The details
The dresss: In the end, I bought a new one. It is very pretty, everyone loved it, and I felt much more comfortable in it than I would have in the repaired dress.
Dulles: As I boarded the flight from DC to Boston, I was laughing. Nothing bad had happened on any of the flights (at least nothing that was Dulles's fault) and somehow I was confident that I would get my luggage and all would be fine. Other than my horrendous hangover, the travel had gone very well. I got in my seat and started reading my book and didn't really realize how long we sat at the gate. Then we taxied and waited in line to leave for what was rather obviously a long time. And then there was an announcement from the captain: "We're sorry. The onboard computer that controls the ventilation is not responding. We are going to have to go back to the gate and have maintenance come on board and fix it." So we went back to the gate and sat there for a while (still on the plane). The flight, originally scheduled to leave at 3:15, eventually left at 5. So yeah, that'd be 2/4. Sweet.
The weekend: Was fun and eventful. As you may have guessed from the previous paragraph, I had the hangover from hell on Sunday thanks to Saturday's alcohol comsumption. That's pretty much all you're getting, since 99% of what I could say would be inappropriate for this forum. To those of you involved: You've got mail.
Today: Went to lab. Boooo. Got to deal with an issue that I received some emails about over the weekend: a bunch of my cells were found to be contaminated and some experiments were cut short/cancelled. It's pretty frustrating and messes up a lot of things. I'm not really looking forward to tomorrow now because I will have to deal with it more and have to figure out how I am going to pull certain long term experiments back together. Not cool at all.
That's all, just to keep you from wondering.
Oh what a night....
Wow. So much craziness to cover, I don't even know where to start.
1. The U2 concert was AWESOME. I will devote an entire post to it later. Like tomorrow. Short version: it was absolutely incredible.
Prelude: I was tired yesterday. I got home from the concert around midnight and was asleep around 1. I got up this morning at 6 and was in the lab by 7:30 because I had so much to get done before I left. I got it all done and it was a good day. (Updates on lab stuff, including my vast multitude of projects, may also happen soon.) I managed to get home rather early to start doing stuff tonight. I had three major things to do tonight: laundry, packing, and slight dress issue.
2. As soon as I got home I started the laundry at the laundromat on the corner. It was empty. As I may have mentioned before, no one stays at our laundromat while their clothes are in the washers or dryers, they just keep track of the time and come back on time. Also, I live in a pretty suburb-y neighborhood. Anyway, due to tiredness and such, I fell asleep on the couch while my laundry was in the dryer. I woke up pretty quickly, and was got to the laundromat about 5 minutes after the dryer ended. 10 minutes max. As I walked up to the laundromat, I saw someone taking my clothes out of the dryer, and I was momentarily worried that all the dryers were full and felt bad that someone had needed my dryer. Then I remembered that there was no one else doing laundry. Turns out, it was a homeless man stealing my clothes. He had an armful of clothes and he was just closing the dryer as I walked up. (I had two dryers, this was the one with towels and random t shirts and socks etc.-stuff that I can dry on hot and not care if it shrinks as opposed to my favorite clothes.) I yelled out "What are you doing? Those are my clothes!" as I came in and he sort of froze in place and said "Sorry" as I walked up to him. He turned a little bit so I could take the clothes out of his arms. Then he proceeded to stand and watch me as I unloaded my dryers, with a very dirty look on his face. I was very freaked out and scared and was working very hard not to shake. I also noticed that he had two garbage bags on the table in the landromat, and it was obvious that one was not empty. It didn't seem like I was missing anything there, and I looked through the clothes pretty thoroughly when I got home and it still looks like everything is here. I was pretty freaked out and I was shaking for a while. Roommates were also freaked out, and we were joking that maybe this was a reason to drink lots tonight. About this time the Lost finale started.
