Overheard:

At Wegmen's:

Little Boy: "Mommy! Mommy! Look! Fruitloops!"
Mom: "I don't believe in Fruitloops."

Well that settles it.

Me: "Why have you been so grouchy lately?"
Erin: "I'm going through menopause."

I Wish I Had A Fat, Lazy Hamster

I love my hamster Pablo dearly.
But. BUT.
I found out he is the devil. Case in point:

He chewed through his cage. And escaped. The 12 hours he was on the loose were the scariest of my life. I looked high and low for him but alas he was no where to be found. Now I know that when an escaped hamster doesn't want to be found, he will not be found. Remembering that Pablo is a creature of the night (Ha! A sure sign of the devil!) I waited untill that evening to continue my search. I had grand plans of setting a trap and catching him that way but sometimes, beer and drunkenness get in the way.
I laid myself down to sleep that night and was awoken at a rude hour by the sound of scratching. I knew it had to be Pablo. I turned on the light and there he was! I cornered him by the door and attempted to pick him up. He hissed at me and tried to bite my hand off with his mutant teeth. HE HISSED AT ME. Up untill that point, I thought hamsters were silent creatures. Did I mention he hissed at me? Pablo wriggled out of my grasp and ran away into the depths of my room. Note to self: the next time your hamster is on the loose, it would help to have a clean room. Pablo thought he could escape by disappearing into my closet. What he didn't count on was the power of hunger. He was lured out eventually with food and returned safely to his cage.
But! The story is not over!
Sunday I found myself asleep over my Medical Terminology textbook as usual. Waking up around 1AM (apparently the witching hour for hamsters) I decided it would be a good idea to take out my contacts. Opening the door of my bedroom, I discovered a horrible sight: Pablo had chewed through the duct tape I'd put over the hole as a temporary fix and was about to escape again. Thank goodness for boring Med Term books.
Evidence:

The rest of the story is too harrowing to recount. I really wish I had a car. I need to go to Walmart to return the flimsy replacement cage I bought and buy a fish tank. BECAUSE HAMSTERS CAN'T CHEW THROUGH GLASS. At least, I hope they can't.
Right now Pablo is being punished by having to live in the tiny auxilary cage. He made sure to let me know how he feels about it though, by peeing on the wall.
The battle continues.

Dear Modest Mouse,
I woke up at 7:20AM this morning and downloaded your new album from iTunes.
Thank you for rocking so hard.
Love,
Mary

Dear Roommate,
I don't care how hyper being out in the cold makes you, I just want you to shut the hell up.
Love,
Mary

Good Things

Hey! Its 2AM and I can't sleep. Forgot to take my little friend, Ambien. So what does one do? Blog of course! Here are some good things that have been happening lately (cuz focusing on the positive makes me sleepy):

-Working my ass off all quarter + getting good grades = Dean's List! (And I thought I would never understand math!)
-Father-daughter dinner dates
-Egg cups!
-40% off coupons for awesome fabric
-On sale fabric
-Finding out that buying fabric is just as much of an addiction as buying yarn...priceless
-Knit Picks circular needles!
-Watching little neighbors grow up...little Miss Asia is nine years old now and quite the little character. I remember when she was four. She is one of the best parts about visiting home.
-Seeing friendly friends you haven't seen in a looooong ass time.
-Talking to Daddy and figuring out that everything is going to be ok.

Something not so good? Going home and catching the bad cold your mother has. At least I think I have it. Its only in the sore throat stage at the moment - lets hope it stays that way.

What Has Been Going On

It is finals week here at RIT and that means that I finally get some breathing room to write something substantial on this here blog. So here goes...

My father lost his job.

This could not come at a more inconvient nor worse time. My father had been having problems at work for quite some time but my parents kept the true gravity of the issues he was dealing from my brother and I, so we had no idea about what was actually going on. Basically, my father ran a branch of a bank based in Western Wisconsin. He came to the job with a lot of experience, knowledge and business connections. And smarts. Lots of smarts. His bosses turned out to be narrow minded and couldn't handle the fact that he was smarter than them. (This is how the situation was explained to me). So they looked for an excuse to get rid of my father. My dad's expertise is in coporate finance and loans, and after one loan went bad (which was not his fault) he was told that if he made another mistake he would be fired. So time goes by. A family friend comes to my father for a loan. This was a man my father thought he could trust. A man whose work as a contractor had seen our family through remodels and minor repairs. This man did not hold up his end of the deal and my father was held responsible. So, instead of being fired, my father quit.

