Life Update Two Years Later!

Is blogging every two years considered a thing? I think I can turn it into one.

So it's been a really long time. A really really long time. I'm sorry to anyone who might actually read this. At work the other day, my co-workers suggested that I write a blog on behalf of our organization and I was trying to explain that I used to blog. When asked what about, I was a little stumped trying to remember. Grad school? Unemployment? Cats? Ice cream? Turns out, it was all of the above. At any rate, I've always found writing cathartic on some level, so shout out to the universe with this long overdue life update. Warning, humble brags ahead...

I am no longer a PhD candidate. I'm a mother effing full-fledged doctor of philosophy. I finished after a total of eight long painstaking years of graduate school. Plus four years of undergrad and whatever else led me up to that point. It was a long haul for sure! After my dissertation defense, when my advisor congratulated me on passing, I literally burst into tears of joy. So much for not crying in front of her during all of that time. Graduation was amazing and I had the BEST party of all time to celebrate, followed by a sweet trip to Italy with some amazing girlfriends.

I also no longer work at that terrible soul sucking job with a psychotic boss. I have a job that I like on most days with co-workers that I love. We have a lot of fun and eat a lot of snacks. Very important things to look for in a prospective job.

I also moved into a sweet new adult apartment. That sounds dirty. But what I meant was a much nicer apartment complex that only working adults can afford, as opposed to broke grad students.

Being done with school means time for fun hobbies, traveling, a steady income, and more time with family, friends, and my kitty cat. Yes, she's still around. Also, a certain gentleman in my life who is proving to be the most fun person to hang out and have adventures with. This adulting thing isn't as terrible as I thought it would be.

See you in another two years?

Life Update!

Don't worry, I'm still here. I miss blogging. I'm sure you miss reading my blog. I've been having lots of fun adventures and keep making notes to myself to come back and write about it. So what have I been doing with my time?

Here is what my Tuesday/Thursday schedule is like:

8:30-9:00ish - arrive at work

work all day, typically staring an excel spreadsheets, entering data, and sometimes doing some calculations if I am lucky. I only get up to use the bathroom or to get my lunch that I eat at my desk. This is a typical day. I've been doing a better job of getting out for lunch, but it is pricey in terms of both money, calories, and time. 

3:45-4:00ish - leave work and drive directly to school, sometimes eating a granola bar in my car

4:00-5:00 - sit in the computer lab at school frantically reviewing my notes trying to remember how to teach statistics.

5:00-7:30ish - blather on about statistics to incredibly bored undergraduates in the hottest classroom you can imagine. Only stop for water breaks.

7:30-8:00ish - drive home, become depressed at the idea of having to cook dinner and stop at some kind of drive-thru. Likely one that has rootbeer floats.

8:00ish - "unwind", eat my sad dinner while playing candy crush saga

8:30ish - write a disseratation and consume a rootbeer float

1:00am ish - go to bed

3:00am ish - fall asleep

Doesn't this sound awful? It's pretty intense. Luckily, it is making me productive as shit. Teaching is going well, and my writing is perhaps at its peak. My advisor has taken to writing compliments on my drafts. That never happens. Ever.

Monday and Wednesday are meant to be my easy days. Instead of teaching, I go home and grade either quizzes or homework assignments and enter grades. Then, I write my dissertation. 

I had every intention of taking Fridays off as mental health days, and unfortunately, I've been going in to work to get caught up on projects. And the weekends? Honestly, it's a blur. Usually laundry, cleaning my apartment, and letting my family know that I'm still alive.

I've been doing a variation of this schedule for about three weeks now, and I'm worried my mental and physical health are going to crumble. The good news is that I only have two more weeks of teaching and then things will calm down. 

I hate for this to sound overly negative and complainy, so I will end with the positives. 

I'm feeling incredibly lucky to be where I am compared to six months ago. It's amazing what you can do when you let go of negativity. Sure, getting laid off sucked, my new job isn't great. My boss is possibly a clinical psychopath. But you know what? I'm making good money, I have flexibility in my scheduling, and for whatever reason, the psychopath seems to like me on some days. I'm finally making real progress towards graduating, after a year of working on my dissertation and not really getting anything done (what was I doing?!). I'm planning on graduating in December and throwing the most epic party of all time. 

