Ms Slowsky/Old Biddy Syndrome

First off, I know I haven't published much in a while. This is partly because I have been watching the "Game of Thrones" first season DVD's, and partly because aliens have stolen my metabolism and replaced it with that of a garden slug on a slow day, so I have very little energy and look like shit - puffy eyes, face and throat. I look like I haven't slept in a week, which isn't the case. My brain is moving slowly and when I do make it to the gym my legs feel like lead. Hopefully this is not a permanent situation.
I went to see my doctor yesterday. She ordered some bloodwork, but I don't have the results yet. It could be allergies, or anemia, low thyroid, low vitamin D and/or just a delayed reaction to Rugrat's death. I'm supposed to take iron, adjust my vitamin D dosage if necessary (Dr. is very into Vitamin D, which is perhaps not surprising given the amount of cloud cover than Ithaca usually gets), test different over the counter allergy meds, and possibly more, depending on the results of my bloodwork. In other words, I have the middle aged woman flu, aka Old Biddy Syndrome. I'll report back once I get the bloodwork
Postscript a few days later: I started taking iron and Claritin. I didn't notice much change with the Claritin, but I noticed a huge change in my energy level once I started taking the iron. Who'da thought....

For those of you who live in CA, do you remember the Comcast ads featuring the "Slowsky's"? Anyway, I am Ms. Slowsky these days.

Confessions of a warehouse club addict

I have a confession to make. I love warehouse stores. This traces back to when I was in high school and Price Club (later Costco) opened up a store in Sunnyvale. Man that was a big deal. I used to go with my mom when I was home from college and she would buy me supplies like 6-packs of socks and underwear and towels. It was very exciting. There was always someone in the dorm with a membership, so we'd go there to stock up for parties. That was exciting too.
When I moved back to the Bay Area the same Costco was conveniently on my way home from work. Life was good and I got in the habit of going there every few weeks. Although you may think it's weird for a single person to buy stuff there, well, that is true. Nonetheless, I know lots of single or childless people who frequent Costco. Anyway, I had to learn what I could get away with buying in bulk, and what I couldn't.
When I moved to Ithaca I had major sticker shock over the cost of groceries here. This was not helped by the absence of Trader Joe's and Costco. I tried for about a month and then gave in and joined Sam's Club, which is about 45 miles away. That was ok for the occasional trip to get staples, but it couldn't compare to Costco and it was inconvenient.
Fortunately, the other player in the warehouse club arena, BJ's, just opened up a store here in Ithaca. This is a damn good place to open one, and not just because I'm biased. Although it's a bit of a liberal hippie college town, Ithaca is a town of people sorta like me and we love love love the big box stores, and there were no warehouse stores in a 40 mile radius.
It opened this weekend, although the grand opening isn't for a week. I went there today and it was quite busy by Ithaca standards. Unlike Costco or Sam's Club, it makes no pretense to supply businesses. There's a more upscale mix of products than Sam's Club, and it is smaller than the other two. Prices are somewhat higher, but nonetheless I think that it will still be cheaper once I factor in 3 gallons of gas. I will more than make up my membership fee in yogurt alone. I am happy to be able to do my yogurt/lettuce/cottage cheese/cat litter run on the way home from work. I will still spend too much money at Wegmans, but if it keeps me out of there once or twice a month, it will be a good thing. I've never really figured out how to avoid temptation at Wegmans.
My real confession is that at the moment I have memberships in Sam's Club, BJ's, and Costco. Don't ask. I had to renew my Costco membership last year so I could spend a large rebate. I'll remedy that this summer when my Costco and Sam's Club memberships expire.

Something in the water

There must be something in the water in the chem department. There are a number of professors who are >80 years old and still going strong. My office neighbor is 83 or 84 and still comes in 6 days a week. His wife also works in the department, and around the same age. Upstairs there is another emeritus prof who still comes in most days. There's also a 90 year old and 100 year old, although the latter is actually retired and moved to Florida.
Whatever it is, I hope I get its benefit and enjoy many years of old biddydom. I can't guarantee that I will want to work past normal retirement age, but who knows. Perhaps that is the secret.
It may be a good place to get old, but it's seemingly dangerous to be a student here. In the time that I've been here there's been a death by fire, several by falling into the gorges, a couple of fatal alcohol poisonings, a car accident, and several deaths by natural causes. There haven't been any suicides, but there was a spate of them right before I got here. The email letter of condolence from the university president is an unfortunately frequent occurence. It seems like a lot more than I remember from grad or undergrad days, although the size of the student body is somewhat larger.

