blue, Blue, BLUE!!!

I hope my vote is serving to cancel a "red" vote and progress this state into a Dem. state! Go Blue!

Hiddie Ho There Neighbor!

Yeah, I don't know if my title is spelled right but that's about how I am feeling lately. I'm posting again because, well, I don't want to work. I was here for about 7 hours yesterday (Sunday) and now feel drained. Blah. Also, I am going to play in a 9 ball tournament tonight which means I am staying late. Not good for the motivation.

Anyway, the hide-e-ho? neighbor thing is because everyone in the boonies waves at you! It's weird. I come from a place where you are not suppose to make eye contact let alone greet a stranger. I needed to thaw out a stand-alone freezer that is kept outside on the porch. Yeah, the porch. Stop laughing. Well, while I was chipping away at the ice and trying to remove frozen stuff, people would pass by on the road. They all would wave. Why? I don't know them. They don't know me. It is just weird. I understand it is a country/boonies/southern thing but it still creeps me out.

Country life continues to plague me with personal and property issues. This month is property issues. We got a bad left-over storm from Ike and it brought some serious winds. After the storm had seemed to pass, I decided to drive into town to check on my house (it's had some tree falling on it issues as well as leaky roof issues). Well, not 200 feet from the trailer, a big gust of wind knocks a branch in a tree loose and it flies into my car. Yeah, into my car. I yelled like a little girl, cut my wheel, and slammed on the brakes. I managed to stall out my car and turn it enough to have the branch plow into the passenger side of the car's windshield (instead of my side where it was headed). The windshield was pretty much shattered on the passenger side but only three main cracks came over on the driver side. The window was flaking into the foot well area and the branch left some organic material in the glass so it had to be replaced. The windshield ran just under $200 and I'm just going to leave the dent in my roof. I hope that means I am in the clear for another 9 days... when it turns into October.

The painting is still not progressing at any high speed. The bf did come out to help me ONE day over Labor Day weekend (he had promised two) and then tried to get the paint off with a power washer even though I told him I tried that last year and it didn't work. Yeah, surprise, surprise, it didn't work again. Sigh. So then the wood was soaked and the scrapers didn't work because they cut into the now soft wood. Basically, after about two hours, he started drinking and throwing paint chips at me. It was not a good time. I won't ask for his help again. I guess the old adage continues to hold true... if you want something done and want it done right, do it yourself.

Even though his help was worthless, I have been sucked into helping him with a home project of his. Actually, two. I helped him put up lattice around his deck and now he wants to frame it and the driveway area with railroad ties. And, oh how lucky can we get, he knows a guy who has ties for $1 a piece. There is, of course, a catch. These ties have seen better days. We will have to pick through piles of ties that are possibly infected with snakes. This little all-day project was suppose to happen on Saturday. Unfortunately (or fortunately if you like to procrastinate), it was pouring rain all day. Then, on Sunday, he was enlisted to help a friend on a local farm with some relocation of equipment. I had to work anyway. This job, however, needs to take place this next weekend! Why the urgency you ask? Because, otherwise it will be October and I will be due for a personal injury out in the country! I don't want to be bit by a fucking snake! They aren't natural. Everything should need legs to move on land. Ugh.

Classes are fine but a little overwhelming. I haven't been this busy since my first semester. I'm not entirely sure the sociology class is worth the pay. The only upside is the class is online so once I have all of the tests written, the articles posted, and the links set up, it should be much less time consuming. I'll still have a ton of grading but that will be almost all of the work. Right now the test and make-up tests have each taken about 15 hours. Mostly this is because I want to do this right and so I am writing nearly 100 questions for a 25 question test. This way, the questions are random and not the same for all the students. I am trying to eliminate the most straightforward or easiest way to cheat. Sigh. I hate that I care.

Our school is in the middle of a presidential search. We have one applicant from within the ranks. I asked him some tough questions during the open forums. Word on the street is that the board is planning to hire him. I'm not tenured. I'm actually a little fearful about losing my job. I just didn't want to be like so many people around here - afraid to speak up because they were afraid for their jobs. Now I've spoken up and now I am worried about my job. I want to leave this place but I want it to be on my own terms. Oh, and he will suck as a president for other reasons too. That is part of the reason I asked the "tough" questions. I wanted to confirm he was a useless as I suspected. Sadly, he is.

I'm playing on a pool league this fall. So far, so good. I have lost every match. I win a couple of games but overall lose the match. This is actually good because right now I am unranked. I will be ranked after this week. I want to be ranked low. That way, I will have a bigger handicap than better players. This will result in a lower number of games to win to win the match. Ultimately, this will hopefully parlay into more match wins for me. And I like to win...

