Five-fer Friday

Today, I will be leaving the cool, rainy, WINDY weather here and will be heading to nice, warm (ok, hot), sunny FL to go visit my parents (and my dog) and go watch the FSU/Colorado game (hey FSU, how about some offense this weekend? mmkay?). I just hope my flights are not delayed (or worse, canceled) because it is so windy. I need my phone-an-airplane-mechanic to see how windy it has to be before they will ground a flight. (side note: I actually know an airplane mechanic! hee!)

So, today's five-fer is my top 5 favorite FSU football moments. If you don't like football and/or FSU, you probably don't care about this.

1. FSU/UF game 1998: First FSU/UF game attended. My freshman year of college. It was a cold, rainy Saturday. FSU's defense was ranked first in the nation. The Gators...are the Gators, they allegedly had the best defense in the SEC. (Nicole=Gator Hater). Anywho, it was an exciting game. FSU won (although this was not as glorious as the "choke in doak"). Suck it bitches!
2. FSU/UF game 2000: "No. 2 brought to you by the letter "S"". This was my junior year of college. I went to all of the football games with a buddy of mine from high school (whom I called cheeky monkey, he called me grasshopper). We had pretty good seats, in the end zone right above the band. The FSU cheerleaders do this little dance to this song the band plays, and three of the male cheerleaders done these "F", "S" and "U" square things (that cover their entire body so if they stand with their arms and feet out--in a star-like shape--it looks like squares with the letter on it.) During the song the letter guys just dance around and then in the song when the crowd shouts "F-S-U" they jump out so you can read the letters. So the Gators had their mascot in the same endzone. I saw the letter "S." He was eyeing the gator. I elbowed cheeky monkey and said "S is going to attack the gator." Next thing I know, the letter "S" is running towards the gator and tackled him in the endzone. Hee!
3. Not sure what game, 2001: Plays with flair. Chris Rix's freshman year (he was a 4yr stater....) and FSU was in scoring position. It was a QB keeper and Chris Rix did a forward somersault over a defender into the endzone. It was one of his first few games (perhaps the home season opener?). It was fantastic to watch (and my seats were right in that endzone). Unfortunately, that awesomeness didn't last his entire tenure at FSU.
4. FSU/(f)UM 2005: The Streak is Over. Let me set this game up. I hate the Gators. But I HATE (f)UM. And no, the (f) I use is not to signify it being the Florida Miami as opposed to the Ohio Miami, it stands for fuck(ing). How much do I hate (f)UM fans? Let me side track you with a story. My first year here I was filling up my car at a gas station. I have FSU plates on my car. Some guy is like "hey!" I turn around and he is showing me his cell phone but he is far enough away that I have no idea what I am supposed to be seeing. He runs up a little closer and there for his background is the (f)UM logo. I told him I'm sorry he's a complete moron. He laughed and walked away. I wasn't joking. This rivalry spawned the "Wide Right" phenomena. It is a psychological ploy on FSU kickers that if the game comes down to a needed field goal to win, the FSU kicker (no matter how good they normally are) will miss it. Generally to the right. There was also a "wide left" thrown in there one year. Luckily, (f)UM missed a much-needed field goal so they can't rub the "wide right" thing into our faces as much as they used to....cause then we can say "remember 2005?" Anywho, FSU had lost to (f)UM for 5 straight years. That's a long time to be losing to a much-loathed rival. I was watching the game with some friends. The game is always difficult for me to watch. Things will be thrown, obscenities will be yelled. It's not pretty. At the end, when FSU had won, I remember laying face down on my friend's floor and asking if they had really won...because it was over...five long years. And the five year losing streak happened during the "Miami Muff"...of 2005! Hee! Suck it bitches (part deux)!
5. I also don't remember what year/what game. But probably 1998-2000. I don't remember the specific game. But it had to be during that time period when FSU was dominating college football. It was late in the game. We were waiting for a "tv timeout" to finish. The players were all on the field waiting. FSU's defense was on the field. The band was playing something. FSU had a comfortable lead. A handful of the defensive players start dancing in a line to the music. Hee!! It's always a good sign if your team is comfortable and relaxed enough to have fun during the game.

My Yin and Yang

This intro has nothing to do with the post, but somehow this made me think of the topic for this blog. (don't dare try to understand the logic path my brain will take...)

