Uneven

It's all uneven.

I had a good phone interview with Compound today, and it will soon be followed up with a real interview. Parenthetically, this has been the most elaborate effort I've ever made on a particular job. I don't mind -- I just find it interesting: Survived the career fair, made it past the HR screen, completed a successful phone interview, and now I'm slated for the real interview. I wonder if I'll get a second interview, too. :)

I had that good phone interview while Mom was waiting to be wheeled into the OR. My father, the nun (his sister), my cousin (her niece, the pharmacist), my uncle (her brother), and I were all at the hospital, a couple of buildings down from my lab. She was going in late, and I had scheduled the interview yesterday. I had to let go my mom's hand and fetch my cousin to replace me in Pre-Op so I could run across the hospital and make my call just in time.

I haven't heard anything about Mom since then. I don't have my dad's work cellphone number, and his personal cell is uncharged. Nobody called me! What the fuck?

Hey, but an interview! That's good. And rojagato sealed us in from the cold with plastic. And I bought provisions for the Ice Age, including bathroom tissue, which we weren't out of after all, so now we have 25 rolls. Anyone wanna come over and take a crap? We have extra. I gave Fluffy* a long-overdue water change, with my brand-new siphon faucet adapter. I even picked up the kettlebell and swung it a few times -- not enough to make a difference, really -- just to get a feel for the weight -- but that's a start. I have a new humidifier, and it has kept the winter from dessicating me into a little brown husk. I love my sweet, smahht, funny, hot, and crazy-in-a-good-way girlfriend. There are these and other things to be happy about. I will shoo away the Black Dog. Away!


* In this photo, she is eating the biggest snail she has ever met. She is delighted.

doot

Nobody called me because all available cellphones needed to be charged, and the house was vacant until midnight. I feel better. I was pretty unhappy about not getting a phone call after the surgery.

Mom's doing okay. I saw her this morning. She has good color, and she's lucid, though sleepy. One of her lymph nodes did show positive, so they harvested another few to check them histologically. The fewer turn out positive, the better, of course.

Work's been a bit dreary, because we're having trouble with our cells. They're looking unhappy, and we can't tell why. Can't use unhappy cells in experiments. I'm almost sure it isn't mycoplasma -- we've stained lots of fucked-up-looking cells, and it's never turned up -- but I guess I can't be sure until I get some scoped. It's a pain when your cells go funny, mostly because you don't usually know what's really going on, assuming the sterile technique is good. You make new media, you bleach the cabinet, you eviscerate sheep and burn cow scapulae. After a while, you start getting normal cells again, and you never really know what was wrong to begin with.

I'm in a pretty good mood, though. I think it's the coffee, combined with Mom's good recovery from surgery. She'll be hospitalized another night.

I have to go look busy now. I'll scrub a water bath.

Huttah!

If I can have the 20th off, why, that is when my interview will be. I wish there were a "toothy grin" ACII emoticon.

:D <- needs little teeth