Verbose, Yes I Am

Or, if you prefer, long-winded, palaverous, prolix, redundant, or windy. I was told recently that I needed to lay off the long blogs. They need to be four paragraphs or less. Well... here's three more paragraphs about why I am probably not going to follow that advice, as good as it might be.

My reason for starting the blog was completely self-centered. I have never been very good at keeping a journal and I thought I might be better at this because it is available anywhere that there is a computer with internet access. Also, I have a very, very hard time keeping up with friends and this way they can find out what's going on in my life without me having to e-mail them each seperately (which I never have time to do) or trying to catch me on the phone (which is nearly impossible).

I do attempt to infuse the blog entries with some humor to break up the monotony of my story-telling. However, given the frustration I have been feeling with my career, it is sometimes quite a stretch... hence the title of my blog... ranting. I figure that there are enough people out there just trying to be funny that something a little different is okay. Well, that and no one is require to read my endless stories. :)

Lastly, I'd like to make a request. Since it has come to my attention that my preferred writing format might not be everyone's preferred format to read, let me know what your vote is. Maybe if there is an overwhelming vote for just funny then I will try to accomodate. Probably will post a whole lot less often because only a limited amount of "funny only" stuff happens in my life and even less often occurs in my head. Even if you don't want to comment on my blogging tendencies - drop me a comment! I'd love to know who's actually reading my blogs and what you're thinking. Thanks.

Have a Great Weekend!! Weeeeeeee!!!

Four Hours on Hard Cement

!Beware! This is a long blog...

Yesterday was the open casting call for “The Biggest Loser”. As I mentioned in a prior post, I decided to do the in-person interview in addition to the video tape submission. The casting call was to be from 4-7 pm at the Hard Rock Cafe (downtown Chicago). I had no idea how early to show up. I didn’t want to get there too early because it’s cold outside (I don’t have my winter coat - yet) and I knew that there would be some sort of line to stand in. I planned to arrive around 2:30.

Oh, guess who wants to meet the morning of the casting? Yup. He’s going to “squeeze me in” sometime between 9am and noon. Oh no, oh no, oh no. Well, I’m not going to lab all dressed up with makeup on because this will cause unnecessary attention. This means that I have to go back to the apartment after this “meeting”, get all spiffied up, take the el (elevated train / public transit system) into the city and still try to be there by 2:30. I won’t hold my breath.

I come in to the lab just after 9am in anticipation of this meeting. Ken has to sit down with three students who are going with him to France this next week and have them give their talks. Where do they decide to do these practice talks? That’s right, immediately behind me in the computer room (room within the lab with all of the computers in it). So for the next three hours I am trying to write my thesis with people “presenting” talks behind me and with the audition on my mind. Suffice to say, no work was completed. And then, oh it’s noon. Ken has a lunch meeting. Well, I refuse to wait until after this lunch meeting - I will never get out of here! I dropped off a copy of the revised paper in his box and left. By the way, I have never gone to a conference that I couldn't DRIVE to - I hate graduate school.

Once back at the apartment, I started to try to pretty myself up a bit. This is no small task when you don’t know where anything is. The woman I am staying with was exceptionally kind and loaned me cute shoes, socks (appropriate for the shoes instead of the athletic socks I only had available), makeup, earrings, a hair dryer, and (it’s worth mentioning again) a place to sleep for almost two weeks! I am lucky in about seven hundred different ways that she is here but a quick run down of the most prominent in my mind are: she is just a great person so hanging out with her is a lot of fun, she has a really funny husband who is also great to hang out with, she wears the same size shoes as me, she let me use anything in her pantry or refrigerator so I didn’t have to shop for condiments or cheese (which I just forgot to buy at the store - didn’t plan on having to mooch that), and her coloring is pretty close to mine so I could wear her make-up. Did I mention that she’s really a cool chick? Anyway, back to not being able to find anything... I had the outfit all picked out (including shoes and socks) and I knew where the earrings were but I didn’t know which hair products were where and I didn’t know how her make-up was organized. The digging didn’t take too long as she isn’t a make-up whore and the hair products were only in two places. I successfully completed my transformation by about 1:45 pm. By the way, I am now the biggest fan of a clinique product called pore minimizer or something like that. I must purchase some. It’s great!