I needed gas. The gas light had come on. I still had two more days of work commute plus I have to drive to the airport tomorrow. I need gas. I was on my way to work and stopped at my normal gas station. Out of 8 pumps, only one had gas. And that one pump had a truck (that was pulling a trailer) at it, with two cars waiting. Ehh. I'll go to the next station.

The next two stations I passed were completely out of gas. That's ok, there are two more near the next highway entrance.

Oh...but those two were also out of gas. At this point I wasn't worried, but thought I might have to skip work tomorrow (darn!) and call a shuttle to drive me to the airport if I wasn't able to find gas. Because I wasn't going to drive around looking for gas and then run out of gas myself. Plus, I knew the city wasn't out of gas, because it would be all over the news. There were two more stations on the other side of the highway entrance. The first one I get to...out of gas.

Now, let's tally this up. Out of 6 stations I had passed, I found one working pump. I see the gas station across from #6 has people at the pumps. Sweet! If I needed to wait, I was getting gas. This last station has 10 pumps, only 1 had the bag over it. As an added bonus, they didn't have the "please only get 10 gallons" sign up there. Plus they were on the cheaper side of prices here (right around $3.80 for regular). I didn't fill up, but I got right at 3/4 of a tank, which cost me $50. But I have gas!!! And I think I am going to switch to this other gas station as my regular one out of thankfulness that they somehow manage to have gas in this "crisis" (plus, it is across the street from my gym, so not out of my way).

So, somehow, my brain got onto what I consider my yin and yang. On the one hand, I am a hyper-organized, anal-retentive person. I make to-do lists for to-do lists. I have my clothes organized by color and item. My shirts are even divided by sleeve length and neckline (in addition to the by color). My flip flops are in their little door organizer by color. My underwear is organized by color and style. My socks are organized by length and color. My books have an organization scheme. (I have a Harry Potter shelf, a Civil War shelf, an Agatha Christie shelf, a paper back shelf and two shelves for the random variety of hardbacks I have). My CDs and DVDs are alphabetized.

I like to have things just so. I do not like you to touch my things (imagine Steve Carrell's character in The 40yr Old Virgin when he is getting a little uptight about his collector items being touched). I do not like you to remove things from my desk. I do not like you to put things on my desk. If you do happen to touch my desk, leave things how you found them. Now, I never say anything to anyone if they disturb my order. Usually they are so minute things that it isn't worth it. I can just think evil things about them and resume my order.

If it wasn't for my yang, I would be waaaay over the top. I would be the poster child for OCD/anal-retentive qualities. See, my yang is that I am lazy. Really lazy.

Those to-do lists usually don't get looked at after I make them. My clothes, while hyper organized, don't usually make it out of the laundry basket after I wash them. My books, there isn't that much removal of them, but when I do, it might sit beside my bed on the floor for awhile before I put it back up. Plus my shelves are overflowing (except the Harry Potter one) so I can just stack books on top of the ones lined up on the shelf. My DVDs might sit by my tv for a week before I put it back up.

My desk is so messy that you wouldn't know where anything is unless it was on top. Occasionally I'll see my boss rifling through a stack of papers on my desk looking for something he knows is there. I just sit and watch him, because if he would have asked me first I could have just given him the answer or know where to look to find him the answer. But I kinda enjoy watching his weekly hunt of futility. Because I know, eventually, he'll be asking me and I wonder if he will ever learn. Hee!

Instead of harping on myself for being lazy, I realize it is just a balancing factor in my life. It helps make me a well-adjusted person! At least that is what I tell myself so that I can continue being lazy. Because do you know how not lazy I would have to be to be not lazy? Just the thought of all that work makes me want to take a nap.

Stories of the Mailman: The Pervert

When my mom is not busy delivering drugs, she's delivering shocking amounts of porn.

There is a man on her route that receives packages regularly. He gets so much that she finally asked him what he was getting--just out of curiosity. He told her "magazines" with a weird smile that indicated to my mom these weren't no National Geographic. She got confirmation that they were nudie magazines when a package arrived damaged so that they (the mailmen) could see inside. Yup. Porn.

She said he has a two car garage that is full of boxes of magazines--and now videos. Just this past week she delivered several 50 pound boxes of porn to him. The guy is married and his wife says he was supposed to start selling them...but hasn't...which is why they have a two car garage full of porn. My mom thinks that some of these are older magazines because some of the packages have the insured amount on the label and she said it isn't uncommon for him to receive $2000 worth of insured porn a week. Surely recent, uh, editions of porn magazines wouldn't be worth that much? (This is me assuming that nudie magazines are pretty similar in cost to other magazines, which could be very wrong.)