I've managed to maintain my unemployment weight. I've been cooking and finding time to exercise and feeling great. The best part is, I'm having more fun that I have had in a really long time. I've reconnected with old friends and have made some terrific new ones. I've spent a lot more time with my family and realized they are seriously the coolest people I know. I'm planning an epic vacation for my 30th birthday that I'm crazy excited about. I just need to find time to blog about all this awesomeness.

I'll leave you with my new life motto:

"Sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.” -Marilyn Monroe.

PowerPoint Fun!

Imagine this scenario...

You are collaborating on some PowerPoint slides with a colleague. You have just e-mailed the most recent version and they have some feedback for you. Which of the following is the most appropriate and efficient way to do this?

a.) Your colleague makes the changes to the slides, re-saves the file and sends it back to you for one last review.

b.) Your colleague e-mails you back with a couple of specific changes and asks you to make the changes and re-send.

c.) Your colleague prints out the entire slide presentation and then sits across from you in your office, silently writing out changes, fucks the entire order up, hands you the stack of 30 pieces of paper filled with chicken scratch and has you make the changes.

What. The. Fuck. Just. Happened?

PS. The good news is that I after I made all of the changes and e-mailed it back to him, he tried to tell me I did it wrong. Luckily I had an effing hard paper copy with his writing on it. Incriminating!

This is a first...

Yes, I am blogging while currently at work. Normally I am much more respectful of my organization and their time. Not today. I smell a revolution coming.

My main purpose for this entry is that I am bored. Completely, utterly, fucking bored. I've spent a considerable amount of time jacking around on the internet, but even I have my limits on how much Buzzfeed I can read, or how many cat pictures I can look at. I'm also working on my dissertation, hence why I decided to take a break to blog instead. Did I mention it is only 1:30pm? Yikes.

Here is what is going on. I am supposed to be co-presenting a webinar with my wonderful boss. This means that I have been tasked with making powerpoint slides. I made some pretty beautiful slides, all with no direction or input from him. I e-mailed them to him on Monday and he has since spent his time un-doing all of my good work by inserting his own slides with weird grammar, randomly capitalized words, terrible headings, and made up research. Yes, completely made up. Actually, he said he thought he remembered one of the stats as being something he read in grad school and wanted me to find a source for it. Side note: he went to grad school in the fucking 90s. That source either does not exist, or has long been discredited in the past twenty or so years.

I'm also reasonably sure he doesn't really know how to use powerpoint, because he keeps coming into my office and telling me things to change, rather than changing them himself and saving the file. I just don't understand it. The slides are supposed to be due today and I sent him my "final" version first thing this morning. He and another co-worker have spent all day frantically prepping for some big presentation that he is doing out of town tomorrow. My prediction of how this is going to go down is that he will either ignore my e-mail, or respond at 4:00 after I have left for the day. Meanwhile, he will be out of the office tomorrow and Friday, leaving my co-worker and I with literally nothing to do to occupy our time because he has been so fixated on this other project. We plan on having a part of some sort. It may or may not involve sandwiches.

I'm torn because I want to leave early today since I am so bored. On the other hand, I get paid by the hour, so part of me feels like I need to stick it out. I'm currently accepting any forms of internet distraction that my loyal readers may be able to provide...

Pyramid Scheme Part 2

Well when I'm right, I'm right. I did indeed get invited for coffee to discuss a pyramid scheme. At least it was for Amway, one of the most famous pyramid schemes of our time. Interestingly, some people view Amway as a cult and they do use various cult-techniques in their recruitment. Luckily I am a strong soul. Or I don't have a soul. Either way I have no interest in joining the Amway cult.

In more exciting news. It is springtime in Omaha. This means not only is it gorgeous outside, but there is rumor of a taco truck somewhere outside my office building. Have no fear, I will be conducting a thorough investigation. Fingers crossed that it will be totally sketch and delicious and not some hipster bullshit.

Pyramid Schemes and Other Dreams

Here's some life advice for all of you out there, if someone ever asks you if you are looking to make some extra money, you should probably always say NO. Here is how I came to this conclusion.