3. During commercials, I had to start dealing with the dress issue. The dress that I am wearing this weekend is from a small boutique near my apartment that sold (when it was open) stuff from emerging designers. I had my eye on it for a long time, and when the store was having a 50% off moving sale I finally went in and tried it on for the purpose of wearing this weekend. The dress fit, but I never fully tried it on properly because it had two buttons that were obviously misplaced. I figured that even my dumb self could manage to move two buttons, and I loved the dress, so I bought it. I never really got around to dealing with the buttons though, so I figured before I packed it I ought to move them. Well, turns out that the dress doesn't fall right with the buttons in the right place, and that little miss emerging designer doesn't know how to make a dress that actually goes on a person. Shit. In the end, my roommates and I figured out a way to fix it, but I was not thrilled and the whole thing was making me even more upset. Oh, and I definitely don't have the proper undergarmenture for it. So now I am thinking that during my downtime in Durham this weekend I might run to Victoria's Secret. And it wouldn't be the worst idea to look at dresses that did not require emergency surgery. The result of all this is that I, the alcoholic one, sewed a dress, while my roommates, the domestic and crafty ones, mixed drinks with LOTS of rum, and then we all had a jolly old time watching the rest of Lost and Alias and playing with formalwear. And then my engaged roommate asked me to be her maid of honor, ending that little controversy.
I'm just getting around to packing now, and I'm planning on not sleeping tonight since I have to get up so early. After this much craziness, I don't think I could sleep anyway.
I'm just getting around to packing now
Entirely irresponsible, but I don't care
Because I am sooooooo excited!!!!
As you may have noticed, I've been a bit stressed lately. I got some things accomplished last night, but not very much. I woke up late this morning (still going over all of the things that I needed to get done) and was pretty pissed at myself for sleeping so late, and thus getting to the lab so late. I looked at weather.com and felt crappy because it was 40s and rainy today and it was going to be 40s and rainy all week. Thank goodness I am going to NC where the weather will be nice this weekend. As I was getting ready, my cell phone started to ring. It was E. I debated whether or not to answer, because I was embarrassed to still be home, but I decided it was probably important if he was calling right then, so I answered. It was actually not E. on the phone, it was the woman who works at the desk next to him in the lab. She wanted to know if I wanted to go to the U2 concert tonight...her friend couldn't go, it would cost $50 etc. etc. As stressed about all of the random crap that I had to get done tonight, there was NO hesitation in my mind. I AM GOING TO SEE U2 TONIGHT!!!!! YAY!!!!!
Okay, you may envy me now, while I actually get some work done :)
Leavin' on a jet plane
Uggggh. I am thinking that three weddings in a summer is too many. As previously mentioned, I went home to Middle-of-Nowhere'sville, Upstate NY this weekend for a bridal shower and dress fitting extravaganza.
Update on the dress: I have never seen a dress so long in my whole life. They could make a new dress out of all of the material that they have to cut off to make it the right length. I didn't think it looked too bad, but they are still altering it anyway. Eh. No biggie.
Update on the bridal shower: It was okay, although I was slightly annoyed that really only 2/6 bridesmaids (one of the two being me) seemed to do much of any of the work at the shower. It was fine though. Boring, but fine. She got an impressive amount of presents. Notes to anyone ever involved in planning/throwing any sort of shower for me: 1) I want lots of presents 2) The point is that it is a party, please be sure that none of my friends or family members are stressing about the straightness or smoothness of tablecloths and 3) The game they played was cute, but I would much prefer to play it with shots as opposed too bubble gum. Thanks. :)
Other updates on the weekend: I am an AWFUL, AWFUL driver. Now, I know that this is not a surprise, but I felt that my driving this weekend was particularly pitiful. I didn't get into an accident or anything, but I definitely felt out of practice. Our very small town has two stoplights (the second being added while I was in college) and I managed to run them both in the same day. Ooops. This whole thing is making me rethink my car renting idea for next weekend.
Update on the Dulles curse: not only did my luggage get lost on the way to NY, but my plane was delayed leaving DC for two hours due to maintenance issues (they had to change the tires.) I can't tell you how excited I am that I get to fly there for the next few weeks.