Our best guess is that, for whatever reason, he is buying this mass of porn, and plans to turn around and sell it to other perverts for a profit. Because, really, does any one person have the need for that much porn? I hope not!

Five-fer Friday

Ok, as this goes on and on, week after week, um...it gets harder. So kind people (or person), if you want more than lame themes for my five-fers, then speak up and give me ideas. And just note that if they need to involve pictures, Blogger still is punishing me on that, so don't make them picture-dependent (I already have a couple of those ready for when I can finally regularly upload pictures).


Anywho---on to today's Five-fer....which is...5 things that I am doing this weekend.

1. Pedicure! WOOOHOOO!!! I only get one (or at most 2) a year. They are so lovely. And my toes look so glorious. Sure, it is a little later than I wanted to. But I needed to wait for softball to be over (don't need any stupid toe-stomping to ruin a pedicure!) So, ok, softball was over weeks ago. The pedicure isn't a critical part of my life...so it got pushed aside.
2. Watching football with a bunch of strangers. No...really. I don't know anyone who will be there. I know there will be a Joyce and a Bob. I think they are married. I don't know. See, I am joining the local Seminole Club (FSU fans for anyone who is confused) and there is a game watching for this week's Wake/FSU game. And why watch it with a bunch of Wake fans when I can watch it with my fellow Noles??
3. Working on my lecture. I don't actually give my lecture for a little over a month...but I want it to be as well put together as possible. Just to give a little reference on how long I usually take to put together talks, um, for my department seminars...I usually start a week in advance. And that's so that I have a couple of days for the final set of slides to sit and marinate, otherwise I only need 2-3 days. Those kiddies better realize how much effort I am putting in for them!
4. Errands. Exciting I know. But a girl needs groceries. And other random crap. I am trying to limit my Target excursions to once a month, since I am apt to buy little random things here and there (but seriously...the tank top was only $3 and I have a list of things I can wear it under). So if I only go once a month, I have fewer opportunities to buy these random little things. The trouble will be making sure I buy everything so that I don't run out mid-month. Which is fun seeing how some items I'm not sure how quickly I go through it.
5. GOING TO AN OBAMA RALLY! Woo hoo! Just a heads up--anyone near Charlotte, NC--there is a rally in downtown Charlotte on Sunday, Sept 21. It is free, but will probably fill up. Doors open at 11am. Stuff starts at 1pm. Google to find more details.

Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

My doggie, Georgette. She will be turning 7 on her next birthday. She's an old dog.

My pooch grew up surrounded by cats. She loves cats! Except when they scratch her. But she learned early on that when she is barking in the cats face to get them to run away so that she can chase them, that she needs to turn her butt towards them if they hiss and are about to attack. Because a claw to the butt hurts less than a claw to your face.

My parents have this large screened in porch on their house. This addition is so big that it almost doubled their square footage. Long story short, they have a litter box they keep out on this porch so that the cats will crap in the litter box, and not my mom's plants.

A few weeks ago, my parents were smack dab in the middle of a typical FL summer. The kind where it rains every single day. It rains so much that you can't mow the lawn, because it is constantly raining in the afternoons when you are home from work. Which means the grass and weeds get really tall. Which means my dog does not want to pee in the yard.

One day, Georgette was on the porch and she went up to the litter box, put her front paws in the box, squatted and peed. My dad, who witnessed this event, about peed his pants from laughing so hard. When my mom told me about it, I rationalized that she has seen kitty after kitty use the litter box, so she figured she would as well since the yard was not up to her standards.

Except, this has become a daily habit of hers. She decides she wants to use the litter box every day. She does the same thing, walks over, puts her front paws in, squats and pees. Unfortunately, there is no way she could fit into that litter box because she is just too big. (I told my parents they just need to buy a bigger litter box...hee!)

So my mom finally decided to remove the litter box. Which she did. Except, now the cats are crapping in her plants again. Now she says she is just going to put the litter box somewhere that the cats can get to, but not my dog.

I just think it's funny my dog (basically) knows how to use a litter box.

Fingers Crossed: Update

Well, we've heard news about almost every family member who lives in the Houston area. Everyone we got word about actually stayed in town, some went to other people's houses but no one left (not sure about one aunt and uncle, their daughter, her husband and their kids).

