A post without being prompted!

Not much going on. I went on a date the other night, but it wasn’t that great. The guy said some really odd things, like he doesn’t want to save because he might die tomorrow. He also had a roommate in college that he classified as “borderline mentally retarded”, and he not only made fun of him, but bragged that he and his friends printed up shirts with a derogatory saying and his picture and then passed them out on his college campus. He’s a real winner…

Anyways, not much else is going on besides that. Kim and I have no groceries in the house, so we’re going to go grocery shopping tonight. Not much planned this weekend, but I need to work on my thesis at some point. Just a weekend of relaxation. I think tonight we’re going to make a basil chicken dish that her boyfriend’s sister showed her how to make. It’ll be interesting, Kim teaching me how to cook from memory. Really all she can tell me is that it involved tomato soup, some amount of basil and chicken that is browned on top of the stove first. We’ll see how this goes, although I’ve already changed the tomato soup to diced tomatoes that I’ll reduce.

What’s new…

Not much really. Life is same old, same old. I still hate my job, and it’s still driving me crazy. I have a committee meeting tomorrow, and I hope they will give me some direction since I’m not getting anywhere. My experiments are still not working, and my boss still doesn’t care that they might be impossible. I’m probably not going to leave without getting a degree at all like I was thinking, but I am still applying for jobs as they become available.

I’m not dating anyone right now, but I’m back to attempting online dating. I’ve only been on it for two weeks or so, and not much has happened.

I’ve gained a ridiculous amount of weight this year, and I need to go back to the gym. I managed to make it three times last week, but that’s really not going to help. I also need to stop going to the bar so much. Kim’s boyfriend works there, so we go a lot, but I don’t want to go to the gym the morning after I’ve been drinking.

Kim and I went to a concert last night which was fun. We went to see Hurt, who is always good, and some interesting opening acts. We ended up leaving before the headliner since Kim and I were both tired, and we really only went to see Hurt anyways.

There really isn’t much else going on. I’m being really boring.

I have such grace…

Before we get to my gracefulness, Kim and I had a housewarming/my birthday party. We had a potluck and invited about 20 friends over. We only had 7 show, but it was still so much fun. I had a great time cooking for the party. Kim wanted me to make the salad of goodness, which consists of avacados, black beans, corn, tomatoes, red bell pepper, feta cheese, lime juice, cilantro, red onion, cumin, and chili powder. (This was named by Kim.) I also made stuffed mushrooms, which had cream cheese, parmesean, green onion, garlic, and cayanne pepper.

I made some tres leches (I made the cake from scratch, and I didn’t like that part as much), and I had leftover stuffing from the mushrooms that I turned into a dip. Kim doesn’t like tres leches, so I also made some cookies: white chocolate, raspberry, and oatmeal. We actually spent most of the night making fun of reality tv. Kim had left some channel on, and Daisy of Love was on. We spent 3 hours making fun of just about everything on the show. It was a ton of fun.

On my birthday I was rushing to get home kind of early (sixish or so), and I had to throw some bacteria to grow in the warm room. Of course I got a text and was looking at my phone when I managed to slam my middle finger in the door. Yay! It still hurts, but luckily overall it’s fine.

Kim took me out for dinner that night, and we went to the original Ninfa’s on Navigation (so much better than any other Ninfa’s or Mamma Ninfa’s!). We just sat out on the deck and talked for a while, and we shared fajitas. It was great, and exactly what I wanted to do. Just a slow, relaxing evening with a margarita. Then we went over to Blake’s house (Kim’s boyfriend), and just watched the end of the Tudors. I got to pet his dog, who was making all kinds of noises. (Pat can testify to this, he called when she was in my lap.)

The next morning I decided to be good and get up and workout. I wanted to try the treadmill instead of the elliptical in hopes that I might have better results. About 5 minutes into my workout, I tripped and fell, got thrown off the back of the machine, had my knees ground off, and the safety magnet was tethered to the machine so the it ripped the rusty metal clip off my shirt which flew up and cut my lip. Yay for tetnus shots! I went to complain to the office, and of course they not only said that I used it at my own risk, but the clip wasn’t actually rusty and it came like that. Really pissed me off. All I asked was that they change the clip for one that isn’t rusty (I wanted my tetnus shot reimbursed, but they never let me get that far.) Stupid waste of $50.

I’m sorry Melanie…

Let’s see, it’s hard to remember what I’ve done since the last post. I guess that means I should post more. (I know, I say that all the time…) Melanie and Pat have gotten me completely addicted to Mafia Wars, which is a game on Facebook. Thanks guys.

David and I broke up a few weeks ago. We both felt that there wasn’t really a spark between us, although he still wanted to give us a chance. Apparently I’m the “type of woman he should want to be with”. Apparently he ended up being a little cynical about relationships, and he thought that you only feel a spark when you’re younger, and he’s grown out of that. I wanted more, so I ended it. I thought we could be friends after, but he annoyed me with his “I know more than you act”. It actually reminded me a lot of Chad (yes mom, I know you tried to tell me that…).

