Moved in... more or less

The apartment is coming together. It's basically all done with some small exceptions. This is all for you mom...PICTURES!

Ok the livingroom is kinda messy but it's together so forgive that.

The kitchen isn't huge but it does hold basically all of my stuff. What you can't see is the stuff on top of the cabinets. Don't worry it's just the food processor, wok, and crock pot.

And then the bedroom...which is basically together but I know I'll be changing and reorganizing when I have time.

And if you saw it from the bathroom it would look more like this. Here's hoping my lead on a dresser works out... I'm too old for those wire snap-together squares. Right?

And a fun little story to go with all of this: Friday night I arrived back at my apartment around 11. I noticed what I thought was a cat in the "yard" but I noticed that this cat was very low to the ground and it would have been the least graceful cat I'd ever seen. It also boasted a large tail. So my brain compelled me to actually look at the thing. It was none other than one of the family of approximately six skunks that live in/around the apartment complex. He was kind of cute and also seemed relatively unconcerned with me. He wandered within 10 feet of my front door as I stood flabbergasted and tried to take pictures of him (or her I suppose). I thought I had failed to capture the fuzzball because of the magic blending properties of black things at night. Today I found that one of them turned out alright if seen on something other than my phone. Meet my little friend:

You can barely make it out but that is absolutely a skunk. 100% sure. I got a really good look. At a scary-close range. This was taken from in front of my door. The left corner is the 3 foot drop that separates my sidewalk from the lawn. Luckily he/she was scouting the grass for tasty bugs so the sidewalk was not on the agenda but it came to the edge of it right about where I stood to take that picture.

And there you have it. The excitement that is my life right now. Moving/unpacking/cleaning and skunks. Oh the life I lead.

Bittersweet Symphony

Today was bittersweet. I haven't blogged in forever... too busy hanging out with people and having pot luck dinners. Now that people are leaving I have time to slow down and collect my thoughts. I finished my internship today and said goodbye to everyone and it was a little sad. I'm glad to be heading back "home" to Manhattan but having everyone say over and over again "You're leaving? Aww... well we will miss you!" made me a little gloomy. They whipped together a pot luck for me and I brought thank-you baked goods. They gave me a picture they all signed. People told me to hurry back. Bless their hearts!

On a less sentimental note I also got to go "fly" a simulated airplane today. Very cool. Be jealous. Actually don't be too jealous, it made me nauseous. I'm terrible and theme parks and I would make a horrible pilot. Oh well.

Oh and one other unfortunate thing happened. There was a roach incident. It was traumatic. It came out of nowhere and ran across my desk. I yelped. I also made Darrell come over and chase it away. He then did the chivalrous thing and hosed it down with Windex. Darrell's a good guy. He hugged me when I left. So it turned out ok in the end.

Tomorrow I am going to try to be a packing/cleaning machine. It won't likely be too fun. but you gotta do what you gotta do.

V is for Victory

I love the GAP. More than I should probably. But lately our relationship has been strained. I thought they were stiffing me on a couple of things I ordered online. Today they called to make amends. Apparently they don't use standard usps so the fact that I had my mail forwarded did not in fact mean they would ship me my orders. One had been returned. Well at least I know where my dang work pants have been all this time! My pants and a dress will be rerouted as soon as possible. Thank heavens! My work wardrobe needs those pants very much. Thanks GAP!

In other news I have joined Google+ and I like it. It's a less kitschy version of Facebook really. And of course it has Google's sensibility built right in. Man I love all things Google. If you read this and need someone to let you in I have a few invites left so just shoot me your address. :)

That's about all I have to report at this point. I did nothing exciting with my weekend. One day I won't be as broke and I'll have better stories. Promise.

Edelweis, Stieg Larsson, and GAP wars

Thursday: After work I went with Phil and the gang to Edelweis, a charming little German pub with the most amazing Thursday special I've ever experienced. You can get a liter of beer for $5 and a brat with sour kraut for $3. I downsized to a 1/2 liter and then ended up having two of them. But all in all the cheapest dinner you can get. Also you get to rub elbows with Mike the accordion player and Richard Prichard and old (possibly senile) old man who as allegedly been married 6 times and showed us not only his moon rocks but some antique Chinese coins he's "not supposed to have." This week we also met Lupe and Carlos and their white, uber-friendly "bro" who joined our table unsolicited. They were fun. No harm done.

Friday: I got up and did... nothing. I read the rest of "The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo" by Stieg Larsson. Not going to lie, it was a little difficult at points because it's set in Switzerland and there are mentions of things I know nothing about and casual references to places I've never heard of and can't pronounce. Overall I really enjoyed it though. I suppose I also went to Chicken Express with Rachel Seo (not my roommate) so that was good. At least I left the apartment once.

Today: I went to check my mail and STILL don't have the work pants I ordered from the GAP at the beginning of LAST MONTH. Geesh! Can't even call them because they're not open on Saturday. Dumb. I went and got a couple of grocery items at Target and now I'm chronicling my less than thrilling weekend. Being broke is no picnic. You pretty much have to invent things to do for free or read books. I'm ok with it but it doesn't make for very exciting blog posts. I'll let you know how the sequel to my book ("The Girl Who Played with Fire") is when I finish it. Possibly this weekend unless I finish watching class lectures. Which reminds me I have several hours of that left to do. Gross.