Not much else is new. I teach a class at 9 so I need to sign off on this blog post.

PS: My spider bite turned out to be not brown recluse but some other creepy crawly. My arm no longer has a hole in it - just scar tissue and a 'dent'. I guess even when I eventually get myself out of this hellhole, I will have a permanent souvenir. At least it won't cost extra to move it. Baahahahaha.

Ah, Life

So another semester starts... it's a little different this time around.

Lots has been going on in my life which is part of the reason I haven't been posting. That, and I am just not loving blogging like I used to. I think having a real life has taken some of the desire away. Grad school was so horrible I needed an outlet. Now, life is pretty good. Anyway, here's what's been going on in my neck of the woods:

1. Got my first poison oak experience. It was horrible. After almost a week, I went and got a steroid shot. It was so bad at that point that the shot didn't really help. It took another week of prescription drugs to clear it up. I would have gone in sooner but it was a holiday weekend by the time I was willing to recognize the severity of my case.

2. I moved in with the bf. This has always spelled disaster for my relationships. We'll see how it plays out. So far, so good. I'm renting my house to a co-worker for the time being.

3. This semester includes a chem overload class AND a new sociology class. It's not called a sociology class but that's what it is. And I won't lie - it's kicking my ass. I thought I was fairly well prepared. NOPE! Holy shite.

4. I was biten by a brown recluse spider. The idiot doctor here (my third) diagnosed it as staph. Yeah, really fucking expensive prescription drugs and four days later now the hole in my arm is literally that - a hole! I have to make an appointment with yet another doctor to see about having the necrosed material in my arm scraped out. Can't go back to the original doctor - they won't make a follow up appointment with me until 10 days has elapsed. By then, my arm may have just given up the good fight and fallen off! IDIOTS. It's no joke that everyone goes to STL for any medical thing AT ALL. The doctors here will kill you if you give them a chance!

5. It turns out that driving down a gravel road every day is hard on your tires. Hmmph. I know now and if my car would be kind enough not to have a flat tire every week I promise to drive slower. It's already Monday and I don't have a flat so things are looking good. *snicker*

6. Went to my first truck pull on Friday. It's exactly what it sounds like.

7. I'm going to my first hunter safety class tonight. I am sooo not excited.

8. Who knew... I kind of like riding 4 wheelers. Yes mom, I feel shame.

9. Preseason Rams games are actually a lot of fun and it's nice to have a bunch of room around you instead of a stadium that is packed to the gills.

10. I learned that boats may have two weep holes and that BOTH must be plugged or the boat will sink... with your purse and everything in it.

11. It turns out that some people actually live life just like that song "I wanna search you for ticks". And for good reason. Those little fuckers will bury into your skin ANYWHERE. It's gross.

12. The house painting this season was nearly zero. Between the sister's wedding, trip to vegas, and moving not much has been going on in that department. The bf promises to put in a quality weekend of work with me over Labor Day weekend.

13. I like dating A MAN. I didn't realize that up until now I always dated guys. Guys don't have a spine. They don't know how to do shit. My new man does. It's very refreshing. I cannot believe that I may have found the love of my life in this backwater place. Truely scary. Eh, who knows though. It may blow up in a firery ball of shit. Trying to stay positive...

14. I'm already looking forward to Christmas. Is that wrong?

15. I'm trying to find a team for pool league. The softball league team was a lot of fun and I want to keep having a "thing" for a weekday evening that is social and fun without being a lot of work.

16. One of my best friends moved to NYC (I am so jealous) and the other one is off birth control (I am so not jealous).

I guess in summary:

Country life is killing me - I hate chiggers, ticks, mosquitoes, spiders, poison oak, poison ivy, and gravel.

The summer has been fun - I boated, 4 wheelered, traveled (3x), played softball, golf, and horseshoes, grew a garden, and moved into a place that actually has the potential to feel like 'home'.

I'll probably post again in, say, 4 more months. Guess that means look for a post around the holidays. Hope everyone else's life is good!

Meme

Ok, desperate for a blog post and don't have time to actually construct a coherent story of my life right now... so, you get a meme.

The rules are that all the answers have to start with the same letter as does your first name.

1. What is your name? Chemgoddess

2. A four-letter word: crap

3. A vehicle: camero

4. A city: chicago

5. A boy's name: chris

6. A girl's name: chris

7. Alcoholic drink: cosmopolitan

8. An occupation: comedian

9. Something you wear: chinos

10. A celebrity: carl sagan

11. A food: cheese

12. Something found in a bathroom: conditioner

13. Reason for being late: crash

14. Something you shout: CHARGE!

15. An animal: cat

16. A body part: chin

More than a month...