In the end, I am really tired and rather stressed. I am having awful flashbacks to senior year of college when I interviewed for graduate school and had eight interviews in seven weeks. I would fly out on Thursday and come back on Sunday and would try to fit in a full amount of lab work as well as a full class schedule on Monday-Wednesday/Thursday. Oh, and a full party schedule too, which was obviously the most important thing. I was REALLY stressed then, and right now I have far fewer things that I can let slide. Notwithstanding actual lab work (of which I have tons. Watch out E., I might task you to help me out soon) I also have to get a wedding present, plane tickets for the weekend of the June 4th, a hotel room for this weekend, a potential rental car for this weekend, and do some other shopping ASAP. And get a passport, since I couldn't find my expired one at home. And reply to about 50 emails (if you sent me an email, it is probably sitting in my inbox with a little red exclamation point that I just added to it, I'll reply today, I promise.) And unpack so that I can do laundry and repack so that I can leave again on Thursday. And then there's the lab stuff.......
In the stone age
(at least that's what it feels like.)
I'm currently in upstate NY at my parents' house for the weekend. They have a super slow computer attached to a super slow modem and dialup, so I am feeling slightly frustrtated. Also, their popup blocker seems intent on blocking my webmail (which I can get around although it is also frustrating.) Anyway-if I seem less omnipresent or accessible until Sunday evening, that would be why. Still feel free to email me though, because I welcome thedistraction. :)
This trip also makes me think there is something to the often- mentioned Dulles curse. You see, every time I fly through Dulles, something bad happens (as in they lose my luggage, I am stuck there for nine hours etc.) I decided to overlook this small fact and get a student pass thingy from Independance Air anyway (since it resulted in cheap flights for the summer) even though it meant that I would have to connect through Dulles every time that I flew all summer. Well, on weekend number 1 of 4, they managed to lose my luggage. I am currently sitting around the house in a tshirt that commemorates one of my field hockey team's state championship victories in 1997 and sweats because I happened to find them in my room, waiting for my luggage to be delivered. Blech. Other than that, the travelling wasn't too noteworthy. The plan for the weekend involves lots of bridesmaid activities (shoe-dyeing, dress fitting, shower attending, and whatever else they need me to do...I'll call them when I get offline.) and taking little sis to see Star Wars. It should be an okay weekend, but nothing like next weekend's drunken debauchery with my Duke girls in Durham. :) (Let's hope I have clothes for that one, because we won't have the handy washing machine!)
As far as things from my last post go: I am supposed to be meeting with the Ass Prof again. I had to help the boss and Ass Prof's wife (who also works with us) plan some experiments for her project the other day, and to make a long story short, the Ass Prof found out about some techniques I have developed/been using and wants to converse with me about why they are wrong. I managed to avoid this conversation for two days, but it will likely happen early next week. I also had a meeting with Ice, A., and the boss yesterday about A.'s project. I was kinda stressed out, since we also had grad student meeting yesterday and I barely was going to have enough time to get all of my data analyzed before the meeting (and to get everything in place to go out of town), so when they asked me if I had time for it, I said no, also convieniently getting myself out of the mess. I agreed to come in later if they desperately needed my expertise. About a minute later, Iceland was back at my desk saying that the boss had requested my presence and expertise and had decided to excuse me from having to present data at grad student meeting so that I could attend. Since not having to talk at grad student meeting is a miracle that doesn't come along very often, I jumped at the chance. Turns out, after some narrowing of the scope of the project, the boss is SUPER excited about the experiments, so now I am happy to be associated and involved with them. What was once a ridiculous mass of ideas is now a certain Nature paper. Awesome.
Gettin' a little on the side...
but not in a good way. If only that were the case.
Common advice to graduate students (at least in the biomedical sciences) is that you should not put all your eggs in one basket, and you should instead start/work on multiple projects so that when one crashes and burns, you still have a thesis project and graduate in a reasonable amount of time. I, of course, did not follow this advice. Lucky for me, I managed to stumble over an interesting observation early on in my experimenting and I am making what I consider quite good progress for a third-year graduate student.