This is what hurts my heart: my father is 60 years old. He was 1.5 years away from retirement. Now he has to start over again. My father's plans for his retirement included teaching at the University but that job isn't open to him untill he is 62 and fully retired. While severance pay and benefits are going to last my parents untill August, I hate to see them have to go through this level of stress. They keep telling me that it is going to be ok and everything is going to work out. But I can't stop from worrying anyway. That they have to put into motion their plans for retirement sooner than they expected. It hurts.

I am so angry at the men who did this. My father is a good, honest man and he didn't deserve this. I cannot be so far away from my parents and not know what is going on. This is truly unfair to them, to people that did nothing to have this burden put upon them.

Overheard

As I was walking down the hall on the 3rd floor in Building 7...

Guy on cell phone: "Yeah? Are you getting really big?"

I would not lie to you.

A little Belated

I should've posted this on the actual day but....better late than never

Thoughts Whilst In the Lab

- In the spirit of Erin's recent post (I can't link directly to it for some reason) about the name of her first-born female child, I would also like to share with you the names I hope to name my hypothetical children.
For a boy: Ampersand. Only I would spell it "&"
For a girl: Tilde. I would spell it " ~ ".

-Being here for so long kinda makes me want to barf.

-And that's all for now cuz Katie is giving me a ride home.

Tonight is Wine and Cheese! Yay! The one party that Biomed kids most look forward to!

Um yup. Ever since Erin said that I write about stuff that I tell her in real life, I've been really self conscious about what I write on my blog. Soulmate or not I shake my fist at her! Btw, she has her own blogaliciousness now. Way to go. Maybe she will stalk herself?

In other news, apparently I recieved a notice stating that I am being considered for jury duty. Jury duty in Eau Claire, WI. I have to fill out and send back in a questionnaire and send it in within 10 days OMG!!!!!! I can't wait to have fun with this. I obviously can't serve (um? higher education in NY state? makes commuting difficult) but this is exciting! I wonder what the case is about? Is it juicey? It better be!

Reporting from the Other Side

I have healed myself through the powers of sleep, a cool air humidifier, powerful decongestant and Grey's Anatomy. Take that silly head cold!

You will be happy to know that this young gentleman of whom I spoke of in my last post has since been fired from his position in the Biomed Lab.


YES

Where the urge to kill comes from

This is where the urge to kill comes from: it comes from sitting in the biomed lab, doing unpaid work, waiting for the person who was supposed to show up at 6 to come in. This is the second week in a row that he hasn't shown. This kid is AWESOME. Last week when this happened, I said, "Hey dude what was up with not showing up for your shift?" and the kid said, "I forgot I worked on Tuesdays." But you showed up the week before? It's tough to do your job and be responsible, I know. But lots of people manage to do it everyday and somehow we are all still alive. It's crazy, isn't it? It's things like this that makes my blood surge with the burning of a thousand suns, my eyeballs bulge out of their sockets and my biceps grow to the size of The Man Who's Arm Exploded arms and I feel like I can rip someone's head off their neck-hole without breaking a sweat. It isn't so much anger, this feeling, I believe it is the urge to murder another human being.

And another thing! Next quarter, I want to take classes that don't involve writing at all. I am tired of it. No papers or detailed content outlines or elaborate project proposals. Only Wine Tasting and reading stuff for me.

Part 1 of Some Open Letters

Dear Isaiah Washington,

I love your character on Grey's Anatomy. However, I have a slight beef with you. WOULD YOU PLEASE SHUT YOUR YAPPER? The more you open your mouth, the deeper and deeper your foot goes into your esophagus. Shut up, would ya?

Kisses!

