30 August 2011

catty

My mom and my sister bought Pumpkin a lobster Halloween costume today.

Oh, God. Hilarity.






Speaking of the cat, yesterday she barfed alllll over my desk chair.
I've been meaning to get a new one for a while, and that pretty much sealed the deal.

28 August 2011

S'ok

Bought it, brought it home, washed it, dried it, went to hang it up, and.... crap.

What a pain in the ass, but s'ok.

That's my motto for this week: I've decided that things are the way they are, and all I can do right now is go with the flow and make the best of it. My life is 10% of what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.

Let's make it a week where I feel good about what I've done at the end of it.

27 August 2011

Saturday, wait

(it's the wrong day-but it's in my head anyway!)

I'm holed up with the AC on full blast and dark curtains over the windows. Can't shake this effing headache.

Trying to put a positive spin on these work-related issues. It's okay; it's just work. At least I'm getting paid to deal with it. I'm going to take whatever happens and run with it, and do a great job. Kuz that's what I do... no half-assing here.

Taking some comfort in the fact that deployment is on its second half. We're getting notices that soon we won't be able to send packages or mail. Just a few short months until I get to squeeze my hunk of manly Marine. (I just noticed that Chris is in one of the 4th platoon albums, neat)

This absence thing is really putting things into perspective for me. See, if it was all about needing someone to keep me company, I'd have moved on to someone else already. But that just won't do- it's gotta be him. Not that I'm super surprised, we all know I've been smitten since the beginning.

Starting to consider some things that I initially scoffed at-- but no details yet because they're just in the beginning stages of consideration. But still. Stuff's swirling around up there in my head.

Have you ever read the back of the Craisins bag? I know, I'm kind of obsessed with them. But there's a recipe for these amazing-sounding cookies: Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies.
I've read the recipe while noshing on craisins so many times and have always wanted to make them. Except I need to go to the Whole Foods all the way over on Bellaire to get my favorite gluten free oats.
Would I do that just for a cookie? I might. If I didn't have this headache.

Back to bed, oh hell yes. And my cat who is currently sprawled out on the windowsill. Sometimes, I wish I lived the life of my cat.

25 August 2011

mr. jones wishes

he was someone just a little more funky.

Not going to talk about work.

I just spent 35 minutes on the (fixed!) treadmill burning off some steam. We'll see what happens. Just go with the flow, Jen. Take it one day at a time, and tomorrow is Friday.

I keep getting whiffs of bbq as I type. I just ate some grilled pork chops. Guess I should have washed my hands better. Mm, love it when dad cooks.

Currently trying to eat only a modest hunk of chocolate. I loathe raisins and avoid them in anything. I am 26 years old and will still pick them out of cereal, a cookie, or a muffin. But I will happily eat them in that chocolate bar.

Project Runway always makes me want to bust out my sewing machine and create something fabulous. But I just don't have the skill, so I watch it on tv instead.

Suzy, glass of wine and early night sound good to me.

24 August 2011

can you teach me how to dance

real slow?


It was an incredibly stressful morning.

One of those where you almost cry (several times). And then you remind yourself that you are at work, you must try to be professional, and crying will do nothing but give you a headache- then you'll have your problem + a headache. And you don't want to look like a spazz in front of your coworkers. (Oops, too late.)

So I took it one thing (okay, five things) at a time, and eventually fixed the problem. Of course not until after I woke my boss up. It turns out the thing to fix it was something I've already done before, I just didn't realize that it would be the logical next step in fixing the problem. I felt kinda dumb like I shouldn't have had to ask for help.

Come to think of it, lots of things didn't go right today. And I never did cry, but I still ended up with a headache. Not fair.

Heard this lengthy sing-a-long on the way home today. 

Also, WHAT. THE. HECK. love it. Akhtar invited me to a party based on this video. What a great idea.


I met a girl who sang the blues, and I asked her for some happy news,
But she just smiled and turned away

22 August 2011

money$

Got my credit card balance down to 1200 bucks. It's always hardest to keep paying it off and not use it when the balance gets lower, so I gave it to my mom and told her to hide it.

My reward for paying off the balance will be a Netflix subscription, which I've wanted for a while. Then, I will use it only for the things that are charged automatically every month, which will add up to a low balance to pay in full every month.