One long and painful day

So I had the longest day on record. Seriously someone called in from Guinness Records to confirm. Ok not really. My day started out rough. I forgot my badge so I had to get a temporary one. I tried to figure out the best place to park to minimize my walking in and out of the building since I can't use my normal gate with a temporary ("turkey") badge (that's what the guys on the floor called it). This ended up making me drive against the arrows in the parking lot like a doofus and then park in what felt like downtown Fort Worth. I probably walked between 1.5 and 2 miles to my desk this morning.

Once I was finally there I had just enough time to check my e-mail before I went to take my test for my online class. I feel like I was well prepared except that I left a key equation off my sheet which made me take the full 2 hours to finish the exam. I then had one hour to use until a training session. Thing is once you include walking and buying my lunch I was working for about 20 minutes. Keep in mind that going between my desk and the building where I took my test and did my training is about a 15 minute walk. Brisk walk. Add that to the 1.5-2 miles I booked before and after work and we've successfully integrated exercise into my work day! In my work clothes! Across a steamy parking lot! Yay! (Obviously NOT yay).

But who am I to complain? Our friend Rachel (not my roommate) had a car accident yesterday (she's fine physically just, you know, not thrilled about the situation). We are making her dinner tonight (I'm contributing some easy-peasy brownies) so she doesn't have to hang out by herself. That should make both of us happier I would imagine. :)

It's been a long day but tomorrow will be better.

My Struggles (NOT Mein Kampf!)

I swear when I titled this it was not intended to be a play on Hitler's book. Promise. I really am writing about a struggle I am currently having. The one of work/life balance. Or in my case work/life/school balance. For whatever reason I don't seem to be able to ever accomplish everything I should. I fantasize about the day when I don't have but work and life to balance but I'm sure my life and work will just swell to fill the gap and I'll still have a laundry list of "I should have's". I haven't been consistent at anything but going to work and trying to study (inefficiently) over the past week. Everything else is intermittent. This includes cleaning, dealing with my finances, exercise, and picking up after myself. Don't get me wrong I try to hit up those things but I just don't get around to it like I should.

Either way my life isn't so bad. I like my job a lot. For the first time it feels like I was requested instead of thrust upon my employer. The ol' "oh yea... you're here... uh... you can do this!" was getting old. I'm wrapping up a project where I help document parts of the process that can be moved off of the critical path. I finished the "schedule" I made for it today and barring major overhaul I think it's done (knock on wood). I'm about to embark on my next work adventure--documenting tooling in our area in detail so they can plan for it's storage as they finish construction and expansion of our area. It's a huge undertaking but it's going to keep me busy which is key to making the day pass.

This weekend for the 4th we didn't do a heck of a lot. Slept adequate amounts which was lovely. We saw Transformers: Dark side of the Moon which was awesome. Also I went and re-watched Bridesmaids which was epic the second time (just in case you were concerned it didn't have staying power). Yesterday we did and intern pool-side barbecue and then we went and parked our lawn chairs on the edge of the river to watch fireworks. Good times had by all! Here are a few pictures to prove I have friends and we did in fact see fireworks:

The Rachel's! Left to right, Rachel and Rachel (my roommate).

Alex! He's a good sport about hanging with the girls in Phil's absence. :)

7th Street bridge... We though the fireworks would be over the bridge... they were through the tree just out of shot. No worries though...

Other view from our spot. This is where the magic happens... when you miscalculate where the fireworks are supposed to be and end up watching a different show...

SEE?! There they go. I think these came from the botanical gardens. They were pretty legit.

And more fireworks but this time with a little artistic river reflection added for some drama. You're welcome.

No phone makes me feel crazy...

Well because I can't talk much about what I do it's hard to think of things to put in these updates. I have started going to the shop floor to figure out the process so I can hopefully help them improve it. Other than that I've just been getting training and access to files and other "housework" of starting a new job. I've made friends with a group of assemblers on the floor and they and everyone else has been very nice and helpful. The other engineers are very busy but they always do their best to help me out. I'm trying really hard not to hover over them or seem needy but it's hard at first when you don't even know what questions to ask or what to do next after you finish each task. I'm getting the hang of the rhythm of the place and I don't think anyone wants to push me off the mezzanine yet so that's good.

As for other stuff I haven't done much outside of work since there are limited hours and I haven't quite gotten the complete lay of the Fort Worth social land. I've been to the grocery store a lot. The produce at Central Market is RIDICULOUS! AMAZING! Peaches taste like CANDY! Clearly I spend a lot of time thinking about, purchasing, preparing, and enjoying food. Down here that's mostly fruit. It's awesome. I've also started running. Not much but something has to counteract my other activities. In fact the other night I went to Fuzzy's Tacos and then shopping for produce. It was a magical night. Followed by a jog. You see what I'm talking about? If you'd ever had a taco from Fuzzy's you'd really get it. That's a new favorite of mine besides the TX peaches.

In related news if you haven't tried a Rolo McFlurry may I suggest you immediately go to the nearest McD's and get one? Stat. Seriously.

This random stream of consciousness is brought to you by a broken Samsung Rogue that now functions on par with a rotary phone. I'm having thoughts buildup that is causing these sudden and unorganized outbursts. Expect nothing better for the next week and a half or so. Sorry.