Sun!

So I admit to my failure in keeping this as updated as I'd like to. I kept thinking about updating, nearly every day for the past week, but then there was always something more interesting to do. Like watch the next episode of Lost, or burn some backup copies of my DVDs so I can send the originals home to the parents, or play with my rats, or go to a friends, etc and so on. That is what a lot of my past almost 2 weeks has been, quite the downer.

However there were a few interesting things that happened, and I'll do my best to remember them all.

So I drove Belle back down to Rochester, a pretty uneventful event, although while I was down there I did watch New Moon with my dad. After we watched it we then went to go see Eclipse. It was about what I expected it to be: completely corny but also entertaining (I just want to touch Taylor Lautner's abs... sooo pretty). Later that night we went over to my dad's friend's house (Steve) and watched them set off Wisconsin-legal fireworks. There was a toad hopping around and it actually jumped on mom's foot at one point and freaked her out - pretty funny. Stayed the night on Saturday and not sure how long it took me to get going on Sunday but eventually I did. Back to Minneapolis and then went over to Nathan's and cooked cheese dogs and wandered around outside. That was of course on the 4th of July, kind of lame but at least I saw fireworks on the 3rd.

On Wednesday that week our kickball game was at 9pm - late but it was okay. We played an awesome team who were really friendly. We ended up winning 17-5, which of course probably made the game even more fun, but at least the other team was cool about it. Jordan actually came, dressed up as the camel, so that might have contributed to our win.

Sidenote - as much as I love the Kia Soul hamster commercial, it's starting to really annoy me. DO. DAH. DIPPITY.

I finally named the rats - not sure when this happened but the gray and white one is named Luna (after Luna Lovegood in Harry Potter) and the black and white one is named Evaine (after Yvaine in Stardust). Evaine is the more active of the two - whenever I set them on my shoulders she's the one that crawls down my shirt and wanders around on my desk or clothes or wherever she can get to. Luna is the sweeter one of the two, she'll just sit on my shoulder or behind my neck. Whenever I hold her she likes to groom my fingers, licking them etc. It's so cute!

On Saturday (10th) I had to go in to work to do behavior (it takes around 4 hours). So that was my fun morning. Spent the afternoon being lazy and then that night got ready to go out to karaoke at the Cardinal. Julie was in town, Andy was running the show, but Liisa had hurt her foot and didn't want to go out. So I went to Cardi and to my intense surprise, Tom and Jen were there. This, after he told me he wasn't going to Cardi anymore. Not really sure why I'm surprised considering he's lied about almost everything else. Still waiting to learn why he actually broke up with me... don't mind my whining here! I debated going in, but decided to buck up. Went in and sat next to Julie - Tom was on her other side. Thought I could handle it, but I had one drink, watched Andy mock Jen for being a cougar and Tom for being her prey, watched Julie chatting happily with them both, and had to leave.

So I went over to Liisa's! Her dad and brother were there as well as her two married friends (as in married to each other). We had a good night chatting, drinking, doing shots of Jose Cuervo, playing guitar hero, playing with her dad's pet snake, etc. I ended up sleeping on her couch again.

Woke up on Sunday and headed home. I tasted tequila all day, but still no sign of any hangover.

Been having a slow week. On Tuesday I took my car over to get its oil changed (finally) and walked around Highland Park while it was getting done. When it was done, I drove the two blocks over to the KFC and got some delicious food. Unfortunately that led to me being up all night in front of the toilet - must have been some bad chicken.

We had a tough workload on Wednesday too, both the sarcoma and the prostate cancer groups needed behavior done but since I had gotten no sleep and wasn't feeling great I just went in for a couple of hours to do the part that I specifically needed to do and then went home and slept for the rest of the day. Our kickball game was at 6 pm and that was kind of sucky. It was the most humid day we've had so far (felt like 103 with the humidity) and our early game gave it no chance to cool down. We were playing one of the teams tied for first and we started out losing by a lot, then tying it up, then in the last inning (we were up first) we scored 3 runs and thought we had it but ended up letting them score 4 by sheer bad luck. It was okay, they were another fun team.