Then, I can use some of the money that I've been pouring into the card to put into savings or chip away at the student loans.

See, I have a PLAN.


21 August 2011

Growl

Mk, so this is another strange coworker story.

There's this one phlebotomist, and she's a mousy, shy-looking woman. Except then you get to talking to her and you realize that's not the case. She's a pretty nice person to work with. She's definitely got her quirks though.

So a few weeks ago, she had gone out to draw some ammonias, which is a little more involved than most of the things we test. She had brought the specimens in, let me know they were there, and put them in the deep freeze.

I guess she hadn't marked the draws correctly on the paperwork and they didn't get ordered, but by that time I had already left. When the reference laboratory came to pick up all of our specimens at the end of the day, they must have picked up those two un-ordered specimens by accident, and since there were no orders, they were never tested.

The next day we had to send someone else out to draw them again, and she was upset because she had already done it. To be completely honest, I'm not confident that they were handled properly anyway and was happy they were getting re-drawn.

So I'm at the microscope reading a slide the next morning when I hear... growling... behind me. So I looked up and turned around and there she was, growling. At me. I asked her what was going on, and she asked me, still growling, why those ammonias were getting re-drawn. How do you growl and talk at the same time?? Especially if you're a tiny woman? She did it well.

I explained in about 10 seconds that it looked like it was a problem with paperwork and the accidental pickup (and that, honey, it's, um, not your fault...ish), and went back to reading my slide. I didn't have time to get into an argument with a growling woman about something that had already been decided.

I think she stuck around behind me for a few seconds, but I wasn't going to look back up and give her an opportunity to keep arguing. Eventually she left, growling.

20 August 2011

Fun Day

Pinot's & baseball was great fun. The painting isn't my favorite, but it was a really fun time. And, the Astros won. AND, we did the wave AND I got nachos. You know, the important stuff.

I thought it would be fun to stick up a slideshow of the pictures I took instead of having to upload a bunch.



Now I'm kinda tired, kinda grungy, and have the rest of my Saturday night to completely veg out. And also a sweet kitty waiting patiently for pets.

duuuuude

I love Serenity's parties. I think it's because of the chip bowls. Not really... although they are quite nice. I think it's because she knows really great people. To be honest, most of the good friends I have today I met through her. If I make an hour drive both ways to go to a party, you know it's good.

That being said, I have a headache today and it's hard to get my ass moving. So I'm sitting here with a cup of coffee crouched over my desk trying to wake up.

The parentals are back from a job in Wyoming or Colorado or something. It was a quiet week around here. I'm comforted by the sound of dad playing on his computer and mom shuffling around.

I finally got a respectable phone call from Chris last night. A Marine in their Company was killed last week, hence the no phones or internet for a while. I've always been sad to hear of news of any soldier that's been killed, but now it hits so much closer to home. In a split second, it could be my loved one. My heart still goes out to that hero's family... only now in a different way.

Anyway, lighter note. Akhtar, ever the one coming up with unique things to do, has signed us up for Pinot's Palette at the ballpark. Painting, wine, and a baseball game. Diggin' it. Nachos and those frozen Minute Maid things, here I come.

P.S. If you ever find limp celery in the back of your fridge, cut off the end and stand the stalks in a glass of water. They'll go from limp to... err... crunchy... in a few hours. 

18 August 2011

Whose house?

Getting excited about Cougar Football... Gunna be goooood.

I'd grab a mini-plan ticket right now if they didn't include Thursday night games.

Which reminds me, I should totally join the alumni association already.

16 August 2011

forgot to put a title on this one

I poured myself a bowl of cereal this morning and I noticed it looked kinda funny, so I took a quick sniff of the carton. Holy cow. That milk was funky.

It was a strangely mellow day at work. A random slow Tuesday. I needed it, but I find myself lacking any kind of energy this afternoon. I want to work out, but I'm so incredibly bored with the Curves thing. I desperately want the treadmill to work, or for it to be not so hot outside. GAY SAUCE.

[I think] I'm about to start my period. I signed up for this monthly period tracker thing that's supposed to send you emails right before you ovulate or start your period, but so far... no email. Not even in the junk mail folder. More disappointed about that than I probably should be. So maybe I'm just crabby and bitchy.