Off to the el. I arrived downtown with no problem and located the cafe. I got in line and was then told I needed to go to the front of the line to get a ticket. Actually, you had to go inside to get a ticket - not the front of the line. Wow. Already a lot of people were there. Got my ticket. Got back in the line. I then spent nearly an hour on the phone. I will post another blog with that story. I hate insurance companies.

At some point around 4pm, they instructed us to get in line according to the number on our ticket. Okay, already there. I was by a group of ladies (and one guy) and decided I might as well join in the conversation because the environment was too distracting to read. Okay, I am going to come off like a COMPLETE bitch when I write this but here it is anyway... Are some people absolutely clueless about themselves?? If I know you live in a trailer before you tell me, they are not going to cast you in a nationally broadcast network show (except for maybe Cops or Most Wanted). If all you do is bitch about your hypothyroid condition (that apparently can’t be treated with drugs), they are not going to cast you. If you have half of your teeth rotted out, they are not going to cast you. If you look like exercise could kill you, they are not going to cast you. If you qualify for the senior citizen discount, they are not going to cast you. Why do these people even show up? Am I one of “those” people who think I have a chance and am being delusional? The current contestants are all 21-31 except for one 39 year old and one 40 year old (both of whom could pass for mid-thirties). There are clearly looking for young adults. The target age group seems to be 28-31. Half the contestants are in that group. Second, these people all have great “head shots”. If you didn’t know better, you’d guess some of them aren’t overweight judging by their faces. And those that do show the weight in their face, they are still pretty good looking people. They all have fairly all-american names. They are all well spoken. If you think you aren’t cute enough, don’t show up - you aren’t. I think I am cuter than at least one of the girls so I figured it was worth a shot, I speak in “dictionary” english, I’m in the right age group, and my name is really common, easy to spell and easy to pronounce. And, given this blog, I am catty enough to be on a reality show. You might wonder, why do I care if these delusionally people audition...

Because they don’t go by ticket number!! Fuck. I waited and waited in line. Slowly we would creep forward. They were interviewing about 80 people an hour. I should be in well before the cutoff. I was number 170 or something like that (the tickets didn’t start at #1 so I can’t say for sure - I’m guesstimating (non-dictionary english)). Okay, three hours later...

A woman in line (who I do not like at this point) decides to go find out exactly what the first number was and where are they now. So, it turns out my guess was pretty good. Closer to 190. Still, should be in with 1/2 to spare, right? Oh god. Those people ahead of me got here after me - I am the one who told them that they needed tickets! What’s going on? Oh, so the tickets - A big joke. Why do I insist on following the rules? They not only aren’t checking to see if you are the right number, they aren’t checking to see if you have one at all!! So a massive number of people have now cut and I am possibly not going to get in. In fact, it looks like I am definitely not getting in. Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. My feet are freezing, I skipped out on meeting with Ken for this, and I even typed my application form. This is sucking so bad I can’t even explain.

Another group goes in. At this point I can actually hear the woman who is in charge of the line. It is just a big mosh pit as you get near the beginning of the line. The group of people (trailer trash) that was behind me is starting to try to snake around the side. I literately push some guy in front of them. He is the boyfriend of this other woman with whom I have been speaking to for the last three hours (once I determined that I couldn’t stand the other group and was off the phone). I told her that I think we had to start jockeying for position near the front. It turns out, as two chicago inhabitants, we are quite adept at the ‘wiggling through crowds’ thing.
And boy, did that skill pay off BIG TIME!

The woman says that they will take ten more people. Oh no! We (really cool woman and I) are now about three ‘rows’ (using that term loosely) behind the front. She starts counting... seven, (not me), eight (not me), nine (not me)...

Ten - and points directly at me! Woohoo!! Holy shit - talk about cutting it close. I was LITERALLY the LAST one from the line to get in (officially). The cool woman had scored no# 9 so we were both in. Sweeeet. It turns out, in addition to not checking tickets, they aren’t monitoring the stairs up to the interview room. So an additional ten or twelve people were able to sneak in to the cafe by saying they were there to eat and then sneak up the stairs before they blocked them off. I actually was a big snitch and told the interviewers what was going on. I am not sure if that was a good thing to do. They posted the line woman at the top of the stairs after my tattle-tale-ing.