After I got home from work today I went out back and laid in the hammock for about 15-20 minutes in the sun. Then went inside and had an inadvertent 3 hour nap... the sun really wears me out but I love it! Tonight I was supposed to go out with Alaina and Amanda, but Alaina had other plans already (the famous Potluck of course!) and Amanda had last minute plans as well. Megan also came into the cities with Kory and we were going to go to dinner together or something but those plans faded out as well. So I guess nothing is going on for me tonight. I am hoping to go fishing sometime this weekend with dad.

Been talking to Hannah about our Colorado trip and slowly getting more and more excited about it.

Well I'm not sure how to end this post, other than to apologize for the delay in updating. Hope you all are fine and dandy!

catching up

Sorry about the delay ladies and gents, and about the silly emotional post earlier. I just can't help myself sometimes :P

So a lot has happened since that last Friday. I'm not sure what else happened at work, but afterwards I drove down to Rochester, my phone dying on the way down and me forgetting the charger for it in Minneapolis. Anyway, I arrived just in time to go to the mall in Rochester with my sisters, Megan's boyfriend Kory, and my cousin Emma. Wandered around in there, managed to get some pants, jeans, and a shirt for less than $30. Which is apparently good. Anyway, think that was all as far as Friday (the 18th) goes.

Saturday I got up and helped dad set up the tent in the backyard. Then we all headed over to Sara's best friend Emily's graduation party. Had a delicious Panera cinnamon crunch bagel there and there was a waffle bar as well. Then we headed back home and finished getting ready for Sara's party. Then the party started! It was fun and had a lot of family show up. Uncle Jeff's two labs and cousin Adam's two labs and Belle got to play outside together which was fun to watch. Also, Adam's new baby Payton was there - and yes I actually did hold her. Here's a picture of it:

And yes, I was wearing a dress, don't die of shock. After the party wound down, later that night Megan, Kory, Gramma Karen, and I all went to see Toy Story 3. It was really good and there's a distinct possibility that I cried during it.

On Sunday, I think there was some family stuff in the morning, but most of the people headed out early afternoon I think. Don't remember what else happened that day, other than eventually driving back up to Minneapolis.

On Wednesday I wasn't feeling great so I skipped kickball, which was a big mistake! That night our team lost for the first time since I joined.

On Saturday I had an awesome night. I drove over to Chaska (with some navigational difficulty) and met up with Sybylla, Vicki, and Catie at the Ruby Tuesday there. We had a good meal, with some interesting things happening that I thought only happened in movies. Afterwards we headed to Catie's house where we ate giant marshmallows and played a couple rounds of Disney Scene It with Ann and Melissa who showed up later. My team won both times (of course!) and then we started watching Mulan. Then I headed back to Minneapolis and drove through the terrifying storm. At 40th Ave, where I usually turn to go around the block to end up on the right side of the street, I inadvertently drove through a lake, with water up to my headlights. That wasn't too good for my car, and made my check engine light go on. Well that didn't stop my night! I went out to see Andy and Julie at the Cardinal afterwards and came soooooo close to singing karaoke. Well, not really, but I can pretend.

On Sunday I drove down to Rochester again to pick up Belle. Mom and dad were going to Wisconsin for a week on vacation and Sara didn't want to watch her so I offered to take care of her for the week. Drove down, watched TV and ate food, and then drove back with a crazy dog in the backseat. Walked her over to the dog park, let her run around like crazy, watched her swim in the river, and walked her back and she still had tons of energy to spare.

On Monday after work I played out back with Belle for awhile and then drove her over to Hannah's. All three of us walked around Lake Harriet, and Belle's energy was again tiring. Went back to Hannah's and hung out for awhile but then headed home. That was the last time at Hannah's apartment, she moved out on the 30th.

On Tuesday I fulfilled the movie-like part of Saturday's occurrence.

Wednesday was an insane day at work. We had two big groups of animals to do behavior on and basically went in early, had a short lunch, and got out late. It sucked! Anyway, after that I headed over to parts unknown to pick up my new babies! I got two new baby rats (6 weeks old) from a breeder I found on craigslist. Here's a pic of the cuties:

I haven't named them yet - I keep having trouble coming up with good names. The options I've thought of are: Elphaba and Glinda (from Wicked), Sabrial and Lirael (from the Abhorsen trilogy), Kahlan (Sword of Truth series), River and Summer (like from Firefly), Luna and Ginevra (Ginny - from Harry Potter), and a few others I can't even remember at this point. Right now I'm torn between the Wicked duo and the Harry Potter duo.

