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!