We wait in another line. While in this “new” line with new people around (since we had kind of cut in line ourselves in the mosh pit) I struck up a conversation with this guy in front of us. Fireman from the Waukegan area. Looked like he might be ex-military. Turns out... ex-marine. That would definitely explain the haircut. The cool woman and I chatted with him while we waited to be seated at one of the two interviewing tables. I will mention why this conversation was noteworthy later in the blog.

Finally, sit down at the interviewing table. What they do is seat seven or eight people around a table and have us introduce ourselves. They want to know about our personal situation - name, where from, couple statis (married, divorced, single, how single = significant other, multiple, engaged), children statis, and sexual preference (gay or no). That went okay. Then THE question. They only ask one. When we did names, the interviewer started at the other side of the table so I thought I would have a bunch of time to think about the question too. She asks the question to the table and then says, “We’ll start with the same person.” AND THEN TURNS TO ME!! AAAAAAAH!! The question was, “If you were your goal weight tomorrow - what would you do?” I was just a tad flustered. I started with some lame statement about enrolling back in school so I could play waterpolo again and be on the starting lineup. Then I said book the cruise and buy the bikini. Then said something about my bf. She asks why I didn’t bring him. I think I might have scored points on this because I said he was canadian and said how we met and she seemed surprised. Maybe that will make me “different” enough to stay on their minds. It could have been much, much worse but it could also have been better. I forgot to mention, they taped the whole thing.

I promptly left after we were done and exited the building. The cool woman had been assigned to a different table and had finished before me. She was waiting outside which I thought was really nice of her. She asked how it went. We both concluded that we both did “okay”. Here is where the conversation with the guy comes in. I am guessing this cool girl is about 35. So maybe woman would have been a better way to describe her but I’m not going back to change it. The guy asked, get this, if I was her daughter! Okay, she doesn’t look that old and I don’t look that young. We couldn’t decide if he was asking to make idle chit-chat or if because he was interested in me. Either way, I’m taking it to mean the later and that’s a huge ego boost. He didn’t stick around so I didn’t have to break his heart telling him I already have a man. teeheehee. After we wished each other luck and parted ways, I jumped on the el and headed home. It was about 8:30 pm. It took (including el rides) ~ 7 hrs. - that’s just outrageous.

Anyway, it’s over and done with. I’m glad to say that I had the guts to go through with it. I might hate grad school but it has certainly dulled my sense of embarassment and/or feelings of idiocy. Rumor has it that they are going to do call-backs by Sunday. I’ll keep you posted. Well, actually, I will keep posting - up to you to come back to see how the story ends.

A Good Analogy

I recently had lunch with a good friend and fellow graduate student. Of course, talk inevitably wandered back to how bad grad school is, how we aren't alone although we feel isolated all the time, and how just about everyone is depressed to some degree. She made a really good analogy to graduate school and I thought I would share it here on my blog. I just thought I should make sure credit is given where credit is due.

I haven't seen Kill Bill II so I hope that I get this right... There is a section of the movie where Uma's character is learning martial arts. She has to stand in front of a block (of wood?) and keep her hand close to it. The idea is that from this close distance she is suppose to jab the block and break it. Her master can do this task but has told her to without his help. She attempts this task for, what seems, an endless amount of time. Her hand gets bruised and bloody and yet she continues to jab at the block. At some point she stops in order to have a meal with her master. She attempts to eat using her hands instead of chop sticks because her hand is so messed up. Her master tells her to use the chopsticks and eat like a civilized person.

How is this an analogy for graduate school? Well, if you don't already know then you probably haven't been listening to the graduate student in your life or you don't have one. We go in day after day and pound our heads against the same problem. Let me stress... day after day for years and years we try to break whatever problem it is that we are working on. It seems that our advisors could easily solve this problem but he insists we do so without help from him(/her). Then, when taken out of the environment of endless self-torture, we are expected to behave as rational, normal people that are well adjusted to society. The problem is that our minds, egos, and general physical health have been bruised and bloodied.

Just to reiterate... Don't Go To Graduate School!!!

I just wanted to pass on the great analogy that my brilliant friend had shared with me yesterday. Have a great week. :)

Is it really Saturday, December 4th??

Do you ever wonder if you have been sleeping more than 8 hours... say, like, 20 days? I feel like it was just September. Where does the time go? It is true that the older you are the faster time passes.

