Unfortunate Panda Goes to a Mosque!

Well, well, well. Look who is updating her blog in a timely manner! This iPad really is fantastic; I am typing up this post whilst flying 10,000 feet in the air, on my way to an Indian Islamic wedding. Who would have thunk it?

A few pretty exciting updates since my last update, mostly birthdays and special occasions. One pretty poopy (trying to remain civil for the Internet world) occasion today, but we will get to that soon enough.

The Boyf, my brother, Big K, And my roommate, Jacky Fabulous, had their birthdays last week. It was also Father's Day, so there was a lot of celebrations and presents flying across the US.

I had the toughest time thinking of an appropriate and awesome birthday present for The Boyf (like I do for almost every holiday). After endlessly searching on Google for random presents, I stumbled across the private clubs of the business and socialite world. I had thought these only existed in the movies, but apparently every other high rise in the city houses one of these exclusive clubs. Not knowing at the time, I think I still did a pretty good job of selecting a good one. Since they are pretty pricey (even though we got a sweet dal for the young executive membership), I could afford afford six months. But it is pretty fantastic, and The Boyf is really enjoying his time there so far.  The complimentary valet, personal gym locker with laundry services, awesome concierge, beautiful facilities, free wiFi and food and drink soecials are great, but then I realize we did pay a huge chunk of money in advance. For us, it Is like a special thing we can treasure because we are totally not used to this type of luxury. But it is still weird meeting CEOs and other super important business people who actually LIVE this lifestyle. During this week's orientation, we got to rub elbows with some pretty rich people. I thought they would be pretentious (interestingly, only the ones who weren't that successful were ridiculous), but we ended up having a great time with a couple of them. The one thing about business, though, is that you move on quickly. Networking with so many people is fun, but only if you get to see them and hang out again afterward.

To celebrate the birthdays of The Boyf and Jacky Fabulous, we hosted a dinner party. Since Jacky and I moved in together about a month ago, we have been hosting get togethers almost every weekend. The space is perfect for entertaining, and parking is easy and free. Our location is also right in the city and by school. Also, I can finally cook! Having a nice kitchen lets us and others be able to make whatever we/want. Anyway, the party was great. Unsurprisingly, everyone brought some variation of fried chicken. The Boyf's cousin was in town, so we went out afterward, but Jacky stayed in to work on his thesis...he is defending very soon!

As for the family that are across the country, I sent my brother a gift certificate to Texas Roadhouse, an inside joke in our family that, sadly, is not really a joke. We love Texas Roadhouse! Unfrortunately, he has not gotten his card yet, which makes me suspect that some mongrel is creeping on my outbox and stealing birthday gift certificates from innocent bystanders. I also may very well have just forgotten to send it...Alton that means I must have also lost it too. Oh well...hopefully those Inge don't have an expiration on date!

Padre got a huge thermos and a travel mug, with some vitamins and tea for Father's Day. I wasn't really sure what to get him either, especially on such a tight budget (not every gradhate student can afford a full pirate club membership AND an iPad), but it always ends up working out. Hot water (not beverages, like tea or coffee, just water) is another one of those inside jokes that is actually real in my family. Padre still has not given up the Chinese way and continually drinks hot water despite the 100 degree summer weather and the gallons of distiller spring water we keep in the house. He will actually boil the spring water and then drink it. Plain. Long story short, he liked his gift.

And speaking of birthdays, a bunch of people at turning the big 3-0 this month! My brother, two friends from school, a pair of twins that we know randomly, and another dude! So come to think of it, it is only men. Perhaps women just are ageless. Well, except for all those women who have done me wrong in this life. They are all crackheads. Maybe also the 400 pound lady sitting next to me on the plane...I SAID IT.

And speaking of crackheads and foolishness, the bad news arrives! Today I was suspended from the cleanroom! Everything was going well this week until this morning. I finally as able to schedule a piece of equipment that had been down for over a month. But some hoe caused the fire alarm to go off last night, so they had to shut down the cleanroom as a orprecaution, even though the mishap wasn't even related to the cleanroom. I was originally scheduled to use the equipment from 7-10 this morning, but due to the shutdown the cleanroom would not be open until 8. I could have easily finished my work in three hours, and I would barely scrape by in two hours. But upon my arrival, none of the buttons worked on the machine! I started to panic and called the person I charge of the equipment. Lucky me and fugging TMobile, I didn't have service in there. So I used the cleanroom phone to call the equipment guy. I called his cell phone, his office phone, then another guy's cell phone, then both staff offices to figure out what I should do. He cell phone redirected to sme random guys phone, and no one else answered. I decided finally that I could still salvage my experiment if I tried restarting the system by venting and then pumping down the system. Halfway through pumping down, the system gives an error and just quits doing anything.

Freaking out at this point and contemplating whether or not I should just pull the emergency alarm and cause another big scene like last night, I decided to forgo the experiment and instead work on a different one while waiting forthe trainer to arrive (he had a training session scheduled for that morning). Deciding to wait outside for him so as not to pay extra for the time I was inside but not using the equipment (yes, we are charged by time, it is slightly ridiculous), I run into him on the way out. Now it looks like I did something wrong and am trying to escape before getting caut red handed, even though I was just trying to save money. Then I tell him what happened, and that I was sorry and tried calling him but no one answered their phones. But APPARENTLY you have to dial 9 first when calling outside of campus. Fugging poop. So now I look like a careless imbecile. I had no idea 'venting the system' meant FUG WE ARE DEAD, but apparently it does. So I guess there are a lot of chambers, and usually it ny vents a few of them. But venting the system causes the whole machine to shut down. Strike three. Now i just look like an idiot. And, trying to maintain my composure and not seeing the trainer going into an epileptic fit, I decided  it would be fine after all. So I told him to call me if he had any other questions and that I really was flustered this morning. Strike four, if that was even possible

I managed to patch things up slightly during the day. Because it is a time course experiment, I could do the experiment sometime next week and still make it work in the general time frame. I even sent an urgent email to Dr. Zebra, my advisor, to ask for extra time to compete the experiment. He responded, which isIsraelis, considering has has been ignoring my other emails for about three weeks now. I rescheduled the equipment for Monday evening. It was pretty late, but ate least it was still available. So far, so good.

Around 7pm, I get an email letting me know that I have been suspended from the cleanroom for one week, what can I say? I guess I was more angry before I started writing this, but after goings through everything that happened, I could see this coming. Even though I never did anything but bad intentions, sometimes the cards are just not cut the right way. So I guess I can just take it with a grain of salt, and suck it up and send another apologetic email. Hmm...I guess it was a good thing I decided to write this blog.mi was really worried I wouldn't get over being angry enough to enjoy one of my best friends' wedding weekend. It's funny how we lose perspective of things sometimes. Although I h although I will never forget this and will be bitter about it probably forever. But atleast I'm over it for the rest of this weekend.

Alright, I should probably turn this thing off soon! We are landing in a little bit and in less than 24 hours Yashmak will be a married woman!

Ok announcement just came on. I'll post this tonight!