Merry Xmas

Well it's only been 12 days, so not too bad.

It's kind of amazing/sad how my updating this past year has drastically fallen since 2008 when I started this little online journal. Granted, 3 months without an update probably contributed to that, but still. I'm not sure if I'm just getting lazier with it or my life has become much less
interesting, even to myself. Possibly a mixture of the two, but I probably shouldn't dwell on it.

On to updating!

On Sunday the 18th (after my last post) I received an email from a recruiter asking if she could send my resume to a company. I replied with an affirmative after reading the very vague job description and thought nothing of it. On Monday she contacted me again, stating the company was very interested in me and wanted to set up an interview on Tuesday. I agreed (of course) and on Tuesday had a good interview with the people there (at WuXi AppTec). They told me during the interview that the job I was applying for was basic

ally staring at slides for 6-8 hours a day (painful) but they had another job opening doing more lab related things. They ended saying that they were interviewing into early the following week and so I should hear back by the end of that week (this week so ~29th). On Wednesday, the recruiter called me during my dentist appointment (no cavities! woohoo!), so I called her back, played phone tag for a bit, but finally got the news via email that they wanted to hire me!

Long paragraph for a short story, but overall exciting news! So I gave the VA my notice and I'm starting at WuXi on January 9th. Technically I'll be a contractor working through the recruitment place (Lab Staffing), but I'll be getting a paycheck so that's a relief.

I also took my physics final exam on Wednesday. We started late, but I ended up finishing in about 2 hours (3 hours were allotted for the exam) and I think it went well. No scores posted yet, but hopefully I'll find out soonish. Oh I just checked, I got a 93% on the exam and an A in the course! Hooray!

The rest of the week I attempted to finish knitting my sisters' Christmas presents (finished Sara's, did Megan's wrong and had to start over), gave my coworker her Christmas present (see pic below), and drove down to Rochester on Friday.

All the grandparents and sisters (and parents of course) and Kory and I went to dinner on Friday at Buffalo Wild Wings (Sara was working, so she didn't eat with us but she did provide excellent service :P).

On Saturday we had the Kehoe family Christmas, but it was much reduced because Travis and his new wife couldn't make it and Ben had to work. Lynn, uncle Kevin, Tyler, and the 2 dogs were there though (the little dogs and Addy did not get along). We all ate Mr. Pizza (delicious), watched the Vikings win (shock!), then opened presents (pots and pans! I can cook things now!), then the girls played cards while the boys watched more football until the Koenigs headed home and the rest of us went to church. Headed home and got settled in for our annual tradition of watching White Christmas and then headed to bed.

Sunday was Christmas! Opening some great presents, eating quiche and cinnamon rolls, and lounging in our pj's far longer than normal. Eventually, Megan, Sara, and Kory headed to Eau Claire to go to significant others' Christmases (no idea why Sara, who started seeing someone this past summer, was already going to family Christmas, but whatever).

Monday was mom's birthday but there wasn't much celebrating for it (sorry mom!). She ended up going to Panera with her friends for lunch at the same time that I went to lunch at the other Panera in town with Jackie. It was great catching up with her.

After our long lunch, headed back to an empty house. The rest of the family had to drive down to Iowa for a funeral (my dad's uncle Buzz died over the holidays). So I packed up my stuff and headed up to the cities.

Stopped home very briefly and then drove over to Nathan's. He had spent the week before Christmas in Cozumel, Mexico and then Christmas Eve night in Chicago. So we had our Christmas and exchanged gifts. I got him these painted pint glasses and he got me a cool butterfly thing in a jar that flutters when you tap it (Addy loves it) and the second book in a series. He also got me a souvenir from Mexico - a gorgeous silver necklace with a mystic topaz pendant.

Rest of the week has been slow, no one else at work until today, and even then there's not much to do. But at least the year is getting better from the last post!

Hello impending unemployment!

That's right.

We found out, the Wednesday following my last post, that our entire lab was facing impending unemployment.

Our boss decided to inform us that he was retiring and that meant we would be without jobs. When you ask? Few months from now? Perhaps March, when our grant money runs out?

Nope.

January 1.

That's right, our boss wanted to let us go during the holidays.

When asked if he could delay a couple weeks, just to give us more time to find alternate employment, he said no. The way he said it though was more like a middle finger to our lab. Our lab, which has bent over backwards for the past year trying to do anything we could to make him happy and convince him to not hate us anymore.

Luckily for us, Joe pulled some strings and got the deadline pushed back to the 17th, but it's still not nearly enough time.

So dealing with that at work (and shipping our stuff down to Arizona) has not been fun.

Last weekend Sybylla, Vicki, and strangely Monkey baked Christmas cookies, watched The Holiday, and played a fun game called Blurt.

This weekend Sara and I drove to Eau Claire on Friday and hung out with Megan, watching Say Yes to the Dress and Angels and Demons, ordering and eating tons of pizza/cheesy breadsticks, and making/eating sneak-a-bite cookie dough. We got up early on Saturday and headed over to campus for her graduation ceremony. Met up with the parents and gramma and Bernie and found decent seats in the bleachers. We then realized that I had left my camera in Megan's apartment so dad and I walked over there, got it, and walked back. Ceremony was fine, one interesting speaker (UWEC alumn who worked for Warner Home Video in CA). Went to the school's reception for a little while afterwards where I ran into Kallie, one of my friends from elementary school. Her brother had just graduated with Megan. We then went back to the apartment for a quick tour (for the parents and grandparents) and then drove over to Kory's (Megan's boyfriend) parents place for a fancy pasta meal. Finally headed home and now I have tons to do to prepare for finals and Christmas.

But hovering over it all and tainting everything is the realization that I'm going to be without a job soon.

depressing...

Congrats Trav!

Yesterday, Friday December 2, 2011, my favorite cousin growing up (Travis) got married to Heather.

The ceremony was fine, not a huge fan of some of the pastor's messages, but it was nice. Sisters and I all started crying the first time we saw Travis escort his grandmother to her seat. That was the only time I cried though, the rest of the time I was pretty good.

The wedding was in Alexandria, MN which is a bit over 2 hours drive away. Since the wedding was at 4pm on a Friday, I ended up taking the day off from work. I spent the morning tidying my apartment, dyeing my hair, and showering/shaving/making myself look purdy. I started running out of time, so I had to quick run give my apartment keys to Sybylla (who stopped in to check on/feed Addy Friday night and this morning), and then drive to pick up Nathan from his house.

Drove to the hotel, and my stupid GPS took me to a bank instead. And when I called my dad for directions he made it worse by trying to tell me to go "East." Of course I had no idea which way was east so I ended up driving around for 10 minutes with no idea where I was going. Finally got there, changed into decent clothes, and then dad drove us to the church (driving like a mad man to get us there on time).

After the ceremony we drove back to the hotel, grabbed my camera, and then walked over to the reception (right next door). Buffet food, cupcakes, expensive alcohol, live band (lot of Buddy Holly and Johnny Cash), drunk gramma, aunt slapping sister's boyfriend's butt, all in all a great fun night.

Got up this morning, ate the hotel breakfast, said goodbye to everyone, and then back on the road.

Hung out at Nathan's until Sybylla was home and then I went and picked up my keys, and headed home. Haven't done much at all since.

I do just want to note how strange I feel, having Travis all married and grown up. I mean I remember up north vacations with him jumping off the dock and swimming in the lake, Christmas time playing games and opening presents, just being kids. And now he's married, with a house. It's so unreal... I'm still not sure how I feel about it but everyone is growing up and getting older and I just wish I could go back to playing hide-and-seek at gramma's.