Someone from my former job recently sent me a message through LinkedIn (where all evil stems from) asking how I was doing and if I had found a job. First off, this is like four months after I got laid off. Of course I found another job. I'm fucking awesome and have a master's degree. She said asked whether I was looking for some project work to make some extra money. I wrote back telling her that I did indeed have a job, and asked if she could provide more details about this "project work". I figured if it was something straightforward like doing data entry or analysis, I could certainly do that in my spare time, giving me more experience and building some connections as an external consultant. Rather than responding to my questions like a normal human being, she gave my phone number to her daughter, whom I have been playing phone tag with for three weeks now. She only leaves cryptic messages about wanting to talk to me about an "opportunity". I finally got to talk to this person today and we are getting together tomorrow for coffee to talk about whatever the fuck this is. I still have no idea. How do I get myself into these situations? I assume it is either a pyramid scheme, or some kind of prostitution ring. Be sure to check back to find out how it all goes down.

In other news, work has been surprisingly more normal in recent days. My boss asked me about my dissertation progress, and I said I thought it was getting fairly close. He responded by saying that was bad news because he "didn't want to lose me". Is that not the most romantic thing a man can say to a woman? This was honestly the first glimmer I have ever seen that he has anything other than contempt and loathing for my obvious incompetence. It was kind of amazing. I agreed to co-facilitate a webinar with him, so that should be a nice blog-worthy nightmare soon enough. So far, my job involves finding research articles and making powerpoint slides, two things that are both in my wheelhouse. I'll be sure to let you all know where you can sign up for my webinar soon enough.

Sandwich Day!

This actually took place on March 13th, and for some reason I forgot to post it. Since then I have had several more delightful experiences with these sandwiches. Enjoy!


I had a life changing experience. Involving a sandwich. As part of my new research into downtown food places, I kept seeing Worker's Takeout being rated as one of the highest places downtown. Apparently, they had relocated from midtown to downtown, and according to their website, exist somewhere inside the First National Building (doesn't everything?). I asked my co-worker if she had ever been there. She said no, but had heard that it was really good. We asked another co-worker, who said the exact same thing, and had always wondered where it was. Abandoning our salads and yogurt cups, we decided to go investigate. After spending entirely too much time on the internet trying to figure out exactly where it was, we decided to walk over there and look for a Scooters, which apparently housed a secret sandwich shop. After walking through the Brandeis building, under the street, and into the First National building. We wandered around looking for a Scooters. We ended up the atrium of the building where some people were eating lunch, but still no sign of a Scooters. We finally broke down and asked the front desk security guy, who seemed reluctant to give up the location, but assured us that it was "really good'.

He directed us to yet ANOTHER TUNNEL in the building that would take us under the street to where the old First National building used to reside (they still have some offices there). This tunnel was awesome because it was pimped out with some neon lights that reminded me of the Chicago O'Hare airport. I didn't take a picture because there were too many people around. We finally emerged out the other side and found the Scooters. The menu was overwhelming because everything sounded amazing. We both ended up getting half sandwiches, which we cut in half again to swap flavors. I got a roast beef, bacon, and artichoke sandwich, while my co-worker got a Cuban. Both were the most amazing sandwiches of all time and only cost about 4 bucks. Needless to say, we will be back. Repeatedly. 

Lunch was definitely the highlight of the day. When I went to leave the parking garage for the day, my BFF Melody informed me that the credit card machine was broken and the garage was cash only that day. Of course, I had spent my last bucks on that amazing sandwich (no regrets), and who the hell carries cash anyways? Instead of being cool about it, Melody proceeded to exit her tiny kiosk and yelled at the line of five cars behind me to "back up, she has to go get cash!". I was completely mortified. After backing my car up into a nearby parking space, I got out, thinking I would go wander aimlessly across the street where Melody told me there was an ATM. Luckily, my co-worker/sandwich eating partner in crime, was in the line to get out and had witnessed my social shaming. She loaned me the cash, and I awkwardly re-entered the line of cars. I suspect Melody and I might be on thin ice for a while.

