Monday, July 6

in other news...

...I got a bug bite and it became swollen and tender overnight. So I went to the doctor just to make sure it wasn't serious. Luckily not my primary care doc but a different one in the practice. She gave me bactrim for it. Unfortunately, by the 2nd day of taking it, my arms and legs were covered in hives. I am apparently allergic to bactrim didn't know since I had never taken it before. 5 days later, I still have hives but they are slowly going away and are much less itchy.

The great thing about this Doc is that I also mentioned in my first visit that I still had reflux problems. My primary care doc when I saw her 3 mths ago told me "I'm not giving you any more reflux meds, I think you should just exercise and watch what you eat - cut out all foods that cause problems. This is nonsense since I sometimes would go 4 days on bland food, mostly cereal, nothing spicy or fried and would still have reflux backing up into my throat. Most unpleasant sensation.
Anyhoo, the new doc ordered some blood work done - they took 3 tubes of blood 1. for l;yme disease (just in case my bite was from a tick) 2. for H.pylori (this is usually a sign of gatritis, stomach ulcer, duodenal ulcer and results in reflux) and I'm not sure why they needed the 3rd tube. When I went back to see her 2 days later because of allergic reaction/hives she told me my tests had come back positive for h.pylori infection. This is good news in a way because my regular doc almost had me thinking all my stomach issues were in my head. It was good to find out that something was wrong and that it can be treated. She has also ordered an endoscopy and they are supposed to call me with the referral.

So now I'm taking Prevpac which is the typical treatment for h.pylori. It is triple therapy which has two antibiotics(amoxicillin and clarithromycin) and one acid-reducer(prevacid). I have to take 4 pills twice a day for 14 days. but this is fine because maybe I can have a normal life like other people once this is all over and not have to constantly worry about whether I want to risk having indigestion/pain/reflux when deciding what to eat.
The main downside to these is that I have a weird taste in my mouth all the time and have been chewing gum whenever I can to alleviate it. Plus, the other unfortunate side effect is diarrhea. While it is not quite that, I have to go way more often than I would normally in a day. Also, I have to eat within 5min of taking them because the one time I didn't I felt nauseous for a long time and kept running to the bathroom feeling like I was going to throw up. But I didn't although the feeling lasted until I had some oatmeal and that seemed to settle my stomach. But if this means I can be normal again/eat normally then all of this will be worth it.

life goes on...

It's been an age since I've been on here. I almost forgot how :)

Life is good. Mostly. My crush Q, yeah, I have come to the conclusion that he will never ask me out. Whenever I try to make plans, he always seems to need to make up his mind at the last minute like he's waiting for a better offer. So I've backed off a bit. I don't go visit him anymore. He's noticed and has mentioned it in a roundabout way but whatever. He has actually started coming to visit me now. Which might mean nothing. I'm fairly certain that he has placed me in the "friend" category and even if he is attracted to me, he seems to have no immediate plans to change anything.

My 4th was excruciating. the only really good part was the fireworks. However I had a 4hr wait to see them. I ended going with 2 guy friends who I've actually never hung out with on my own. Normally it is a group of 4 or 5 of us. For one thing, they found a bench to sit on and refused to go walking around. That is how I usually pass the time and it never seemed as long as it did this time. I wanted to get something to eat and they were like "oh we're fine, we'll wait here". Plus one of them, let's call him Bim, who I haven't hung with very often kept making off-color jokes. the kind of jokes I'm sure guys make with each other when no women are around. I plainly told him at least three times when he veered off into inappropriate conversation that this was not a story for mixed company i.e. when girls are around. yet, he kept going. The other guy, Bam, has a new fancy-ass camera and was going on and on about how fantastic it was, how many pictures it could take in a minute, blah, blah, blahty, blah. By the end of the evening, I wanted to stomp on his effing camera. I don't understand how anyone can be so self-centered, so self-absorbed that they don't realize that saying "my camrah is so awesome, 300 pics in 30min" 20+ effing times is not cool. Not entertaining. Makes you sound like an ass. What made all of this worse was that I had to endure it. I didn't drive, Bim did.
I have resolved to bail on on any future event that involves me having to spend time with the two of them alone ever again. Even if it means I have to pretend to be sick. That's how dire my situation was.

