hey love, I'm an inconstant satellite

One evening last week, I was walking down the hill with rushthatspeaks past the community garden, and I saw a bright green bird in the undergrowth. What was a lovebird doing there? Unusually and luckily, the garden was actually open, so I went in and, with a little help, caught the bird. It seemed small if it was a lovebird, maybe a young one, and it wasn't going to make it outdoors despite its alertly biting the heck out of my hand as I held it. (In retrospect I think it was actually a parrotlet, not a bird I'd encountered before -- all green with a flash of blue on its behind, and the photos look right.) We were discussing how to keep a bird safe from cats at either of our houses until its owner should find it, but, also unusually and luckily, there was a cop parked right there, and I asked him what one should do with a found parrot. He called Animal Control and they came within about fifteen minutes to pick it up. They keep it for a couple weeks waiting for an owner to prove ownership by answering security questions, then send it to "a nice shelter" for adoption. The cop was very nice about the whole thing. I hope the bird is doing well; it had a bare tummy and some caked-on waste, but it seemed so alert that I think it was only messy because of its scary day out huddled on the ground.

Later that evening, there were magical cookies. I'd made some of my regular peanut butter cookie dough and just put it into the fridge. Keeping dough overnight vastly improves regular chocolate chip cookies, so when we baked some of the dough I wondered if it would be better. YES. YES IT WAS. Somehow butterscotch notes were in there, and the cookies were completely amazing. Had I measured the peanut butter? Of course not. As of last night I have now made another batch of dough, some of which is in the fridge right now, to see if the miracle can be repeated. Maybe the almond milk is important? We shall see.

In other news, I am going to Woods Hole (apparently some people haven't heard of it? most famous marine laboratory in the US) for a short course this summer! Being at the beach for ten days in late July will be great, and I will learn a lot about molecular evolution that's going to be very useful for my job. My mom says we visited there on my college tour (20 years ago, I remember nothing), and she wasn't impressed because it wasn't fancy, so it's probably exactly the sort of marine station I already know I love from Friday Harbor. Looking forward to it very much!

Also I am very brave today. I made an appointment to talk to my surgeon again about going on hormones to suppress the endometriosis, because I'm having trouble again already. I really hate being on hormones, and what she wants to do is a shot that lasts three months (so no take-backs). Potential issues include: BASICALLY MENOPAUSE, plus all the other wonders of getting sick more often and lacking mental focus that I've already had from hormones. This is fairly terrible, but apparently my other option is chronic pain, which isn't acceptable either. So, we will discuss it on May 6.

Crickets in the evenings as I walk home lately. Really pleased with this one.

( obviously an insect image, though it's pretty cute )

Mostly things are being very very stressful right now, because I am learning that one should NEVER EVER use U-Haul's U-Box service. For one thing, everyone I have spoken to there assured me that it is 100% impossible to change the payment method on an order after the order is placed, which... is a thing that businesses can do...? Not U-Haul, though! Also I have spent multiple hours on the phone talking to over a dozen people, getting nothing but runaround and confusion from people who were mostly rather nice but entirely unable to help me, because they almost to a one mentioned needing more training. Once I had found, through sheer luck, the one department that is able to change orders in the computer system, they proved to be unable to change them usefully -- my stuff's guaranteed-delivery-by date is now LATER than before. Aaaand last night when I called in having never gotten a confirmation for the promised pod pickup last Friday, I discovered that no such pickup had occurred, it was scheduled for this coming Wednesday. Ask rushthatspeaks and gaudior how happy I was then. I talked to the location manager, who said he would try to expedite it, but basically I am planning to move to my new apartment without my stuff being there (however frustrating that may be, and it SO IS) because NONE OF WHAT I WAS PROMISED IS TRUE. There will be some fucking refunds over this, I tell you what.

But! On Saturday for almost the whole day I was able to ignore that clusterfuck, and here are some good things.

1. When I was heading out to do errands, I found adorable free art on the sidewalk! I almost went past it to do my shopping, but decided I'd better grab it and take it home right away. There is a leopard and a giraffe, who must be like the giraffe first-grade teacher because she's leading three little giraffes, and they're all in a very flat-looking jungle. It's great.

2. Subsequently I went back out again and did my errands like an adult.

3. Nap.

4. For the first time here, I had a good interaction at the video store. Having watched The Fortune Cookie last night and found it dark and upsetting more than funny, I have to retroactively question the guy's judgement, but it was awfully nice to talk to an employee at that store who had the slightest interest in talking to customers. Plus, they had a display of Star Trek novels for $2.50, which included Uhura's Song in great shape, and when I bought it I think I managed to promote Hellspark to him effectively!

5. I had a lovely walk home from Porter in the still-humid-but-cool dusk, including a stop at the yogurt shop (where I resisted feeling like a jerk and told them how to cook their mochi a little longer to stop it being chalky, because it's been that way twice now and I want to eat it if it's good!) and walking a way I hadn't gone before to tie my mental map of the area together. There was a big pavilion set up outside Harvard Yard where they often put them for events, but no event right then, so a little kid was riding their bike around in it, which cheered me up even more.