Keepin' on Keepin' on

Wanted to give an bit of an update to my four loyal readers (and whoever keeps searching for red Doc Martens on the internet and accidentally ends up here).

Our project is winding down and my boss asked if I wanted to continue working there.  I said "sure", which I think surprised both of us a little bit. It may not be the greatest situation, but at this point in my life, it is an okay match. I will hopefully be scaling back my hours a bit to work more on school stuff.

The boss is out of town again tomorrow, and we are already plotting thing. We will be making a special trip to get sandwiches from Worker's Takeout, the most amazing deli on the planet. I wrote a blog about it, and apparently forgot to post it. I'll have to do that tomorrow as well.

I also officially get my own office that overlooks the beautiful downtown Omaha skyline. Pics coming soon. The weather is warming up, and today when I walked to the garage, the skywalk felt like it was 120 degrees inside. It will be interesting to see what happens this summer.

Don't worry, I'm still here.

It's becoming harder to find time to blog. The good news is that I am done teaching, and will hopefully have free time. The other good news is, that I'm actually doing things that are fun, instead of hanging out and blogging and having a pity party, so it is good news all round. Except for the lack of blogging. That's a bummer for all of my readers. Maybe I should instead blog about my weekend adventures that include hanging out with Bill Nye the Science Guy, binge drinking, and having guys in bars show off their thongs. That might be an entirely different blog.

Not much to report on the work front. My boss was out of town Monday and Tuesday and it was literally the two greatest days in our office. It was so peaceful and stress-free and even a little fun. We made vending machine trips, ordered lunch on the company's dime, and listened to Pandora all day. It was heavenly. Tomorrow he comes back (maybe?) and it will be just the two of us. I'm sure I will get to hear all about his trip and how much smarter he is compared to every single person he had to interact with. Maybe I will get drunk before work.

Parallel Parking Nightmares

Work continues to be crazy. Hence the lack of blogging. Last Thursday, I worked from 8:30am to 10:00pm. That is a long day, my friends. I almost wished I had a child to use as an excuse to go home at a reasonable hour, but alas, corporate American loves to dump on young, unmarried ladies.

One of the really annoying things about working so late is that the parking garage closes ridiculously early. At least it does for people who pay everyday and don't have a cool monthly swipe card. To be on the safe side, my boss suggested that I move my car and park on the street while he went home to walk his dogs and pick up pizza for our late night work date (gross). I left the garage just before 6pm, thinking it would be empty and relatively easy to find street parking. Not the case. At all. I drove around for probably 20 minutes looking for a place to park that wasn't a billion miles away, or in the hood of Omaha. I finally spotted an open spot on the street between two cars. After circling around it two more times, I decided to attempt to parallel park.

I never learned how to parallel park. Despite taking driver's ed in high school and passing with flying colors, this was not even part of the curriculum. Ten minutes later, I wedged my poor car very badly in between the other two, saying a tiny prayer that they would both leave before I did. Then, I got to hike back to the office, still beating my boss back there.

Once 10pm rolled around, my co-worker and I had made a pact that we would leave at 10, no matter what. You would think that my boss would be a nice guy and offer to drive us to our cars, or show the least bit of concern for our safety when wandering the streets of downtown Omaha, but not so much. Instead, I walked with my co-worker to her car, and she drove me to mine. When we pulled up, the same two cars were there, effectively trapping me. I told her I was fine, and then took about 10-15 minutes to pull my car out from between the two cars. It was awful. And I kept driving up in the curb. People driving by probably thought I was wasted, and to be honest, I wish I was.

The moral of the story? Leave work when the garage closes. No later.

Ladies Room Etiquette

I'm starting to be terrible at blogging again. The main reason is that things have been insanely busy at work. Like coming in before 8am and staying till 6pm crazy. It is awful. The good news is that I am paid hourly, so I will have a nice paycheck in a couple of weeks. Party!

