic dive into madness. Alaina quit and had her last day last Friday (Jan. 15th) to go back to school full time before going off to vet school. Not even a week later (this Thursday Jan. 21) Amanda was fired. Which leaves me, alone. In one week we went from a lab of 5 people to a lab of 3. I no longer have anyone there who can really relate to me, who I can bitch to about work-related things, etc. It's just me vs. the people who have worked there for 4+ years.

To be fair, they aren't all the devil's children, I'm just terrified of 2/3 of them and the other I know won't stick up for me should I need it.

Not to mention, my life countdown is running out. I set up a deadline for myself a long time ago (post-Australia sometime) that I would know what the next step in my life would be by January 31, 2010. That date is fast approaching, and while I thought I was set at this job, now I'm not so sure.

I realize I need to give it time, see how bad it really is before trying to jump ship, but I keep stressing myself out, dreading each day. Not to mention I don't want to go through the agony of finding and applying for jobs again. And it's either that or getting my ass in gear and figuring out what I want to do for grad school - and then doing it. This job was supposed to help me with that decision but so far hasn't at all, other than to increase my motivation to do it just to get out of here.

In other news, on Tuesday last week Hannah came over and we finally watched 9. It was pretty awful. The plot was weak, character development was completely lacking, and it was confusing as heck. The only good things about it were the actual visual effects and the short it was based off of.

On Wednesday, Vicki and Sybylla came over and we finally exchanged Christmas presents. Sybylla gave me Troy (yay I finally got it!) and a huge box of crayons. Vicki made this awesome picture/poster from college stuff we'd done together. That was fun.

Now it's Sunday (I started writing this yesterday I think, if not Friday) and I have to get ready to drive Tom to the airport (he's leaving for upstate New York for work training for a week, boo) and then head in to work myself to help Katie with dissections. Should be fun (or not).

Happy 2010?

So. Happy 2010 people. Not sure why I haven't been updating, other than sheer laziness of course. My bad.

Here it goes then: shit happened.

The end.

Nah, but really a lot of crap has happened since I last posted (considering it was about 2 weeks ago). So where did I leave off... I'm thinking it was around Christmas. Yep, Xmas day actually.

So since then I spent a lot of time playing with my Kindle, and then having the Kehoe family Christmas at our house on the 27th - I got a case for my Kindle and an Amazon gift card... hehe. Spent a lot of time at home doing absolutely nothing but hanging out with my family and Belle. I honestly wish I remembered more of the details of those days but it's been so long that it's become a blur. So I drove myself back up in the aunt/uncle's beast of a truck on Monday night.

On Tuesday I went into work and ran the mice in the cognition boxes. Then I went home. Basically the lab decided to take as much time off during that week as possible. Later that night I picked up the aunt/uncle from the airport and said goodbye to the temporary vehicle loan.

On Wednesday Amanda and I came in to work, ran the mice again, and then were told to go home. On Thursday we were supposed to do cell injections and so we all showed up on time except for the only lab member who actually performed the surgeries. Basically we waited around at work all day for her to show up and never heard from her. Eventually we just left, but that was really upsetting. I mean we all wasted our entire day there for no reason, just because we couldn't get in contact with one person. UGH!

Thursday night started off slow, until Jordan came in with his hand covered in blood and paper towels and his face as pale as a sheet. He was walking Harley and fell on the ice and gashed his hand open on the ice. So Tom and I drove him to his work (to get his wallet with his insurance card) and then around looking for somewhere with an open Urgent Care. We did find one and got him in there where his mom met us and took over. We would have stayed but it was of course New Year's Eve, and there was supposed to be a sort of get-together at Tom's house. The date, however, brought back bad memories of last year, the day that Jazzy died. But I tried really hard not to dwell on that fact, and Tom helped by finally managing to be the first person to get me drunk. How you ask? Margaritas. What I recall is finding everything suddenly hilarious and playing Mario Kart on his Wii. Apparently I am a funny and easily amused drunk. Still never really found the drinking enjoyable, just tolerable, and probably not an experience I'll be repeating with any regularity, but it was a learning experience for me. And not terrible. Anyway...

Friday morning Tom, Nate (his roommate), Ashley (Nate's girlfriend), and I went out for breakfast at Perkins. There was a wait for a table and it was packed. It took them about 45 minutes to get our food, but it was still good. After that Tom and I drove down to Rochester to watch Belle while the parents + Sara were down in Kansas City for the Coughlin family Christmas. Got home to discover that, earlier that morning, Belle had chewed through the leash tethering her to her kennel and wandered up to my room and proceeded to eat ALL of my starfish from my Texas research trip this summer. Every last one. I was so pissed at her. Then she had the shits from it when I took her to the dog park on Saturday. UGH.

Saturday afternoon Tom and I went to see Avatar. I absolutely loved it. It was gorgeous - the special effects were beautifully done and the movie succeeded in making me jealous of the characters in it. To me, that qualifies as a brilliant movie. We also went to see Sherlock Holmes earlier in the week and it was okay. It taught me a lot about the Holmes persona - and I definitely saw the House comparisons. So, for me, 5 stars for Avatar and 2 1/2 for Holmes.

Then Tom left and I spent the night doing God knows what. Oh, I fell asleep in front of the TV watching Men in Black. Sunday I played with Belle, did some errands, and then caught the airport shuttle back to Minneapolis. Took the light rail from the airport to the VA, then had to walk home. Unfortunately I didn't pack smart - I had my laptop and a ton of crap in my duffel bag = heavy and not easy to carry. And it was freezing outside. But I made it.

Monday I went back to work. Not a lot to do nowadays, just cognition and boring lab stuff. Oh, although we did do the cell injections on Monday afternoon. I FORGOT!! A lot did happen on Monday. That is when I went in for a dentist appointment at my new ghetto dentist. I borrowed Tom's car (he's so nice!). Went in to work, started the cognition, then left at around 8:40 for my 9am appointment. Got there at like 10 til 9, and started filling out paperwork. While I was doing that, an angry man came up to the receptionist and started yelling and cursing at her about how no one called him to cancel his appointment etc and so on. Apparently he even reached over and scratched her arm and then she called the cops. He left, but the cops still came and were talking to the receptionist when I went down for my exam. Of course downstairs was another waiting area. And then I waited in the dentist chair. The first time anyone looked in my mouth was at 10am. By then I was getting pissed. Then I waited around some more. Then I was switched to another chair for a cleaning and then had to wait around again for the dentist to come back and look at my x-rays and tell me it looked fine. All told - I didn't get back to work until about 11:20. That is ridiculous. So now I think I have to look for a new dentist. I also found out that the other one of my coworkers that I enjoy working with is going to resign in order to go back to school full time for this semester. Blah.

Now the rest of the week at work has been pretty low-key. After work has been a lot of nothing as well. Made some chip dip (DELICIOUS - 1 can of Hormel chili no beans + 1 package Velveeta Mexican mild) and some brownies (also delicious, but from a box so less impressive, and technically Tom made them). Not much else - tonight I plan to go to Target to buy some Hotpockets for the lab lunch tomorrow. None of those crazy people have ever had one! I also need to get some essentials, like bread and milk.

So that's the end of that. Not much about 2010 is different than 2009, but I guess it is starting out a little better. Seems like I'm getting old and college is fast becoming little more than memories. Which, I suppose, is all it is now.

Deep.