Hodgepodge

So, today marks the end of a week long "staycation" (which, in my humble opinion is the stupidest sounding thing in the world-but eh...).  Mr. Dr. Zeek and I did a whole lot of nothing this past week (major exceptions being cleaning out the closets and heading to hometown city for a day-more on that in a minute)- and the van is still in the shop.  The dealer forgot to inform us that they are closed both Saturday and Sunday- so no picking up the van till tomorrow.  Which means leaving work in the middle of the afternoon to pick up the van...

The trip to hometown city (which normally isn't blog worthy since we usually head down once every few months-- it is less that a two-hour drive away from post-doc city) was great.  Little sister is starting college in a week (yes, we are a "blended" family and yes-dong the math there is 12 years between the two of us).  The fact that she is going to go where I went for undergrad (a very small liberal arts college in hometown city) makes me doubly excited.  Of course she is freaking out, so big sister to the rescue, I decided to take her around campus for a bit, introduce her to some of the professors, show her where classes are, just all around try to make her feel more at ease.

Now, mind you, I graduated in almost 10 years ago (oh mylanta I feel old) so imagine my surprise, when walking around, that the professors and such remembered me without me having to explain what classes they had me for, etc.  It made me feel good and set little sister at ease a bit more-knowing that these people actually care enough to remember people, to know things, etc.  The worst part for her, though, will be the killer general chemistry class (which kicked my ass when I was there) considering she had never had chemistry in her life (no shit!  I know!).  She was assured by one of my favorite professors (now dean of arts and sciences) that he will do everything in his power to help her past and to find the people she needs to know to help her get through the class.  All in all, I think she feels a bit better about the whole thing.  And it put a smile on my face.

We went to a church festival that night.  I miss church festivals.  There are no church festivals out here in post-doc cities.  Where else can you drink cheap beer, listen to awesome cover bands and all around have a great time on a Friday night?

Oh yeah.  One other minor thing.  Today is my birthday.  No big plans.  No big anything really.  Honestly, Mr. Dr. Zeek is leaving everything up to me (i.e. do you want to go to dinner? do you want to go do something?).  Now, after 5 years of being married and 7 years of being together, I would think that he would know what I like to do and would just plan something.  Would just say get ready honey  and get in the car.  It is weird saying OK I want to go here and here and here and here.  Mr Dr. Zeek is a huge "homebody" too, so he isn't thrilled on going out a lot, so yeah....I have a feeling this is going to totally just be another day.  On a related note, I have had 15 "happy birthdays" on Facebook already (yes, I have a Facebook account.  Facebook is the devil.).  Weird, because in all sincerity I think Facebook has made us even lazier than email has.  No more stamps, no more pondering over a card, and even no more thinking/trying to come up with a little sweet message to send via email.  Nope. Facebook even reminds you of upcoming birthdays, click on the link and there you go-- deposit birthday greetings at will.  Now honestly, I enjoy the sentiment and everything- but really, it loses some of the charm, some of the sincerity, knowing that someone had put in the effort to send their birthday greetings. 

So, yeah.  Tomorrow back to work.  Cannot wait to get back to the lab.