While I was getting my act together project-wise, a couple other things happened. One is that I taught undergrad immunology twice and I learned a lot of immunology that everyone always assumed that I knew. My foundation is now pretty strong. The second thing that happened is that I settled down, got much less nervous around the people I work with and became much, much more confident. The result of these two things was that my boss and my co-workers somehow got the impression that I am much smarter and more useful than I actually am, and they now defer to me in conversations or ask my opinions about things. My boss, in particular, is rather impressed with me. While this is all very flattering, it is also rather silly. I laugh every time someone comes breathlessly to my desk to get advice, which generally involves some combination of me spitting out the basic knowledge that I have and talking out of my ass. Anyway, I guess it's nice to know that I still have the ability to pull a fast one and make people think I know lots. But I digress...
First (a few weeks ago; I wrote about it here) an Associate Professor (better known as the Ass Prof) decided that he and I needed to chat about some random ideas that he had. I ended up with a whole crapload of extra reading to do about things that aren't necessarily important that he thought I ought to do some experiments on etc. etc. Since the original panic session, I have thought about this almost not at all, except for when he asks me about it. I probably ought to order some reagents and do a couple of experiments to make him happy, but I haven't. The point of the story is that all of a sudden he came up with this little side-project that I ought to be working on just because he thought I knew things.
Then I went to Banff. Iceland (another grad student in the lab) and I took lots of notes and we devoted a whole grad student meeting to updating everyone (as in the other grad students in our lab) on things that we had learned that we thought were relevant to their projects. Go us for trying to be all helpful. We had a lot of notes for one person in particular and we were very excited about some of the theories that we had come up with to explain his data and experiments he could do. What does the boss say? Basically, he agrees that it is really exciting, and decides that I should do the experiment. If I don't do it, then Iceland has to. Now I understand that I am sort of teacher's pet (whether I like it or not) but THIS IS NOT AT ALL RELATED TO MY PROJECT, while is it DIRECTLY related to someone else's. Oh well. I'm still excited about the idea and the experiment is easy, so Iceland and I have decided that we will do a whole set of experiments by ourselves just because we can and then we'll come back to the boss when we have the answer that the field is waiting for. So there's side project #2, but at least I am excited about this one.
Okay, now fast-forward to yesterday. We were in grad student meeting and there is this new guy, A. there. He is friends with Iceland and is trying to design a project to work on once he starts here, but he has no background in immunology or vaccine research. After the meeting, A., Iceland and I were walking down the hall and A. pulls us aside to ask us some of the basics of what the lab works on/papers he's read. Basically little background things that he didn't understand. He then segues into talking about his ideas (which apparently Iceland has already heard) and proceeds to explain his grand vision to me for my feedback. (Iceland leaves during this conversation, but tells A. to keep explaining to me because I will shoot it down, which he only says because the boss has been setting Ice and I up to argue opposing viewpoints on everything lately, so he thinks I'm contrary.) My opinion on A.'s master plan? It is super naive, and he has no grip on the reality of DOING any of the experiments that he is talking about, but we discuss back and forth for a long time. In the end, he asks me to come to a meeting with he, Iceland and another HMS professor about the whole idea at 10 this morning. I agree to come, but I'm not excited and I am perfectly happy when I later realize that my experiment today conflicts with my going to the meeting. (A side note: Why do I keep talking to A. when it is evident that his ideas are not formed completely? Because he is moderately attractive. Not super cute, but not disfigured either.)
Then at 11:30 or so this morning I am sitting at my desk while my cells are incubating, and my cell phone rings. It's Iceland, asking if I can come join them for this meeting to "explain immunology to everyone." I figure I'll go since I have nothing better to do (tech finishes my experiment) and I end up in this meeting with Iceland, A., and this world-famous professor, discussing A.'s cockamamie schemes for an hour. Oh, and then I end up eating lunch with A. and Iceland, where we talk about this. In the end, I have now been roped in to being one of the co-creators of this huge project simply by virtue of being in the wrong place in the hallway yesterday and my usual willingness to answer questions. I am supposed to be looking up all this stuff, proof-reading A.'s proposal for the project, going to more meetings, and helping to sell this to the boss. (Direct quote from Iceland: "We have to make sure all three of us go to talk to him, because he likes Bree and always listens to things she says. If she's involved he'll go for it.) Did anyone ever ask if I was interested? No. Did anyone ever ask if I was excited by the project? No. The more I talk to them, the more I think that they only want to do the experiment because it is an excuse to use cool technology and not because it will actually be at all useful. Do they actually realize that every bit of advice that I have given them on this has been totally me making stuff up?