Ooh! The Will & Grace dvds I borrowed from Ashley should boost my mood.

15 August 2011

tic

Today was one of those days that it would have been really freaking nice to have Chris to come home to.
I'm used to work being busy; I'm not used to it being so stressful.

14 August 2011

java

Here's something I think about nearly every morning.

I spoon some sugar into the bottom of my cup, then I pour my coffee over it. My question is: Do I need to stir it, or does the action of the hot coffee pouring into the cup mix it enough on its own?

One of these days I need to try it in a clear glass so I can see if there's still sugar on the bottom.

For the record, I hardly ever stir it; I just pop the lid on it and leave for work. I might be drinking un-properly-sugared coffee every day, but at 430am, coffee is coffee and that's all that matters.

Related: Does anyone have a particularly awesome travel mug that they use? I have a few that I'm not crazy about. Requirements include a simple lid that is easy to clean- no grooves that I can't reach and remain forever funky. Also must be plastic and have a handle.

Related: You can make your own sugar cubes. Love it.

Related: Feeling the need for coffee cake this morning. Might try a version of this and make it in the Xpress Redi Set Go.

13 August 2011

stress

Hey, headache. Go the fuck away already.

This week was crazy. As I mentioned earlier, we more than doubled our daily volume of specimens, hired and trained a lab assistant, and realized that we need to hire another MLS- soon. In the meantime we're all a little more stressed picking up a piece of the extra work. By the end of the week, the new assistant had slowly but noticeably made some progress. It was tough having to slow way down to train her, BUT when she's fully trained and up to speed she will be very, very helpful. To summarize, 2pm could not come fast enough yesterday and I am positively drained of energy, mental capacity, and caring.

So, I'm going to do whatever the heck I feel like doing this weekend, and not think about work until 5am Monday morning.

10 August 2011

Yo, check this out.

We've all had someone help us out at some point.
If you haven't yet, it's time to pay it forward!

She's a very sweet person and it's for a great cause.

Help out if you can, pass it on if you can, at the very least visit her blog and give her some kind words or encouragement.

09 August 2011

happens

Things to note:

- Hired a new person at work. It went like this:

My boss, randomly: I think we're going to hire a lab assistant. [We're about to double our day's workload, but in the second shift]
Me: Cool.

Fast forward a few days later and a girl shows up in the lab, without warning, and I'm supposed to train her. Oh! Okay cool. In about 5 seconds I realize she knows absolutely nothing about the lab. Not even what kind of tubes we use, what tests we run on them, or anything. So I start from scratch. She's catching on, but it's a little difficult when I assume she knows something about what I'm explaining, and she doesn't. Then I have to backtrack and try to undo the confusion I've just created. Overall, I think she will be ok.

-HUMONGOUS awesome sister shoutout to Ashley.

See, yesterday I couldn't find the cat. Every day when I come home from work, she's either laying on my windowsill or running back home when my car pulls into the driveway. Yesterday, there was no cat. I had let her out when I left for work, so I figured she had hunkered down somewhere in the heat of the day. But after a few hours of searching inside and out, I still hadn't found her. Then I started getting paranoid thinking she'd gotten run over or heatstroke or trapped in someone's garage or dead in the ditch.

But I wasn't going to go up and down the streets looking like a dork yelling for my cat by myself.  I was voicing these fears to Ashley, who had plans that evening, and she graciously offered to stop by after work and help me look for 15 minutes before she had to head home and do her thing. Just as she was about to get to the house, Pumpkin ran in my room. She had been under Suzy's bed the whole time, and I had even peeked my head in her room shaking treats with no response. Freaking cat.

So, I was glad she was safe and even happier that Ashley was willing to look like a dork with me in the blazing heat, when she had other plans. That's an awesome sister, folks.

-About to send a box of mouse traps to Chris. He says there's an infestation, and they crawl on him at night and everything. Ugh. He's gunna get the freaking Hantavirus. (Thanks, Missy, for that immediate association between mice and hantavirus)

06 August 2011

all right already

All night, till the morning we dream so longgg.


Hunger drove me from my bed. No cereal. Used the last of the milk making pancakes that turned out terrible. Too gummy. Used too much starch? Dunno- this is why gluten free sucks sometimes. Into the trash they went.