Lots of good lunch adventures. I had an amazing hot turkey sandwich this week. Also, one of my co-workers and I attempted to crash an employee party at the First National building. To be fair, there was a cotton candy machine involved that made the whole lobby area smell amazing. Sadly, there were guards checking people's IDs, and we were wearing coats, which is a dead giveaway. Now that it is getting warmer, I suspect it will be easier to sneak into things. I also had a dude in line at Greek day offer me his pita bread. Not sure what that means, but it has to be slang for something. I politely declined, but next time I am saying yes to free pita.

I wanted to make a brief note on here about the horrifying bathroom situation at my job. There is a public restroom on my floor near the elevator bays. Our office building is kind of old, but seems nice enough. But the bathroom situation is always abysmal. Mainly because animals seem to use it. Today, for example, there was a toilet paper barrier covering one of the seats. Except someone pissed on it. WTF?! I feel like every time I go in the bathroom there is something weird or gross in the toilet, on the floor, or some combination of the two. To make matters worse, I have discussed it with the two women in my office and they have confirmed my suspicions. I'm not sure what can be done about this, but I'm leaning towards some passive aggressive post-it notes. It's how women solve most of their problems.

Watercooler Adventures

Yesterday was a triumphant day for women everywhere. I changed the watercooler all by myself. It all started when I came in and made myself a cup of tea. I used almost all of the water. I thought this was very clever and that my boss would notice it was almost empty and change the tank. Unfortunately, this did not happen. Apparently my boss is a camel and drinks nothing all day. I, on the other hand, try to drink as much water throughout the day as humanly possible. I waited until lunchtime when I was nearly dehydrated. My boss left to go to lunch, and I decided to take a stand for feminism. My thinking was that if I spilled water all over myself and the office that it would have time to dry before he returned from lunch. I'm proud to report that I hardly spilled any, although changing it was super awkward, mainly because our cooler is up a little too high for someone who has recently quit working out.

In case you would like to properly change a watercooler, you can check out this article. Note, this is not how I did it. My method included stabbing it with a pen. I'm a maverick.

At least I didn't end up like Tobias or Liz Lemon.

The day my boss bought lunch

So this project that I'm working on is becoming more brutal by the day. The end of it is drawing closer, but it is sadly becoming more complex and my boss is becoming increasingly frustrated with things beyond our mortal control. As a result, I went in to work today, even though I have been taking Fridays off to work on prepping for teaching. My co-worker and I made a pact that we would leave no later than 2pm. Otherwise, we both knew we would be stuck there until midnight. Our pact worked surprisingly well, even though the boss threw a bit of a tantrum over us not being done yet.

The bright side of the day was that he offered to order Jimmy Johns. Not the most exciting lunch choice, but he paid, which is always a high point. The funny part was that my boss is a super Catholic and made a big deal about ordering the tuna sandwich. For whatever reason, I suddenly felt compelled/pressured to act like I was a devout Catholic. Maybe I was subconsciously trying to make him like me more? Maybe I'm finally becoming more proactive about potentially going to hell for eating meat on Fridays? Maybe tuna just sounded good? No, that can't be right. Every time I eat tuna salad, I'm consistently let down that it isn't chicken salad. I make some bomb chicken salad.

Speaking of bombs, I feel compelled to tell you all about a new TV show that I "discovered". (Fact- I discover great television shows). It's called Bomb Girls and airs on some channel in Canada, but you can watch the first season on Netflix. It is kind of like Downton Abbey in that it is a period drama that is centered around women working in a bomb factory in Canada during World War II. It is as compelling as Downton Abbey, but with even better with plot twists that involve lesbians, industrial accidents, abortions, Italian prison camps, and fireworks. Can you imagine?! Fireworks!

Anyways, feel free to check out the trailer and thank me later after you marathon the whole series with your cat.

My big sick weekend

So I was sick from Thursday last week and still don't feel 100% today. It was brutal. The lame part is that I didn't really get to miss any work and still had to grade assignment for my students. I realized that being sick is a lot like being unemployed.

