Behind on the weekly installment of life in MadCity

Yeah, but somehow I don't think that anyone lost much sleep over my lateness in posting ;)

Friday and Saturday were good times . . . .

Friday was Bactoberfest, which is basically an Octoberfest celebration thrown by two labs in the Bacteriology Department. Think one keg of beer, jello shots in petri dishes, and some very crowded lab hallways. After that I went to Heather's apartment for falafel, pizza, mac and cheese, and a myriad of other small meals put together--a feast! It was a good thing, because I got to spend some time with some of the folks in our class I don't normally hang out with, mostly girls.

WHAT A SATURDAY!! It was Kendall and Heather's birthday (two girls in our program) and so we went to a beer garden place called the Essen Haus to celebrate. I got all beauti-fied and went, and I'm soo glad I did.

First off, I got to polka with Andrew (he's our resident dancin' guy who's apparent specialty is the waltz) and swing dance with my other boy-pal Jeremy. I taught him some swing dance moves. We all danced the Chicken Dance and the Hokey Pokey--what's not to love about drinking beer from glass boots and doing the Hokey Pokey in a crowded bar?

Finally, we moved over to The Annex (or the Cardinal, I get them confused) for more dancing--it was hip hop night. Damn, but it was just what I needed. I really love dancing, and most of the other girls in our group were pretty self-conscious and didn't seem to enjoy dancing much. SO it was mostly 4-5 boys and my girl Bailey and myself dancing. Both of us did our fair share of dancin--baby we OWNED that floor! It was exciting, and worth a little awkwardness. I even danced with some strange girl, then four people apparently snuck up behind, and at one point the girl turned around and KISSED ME! On the cheek, but still. Crazy evening. And I felt sexy and pretty, and baby that's what every girl needs.

Sunday was not so fantastic, because I basically spent most of the day avoiding homework and waiting to see if we'd all go out to see Scary Movie 3--which we did and it was HILARIOUS!!

Monday? blargh. Spent it all day working in the lab, but after it turned pitch black night time I walked all the way to State Street and bought plastic armor for my "roaming the crazy streets of Madison on Halloween" costume.

Now I'm just trying to figure out which is more important: fold clothes, shower, drink soda, surf the net, clean up the apartment. . . . damn.

When Amber's unhappy

Aint'. . . .nobody. . . .happy?

I'd like to take a highlighter (preferably purple or blue) and grind it over sunday through tuesday. And if I did that, I'd probably have to dot every Sunday for many weeks past. Because these are the days I'm less than happy.

Yeah, I seem to go through this depressive spell every sunday. After thinking about it, alot of it is the fact I have to go back to school on Monday, and I typically haven't done any of my work because I was enjoying the weekend.

I've blamed alot of things for my unhappiness. It's so typical for me to externalize it and blame fate, fortune, and other people. Isn't life easier when things aren't your fault? Well, this is not to say that everything surrounding my life is perfect, but I think really I'm just not happy with myself. I'm bored with my hair, my body is getting older EVERY time I look at it. I'm eating all the wrong things and not drinking enough water. I don't like my clothes. I think people think I'm a bit stuckup, when actually they are just like me: afraid to freak people out with the freakiness. And it's silly, but i get twingy jealous when all the fuss is over the single girls. But that's because I've had it fixed into my head that the only dependable attention was a guy's attention. Girls are fickle, and I never really wanted to handle that.

But I've done my complaining, and I've got to give mad props to my best girl Alice for listening to me complain.

Things have just got to change. Dave told me, basically, that one of the hardest parts about being an adult is that no one is here to tell you what to do or what to be. It's already exciting. I mean, that's supposed to be college in a nutshell, but I still had to go home and answer to mom and dad.

I still have to go home for Thanksgiving. . . but it's crazy that it's my money now that supports me. Now If I can just get around to supporting my damn stupid ego.

Profound, maybe. . . .or maybe not

Really, this update covers mainly friday and saturday, because although I seem to do these entries weekly now, I can't really do a whole week justice.

In general, the rotation is going alot better now that the other two rotators have arrived. It helps so much to have someone agree that things are crazy or not optimally organized. And I'm actually getting things accomplished now. My PCR reaction worked, I have products to play with, and my advisor pretty much told me to go home on Friday afternoon.

Friday morning I woke up and spent hours not going to work. Dave was up and it was a pretty day, and I was procrastinating on getting my oil changed and figuring out what the creaky sound was that my car recently has begun making when I brake. Finally, I hopped in my car, made myself park in the Jiffy Lube parkinglot and asked the guy who ran up to me how long an oil change would take. He guided me into one stall of the garage, and they took over from there.

At one point, all the guy mechanics came in to the lobby and one asked me how West Virginia was. Then one asked if I "came to Madison all by myself" at which point I had to break the news to them that I had a fiancee. They, as a group, left shortly after.

Friday night was of course Happy Hour for the micro students, and coincidentally this weekend was Homecoming weekend for UW, so we got to see a really fun parade on State Street. THe marching band was FUCKING AWESOME (although not as good as WVU's). I even got beads, without flashing anyone.

