Weekend Vacation

Well, my horoscope for this week at freewill astrology told me that my original horoscope related to a haunted mansion theme: the future would hold the equivalents of skeletons in closets, stairways that led to nowhere, funhouse mirrors that distorted and confused my view of myself, being lost and frightened by things popping out of closets.

After a fateful dream, the astrologer said, he changed my horoscope to a funhouse theme. Good secrets would be revealed. Stairways will lead to new and exciting things I never would have imagined. The funhouse mirrors will show me new ways to look at myself, and the things that pop out at me will suprise and delight me.

As you may know, if you spatially close to me in Madison, my lab meeting was a double-edged sword. I've been working with this mutant strain, trying to learn how the genetic defects it has result in defects in its ability to form a symbiosis with the squid. And all the work I've been doing looks like there isn't a big defect. But the guy who worked before me on the project saw a defect, so I figured I was just doing things incorrectly.

So, at lab meeting I presented my data, and his, and we got most of the way through the lab meeting and one of the post-doc's said: "I hate to sound mean, but. . ." and then (in summary) told me that the defect they guy before me saw wasn't that large, and there were better projects for me to be working on. It might be time to cut bait on this project.

It sounds kindof horrifying. I stayed calm through the rest of the meeting. Everyone was very supportive. But after it was over, the afternoon was free and all I could think was: I might need a new project? After all the reading and work I've done and after presenting my plans for the coming year to my committee already? Do I have to start over again? I'm behind already!!

As far as I can tell, this happens to almost everyone in science at least once. You get really excited about a cool project, and you work and work and nothing comes out of it, and you have to drop it to work on something else. Because in this profession, data is your livelihood. If you don't have data, you can't publish, and if you can't publish, you'll have trouble getting hired. Also, for the grad student, you need data to have a prelim, and a PhD. . .

So I swore off lab for the weekend. On Friday night, Sarah took me out for drinks at Kimia Lounge and Crave: two nice, less undergrad-y bars in Madison. I got a drink in a carmelized glass, which involved setting the thing on fire! FIRE I TELL YOU! It made me so happy to spend the evening with her, because I know I have a history of dropping my girlfriends when a boy enters the picture, and I didn't want that to happen with her. So we got dressed up and had a small night on the town! Eventually I met up with Andy over at the Irish Pub--it's a recruitment weekend so he and Sharon and Roger and Rhett and Jeremy had all been busy hosting possible PhD students.

Got up around 10AM on Saturday and spent a lovely afternoon with Sarah--we hadn't been to St. Vinnie's in awhile, so we went to the East side of town for coffee and thrift shops. We went to Mother Fools for coffee, which is alot like the B-side for you Hiram folk, as it is just one room, but so damn cozy and cool you just can't help but feel comfy. We sipped our drinks and chatted, and at one point this older man (~60) came up and complimented me for using my hands so much when I talk. I thanked him, and he went on to ask if I was a natural redhead.

At this point, my gut turned a little bit. Being a relatively friendly young lady, I have had strange men come up and talk to me in the past. The general format is:
1. Get her attention (eye contact)
2. Say something friendly (verbal acknowledgement)
3. Either say something else nice or something so horrible and dirty that the girl wishes she had run away screaming when you came over.

We were nearing step 3, and with an intro like "are you a natural redhead" it could go either way. Thankfully, he smiled and said "Ahh, well that's the redhead personality [they are very expressive?]. He leaned in and whispered (although loud enough for sarah to hear:

"Gentlemen don't prefer blondes. There just aren't enough redheads to go around."

So that is my quote for the day, for the weekend even perhaps. I'm not a true, true redhead, but as somewhere in between redhead and brunette I'll take what compliments I can.

From there I went on to have a truly successful shopping day, and made a landspeed record for buying a swimsuit in under a half hour. God bless tankinis! They are both utterly more flattering for those of us with blinding white bellies, and also much easier to work with than a one-piece. REQUISITE GIRLY INFORMATION: It's mostly black but with a geometric design of light lime and aqua blocks running diagonally, and top ties around the back of my neck so certain elements cannot run away (although they do try to escape, it's a good kind of trying to escape).

Finally, I watched "City of God" with Sarah, which is a superbly well-edited film and absolutely must be watched. Just keep in mind it isn't a movie for picking you up and making you feel good.

Sunday has been much quieter. Went to bed Saturday night around 3:30AM, stayed in bed until 3PM, even though I had a dream that I was a vampire, and was being hunted down by some club of well-dressed (aka tux and evening gown) vampire hunters who kept trying to stab me with pencils. They finally caught me and were going to sacrifice me at dawn for their amusement, but I was allowed one phone call. However I had much trouble getting my contacts button to work on the phone. When I finally reached the person I was trying to reach, they asked me if I wanted them to rescue me, and I said no, I'd be fine. But I wasn't going to be. They were going to kill me, and I was crying.

After waking up, I wondered why I hadn't asked for that person's help, but oh well. The weekend has come and gone again, and this week will be challenging, like always. February is almost gone!