Buttering up the babysitting

So, there was a distinct "flatter the babysitter" atmosphere tonight. Not that this is a bad thing, of course. I like getting feedback about my work and postive feedback is great. The family has a member with a disability, so they've had a lot of help in the past. Apparently, the 4 yr old hasn't liked most/all of the previous help. But, he loves me - I was told he "counts down the days" until I come. Given that he laughs nearly the entire time I am there and happily drags me around to play, I tend to believe this. So, I am being paid very well, have had offers of old textbooks (nothing I can use, but the offer is very kind) and they want me to come on Labor day.

Now, the Labor Day thing poses a bit of a quandary. On one hand, I would really, really like to go home and probably will. On the other hand, they want me there and it pays double since it's a holiday. $16/hour plus tip is a pretty good chunk of money. And the flattery does count for something. I'm not sure it's enough to keep me for next semester, but I might be enticed to come back for Monday night.

Either way, I have to come home Monday evening. I have class at 8:00 am on Tuesday, so I can't possibly stay home all day Monday. Essentially, I would just move my departure time up from say 3:00pm to noon. This doesn't seem like a big deal, and for 60+ bucks, it's probably worth it. At least, I think it is. I told her I'd have a definate answer on Thursday. I shall mediatate on my answer in the meantime.

Oh, and my cadaver is female. And very short. That is all.

Knitting Frustration

The Good News: My favorite yarn, Reynold's Blizzard has come out with new colors! And Yarnware (online store) is having a 25% off sale. Plus, new patterns have come out. I like this yarn and the designs enough that I was struck by an impluse to try knitting one of them. The one sweater thingy is listed as "intermediate" difficulty. Sounds like a trial and error, but doable situation.

The Bad News: This yarn is still expensive and the new colors are not on sale. Even worse, from past experience I know that the internet swatches do not look like the real-life swatches. Moreover, I don't know if I have the time for this. I might. And I wouldn't mind making scarves for people just because I enjoy it and I can read while doing it. But - it's still expensive. If I was going to consider the scarf, I would need to find a knitting store that stocked Reynold's Blizzard. I might do a google search just to see the availability, but I think the expense plus everything else makes this an unlikely plan.

Bleah. Technically I should be working on that afghan, but it takes me approximately 6 hours to finish one square, and I can't focus on anything else when I do it. The pattern is tricky and the tension is a bitch on that thing. You can't like the floss twist around itself, because it screws up the filling.

Word of the Day

Ukase: (u-kase)

1. An authoritative order or decree; an edict.
2. A proclamation of a czar having the force of law in imperial Russia.

Orientation: A Review

This should probably be, and will probably turn into, a long post. Babbling ahoy.

Anyway, Orientation started last Monday. It began well enough. Dean Kanter has a bone-dry sense of humor and was quite entertaining. As the week dragged on, the niftyness began to wear off. The three sessions on "Diversity" were terrible and lasted far longer than I had ever imagined. Apparently, this is an NIH mandated requirement for medical schools. The sexual orientation one was interesting enough to keep me awake, but I couldn't take the gender one and made a run for it after the panel, but before the video and small group discussion sections.

Otherwise, I'm settling in okay. On Tuesday a poorly planned two hours break (in addition to over an hour of lunch) gave me and a group of people time to investigate the gym facilities. I have to say, I'm impressed. I guess as a runner, I never was really exposed to any atheletic facilities but Wash U's (all my college races were outside - usually in fields or country clubs). Wash U obviously didn't emphasize sports because their AC looks positively shabby next to Pitt's huge stadium. They also have a second gym with a rock climbing wall, more exercise equipement, a pool, and all kinds of stuff. This is addition to the fieldhouse and a few other listed facilities that we didn't track down. Basically, I can work out any time of day and the main two gyms are right next to the Medical School. Literally, you walk outside our building, cross the street and there is the stadium with the nice machines. Given that I'm in class far more than undergrads, I will probably end up using this stuff in non-peak hours. I figure once the snow arrives and it gets dark early, I will end up using the gym instead of braving the outdoors. Class is going to make it difficult to run in the daylight hours. And hey, I have a locker. Right next to the AC. It's like it was predestined. They also have some classes - typical stuff - kickboxing, aerobics - and nifty stuff - rock climbing, kayaking.

The people are okay. I'll admit, I was pretty overwhelmed and still am, to some extent. I looked forward to it, and then finally got there and realized all that had happened was that I was back to the beginning. I finally found my niche at Wash U, but now piffft. All gone. Then I was kind of sad and homesick for both Home and St. Louis. Things are getting better. I have a better grasp of the layout of my immediate area. I've been experimenting with biking and running routes, which is very, very helpful. I'm slowly getting to know some people. I went running with various classmates and it looks like a regular running group will form. We are going hiking and swimming tomorrow. Things will work out, it'll just take me some time.