1. You lay on the couch and watch a lot of Netflix. Seriously. It's debatable when I was able to watch more Netflix, unemployed vs. sick.
2. You lose a ton of weight. Instead of from depression though, it's from throwing up and being physically unable to manage to make yourself anything but toast or soup.
3. Everyone asks you if you're ok. Well, people who care about you anyway.
4. You don't have the energy to shower or put real clothes on.
5. But on the bright side, have a rocking hair day when you do finally shower.
6. Your apartment turns into a disgusting pit of despair.
7. You can't sleep at night. But this time it is because you are coughing/throwing up instead of just being depressed and anxious.
8. Your cat feels sorry for you. This is actually a perk to being sick. Unemployment did not gain my any sympathy from my cat, but she definitely felt bad that I was sick and even kept me company.
9. You can't wait to return to the real world and feel like a human being again.
10. You're at home, not making any money. The joys of being an hourly employee.

Throwback Thursday!

As I previously noted, I used to have a Xanga. It was a cool thing to have in college. Well, cool for people who weren't cool enough to have a Live Journal. At any rate, I was recently skimming through the entries, and came across this little gem. I feel like it fits in well with my current employment journey, and continues to be a warning for what may come in the future. Enjoy!

Thursday, January 06, 2005

• What is it about Dairy Queen?

Dairy Queen was my first job. Fast forward six years or so and it is now my current job. We definitely have a love-hate relationship with one another. So this is how I formed my theory which I have held for awhile now, but don't like to share with people...

Dairy Queen is like the boyfriend who beats you.

You first met when you were a young naive teenager. You thought he was the coolest and wanted to be near him. You try way too hard and finally land your dream role. You are so entralled with him. You can't wait to see him and he seems so wonderful. In reality, he's a little on the ghetto side and not the brightest crayon in the box. Or the sharpest. Or the prettiest. At first he's nice to you but he then starts to walk all over you. You would do anything for him, ditch your social life, come in early, leave late, nights, weekends, your summer vacation is spent with him. You don't notice at first but he's already suckered you in. Your friends start to notice little things. "You've been there how long and still only make $6 an hour?" "You don't even get free ice cream?" "You really had to clean up urine out of a trashcan?" "Oh, you still work THERE?" You begin to think maybe they're right. You can do better. There are other options. Bigger and better, more money, more freedom, more autonomy, less mess. But you feel you owe him. Afterall, he picked you with no experience, no talent, no nothing and took you in and gave you a chance. He begins to sense you're unhappy and starts making you promises he won't keep. "Baby, I'm giving you a raise." "I'll give you money for college if you stick with me." "I'll promote you so you have more responsibility." "I'll give you your own set of keys." Before you know it, years have passed and you are still miserable but still afraid to leave. He's safe, familiar, you're constant in a crazy upside down world. Finally one day you decide you have had enough and you plan to make your escape. You drop the bomb on him and feel guilty. You make excuses, you know, graduating high school, you need a change. It's nothing personal. It's not you it's me. He tried to be the bigger person and says he understands. In the end he doesn't even say goodbye to your face, no going away party, four years and not even a handshake. As you leave you tell yourself you're doing the right thing. You turn and look back and he has a smirk on his face. He knows you'll be back

And eventually you do go back. Why? Because deep down you do love him. He may be absusive and treat you like crap and walk all over you, but you can't help yourself. He's been with you through good times and bad. He's watched you grow and become the person you want to be. He's always been there and works with you when you need him to. You learn things from him you can't learn from anyone else and he learns things from you. And every once and a while, he'll do something really nice and unexpected that makes you so happy to be associated with him. Call it love, call it insanity, all you know is that no matter what happens or what he does, you'll always have a special soft spot in your heart reserved for him. And no matter how hard you try to leave him, you'll always come back to him.

Workin' at the Dairy Queen, the DQ.  I just can't stay away from you.

Dealing with difficult people

Conversation between me and my co-worker after both of us got yelled at by the boss.

CW: You don't really get upset over things. I wish I could be more like you. You're just so calm and collected all of the time.
ME: It's because I'm emotionally dead inside.
CW: ::laughs nervously::: Oh...

Honestly, I credit graduate school with both crushing my soul and simultaneously making me indifferent to difficult people (or most people). It turns out to be a curse much of the time, but a gift in the workplace whenever I seem to need it.