I remember when I was in elementary school and it felt like every year was this huge deal-e-o. Now a year passes and other than starting to notice the beginnings of wrinkles and a few grey hairs nothing seems to change. And really, I don't even notice the physical signs of the passage of time all that often either. I miss the old days when I use to count my age in half years. Ya know, seven and a half years old. Now I am just in my late twenties. I refuse to admit what year in my late twenties because I don't want to contemplate just how close I am to the big 3 - 0h.

I was just reading about the oldest woman in america on msn.com - apparently she just passed at the old age of 114! Can you imagine? And there is another woman who now holds the record who is 114 (but three less months of 114 than the recently deceased lady). The woman who the article was about had moved in with her daughter during her last few years. They interviewed the daughter about her mother. The daughter, by the way, is 88. The 88 year old was caring for a parent. I hope and pray I can take care of myself at 88 let alone someone else (who is twenty-some years older)! She said that her mother just kind of wore out. Yeah. Now there is the understatement of the year. Or maybe decade. Century? Anyway, I digress.

So, I am planning to go pluck my grey hairs this afternoon because they bother me. I realize that it isn't an unnatural thing to have them but I'm still not ready to face the reality that I am getting older. Oh, and I was also reading on msn.com that being in an environment with a perpetually high level of stress can speed aging. Yup, that's right... Graduate School is making me OLD! The study compared mothers with handicapped children versus those with normal children and found that the mothers of more needy children were genetically older. This accelerated aging is on the cellular level! Just so we are clear on this point - Don't Go To Graduate School!! In addition to making you unhappy, it also makes you old. Maybe this is why the stereotypical professor is always pictured as a wrinkly, anti-social old man. That's what we become in graduate school. Even the women - because we are encouraged to think and act like hermit-y men. No one is allowed friends or emotions in grad school. That makes you weak.

I was planning to write a light-hearted happy blog. Boy. I suck at this happy thing! Good things have happened in the past few days. I sent off my "The Biggest Loser" audition tape. We'll see if I get a call. I was on the web site to get the address for sending in the tape and found out two things: One, I didn't need to stay up until 4am finishing the editing of the tape because they decided to extend the deadline (which they apparently posted that day or the day before because it wasn't posted Wed.) and two, that they cut a scouting location date in FL but added one in Chicago. So, my approach is now two-pronged - tape and in person. What should I wear? I'm going with "clothes". Seriously, since I have no "permanent" home here in IL anymore I am living out of a suitcase and don't have a lot of choice. I have a pair of jeans that fit fairly well but I only brought t-shirts and sneakers with jeans. I will look like the scrub I am. Oh well. Maybe that is what they are searching for... I can deceive myself if I want. No comments from the peanut gallery telling me I'm wrong! :) So finishing the tape was great and now I get to try a real live interview. Sweeeeeet. I'll be sure to let you know how that goes.

Other good things... I had to meet with the bossman today (yes, on a Saturday - this isn't uncommon at all) and it went fairly well! I think that he is really trying to be nice to me. I found out that Scooter took a medical leave (mental not physical) and I know that at least two other members of the lab are on anti-depressants so maybe he is starting to notice that his "style" doesn't work for everyone.

I'm totally looking forward to leaving at the end of next week for some quality time at home. My best friend and I have plans for a pedicure (aaaaaaaah) and some thesis writting sessions at the local coffee shop (okay, if I must work...). I'm also going back up to the arctic circle (aka: the bf's) right after Christmas. Yeay! This reminds me... I must actually purchase a "real" winter coat. The fleece is not going to cut it up there.

Well, I can't think of anything else that must be said right now so I am just going to post this and go back to working on the paper from hell. Hope everyone has an excellent weekend!

Pinochle not Peaknuckle

I just read the bf's blog. Is it good or bad to laugh outloud at these things? I'm going with good. Apparently, he did find the game to be just as messed up as I had suspected. He's gone so far as to proposition readers of his blog to join him in a game or two so as to improve his playing. AND he tracked down a website with general rules and guildlines for the game. Wow. I think we might have scared him.