Our paper that we wrote has been accepted to a journal with some revisions, which aren’t that bad really. Mostly just shortening the paper (my boss wanted me to put everything under the sun in the paper).

Speaking of my boss, she’s really pissing me off. I have been banned from my internship that I went to one afternoon a week since that should only be a “semester thing”. Never mind that it wasn’t a class, and it’s really the only part of my work life that I don’t absolutely despise right now. Woohoo!

Last weekend we went to Farrago’s for an early birthday celebration, and it was nice and small. This weekend we’re having a birthday party/housewarming party. Yes, we’ve been living here since January, but Kim and I are very busy people… It’s going to be a potluck, but we’re going to be making a ton of food. I want to try to make tres leches, but Kim doesn’t like it, so I’m also going to make some raspberry, white chocolate, and oatmeal cookies. Then, I wanted to make some stuffed mushrooms because I’d never made them before, and Kim wants the “salad of goodness”. I made it for easter, and now she’s addicted. It’s basically just black beans, corn, avacado, cilantro, red bell pepper, tomatoes, red onion, cilantro, lime juice, and red wine vinegar. Then Kim suggested we make a main dish, so I making enchiladas too. I think I’m going to delegate the salad of goodness, since it’s just chopping.

There’s not a whole lot going on really. Kim and I have been hanging out at the bar a lot since she’s dating one of the bartenders. I’m not doing so bad at their weekly poker games (although it’s free). I’ve been having fun. Life is just kind of eh right now.

Let’s see…

Last weekend I was up at the new shelter trying to get it up and running for the grand opening this past Saturday. I was on hands and knees scrubing the glue off the floor tiles. Apparently my back didn’t like this the next day, and I was really sore. I was in a lot of pain, but I figured I could deal with it. All last week I ended going home early from work early because my back just couldn’t take it.

I gave in on Thursday and went to a doctor. He gave me a prescription for a muscle relaxer, which sort of works but makes me reeeeaaaalllly tire due to all my other medication which also makes me tired. Yay! I haven’t been going into my internship at all due to this, but luckily Laura is understanding.

I have been able to do some short term things though. David and I went to take pictures of some statues that are down 288 at a pipe supply company (don’t ask, I have no idea). I’ll try and get some pictures up soon.

I dragged David to the opening of the animal shelter, which looked great! Tons of hard work (and hard earned money) went into that place. I convinced David that he should take pictures for the event, so he was in his element being “the photographer”. I was actually a little uncomfortable because I didn’t know most of the volunteers or contributers there. I hid behind one of David’s extra cameras, and then I went outside to experiment with long exposures at night. I got a few good car headlights and stuff, but it wasn’t a very busy road. Overall I had fun.

I had another party to go to that night, but I was just too tired and my back hurt. Instead I dropped David home and crashed as soon as I got home. The next morning David came over and we shopped for some groceries and he made me an omlete for brunch. He’s a little OCD about his cooking skills, but I think it tasted great! We went and had some coffee and just sat outside arguing over what birds were around and just talking. It was a gorgeous day out, and it was really nice to just sit around and talk.

Then we went and walked a little park next to the med center. It was interesting when a mariatchi band showed up to take group pictures (possibly for an album cover or ad posters). The just had a guy with a snap shot camera, and David kept wispering to me how the shots were set up all wrong. It was pretty funny. Even the short walk to the park (maybe three blocks from my apartment) wore my back out, so we ended up just walking back to the apartment and watching some movies.

Stealth was horrible, but really fun to make fun of. Then David made me dinner (to save my back); we had a pasta bake that was very tasty with olives, feta cheese, and chipotle sausage.

That was my weekend. I really need to figure out what I want to make for Easter since mom and dad are coming down. I will recipe search in my free time this week…

By popular demand…

Wow, it’s been over a month since last posting. Hm, lots has been happening. I’ve been dating a guy (David) for about a month now. He’s a librarian at a local college, and also loves to do photography (he used to have a studio in Alabama). He’s from Alabama (obviously), and nine years older than me. We’ve been doing lots of stuff together. We went to the zoo, although we didn’t make it all the way through, we went on a day trip to La Bahia presidio and took lots of pictures (I’ve been loaned David’s old D100), we went down to Galveston and toured Moody Gardens.

Life has been rather busy lately with hanging out with David and the internship. Kim has started dating a door guy/bartender, so she’s been hanging out at the bar a lot lately. Ooh, and David got some free tickets to the local comedy club this past weekend, and it was a lot of fun. He got five tickets, so Brett, Michael, Kim, David and I went. I ended up pissing Kim off (she should realize by now that I’m a smart ass), but it was a great time. The second comedian wasn’t that good, but the headliner was the guy that does the voice for Dale Dribble on King of the Hill. He was hillarious.

My internship is going well, my job sucks as normal. I’m still having migraines, even after going on anti-seizure medication (apparently in low doses it helps with migraines). I’ve called the doctor, so we’ll see what he does now. He’s already increased my dosage once. Not sure what I’m going to do… I’ll post more later (I promise Melanie).