Having very little luck finding a place to eat dinner for 10, we as a group let Zomary lead us down many blocks to Casa Bianca's, a cute little Italian place, where we could pull together some tables. An older italian gentleman went around to give us our menus. He'd say something to each person, like "Here you go beautiful lady" or "here you go handsome guy." and you know what he said to me?

"Here you go Princess Dianna!"

I guess in hindsight that's a little morbid, but at the time I just beamed! To top it off, we had the most handsome waiter ever, and I thought maybe I was falling in love until I realized that really he looked alot like Dave, and then it all made sense. I don't get to see him enough.

Friday night I had much disturbing dreams. Some of it I was part of a vampire-hunting group, for another part I was a vampire. The most disturbing part was that I was working on a trial to prosecute a woman who liked to impale infants on large cobs of corn--like they were rotisserie chickens--and I failed and she went home and already had another baby ready in her closet. Which makes an excellent segway into:

Tonight a bunch of us micro students went to a corn maze in Lodi--I organized the trip. We got to drive out into the country, which made me super homesick for both West Virginia and Hiram. AHHHH, FARMLAND!!! The corn maze was tremendous fun. We started out seriously trying to navigate the maze, but it sort of melted into just trying to get out alive.

We actually ran into some other people from the program in the maze. I also attempted to put a chokehold on Roger and it really didn't work. I realize now that I would have had to knee him in the stomach, so I don't feel so bad. But it made me realize I missed having Jason around for an uke.

In general, I've been keeping a little, quiet vigil today. It's gay and silly, but I live for a bit of ritual, and today is sort of a day of import, because Jason and Mb got hitched. At least, that's what the invitation said. So yeah, I feel it's an important day because it's another ending. That door gets to be closed, and hopefully they'll be happy. It's a relief, but it's sad too, because I do miss Jason, just like I miss so many other people. Slowly, it's all falling back into the realms of natural history and nostalgia. And this new life rises up to take over.

Whew

Well, I finished my first week at my new rotation lab. I only got ONE THING DONE. Holy shit, it was driving me crazy for the better portion of the week. I didn't do anything on monday, but that's because the lab meeting was in the afternoon and then by the time I'd gotten all the info on my project it was past 3PM. Tuesday is my all-day class day, so I didn't come in (my fault). Wednesday, I came in but needed to learn how to use a program on the computer, and ended up waiting until 3-4PM, when someone could show me. Thursday was another class day, but I managed to get some progress on designing primers for my PCR reaction. But then I went home and realized that those primers were waaaay too big. So up until Friday it had taken me maybe over 6 hours to design primers that didn't work. But on Friday it all came together, and I had beautiful primers designed and ordered by 2PM.

Overall, this project is supposed to be the easiest one: I don't have safety clearance to work with the bacteria (it's a pathogen!) so I only get to construct plasmids (circular pieces of DNA) that will eventually get put into the bacteria itself. It's all stuff I've done before, but I realized this week that usually I've had a post-doc right there with me making sure I got it done and done fast.

This time, nobody really seems to have much time to help me. So it was a VERY big adjustment. I'd wait hours for a chance to talk with someone, and then they'd be busy, or it meant I was doing my hardest work at 6PM (which is my WORST time for work). It was beyond frustrating. My time isn't any more valuable than anyone else in the lab, but it's still valuable.

Long story made short: I had to get my ass in gear, do my own work, and I feel alot better now. I also apparently accidentally made a double-mutant in my last lab that is now of research interest. The gods are smiling on me shortly. We'll see how long that lasts.

Last night I had one of those loooong epic dreams that actually had a partial storyline. In it, I went to prom again with my old prom date. Same dress and everything. And after that, we went to his family reunion and they had a huge screen and we watched a video of the whole night. I started watching it, and I started quietly freaking out because we were holding hands and doing dance numbers. Then I thought, no big deal, Dave wouldn't see it and I didn't really mean to do it anyway. But he did, and was so upset, and so I was upset. I felt like I had lost him, and was stuck with the royal movie family. For some reason, the whole reunion party mozied over to a chinese fortune teller. You had to kneel down to this hole in a wall, and whisper your question. I asked if I had picked the right person to marry. I leaned in, and could hear the guy say, in a strangely rabbi-like voice:

"Yeah, I suppose?"

The end of the dream was like a movie itself. I came home to a big house, and my prom date was in the kitchen looking strangely fabio-like. He was insisting I come home, and how we were perfect for eachother. I had a great speech about how we were not meant to be, and then I brushed past him and went upstairs, and hugged my Dave and told him how much I loved him. And I guess we lived happily ever after.

Hokey, yes, but comforting. And I take that whenever I can get it here.

Weekend Update, with Amber

Yes, I've got to admit I'm sucking up the place with my inability to do regular posting. It's lame, and I'll admit that.

But really! I've been doing alot, and I guess it's some sort of good indicator that I've got no time or energy to post. But it's my therapy, so I'm lacking. . .