I think this means that I will need to remember to pack a couple decks of cards so that we can play when I go up there for Christmas. Well, the days after Christmas. I am flying up the evening of Christmas Day and then returning in January. I hope that my flight is less eventful than his was coming down. I'm really curious to see the "north" during the "winter". I always tease that he lives near the arctic circle (which isn't really true) but I am concerned that I don't have warm enough clothes. He highly recommends thermals. Oh boy. I owned some years ago but to actually have to find them among my boxes of crap stored at my dad's might be problematic. It will be interesting - of that I am sure.

I realized I haven't mentioned yet.... DON'T GO TO GRADUATE SCHOOL. Just wanted to get that in.

I have group meeting today. Oh what fun. We sit in a room for an hour or more listening to someone in our group give a talk on their most recent research. This shouldn't be all that bad but the guy giving his talk today does research that I find painfully boring. Mostly because I don't get it. He does surface chemistry which I find to be highly suspect. No one seems to know what is going on but the scientific community insists on continuing to comment like they might be figuring something out. Oh well. At least we have snack food so I am sure to get a banana, cheese popcorn, and maybe some bread and cheese. You can never have too much cheese in your diet. Teeheehee. I should move to WI - land of the cheeseheads.

I have to send in my tape for the reality show tomorrow. I am planning to work on the editing with my friend tonight. I hope this isn't an all night affair. I am really sick on not getting sleep. I really like sleep. My mom likes to tell everyone just how much I like sleep. I think I could comfortably sleep 8 to 10 hours a night. I try to keep it to 8 because that already seems like a huge indulgence. Actually, most of the time in grad school I have averaged between 4 and 6. Maybe that is why I am always grumpy... hmmmm..... now there is something to ponder.

Well, I have to meet with the bossman (also referred to as a graduate student advisor but not by me) this afternoon so I should put my materials together for that fun time. Blah. Hopefully we will finally come to some conclusion about this stupid paper that needs to be returned. I'll be so happy when it is finally out the door - I can't even tell you!

I'm going to adopt something from the bf's blog for this entry... a random thought of the day:
Why does the library at this university restrict online access to journals from the computers here when anyone off the street can come in and have access to the paper versions located up and downstairs? I understand restricting access from remote locations but they are already here on university property. Idiotic. And posting signs to this effect EVERYWHERE seems a little overkill...

I'm Cursed!

Well, you all know that I was planning to go to my parent's for Thanksgiving and that my boyfriend was flying in to town to visit. The plan was that I was going to leave the Windy City sometime Wed. morning to get me back to MI sometime in the late afternoon. The bf was scheduled on a flight to arrive in town at 9:30pm. This should be great! I will have some free time before picking him up to unpack my car, visit with my best friend, check in to the hotel, shower, and maybe do some shopping. On Tuesday night, everything is in order. The only annoyance is having to meet with my boss the next morning before leaving. It's a rather large annoyance because to be ready for the meeting I will need to spend most of the night working. And, the car isn't packed up (I wanted to wait until the street was clear to get a good parking spot close to the apt.).

After getting home at 7am, I attempt to get a little sleep. Of course, I am so excited about seeing the fam and having my bf visit that I am having trouble getting any sleep. My alarm rings at 8am. Sigh. Time to get up. It wasn't even a nice nap. Off to work after packing about half my boxes in the car. I thought I was just meeting with my advisor for a short time. We were suppose to resubmit a manuscript and I thought it would be a quick process. Weeeellll.... long story (very long) made short - he decided that we should really do a little bit more research before sending the paper back to the journal with our corrections. Geez. Then, he asks if I am planning on leaving town for Thanksgiving. Um, yeah. The follow-up to that question... how about meeting Monday morning at 9am. Um, no. So, we are meeting on Tuesday at 9am. But this "short, send in the manuscript meeting" the day of my trip back to MI took 3 hours! Let me reiterate - Do Not Go To Graduate School! When I got home from the meeting, it was raining. And, as I said in an earlier post, it was forecasted to snow in MI. I packed up the rest of the car and was ready to leave town around 2pm CST (3pm EST). I needed to make two stops on the way out of town. One at the bank and a second at the gas station. It takes about 4.5 hours to drive home normally plus there is an hour difference between CST and EST. If I leave at 2pm (CST), I should arrive at the parents sometime around 7:30pm (EST). This would still give me time to at least unpack the car, check in to the hotel, and maybe freshen up a bit. Then... I got on the freeway. I have to drive from the north side of the city to the south side and then east and northeast in MI. After 3hrs I was almost downtown. Downtown Chicago! This is not going well. And the downpour has turned into a snow storm. After four hours, the bf calls because he is at the Minn. airport on a layover. I almost start crying when I have to tell him that at this rate there is no way I am going to be in MI in time to pick him up (I'm now around 47th st.) and that my mother is going to have to meet him. I guess as long as someone is there when he arrives it's better than nothing. He tells me that he understands and that there is nothing to be done about it. Just drive safe and get there. A little while later (I would guess an hour but I have completely stopped keeping track as it is soooo depressing), the bf calls back to tell me that his connecting flight has been cancelled! Aaargh. As the story was told, there was a plane that skidded off the runway at the destination airport and so it was closed down.