Blogging from a Train: Dinner with T

I’m a train going up to Sacramento now. It’s a little slower than driving, but cheaper than a rental car and I can goof off and blog.
I had dinner with T at his new house last night. I was sort of nervous, but in a different way than usual. In the past I was nervous that it would be weird or emotional. This time I wondered if perhaps we were just going through the motions and it would be better just to skip it. However, it was ok. It was nice to see him, and good to catch up, but I did not feel sad, melancholy, or annoyed with him afterwards, so that’s a big and positive change.
T looks a lot older now, and is balder and greyer. (Just an observation – I look older too and I’m fatter so I shouldn’t really be too snarky here.) Although he was in good shape, I didn’t feel attracted to him, so that was good too. And, unlike before, I didn’t really give a damn whether he was attracted to me or not.
He bought a fixer upper a bit over a year ago, and has been fixing it up very slowly. I am very amused that it’s taken him WAY longer to finish his bathroom remodel than it took me. He is a bit less smug and overconfident about remodeling projects now. It made me really glad that I opted for the new monster house rather than the fixer upper in Ithaca, and was glad that I could afford to do so there, when I could have never afforded it in the Bay Area without having to do a really long commute.
We talked a lot, but, as always, we didn’t talk about our current love lives. If he had asked, I would’ve told him about cowdude, but he didn’t ask. I did mention cowdude several times in the course of the evening in other contexts (‘my friend’) – if T read between the lines he might figure it out. Yes, T and I are both avoidance masters in that regard.
I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again. I don’t know where things are going with cowdude, but he has really helped me get over T and I am extremely grateful to him for that.

Hands Pants Syndrome

Dear Freshman Guys of Cornell,
Please keep your hands out of your pants while you are walking around North Campus during daylight. You will not impress any women that way. Really. If you need to adjust your trousersnake, at least put your hands in your pockets or do it from the outside of your pants.
Love,
Old Biddy

Classes start today, and so North Campus is once again full of freshmen when I am walking to the parking lot in the evening. For reasons I do not fully understand, there seems to be an epidemic of guys walking around with their hands in their pants/shorts. Really. Now I am an Old Biddy, but I am also a veteran crotch watcher and certified kilt inspector, so I know this is a new thing. The question is why. Is it related to the cut of this year's fashions? Have they perhaps been watching "Jersey Shore" too much and picking up bad habits from it? Is the class of 2015 especially well-endowed? Is there a new, highly itchy STD going around? Are they copying famous rappers even though they are a white boy wearing pants which are in no danger of falling down? Inquiring minds want to know, but in the meantime, please keep it in your pants, and keep your hands out of there.
I am apparently not the first person to notice this, as a quick Google search informed me.

Late Summer Musings

I've only experienced one Ithaca fall, and five Boston falls, but in my limited experience there isn't an extended "Indian summer" phase like there usually is in CA. Of course, it is quite possible that I just didn't notice it, since I am calibrated to think of even the slightest shift as a change in season.
In any case, it feels like fall now, even when we get a fairly warm day. We had a few weeks of relatively hot weather in July, but then something shifted about two weeks ago and it started feeling like fall. The air is different and I can see the leaves turning at the top of a tree outside my office. Classes start this week.
It has now been a year since I first started corresponding with Cowdude, although there was a month in there when we each assumed the other wasn't interested, due to one of my messages getting lost in cyberspace. I am not sure how a year in cowdude/old biddy time translates into normal couple time, so it's hard to calibrate. I like him a lot, but the schedule/distance thing sucks at times. We need to have the "where is this going" conversation soon, preferably before the semester gets too crazy. I'm still in that intermediate zone emotionally and am in no hurry, but it would be good to figure out if we are on the same page or not. In any case, I trust him and don't think I'd bear him any ill will if we want different things.