Anyway, they're adorable, but that's not the point! The point is Wednesday.

So after that I got ready for kickball and took Belle to the park for an hour beforehand (we had a late game - started ~9m). Went to kickball and unfortunately we lost. Their pitcher was crazy, throwing really fast pitches (rolls?) and doing tricky spin moves and curve balls etc. It was insane. I did manage to get an RBI but our team still lost 4-6. At least we didn't get skunked! But the team was in a somber mood for sure.

On Thursday I got a surprise visit from a friend and we went to go see The Last Airbender in 3D at MoA. It was kind of cool but very cheesy and they packed too much into it. It made me want to go back and watch the TV series. I seriously want to know why they changed the pronunciation of some of the characters' names in the movie. Wasn't as good as I was hoping it would be but it was entertaining.

Today was a bit less exciting than the rest of the week. Still waking up ridiculously early (thanks to Belle) and actually went into work early (7 am - kind of sick). Worked, went home, and started laundry. Was supposed to go out, but as usual plans went awry so I spent the evening doing tons of laundry, watching a lot of LOST (I'm on Season 3), and playing with Belle and the babies. They are currently sleeping so cutely, all curled around each other. Still can't decide on names for them though.

Well I think that's going to be it for tonight. Tomorrow I'm heading back to Rochester to take Belle home and hang with the fam yet again.

Now though I think it's time for bed.

more to follow

Going to just post a quickie here because lately I've been feeling a lot better about life and all.

Managed to not talk to, text, email, or Facebook stalk Tom for a whole 2 1/2 weeks, and it would be 3 1/2 but I did send one text that went unreplied to. My brain still defaults to him sometimes when I'm not busy using it *my brain* for other tasks but its been a lot lot LOT better. Especially after my ego boost on Saturday night, but I'll talk about that later.

This post is me being stupid again. I'm really okay, but I just saw something that twisted the knife a little and inflamed my "long" dormant emotions (long for me okay?).

Was checking out friend Liisa's Facebook profile (she's in the Caribbean on a cruise the lucky duck) and noticed Tom was one of her FB friends. And guess what his picture is? No longer the old Twins logo, now it's one of him and Jen. His new gf.

And they're officially in a relationship. So that's one more thing he'd "never do again" that he did. Such a fucking liar.

I only mention this, because it hurt like a bitch. Never in our 5 months did he change his profile pic to one of us, although I was tempted to numerous times.

So now, even though I've been getting better and it's sunny outside and my puppy is here (will explain later) I'm a little down.

I hate emotions and love and guys. They fuck up everything.

That is all.

insert interesting title here

Well another week has come and gone and what's really changed? I'm sitting here at work again with little actual work to do and so am going to spend the next 45 minutes or so updating my blog.


I did drive home on Friday and arrived just in time to eat a delicious fried fish dinner with my parents and all 3 of my grandparents. Afterwards my maternal grandma (Gramma Karen) and I took Belle to the dog park in my car. Belle was so obsessed with finding toys that she ended up bringing us a total of 10 tennis balls and one frisbee, which accumulated on the picnic table we were sitting at after we got tired of throwing them for her to fetch. It was pretty fun overall, but on the way home her muddy paws made my backseat a bit dirty.


On Saturday I went to the bank where I have my savings account and finally deposited my change jar (~$103) as well as wrote myself a check. So that finished emptying out my checking account (after the car purchase began the emptying process). But it's good because now my money will start earning interest (finally). I read a lot on Saturday (For Love of Evil by Piers Anthony and The Coelura by Anne McCaffrey) and mostly vegged out. Megan came home Saturday afternoon and we went with mom early to the college to save seats for Sara's graduation ceremony. We got there an hour early and it was already packed. Megan ended up starting and finishing an entire book (~150 pages) during the wait and the ceremony itself and I finished the McCaffrey book there. It was a long and boring ceremony, as all graduations are I'm sure. Sara was one of four people reading names so at least we got to watch her do something. Unfortunately that meant she was also the very last person to have her own name called and receive her diploma so there was no chance of skipping out early. I left right after a few quick pictures were snapped and headed back to the cities just in time for another fantastic karaoke night at the Cardinal. Only Andy and Julie were there but we made it fun, and of course there were some interesting singers.


