I skipped over some stuff with my last entry (which I posted to G+ first, and then decided I wanted archived, so I put it here too).

Jim got his second paycheck from Knight. It was for negative $1400. He quit. They said he had reported his work "late" and that he would get paid "in the next check", but they couldn't tell him how much he'd get paid. And he had been told three or four different deadlines for the reporting, so it was hardly his fault that he missed the real one.

We bought a Prius. It's a 2005, and it's gold. I hated it for the first day, but when I finally got a chance to drive it on Sunday it immediately won me over. It's fairly comfortable. It has automatic windows, locks, and transmission (well, sort of. it's got Prius transmission). It's like driving a computer - if you have the key in your pocket, the door unlocks automatically when you approach the car. You get in, still with the key in your pocket, put your foot on the brake, and press the round Power button, and the car turns on. You move a lever until the display reads Reverse or Drive, and then move your foot to the gas and the car goes - all with the key still in your pocket. It's insane. It's like driving a spaceship.

We named her Serenity.

Jim went to a meet and greet for SideCar, his new company, Friday evening. It's a ridesharing company that is essentially a taxi service, but cheaper, more reliable, faster, and WAY less creepy. It's all coordinated through smartphone apps. I tagged along in the passenger seat Friday night while Jim gave rides around the city for a couple hours, and it was a lot of fun. We got to chat with interesting people, and we made like $100 in two hours. I think this'll be a much better job for Jim, at least in the short term.

This weekend was supposed to be a mess in the city, so I flipped through event listings on the web to see if anything in particular looked like fun. I found a listing for a steampunk/Oktoberfest combination dance, and we decided to go. This meant we had to put together costumes, so we went wandering around our neighborhood Saturday morning to find thrift stores. We got some decent costume pieces and cobbled a look together, though we didn't have any accessories or anything (no goggles or awesome boots or leather of any kind). The dance was a lot of fun. They had victorian waltzes in addition to polkas, plus a few set dances they taught on the spot, and we had a blast. I even got to wear my nice dancing shoes, which I haven't done since the wedding. We got some fliers for some other events by this group, and we'll definitely be going to more of them.

Sunday we drove Jim's semi to the nearest Knight lot, which was four hours away, in the central valley. Serenity averaged just under 50 miles per gallon (she's meant for city driving, not highway, but I still think that's pretty impressive!). Jim and I played "what's that crop?" on the way through Gilroy and the surrounding area. It's a little sad that we don't recognize fields of bell peppers or strawberries or garlic on the spot. If I had a kid I would insist on having a garden and making the kid help grow our food. Maybe once we get a house I'll start a garden anyway. I should be mature enough by now not to kill plants just by looking at them.

All in all, I'm loving living here. We've settled, I think, and I feel better than I've felt in years. I'm in better shape. Running and biking are enjoyable - my body RESPONDS to requests for action, in a I CAN DO THIS kind of way instead of a OH HELL THIS HURTS kind of way. It's giddying. I feel happy. I am home, and things are of course not perfect, but I made it back to California, after a thousand million years away, and it keeps getting better and it's going to keep getting better. This is good.

The last couple days have been a little weird. Sort of like throwbacks to the beginning of the semester; and even though I feel like I just got here, it seems like the beginning of the semester was a thousand years ago.
Yesterday Shannon came over for dinner, and we sort of reenacted Thanksgiving. It was kind of neat; for the first time in my life I hosted a "dinner party," with food that I had made and a table that I had set and a clean apartment. Shannon brought her green bean casserole to add to the turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy. It was a good meal.
Afterwards we went to GPSCY and hung out with some friends. A couple guys bought me drinks and I took a shot of jager, which was interesting. I've only had jager a couple of times, and the first time was freshman year of college over Christmas break at Darby's house, so every time I taste it I think of Christmas. And I always forget how little jager it takes to get tipsy. I was pretty drunk when I got home, and this morning I woke up and stumbled about the apartment for a few minutes wondering why I had a massive headache, until I belatedly realized that I had a hangover.