The crap thing about all this is that I would never have met either of them if it wasn't for my friend, Gillian, at work. Gillian works on a different site with Bim and Bam and invited them out with us a few times. Now it feels like I'm stuck knowing these people who I now believe that the universe never meant for me to meet. She actually never hangs out with them anymore. But they still call me and I feel a bit guilty about the way I feel. I feel like it would suit me fine if they never talked to me again and I never had to hang out with them again. I don't like to be mean. I try not to be intentionally/unintentionally unkind. So now I'm stuck.
Bam is sometimes almost normal but Bim seems to lack even the most basic social skills(prior to this I just thought he was quiet).

Q totally bailed on me as well. First he said he'd be out of town. Then he said he would be out of town the day before but would be back in time to hang out. Asked me to call him to let him know my plans. I told him my freaking plans Thurs when I saw him last. But fine, so I called him around 3pm just after talking to Bam on the phone because I figured he said he'd be back in time so he'd have made plans to be back before 5pm since I told him that's when I planned to leave for downtown.
Nope. I got his voice mail and left a message. Almost at the same time he was sending me a text saying he was still out of town (only 2hrs away) and if I had made plans. This made me a little bit angry. But I just texted him the same thing I had previously told him - Bam was coming by my place around 5 and we were going to take one car and go downtown. He immediately called me which is a first b/c he usu just texts. I had already told him what I was doing. I had even mentioned that I would go by myself if no one else was available - how much firmer plans could I have made than that? If he really wanted to hang out with me, he would gotten his ass back here in time. Instead he says "give me a call later, I should be back and let me know if you guys are getting dinner/drinks". So I say fine. I text him at 7pm b/c I was really having a hard time being alone with Bim and Bam. He texts me to say " oh I am kind of tired, had a few drinks, staying here tonight". WTF? I was kind of upset at first then more angry than hurt. I just have to move on from this.

I was talking to R at work and she said, guys are like that sometimes. Said her husband sometimes has no recollection of stuff she talked to him about doing. Then when it's time to get ready, he's like "where are we going?"
Personally I think that is bullshit. Plus I don't think it really applies to my situation. If something/someone is important to you, you would remember and make yourself available to be with them. We hardly have much time to talk at work.
I thought maybe he was coming around because after I started ignoring/not visiting him in his lab or cubicle. He says, we haven't had dinner in a while, we should get dinner sometime this week. And we did. And it was great, felt like progress.
Normally I'd invite him to watch baseball games with me when our (opposing) teams were playing but I had stopped doing that as well. But "watching the game" was a pretext. I know it, he knows it, because he and I spent most of the time talking and eating and barely any watching the many TVs around us. But I am always the one issuing the invite.

But I think I was wrong and that he is content for this to be it. I am not. I want to tell him how I feel so badly. I'm not yet ready to deal with the possible/inevitable consequences of doing such a thing.

Instead I made a profile on yahoo personals again. I've resolved not to message any guys at all unless they send me a message first/ice breaker which is not contradictory to their profile.
A guy recently sent me a message saying he was a widower with a daughter. He also put his email in the message (I haven't paid so that would be the only real way to contact him). Except that when I read his profile, it says he's a widower yes, but that he has a son. "son" and "daughter" are two completely different words. this leaves me wondering if a)he has several kids or b) no kids or c) is not widowed. Additionally his profile says he doesn't smoke but his "ideal" woman smokes occasionally. Why would a non-smoking man choose that option. You have the option of choosing multiple answers so if it said "non-smoker or smokes occasionally or any" it would seem way more legit to me. As it is, there are too many inconsistencies. I did email him and asked if he could clarify those things for me. I don't expect him to respond.

Work is actually better. Even though my boss' boss is the worst manager I've yet to work under, my boss and I are getting along pretty good.

