Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Apocaplyse Now

I was thinking today.  I have a bittersweet relationship with myself.  In music, literature, and movies I always like the dark stories with an antihero.  Someone who breaks the law to do good.  For example, my favorite graphic novel is The Hitman because he only kills the bad guys.  He does kill...violently, but only the evil people.  Does that make him bad or good?  I don't know, but I like it.

I like to pretend I'm tough and could be like that.  But I'm not.  If I had to describe myself it would be cute, cuddly, giggly, nice, giving, and can never say no.  And I hate it!  But I could be no other way otherwise I would be constantly racked with guilt.  I cannot manipulate in any way and I always try to make everyone happy.

On the way home today I figured out why I hate this about me.  It's because no one who is nice and cute and cuddly can survive the apocalypse.  I like to think that I could survive it, but I couldn't.  I would instantly trust the wrong person and they would make me their sex slave or zombie bate or something.

If I had to choose the apocalypse, it would be a Dragon Apocalypse like Reign of Fire.  I wouldn't mind death by dragon.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Today Things Happened and I Bought Groceries.

I went to the zoo today with Josh.  We received a membership to the zoo from Nate and Lianne for Christmas.  I of course used it as soon as I could!  We can get into the zoo now for free whenever we want for a year!!

Not all of the animals were out because it was cold and there was snow.  The ones that were out were much more active than they were in 103 degree weather.  The tigers were walking around.  The cloud leopard was running around and trying to escape.  I saw 6 zebras and before I had only seen 2.  The koi fish were not active and looked dead....they were very active in the summer.  The red panda couldn't relax enough to poop even though he really wanted to.  He ran around and climbed his tree a lot.  The cougar meowed at us, and I had a conversation with it.  Bet you didn't know I speak Cougar.  I asked her to leap 30 feet from a sitting position like the sign said she could.  She said, no.

In the Bamboo Trail I was attacked by intestinal problems for the third time today...that's when I realized I was sick.  My mom called me later, she says that half the people at Oma's got sick like me.  There was probably 60 people there!  That's a lot of sickness.

On the way home from the zoo I asked Josh if we could stop for chicken noodle soup, and he said, yes, here's Krogers.  We ended up doing a full grocery shopping trip on the spur of the moment.  I guess that's okay.  We got a pecan pie.... I ate half of it before the soup was done.  Don't yell at me mom.  It was delicious and I did show self restraint...I had seriously contemplated eating the whole thing.  I told Josh that Ackbar had helped me with eating it.  He licked up the crumbs left on my plate...I think.  He may have just sniffed them.  Josh  made me chicken noodle soup from scratch.  Not the broth, we bought that, but he boiled all the ingredients together.  It's delicious.

I think we heard gunshots outside of our apartment this evening.  But I'm not sure...it didn't sound like gunshots, but I can't imagine what else could make a noise like that, unless someone was exploding things outside.  Which is much less likely than gunshots really.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Best of Both Worlds

When Josh and I decided to go back to Michigan for Christmas, I was worried because I wouldn't be able to relax and enjoy the Christmas atmosphere...which I look forward to doing every year but never ever accomplish.  When I was in school there was always exam weeks right before hand, and no time to prepare properly for Christmas because I was so stressed out.  Then when exams finished I had 1 week to buy presents, wrap them and prepare and send cards.  Then in Graduate School it was even worse if you can believe it.  I had my own exams, I had to grade the exams from the labs I teach, report the grades, continue doing research, prepare a poster of my research and then fly out to San Fransisco to present the poster for the week before Christmas.  The week following Christmas I usually had to fly out to Stanford to use their super large microscope ironically called the SHRIMP.  Huh...I can't believe I did all that.  No wonder I went insane.

Then last year I started my new job right before Christmas, but had to stay at one of the mall jobs up until Christmas day.  That meant 65 hour weeks.

Plus Josh worked Christmas day every year.

This I was really looking forward to relaxing with Josh and doing nothing with him for several days in a row.  Instead we are driving to the snow and cold and planning on driving all around the state, GR, TC, MP, and Freakmont.  With our luck it will blizzard and we will be stuck in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Well I was wrong!  It's true...I do not know everything!  Starting with my birthday (which by the way is the Official Start of Christmas), I've been relaxing and enjoying everything!  I had all of my friends over Friday night for a potluck dinner and everyone share their Christmas traditions.  I loved hearing about them!!  Ever since I learned that my family's way of doing things isn't the only way, I love to see all the different ways people do things....there's always a chance their way is better.  We stayed up to 3:00am talking with Shann and Rory...some of my favorite peoples, and then got to sleep in!  We had a lazy lazy Saturday where we didn't clean, and I didn't even think about cleaning. 

