Defiling Skin Diseases

I guess it's this whole thing (although not a particularly Presbyterian one) to give up something for Lent.  I did it for a while, because I like the idea of sacrifice during a season that's all about sacrifice, and because it's supposed to make you feel purposeful and connected to Jesus.  And then I think I realized that people end up giving up the things they know they shouldn't be doing anyway - like someone who gives up chocolate every year because they have a major sweet tooth and want to lose weight.  That always felt really false to me - I shouldn't be giving up stuff because I wanted to give it up anyway and now Lent is an excuse to kick start a new diet.  I should give something up to get the boon of the fasting experience.  To connect with God's sacrifice, that sort of thing.

I tried in more recent years to ADD something to my life - a devotional, more quiet time, reading the Bible daily.  I'm terrible at those things, so being purposeful about it was a sacrifice in some ways because I had to give up something else to fit them in and because it made me prioritize...

Whatever.  I'm supposed to be telling you stuff that's INTERESTING to you between diaper changes, right?

So I'm trying to do both this year, giving up the caffeine that gets me through the day and adding some time reading the Bible every evening.  I even made it easy on myself by signing up for 'read through the Bible in X number of days' emails from an online Bible website.  It will send verses for the day right to my iPad.  How easy and wonderful for me, RIGHT?

Here's the first verse I got.  No joke.

"Regulations About Defiling Skin Diseases
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “When anyone has a swelling or a rash or a shiny spot on their skin that may be a defiling skin disease, they must be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons who is a priest.  The priest is to examine the sore on the skin, and if the hair in the sore has turned white and the sore appears to be more than skin deep, it is a defiling skin disease. When the priest examines that person, he shall pronounce them ceremonially unclean....."

And it goes on and on for 59 verses about skin disease, followed by those nasty defiling molds.  And then BLEEDING.  There's a reason people don't start reading the Bible in Leviticus, and yet... d'you think this is some sort of test of my resolve?  It certainly hit me right on my sense of humor, because I laughed and laughed as I read all about the horrible defiling... whatevers.

Work stuffs

I think I forgot to tell you that my old boss of the expressive eyebrows retired at the beginning of January.  I can't tell you how much we miss him, especially those eyebrows, plus the fact that he was one of those REALLY GOOD bosses that was always willing to be the filter between crazy management types and us.  And management types are plenty crazy.  So maybe I miss that as much as the eyebrows.

We have this lady in my office who is basically a rock star at our job.  Everyone knows her, she has all sorts of cred, she's crazy smart, and she's nice.  Plus she wears cute dresses every day and her hair looks good and you know you'd probably HATE her if she wasn't also a rock star and so nice.  She's filling in for old boss of the eyebrows for the time being (we're in a hiring freeze, y'know?), so she's got her old work plus boss work and she's just SWAMPED.

Of all the people in the office for her to throw work to, she's throwing it to me.  The newbie (although... can you believe I've had this job for 8 months?  Can you believe I've been out of teaching for 5 YEARS?!?!) in the office is doing rock star work.  I don't think anyone begrudges me the work, but it's sort of good news/bad news.  Good news is that she trusts me and likes me and maybe they'll hire me PERMANENTLY in this job if I can be a rock star too.  But the bad news is I AM NOT A ROCK STAR.  I cannot possibly fill in behind her, and I'm doing my work plus her work and AHHHHSOMUCHWORKALLTHETIME.

Guess that means I'm keeping busy, right?

In other news, I'm making presents for the baby modlets for Valentine's Day.  Not sure you'll be on to see yours, so I'll leave you a few here.  Not gifs, but STILL.

 

*kick starts this mother again*

I cannot believe I let this blog lapse for so long.  I mean, Touzer, in the time between last post and this post, you had a BABY.  That's big news.  Monumental news.

I don't have anything nearly as exciting to post about, AND still no pictures.  I should illustrate my life in paint for you, though.  That's true love.

Or gifs!  Is it still true love if I illustrate my life using other people's lives?  That seems pretty legit and way easier on the eyes than anything I could draw.

So what do you want to hear about, Touzer?  My job?  My... social life?  The zombie apocalypse?  Books I've read, people I hate, ice cream I've devoured?  My world is your oyster.

Early Mornin' HATIN

Right, so, my boss came in and is all... she's SUPER shy as it is. Like, she hates asking me to do things when MOST of the time I'm sitting here bored and want things to do. Today, she all... hedges around the connecter mud room, and sort of beckons me over... and gives me a TASK. Woot a task. It's not one I can do alone, though, it's moving shelves and heavy tall stuff to make room for the NEW Professor's freezer  -- but this other... Lab Tech had already been TASKED with this and hadn't done it.