On Sunday I spent some time recovering from Saturday and then not doing a whole lot. Pretty sure I don't actually remember at all what I did on Sunday, or Monday, or Tuesday for that matter. Other than watching Secret Life of the American Teenager and working on old seasons of LOST.


On Wednesday however I do remember what happened. First I went to Target (after work) in order to buy chip dip ingredients and could not find one of the key ones. Then I got ready for kickball. Then I went to kickball. We were playing the team that my team lost to their first game (the only game they played before I joined the team). The only team in our rotation that was undefeated. Unfortunately we didn't have our lucky mascot present because Jordan went to the Twins game so we were really nervous. We were losing 1-0 until the very last inning where we managed to score 2 runs and eventually won the game. It was awesome.


On Thursday directly after work I went up to the other Target to look for that missing ingredient. Still didn't find it but did buy a cute chips and dip container thing. So then I went to the Cub Foods right next door and finally managed to find the ingredient. Went home, made the chip dip, looked up directions to Amanda's house, and headed up there for a "Ladies Poker Night." I was the first one there so Amanda and I chatted for awhile about life, work, etc. I like her, she always manages to make me feel better about things. Finally people started arriving and we started playing Texas Hold'em or however you want to spell it. We weren't playing for real money (thank goodness) and I lost pretty quick. But we cheated and supplied me with more chips from the bank and I still managed to lose those pretty quick but didn't run out again before we all elected to stop playing. Then we foolishly started watching a scary movie (The Woods) and got about 37 minutes into it before we had to stop. Anyway, the movie was just a little too scary, and we were all getting jumpy. I didn't sleep very well last night (I wonder why?) and had a lot of dreams. Not even bad dreams though, in fact one was so wonderful I almost started crying when I woke up and discovered it had just been a dream. Another was a silly one about work and washing cells... random. So I woke up a lot last night from my overactive dreaming.


And here is where I have to stop because it's been longer than 45 minutes typing this and it's time to go to lunch! I will probably continue this this afternoon, I have to run home and pack over lunch.

Had a nice lunch, didn't really finish packing but maybe I'll bust out of here early enough to still make it home by a decent time. I'm hoping tonight I'll be able to convince a sister or two to go see Toy Story 3 with me. Not really sure what else to talk about now. Other than extreme boredom all day at work today.

jeg røvkeder mig!

That's right, I went there.

I need to go somewhere.

I think it's high time for a vacation of epic proportions!

time flies...

Sunday was lame, at least I'm pretty sure it was because I can't remember what I did (if anything).


On Monday two new people came in to work, Nate and Molly. Nate had worked in this lab about 2 years ago and Molly is the daughter of another PI here at the VA. Unfortunately, because the VA HR system is whack technically neither of them were supposed to start, but because they'd have to wait another 2 weeks to start then we decided to just get them in. Nate worked upstairs with Joe getting his animal training on the computer and I hung out with Molly in 49 (the animal building). We mostly just talked and I described her summer project (videorecording) and then we practiced using the camera on a few mice. It was nice having new people in the lab, it's a good distraction from the mundane everyday sit around and overthink things that I usually do.


After work I went over and picked up Sybylla and we went over to the Highland area in Saint Paul (just right across the river). We first went to the infamous Half Price Books, where I did in fact purchase 2 books (an Anne McCaffrey book that I'd never heard of and Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind). How much did I pay for these 2 books you ask? Less than $5. Yep, I get the feeling this store is going to be dangerous for me. It was close to me spending $80 on 4 seasons of House but I managed to resist the siren call. After that we headed over to Chipotle and ate dinner (yummy chicken tacos and chips) and then over to Petco. I looked at the rats there but they only had male ones and I'd want a female. Or two, I'm thinking 2 female rats might be better. Then dropped Sybylla off at her house and raced home to catch the season premiere of The Secret Life of the American Teenager. It is my guilty pleasure and I love it. Spent the rest of the night pretending to do laundry and watching TV.