I wasn't surprised that people stayed in town, but I was surprised at a couple of aunts/uncles who either live in a trailer or whose house is in a known flood-prone area. But so far everyone is ok. There is of course some damage to houses and yards, and the worse damage I heard of for my family was a tree "fell into the middle" of a cousin's house. I don't know how much damage it did, but he just packed up his wife and kids, his generator and is staying with his brother.

I'm not worried about the few relatives who no one has heard from. They are in a position where they can easily pack up and go, so I assume they went somewhere, a mini vacation if you will, knowing that there would be some damage and days without power.

But a big sigh of relief. I have over 30 relatives that live in the area so it's good to know that they are ok.

Fingers Crossed

Hurricane Ike.

This is a big, nasty hurricane. Our Chinese post-doc had asked me about hurricanes and such when Hannah was coming near NC (since I grew up in FL and while I have never been through a direct or near hit, I have lived through my share of hurricanes coming and going so while I'm not expert I have a good feel for when to be cautious and when not to be), and I said that us being so far inland and Hannah being a tropical storm and pretty disorganized, that we would be ok--we'd just get a little rain. I told him I was more concerned about Ike when it was still way out in the middle of the Atlantic. Over a week ago it was a big, nasty, organized storm. It was the poster child for what a hurricane should look like. Satellite images showed a perfect spiral of bands and a clearly defined eye.

Sure it weakened as it approached Cuba/Haiti/DR/etc. But then it was just going to go into the Gulf of Mexico after it went over those islands dumping more rain and bringing more wind to countries who have seriously been beat up by Fay and Gustav. The Gulf of Mexico is like Red Bull for hurricanes. The nice warm waters allow storms to reorganize and strengthen. And aim for somewhere along the long Gulf coast.

It now appears that Ike is heading straight for the Galveston/Houston area.

Where most of my aunts, uncles and cousins live. Thankfully, most of my relatives live to the north or west of Houston. But there are a couple who live between the Houston city center and the coast. There are so many relatives out there that I'm not sure who left and who is staying. But I'm nervous. I hope everything will be ok. I will be monitoring Ike's progression and eventual landfall closely. Ugh, I hate hurricanes.

Five-fer Friday

Recently I was cleaning off baby laptop (I have two laptops: one I bought pre-grad school that is teeny weeny and I dubbed it "baby laptop" and my school laptop which is the anti-Christ of laptops). As I was going through files on baby laptop, I found things from my grad school application/interview days. Including my personal statement for my Wake application.


Now, I should say that Wake was the last application I turned in. Its due date was about a month after the other schools I applied to. And honestly, I applied to Wake in the first place because I had been looking at applying to other schools in NC, saw Wake, took a look...saw that the application fee was only $25 (when of the other schools I applied to, the cheapest was $55...just to apply).
I actually wrote all my personal statements separately. I could have just churned out the same one for every school--and some parts were the same for the earlier applications--but I wanted to put in the effort to write each school its own essay. By the time I got to writing the one for Wake...I was burned out on writing what I thought was an intelligent, thoughtful essay. I guess the pre-Wake essays I was writing what I thought the schools wanted to hear. But with Wake...I just didn't have the brain power to do that. So I was 100% honest and wrote what I actually thought.


I told my tale of how I entered college hoping to never ever ever ever ever EVER take a chemistry/biology course ever again (I left college with a biochemistry degree...whoops!). I talked about what brought me back to science and the slight modifications to my career interests post-college (which have since changed in grad school). It wasn't the most well-written essay ever (wasn't bad...but could have used a bit more polishing), it was honest and completely where I was at 5 years ago.


So today's five-fer is a short statement of where my brain has been at for each year of grad school.

1. year 1: Wee! Grad school! I'm going to learn so much!
2. year 2: Wee! Done with classes! Time for research!
3. year 3: (after prelims/quals) I am the stupidest, most idiotic person in the universe...how did I get into grad school? How did I get into college? How am I able to exist on my own?!?
4. year 4: I don't care anymore. (this was a trying year, heh)
5. year 5: I'm never going to graduate, am I? (this was the "I feel like I've been in grad school forever and will never get out" despair)

Now I am starting my sixth year of grad school (yikes!). I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I am really starting to get a sense of finality to things. I don't feel smart, but I feel ok about science. Over the summer I really got some perspective on things that had been bugging me. I don't want to go into details or anything, but things make more sense now (good and bad) and I am ok with it. I know I will graduate. I know what I have left to do. Knowing is half the battle, right? (G.I. JOE!) Hee!

