Eburg BAR FIGHT

Did you hear about the huge brawl in the TAV?? Ha Ha, just joking to DLS. I'm over it now.

Who's your Bitch?

So I'm really learning lessons of acadamia this week. In submitting an abstract to my thesis committee for a conference I have coming up, I receive a massacred version of what once was my lovely 150-word piece. Now its not only too long, but a shadow of what it once was. One person removed the hypotheses, then the next person asked where they were (my fault right?). Crap. Now I have to be all diplomatic in my response explaining that I didn't turn it into a steaming pile, they did. They also said I have to include them as authors (with the professor from China), even though this is my original writing and thesis data. I guess I've just learned a very valuable lesson. I am an intern at work and a grad student at school, so I'm two, two, two bitches in one! Who's your bitch? Me! Me! Yeah, I'll take your crap if it gets me a raise, an M.S. and some good recommendations. Yeah, and I'll do it with a smile.

The 'real world' ALREADY?

So my boss pulls me into his office late this afternoon (yikes, scary) to say I should apply for a position that's opening up. This job is twice what I make right now, and twice the work too. But wait a minute! I'm not done with my thesis! Oh crap! A THESIS? Yeah, haven't been doin much of that lately. Well, I guess it's time I grew up! I won't have any more of that lovely (and low interest) Federal loan money coming in after June, so I better get at it. Damn. I was hoping to be in school forever. Wake-up call Lucy! Primatology doesn't pay as much as transportation. Alas, I belive I am about to become a 'lifer' with the state. Wake me up in a few years and remind me of my passions (but not till I've paid off all of my debts!).

Holiday Blues

So Christmas is next week, but wasn't it just Thanksgiving? I've lost a few days somewhere. I'm already wishing for new years. I just want this season to be over and I want to see flowers again! My driveway has been a solid sheet of ice for well over a month, making garbage day and checking the mail death-defying acts. (gravel driveway = hard to shovel). The cold is making my habit of smoking a real pain, pushing me closer to ridding myself of my vice - okay, so I know it's death in a stick, but whatever. The 4:30am mornings waiting for my carpool are a BITCH! I squat down outside my door drinking my coffee and waiting for the familiar whine of the old State-owned Jeep to pull up, wondering if my fingers will fall off before it arrives. You wonder why I don't wait inside? Yeah, I can't see the car if I do that. Four days a week I see my town only in the dark, and the weekends lately have been full of house sitting, cleaning, and making Christmas presents. Okay, so that's not too bad, but I need to get on with my thesis already, and this other stuff is just soo distracting! Mom's coming up here for Christmas, which will be fun, but we're staying at my friends house when they're gone, because her two dogs, my two cats, plus 3 people (my roommate will be here) is just too much for my little apartment.
I guess I'm just feeling a little lonely and unproductive, and I want to see the ground again, and to be able to go outsite with wet hair without the fear of it freezing and breaking off! Yes, it gets that cold here.
It'll be freaking hot here before I know it and then I'll bitch about being too fat for tank tops.. It's always greener, I guess!

Over worked and under paid

Have you ever agreed to something you thought would be easy, fun, and maybe even fulfilling, only to find you get stretched to the breaking point? I'm over worked, under paid (a volunteer), and need some recognition!!! That's my ego talking. I'l get over it. I know that you have no idea what I'm talking about, but oh well.

I'm Thankful!

I am thankful that the Holiday weekend is over!! I'm not looking forward to the freakishly early morning tomorrow, but let me tall ya, I'm glad to be home. I do love hanging with my mom and friends from ptown, but Thanksgiving dinner made me a little sour.
Okay, so the gradparents come over for dinner. Not only did they show up an hour early, and then proceed to wonder why I was not dressed up, but my grandmother drove me nuts. Well, she was better than normal, but the highlight of the evening was when she told me that my parents were on drugs when I was a baby, because no one would live in an old church bus if they weren't on drugs. Hmmmm. Raise your hand if your parents were crazy hippies and if at least one person you kno or knew lives/lived in alternative housing (composting toilet/outhouse/no electricity/etc)/. Yeah. Thats what I thought. Well, that part of the evening was delightful. Then she told me how my cousins are learning the value of a dollar. Yeah, try to talk to ME about reality and knowing how to work for what you want. Needless to say, I was miffed. In addition, she kept playing with her hearing aid and asking me to repeat myself, then told my aunt the next night that I was talking too loud and probably had a hearing problem, and that my aunt should try to get my attention when I wasn't looking by calling my name softly to see if I was deaf. Yeah. My uncle said "how the hell would she know if you were talking too loud?" Yeah, so now I have a hearing problem, am getting older and should start thinking about a husband, and, oh yeah, she also asked about my teeth so she could get mad that I haven't been to the dentist in the recent past (no insurance is my fault). AGGGGHHHHH!!!! Will I ever be good enough? However, in Gma's defense, she will be 87 in a couple weeks and I luv her.
So I did get to visit with other family, (none of whom would blame me for telling the old lady off), and friends and had a really good time. The only thing that's really hard is the fact that I never seem to stop running around when I'm in the city.
So here I am, trying to figure out what I have to do to get ready for the work week, after already having scraped the 2" of iced over snow off the work truck. Fun!
This should be an interesting week. I will make sure to call my grandmother and tell her what a good time mom and I had at T-day dinner and that I can't wait for Christmas.

Whew! It's over!!

Well, I've spent every wednesday noon hour since September sitting through lectures of my contemporaries' research proposals, or piles of crap as they are sometimes referred to. Yesterday it was my turn to share the crap with them. I wasn't nervous, but really excited for 1pm. After it was over and the crown wasn't just staring at me, but actually asking questions - good questions, I felt okay about it and no longer felt like puking. I'm definately not looking forward to my ext presentation. I haven't mastered the skill of picturing people naked or in their underwear, or whatever the hell else you're supposed to do. I just look right at them, and really concentrate on the people who are looking bored, so they'll feel uncomfortable!! How dare they not care about what I'm saying. I don't CARE if it's lunch time! I'm talking about MONKEYS for crying out loud!! Who doesn't love to hear about monkeys?? They can just sit there and at least pretend to like it, since I've sat through all their lectures on dirt, rocks, fish, and for Christ Sake SOIL CRUSTS! What the Hell is a soil crust? Everyone knows what a monkey is! Sorry.
I did find it interesting that there was enough restraint in the room that no one asked me whether the monkeys threw poop at me. That was nice of them.