So when Other Lab Tech gets here (I don't feel I can unbiasedly introduce you to her right now OR give her a name that isn't mean as hell), I go over and tell her what the Boss said, ask her if she's up for getting the task done, ETA, let's do it, etc.

And she's a total bitch about it. There's no other word for it. Not donkey, not jerk, just bitch. She was this... smug... "Yeah, I know more about this situation than you, so run along little one *dismissive*" type. "Oh, but we've got all day *laughs derisively at you* *goes back to work*".

....

I need The Skipper here.  He'd know how to make this TASK last all day long and have fun with it.

I HATE OTHER LAB TECH. *LOATHING* *LOOOOOOOOOOOOOATHES* Ugh she's SO smug for no reason at all? We have the same degree, and the difference is, this is her CAREER and I'm actually just using this as a stepping stone. I needed "experience". This is not a career. She's old and ugly and bitchy and probably has no idea that no one likes her.

And the worst of it? She's a dolphin researcher.

I rest my case.

I have this problem with requesting time off.  I dunno if it is from my time teaching or at previous jobs, but regardless of the fact that I have LOADS of hours I have to use before the end of the year, I still feel guilty whenever I request time off.  Especially with a new job/boss where I'm not sure how he feels about time off on top of the fact that I just took 7 days off over the course of three weeks.

BUT I took my little time off forms to the boss man today, because I have this wedding coming up that I need to attend.  Family wedding.  Of a cousin I like.  Stuff like that.  And my boss gives me this eyebrows-up face as I put the form down in front of him, so I don't know what it means.  He doesn't believe me?  He... is amused by me?  (Probably)  Instead, I opt for... he thinks weddings are hilarious and to be mocked.

So I say, "I know, I know."  Maybe some hand flapping occurs.

More eyebrows (this guy... very expressive eyebrows).  He asks WHAT exactly I know, and I realize that I'm just making noises.  WHAT do I know?  I still have no clue what crap I fed him, but I think it had to do with my parents being a drag at weddings because my sister and I are older than this cousin and not married.  No clue.

But he assures me that "family weddings are FUN."

Clearly not a kindred spirit.

And instead of escaping with what little dignity I have left, instead of that, I tell him about the cousin who got married LAST year.  The one where the wedding party was inebriated even before entering the reception.  The one where the maid of honor broke her collarbone on the dance floor.

I may have come out even on this one, though, because as lame as I started out... I left him laughing.  Maybe at me, but still, I count it as a win.

Heeee HAWWWW

That's the noise a donkey makes. Or an ass. I didn't want to title my post with a BAD word, but the THEME for this post is: I'm an ass. This is likely not news to you, but here's a shining example of WHY.

I've never went and told you about the characters that work in the lab CONNECTED to mine. I'll introduce you to one, because it's relevant and necessary. So... we meet... sigh. We meet Stutters. He's really nice, would go out of his way to help you, your family,anything you'd need. But he. is. exhausting. And he never shuts up. Not ever. But in addition to exhaustive dialogue, he ACTS out all parts of the story he's telling. He'll act out his part, any other parts, then he'll act out YOUR reactions (even though I've usually stopped listening and have no reaction other than blank nodding...), and your POTENTIAL reactions, any other imaginary characters' reactions.

And he's named Stutters? You guessed it. Because if his style of talking wasn't exhausting enough, he also has... this Stutter.

SO everyday, several times a day - he comes over to talk to my lab. He'd come in early today, rambled through a long, confusing, ever-changing story about who knows what - then he left. Few hours later, I am on my laptop, headphones in, Incubus (this is a band, Ern) playing loooooudly in my ears to keep me awake. Stutters comes back. He starts talking.

I never took my headphones out. He talked and talked and talked,and I didn't hear a single word. I smiled and nodded for like 20 minutes.

Fast forward an hour - Skipper (who is my favorite in the lab) came back, and he's also a donkey like me, and I told him about the headphones. He laaaaaughed and, as he does, went back to his desk to leave me alone (we get along SO WELL). Five minutes later? Stutters comes back. My headphones are in and he's talking up a storm to me,with the Skipper cracking up cuz he KNOWS I have the volume turned up and I'm not hearing a word.

I'm a bad person. An Ass. HEEEHAAAWWW. 

Dear Touzer,

I fully intend to walk you through my new office at some point, but today is not that day.  It's the end of the weekend, you know, so I'm feeling particularly lazy.  A long post is more like a Tuesday or Wednesday thing - you know, one of those days where you're used to being productive and get the most done.

But I did want to tell you that I was over at my parents' house yesterday for grilling out, and as I was leaving I went to say goodbye to my father, who was watching TV.  I should clarify... he was watching The Real Housewives of New Jersey.  My dad.  0_0.  Of course, he immediately tried to insist that he was watching some manly movie with men dying in the desert and it was on commercial break, but we know the truth... my dad is a Housewives fan.