Sun Moon Stars Girl )-(

Welcome to my little place to vent…

After a couple hours, I finally got Kris awake, and got in touch with Erica. I felt so bad sleeping in when we had plans, especially since she sounded upset on the phone. It turned out that Erica was just as tired as we were. We decided to head out to the diner, as originally planned, and I somehow jammed myself in the back of the rallycar (Kris, you are SO lucky I take yoga!). We brought Erica back to my parents’ house, and packed up the car to head back to MA.

We had a mostly uneventful rainy Monday. Luckily we were able to avoid the slight backup traffic on 84 with a drive around town and a dinner stop at BK.

Not very exciting, I know, but we had a great weekend.

Did not expect to, but headed down the shore to Aunt Paula and Uncle Tony’s new beach house. It’s a cute little house on a lagoon, with a pool the size of a bathtub. But I’d rather go in that than in the lagoon. Everyone in the Fioravante family was there and got to see the rallycar, except my cousin Jeffery. We had a nice lunch, and everyone passed out for a nap afterwards - on the deck, in the house, etc.

I wanted to just show Kris around, so we headed over to Seaside. We easily found a completely free parking space. It was a few blocks away from the boardwalk, but worth the walk instead of paying $20 to park in a lot. We met up with my cousins Jerilyn, her boyfriend Travis, and Anthony, and and his friend Patrick and walked around. We split up, and I took Kris down on the actual beach. We walked around, “under the boardwalk,” dipped our feet in the alarmingly refreshing Atlantic Ocean,” and made a dinner of pizza, lemonade, and funnel cake. Yummy.

We took Route 35 home, a more scenic route than the Garden State Parkway, which we’d taken down the shore about 3 or 4 times already. It mostly runs along the coast, and Kris got to see the more “ritzy” towns north of Sleaze-side. Eventually we got back on the GSP and zipped home.

Got up early and attempted to go to the bank. Since we had the rallycar, Kris had to shuttle me around on my “errands.” There was a woman taking forever with the bank manager, who I needed to see, so we had to leave for my eyebrow waxing. I came out of the salon, expecting Kris to be waiting for me…no Kris and an unlocked, totally open rallycar. About ten minutes later he comes out of an automotive parts store with two quarts of oil. “She was low,” he says to me. I freaked out when he wasn’t there, then was worried about the car. Luckily Kris knows to check these things I wouldn’t even think about, and fixed it before there was a problem.

Half an hour later, we’re back at the bank. I go to open a checking account at the only bank I’d used for 18 years of my life, and for some reason still had a savings account at. This works out well; I can close my account in MA, but still be able to pay my bills and get direct deposit. “Good thing you left and came back. That other woman just left five minutes ago. Her purse and wallet were stolen, with everything in it,” the manager tells me when I step in her office.

Opened the account and headed home. Called Lynn, who invited us over. I finally got to meet her husband, Frank. They got married the first year I worked at the library, but I didn’t attend the wedding because I didn’t know her very well back then. That was just about 10 years ago!

We got to see Frank’s Maserati - a pretty cool car. I quickly realized Kris and Frank could have talked for hours about car stuff. Lynn and I caught up on life, and they took a look a the rallycar. “What’s that red button for?” Frank asked. “It’s the NOS,” both Kris and I reply. “Really?” “No, but push it.” “Right now?” “Yes.” I’m sure Frank and Lynn expected something other than the sound of a water-filled horn.

Headed back home, and got in touch with Ray. Started some laundry, and headed out to his house. “Ray, there’s a racecar in the driveway.” His mom came out to take a look, and then the 3 of us headed out for the Mini test drive.

I’m so proud of myself. I test drove the Mini Cooper S 6-speed. I really liked it, and I haven’t been excited about a car in years. I have been yearning for a convertible BMW, but they are so expensive. Kris told me that Minis are also BMWs, and I still wasn’t convinced it was cool until I actually drove it. We also found out that the convertible Mini is coming out for 2005. I am seriously considering trading in the Malibu in a couple years, after driving the Mini, and Ray’s test drive in the Bimmer, which was almost too big for me. I loved the “zippiness” of the Mini, but I was a little disappointed when I realized I would need to put premium in the tank. Regardless, the Minis get better gas mileage than the Malibu, and considering what gas prices already are in California, even the Cooper would be ok.

Next we headed up to West Orange for a BBQ with Linda and Art. It was nice to see them, and get caught up. Saw some pictures and heard the stories from Val’s graduation. I wish we could have seen her and Bill too, but alas, they were not around. Marisa’s looking better than she did at this time last year. The last time I saw her was at Val’s play last summer, and she’d gained some weight - although it was hard to tell since she hid behind Gregg the entire time we “saw” them. Kris and I got home early enough to do some more laundry. Whoo.