To recap... I have been driving for four hours and gotten about ten miles and the bf is stranded. What a wonderful start to the holiday! Drat!

The next few hours can be summarized like this: Oooh, I'm going 15mph. Darnit, I'm going 5mph. Ooh, ooh, ooh, I'm going 20mph. Drat, I'm stopped. Bf calls and says he has a hotel room and is working on an alternative flight but right now is scheduled to get in the next day around 9PM! Well, at least I wasn't in moving traffic when I got the bad news. Ooh, we are starting to move - hitting a high of 17mph. Sigh. Stopped again. Is it still snowing or does this now qualify as a blizzard? Oooh, just passed the 55 interstate and people exited... we now seem to be moving for good, albeit at a nice comfortable snail pace of 20mph. How far is home? That's right, 250 miles. I should arrive just in time to pick up the bf TOMORROW night! This is just plain silly. Pushing on...

I am now in MI and near exhaustion. I think I need to stop for a few minutes. That one hour nap is just not doing me any good right now. I called my mom when I got off the freeway and she suggested I get a hotel room. I feel like after coming this far that I am just going to go all the way. But first... a nap. Thankfully my car is so packed with stuff that I can just lean a little and have a psuedo pillow. As soon as I shut my eyes, I fell asleep. It helped to know that the last time I talked with my bf that he was able to get a flight to detroit and then a connection to my home town. He'll be arriving at 2:30 pm instead of 9:30 pm. Woohoo. Not a lot of driving tomorrow since he was able to get a flight into the airport that is only 15 minutes away - thank goodness.

When I woke up it was 45 minutes later! Wow. I was really needing sleep - there was no doubt anymore. Yikes. I wonder how much longer I will have to be driving. It is almost 11pm and I am still south of Kalamazoo. Eeegads. Guess I had better just get back at it. Sooner I start, the sooner I will be done....

And so I arrive home (finally) at around 2am. I never, ever want to have to make a drive like that again. Mis-Er-A-Ble!!

But I'm gonna see my honey in ~12 hours. :) Guess if I am going to have to pick him up at the airport that I better empty out my car so there is room. Two hours later... should I try to repack a small bag for the hotel now or later? Now. I will probably oversleep because I am beyond tired. I did finally get to bed around 6am.

The alarm went off at noon and I successfully slept through it. My mom had to knock on the bedroom door around 1pm to tell me to get my sorry ass out of bed. Oops. I am running SOOO behind. Unbelievable.

Off to the hotel to check in and drop my bag off. I have time if this is a quick process. Oh, what was I thinking... can you ever get speedy service when you really, really need it? Of course not! I end up behind this guy who needs a room that has a door directly to the outside. Why doesn't he stay in a motel where ALL the doors are directly to "outside"? Ha! That would have been way too convenient for all parties involved. The only way for the receptionist to know which rooms have this "amentity" is to go through the rooms one-by-one on the computer and check them. It's official. I am going to be late. Now it is just a matter of how late.

Back on the road and it is fairly clear of traffic (it being a holiday when people eat the huge meal anytime between 10am and 6pm). I get to the airport, cruise into short term parking, jump out of the truck, start towards the entrance and, yes, the bf is already on his way out to meet me. With luggage! Not only did I totally miss the arrival, he had time to go and claim his luggage that came on an earlier flight, AND cruise the airport looking for me. Could I feel more loser-like? I don't think very much so. He is nearly 17 hours late and I'm still not there in time to meet him when he arrives! I totally win loser girlfriend award for the day. At least I look cute.

