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.

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!