On Tuesday at work I learned that Pat wanted Nate to do the coring for the mouse cell injection surgeries we had planned. So the guy who hasn't worked here in 2 years gets to do "real" surgeries whereas I'm still only allowed to do practices on dead mice. Fair? Nope. Make any sense? Nope. So Tuesday was spent using our old mice from who knows when to let Nate do some practices before we did real surgeries on Wednesday and Thursday. In the afternoon I escorted Molly upstairs for her to do her animal training and then I spent most of that time messing around on the internet reading MSN news stories. At the end of the day (~4pm) Joe asked me if I would take out all 49 individually housed mice and check for limping. I was so mad! Here I'd been sitting around all afternoon waiting for something to do (and yes even asking if there was anything I could do) and he waits until the end to give me a project that would take about 2 hours to do. Not to mention it would be pretty pointless... but I digress. I respectfully declined.


After work I went home and did some more laundry. I also attempted to clean my room a little and made a delicious dinner of a scrambled egg, cheese, and bagel sandwich. This is when I learned I had hardly any food left. Later my friend Nathan came over and we went for a walk and then watched Zombieland. I like that movie, it's pretty hilarious.


On Wednesday we did cell injection surgeries all morning and for a good part of the afternoon. It's weird doing it with 4 people now instead of just Katie and I, there was a lot more down time and I kept letting my mind wander. Never a good idea (at least never since April 14).


After work I went grocery shopping. Bought probably way more stuff than I need but hopefully I'll start making my lunch again (like sandwiches as opposed to the Easy Mac I've been packing nearly every day). Brought it home and then did more laundry (it sounds like I was doing laundry a lot but really I just kept switching it once and then forgetting it for a full day so it's just been a long drawn out process). Then I got ready for and went to kickball. Our favorite crazy rules lady umpire was back and it was a pretty close game for awhile. We were winning 2-1, then winning 4-1, then winning 4-3, and then our team kicked it into gear and scored 6 runs in one inning. So the final score was 10-3. I didn't do so great, but I did manage to get all the way to third in one of the innings. Jordan was stuck on the sidelines in the camel costume, but I think he had fun as well.


Thursday at work was pretty much literally a repeat of Wednesday, so I won't bother talking about it. After work however the fun started. First, my mom called me at work to let me know she was driving up to the cities that afternoon to pick up my paternal grandparents from the airport (they flew in from where they live in Florida). She wasn't sure she'd have enough room in her VW Beetle so she wanted to swap cars with me, which I thought was awesome. Anyway, after work I went home and showered and started making a taco ring. I was going to the infamous potluck that I'd heard so much about when Alaina and Amanda were still working at the VA (Alaina's potluck stories were lunchtime favorites). It was getting late and I was wondering when my mom would show up when she finally did with grandparents in tow. They got to see my messy house, meet my roommate, and see my car. But it turns out they managed to fit everything in the Beetle so they didn't need to swap. They headed down to Rochester and then I packed up the taco ring and headed to Alaina's. I got a little lost but ended up being early anyway, only the famous "frenemy" was there with Alaina and her boyfriend. I then had to help give Amanda directions as the party filled up. Lots of people were there, and it was a little intense but really fun. The taco ring disappeared rather quickly (yay taco ring) and it was just great to get out, meet new people, and of course hang out with the A-team. I miss them!!!


Today work was pretty slow. I helped Molly with her videorecording stuff and then had a meeting about people installing a fire alarm system in the building. All 6 of us went out to lunch which was nice and then spent the afternoon looking at cells etc.


Unfortunately on my way home I sort of ran into Tom... which means that I got home and my hands were shaking uncontrollably. It also doesn't help that today happens to be the 11th again... hence the title of this post.

Time flies when you're having fun, it also happens to fly when all you want to do is slow it down or go back and relive the past.


Blah.


Well now I'm about to head down to Rochester for Sara's graduation, hopefully that will be fun.

And in other news...

Drove to Eau Claire today and had an awesome day hanging out with Megan.

Was a pretty simple drive for the most part - a bit of rain but nothing major. Amazingly the cities' radio stations lasted almost all the way there.