Tuesday, December 9

updates

It has been an age since I've been on here. Life is busy.
Work...
Work is blah. So I'm on a new project, in a new lab (not so new, just over 4 weeks) and it kinda feels like I'm in hell. Ok, so I'm exaggerating a bit. It just doesn't feel right. I don't recall ever feeling this out of place for so long after joining a new project. Plus I had to move to a new writing area as well and my new cubicle mate is a weirdo. Harsh but true. She is always talking but she mumbles and talks in half-whispers and most of the time I'm not sure if she is even talking to me. So now, I just ignore everything she says unless she says it twice...like blah, blah, blah (pause), Petra blah, blah, blah...then I know she means me and is not just talking out loud to herself again. She is always looking over my shoulder at my computer screen and making comments. WTF? All I need is a little alone time at lunch to eat in peace. I barely take 30min lunch most days. The other drawback of my new cubicle area is that people in nearby cubicles talk on their phones a lot and they leave their stupid ringers on (when they are not there) instead of putting the damn things on vibrate. Also, there are 9 other people sitting in cubicles further back from mine - so they and anyone who is visiting them have to walk past my area to get there. So now I pop my head phones in, Ipod on and slowly, they are getting the message to give me a little peace and keep on walking.
I miss my old lab. I miss my old cubicle area which was a corner one, not on the way to anyone else's - only 4 of us were in that area. It was bliss.
Also, there is the added annoyance of people making comments every day about the time I'm eating lunch. Like it is any of their business. I eat a mid-morning snack at 10:30 and then have lunch b/t 12:30 and 1pm most days. Somedays a little later or earlier depending on how my reactions are going in lab and whether I'm at an easy stopping point or not. I want to tell them to leave me the fuck alone. That's what I want to say. I really need to exercise b/c in my head is all this negative energy from these people. Note: every time I'm typed the word "people" I really wanted to type "fuckers". That's how I think of them in my head. I don't normally swear like that or think about random hostile comments like that but lately it's all I think.
In addition to all this nonsense, less than 15% of my reactions have worked. I know this b/c I have to create these stupid excel tables about them now - in my new project/dept. Overall, work kinda sucks now.

I can't wait to go on vacation. Only 6 more days and then 2 weeks away. I'm going to my sister in England again and my Mum and younger sisters are also making the trip. It'll be good b/c we haven't all been together for Christmas in 4 years.
I have spent more than I planned but starting in Jan I plan to eat out much less frequently and see fewer movies then put that money towards paying off my credit cards. I have been spending the extra money I'm making at my 2nd job instead of putting it towards the cards. But it's ok. I'm not panicked about it.
I just have to figure out how to pack it all :)

I went to see Trans-Siberian orchestra this past weekend and it was a fantastic show. Five of us went and I got to sit next to my current crush Q. I still haven't made any progress past him being a crush yet but I'm still hopeful...most days.

I have a cold. It was only a matter of time since everyone in my immediate working area have been coughing/sneezing/blowing their nose for the past 3 weeks. I left work early Friday b/c I felt so bad and also called out sick at my 2nd job Sat. I spent the day sleeping/eating/taking sudafed and tussin. My voice was mostly gone. Now it has progressed to a runny nose and more progressive cough. I'm hoping to be over it before I have to fly next week. My ears are popping like crazy. I hope that this doesn't become an ear infection. I'm still hoarse and for most of the day almost feel ok. As the day progressed at work, it might be that I'm getting tired sooner b/c I'm sick but I just feel like crap by 5pm. I actually left right at 5pm today.

This week is super busy. I'm finally going to see "Twilight" tomorrow night - I read the book and am excited to see Patterson play Edward.
I also have a work holiday party Thurs(we're going bowling :) then my friend and I are meeting to sample this cool new chocolate-Boc beer she bought, then I have a hair appt later that night.
Fri is when I plan to get some laundry done after work.
Sat I am working 8-4 at my 2nd job then I have 2 parties, one starts early and the other will surely end late so I think I can easily do both.