Mary

(See here)

Some Good Things:

-I can smell the new Harry Potter book coming. Write JK Rowling! Write like the wind!
-New Modest Mouse album. When? I dunno. The happy email I got said, "Soon." Please don't toy with my emotions like that. All I do is love you Modest Mouse.
-Cabling? With the knitting and stuff? Count me in! I am teaching myself, yessireee.

PS I need to see This Sporting Life with Richard Harris. In fact, all ruggers do. Apparently the man does some serious battle on the pitch. I would too if it got me out of the coal mines. Alas, the movie seems to be unavailable everywhere. I'm gonna wish on a star real hard!

I think that should do it.

When I grow up, I'm gonna get me a sturdy litttle dog. Like a Boston Terrier or a pug or bulldog. I'm gonna dress him in rugby jerseys and name him Scrummie. When I grow up.

My Triumphant Return

I was walking back from Crossroads yesterday when I noticed a huge flock of tiny birds that were moving and undulating and circling my apartment building as if they were a school of fish swimming in the ocean. They all alit on the grass by the parking lot but soon found themselves circling the air in waves again. It was mesmerizing to watch.

I feel like I have no free time. I have class and lots of work. The only time I really have to myself is at night but by that time I feel like I'm going to collapse. I gotta do the stuff that gives you the energy. You know, the crack.

This year finds me eagerly anticipating Christmas. I reveled in the putting up of decorations and driving around looking at houses that were all decked out. I'm really excited to give the gifts I've bought for my loved ones. I love thinking up gifts to give people and then giving them and knowing that what I got them was exactly what they wanted.

Short enough entry for you Erin?

Day 30: The Last Hurrah

Can you believe that this is the last day of NaBloPoMo? I can't but here it is. Wow. I did it. I'm so proud of me. While I'll be in a bit of a blog-hibernation, I definately think I will be updating this here blog more often than I used to. I think writing is really theraputic for me, even if no one reads this.

BUT I HAVE YARN PORN


Mmm Koigu. I think I'm in love.

I'm having trouble focusing. This is bad. This is a problem. It is all my father's fault. You see, my Dad had horrible eyesight. He wore Coke bottle bottom glasses essentially and I can always remember him saying when I was little, "I'm going upstairs to take out my eyes." (Daddy code for contact lenses) He was nearsighted with astigmatism. Then, in the early days of laser eye surgery, he had the procedure done. He could see again without glasses or contacts. Sadly, he passed the genes on to his children. I seemed to have gotten the best genes (My mutant teeth? Courtesy of my Dad). I've found lately that I can't tell if something is in focus when I'm looking through the viewfind in my camera. Its the stupid astigmatism giving me problems. Sigh. But! Look at the delicious yarn! Yum!

This is the sock that I've been working on for the boy. It's a pretty cool slip stitch pattern. Tonight I made the heel flap. Tomorrow the heel turning shall commence. I like turning the heels of socks a lot. I think its kind of magical. I go back and forth and back and forth and when I'm done, its this nifty little heel that I made by doing hardly anything special.

Day 29: I see the end

Baby's first Koigu. The picture kind of sucks a lot. I'm gonna try again tomorrow. The sun couldn't decide if it wanted to come out or not. Of course it's my luck that after I finish taking the pictures that the sun begins to shine in all its glory.

I went to the Doc today and just unloaded a lot of what's been bothering me. My meds have stopped working. I try and restrain myself from talking about my struggles with depression on this blog. If you go way back in the archives, I am no-holds barred sharing everything but as the years have progressed, I've had to learn that I have to live with a disease and I've become more private about it. I don't really talk about my troubles with my RIT friends, even the boy doesn't know the whole story, and I like it that way. There are just so many emotions attached to what I've been through that in actuality make it the most difficult to talk about my battles. But back to the Doc. So I unloaded and felt a lot better and for the first time in a long time I feel like things are going to be ok. I'm going to find the right combo of meds to feel good and the world will be sunny again.

Tomorrow is the last day of NaBloPoMo. Wowie. I'm really proud of me that I managed to post the whole month, through finals, wisdom teeth extraction, excrutiating pain. I'm really just awesome.