Passion

I should go to bed, so I'm gonna make this quick again.

1. Internet communities.
2. Warm pajamas.
3. Nerd art.

I've felt kinda nauseated all weekend, not sure why. Hopefully it goes away tomorrow. :-/

I don't know why I didn't post yesterday. I've just been tired lately. I got into bed at like 9:30. Didn't get to sleep until midnight, but hey... progress...?

Yesterday I was grateful for coffee, and the quiet sanctuary of the mouse room when no one else is in it, and friendship.

I wish I had more friends in Michigan. Why does it get so hard to make friends when you start to get older? I used to have this amazing support group. Now everyone is scattered, and focused on their own stuff, and it's hard.

This entry sort of fails at positive thinking, doesn't it? Hmmm.

1. Digital clocks (NEAT, right??)
2. Chapstick (useful)
3. Snow (it hasn't been too cold, it hasn't clogged up transportation, and it's pretty).

Gotta be at work at 7am tomorrow for a mouse room inspection, so, bedtime now. 

Apparently I can't remember to post these before midnight, so now they're all gonna have the wrong date attached...

1. I'm grateful for weekends. This one totally wasn't long enough, but it was still a good weekend. And it was good Jim-time.

2. I'm grateful for Jim. Thank you for putting up with me even when I'm cranky for absolutely no reason. You are an incredibly patient human being. You deserve a medal.

3. I'm grateful for having gotten to work with my coworker Ann for the last year and a half. She's leaving to go start a new position in Boston this week, and the lab just isn't going to be the same without her. She was great to work with and is a good person. (Anns tend to be good people!)

Okay, definitely sleep time now. I read all the comments on the last post and I will answer them all tomorrow, I promise. :-) But now... neeeeeed sleeep...

Oi! I missed two days. I have excuses! ::hides under them::

So, Wednesday was a pretty busy day. Work has been crazy all this week, because the grad student I've been working with graduated and found a job and is leaving the lab next week, and we've been trying to get in One Last Experiment before she goes. So, I haven't had as much time for browsing the internet as I usually do (I've been working through lunch! madness!).

Wednesday after work I walked downtown and attended a workshop on 3D design for 3D printing. It was a 2-hour class put on by these two guys who are trying to start a business based on printing custom 3D items for people. I learned a fair amount, and it was really interesting to attend, but it meant I didn't get home until almost 11pm. So I ate some food and went to bed with a minimum of internetting, and consequently completely forgot about journaling.  BUT. I did think about things I was grateful for throughout the day, so I think I am getting into the mindset, even if I'm doing a terrible job of writing it down.
Wednesday's grateful things:
1. Living in a town with a more active social center (as compared to where we lived a year ago). There are neat things going on in Ann Arbor!
2. A fiance who introduces me to neat things like 3D printing, which resulted in me finding this class and then being the only woman in a room of about 20 men. (Ladies! Have you just not heard of 3D printing? Are you not interested? Did you just not want to walk downtown at 7pm to go to the class?)
3. Public transportation that runs until 10pm. (I caught the very last bus! But there WAS a bus, so that's awesome.)

Yesterday was another super long day at work, or, at least, it felt that way. I didn't get home very late, but after eating a quick dinner, I decided what I really needed was a long, leisurely bath, so I went and read in the bathtub for about an hour and a half. After I got out, the internet didn't seem interesting, so I went and read in bed for another hour and a half, and consequently, once again, completely forgot about journaling my grateful things until it was time to go to sleep. And then I made myself stay in bed instead of getting up to write them down.
Yesterday I was grateful for:
1. Being able to read at work while deparaffinizing slides.
2. My bathtub! Seriously. It was a really nice bath.
3. The cat not being a total pain in the ass for an hour and a half. I don't think she's afraid of the water in the bath, per se, but she left me largely alone while I was in there, and she didn't even sit at the front door and meow piteously, which was really nice.

Today, it's not even lunchtime yet, but I think I'm going to jot some things down in case I don't get another chance to sit at the computer. I need to go coverslip some slides, and then I'll be imaging all afternoon, and then Jim gets home, and then we have gaming, sooo....
1. Our washing machine. It works again! You don't realize how awesome washing machines are until you don't have one. I'm wearing clean pants!!
2. Being able to order coffee beans from the internet. Salt Lake City Roasting Co, I love you.
3. A really, really awesome smart phone that also holds music and allows me to stream radio stations from the internet. It makes staining/coverslipping/imaging soooo much less painful.

Okay! Back to work, now.

Things I'm grateful for today:

1. This winter being really, really mild.
I know this is a bad thing overall. Climate change = bad. But on a selfish, personal level, I am so, so grateful that this winter has been warm and easy to endure. It's the first winter in several years I haven't sunk into depression, and it's really nice to be in early February and not feel like I want to drive into a tree.

2. My job.
I have a really flexible job. Some days are difficult and challenging and hectic. Some days are quiet and I have a lot of free time. I almost always have a lot of choice in what I'm doing minute-to-minute, and I feel very lucky for that.

3. This beer.
Today was one of the longer, more hectic days, and came with a lot of frustration. I'm grateful for the financial stability that lets us keep beer on hand and that I don't have Celiac disease and I can enjoy this beer at my leisure in my own home.

I looked in the mirror this morning and felt like I've lost a pound or two around the stomach. I don't know if that's true or not, but I have been walking a lot lately, so maybe. I look forward to living somewhere that I can/have to walk everywhere.

I finally sent my resume to my coworker's friend at Google. She gave me the contact info in December and I spent about four weeks actively freaking out over the sad state of said resume. I finally got it into decent shape and then spent several more weeks just sitting on it, lamely, petrified with fear. Fear of what? Rejection, probably, though it's a lot harder for them to say "yes" instead of "no" if you never send them your resume... So, anyway, today I finally sent it in. And then I looked up a 3D printing company in San Francisco and made first contact with them, too. Yay! Go me. Job Hunt 2012: California has officially kicked off.