current distraction: sick little kitten.

This weekend was pretty fun, depressing news first then fun stuff.  So Saturday was Smoky’s first vet appointment.  The doctor is an old man, probably around 60 or so, but he’s quite spunky in a cranky way.  Sort of like my grandpa where he is right and you better listen, but he’s a lot more uppity than grandpa.  Anyway, we told the vet that Smoky was a girl since that is what the shelter told us.  He picks the kitten up and goes “Hmph, those are balls.  This is a male.”  So I got all excited because I thought he was male. But now it’s all figured out.  However, Smoky is sick =(  The poor gender confused kitten has an upper respiratory infection and it’s getting pretty bad. It conveniently got much worse after we left the vet. He’s had running eyes, a stuffed nose, can hardly breathe, and now he won’t eat.

I spent the entire day at work today in a panic because I was so worked up about him.  I was so nervous that we were going to come home and he was dead or something.  But we got home and he was passed out and then started crying and whining to us when we started paying attention to him.  So we took him to the vet again and he gave us food and high calorie other stuff to force feed him so he has some energy.  He actually seems to be getting a bit better already.

At the end, after the vet explained ten times over how and when we have to feed the cat, he started asking about how we will feed the cat during the day.  Problem: we have work and kittens aren’t allowed at national laboratories.  So he asked if we had friends, we said no we’ve only been here three weeks and don’t know anyone.  Then he said that we could drop Smoky off during the day and he would watch him and feed him when need be.  It didn’t even seem like he was going to charge which was really, really nice (but we’ll see, that could always be wrong).  You can tell he really cares about the pets, and I appreciate that alot.

So the rest of the weekend: sixty degrees and sunny.  Saturday Yeva and I ran errands and then made vegetarian enchiladas from scratch for a mexican potluck that all the interns were having.  I was a bit nervous at first, since I am a complete psychopath when it comes to trying new food, especially something with cheese.  But surprisingly enough I loved them! The potluck was fun and it was nice to get to know everyone better and spend quality time together outside work.  Sunday morning I got up a bit early to go park hunting.

I found a pretty nice one in a really ritzy area.  It was pretty calm even though it was such a nice day out.  There were some runners and a family having a picnic.  It was nice to be outside and in a tshirt in January... very different from the brutal winter up north.

After this park Yeva and I went and found a park by UT that was definitely more lively.  It was right by the river and everyone brought there dogs.  It was the perfect people watching place.

It was definitely a relaxing weekend and that was much appreciated since work is quite the crazy place.

current distractions: smoky

So today was the big day and we got our baby Smoky.  She is tiny... and we’re not positive on if she is a male or female.  I think I may have spotted male genitalia; however, that could be the wound from getting her fixed.  They said she’s a female but I don’t really believe them... at first they said she was a he and then swapped it, then swapped, and here we are confusing balls and wounds.  Anyway, the possible hermaphrodite is adorable.  Please see the pictures below =)

We’re kind of obsessed.

current distractions: BIG NEWS

So I haven’t updated in a while because Rich was here for a week and so I was quite distracted by not being depressed and not having separation anxiety.  It was a great week.  We went to Nashville and walked around there, got lunch, went to a bar, listened to music, etc.

  

It was a pretty cool place.  It was pretty spontaneous so next time I want to look up a few places to go to first.  Hmm... other than that we made some awesome meals: sushi, pizza, breakfast night, anddd burger night.  I started putting avocado on my veggie burger and I really like it.  You would think that would flip me out because of my consistency issues but no I actually really like it.  Work got better this week also.  I coded an algorithm that now I have to manipulate to do better things for me and I understand everything a whole lot better.  It’s crazy how much I’ve learned in only two weeks.

So now time for the big news...
                                ...
                   Yeva and I adopted a baby kitten today!

DAH.

So yeah, we got a cat and we actually get to pick it up tomorrow.  It’s about nine weeks old and it doesn’t have a name yet but it’s a girl (without the inverted penis) and she’s perfect.  I will post pictures tomorrow, I promise.

current distraction: the annoying as hell smoke detector that won’t let me sleep

First week, done.  It went pretty well.  I just have to do a lot more research and figure out where I want to be headed on the project.  Basically my mentor told me the idea he had and I have to figure out how to get where we need to go while he works on other stuff.  Not bad.
Other than that I’ve been getting acquainted with the area pretty nicely.  Unfortunately there isn’t much time after work to explore so I usually come home, gym, read, go to bed.  But last night most of the interns went out for a while and it was nice getting to know each other.  Then we went to the Worlds Fair Park and it was really really cool.  Especially at night I think it was definitely something to look out.  We couldn’t get to the observation deck of the Sunsphere (I think it was called?) and the elevator almost got stuck which freaked my claustrophobic self out.  Nonetheless we had fun, and all came back to mine and Yeva’s place to hangout more.  Basically had some drinks and talked about nerdy science stuff.
More importantly, Rich is on his way down.  He’s on a long journey, twenty hour bus ride, just to come to little ole Tennessee to see me.  I am quite lucky =)   But anyway, I think he’s in Roanoke or something now.  I hope he doesn’t disappear and just leave something written on the bark of a tree. Hmmm...