In which I am completely unfaithful to my various alma maters

I am an old biddy and sometimes it is hard to resist acting like one, as in saying "Back in the day it was so much better because..." but this is my blog so I will indulge this urge. Anyway, back in the day there was a lot less pressure about applying to college and getting in. I did not worry about it too much until my junior year of high school, when I began to get deluged with mail after I took the PSAT. I then compressed all my college choice stress into a one-year period and was admittedly a a bigger intellectual snob than I have ever been before or after. However, thanks to a multitude of factors it is much worse today, and it starts much earlier. I am glad I am a old biddy and did not have to deal with this level of stress (or Facebook) when I was a high strung teenager.
The colleges encourage this, of course, because the more applications they get and the higher their rejection rate is, the better it is for their rankings, and that leads to yet more applications. There have even been allegations that some places overuse the wait list just to make their admit rate lower. But of course, it means very little. If everyone is applying to 20 schools, of course they're going to all get more applications. I hear lots of whining about how much harder it is to get into college now but strangely I don't hear any comments that students are better prepared. Quite the opposite, actually.
Today one of Missy's coworkers ("D") and her son ("M") visited on a college tour of various East Coast campuses, including my current employer and my graduate alma mater. They were very fixated on ranking schools and departments (much more than I remember being, and I was pretty fixated on it back in the day), and from my surfing of the internet and general reading I get the impression that this is pretty common, like your entire life is going to be determined by where you go to college. Of course, it isn't, unless you dream of working for a brokerage firm on Wall Street, in which case you have to go to Harvard and that may be one reason the financial meltdown was as bad as it was. Anyway, I told them that there are a lot of good schools and in my experience it is way more important to find a school that is a good fit and be happy, rather than go somewhere you don't like which is ranked higher. There were other things I didn't say, like nepotism has its advantages, but grad school nepotism is way more useful than undergrad nepotism, which means very little in the sciences. Or that M might do a 180 shift on his major and life plan, or he might not get in to some of his top choices, or that the financial aid package for one place might suck and tip the decision in favor of somewhere else, or that everyone I know from Harvard dropped out of grad school, or that the vast majority of people stay relatively close to home (e.g. a long day's drive) for college.
So, students of America, take it from an old biddy. Don't stress too much about this whole college application process. Really.

Random Musings on Ice Cream and East Coast Weather

I can't deny that my former home has some of the best weather in the world. It's not too hot, not too cold, not humid and usually sunny. There were times that I missed it this past winter and short spring. But there is something to be said for those late spring early summer days, in the afternoon, when it's threatening to rain. Everything is green and the air has a certain alive feel to it. Some may disagree, but days like this are my favorite time to go and get ice cream or coffee and sit outside enjoying the moment.
Back in grad school I used to go get coffee, or donuts, or ice cream in the afternoon, and go sit outside in the big courtyard while I enjoyed my snack. I did this a few days a week from probably April-October. Today I went out to get lunch, but it was late and it was slim pickings at the cafeteria, so I opted for ice cream instead. It was my first ice cream outing of the year, and between the ice cream and the way the air felt, I was reminded of my grad school afternoon breaks.

Alma Mater Fundraising Fail

Dear Alma Mater Fundraising Geniuses,
On this fine Valentine's evening I was lying in the bathtub reading the Atlantic Monthly and relaxing when the phone rang. It was someone from my graduate alma mater, trying to fundraise, no doubt. I didn't pick it up.
Now, I realize that you are all a bunch of geeks just like me, but let me give you a piece of advice. Do not call on Valentine's Day. If I were spending it with that special someone, I would not want my nookie session interupted. If I were at home moping about it, I would not want to be reminded that I am such a big huge geek that I attended a school where they apparently think it's normal to fundraise on V-day evening. Even when I was in grad school I at least went out drinking with my buddies on V-day. There is just no way this would translate into a productive fundraising outcome for you.
Thank you!
-Old biddy, PhD 1994

(Do Not) Crave: Weird-ass canned milk product

Cowdude received a bottle of Crave chocolate strawberry milk from one of his students. It does not need to be refrigerated. I think it was like those old Life cereal ads in the 70's - "Give it to Mikey - he'll try anything."
Anyway, we gave it a try at breakfast. It was pretty nasty - the vast amounts of sugar and artificial flavorings could not hide the fact that this milk had been cooked for a very long time. Its flavor was reminiscent of the freezer-burnt residue from a box of cheap neopolitan ice cream.
As a final test, I gave some to Rugrat. She normally eats any kind of dairy product, even those which have started to go bad. I didn't think it was possible for her to not like anything with butterfat in it. She sniffed the Crave suspiciously and then walked off. Yes, it's that bad.