Wednesday, October 22

fun dinner

I just came home from dinner with the new guy Q. He's not my guy. It was not a date even though he paid. I followed him to drop his car off to local dealership then I was going to drop him home. That's when he asked what my plans were for dinner and said we could get something together and it'd be his treat. In spite of the fact it was a non-date, it was very enjoyable for me. I think he had fun as well. We got a chance to talk about ourselves and our lives...stuff we normally wouldn't mention casually while we're at work. He finally mentioned the ex in passing.

I went out dancing last Sat until the wee hours of the morning (3ish) and lost my cell somewhere in the back of the taxi we came back to my apt in. This was kinda sucky but not the end of the world. My plan has been off contract since May and I was eligible for a new phone anyway. The most inconvenient thing was that all my numbers in the phone that I lost were not written down anywhere else. Plus I got this cute guy's number. I will post the story of that later...it's pretty funny. I am a really funny drunk :)

Tuesday, September 9

In other news

I bumped into C at the grocery store tonight. This is the guy who I had a semi-crush on in college. He went ot grad school here and we met up again and hung out a few times. He promised to call and didn't. I got mad and refused to call him. Met up and hung out with him at my 5th college reunion. You know how sometimes a guy can go from cute to hot in 30sec? He totally did while we were dancing and it was memorable. Lots of kissing. Not much more than that. Promised to really keep in touch this time but didn't. I tried to invite him out to a movie through facebook but apparently his pc was down, he didn't get my message/respond to me until like 6wks later. Still, it's all bygones to me now. I'm all about Q. Still, he was a very good kisser.
So when I saw him today at the checkout I kinda smiled to myself and we chatted a bit once he was done as well. We'd actually parked directly opposite each other in the parking lot. Weird. He's looking for another job and might well be leaving the area in a couple months. We both said this time that we'd try to get together for coffee or something soon.
I'm just going to leave it. If he does manage to get in touch with me, I'll just wait and see. He can get in touch with me if he wants. He does have my number and my email, etc and is on my facebook friend list.

fit to be tied

So I keep going back and forth with whether or not Q is into me. It's like when you were a kid with a flower pulling petals going - he loves me...he loves me not...he loves me. Actually mine goes more like - he totally wants me...he is so not into me...he liiikes me...he only sees me as a buddy...and so on.
I am slowly going insane sometimes with my internal dialogue.
He waited for me so we could walk to our cars together 3 times last week and we chatted for another 10min or so after we got to our cars.

Q and I went out for dinner and drinks with another friend of ours last Fri. The service sucked, they were understaffed, but what made me really upset at the time was two other things. One, said friend (SF) invited a new friend of his supposedly to eat with us. She showed up 90min late and then said she wasn't planning to eat and that she almost didn't come out at all. WTF? SF also didn't know what he wanted by the time the waiter finally made it to our table which didn't help either. So we finally got our food mostly cold 2 hrs after I'd arrived. I was not happy about either of these things. What really made me mad though was this random girl who my friend invited was chatting up Q. Right in front of my face. True, she had no way of knowing that I'm interested and therefore he is off-limits. Rationally I know this. In that moment though, I wanted to say, "step off bitch, step OFF!". Luckily I only had 1 and 1/2 beers and was in no way drunk enough to spew any of the crap going on in my anger-infused brain. Yeah, there was one other feeling. This feeling I had was somewhat alien to me. Jealousy. Pure and simple.

I really wanted to have dinner with just Q but I didn't think he'd go for that. Plus it's not part of my subtle plan. So I changed the time we were supposed to meet from 7 to 8 to accommodate SF b/c he said he couldn't meet us before 8pm. SF who managed to get there 10min before me. He had called Q and given him a lift there since they live close to each other. Nice of him, huh? Did SF call me as well so I could get there at the same them as them? No, he did not. He did call random girl though to invite her but not me.

After all this, I'd spent $29. What did this buy me? Mediocre, lukewarm food, 2 ok beers and internal anger and jealousy over some random girl I hope never to see again. She is apparently just starting grad school and she is studying a pseudo-science. I don't know what else to call it. I won't write it b/c maybe someone will be randomly googling it and find my blog. Might even be someone I know. So I guess that's all I'll be saying about that.