Today was kinda rough. I had a meeting with a professor this morning, which went well, but after that I stumbled down to the other side of campus to go to lab, and just couldn't handle research. I swear I almost fell asleep in my lunch, and even though the only thing I did today was a transformation, I felt like moving the tube from one incubator to another required too much energy.

I came home at 3:30 and fell asleep and slept until 7. I guess I really had too much to drink last night and not enough sleep. Anyway, when I woke up, I went to the MCDB departmental party at the Peabody Museum. There were tiny children there, but they had free alcohol, so life was good. After that, a large group of us went to Elizabeth's house for a wine and cheese party, which was awesome. She throws great parties.
After THAT, Shannon and Elizabeth and I got dressed up for the GPSCY party. GPSCY was sponsoring a "Heaven and Hell" ball tonight, and there was no cover for people in costume. Shannon and Elizabeth went on the dark side, and I wore a silver dress and shoes and went as an angel. For the first time in a long time, I felt attractive. The weird thing was that there was a group of guys we sort of went with, which grew after we arrived, and was comprised of some really hot physicists, but none of them seemed interested in me until the last three songs, at which point one of them latched onto me and danced with me (and I should add that he was an impressive dancer; great endurance, he must practice) and then asked me for my number. No one has ever asked me for my number before. I was floored, so I sort of hesitated, but I gave it to him. I hope he calls. But they never call, right?

Anyway, I'm sober now. I'm home and I finally took off my dress--reluctantly, because I've had it for two months and only worn it tonight, and like I said, I felt attractive in it--and watched another episode of Weeds and am maybe moving towards bed now. I'm exhausted, mentally and physically and emotionally, and bleh. I think I just lost my train of thought.

I might get to work with human embryonic stem cells next semester.

I want to learn to play pool.

I LOVE turkey leftovers. And the gravy I made is SO good, which is awesome, because it took me an hour to make it. Luckily I had to keep adding more things to thicken/thin/add flavor, so there's a TON of it. Yummy.

Anyway, Guy Policy has now been updated to: I am celibate in mind and body UNLESS a guy I might like makes an aggressive first move, which I am defining as asking me on some sort of one-on-one date, in which case if I like him I will go with the flow. But I'm not making any more first moves, because I am sick of putting myself out there only to have every single guy be completely uninterested in me.

Bed time.

P.S. Should have used this icon last night. Oh well.

Sooooo... long week.

I'm currently drunk, thanks in large part to going first to Quiz Night at 99 Bottles with Stephanie from my lab, and then to dancing night at the Dakota with Rainier and his gang, and also thanks in part to the people who kept buying me drinks tonight. If I remembered their names, I would deserve a cookie. But I'm bad with names. So just a general thank you to the universe, and when I have a functioning bank account again (BofA, please send me my new debit card!!!) I will pass on the love and buy other people alcohol.

Anyway. Long week. I went climbing on Sunday and ended up just bouldering for an hour, and my hands have been horribly shredded since. Then I went climbing with Neal last night, and did really really well. Or maybe the routes I did were just rated harder than they really were. But it was a fun evening of climbing. I then came home and stayed up until 3 am working on my final project for photography.

I have officially failed French. Congratulations to me, it is the first thing I have ever failed at. Yay for growing up and sucking more and more.

I'm just about ready to be rid of this town. I'm still occasionally suffering from a desire to stay here and finish things up, but as graduation approaches I just get sicker and sicker of classes and all this undergraduate shit. I'm ready to go off to grad school and have a real identity and maybe a real life, and figure out what I'm actually going to do with myself for the next fourty years.

And why isn't forty spelled fourty? It makes so much more sense that way.

Okay, I'ma take my drunk self off to bed, 'cause I have to wake up for my last photography class ever in four hours. Wishing it was fourty, but it's not. Just four.