We had a lovely weekend in NJ. I’m really happy with how it turned out - I even got to do a few things I didn’t “plan on.” Here’s how it started:

Got in to work WAY early - concentrated virus by myself in the hood. I was in the lab so long that the automatic lights went out in the main room. You know you’ve been working in the hood for a long time when that happens - twice.

Kris and I left for Jersey by noon. We had a *slight* backup of traffic on Rt. 85 while we were trying to get some “cheap” gas for the low LOW price of $2.05, and also had to make a small detour to pick up my sunglasses - which I had left at kickboxing the previous evening. My instructor was kind enough to take them, call me, and then have them ready for me to pick them up. I needed them this weekend!

We zoomed through most of CT, but then sat in traffic in CT, NY, and NJ. In the oppressive, humid nastiness heat, in the rallycar. By the time we got to the Tappen Zee bridge, I knew we wouldn’t make it to my parents’ house before 5, so I had to call Lynn and let her know we wouldn’t be able to make it to the library. Kris just wanted to get to the house, but I convinced him to stop by Bob’s, as I was looking for a new bathing suit and some clothes for kickboxing and yoga.

I decided not to pay $80 at Bob’s for a bathing suit. Since when did Bob’s get so expensive????

We had dinner with my parents, and as we brought in the stuff from the car, I realized Kris had taken a huge bag of laundry I had not originally intended to bring. This worked out for the best, because I have more clean socks this week than I thought I would!

After dinner, we went to Old Navy where I found a nice new bathing suit, and some specifically labeled “Yoga Pants.” I got the bathing suit, two pairs of pants, and two tops for less than the one $80 bathing suit Bob’s would have cost me. GO Old Navy!

Kris then attempted to fix my parents’ computer, but it’s going to take a lot of work. They don’t know better than to open attachments, and had disconnected the router, which caused more problems. It’s funny…they think they know what they are doing with the computer, but as soon as something is slow, or has an error message, they send for help. I can’t blame them this time, though as it seems like the whole computer just needs to be rebuilt. : (

I have to explain this, because I’m sure there are people who might not understand what in the hell I was talking about the other day. Especially since it happened again.

Sequencher is a program we molecular biologists use to analyze DNA sequence data - yup, all those fun A, T, C, and G combinations that encode life. Our labs share the program on many computers. It’s free to have the program on whatever computer you want, what costs thousands of dollars are the “keys” to use the program. Since they are so expensive, and our contract had recently run out, there are now a very limited supply of “keys” to use the program. So now every time you go to analyze your sequencing data, you play the roulette game of whether or not there will be a key available for you to use the program. Basically, if no one else is using the program there’s plenty of keys, if a bunch of people even have the program open - no keys.

Herein lies the most annoying part…people do not realize that when they close a window on a macintosh computer, the program does not close. There’s quite a few people that just “accidentally” leave programs open like this ALL the time. Obviously, including sequencher. So the best part, if you’ve been given the “there’s no keys available for use at this time, do you want to be put on the waiting list for a key or open the program in demo mode” (side note: in which you cannot do anything, such as save or edit your sequences - you can only LOOK at them which isn’t helpful) message, is that you have to go around to all the labs you know have keys and see if anyone has unknowingly left the program running.

Oh, is that a key ready for me? I’d better go use it now, or forever hold my peace.

I went to kickboxing tonight, and I just had to say that I am pleased to see none of the annoying people were there. No seizures were to be had during class - only the nice normal people were there. But, unfortunately I left my sunglasses at class - just before a long weekend road trip to NJ! Oh well.

I can’t seem to organize my thoughts for the coming weekend, as I am trying to spend time with as many of my friends in NJ as possible. I decided to set it down, and here’s how it stands so far:

Friday: work early, leave by 11 AM? Arrive in NJ by 3 PM?
Stop by library if earlier than 4 pm to visit Lynn
Stop by high school if early enough to visit Linda
Shopping - Old Navy - bathing suit?
Bob’s - bathing suit? yoga pants…new workout clothes
Dinner with mom and dad - Laura will be home from UDel - pizza

Saturday: 9 AM - bank - open checking account
eyebrow waxing - 9:45
stop by Lynnie’s?
meet up with Ray - go to car dealership; test drive the Mini Cooper
BBQ at Ray’s for dinner - Art and Linda?

Sunday: go down the shore? Hang with Ray?
Go to Aunt Paula and Uncle Tony’s beach house?
Do laundry?