At least it isn't as bad a hiatus as my sister (hint, hint sis). Lots has been going on and I just haven't had time to blog about it. I don't really have time today either. Here are the highlights:

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* I went to visit a friend (who is also a colleague) when she was at her second home over spring break. It was nice to escape from the hamlet of hell if only for a few days.

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* I am dating a new guy (not just a date or two and had nothing come of it). He's a sweet guy and a lot of fun. He also happens to be adorable, financially stable, and seems okay with me being waaaaaay more "degreed" than him (he didn't go to college). He took me to a BBQ at his friends last night. I've met his son too. And we've only been dating three weeks. It's a little strange because I generally move much slower on the 'meet family and friends' thing. He's clearly more on the side of 'jump into the deep end of things'.

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* Work has been crazy busy. I don't know why I am always surprised by the amount of work to do this time of year... it's always the same. We are starting to get into crunch time for the semester end. That means writing assignments start flooding in, lab set-ups get more complicated, and pretty soon I will have to start thinking about make-up tests. Ugh.

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* A tree fell on my house Thursday when we had high winds. Here are some pics (look for the city light on my property for scale - it's on a standard size electric pole):

When I got home and saw the tree from my carport, I freaked out a little. Once it stopped raining and I had a chance to calm down (and maybe drink about five frickin' beers), I saw that it wasn't as bad as I thought. It sheared off the entire overhang on that side of the carport (soffit, fascia, decking, drip edge, gutter, and shingles. It also ripped a large portion of shingles off the main part of the carport and poked a hole through it (which isn't clearly visible in the pics). The upside is that it didn't poke through the house part of the roof, only took off some shingles. It also didn't crash through a window or break my gas line (which comes into the house just about directly below and over 8 feet from where the tree fell. AND, I haven't yet painted that side of the house so the scrapes or other cosmetic stuff from the tree falling or when it gets removed won't be heartbreaking either. I'm just not sure what I did to the house gods to deserve this. First the plumbing, then the foundation, then the roof, and now a big ass tree on the (new) fucking roof! Well, maybe I am not quite over it...

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That's all the big news from my small pocket of the world. I won't bother you with the minutia of my day to day. Maybe some other time when I don't have two tests to write for tomorrow. Have a wonderful week. Let me know if you need any firewood.

MyHeritage Celebrity Look-alikes

I found this site via a friend. I think it is funny that these are the people it thinks I look like. The site isn't completely reliable. I used a bad picture just to see what it would come up with and my top match was Meatloaf... ugh. The results below are better but I still come up as match to a Bush family member! Kill me now!!







I have been told I look like this person:

I think there is a STRONG resemblance. My high school pictures could have been her on Facts of Life if my hair had been styled the same way. Even now, pictures of her in her thirties look very much like me in my thirties. Mindy Cohn hasn't been in the spotlight lately so maybe the face recognition software doesn't include her in the database. Nice to know what I will look like in 10 years... this is a pic of her from '95. The more recent ones aren't as close a match. Naturally, as we are about ten years difference in age.

Inclement Weather

We have had almost two days off for bad weather. I think there are some serious perqs to being in the south. They close in anticipation of bad weather. Anyway, here are some pics...

I think an important side note is that the streets and sidewalks were almost ice-free. Bumkins in the country had trees falling on their three mile dirt driveways which is why we couldn't have school. It was fine in town.

Notes From The Hamlet

I'm thinking of renaming this blog. It's not so much about chemistry as this po-dunk town I live in that I kindly refer to as the Hamlet of Hell. Maybe I will do the work of renaming at another time... anyway... to the notes.

Overheard in a local sandwich shop: "They have wireless internets here". (it is a plural now???)

Seen at the local bar: After Duke won the game last night, a drunkass decided to show his horror at it all by overturning a table. (Really? Was that really necessary? Ugh.)

Worst pick-up line ever, also at the local bar last night: "I'll by your boobs a beer." (HELL NO YOU WON'T!)

Student excuse of the week: "I had four children home sick so I couldn't come to class." (It is important to note that the student shared this with me at Walmart, child-free, four hours after the class in question).

And last but not least...

The third, yes, third member of the janitorial staff asked me out two nights ago. Why am I sooooo damn attractive to uneducated men??? Why are men who probably have trouble understanding me chasing after me? What have I done wrong? I don't need a wordsmith but I would like someone who can participate in an oral conversation/debate with me. Sigh.