We jet off to the hotel where he can clean up and change and then head over to my mom's. I'm so glad that given all of the weather issues that we are finally together in the "right" place. My mom cooked the normal thankgiving dinner which I was kind of bummed about. Last year she made real stuffing, my brother made these outstanding mashed potatoes, and we had duck instead of turkey. This year it was instant stuffing, instant potatoes, green bean casserole, turkey, ham, and cranberry log (crap from a can). She even skipped out on the rolls. I dunno. We have a guest and it all goes to the dogs. Well, it was still enough food (and wine) that afterwards all I want to do is pass out. The plan was to play cards but my body was having nothing of it. I promptly went to the couch, the bf accompanied me and made a really nice pillow, and I was out. This sleeping theme was a constant throughout the entire weekend. I was just tired the whole time.

Later I finally woke up and we played some "May I" with my brother and sisters. My bf plays a similar game with his family. I had a chance to play that version when I was up here for a wedding. I think both versions have a good and bad points to them. I think the bf was not really a fan of our version at all but he played along like a good sport. Afterwards, it was off to the hotel for the night. Or morning if you prefer since it was already after 3am.

The next day, we were in no rush to get up and going. We finally made our way over to my mother's around 5pm. I don't think we actually got up until 2pm anyway so it wasn't a whole lot of time hanging out in the hotel room. We had dinner (which was really tasty but my brother didn't make enough and I found out later that the bf was starving because he didn't get enough to eat - loser girlfriend award for the second day in a row). My family then forced the poor, hungry man to play pinnochle. This is a tradition. Not forcing significant others to play, but to play the game. We love it and play it everytime we have four family members in the same place at the same time. We once killed about five hours in an airport playing this game and were actually kind of sad when it was finally time to board because we were having so much fun. It's really an unnatural love that we have for the game. Given this love, it is imperative that the bf learns how to play. Otherwise, he will be ostracized by my family.

I was really impressed with his persistance. He was really trying to understand everything. It is a hard game to get because there is meld, bidding, trump suits, and points within tricks. It isn't really like any other game. Kind of like bridge but the bidding is much more flexible. Kind of like eucher because the 10 is higher than a K. Kind of like hearts because it is points in the tricks not the total of tricks. Well, anyway... it's not the simplest game out there for sure. He did really well for a first time player. In face, he did respectably for a regular player. I was very proud of him for playing at all (particularly with my family!). Now he has told me that he is going to insist I teach his family how to play so that he can practice. He is adorable. The only thing that wasn't everything I had hoped it would be is that he was glad he was my mom's partner and not mine! Aaaaah. Loser girlfriend award AGAIN! That's twice in one day! Apparently, he was concerned that I would not exhibit the patience that my mom had. Well, I can't say that he is too far off with that concern. Certainly, I can be patient the first few times we play the game but if after two years of family holidays he wasn't playing like a regular... well... This is actually a moot point because I wouldn't be dating someone who couldn't "get it". I expect that he will be an excellent player once he has had a few more sessions of playing. I don't like dumb people and I hold the people nearest and dearest to even higher standards so he has to be bright by default. And bright people can always grasp a card game fairly well if they have some experience playing cards, which he does. I'm looking forward to playing again!

And back to the hotel, hi ho hi ho...

The only big plan for Saturday was meeting up with my best friend and her bf. We spent some of the afternoon in the hotel working. The bf had brought work that he needed to do and I did some e-mailing and started this blog (which I clearly did not get done with any great speed).

We met up with the other couple for dinner at this italian restaurant that is fairly new in the area. I hadn't been before. I got fish and I thought it was really tasty. The spinach veggie side was kind of oily but the table bread was outstanding! I enjoyed the meal. I think the bf also liked his meal. Afterwards, we decided to go see a movie. Of course, we hadn't made any attempt to plan dinner accordingly to a movie schedule so we get to the theater and no movie is starting within the hour. Looks like we will be doing the "wandering shopping" that I kind of hate. Oh well. We decide to see "Finding Neverland" on my suggestion. Man. I should just never suggest movies ever. Aaargh. I had such high hopes for this movie because I generally like Johnny Depp movies and it looked like an interesting story. Sigh. So much for my high hopes. It wasn't a complete waste of time and money or anything like that. I just expected "more". I don't know how to be more specific. I just felt like the characters were not really "sold" to me - I didn't really care what happened to them. And the story wasn't what I had hoped. I wanted more substance and less "standing still". It felt like the movie wasn't progressing at some points. I realize that real life can be like this but I always think that movies (even based on real life) should always have some forward momentum. The great thing about movies is you get to cut out all of that standing still time in lives. Oh well. At least now I know what I am not missing. I think that the other three people had similar feelings about the movie. It was "okay". Not good enough to recommend it to friends and not so bad that you think about asking for your money back.

