Three till Seven

I’ve had a busy couple of days. I got moved in all right yesterday and I’ve been running around like mad. Jessica, my roommate, and I just ran through a downpour. I’m in the William Young Library on UK’s campus. I just finished my first assignment: get ten definitions of “bioinformatics” and write a summary of what I think it is. I got my student ID card today as well as two accounts: one on a BSD machine and the other on a Linux machine. Linux/Solaris abounds here, to my delight.

This weekend, I’ll be going out with Jessica and her friends to see the third Harry Potter movie; yay!

Let’s see, interesting things I’ve done so far… Earlier today, I got to see a Japanese neurosurgeon remove the brains of dead mice for studies in a lab in a UK clinic. Talked with a sophomore at UK who is involved in this summer’s bioinformatics program about our Zaurus PDA’s; a fellow Linux fan and GM/Chevrolet non-fan. And of course, our little run through the wind and rain earlier to get here. Blech.

I’m in one of the engineering labs on UK’s campus. I just finished writing up some definitions and other shiz using LaTeX. If you’re familiar with the term, how do you pronounce it? It’s driving me crazy because everyone here says “la-teck” and it just does not look like that. They say that’s correct, though.

Everything’s been going well at this program. I went home with Jessica, my roommate, over the weekend and had fun at her house. We saw the third Harry Potter movie on Friday evening. It was great! I liked it more than the other films.

I’m rereading Hannibal by Thomas Harris.

Trin’s getting a cell phone. I need to get her phone number so I can talk to her some. She has mine.

Oh crud, now I have a time sheet to fill out to get paid for this last week and this week.

This morning, we had a brief history of computing. We’re going to have an intro to basic UNIX commands soon. That should be enlightening… Heh.

I hope my housing information for this fall reaches my house soon. Mom’s going to open all my UK letters at my request to keep me updated.

I just got back from dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack. I had the coconut shrimp platter for $9.99 which was overpriced for what it was. Everything there is too pricey for what you get. I ended up getting tired of the coconut and just picking it off and eating the shrimp. Bought a “Joe Knows Lexington” t-shirt for $12.

Jessica and I went to see Shrek 2 today but the projector messed up. The theatre gave us Rain Check tickets and a refund.

Went to the mall and Bath and Body Works is having their huge semi-annual sale still. I bought two tubes of body cream for $5 each (Gardenia and Lily, Night-Blooming Jasmine), a bar of soap for $0.75 (Coconut and Verbena), and a bottle of body spray for $4 (Current and Thyme). Ogled some jeans at various stores but, as usual, what fits my butt/thighs does not fit my waist.

We’re going to a convention about microarrays tomorrow. We’re leaving tonight and will be back on campus on Friday.

My nerves were grated on today by two different people. One guy who has been working with us is going to be the one driving tonight to the hotel where we’re all staying. I asked him what kind of music he liked and he said the radio was staying off the whole way. He said he knew what kind of music we must listen to: “boy bands and Britney Spears.” Just because we’re teenage females doesn’t mean we fit the stereotype of preferring pop music over any other genre. Honestly, if we made it into this program because of our intelligence and academic record, you’d think the guy would give us more credit for having open minds and an appreciation of different musical types.

The second comment that bugged me came from the director of this summer’s program. He told us that we should act professional while at the conventions, that we would be representing UK, the College of Engineering, the community, yadda yadda. It’s the same opening spiel my band director gave in high school to keep the idiots from doing something stupid. Jessica and I have done nothing to make these people think we’re delinquents.

So yeah, I’m fairly pissed off. We’re not idiots and we don’t fit every stereotype attached to being young or female.

I got back on campus a little while ago. I called my cousin and I’ll be going to his house in a little bit to spend the weekend. Jessica already left for home.

That conference was hell. I’ve never been to anything so boring in my life. We just sat there for three hours listening to some cat give a very well-rehearsed speech over how to use ncbi.nih.gov’s various tools. Then we had lunch. Then it was back again for another two hours. That was yesterday. Today, we went from 8:30a to twelve. Two guys spoke, one about microarrays and the other about analyzing microarrays. Jessica and I played hangman, Erika checked out bridal dresses on her laptop (thank God for wireless internet), and Steve fiddled on his Zaurus.