Sorry that's a lame update. In other news, I think I've caught a nasty bug, even after gloating to my doctor recently that I never get sick. Living alone and being sick is the worst. Over the next few days, my apartment will turn into a gross mess, and I will likely lose 10 pounds from not having energy to make myself food. If you don't hear from me, please check in to make sure my cat hasn't eaten me.

I assume she'll invite some friends over.

Teaching is Exhausting

For those of you who don't know (like I have strangers reading this blog anyways), I am teaching a five-week, super accelerated, advanced graduate statistics course. It is brutal. I come home from Saturday after talking for four hours and can't decide if I want to sleep, take a shower, or get wicked drunk. I'd like to do all four, but just can't decide on the order.

Teaching is exhausting and I have a ton of respect for people who do it regularly and do it well. I think the primary reason that my situation is so exhausting is the amount of mental energy and preparation that goes into every week. I can't even prep everything in advance, because I never know how much time I will have to spend on stuff. Today I spent 30 minutes walking them through a hand calculation because they kept asking questions.

The second exhausting factor is that these are grad students. For those of you who have never met a grad student, they are truly insane people. Most of them are super Type A, high strung, and neurotic. Grad students are used to succeeding at things, so when they are faced with a challenging class like this one, they literally lose their shit if things don't make sense the first time you go over something. I just want to shake them and tell them to calm down and trust that it will eventually click.

Or bring a flask to class.

Spoonless Thursday

Sorry to disappoint my loyal readers with my lack of an update. The truth is, things have been crazy busy this week. The class that I am teaching on Saturdays takes A LOT of preparation. Also, going drinking on a Wednesday night hasn't helped my productivity. I should have more material next week, as we have a meeting with a potential client. I'm excited to dress up like a grownup, wearing jeans to work everyday is kind of overrated.

Today I forgot to bring a spoon to eat my yogurt with. I found several metal spoons in a cupboard in the office that looked like they were recovered from an archeological dig. I debated going downstairs to the Starbucks to steal a spoon, but was worried that I would be tempted into buying a giant cookie. Instead, I attempted to drink my yogurt, much to the amusement of my co-worker. Hopefully that was the embarrassment I needed to invest in a box of spoons.Or forks.

Teeth Falling Out

Remember the time I talked about my creepy dream where my teeth are falling out? I watched a movie on Netflix this evening called The Giant Mechanical Man. There was a super creepy scene where Jenna Fischer has the same dream (thanks to the magic of CGI it is very vivid). There is also a philosophical discussion on the meaning of it. I couldn't find the scene online, but the trailer is below if you want to check it out.

Opa!

First off, this particular blog entry is dedicated to my good friend and partner in eating Greek food, Taleen Brady. She is currently living in South Korea, where there is a cruel shortage of Greek food.

Today our boss was out of town, so I was anticipating an epic lunch. One of my co-workers brought her lunch, and the other asked me if I wanted to order Chinese food. I was horrified because I had been looking forward to this particular Thursday. On our office "Summit" calendar, it was clearly marked that today was Greek Islands day at THE SUMMIT. Between the failing Greek economy, and my friend Taleen suffering from Greek food withdrawals, I felt that it was my duty as an American to indulge in some tasty Greek food.

I walked over to the Summit by myself, feeling very Mary Tyler Moore-esq. I even remembered how to get there. Fun fact, because First National is the tallest building in Omaha, if you get lost you can just look up and walk towards the tower. When I got there, the line was literally wrapped around the entire gift shop. It was insane. I probably stood in line for 10-15 minutes. When I got up to the front of the line, they had huge trays of gyro meat, chicken, and salad. And a giant tub of tzatziki sauce. Like a 5 gallon paint bucket of it. Seriously.

I took my food back to the office where I made a total pig out of myself. Katie's is my favorite Greek restaurant in Omaha (feisty feta!), but my Greek Islands takeout gave it a run for its money. Their sauce was amazing, and their Greek potatoes were phenomenal. At Katie's, you get two giant potatoes, but these were adorable little bite-sized potatoes. They must also cook them with big cloves of garlic, because I accidentally ate a clove of garlic because it looked like a potato. It didn't even phase me. Despite an intense food coma afterwards, I will be marking my calendar for whenever Greek day comes up again.

#heaven