6. Joss Whedon's 2012 film of Much Ado About Nothing is not perfect, but it's mostly very good, and there were several points that I've never seen done so well before. Unfortunately the person I was watching it with hasn't seen/read it a million times and didn't have subtitles, which made it a lot harder to follow. Sorry, J. I may watch it again myself before I take it back, though. :)

I am alive, just withdrawn! Feeling crummy much of the time due to digestive badness and icky soupy weather. However, recent highlights include:

- Weekend in Manhattan (racing friend, giant rocks in Central Park, HTTYD2 3D, "Seattle-style" teriyaki, the Jane Hotel, the High Line, boat tour: all A+ would trip again; bus AC going out for part of the ride: D-)

- Trip to UConn greenhouse to collect plant material for research (for which I awesomely sourced liquid nitrogen from a welding supply place when my university hookup was somehow completely out, and from which I brought home a new living plant friend as well as all the tissue samples I needed)

- Fine fireworks show and stunning lightning-and-rain storm as ably described by sovay

- Finished a quilt top, found and assembled a suitably interesting backing

- Reading All The Georgette Heyer with occasional dashes of Tamora Pierce

Wow, I have really not been posting, sorry! I have some patchy notes from the last ten days.

I missed posting this little story before: I donated one of my shelves to the grad lounge, because someone had taken the one that lived there and just stacked the books on the floor where it used to be. WTF. So I took one of mine that I needed to get rid of anyhow, and with Wim's help and that of grad friend M I moved it into the same spot. Because I'm me, I also borrowed a Sharpie and wrote a verbose dedication on the side about how I was donating it to the grad lounge so don't take it, jeez, what is wrong with people.

Saturday (31 May) was my last day in Seattle. I didn't make it to the Sadako statue to donate my string of cranes, alas. Wim and I did epic cleaning and move-out with excellent help from beaq and jod!

My mom got a tattoo from Josh at Slave to the Needle, based on our own design and actually including a micrograph of my thesis work! (Pink koi for a daughter, lily pad, lens-view of Arabidopsis epidermis that looked exactly like the image I provided. Carl Zimmer will hear of it when the inflammation has gone.)

Lovely day, and I saw the mountain!

I left early since I still had to repack for my flight and see my family before leaving and sleep with my kitties, which felt really weird. But those were my jobs, and I did them successfully.

On Sunday (1 June) my flight was uneventful except for the bit where before it they made an announcement that was a total lie. They announced first in the gate area that it was going to be a total lie and we should not worry, then announced to the airport generally that our final boarding was completed and in two minutes the doors would close forever. I guess some people hadn't shown up yet and they wanted them to?

Also we got extra space in my row when someone moved, yay.

Saw rushthatspeaks! And a bunch of other people, and ate gaudior's awesome birthday cake. And got into my sublet with a minimum of trouble.

Monday (2 June) had such a pretty sky. I was worried that other places' skies would be too inferior to Seattle's, but not at all. (Yes, I am a dork, thanks, I have been informed. But I love the sky, it's one of my favorite things to look at.)

Also on Monday gaudior and I went shopping together, yay!

My note from Tuesday reads: well at least i should be done bleeding really soon if it keeps up like this.

Unfortunately, I was not. Why can't I ever fucking skip a period when they're disrupted by stress instead of having ones from hell?

After that there was lots of work! I got all kinds of administrivia taken care of early on, and sorted out a bunch of samples, and met a ton of people. This week I'm planning to do DNA extractions too, so I am feeling like productive girl in the workplace, go me.

There was also lots of jet lag/failure to sleep in a new place, which was less good, but I think I'm mainly through it now. It's still kinda hot though.

And I had a guest this weekend, which was a ton of fun though perhaps also not that conducive to sleeping! We went to the Natural History museum, where I get in free (especially if we break in through the Herbarium building instead of going to the front desk) and poked around Harvard and Central Squares, and mocked the non-square squares, and watched movies (Ponyo and Avengers) with varying degrees of attention, and snuggled lots, and generally had a wonderful time.

Lunch at Charlie's with marzipan_pig. Black bean burger and hot fudge sundae were used to optimize the Charlie's-ness of the experience.

Hair re-pinked at Scream.

1. Walking outside in the dramatic pouring rain!

2. In the rain's sunshiny aftermath, a sodden and bedraggled black fuzzy moustache stuck to a rock in someone's front yard.

3. Packing books led to squealing in delight over my paper copy of Maka-Maka v2, as ever. Such the best adorable queer girl porn. (Except there is MORE now, like in Smut Peddler! We live in a wonderful world.)

4. Sold furniture! Accomplished other important moving-related tasks!

1. Smells in the world. Mexican orange, the odd remaining apple blossom, grilled meat from Agua Verde, lilacs, rosemary.

2. Lazy Saturday with sewing.

3. Mercedes Lackey has justified her existence: the Bards have version control.

4. Talking about Miyazaki movies!

Sunday:
There was a faux chestnut in the pizza place harvest display, all silly green-plastic spines. Wim and I were both delighted.

Tuesday:
1. Felt better about going to family Thanksgiving. (Failing actually interacting better, I have the new 3DS Zelda game.)

2. Painted fabric looking good for baby square of doom.

3. Thai noodles and Leverage with Wim making us both feel better.

4. Email with rushthatspeaks and very important Lucien cat.

Wednesday:
1. Moderately intelligent cloning scheme generated by me!

2. Finished painting some very pretty coral, set the dye, and (this is critical) decided not to screw up my fingers and brain trying to finish the whole thing tonight.

3. Played Rock Band with my new drum pedal, which I had to buy on eBay since somehow the Goodwill only has the main drum-kit parts. Fun! Hilarious to observe myself failing to control my own foot!