Anyhoo, I wasn't going to blog about Fri night. At least it wasn't my intention to do so. I guess it was still festering inside and I had to get some more of it out.

new game show

My friend told me about this new game show "hole in the wall". But seriously, you have to see it to believe it. Truly ridiculous. I have several questions. How are you supposed to shape yourself into an arrow pointing right? Can the human body contort into such a shape? Doubtful. Must they wear those shiny, silver, skintight bodysuits? Could they not have come up with something waterproof (since they get dunked in a pool of green liquid when they can't contort themselves to fit the "hole" in the moving wall) that was not so...so...revealing. It's abit much really. Still, watching these peopls in those ridiculous suits get shoved into the green pool...priceless.

Wednesday, August 27

the word on my current crush

He moved to the area recently and didn't know anyone other than a couple other people who work with us. So when he asked me what there was to do here - I invited him out to our Thurs night happy hour. He's been hanging out with us ever since. Now I have just got to figure out a way for him and I to hang out alone...without sounding like a spaz...very difficult.

My crush, let's call him Q, coincidentally has the same given name as the last guy I dated but fortunately goes by a different nick-name. Weird, I know.

He has family/friends in the Northeast but they live 3-5hrs away. He's away this weekend :( He and I have been having lots of conversations about everything. I'm trying not to act completely gaga over him since I am around my other co-workers most of the time when we talk.
The wedding I'm going to in Oct - he is also invited. I have this vague plan in my head to make a major move towards him then. That is, if nothing has progressed between us by then.

I have date tomorrow. Sort of a date - I'm meeting this guy I met online at okcupid for coffee and a walk. He's a vegetarian who loves the outdoors. I told me friend this and she laughed and said, "your exact oppositte, well I guess opposites do atract."
Yeah, I know, I have a crush and this sounds counter-productive. I'm not really on okcupid to meet guys. I like taking their silly tests and answering their stupid questions. However lots of guys feel the need to write me anyway. For some reason I'm a big hit with the 20-yr olds. I pointed out to one of them that I was 13 yrs older than him. He didn't seem to care. But I certainly do, ugh, in a word.
I also recently created a profile again on yahoo. I did this b/c I am insane. Insane, I tell you. I keep going between 2 main thoughts...
1) Q is totally interested in me and is just biding his time until he asks me out,
2) Q is not interested in me at all and only talks to me b/c I know other single people our age and he wants to meet others.
My problem with this is - aren't I enough? Why does he need to meet other people when he has already met me? Why?
Doesn't that sound like insanity to you? So to try to calm myself down and also reassure myself that I'm still desirable/guys want to date me(even if they aren't guys I actually want to date) - I created a profile again on yahoo and actually started responding to the mail I get on okcupid.

So the coffee date tomorrow...I don't really want to go but I'm going. Actually he want us to get coffee then go for a walk. I'm supposed to meet up with a friend later on so I have someplace to go if I need to cut things short.

My friend G, for some reason wants to go out tomorrow with one of the interns who worked at our company this summer. Said something about how he might have hot friends. My problem with this - he might, but they are likely barely 21. Just too young for me to contemplate in any way. I just don't get why she thinks it'd be fun to hang out with a bunch of boys who are barely out of college. Plus instead of going to our usual hangout - where I could invite Q and another buddy of ours S to meet us - they are planning to go somewhere downtown as yet undetermined. I hate half-assed plans made by others at the last minute. Yeah, so I'm supposed to be meeting them later on tomorrow night somewhere. This also means that I can't makes plans to hang with Q since I told G, I'd meet her. Can't wait till tomorrow...

I'm off to bed now. With all the hrs I've been working, I'm trying to get extra sleep, well, at least 7hrs or so per night.

Tuesday, August 26

movie night

I went to the movies tonight and saw "House Bunny". Anna Faris has such great comedic timing. I laughed and laughed until my sides hurt at one point. For once, all the jokes were not given away in the trailer and I truly enjoyed this. I would not say it was the best movie ever and it certainly is not the worst. I have seen far worse movies than this - the Year of The Dog, for one - that did make me laugh half as much as this.