This is where I should mention that Sarah and Heather got me Cataclysm Deluxe Edition!!!!!!!!!  Shiza!  It's fricken amazing!  It comes in a sweet box with trading cards, a book of artwork from WoW, a mouse pad, a behind the scenes dvd (which I need to watch!), the soundtrack (which I am listening to right now) and the Cataclysm Expansion disk.  For those of you who don't know, Josh and I play the World of Warcraft (WoW) with Sarah and Heather and a few other people we know here.  Cataclysm is the new expansion to the game and really provides a large change to gameplay.  In some ways it's like it's a whole new game, in some ways it isn't.  Josh, Sarah, Heather and I (and Merritt and Thomas now) are all in a guild called I Am Your Face.  I guess a guild is sorta like a team.  It always us to chat with each other and quest together and share rewards.  Let's just say getting this present was one of the biggest surprises I've had in a LONG LONG time.  It tied up there with the $500 Christmas bonus I got.

Back to Saturday, I played WoW all day and relaxed.  Oh, in the evening Sarah and Heather took me to the Cat Shoppe with them where I got to pet lots of homeless kitties they foster at the store.  There was one female who reminded me of Megan's childhood cat, Snuggles.  This Snuggles Look Alike came up to me in the store and asked me to pet her.  Her tailed wiggled weird when I did...it sort of vibrated back and forth really fast. 

Sunday Josh worked and I went to Sarah and Heather's to play WoW...in my pajamas!  They had a large fire going and I fell asleep playing.  Miss Bridget, their elderly kitty, took a nap on me while I slept.  Then the fire alarms went off and everyone was awake.  The fireplace flue had shut...due to poor design. 

It snowed Sunday and everything froze and Heather had to drive me home because my poor truck couldn't make it up the icy hill.  In its' defense, the sand bags had slid to the front of my truck last week and then froze there.  My fault.

Monday we had a two hour delay for work, and Josh was able to drive me in.  Once home we sat in the living room and wrapped presents.  Ackbar slept on the couch with us. 

Tonight we are doing the same thing, only Josh is studying and we have a fire going!  Oh, and we cooked delicious pulled pork sandwiches yesterday and ate at the table.  Tonight I made a potato cabbage italian sausage soup which we are about to eat.  I've also been heating up spiced cider to drink and add to the Christmas atmosphere. 

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Title Goes Here

Buffalo Wildwings.

That's where Josh and I go now to get out and have fun.  Especially on Tuesdays because it is Wing Night and wings are cheap.  I get 6 medium wings and 6 Caribbean Jerk wings.  Josh gets 6 hot wings and 6 other flavor wings.  Tonight it was spicy buffalo.  Then the entire time we play trivia.  Tonight I was able to come in second, but Josh always comes in first.  He's super good at trivia.  He beat everyone in the restaurant by about 3000 points.  I was behind him by about 2000 points.  Maybe less because I got the last question perfect, even though I don't remember what it was.  We also drink beer, and I drink slightly more because he drives.  It's our favorite place to go.  This time though I beat him by like 6 wings in eating them all.  I don't know how, but I inhaled all of them.  You have to be able to eat and play trivia at the same time...I guess I'm super good at that.

At work I totally submitted data to WQX Web in 2 hours!!!  Last time I had to do it it took me three days.  They changed the program around though, and it's easier to use, but no one told me about it.  My fault really, I didn't attend the last conference call that discussed the changes.  The guy I was submitting for watched the whole time on a web conference (he could see my screen) and was so happy I was able to help him.  He said there was no way he could have done that himself, and I believe it.  Not because he's dumb but because it's soooo hard and confusing and tedious and he has so many more duties than I do.  I doubt he could have sat down and given it the attention it needed.  Plus the website (part of the EPA, sigh) is not helpful.  Neither is the User Guide.  It does NOT answer any questions.  It is not complete in its details.  I only had to call the help desk once this time, and actually they didn't help.

The guy I worked with is from southern Alabama, and he had the cutest accent and kept on saying "No Ma'am" or "Yes, Ma'am."  which I loved.  I highly doubt I could ever say "ma'am" or "sir" in a serious way.  I would only say those words to accentuate what I was saying like "NO SIR!" or No Sirrey Bob!" or something like that.  It's because I'm from the north and we don't have manners like that.  Plus, we lack the accent.  I think it's the Southern Accent that helps pull it off.

It's been snowing here lately.  Surprisingly no schools are closed and no one seems to care.  Not that the snow is sticking or anything.  It's closer to frozen rain than snow in consistency.  It's not soft and fluffy but more like hard white balls.  There isn't enough coming down either to build up if it wanted too.  We don't have our heat on, and it's no colder than my parents house.  I would even go so far as to say it's still warmer than their house in the winter.  Ackbar loves it!

On Black Friday Ryan (sister-in-law) took us shopping at Kohls and we got a memory foam mattress pad.  At first I was thinking we didn't reeeeaally need it, I just wanted it, but now it's amazing!  It holds the heat like nothing else, so now I am warm underneath and above at night.  I've never slept so well at night.  Well, except that some medication I'm on raises my body temperature, so I'm not ever as cold as I used to be and sometimes I wake up because I am waaay to hot.  I think I even came close to night sweats last week.  The bummer is I used to cool off  by putting an appendage outside of the blankets and have it hang off the bed, but Ackbar sits there all night and waits for it, and the second I stick even an elbow off, he attacks!  With teeth!  He does not like the new mattress pad, but that's fine because now we don't get kitty litter in bed.