The house is going well, I never see anyone. They are very, very busy. But that's okay. I cleaned the microwave and the stove today, which made me happy. Kinda sad, I know. I don't mind cleaning dirty things - it's just the cleaning of basically clean things that kind of annoys me.

My one major grip so far is the grocery stores. So far I have been to two Giant Eagles and Foodland and I'm not happy with any of them. I'm good with food for the week, but I'm going to try the Whole Foods store next week. Whole Foods is actually the closest grocery store, but I always think of them as kind of expensive. I will give them a try, if it's outrageous, I'll try a third Giant Eagle. I'm just not satisfied with the level of cleanliness at the stores I've been at so far. The first Giant Eagle was terrible - I wouldn't even buy milk from them because their food didn't feel cold to me. The second Giant Eagle was okay, but kind of far away and lacked some food items I want. Foodland also struck me as kind of dirty (not impressed by the deli people sneezing and not changing their gloves) and small. I've been disappointed with the produce as well. No Barilla pasta either! I'm sure there is a good, not so expensive place with a decent selection somewhere, I just have to trial and error until I find it.

All in all, it's been a productive week. I have most of my books (Nik has the rest, but I hestitate to take things without asking and he should be back soon) and I'm reasonably familar with the school. I also found out Pitt has a Jew-specific scholarship fund, which I managed to apply to this week - I ended up re-using my med school application stuff so it didn't take that long. Apparently there aren't that many Jews in my class, so I'm hoping to get a little something for it. They can pay part of tution or just pay for your books. I'd like to get the books one, since I don't think I will qualify for tution money.

Well, this did turn into a long post. My work here is done.

Hello Pittsburgh

Well, we have arrived safely.

The drive was fine. I got into the city around 2:30pm. I hauled all my stuff out of the car right away. Tam was completely freaked out. He paused to look around, verfiy that he had No idea where he was, and then fled out of the bed. He's okay now. He just now came out and ate his dinner. The window sill is very deep, and he's looking out right now. He's still very jumpy, though. I need to remember to buy him wet cat food tomorrow.

I got every thing unpacked, more or less. All my school supplies are still boxed, waiting for their home. I hung out and met a couple of my housemates, and then made a K-mart run. I got the ethernet cable for my computer, and my desk. My desk is still waiting to be assembled. I sort of managed to assemble my bookshelf, but I wasn't quite strong enough to fully screw in the screws. I tried, but I just couldn't get the last milimeter in. I'm not sure who I'll ask for help with that one. I guess my father is coming out this weekend - he managed to assemble the other shelf, so I guess he can do this one.

My room has fit together very nicely. I really am impressed at how well everything is clicking. My parents are bringing out the last of my stuff on Saturday. Mom is supplying most of my clinical equipement, which is fantastic. They made her buy a bunch of stuff when she was in school, but she doesn't use any of it for GI. I'll still need to buy a stethoscope though.

Anyway, tomorrow is an administrative details day. I have to get my ID card, some software and food/practical supplies. I'm going to walk to fetch most of this. I could drive, but I don't want to bother with parking, especially when it's so close by.

Everyone is in bed, I think I shall join them.

The worst lab experiment _ever_

Gah, what a terrible day.

Background A: Dad slipped a disk last weekend, which has put him in intense pain for the last 48 hours. It is actually pretty alarming - I don't like seeing my father with a cane. But, he got an orthopod appointment today and is in the process of getting his MRI as I type. He'll be okay, it's just been a little disconcerting.

Anyway, so his slipped disk and the pain medicine means we (Mom and I) don't want him operating a car. Mom's car needs its annual inspection, so I got woken up at 6:50 this morning to drive her to work. This, I don't mind.

Background B: Maureen and I did a trail race a couple of weeks ago. A research lab from a local-ish university was collecting names for a research study on runners. Later they contacted me and wanted to know if I would participate. I agreed - I like supporting scientific research and the money was decent. We agree on a date and time, and then I don't hear anything.

Last night, I realized I had agreed to do the study today, but no one ever sent me directions or basic instructions - it was a running study, so I assumed I needed to wear running clothes. After I got home from taking Mom out, I called the lab and asked what was going on.

Me: Hi there, I'm supposed to participate in a research study today, can I get directions to your lab?
Random girl: uhm, sure. Where are you coming from?
Me: PA, near 202.
RG: hm. Do you know where DE-273?
Me: Uhm, not really.
RG: Okay, let me have your address and I'll mapquest it.
Me, thinking, I could do this myself
RG: Okay, you turn left on Country Club Rd (the road visible from my room)...
ARGH.
Me: Can I just have your street address?
RG: oh sure, it's blahhidy, blahiddy, blah.
Me: Thanks.

So, I figure out where it is and set off driving. After a couple wrong turns, courtesy of the DEDOT, who doesn't seem to feel the need to let people know in advance when the highway suddenly turns, allowing people to merrily speed by in the right lane as the roads verves to the left, I arrive at the street address I was given. It is a "Cluck U Chicken" restaurant. Let me clarify, I arrive after wandering the streets of Newark which are all one way and have no free parking anywhere - just a lot of parking lots that require tickets.