*Sigh* So now it looks like I am picking up another side project to work on. Add to that all of the random helping people out that I do (not that I mind helping you E., don't freak out, I'm definitely cool with helping you start up your project...) Do I look like I am a slacker and don't have enough to do (don't answer that.)? Just based on how swamped I've been this week, I would hope they don't have that impression. Grrrr. Oh well, at least it means my CV will get very long very quickly.
For your amusement....
According to this test, I am pretty nerdy. (Surprise, surprise)
They say:
28% scored higher (more nerdy), and 72% scored lower (less nerdy).
What does this mean? Your nerdiness is:Mid-Level Nerd. Wow, it takes a lot of hard nerdy practice to reach this level.
Okay, I actually have LOTS and LOTS of experiments to do today, so I need to get back to that, but I thought it was important that you were aware of what a nerd-girl I am. :) More to come, once my cells are less needy.
*Insert Scream Here*
I'm not generally a fan of Mondays. We have lab meeting at 9 am, and my lab job is to be the lab meeting coordinator. This involves scheduling people to give talks (which is somewhat like pulling teeth) and also coming in early on Monday morning to set up/run the audio-visual stuff and generally run the show. I start lab meeting sharply at 9:05 by shouting/asking the group if there is any lab business to be discussed.
For some reason, I could not fall asleep last night. I tried to go to bed early, but ended up waking up after an hour and not falling back asleep until 5:30. My alarm went off at 6, I stayied awake long enough to listen to the good song was on the radio, and then I promptly re-set the alarm for 7. I managed to get up at 7:30 and somehow left the apartment at 8:05 to make it to lab on time to do all of the setup. If you do the math in this paragraph, you will see that I got 2.5 hours of not great sleep last night, and I am EXHAUSTED. In fact, I am so exhausted that when I was talking to someone before lab meeting started (while mainlining caffeine so that I could be upright) I tried to ask "Do you think I have enough energy to ask if there is any lab business" and instead random "Hiebeydtuitiuyeetetjkiougaosg" sounds came out of my mouth, causing my co-worker to laugh hysterically. The lab meeting was outstandingly boring.
So what do I have going on today? Well, I worked from 5 pm-9pm last night setting up an experiment for today. A small part of me wanted to say screw that and do the set-up part today, but instead I was a diligent graduate student. As soon as I left lab meeting, one of the techs who I needed to help me with my experiment pulled me aside and said "We need to talk about your experiment." Turns out I scheduled it for a time where she couldn't help me. While we talked about how we would finagle the schedule, she also explained the instrument controls to me, and said "whatever you do, don't add the normal activation media to the cells." Oops. Guess what I spent 6-7:30 pm last night doing? It now looks like I am going to throw the cells I set up last night in the trash can and start again with new (but less optimally grown) cells this afternoon, which will result in finishing the experiment at a time where she can actually help me read it on Wednesday. Of course, it also requires a doing two large experiments tomorrow instead of one, but that's why I have people working for me, now isn't it? Ugggggggh. I think I need to turn around, go home, go back to bed and take a Mulligan on today. I guess I won't be so busy after all. If you find me asleep at my desk (or you see that I have written more incoherent things for all to read), you'll know why. Please can I take a nap? Please, please?
Grrrrrr
So on Thursday night, E. and I went to Harvard Square to eat at one of our favorite restaurants, Brother Jimmy's, where they serve EXCELLENT southern food of all types (mmmmmm barbeque and hush puppies). When we got there, we were informed that the restaurant was closing as of Saturday (as in today! Oh no!) and that they were only serving a limited menu at that point (which included neither hush puppies or barbeque). When we talked to the very nice hostesses (who volunteered to turn around while we looked at the menu so that they weren't pressuring us to decide to stay) about why they were leaving, they said it was because the rent for that particular building was too high, and that they were looking in to moving close by. I find that explanation a little fishy in that January-March are their biggest months (due to basketball) so it is odd that they are having money issues now, but I also remember that this building was previously the Boston House of Blues (in fact, it is a house and was the original House of Blues in all the land) which closed for similar reasons. Either way, this totally sucks. If it opens back up, all Bostonians reading this will have to frequent the new location so that they can stay open.
