Breaking up is hard to do

Some might say that nothing lasts forever. Breaking up is inevitable. You drift apart. Even if you were helped through the roughest times.

In my case:

Seven-figure grant submissions.
Tedious bus rides.
Calming down after horrible encounters with Awful Coworker.
The Thesis.
Job interview preparation.
Long delays at Sucky International Airport.

(to name a few)

So why would I ever turn my back on what got me through such dreadful times?

Oh, dear iPod, I am so sorry. Your iTunes are expensive, and I'm too chicken to plug you into my work PC (what if you self-erase!!??). You have been replaced. pandora.com gives me fantastic playlists. Old stuff, new stuff.

So I'm sorry. Perhaps we will slowly build back up to our previous relationship. After all, at one time I thought we were soulmates.

toilet tetanus

Well, N.A. and I made it through our first trip. More on that later.

Surprisingly, Sucky Airport International only gave us minor delays. The real problem with our trip was having to go through Nasty Northeast Airport (NNA).

I don't get along with NNA. NNA is the same airport I connected through on one of my interviews. It is my enemy forever because my first moment in the airport (in the bathroom, of course), I caught my finger on a loose piece of metal in the (only) bathroom, ripping a huge gash in my finger. Did I mention that I don't clot quickly? So I had to ride an hour to my interview, with just a paper towel around my bleeding finger since neither the driver nor I (and I always carry bandaids) had a bandage.

So you can imagine my apprehension when I was faced with the NNA bathrooms on this trip. Although I might knock SAI, I must say that it does have some pretty sweet bathrooms. (For all you guys out there, I define "sweet bathroom" as a bathroom that is clean, has lots of stalls, and doesn't smell like a dead squirrel.

NNA bathroom meets none of my "sweet bathroom" requirements. It's one of those bathroom that you just know you're going to catch a disease from.

....good thing I was up-to-date with my tetanus shot....especially when there's dangling metal!

Six word meme

Well, NA and I made it safely out of SAI. (This of course means that we will have a horrible trip back, but I will try not to think of this now.)

A Lady Scientist tagged me for this. Here's the instructions:

1. Write your own six word memoir

2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like

3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to this original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere

4. Tag five more blogs with links

5. And don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play


My memoir...at least of March 2008:

Slept too little, stressed too much




I think you should all do this meme... write your memoir for the last month, for grad school, for life, etc. ...just comment below so I know and can check it out.

we interrupt this program...

...no really. I'm completely dropping everything to take five days off (five! days!) to go home. Yes, you read that correctly. My thesis is due to my committee in 2 weeks, and I'm taking five days off for a family commitment.

Last week, I was completely freaked out at the prospect of leaving for that long. With my travel schedule, there is going to be very little time for writing. Did I mention that N.A. is coming with me to meet the family? And that I'm going to N.A.'s state this weekend to meet his family?

So yeah, you might see why I was very freaked out.

But my minor (okay, major) plane ticket buyer's remorse was quickly replaced with relief at not having to be in the lab for five days in a row. The last 2.5 weeks have been a blur of work. I've been getting into work every day before 8 and working straight through until at least 9 pm, then going home for a 30 or 60 minute break with N.A. and then doing more writing/reading until midnight or so. Throw in some exceedingly fitful nights and you get a very unbalanced reaction, indeed.

I also had a good talk with Committee Member, who told me that taking a few days off would be the best thing for me. Give me perspective or something. I also think that it's going to kick me into complete manic, freakout, writing mode when I get back that I will have no choice but to bang out the last chapter.

Oh, well. Until then, I'm going to sit back and try to get sleepy. N.A. and I are posted up in the Sucky International Airport hotel in preparation for our very early flight tomorrow. Hopefully we'll have good plane karma.

Plane karma

What goes around at Sucky Airport International (SAI) comes around.

Last week, I was, through what some thought was divine intervention, 15 minutes early into my interview airport. I was not fooled. This was not God's work. More like a Faustian agreement, for the Airport Commandments thus state:

If thee have a good travel experience out of SAI, then your return trip will be full of troubles.


I mistakenly thought that my return trip last week was the payback. I should have known that a mere 20 minute delay on the tarmac followed by a 40 minute crop duster delay was not sufficient retribution for an early SAI flight.

So today, after a very pleasant interview at Far Away state, I drove myself to the airport (~2 hours), only to find that my flight to SAI had been cancelled (still, this is not quite payback). I did get rebooked on flights that will put me in the general vicinity of LargeUtown (if "general vicinity" to you means a three hour drive). Then I got earmarked for "special screening." The pat-downs were so extensive (seriously, my boobs got felt up at least five times), I half expected the TSA officer to request me to sit back and put my feet up in the stirrups.

Still, this was not enough payback for the 15 minute early flight.

My first leg of the trip went pleasantly enough. Until I arrived at the gate and saw that my flight was delayed. By two hours. Leaving after midnight. Potentially stuck here in a Really Far Away state.

Now I think that I am even with the SAI flight gods.

Please?