These boots were made for (walking off with)

I can now add "Randomly getting rid of grad students' belongings" to my job description. Let me explain.
We have a lab that is mainly used for storage, but it is about 2/3 full of junk belonging to people who were here years ago. Ever so often I get a bee in my bonnet and go in and clear it out a bit. I haven't really gotten rid of too much, because I actually am worried about getting rid of something important.
Mixed in with the random personal belongings of the former main inhabitant of the lab were a pair of cheap hiking boots. Everyone, including my boss, would make jokes about the boots, if they happened to wander in when I was in there. The boots were always there, and it never seemed like anyone was wearing them
My boss had salvaged some storage racks, which got moved in there today. I was in procrastination mode, so I wandered in there to see what was up. My boss was also in procrastination mode, so he wandered in too. We once again joked about the boots, which had gotten displaced by the storage racks. I told him I was going to get rid of the boots.
The chemistry department has a "free table" where people can get rid of or acquire surplus stuff. In theory this is just chemistry stuff, but people put all manner of stuff on there and most of it gets taken. I put the boots, and some very old textbooks, on the free table. I didn't really think that the boots would get taken, but put them there just to assuage my guilt about throwing them away.
Later that night, a grad student, "M", came by my office and asked if I knew what happened to his boots. Oh shit! He wears them to/from the lab every day during the winter. We went down to the free table but they were gone. I told him I'd reimburse him for a new pair and I put up a sign in case the boots might get returned by their new owner. The next morning, someone had put the boots back on the table and M reclaimed them. All's well that ends well.
So anyway, I was chagrined and mortified, but it's also funny as hell and the whole group laughed their asses off about it, even the guy who lost the boots.
So, what is the funniest part of the whole story?

A: that someone took the old boots within a few hours?
B: that no one knew that M owned the boots because he cleaned them up so well each time that I never saw any new dirt or water on them, and they were always in the same place? (M is German and very meticulous)
C: that the boots were always there because M is always in lab?

It's the little things

A new physical sciences building was recently completed next to the building where I work. It's quite impressive and cost a lot of money. This is all fine and good. However, to the people I work with, the main attraction of the new building is not the atrium, or skylight, or state of the art labs. Nope. There's a cafe in there. We can now get food and coffee without going outside. This is hugely popular.

Blogging from a train and a plane

I’m on a train, returning from Sacramento. Since I haven’t gotten into my book yet, and there is no internet access here, it seems like a good time to get caught up on my blog.It’s been a while, so I’ll cover a mishmash of topics. Perhaps I will split it up once I actually post it.
The train is passing just south of where I usually drive. I did not recognize it at first. In the car, it is easy to forget that much of the area is actually delta wetlands. On the train, after a month of rain, it is easier to see.
I’ve been in Ithaca for more than six months. It was almost midsummer when I arrived, which meant that it still hadn’t warmed up and the forest hadn’t completely filled out. Now midwinter has passed, bringing with it subfreezing temperatures for most of the month, but surprisingly little snow. On the evening of the solstice, I passed flocks of crows roosting in the trees. They looked like large black leaves in the winterbare trees.
Although I do like to talk about the weather, the adjustment hasn’t been too difficult. I’ve had to buy some more clothes but other than that it isn’t too bad. It helps that I have good cold tolerance, and that I’m fatter now than I was a few years ago. There is a damp chill in California in the winter, and poorly insulated houses, and it’s good preparation for colder climes.
Ithaca is cloudy much of the time, due to the influence of Cayuga Lake. The hilly terrain and the large number of trees add to the overall effect. It is rare to be in full sunlight, and it is noticeable when it does occur. Nonetheless, the light is amazing.
I have not been blogging very much lately. The combination of a very busy month at work and my budding relationship with cowdude have apparently sapped my motivation to blog. Hopefully it will come back before I get sucked into the next research proposal.
I saw T when I was in CA. It was odd to see him now that I am seeing cowdude. It felt like there was more distance between us, and at times I wondered what I saw in him or why I stayed with him so long. He kept insisting that we get together if I had time left after I got back from Missy’s. There won’t be enough time to do anything, but I wouldn’t have called him. Something about it sounded empty, like he was just saying that to fulfill some sort of imaginary obligation. (Missy – this is the other reason I wasn’t in a rush to get back.) It is time to sever that tie. I debated whether I should defriend him on Facebook, but I should’ve done it when he broke up with me. For me to do it now it would be too little, too late, and might send a message of something other than indifference.