Received a card from my mom today. It was cute–had a photo of a hairy dog on the front. She sent me $5 and some stamps. I’m down to about twenty bucks in cash so Jessica is having her mom get me more money. I’ll write out a check to Jess when we both get back.

I just got back from shopping with my cousin, Gina. We went to a thrift store and Wal-Mart. At the thrift store, I bought:
- black purse, $4.00
- pair of Delia’s jeans, $12
- pale blue Banana Republic t-shirt, $8
- Silverchair’s Neon Ballroom CD, $4

At Wal-Mart, and ooh buddy is this exciting, I bought:
- tape, $0.87
- Extra gum, $0.20
- envelopes, $1.50

Gina had a yard sale this morning and I got first dibs on stuff. Her sister had a lot of stuff that Gina was selling and she is apparently exactly my size. I bought:
- Union Bay shirt, $0.25
- black NY & Co. sweater, $1.50
- sparkly blue and black NY & Co. sweater, $0.50
- pink frilly Eyeshadow shirt, $0.50
- gray BNCI vest, $0.50
- gray NY & Co. skirt, $0.50
- blue Arizona sweater, $1.00
- teal NY & Co. dress shirt, $1.00
- red OCI capris, $2.00
- white, flowered Tommy Girl shirt, $2.00
- blue Aeropostale shirt, $2.00
- purple American Eagle shirt, $0.50
- yellow NY & Co. sweater, $2.00
- orange Old Navy sweater, $0.75
- tan NY & Co. dress shirt, $1.00

And now I need to balance my checkbook. Tonight we’re having chicken enchiladas for dinner.

Jessica and I just got back from Cold Stone Creamery. I had their cheesecake ice cream with rainbow sprinkles. We had dinner before that at Macaroni Grill. That is my favorite restaurant now. Awesome food, atmosphere, and friendly people. I had bow-tie pasta with tomato basil sauce, broccoli, and fresh spinach as toppings.

We worked on MATLAB some yesterday and worked on web design today. I really enjoy helping Jess with it. CSS and HTML are new to her and I never have anyone to teach; it’s fun. She’s doing really well, actually. No neon green and magenta, size 72pt Comic Sans MS, no scrolling marquees or blinking text…

I feel like I’m gaining weight. The scale shows differently but I still need to exercise more. I’m going to start doing sit-ups again.

I finally got the soundtrack to my childhood favorite movie, Labyrinth! Awesome soundtrack, at least if you like David Bowie.

edge-op.org/grouch/the-spider-and-the-fly.html

Jess and I ate at Sal’s tonight because they had Working Woman’s Wednesday. They had free food: chicken salad sandwiches, salad, and noodles. Very tasty stuff. The waitresses had little sample cups of Bacardi Silver Low Carb Black Cherry and they offered it to Jessica and I. O_o Neither of us looks 21 or older but oh well. We turned it down and laughed. We did sample the cups that Jessica’s aunt and her friends had, though. It tasted all right. Barely detectable alcohol flavor in it. We each have little Bacardi keychains now. Heh.

Ate an appetizer (fried mozzarella) and a dessert plate (custard with strawberries and raspberries, chocolate cake, lady fingers) at Macaroni Grill. Tomorrow, Jess has to go back home to get her birth certificate so she can fill out some forms up here; I’ll be going to the gym to work out. I cannot gain weight! It just will not happen!

I just got back from the Johnson Center here on campus. It’s a very lovely and expansive gym. I did a Hills program on a treadmill for twenty minutes and then stopped by a Starbucks to get a bagel. Cinnamon-raisin.

Jessica, Erika, Steve, and I are going to see a film tonight at a dollar cinema. Hope it’s fun.

I got my social security card and some checks today from Mom. Now, I can fill out some tax forms so I can get paid for this program. I need to tell Mom to transfer more money into my checking account; I had to buy a parking tag the other day for $164 and it really cut my funds down.

Dad thinks he’s found a car for me! A 1991 Volvo, blue-green paint, tan interior. He’s talking with the owner about purchasing it; $2,000. Man, I hope I get it. I’d love to have a newer Volvo. Nothing after 1998, though, because that’s when Ford bought Volvo out.

Jess and I are going to see the Stepford Wives tonight. Yay! I’m going to her house over the weekend.

My summer advising conference, instead of being in July, is going to be Monday and Tuesday of next week. Gah!