Life is good!

Let me see. Since the last time I’ve posted, I had my first day at my internship. It was great. Laura (the clinical coordinator where I’m interning) actually treats me like I know what I’m doing, and she’s putting a lot of trust in me. It’s really nice. And she’s happy that I actually want to go back (she handed me a trial that has a lot of work to do for it, and it will take both of us to get it into any kind of shape that resembles a legal trial…). And on a side note, I love wearing scrubs to work

I only went the one day because Friday I went to Austin for my last meeting of the student advisory council to the board of regents for UT. It was fun, but I was sad that I didn’t get to hang out with my friends there becasue I got a migraine Friday night. They are coming much more frequently now. I did manage to get up early Saturday though because I got lots of sleep, and I took my new camera around to take lots of pictures. I’ll get those posted once I have them developed.

Today Kim and I actually made it shopping, and then I had to run to Central Market for some sausage (sausage selection at Kroger sucks), which was packed. It took me 15 minutes to wait for the sausage, but the feta and spinach was worth it. I ended up making some pasta tonight with the sausage, peppers and onions, goat cheese, milk, sour cream and basil. It was pretty good, although the sausage was overpowered by the goat cheese taste in the sauce. I was trying something different though because Kim isn’t a huge sausage fan, so I didn’t want to go with the traditional Italian sausage. Don’t worry mom, we had salad too (and bread, but that’s not as healthy as salad). Yay for not having to go out to eat anymore! Unfortunately, I will never get to duplicate it since it came purely from my head. Oh well.

Back to the real world tomorrow…

Woohoo!

I am having an interesting time in my life recently. I’ve been in a rather bad mood since I’ve been getting migrains rather frequently. I went to the eye docter on January 18, and he suggested that I go back to my old glasses, but where them all the time. However, they were broken, so I had to take them back to where I got them, and since they are a reading glasses store, they had to ship them off to get the lenses recut. However, they didn’t get fixed and shipped back to me until January 30, and they still have not made it to my apartment. I’ve been wearing my new glasses (well, newer) as much as possible, but they make distances blurry, so not while driving.

I start my internship today!!! I was over in the office, and I got a mini-quiz about somethings that apparently one of the primary investigators who wasn’t using the services of the clinical coordinator forgot. I knew the answers, which made the coordinator happy (rather sad since they were very simple questions and very important to how studies are run). So, I’ve bought scrubs and I’m waiting to head over in a few minutes. I’ll go over thursday afternoons and then after work on other days. And, it sounds like I’ll do real work and not just busy work. Also, apparently the director of the department said that if things work out and I do well, he’d be willing to hire me I’m excited.

Also, my committee gave me permission to write my thesis, and I have to finish up two experiments (and Katelyn is being nice enough to help me with one) and then I’ll be done! They don’t think that September is unreasonable as long as I can get my experiments finished (they aren’t working right now).

Not much else going on in my life. I’m on lots of committees, which is keeping me very busy. I seem to be always tired, which is a little disasterous at home. I still have most of the Kitchen in boxes, and I haven’t gone grocery shopping yet, so no homemade food for Kim and I yet. I made up a meal plan and a shopping list, I just haven’t done anything about it yet. Sadly, my biggest drawback is that I need some shelves and stuff to help organize the pantry, but I just don’t want to go buy them. Why is everything so expensive? Oh well, I’m going grocery shopping tonight. I will get it done…

On a slightly lighter note, I got some of my photos developed.

Japanese Gardens

Houston Zoo

Houston Marathon 2009

I really and truely hate my life right now…

I have a committee meeting on Tuesday, and I sent Dr. Hecht my slides to her a week early.   She told me that she was sick of seeing those slides, and she never wanted to see those slides again.  She also told me that I would have to get it right eventually, even if she had to “beat the shit out of me”.  So, I redid all of my slides and cut out a lot of the background because she told me I don’t need to have that in my talk, just very brief.  I spent the last two days working on nothing but that, and I sent them to her today.  I didn’t really want to be at work today since I was sick today, but I was there. 

I am supposed to be taking tomorrow off because I need to pack and start moving things to the new apartment.  But, I got an email from Dr. Hecht telling me that I needed to put half of my old slides back in, and I needed to come in tomorrow at 11 to go over it with her.  I’m so pissed; I hope I get her sick.

I had been excited because I had worked out a plan to get an unpaid internship that I could work 1 afternoon a week and after hours as an assistance for a clinical research coordinator.  I reapplied for my training grant, which is a clinical and translational grant.  It was kind of an excuse for me to have my internship.  However, the training grant requires that I stay until January though, if they keep me on it, I have to be on it for 9 months from April or else they would lose money.  Honestly, I thought that it wouldn’t be a problem; I could make it until then.  But after tonight, I think I need to call them back and withdraw my renewal application.  I want out as soon as possible.  I hope that I will still be able to work out an unpaid internship, but it’s not worth putting up with this shit until January.  It’d make getting a job later easier, but I just don’t think I’d make it without snapping…