Perfect timing

Yes, it's true, the new version of Bejeweled is being launched on my birthday. 

Scene from my bed, many mornings

Rugrat and Luna have it down to an art form.  If they are especially hungry and/or I am sleeping in too long, they both climb on my bed, and Rugrat proceeds to annoy Luna, who growls and starts to have an asthma attack.  If that doesn't get me up, Rugrat will move in closer and Luna will bitch slap her.  Eventually I get up and feed them.  The instant I start heading to the kitchen they forget their act and are friendly to each other again.
Anyway, that's not really blogworthy but when I saw this cartoon I just thought it was perfect and wanted to share it.

A Brief Snippet in Time

A Friday morning walk/jog around my neighborhood. The air was cold, the sun was just coming up, I was listening to my favorite new song, and one of the neighborhood dogs came over to greet me with doggy kisses. As I looked up I saw the first few snowflakes start to fall, and saw the golden sunrise on the horizon, and realized that I had passed through one of those moments when my little section of the universe is in perfect balance.

Grad student feeding experiment, part 2

My boss bought the grad students an air popcorn popper for the conference room. However, being graduate students, one of them brought in some popcorn, everyone ate it, and then no one replaced it. They are actually quite generous about bringing in food for birthdays, etc, but popcorn is not one of those things you think about at the grocery store.
As a joke, I told them I would buy them a big bag of popcorn at Sam's Club. However, it turns out that the bag is 50 lbs. I didn't think they could go through that much popcorn, but then they went through a 2 lb container in about a week. So when I was at Sam's Club this weekend I bought them the 50 lb bag. It was $18. I'm starting a pool about how long it take for it to get all eaten.
1 big bag = 630 servings
19 students and postdocs

I am guessing March 31.

you know you're on the internet too much if...

you're surfing the LOLcat page while your cats are glaring at you waiting to be fed, and you think "Wouldn't it be funny if there were a LOLcat picture about that," and then you see one.

Uh gee thanks, I guess....

Every year the county department the county department of agriculture puts some insect/fruit fly traps in my orange and lemon trees.  If I'm not there when they put them up or take them down, they leave a note.  Anyway, they took them down today and left me a note. It was preprinted, but the inspector had signed her name and written, "Nice Flies!"
Uh gee thanks, I guess.

Blogging from the airport, SJC again

I'm back at the airport.  This time I'm at the San Jose airport sitting in the comfy Southwest section.  There's free wifi and comfy chairs with power and USB charger outlets.  I'm sitting here blogging and people watching
I'm visiting my brother in Phoenix this weekend.  We're going to hit the salsa festival tomorrow and then go to Sedona on Sunday.  I'll take lots of pictures and post them here and/or in Facebook.
The water got turned back on at the monster house yesterday, so the inspector was able to finish the inspection.  Everything was fine.  I sent in the mortgage application today, so now things are officially out of the waiting period phase.  Reality is starting to hit.
This was a weird short week, sandwiched between trips. I was sick, it was raining, I didn't get much done, and yet I didn't have much fun.  I had a couple of movers come by and give me quotes, I tried to find a better rate for my mortgage, I ran errands, I worked out, I had dinner with my parents, and I went to an alumni get-together with Mitra.  That was about it.  Next week I'm going to make a point to get out and do some interesting stuff.  I am glad to be going out of town this weekend.