moonwise | (no subject)

these reactions are so friggin' slow. Do the Claisen already! *sigh*

Had a nice chat with

ssilverfish last night (it's nice when people are online!) about the terrors of middle school and the wide-eyed fascination that little girls have with stuff they shouldn't be reading about just yet. It was fun to think about the slumber parties and such that you have as an early teen and younger. Heh heh... when I think of all of the copies of "The Valley of Horses" that disappeared mysteriously out of my room... sorry Mom, it didn't help, I learned it all on the bus anyway. What inexperienced girls discuss in hushed tones is such a hilarious mixture of imagination and twice-removed hearsay that finding out what the real stuff is turns out to be almost too prosaic.

The group went out for Chinese today for lunch, and despite ourselves we sat outdoors. It has been humid and very hot here and so we've spent as much time in the free air conditioning as possible.

M regaled us with tales of her Unwelcome Houseguest, a woman who more or less imposed on her to stay for three weeks, even though M barely knows her and the woman could just as easily had her work pay for a hotel for that time. It's really quite amazing, the capacity of insensitive human beings to impose on one another without really thinking about it; the guest had the temerity to complain that M's b/f is coming over for 5 days and M asked her to stay elsewhere for that time. Guest's work will pay for the hotel, but guest is bitching anyway. M really needs to put her foot down about guest, esp since guest is cooking very stinky Asian pickled foods in M's apartment, but she claims she doesn't have it in her to tell guest to go shove. My opinion is that every person has a breaking point, and sooner or later M will reach hers.

M seemed a little shocked yesterday after she was complaining that our main lab UV lamp kept disappearing into another lab to hear me say that I'd confronted the thieves and told them that they were under no circumstances to remove anything from my bench. I guess this is a trait of mine, to not care what people I don't care about think about me, and so I have no trouble telling these guys to quit snitching out of my desk to their faces.

My web site has been down for well over a day and if it doesn't come back up then I think I will be placing some calls to CA. And just as I was planning an update... grrrr.