As for what's up with me-I had a very busy day at the lab yesterday and I have to go in tomorrow afternoon/evening. Other than that, I'm back in lazy mode. So far today, I have downloaded from ITunes and updated by IPod. I'm considering going downtown for some primping (my hair is beyond bad shape at this point. It needs to be cut desperately) but I think I've ruled that out due to weather. The movies aren't out of the question, though. The only problem with those options, of course is that they involve a lot more effort than internet surfing/further blog posting. (Okay, maybe they don't involve more effort than blog posting, because further posts would be about the FDA and would require my doing some online research which would involve reading some things that look suspiciously like work-related items.) I need to stop with this weekend laziness, but I don't see that happening anytime soon. It would certainly be helpful if the weather would cooperate.
Some updates
The ends (or continuations) of some previously mentioned stuff...
1. The computer is back. I stayed home from the lab yesterday morning until it was delivered. I also had a nice talk with the FedEx man about the software that tells when he will deliver, and how I can get him to stop back if I miss him again. I spent much time reinstalling last night and I will hopefully have it back to normal today. That also means that Banff pictures will be postable soon.
2.The trip to Denmark is ON. We received an email yesterday with dates for the conference. My boss's response: Mark down the dates. And buy a guidebook. I am now trying to figure out how one goes about dealing with having only a lost, expired passport with a picture of them that is ten years old. The passport is either at my house in NY or under the care of the underpants gnomes, but I kind of stopped paying attention once it expired. Ah well, yet another thing to deal with. I probably should get on that if I am going in August, huh?
Real thoughts after lunch, but at least now you don't have to sit on the edge of your seats over this stuff anymore.
Either ExI asks hard questions or I'm really indecisive :)
1.If you couldn't be a researcher like you are now, what field would you go into?
If I'm being realistic, then I'd go for something having to do with either health policy (theoretically international, because I'm back into a Paul Farmer obsession now and I like to travel :) ), science writing or teaching. But if I am more interesting and assume that I have to get away from science altogether then I would write. Not only do I oh-so modestly think that I could write better and more realistic SciFi screenplays than the ones that I have seen lately, but I also wouldn't mind doing something with the short stories that I keep thinking up and drafting. 2. You are given unlimited financial resources to buy a completely new wardrobe. The only catch is that you can only shop in one store or from one website. Where do you go?
The GAP. I know, it's boring, but it is also comfortable researcher clothes. And it's where I shop most of the time now. I always say that I would love to buy more from Ann Taylor if I had the money, and I would certainly like to be more trendy than I am, but I'd be lying if I said anything other than Gap here.3. Say you could only own three movies. Which three would you want?
Besides a Blockbuster card?Good Will Hunting has been my favorite movie pretty much since I first saw it.The Matrix. Lucky for me, this would preclude owning the travesties that came afterwards.Pretty Woman, because without Pretty Woman my roommates and I couldn't have Girls' Night.4. If you were forced to run for election to public office at some level, what position would you choose and why?
Any public office that involves a tiara
Hmmm. Another tricky one, because most of the positions that first come to mind aren't actually elected. I think that I would probably be able to be most effective at the level of something like a Board of Regents, to downplay the importance of standardized testing and encourage actually teaching critical thinking, as well as to be able to mold science curricula to my liking More critical thinking among the general public would do a world of good, I think. I wouldn't mind being in charge of the NIH budget either. Ultimately, I don't think that I could change all of the things that really bug me politically right now all by my lonesome, and I'm too far left to get elected to anything big. I mean, I'd take those if there wasn't a vacancy for princess of the world.5. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, York Peppermint Patties or Twix?
Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. No question. Rules for those of you interested in further interviews...
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by asking you five questions of my choosing.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions. If you don't have a blog, you can post your responses in my comments section.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post, folowing the same rules.
GAH!
I came home early from the lab today so that I could be here when FedEx delivered my computer, which according to the website would happen at 3pm. I got here at 1:30, figuring that was enough time. Well, apparently they meant BY 3pm, and they attempted delivery at 11:30. Crap. Crap. Crap. I really don't have time any other day this week to be here to wait for the FedEx guy to come. The FedEx center is all the way in Needham, so now I am trying to come up with a brilliant idea of how I could get to Needham to pick up the damn package myself, because I don't think that staying home tomorrow until it is delivered (which is supposedly going to happen before 4:30) is a viable option. Crap, crap, crap. I'm sure that Jen's cute FedEx boy would never do such a thing.
Wow, I'm lazy
It's not like I planned to do much today. But somehow, I managed to be even lazier than expected.
Today's plan (as of yesterday): Go to Bed, Bath and Beyond to buy two wedding presents and a bridal shower gift. Get plane tickets (which are fortunately DIRT CHEAP) to go to said weddings and wedding-related functions. Clean apartment. Pay bills. Possibly watch some of the things Tivo taped this week.
When I got up, I decided that the Landmark Center was too far to walk. (For those of you who don't know the area, it is about five inches from my apartment). New plan: go to Bed Bath online to buy said presents, get plane tickets, pick up a few things causing clutter, pay bills, reply to emails/email people, read all the blogs I have missed lately and watch TV.
Well...I tried to get the plane tickets. Really, I did. And when the website didn't work, I even called the airline. But when the nice lady told me that they were having some problems and that my best bet was to check back throughout the day to see if it was working, I kinda stopped trying. I didn't really make it to Bed Bath online (too many letters to type) and somehow got sucked into watching random crap that my roommates were watching. I did manage to put away my laundry and write one email (which I got a reply to), but I neither replied back nor wrote any others. And now I think it is too late to be productive. Oops. Maybe I'll make one last plane ticket try, but that's all I can manage.
Plan for tomorrow:
Must be in lab for the PITA lab meeting at 9. Have perhaps an hour of lab work to do (thanks to changing all of my experiments in response to a meeting with the boss on Friday). FedEx is delivering my FIXED COMPUTER!!!! at 3, and I need to be home to sign for it. :) Meeting with landlord to sign new lease at 9. Looks like I have enough free time for that email/blog reading stuff tomorrow. Woohoo!!!
As for yesterday's wedding dress shopping extravaganza...it was actually pretty fun and not the torture I expected. All in all, a pretty good day. It worked out, because I was the only one who had ever been wedding dress shopping before (having accompanied another friend to pick one out) so I felt rather helpful. I was afraid that I was being a little too helpful (I spent some time picking up her train for her to make sure she didn't trip and doing other such random tasks) but mostly I was on the lookout for things that I would really have needed someone to do (and since I trip over my own feet, I felt like a train involved super advanced ability to walk, so I was acutely aware of it.) My roommate told me later that she really appreciated it though, and that she felt bad that I was doing so many random little tasks for her-like she was making me do too many things. It's not like she asked me to though, I was happy to do it. It worked out well and she got a pretty dress. I felt bad because she didn't end up getting her first choice dress (which was SO GORGEOUS) because it had detailing on the bottom that would have been cut off in the course of altering it for her height. This made me feel bad both because she couldn't get the dress that she wanted (well, she could have, but she didn't want THAT much of a heel) and also because I am a midget and I forsaw that I will have similar problems in 2073 when I am in this situation. The parts where all of the salesgirls asked me if I was a bridesmaid were super awkward, and I don't know how to take the fact that my roommate said "I haven't said anything yet" as I was saying "I don't know" instead of alleviating any of the awkwardness. At the same time, we were freely talking about bridesmaid dresses and at one point she threatened to make me try one on. Yeah, so that whole situation is weird, and I won't address it anymore since there are too many people that know her too reading this.... All in all, a good weekend and hopes for a good week.