But you know what? Despite all the good times and horrible times, I know I will come out ok.

And with a Ph.D.

One is the loneliest number

Last night I took a class at the gym with this girl who has to be my favorite instructor ever. Anywho, most of the class were regulars of the instructor's various classes. There are these two girls who are close in age to me, perhaps a couple years younger, who are teachers. In our normal places in the class, I am generally behind them. I noticed that the girl directly in front of me had an engagement ring (and perhaps a wedding ring...didn't look that closely). I had never noticed it before, so I don't know how new or not new it is. Then I noticed the other girl had at least an engagement ring on.

The other ladies who were around me are all older and I know they are married with kids etc etc. During the class...I started looking around at all the women I wasn't sure about and yup, they all had some sort of ring on the ring finger of their left hand. I know the instructor is married with kids. So I did the math, carried the one, didn't forget the remainder....I was the only single person in the class. Wow, that's a fun thought.

I don't really think about my singleness often (and by single...I don't mean just "not married" I mean no special man friend in my life). Except at times like those...when my singleness make me the outsider. The lone, rogue woman of the bunch.

Which, 10 minutes later that thought was out of my head because the instructor was feeling especially evil and had us doing lunges forever (and today...my butt is not happy with her).

Then today, in my daily blog perusals I find a link to this blog post. Please read that first before reading on...because the rest of blog is kinda the "other side" of this post.

Dating does suck.

You see a cute guy, you try to be subtle, yet give him a look that says you are interested. You hope he gets it.

If he does get it and comes over and talks to you, I am afraid of what will come out of my mouth. If I feel really nervous, I will either clam up or just talk nonstop. And when I talk non stop, there is not telling what idiotic stuff will come out of my mouth. Or if I will speak slow enough for him to understand (yes, I have spoken so fast that some guy asked me to repeat what I had said because he didn't understand a word).

If I don't scare him off at the point and there is a date. Then crap...I have to do another good performance. Plus the details of the date. How much info will he give you? What if he wants to be somewhat vague? (FYI--playing photohunt was always fun with my female friends while we were out at bars. The best ones were the nudie girl ones (the nudie male ones were just too scary). There would be a group of 4-5 of us sitting around the little monitor staring at two side-by-side photos of scantily clad women...and someone would yell "HER HAIR IS OVER HER BOOB IN THE PICTURE ON THE LEFT! Good times) What do you wear? That is so difficult to determine. If it is a dinner-and-a-movie thing...how dressed up do you get? You generally choose a couple of "safe" options. Like the jeans that make your butt look fabulous. And a nice top (ie-not a tshirt). Cute shoes (not that the guy cares). You want to look amazing, but not like you tried. Like you just took a quick shower and threw on the first thing you found in your closet. Not that you planned for days and days and consulted with friends, tried on thing after thing. Not that it took over an hour getting ready, making sure your hair looked fantastic (but again, like your hair just always looks fantastic), that your makeup was flawless, but still pretty natural looking.

And that's just getting ready for the date.

The actual date. You have to eat in front of someone you are trying to impress. You need to order something safe (that you won't possible spill all over you). You want to order something that won't be lurking between your teeth an hour later. Or give you horrible breath. Then the movie. Hopefully it's a comedy. Because I am a crier. I cry in most movies. There are movies that I did cry in...and I will fight to the death that I DID NOT cry in that movie, because I am ashamed to admit I actually cried in that movie. I don't want to be crying at some predictable romantic comedy on the first date. I don't want to cry at all on a first date to be honest.

Plus, when you are on a first date, you have that "first date aura" about you. People know. Your waitress will SAY SOMETHING TO YOU (yes, because you random waitress, are making me feel so much more at ease by going "oh--is this a first date? I remember my first date with my boyfriend/husband/whatever. I was so nervous...blah blah blah" and yes, I have had a waitress say that to me and my date before. Please woman, you are not helping.)

If the date went well, you want the guy to know...and you hope he enjoyed it as much as you did and wants to do it again. If the date went really well, do I give the guy a kiss? Would that freak him out? Maybe just a kiss on the cheek? I dunno. Wait, if I do kiss him, do I have bad breath? Did I ever do a secret check of that during the night?