Coffee's good. Even though I'm the type of person that has to eat breakfast foods as my first meal, no matter what time I wake up, the leftover pizza in the fridge is calling my name.

Thank goodness it's finally payday. I need to get groceries.
It's ok to be broke for a little while longer- my credit card balance is under $2K now. In the home stretchhh.

Have to work this afternoon/evening. Not even getting overtime because of the day lost to jury duty earlier this week. Working Saturday night sucks. I feel like I don't get a weekend at all.

The show goes on...

04 August 2011

hold your head high

heavy heart.

^Sue dug out an old cd yesterday and this song's been in my head. (Btw, was going to skip the ad in the beginning but it caught my interest. Looks like it's going to be goooood)

On a related note, caught this on her tumblr a few days ago.


Gooben, you're always my muse, haha.

I can't wait till it's cool enough to go for a walk/ambitious jog after work without legitimate fear of heat stroke. Even the treadmill's broken. I'm getting rather bored with curves, therefore I just haven't been going.

02 August 2011

duty

So today I had jury duty, again.
I had it for the city in November, and I got it again for the county in May. But May was a seriously shitty time to take off work so I postponed it to today.

After getting slightly lost, I made my way with a couple hundred other potential jurors into this huge room filled with pew-like benches. Sat there for about an hour while everyone got scanned in.

One thing I always notice in a quiet crowd: how much people cough. Do people just get the coughing urge in situations like that? Or do we always cough that much and don't notice till there's a bunch of us in a quiet room?

We watched a video about how we should be proud to be on a jury and it's awesome that we can have a trial of our peers and all that, and I actually got to thinking it might be kinda neat to be picked. What a cool experience, you know? That is, if I didn't have to miss work. I'd totally be down for any jury duty as long as I got paid for that day's work. And yes, I make more than $6/day, which is what they give you for showing up for jury duty. They give you the option and I donated mine, figuring someone needed it more than I do.

Anyway, they were going to pick out a bunch of us for a jury and eventually narrow us down to twelve. The lady started to call out the list of names, but right before she could, someone told her that they settled out of court. Meaning: we could all go home. Nice.

I called work and it seemed to be going smoothly, so I decided to take the rest of the day off. 

I came home, ate, and the killer headache that was looming all morning hit. I took a nap with no relief, so I took my magic pills. Now I feel better, and I made muffins. Not bad.

01 August 2011

trapped

The other day I came home, parked in my usual spot at the barricade, changed out of my scrubs, and taped up some packages to send to Chris. It took about 10 minutes.

When I went outside to head to the post office, there was a beat-up rusty old truck parked behind me. Blocking me in so that I couldn't leave. I looked in the park but couldn't see anyone. So I called a tow truck company, who told me to call the police.

I know from experience that there was nothing the police could do, since the truck was not blocking the driveway, only my car. Stupid, yes. But not illegal. Still, I called the police anyway.

About 20 minutes go by, and we're waiting. In the heat. I'm getting crabby. Dad is contemplating slashing the guy's tires. It was unlocked with the windows down; when a vehicle is that shitty you just don't bother locking up, I guess. At a few points we actually got inside the truck and looked for keys or tried to push it into neutral and move it. No luck.

The cop pulls up, with a look on his face that tells me exactly what I was thinking; he legally couldn't do anything about it. As we're standing there, someone starts walking in our direction from the other side of the park. I knew it was him. The cop had looked up the guy's registration information, so he as he got closer, he called out, "Mr. So and so?" The guy nodded.

When he got within talking range, I said, "Really?? Really?? You parked there??" And basically started yelling at him for being such a dumbass. We were waiting there for about a half hour, and only when the cop showed up did he bother to walk over. I was severely annoyed. What if there was an emergency? What if I had to go to work? In general, you don't park behind someone and prevent them from moving their car; common courtesy.

So anyway the guy looked like he was 17 or 18, honestly a little stoned, just shrugged and got in his car as I yelled at him, probably just wanted to get away from the cop before he got a good look at him.

But by then I was happy that I could go to the post office, and of course later I felt bad for yelling at him.

But seriously, how does this random shit happen?