Funnel Clouds, not Funnel Cakes

After mammoth posting proportions last time, I'm vowing THIS time to keep it short. Usually if I number things, this helps, so here goes:

1. Experienced my first Wisconsin Tornado Warning earlier this week. I've never legitimately seen the sky turn green, but I did this week. Things were looking bad as I drove westward through Madison, and when I turned off of University headed for Andy's apartment, I looked up in the sky and saw a funnel cloud directly above me--all huge and swirling like a giant bathtub drain in the sky. I promptly did a U-turn and headed back East all the way to Ben's apartment. So ok, I probably wasn't in much danger, but I was rather freaked out. WV hills tend to prevent such things from happening ever. Ben calmed me down by telling me that we only get small tornadoes in wisconsin. Baby ones. Whether or not that's true, I don't know, but I didn't care. . . it kept me from further freak-outage. FUNNEL CLOUDS! GREEN SKIES! Weee! It's much coooler in retrospect.

2. I finished Poisonwood Bible yesterday, and now I'm on to reading the entire Harry Potter series. I'm excited for the endeavor.

3. In going through my stuff looking for things to sell at a Yard Sale, I found my old notebook from 2002, and had to laugh at how final I thought things had been for Dave and I. Mainly thought, reading my old voice was like getting advice from someone who knows exactly what you're going through. But I also have to laugh at how much I hated Mb, how certain I was that she and Jason wouldn't work out. And now look at who's happily married and who's not. Life is funny this way.

4. I've discovered my greatest career desire: I need to feel like I'm respected and contribute to my field. Admittedly, it drove me a bit nuts earlier today to realize that I was in line behind Josh and Sarah for teaching assistant position in Heidi's class, and realizing that in comparison I have no chance in hell. It still bugs me that I got a B in her class, when I enjoyed it and got so much out of it. I hate the feeling that I'm an english major disguising myself as a scientist. I get this paranoia that everyone thinks I'm just in research temporarily, that I'm competent but not worth extra attention. And then I think to myself: "Have I done anything to warrant any other treatment?"

I'm thinking maybe I haven't. I've been able to coast through alot of my career, using procrastination and inventiveness to get through most course requirements while focusing alot more on my personal life, where that was going and who I was going to share it with. Sure, those things are important, but I'm going to reach a point (if I haven't already) where I can't do that anymore. I have to invest myself alot more fully in microbiology if I'm going to succeed and find it rewarding. So there we go.

Ok! I'm going to stop typing away and go do things.