Trapped in the Midwest

One western New Yorker girl's adventures in graduate studies trapped in the Midwestern United States!

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Big fuckin' knife!

The other day (Monday) after I got home, I ate a burger and went to sleep. I woke up at 10:30 cuz I had to pee. Since I was up I called Kailea and chatted for a bit, then just stayed up to watch the US Open tennis recap on tv. I saw a new commercial that I love. It is a Nike tennis commercial with Maria Sharpova. She is on her way to a match and everone around her starts singing "I Feel Pretty" from West Side Story at her. It is a riot...and Maria Sharapova is in it. There is one bitch chick and a camera operator that make me laugh everytime. The song ends as the match begins and she returns the ball with a scream. I quickly realized that Kim Clijsters in not playing this year at the US Open! She won last year, so I can she the whole "why bother?", but she is so good...and blonde...and Belgian! At least my favorite little Czech Nicole Vaidisova advances. She beat out some little American black chick. After the recap, more sleep.

Yesterday (Tuesday - for those of you lucky enough to be able to not keep track of what day it is) I woke up and got to school at the unholy hour of 7:30 am. So. Wrong. I got the episode of Deadwood from Sunday, and headed to lab for another 2 hours of dead goldfish.

Poor Swapna, they tried to walk all over her. They were loud and needed a freakin' cattle prod to get going when she said they could start their experiments. I told her, if she needs me to be loud at them for any reason, it is no problem. I had to holler a few times to get them moving or to pay attention. More goldfish died, I was bored senseless.

After the goldfish, I went and made a nice computer copy of my schedule so George knows where I am during the day and when we can meet to work on things for the snake project. Unfortunately, I still have to tape one to my lab door so the brats I teach can find me for help if the need it. I would like them to pass or do well. I am already feeling that the word "bitch" will be reappearing in my TA evaluations for this semester.

I gave Swapna a ride home so she could finish setting up her and Jack's new apartment. I went to Walmart to buy Nip/ Tuck: Season 3 and South Park: Season 8 on dvd. I also ended up with a few other movies including "Don't Tell" with my favorite Italian actress, Giovanna Mezzogiorno. So. Hot.

I came back to school, to find George made Model #1 of our embedding mold/ mount dealy and wanted me to mix some acrylic to do some test slicing because our big honkin' tungsten-carbide microtome blade came in. So I mixed some smelly acrylic goo in the Physiology lab because it has a good digital balance. I had to walk in on a class ro meeting or something to get to the prep room, but I was quiet. I swear I was gonna pass out from the goo I made, it was so strong. I think next time this will vbe done under a fume hood. After I filled the mold, I popped it in the fridge and went home.

At home, much to my surprise, my Histology text came from Amazon earlier than I was told to expect it. It is now sitting in my bookbag, and will likely remain there all weekend. I ran upstairs to take a shower and then watch the last episode of Deadwood!!! It was good, but it cuold have been better. I am sad that it is over. I hope they make those 2 2-hour mini-movie thingies to wrap up the show.

At 8, I watched that Celebrity Duets show on FOX. Holy crap it is very odd. I only watch it because Lucy Lawless (aka Xena Warrior Princess) is on it. She did ok. She looked thin, and way too blonde. Like a six-foot goldilocks! I like the dark hair on her better. Lea Thompson was also on, she was lookin' nice! During the show, my housemate Saint called to tell me Xena was on it. He was in the apartment attached to the house only 10 meters away. Haha!

During all the bad singing, I kind of watched Big Brother and Rockstar: Supernova. Janelle won the veto, and Storm Large may be going home tonight. So I went to sleep for like 2 hours and woke up to watch the US Open recap at 12:30. Apparently it poured boatloads so not many people got to play. At least Amelie Mauresmo is advancing. Yeah for French lezzie tennis players!!! Rafeal Nadal doesn't really speak English, and men's tennis (men) bores me into fits of rage. I should have stayed asleep.

I went back to bed, only to wake up at 6am to a hungry kitty cat in my face.

Apparently Histology will be staying at 9am, not 8:30, so I can sleep in an extra half hour Mondays and Wednesdays. Yeah. It was boring (I hate cell bio crap!), the slides were ok in lab, I got to leave early so I went to talk to Beth.

Then, teaching more farm-kids with dead goldfish. Only, no dead ones in my section today. RG went to PetSmart, not PetCo, this time for the fishies. They seemed much healthier to begin with.

George came and found me a little after lab so we could start the test chopping. It went ok. No blood or injuries from the big fuckin' knife, no broken $1100 dollar big fuckin' knife, just lots of little plastic shreds for me to clean up. It was a little frustrating at first, but we are formulating out plan of attack. Which means I get to spend much time chopping and measuring, and playing with snake bits for the next 5 days. I went to chat with Beth at one point and she gave me M+M's! I made her crack up calling it "like a chocolate rainbow in my hand".

After all the cutting of the plastic, I went to look for Dr. Lima to copy the reading we are discussing tomorrow at bright and fuckin' sunny 9am. To early for him to be pointing at us demanding answers. i think I mentioned this before. At least it is only 30 pages. Instead, I found some guy, who I can't remember his name, that is new to our department and in that class. He was very friendly and he let me copy his copy. We chatted about or projects and I moved along to collect my shit and post before Kailea yells at me again for being boring. Hi sis!

No to eat of the yet-to-be-determined foods, and relax. The season premiere of Bones is on tonight. Yeah!!! More Emily Deschanel. I like Zooey (her sister) better. But Temperance Brennan is one hot nerd!

Apparently there are more boxes from Amazon at home. Jon Cox was out at the pond at at the house some mail lady was giving him boxes. Those should be my Physiology seminar text, and my Ditty Bops + Liz Phair CDs!!! All three will probably live in my car's CD player for the next month.


Random fact of the day: In honor on an earlier discussion today with Beth ---> I am slightly afraid of horses and cows. I just can't trust an animal with a head that big! They freak me out a bit. They are also weird with their big thick bodies and their super-skinny little stick legs. How does that work?!?! I have gone horseback riding before, and have touched a cow. My parents think it is funny that horses make me a little nervous. They still bring up the equine vet practice trip from Vet Explorers when I was in high school. I would not volunteer to go use the ultrasound on the horse cuz it made me nervous. That thing was huge!!!