You part. He said he will call. You wonder how many days you will have to wait. Or maybe you should call him? But wait, what if he was just being nice and he has no intentions to call you. No, I should wait for him to call. What if he abides by the code in Swingers? Ugh. To call or not to call, that is the question.

It's not fun. And if things don't go well, you have to do it all again with someone else.

I would like this for a first date: invite me over to your place. I can come in my "comfy clothes" (ie-my pajamas). My hair can just be thrown up into a ponytail. I might just wear my glasses. I will probably only wear concealer to cover any blemishes, but not a full face of makeup. We can order a pizza or some takeout. Drink beer. Watch Dateline (or ok, we can watch football...). Talk. There won't be any expectations. We'll just hang out. At the end of the night, we'll be honest. If we are feeling it...say so. If not...say so. If we want to make future plans, we'll say I'll call you on x day. No vagueness, no games, no jumping through hoops, no expectations.

And for me, I really haven't done the random dating thing. Most of the guys I've dated it just sorta evolved from friendships. Sure, I might have been interested early on, but it was a friendship first and just evolved into something more. So when we went on that first official date, there wasn't any real nerves. I already know this guy. He knows me. We are on a date so I already know he is interested in me more than just a pal. It's like getting a "go to Park Place" card and you get to go past Go, collect your $200 and skip Baltic Avenue and St. James Place.

But, being single, I have to prepared to play the dating game. Fun. I get to be the shoe.

Posting Indecision

I seriously have a problem.

I have written about 5 different blogs since Monday. Oh, you haven't seen them? That's because I end up either not finishing them...or deleting them.

I get all excited about something I think might amuse my blog reader(s). I type it up. Then I'm like "ehh" and I go do something else. And for those blogs I just don't outright delete, I end up not posting it because I read a similar topic in some other blog or I see a little bit about it on the news or whatever and I think "that's not unique or anything...." plus, I don't want to seem like I am copying someone else's stuff.

This is not new either. For anyone reading that didn't know, originally I blogged on my MySpace page. Then I stopped the MySpace blog. Then I got rid of my MySpace page. Then I got this blog! Wee! Before I made the decision to stop my MySpace blog, I never had this problem...but here on blogger...it's constant.

Oh the number of posts that have been deleted or neglected. I wish blogger kept a tally of how many posts I have started--that would be a high number. It is just midday Wednesday and here are the posts that I have typed in the past week and their fate:

• Responsibility (about some eco-responsibility and a friend whose head is shoved so far up her ass that well, she is ok with the earth going down in a ball of pollution flames because she won't be around--didn't turn out as well as I would have liked, have seen some previews of "going green" stuff on tv--got deleted)
• Well, I was slightly productive... (about my mishap about sleeping until noon and decided it was to late to go into work anywho--got deleted)
• Five-fer Friday (needs a bit of polishing...but will be posted Friday--and it's a cohesive topic!)
• Happy Anti-Birthday to me! (I don't celebrate my birthday...with people (long story)...my birthday was pretty recent. I bought my some presents. Just because I don't celebrate my birthday doesn't mean I can't use it as a reason to buy things. Then I rationalized if I don't celebrate my birthday...why should I even post about it in the first place?--got deleted. Oh...and do not leave any comment containing the words "happy" and "birthday" because it will get deleted. I'm not being coy, I seriously don't celebrate my birthday. And no, it's not an age thing.)
• I need a new hair girl (I am not unhappy with my current hair girl....but I'm not happy either. I was debating whether or not it is worth it to try to find someone new here in Winston when I will not be living here after 9 more months--saw a similar topic on another blog--got deleted)
• BOOBIES! (a thoughtful post complaining about my boobs. Seriously. I haven't deleted it (yet). I think it contains relevant info for all you flat chested ladies to understand about having big boobs)
• I've never watched "The Hills," but they may be onto something... (this was about my Tassimo machine and my fabulous made-at-home lattes. So, you've gotten to read about that...just not in this post. So it was deleted)

See--that is 5 blogs that you will never get to read. And that's just in the past week. Think of all the mindless ramblings of my mind that you have missed out on!

Oh...and then to add to it, while I was in the middle of writing this post, IE decided to be stupid and needed to close. Then when I thought about this blog again and started working on it...it was lunch time. Then I forgot about it some more. It's a wonder I ever post anything, really.

Fiver-fer Friday

Today is going to be a cheat of a Five-fer Friday. I can't really think of any cohesive topic. It's random time! So here are five random things that popped into my head over the course of this Friday.