Monday:
Brunch with Erica
Lunch at home?
leave to return to MA by 3 PM…maybe?

I’m going to edit this and update it with more specific details if they can be arranged in the next couple days.
I tried to update this as much as possible before we left, I’m sure I’ll write something about how our weekend! ; )

As someone who has known she was about to embark on her graduate school life, I have looked to the graduate student who works in my lab for - advice on what schools to look into, tips on taking the GRE, in general what I will need to accomplish as a graduate student, and what terrors I might have to endure during that time. Today one of the worst things I can think of happened to her.

We had a seminar with a candidate for a new faculty position the center is hiring for. During his talk he mentioned something that is part of the graduate student’s thesis project. She was shocked, along with many others who know about her project. We were all wondering what was going to happen…a graduate student cannot compete with someone at the instructor level on research. We all thought she might have to start a completely new project - to have to start over after investing years on a project is one of the worst things that can happen to a graduate student, and unfortunately a realistic one.

She’s lucky that she’s only a year and a half into her project, but still. Another interesting factor that I found out later is that the speaker’s boss is part of the grad student’s advisory committee. He’s also a friend/collaborator with our boss. I can’t believe he would not have said something to either one of them, or compete with a collaborator.

I’m not sure what’s going to happen now, but it’s something that could happen to me. It’s kind of scary, but I guess I can’t worry about it too much yet.

I have been playing this gave since I was…let’s see…about 10 years old? I started as a substitute playing with my mom’s group when I was in fourth grade. In fifth grade we had a girl scout “outing” - a night where my troop learned to play and got prizes. I started subbing more regularly with my mom’s group, and the other one in town when I got older, in high school, and when I was home from college. I still occasionally get to play with them.

When my life fell apart in the summer of 2002, and couldn’t stand sitting in the house alone with nothing to do in the winter of 2003, I went to the Westborough Public Library to see what groups in the town I could join. To my surprise and excitement I found a Newcomer’s Club that had a Bunco group! I was called to sub the first month, and subbed the rest of the year. This year I became a “full-time” member.

So last night was my second to last “regular” session. I’m so bummed, because it’s so fun to play. And I’m not saying that because I win every month, even though I do…mostly…even if it’s just the Booby Prize… Ok, ok, ok…I do win *almost* every time. My mom, grandmother, and I are known as the “Fioravante women” and win every time we play. And if one of us is subbing, the we both usually win! I know my mom has been having some bad luck of late, but when my grandmother has subbed recently, she has won, so I don’t know what happened. And I’ve won almost every time I played this year. Of course I didn’t last night, but them’s the breaks. Like I said, I usually DO win, so I don’t mind.

I’m bummed because next month is my last time. : ( Maybe I can find a group in California, if I have time. Maybe I can organize my own group. I’m sure my group will be happy to see me go - since I usually win. But also because I’m a rules person, and I pay attention to the scores. For some reason, they don’t seem to like to keep track of who’s winning. Maybe that’s why I always win!

Continue reading for “Da Rules”
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Finally - finally I get to complain about my classes. Well, not the classes themselves, because they are great - both are an awesome workout (yes, who would have though belly dancing was a good way to work out? And it’s fun too!), but some of the people…drive me insane.

Last night was the last session of my kickboxing class. The makeup night, which I needed to attend. Usually I end up being the only person in class during a makeup session (which is a thrill itself, let me tell you), but alas, I was not. Of course I couldn’t have one of the nice, non-annoying people from class. Or maybe just ONE of the annoying people. Instead I had what I consider the most annoying two. One of them wears some sort of contraption which beeps incessantly during class…I’m not sure if it’s a heart monitor, or just a watch that beeps every 5 minutes, but it screws up your timing. On the other side of me was the girl, who for some unknown reason insists on wearing those shoes that flash when you step down on the heel. I had no idea they made these larger than a child’s size 8 shoes, but apparently they do. So I have beeping off to my right and seizure-inducing shoes off to my left. *le sigh* Hopefully they won’t be back in the next session, but I highly doubt that. Next week I can’t wait to see what interesting people the new session brings with it.

Belly Dancing is another story. We just had our recital last Friday night, and since it was my last big one before I leave for California, I decided to perform a duet, in addition to the three other dances I was in. I was pleased with my own performances, and to see some friends and coworkers attend. But tonight marked the continuation of class, and there’s a couple interesting characters here too. One of them is terrible, although she’s been taking class for a least a year now. The other considers herself “advanced” but for some reason still comes to our “intermediate” class and thinks she’s so much better than all of us. Luckily this woman is moving soon, and the two of them come together, so hopefully we won’t be seeing them too much longer.