The only thing funnier I've seen this year was Don't Mess with the Zohan. I don't normally enjoy Adam Sandler's movies. They are just too much for me, too predictable for one. The Zohan was hilarious and I really laughed until I had tears in my eyes.
I don't like satire or overly predictable comedy - you know the in-your-face kind that you don't need a brain to get. Almost as if there is a laugh track. I hate those movies. I'm my own person. Just because the critics love it, doesn't sell me on a movie. I make that decision myself. After all, I know what I like way better than any critic out there.
For example, I saw "Wall-E" against my initial instincts. It got such great reviews right? My friend who saw it with me, loved it. I was so bored. The first 30 min were fine and I might have enjoyed it more if it ended at that point. I actually fell asleep during most of it and woke up at the end. This rarely happens. I see a lot of movies and I've slept through 3 of them - Wall-E, Atonement, and Scoop. I don't think Scoop was all that boring but I was exhausted and still went out to a night movie anyway when I went to see it. Atonement, two words...snooze-fest. I'm not saying it's a bad movie but just not for me - I saw it with 3 other people who loved it. And when they explained to me why I could almost see it. Almost.
I think the short film they showed before Wall-E was far more entertaining imho.

I still haven't seen the Dark Knight - just too much hype. I will see it eventually on DVD. Tropic Thunder, I will not be seeing. Why can't they get a black actor? Why does Robert Downey junior have to play a black man? I just don't get that. Pineapple Express might be funny but I'm not sure if it's my kinda funny. SO I'll wait for that on DVD as well.

Friday, August 22

Real life getting in the way of blogging

I have been busy lately. In the last 10 days, I have...

- completed a large-scale multi-step synthesis and met the deadline for shipment
- completed and presented slides for said synthesis
- left work @ 3pm to catch a train to NYC
- been to a huge family wedding (250+ people) in NYC
- taken over 100 pictures of family at said wedding
- had an apple martini for the first time
- realized that 7 apple martinis + 1 cosmopolitan is more than a person my size should ever consume in 4hrs
- been violently sick from said drinks and had a sore throat for 2 days as a result
- decided not to drink apple martinis again...ever!
- played Cranium with friends and discovered that I have a knack for drawing with my eyes closed
- cleaned my turtle's tank
- went to work at my part-time job at 7am on a Sat
- been to Philadelphia for a 2-day chemistry course
- stayed 3nights in a hotel in Philly
- had 6-8 cups of tea each day to be awake for 8hrs of chemistry
- had trouble sleeping due to excessive caffeine intake during the day
- saw the Liberty Bell
- taken many touristy pictures incl. one of a giant clothes-pin in Philly :)
- eaten a fake "Philly" cheese-steak
- watched Olympics...Phelps-8 medals, Bolt-fastest man, Thompson-Silver medals in track and field for Trinidad, Nadal-first Gold medal in tennis
- did laundry
- completed 2 reactions in the 2 days since I got back from Philly Wed
- eaten a to-die-for chocolate mousse cake when my group went out for lunch today

Is it any wonder that I am exhausted. the plan for tonight is to stay in and finish a couple books I started recently.

As for my latest crush. We are friends now, we hang out. I think it is possible that he might like me too. It's difficult for me to be positive about this. It's difficult b/c no one that I've felt this way about before has liked me in the same way. He sat next to me at lunch today and that was very cool b/c it's a large group of us (12) who were at lunch so he could have sat anywhere. We left work at the same time tonight (5:30p - earliest I've left on a Fri in a long time) and we walked out together. The really cool thing is that I had said good bye to him earlier and was at my desk, shutting my computer off when he came over and said hi and then we walked out together. When we got to our cars, we stood there talking for another 20min. I have it really bad. There's just something about him that appeals to me on so many levels. It's a little scary. I'm being cool, friendly but not overtly so. I'm trying for subtle. Even though subtle is so foreign to me, I'm trying. If there is the slightest chance that this could work I want to do everything I can.
Some days, I just want to go up to him and tell him how I feel. Actually, I want to do a lot more than just tell him but that would of course not be subtle. So I'm waiting...and hoping...