current distraction: Bayesian belief networks

I can’t believe I updated the last two posts with “So I’m in Tennessee”... except that I kind of can because I have such a terrible memory.  Anyway I forgot to mention the drama of last night.  I spend the day running errands and taking naps (my life here is so busy it’s painful) and then I was skyping with Rich as I made dinner, lentil soup and a fun salad.  I sit down to start eating and boom, I drop my phone in the lentil soup.  Actually, the lentil soup ate my phone.  So I started panicking, not that my phone was soon to be destroyed, but that I couldn’t eat my lentil soup.  Thennnn once I thought “damn it, I have to go wash my phone” and remembered the last time I dropped my phone in food then washed it that it didn’t work anymore (water damage- do I really have a college degree?).  Anyway, I cleaned my phone without putting it under the faucet and the buttons stopped working.  So I went to Target and bought a charger for the backup Samsung that I have (thank you Billy) but by the time I activated that and got it charging I realized that the speaker on that phone was broken.  But luckily, by the time all that went down the buttons on my real phone started working again!  So I reset that phone and all is good.
Also, work was cancelled today due to inclement weather which was actually maybeee two inches of snow on the ground.  Apparently people here can’t/don’t want to/suck at driving and living in the snow.  It’s beneficial to me at least because I got another day to relax and adjust.  I got to go to the gym, do returns, take another nap, and try to get a wireless router but have Comcast deny me.  Whateverrrr.  Pictures will come soon, I promise.

current distraction: a whole lotta bright eyes.

So I am now down in Tennessee. I don’t think I’ve posted since I moved... actually I did once, I believe, right when I got to the hotel.  I’m all settled in now though in my apartment and everything.  The apartment is beautiful, I will try to post pictures soon.  It’s a shame it won’t get furnished at all due to me not wanting to put money into stuff that I won’t be able to take home with me but whatever.  Beautiful all the same.  The complex is great too, I feel spoiled but it’s really so cheap so I shouldn’t.  The area is okayyyy.  I like towns with a lot of local and unique places, but this is definitely not the case here.  Everything is highways and chains and that annoying southern accent and the crazy fried food.  I’m pretty sure I’m going to be at Earth Fare every week (a store almost exactly like Whole Foods) and cooking for myself all the time.  Downtown is pretty cool though, that’s where there are nice local bars, a coffee shop or two, some southern general stores, and a lot of live music.  I went down there a couple nights ago when mother and carmen were still here and there was some okay folky bands playing.  I think I’ll get used it.
The only downside is that I keep having paralysis dreams.  Kinda weird but I hope I’ll get over that also.  Five days till Rich comes down also.  I’ll probably write more later... I’m gonna gym now.

current distraction: twisted up sleep.

I am now in Tennessee!  We left New York last night around six and finally got here at about eight this morning.  I tried to nap on a chair since then but my back is just killing me so I’m going to get ready now before heading to the apartment.  The drive wasn’t terrible.  I tried to sleep until we got dinner which ended up being around ten at night while driving through Hershey, PA.  I didn’t think Hershey was really hick until we realized the only place really open was the bar in the Holiday Inn.  So we go in there and all of a sudden there were cowboys everywhere, decked out in denim and cowboy hats, with a live band blasting country music and making everyone do a line-up dance.  I couldn’t even hear myself speak it was so loud.  We were all starving though so we didn’t want to keep looking, but it just made me think: if this was so country and weird then what about when I get more south?  Dah, fear!
Then we got back in the car and I fell asleep and had the craziest dreams.  I tried to stay awake for a while but it was impossible.  I thought I "woke up", but when I looked into the road there were huge huge huge sweaters folded neatly on top of each other covering majority of the road. We had to keep going around them but we kept almost crashing into them.  Then I “fell back asleep” and when I "woke up again” we were in a very thick wooded area with the tops of the trees forming a ceiling over the road.  When I looked at the top of the trees I realized there were margays (my favorite animal, an incredible wildcat) in all of the trees just watching us.  It was really pretty awesome and I kind of wish it was real.  Anyway, off to discover more things.  I’ll post back soon.

current distraction: trying to organize my time.

I leave in exactly three days and I’m just going a little crazy.  I have to try to organize everything plus I haven’t even packed or started thinking about what I’m actually going to be doing there... bad intern bad intern. Hopefully while I’m trapped in Tennessee over the weekend I’ll be able to everything sorted out before I start... hopefully.  Dah I’m stressed.  The weekend and everything was fun though.  Connecticut for new years, Jersey afterwards to spend time with Rich and his family, the city for the day to hangout with Emily, and now I’m home.  Hopefully going to get to see Kara and Rachel.  Busy busy busy.  I’m going to miss Cyrax too.  She’s attention hungry right now.