1. I recently purchased the Tassimo Hot Beverage thingy. It's one of those essentially coffee machines where you have some pre-measured stuff in a cup/disk/whatever, stick it in the machine and press a button and VOILA! Cup-o-coffee. I bought this particular one because well, I suck at making coffee and the Tassimo machine has disks for tea and hot chocolate as well as a variety of coffee-based stuff (like espresso, latte, cappuccinos, etc). Along with the machine I bought disks for regular coffee, hot chocolate and latte (which is actually two different disks: one espresso and one milk disc). The coffee was good (and now it won't ever be "how crappy did I make it today" coffee...it will be the same (good) EVERY TIME!). The hot chocolate was "ehhh..." but I am not a big fan of hot chocolate made with water. So...you know. But the latte...was...FREAKIN' AWESOME! Seriously. That is like the most exciting thing for me ever. I can make great lattes at home. And not pay $4 for it. Sweet. Suck it baristas! Hee! All I do is put in the espresso disk...press a button...remove espresso disk, put in milk disk and press a button...add a spoonful of my vanilla sugar...stir...and yum! Now I just need to drink the lattes daily to eventually recoup the cost of the machine. Cause...right now my lattes are costing me about $60 each. Give me a month and I'll have the number whittled down.
2. I need to do some data analysis today. The room that the computers are in is ridiculously cold. I am wearing a long sleeve tee and a little hoodie and I am still cold. It stays this temp year round, independent of how hot or cold it is outside. We have called people to try to adjust the temp. They ignore us. I stay freezing.
3. Do you know how excited I was last Friday night for Dateline to be back on? I was practically shaking with glee when I heard Keith Morrison's dramatic monologue. I love Dateline. I missed it so much. Yes, my life is sad and pathetic. But I can have oodles of lattes during my sad and pathetic existence watching Dateline on a Friday night. Have I mentioned how much I love my new ability to make great lattes at home?
4. Just when I thought I was going to need to destroy a $200,000 machine (because, you know...it was making me angry by giving me sucky data) and end the week on a crappy research note, things dramatically turned optimistic. I am on some early structure calculations...and...my protein looks like a blob! (this is a good thing). The $200,000 machine decided to play nice and not be an asshole and give me 8 hours worth of crap data like it did yesterday...and is giving me usable (although, not necessarily good) data.
5. It is 6:30pm. I'll be done with lab in about 20 minutes. It's Friday. It's raining (Hi TS Hanna!). But that's ok. My data isn't crap. There is Dateline tonight. I am having a latte tomorrow morning. WEEEEEEE.

Hope you enjoyed this crappy Five-fer Friday. I would promise that next week's won't suck...but...um...it might be all about my love of Dateline and my made-at-home lattes. Again.

Stories of the Mailman...for Joy!

Ok, this story isn't so much about stupid people the USPS hires, but it is a funny/interesting story involving my mom.

For those that don't know...my mom's a (fe)mailman.

She's been on the same mail route for awhile now, so she is pretty familiar with what names belong to what houses and such. She was delivering mail in a neighborhood on a cul-de-sac that only had a few houses. She had a package for a last name at a house she knew was vacant. She also knew that the people who lived next door to the vacant house owned the vacant house (it had been an elder relative's house). So she decided to ask them if perhaps they had rented out the house to someone or had sold the house. They didn't. She asked several other people if they knew anyone with that name (in case someone had just put the wrong address down). (also...she wouldn't just give it to some random person...she would ask for ID and such...so it's not like someone would say "oh...I'm John Doe.." and my mom would be like "here ya go!")

Anywho, no one she talked to knew who this person was. She did think that there was someone on the same street with the same last name...but she knew there was no one at that residence with the same first name. So she shrugged it off and decided she would tell her supervisors about it and see what they thought she should do with it.

Oh, let me also say that the package was sent from Mexico and was covered in individual stamps.

So she got back and she mentioned it to one supervisor who told her to see if anyone called asking about the package because it probably was just sent to the wrong address.

Standard protocol would have been to return it to the sender if it is undeliverable. So my mom went around (being stupid) and telling the other carriers how she didn't think we should be sending drugs back to the hands of the drug dealers trying to smuggle stuff into the US. She thought it was a funny bit and went around telling that to anyone who would listen.