The general state of my life is this: I'm busy, and I'm getting awesome at driving. Seriously, I'm amazed at how easily it all comes now, this driving thing. It used to terrify me, and now it's one of the few times in the day that I can just relax, talk to myself, and yell at people.

But on to the goodies:

Thursday was HEEEELLLLL. I had two big reading assigments due, and then I had to give my final lab presentation in Katy's lab. The computer wouldn't work, and life didn't stop till 6PM. And of course, I had the mother of all sinus infection colds. Came home, passed out.

Friday started off normally enough. I had thought that, it being my last day at Katy's lab, I would just wrap everything up and be done. But instead I was doing several different procedures right up until the end of the day. Then I had to scoot down to Memorial Union to see if there was any of the first years waiting there to do something for the evening. By blind blessed luck I ran into Heather, Jeremy, and Rhett, and we made a long trek to Regent Street to a place for Nacho's. Rhett and I split nine-dollar nachos, and I got a blue lemonade--made with pucker and it tasted like blue sweet tarts.

Then Rhett and Jeremy and I mozied over to Luther's Blues to see if we could find Roger. Our goal was to see the wet t-shirt contest that was supposed to happen there at ten, and we waited in the almost deserted club until Roger and Andrew finally arrived. This was at about ten. But nobody else really showed up till midnight. But man, the people flowed in after that, and suddenly we were in this crowded, rowdy club.

I could probably fill pages and pages about the wet t-shirt contest, but this isn't some Oxygen special or lifetime original movie. For the most part, I had a great and crazy time. "tonight, you get to be one of the boys" Roger told me. And that's what made it great. The club was dark, the ceilings were low. I got to sit in a leather chair flanked by two guys on either side, and watch a flock of sorority girls crowd by, with a little trio of alternative chicas on the periphery, and of course, the everpresent dancing guy. The announcer kept trying to get ladies who wanted to participate in the contest on the floor dancing. Eventually they passed out little white tank tops with "GIRLS GONE WILD" logos--Oh, did I mention that the wet t-shirt contest was sponsored and being filmed by GIRLS GONE WILD?

The girls seemed to have issues with whether or not to keep their bras on under the tank tops. Practically speaking, that would be pretty silly considering the purposes of a wet t-shirt contest. But already I felt for them, because really they were all new to this. One girl was fighting with her boyfriend, sluggishly trying to keep her bra on while he tried to remove it. Things in general got drunker and drunker as the night went on. Eventually the contest got started, what with the ice cold water and the hooting and hollering. That was good giggly fun, seriously!

We started out with great seats--remember we got their damn early? but as soon as the ice water hit breasts, guys started shuffling up to the front of the room--there was no stage. Almost immediately we lost all view of the girls in a ring of guys. The announcer started urging the girls to take off their shirts, take off their bras, "fucking take your clothes off!" he'd yell. It was about then things started to get less fun, and more crazy and scary. I stuck by my guy friends, but--like any thoughtful girl--it took effort to shut off the panic switches that said "huge crowds of drunk horny guys--DANGER!" They kept inching in tighter around the girls. Most of the girls had ducked out of the circle--not really willing to take all their clothes off. Eventually the only girl left was one that had appeared out of nowhere, and basically had nothing left on. Seriously, naked chick dancing in a circle of cheering guys. Of course, being short the only things I got to see where the pictures on people's cell phones, and the life footage they were recording. Eventually people got bored of the show--later found out the chick was actually a stripper! whoah!

I have really mixed feelings about that evening. I've been trying to sort out the good from the bad. I had no trouble with the wet t-shirt contest. In fact, it's something I'd go to see again. It was wild, sexy, and wild again. What I didn't like was what the film crew seemed to demand. It was unnatural, and scary. They'd tell the girls to "get the fuck out of the ring" if they weren't going to show anything else, to "quit wasting their time." It wasn't sexy. Period.

But I'm glad I went, and despite the tenser moments, I had a great moment where I was on tip-toes at the edge of the circle, trying to get a peek, and this HUGE black guy turned around, and put his hand in front of my eyes.

"Don't look! don't look! You gotta hide your virgin eyes!" It made me laugh, and I relaxed a bit after that. And Roger is pretty certain he got on camera, so he was the hero of the evening.

Ironically enough, going to the contest gained me a good touch of notoriety among the first-years (for better or worse). Some disbelief, but baby, I've got nothing to hide. I feel like I have been on a great adventure, that took some bravery and sensibility.

Saturday night I went back over to Roger and Nick's house to watch teenage mutant ninja turtles and x-men with the boys. Yeah, I'm started to get a crew of guys to hang out with, which is awesome. Finally, I'm starting to feel like I'm making friends.

----
Today, I found the most awesome store, called Ragstock. Everything hovers around or under ten dollars, including shiny pants, girlscout uniforms, pimped out fur jackets. So, I've made progress on my Molly Millions costume--after seeing the hot topic display of nurses outfits I decided to go with Molly Millions instead. Yay!

ach, must do homework. shite.