Afterwards, I was again suffering from extreme tiredness syndrome and we parted ways. Back to the hotel for the last night.

Sunday morning we were planning to meet my dad for brunch. We had planned to speak on Sat. to make a plan. However, my dad hadn't called and when I tried a couple times his line was always busy. I found out later that it was probably because my sister was online and my dad still uses dial up for his internet connection. We decided Sun. morning to meet for lunch because my dad had had a really early breakfast with my brother. It is actually a weekly event. They always have breakfast together sunday mornings. I thought when my dad suggested brunch that he was going to skip the breakfast. Nope. So we plan to meet for lunch. Neither me nor the bf is feeling strongly about where to go for food so I defer to my dad. I figure that he is probably going to treat us and that always makes me hesitant to pick the place. I don't want to pick somewhere that is outside of what he is thinking about cost-wise. Well, I should know better than to trust my dad to pick a place. Big oopsie on my part. He picked his hole-in-the-wall place. These places have merit but I would have preferred somewhere a little nicer or at least a little bit more amenable to lounging. I enjoyed my sandwhich but it wasn't anything to write home about (or here for that matter). Anyway...

Since we had had to check out of the hotel before going to lunch, we had no place to go after lunch. The bf's flight wasn't until that evening and that meant a few/four hours of free time. He suggests we go somewhere that he can take pictures. We have this bad habit of hanging out at hotels or with families whenever we see each other and we don't ever have pictures of our visits. My friends don't really give me any grief but apparently his do. aha. We headed over to the capital since it was close to the place where we had had lunch. Actually, there was a quick stop at an autoparts shop because my wiper blade on the passenger side is no longer working and the bf wanted to find out if we could get the part. Hahaha, of course not, I drive a frickin' Kia. Oh well. Nice though. I did pick up some new blades while I was there since I needed those anyway and we attached them. Then, off to the capital building for a picture opportunity.

After the capital, we went to MSU (my alma mater) and took some pics there. Got one of the stadium and one of sparty. I drove him all over campus explaining things. He did a good job of seeming interested. I think I would have been bored stiff if the situation was reversed but he was such a good sport at accomodating my little walk down memory lane. Then we cruised by my elementary, middle, and high schools. That was amusing if only because apparently my schools are much larger than those he went to. I never thought that they were particularly large but that is probably because there were two or three schools in our mid-MI conference that were bigger.

After the tour-de-Amy's-school-life, we went to my mom's and hung out there playing gin. He kicked my ass. This was very disconcerting. I always win at cards. Did I mention that he is a very intellegent guy? Yeah, well, too much so!! I wanna win!! Waaaaaaa!! Nah, just kidding. It was fun to play against someone who I felt was actually a worthy competitor. I wasn't bored. Even though I lose it was a fun time.

And then off to the airport. Booooo. He's leaving. It has been a fun time for me but I don't know about him. I won so many loser girlfriend awards this weekend that I need to build a shelf. And my family isn't the easiest group of people to feel comfortable with. Thankfully they did keep themselves in check for the most part and they must have liked him because they aren't good about keeping quiet if they are not a fan of someone. I hope that the bf knows that for everyone else involved with this extended holiday weekend thought things went well. I hope he had fun, at least for most of the time. I would say whenever you are with someone else's family that not all of the time is "fun" time. But I hope for him that the "fun" time outweighed the time that wasn't.

Sigh. And now I also have to return to my real life as a miserable graduate student... meeting with Ken Tuesday morning (two days ago now). I am not sure if I am going to post anything about that but if I do, it will be in a separate post because this one is entirely too long as it is!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and I am definitely looking forward to Christmas!!

I am also looking forward to reading my bf's blog because I promised that I wouldn't until after I had this written. I wonder how many new posts he's made since last Wednesday? Hmmmm.... his take on the events of the past weekend are? Well, I hope good. 'Til next time - smiles.