Another one of her supervisors was in the station and so she went and told that supervisor the story and what she thought...she pretty much said what the first supervisor said so my mom again went into her anti-drug shipping thing. The supervisor just told her basically to not run her mouth around the station.

So my mom went and did a little bit more work cleaning up her case before going home that day. While she was working the second supervisor came up to her and told her to come with her. My mom follows her and she is lead into an office with another supervisor (this would be supervisor #3). The two supervisors basically tell her to seriously stop with the drug story...

BECAUSE IT WAS TRUE!

When the second supervisor mentioned it to the third supervisor...they decided to look at the package...and eventually opened the package. Which turned out to contain what they thought would have been ~$50k worth of pot.

And the supervisors were telling her if anyone asked about the package to not say anything and just say that they need to call the station to get it. I was like "mom---you are involved in a drug smuggling scheme by chance!" And I told her that when this turns into some HUGE drug bust and she gets to like...go on Dateline...I will be so proud.

As a follow up to this story...remember that guy who lived on the cul-de-sac...and had the same last name? Well when my mom was telling me this story...I immediately jumped into her conspiracy theory thread and said "that guy is soooo a drug dealer!" Then she mentioned that the guy is ALWAYS at home during the day...and that he has a really big boat (this is a nice area of town...but not like UBER nice area...) and all sorts of random boy toys. Then I said "yes...definitely a drug dealer..." because I mean...he would know about the vacant house...and he would be too smart to have it actually addressed to him...so that way if anything happened...he would be free and clear...but had the package just been left at the house he could have casually went and picked it up. Now...nothing that we know of has happened since then...and there is no proof that this guy is involved...just wild speculation on me and my mom's part.

Not really a lecture, but it is going in my teaching portfolio anywho!

Yes, so I have completed my first real experience teaching.

At 9am this morning, I sat in our grad school's "lecture hall" (Hanes 1064, for those in the know) and got blank stares by about 20 students...and my advisor. I got lulled into a sense of ease when I stepped up to the podium to get things set up and a girl came down and asked me if it was ok that she needed to leave early because she had a meeting. I wanted to say she could leave whenever the hell she felt like it, but I said that she could leave whenever she needed to and that I probably would be done about that time anyways.

I feel I did ok. I feel I did ok with what I had to work with, which, really, I could have told them to play with the online stuff themselves and just stood around answering questions if they had any.

When I tried to get them to participate, they just stared at me blankly. No, really kiddies, JUST SAY A LETTER ALREADY!!!!

When I asked if they were having any problems with the online materials...all I got was a sea of blank stares.

When I had finished going over everything I prepared, I asked if there were any questions. More blank stares.

I told them that was all I had and they could go. Most of them still just sat there. No. Really. Leave.

But..at the end of it all, I feel excited now. I feel good about it. I want to teach. This is what I want to do.

Now, we'll see how I feel in about 2 months when I am giving a formal lecture on glycolysis!

Way to leave things to the last minute!

I am admonishing myself.

See, I want to teach. Me and a couple of other students in the department have bugged some faculty and developed a "class" for it.

I got duped into doing this "tutorial." For "online resources." Fine. Whatever.

At first it was no big deal, just show some kiddies how to use this online program. It's not complicated, but there are a few tricks and not obvious things about it. As it loomed closer I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to do. I mean, I have an hour. Some of this stuff there is no point for me to walk them step-by-step through, so I decided to use some examples from the problem sets.

Except, with the limitations of the online resources...it really whittled down problems that would really be appropriate to do with the online resources.

I still kinda shrugged it off. It's just to some newbies who may or may not listen to me for more than 5 minutes anywho. Especially since this is optional and outside of the normal class time. I told myself I had all of labor day weekend to think about it and finalize everything. Which, of course, I didn't think about it at all.

So here I sit on Tuesday afternoon. I do this thing tomorrow morning. I'm not nervous about talking in front of the kiddies (and the growing list of faculty members who are like "hmmm...maybe I should see what's available..."). I'm nervous that it will be pointless, that the kiddies will get nothing out of it. I don't know what else to do really. Plus, I'm lazy and don't feel like putting in too much effort to show the kiddies how to point-n-click to use the online stuff. Don't get me wrong, I am outlined how I am going through everything and what examples to use and things to point out. So I'm not just winging it.

Anywho, I will try to put up a post about how it went tomorrow. Hopefully I will get a couple of kiddies who found it helpful. That's all I ask for.