"Cluck U chicken" doesn't do much for me, so I call the lab and try to get directions. I am frustrated and irritated and the lab guy laughing at me doesn't make me feel any better. The fact the "Cluck U chicken" isn't anywhere NEAR the lab, also doesn't make me happy. I get directions from the guy. Both the road and the parking lot he directed me towards are closed. I drive around until I find a place to park. I have enough change for one hour of parking.

I get to the lab. They thought I was coming on Tuesday. The e-mail clearly said August 8th. But the Physical therapist isn't available until noon. My parking runs out at 10:45. I tell them this and eventually a discussion on where I could have parked results in a lab monkey running some change out to my car. I was all wired up, so they wouldn't let me go.

They put sensors all over me, and begin taking data. Problems with the sensors prolongs this process significantly. Eventually we finish, they take my injury and running history and then tell me to take a break while we wait for the Physical Therapist. The physical therapist turns out to be a very nice lady, who is trying her best to deal with the double booking.

They finish by 12:45 (I was supposed to be finished by 11:00am) and I head home. Of course, I get lost coming back and end up at some Delaware state park in the middle of nowhere. I eventually make it home, where my father has decided he is going to pick up Mom. I haven't eaten since my rushed 6:00am breakfast and it is now 2:00pm, so I start making my lunch. Dad is still medicated, so I decide to bypass him and see if my sister will pick up Mom so I can eat something.

My sister, after having done nothing all morning, decides that she must go open up her bank account right now. Her bank is on the way to the train station and is open until 7:00pm, but she still can't make time to get Mom. I am very, very pissed off. I know she is doing this just to screw me over, but I go and get Mom. My sister gets home with enough time to eat the lion's share of the last brownie (which I made) and leaves a tiny brownie sliver, ensuring that she doesn't have to clean the pan.

In a foul mood, I read while I wait for lunch to digest and then head out for a run. It is drizzling when I leave, but by the time I am a mile from home, the sky opens up and pours down rain. I almost lost my contacts and end up cutting my run short. I forgot I was supposed to make dinner, but I get it done in time and my sister also does not thank me for that.

Then I fight with my sister again and end up walking Mom through the process to burn a cd. In a petty move, she hides my laptop cables. I couldn't make the connection between the ancient computer and my laptop and the floppy drive on the old computer is broken, so I can't get the files off that way. I have admitted defeat - the computer is just too old. We might take out the harddrive and hook it up to a newer computer.

I hope today and tomorrow go a lot more smoothly.

I am so smart! I am so smart! SMRT!

I finally got the connection to work and, drumroll please, transfer files! It finally started working around 12:30 am last night, I stayed up until about 1am testing the connection and transferring the most important files. I didn't turn off the computers last night out of fear that the connection would vanish if I turned them off. This wasn't entirely unreasonable. For some reason, my mouse drivers that I installed on Sunday were gone by Monday (still working on that problem, rebooting doesn't seem to fix it, go figure).

I'm still not entirely sure what was wrong. I ended up re-running the Network Connection Wizard about a dozen times. Renaming and rebooting both computers totally fixed it.

The side effect of all this is that I'm working off of five hours of sleep last night about five the night before. Oz keeps on waking me up at 5:30am, which is a bit of a bummer when you went to bed at 1:00am. I suspect I'll be grumpy all day, as a result

As I arrange the laptop, I am more and more happy with it. I couldn't really see the speed difference before now, but it's doing a great job of transferring files and running three other large programs with no delay. I shall have to forgive it for the Networking Nightmare and chalk that one up to Windows XP stupidity.

Dar Williams is also pretty good music. The e-bay auction was actually a lot of two cds, so I ended up with a Dar Williams cd in addition to the one I actually wanted. The cost was still cheaper than what Amazon (the only people stocking the cd that I could find) wanted to charge me. So, huzzah.

Back to file transferring.

^$%#$

I want to hurt someone.

So, we are entering Hour Seven of the Networking Nightmare. At this point, I have gotten the desktop to respond, and I have the LAN connection working.* However, I do not have the laptop working. Basically, I can see the folder I need to get to on the desktop, but can't get the laptop to show it. I am enormously frustrated. I can't figure out what I did differently on the desktop to make it work. I just don't get it.

At least I have made a little bit of process. Maybe by Hour Nine I will have both computers working. Then I get to configure the old, old desktop. I'm sure that'll be loads of fun and entirely stress-free.

In other, happier news, my music hunch was right and Kris Delmhorst is great fun. Finding the cd was hard - thank you e-bay - but I love this music. And the laptop has great speakers. If I could get it to transfer my files, I'd be entirely thrilled with it.



*Jim - I had to disable every firewall I came across. After I did that, the connection started working, hypothetically speaking. I haven't actually managed to share any folders yet.