Got there and got the tour of her new apartment. It's pretty nice, although her room is a bit tiny. Luckily her closet is huge so she'll have plenty of storage room to fit what doesn't really fit in her room. After the tour and a bit of hanging around we drove over to the mall there. We first went to find her some black shorts for work and then I became a Barbie doll for her. Basically she picked out clothes she liked for me and I tried them on and then, depending on the clothes, purchased them. It was good though because I desperately need clothes that fit... the vast majority of my clothes (especially pants) no longer stay on. We ate in the food court, wandered around a bit more, then went back to her place. Once there we rearranged her room to try to give her some more space. Then we settled down on the futon and watched Happy Feet/took a nap. I met her summer roommate Aaron who watched most of the movie with us and then near the end a bunch of his friends came over and woke us from our nap. After the movie Megan and I went to pick up Kory and Jake (Megan's boyfriend and their other friend) and went to Dairy Queen. Sat there and ate and chatted and then went back to Megan's. Then I got back in the car and started the drive back to Minneapolis.

So that was my Saturday, now I'll backtrack and talk about Friday.

Recall the last paragraph from my June 1st post.

On Friday I clutched that stem until my hand was ripped to shreds and then finally dropped it.

Not just dropped it, buried it.

I can't promise I won't try to find it and dig it back up, but this is the closest I've come to cutting myself off.

We'll just have to see how well that works.

Bad few days

June, and really the end of May, has sucked.

A lot.

Well if I'm being fair, the middle of April until now has sucked a lot, but the past few days have been a bit more brutal than normal.

After work on Tuesday, well much later, I went and picked Hannah up from her house and we drove over to Cub to buy movie treats. Then we went to see Hot Tub Time Machine at the Riverview. It was kind of hilarious, mostly because the other people in the theater found it kind of hilarious. Drove Hannah home, drove myself home, and then badness. I mentioned Kaylee had been acting weird in my last post, well I got home and went upstairs to find her dead, curled up in her Kleenex box. At this point it was nearly midnight (the movie started at 9:30) and I became extremely upset. Unfortunately for me, the only person I really wanted to talk to is one of the only people who no longer wants to talk to me. And so I put New Moon into the DVD player and watched it/cried myself to sleep.

On Wednesday I went to work. After spending an hour/two in the afternoon doing very little, about 10 minutes before I was supposed to leave I got something to do. Sybylla and I had made plans to go get me some DQ after work/before kickball in the attempts of lifting my spirits, but this new project I was given made me stay 30 minutes late. Finally, feeling guilty for leaving, I made the executive decision to head out. Got there, ate a delicious Blizzard and talked to Sybylla for about a half hour, and then had to ditch her to get home, change for kickball, and then go to kickball. At kickball, we played this team that had an insane pitcher. He was whipping balls really fast and bouncy so finally we stopped kicking and made the umpire call walks. That just ticked off the pitcher so much that when I was running from first to second and Jordan was running to first he whipped the ball at Jordan's legs to get him out (instead of just throwing it to the person on first base). I didn't see it, but apparently it tripped him up and he went head over heels, landing hard on his shoulder. It swelled up and Jordan actually had to leave early in order to go home and ice it. Our team was behind by about 7 runs, and eventually managed to catch up and tie with them by the last inning. We went into overtime and pulled off another miraculous win. Afterwards, we just sat in the grass and chatted for awhile. Went home and discovered Jordan was much worse off than I had expected. Got him some ibuprofen and then two of his friends came and brought him food. His arm/shoulder was pretty much immobile. It was so bad that getting up or attempting to take off his shirt made him nearly pass out with pain. So much of last night was spent trying to make him feel more comfortable and helping him switch out ice packs etc.

I mentioned on Tuesday's early post that Harley threw up. Well since then he's had diarrhea, thrown up more in the house, chewed up a wooden sill in attempts to get outside, and been to the vet a few times. Yesterday he also threw up blood. Luckily last night and this morning he's been acting fine, so whatever it was may have passed. But still, it has been a bad few days for things in my house.

I feel like something must have happened this weekend. Something bad. At least for me. The few friends I've made since moving to Minneapolis have seemed to abandon me. Maybe I'm just overreacting, but suddenly my texts go unresponded to and plans made just fall through. I feel like I'm back in middle school and I did something (unknown to me) to piss everyone off so they're just ignoring me for it.