Marquee bumper

If my car's bumper were a marquee sign, these are some of the things I might type (with some hands-free device of course) when I was out driving. Not all are negative either!

• Nice blinker.

• I can only go as fast as the car in front of me. Please get off my ass.

• Just because you have a weighted-down truck with 4WD does not mean it is safe to drive fast in a snow/ice storm. (See: flipped SUVs along the road.)

• Thank you/your family member for your service to our country.

• The public safety employee ones: Driving a police car should not give you the right to weave in and out of traffic. Driving a police car should not give you the right to speed. Driving a police car should not give you right to roll through a stop sign. Driving a police car should not give you the right to hold your cell phone in a hands-free state.

• GET OFF THE PHONE and/or MOVE OVER.

• Learn to merge

• Learn to drive in a roundabout/rotary/traffic circle.

What would you add to the list?

It's what's for dinner...and dessert...and transportation...

I realized today that I have had a good amount of time for myself, as evidenced by how much real cooking I have been doing. There have been soups and quiches and carrot cake waffles and chocolate muffins and other yummy things. I even made double-decker Knox blocks (with just grape juice, gelatin, and cream) to bring to work. Who remembers those???


Between yesterday and today, I made these easy and delicious potatoes. I put sliced leeks in the cuts and grated parmesan on top after the potatoes had cooked ~30 minutes.

And this turkey and roasted red pepper meatloaf.

I did not follow the recipe or photograph it well, but it is still delicious. I mixed ground turkey and ground beef I had in the freezer, added dry parsley and chopped red chard, and used cooked brown rice instead of bread. Otherwise, I followed the recipe.

For dessert are Chai Spiced Blondies. If you make them, you will not be sorry.

Oh. And I bought this. It is the new Ford C-Max hybrid - basically their competition for the bigger Prius V. Given that my old car was a 2001 Jetta with a manual transmission, manual windows, and no cruise control, I feel pretty fancy and grown up right now.

Shoulda stayed in

I went out to see Lincoln today, and it's a great movie.

I went in to the movie when it was still light out, and it was dark when I came out. I realized that my lights were still on in the car. Not all the car lights, but the ones around the locks, radio, and the rear license plate. So I ran my errands and tried all combinations of turning the headlights on and off with the car on or the doors open when I got home. When I left home, I accidentally set off the car alarm when I started the car. Given the quirks of my car, I am pretty sure that messed some random electric connection up.

I don't have the right wrench to undo the battery to try to solve the problem that way. I am pretty sure these lights will not drain the battery, but still. I have to be at church at 8:45 tomorrow morning.

One of those times I wish that I had (human) company at home. A second car.

Time for a new car. Which I get to buy by myself. Yay. [sigh]

I'll take it

It is good that I have enough good to even out the car repairs that necessitated a rental car because they could not get the parts early enough in the day. For the record, my rented Chevy Sonics is tiny! Oh, and I need to submit my research paper somewhere. You can send science magazines a description of your paper and they will give you a perspective on whether they think it would be good for their journal. So far, several have suggested that my paper is not a good fit, but not to let that discourage me from submitting to their journal in the future. Okay.

On with the good! I have an on-campus interview next week, and will see turns out another phone interview at another school. I may have choices in this whole job search thing!

I remedied a failed Loft visit with a post-Sandy celebration of buying Loft clothes when their website went online. Best part? I now have dress pants that fit correctly for one of my interview days.

I tried on some of my dress pants at the end of the summer and they were a tad snug. Inappropriately tight. So, I decided more exercising is necessary. I have been jogging every once in a while when it is still light out because it is faster than walking. The time change makes this difficult. Yesterday I left work early and fit in a run. I realized that if I run a little slower, I can run further. Go figure. I did a 2.85 mile route without walking. I am quite proud...and still refuse to become a "runner". Pants are still tight, so the next step is to lay off the chocolate...or not buy more when it is gone...

I am heartened by the results and the numbers from the recent election. And that is all. Except for what I posted on Facebook that I have repeated to myself many times:

I promise to put myself in your shoes and recall the disappointment of my candidate losing if you promise to put yourself in my shoes and understand that this is what I think is best for our country.

My friend told me that he thinks I am ready to be a professor because I handled a small situation well and did not make a big deal out of it. He also told me that he still thinks I have become funnier, except that he feels there is something negative underneath. Like I will crack one day. He is not entirely wrong, as any of you regular readers may know. But at least I am funny.

I have done a couple of research things the past week, which is great. My friend (the grad student in the lab) and I have had some great science conversations. I am often the go-to person because our lab manager is splitting her time with another position on campus. This has been a great experience and just emphasizes to me that I am ready to move on.

I have a job talk that is almost ready to go. It has taken me over a week to get it to this point, but I think about it a lot so when I sit down to work on it, it is relatively quick. What I have NOT done is prepare for meeting with people at the college. It is going to be a stressful couple of days getting ready to go, but I have new clothes (see above point).

The whole point of this is that I'll take it. I am reminding myself of all the good to help let go of the bad and it seems to be working. Go me.

Fingers crossed

I have all these *things* swimming around in my head. While I should be finishing up revisions of a research manuscript, I want to just write these down so I can let them go (for now). After the manuscript, it is on to job applications this weekend. That makes me think about life, and what I want out of it. If the job search goes well, I will be moving next summer. That is crazy and exciting.

A while back I was reflecting on why the holidays were difficult for me last year.  Those things are all still true. I spend a lot more time thinking about them than I should. The funny thing is, that every time one of my good friends has a baby, gets married, or gets engaged, I am not sad at all. I am excited. And happy. And wish I lived closer to them. In fact, after my trip back to Boston this summer, my friend/the grad student in the lab told me he thought I had gotten funnier. I think I just happened to be happier than I usually am after seeing so many people who I miss! Oddly, when people I am not close with, or with whom I was once closer, I get sad when any of these things happen. Give me a while, and I can let it go.

What I am having more difficult containing is hope. This sounds silly. Who tries to contain hope? When I think about getting my next job though, I hope that life will finally click. There are quite a few jobs that fit my area of research quite well. They range from small liberal arts colleges to larger universities. A couple of them are larger schools than I *think* I want, but you never know until you get a chance to visit them. Many (maybe I am up to 10 on the list) are from D.C. to Boston. This is prime friend and family land. 10 may not sound like many, but when I was watching the job listings last year, the ones to which I applied were not good research/interest fits. I think this is promising. My CV is better than last round, particularly if I get this paper submitted the end of the month. I have hope that one of these will work out.

I have basically decided that when I get a job, I will get a car. Mine is dying a slow death, but I have a hard time thinking about taking on a car loan right now. The engine seems great, it is all the other extras, like the air conditioning, that make me worried something else is going on. Much to my sister's chagrin, at the moment that ugly Prius is high on the list. I have hope that I can get a great hybrid car. If I get a job at some of these schools, I may need an AWD vehicle though.

I am reaching with the submission of this paper to a high impact journal. Nothing related to this aspect of my research topic has been published, so the story our data make is that much more exciting. The grad student's project that we have always planned to include is starting to work, and that will make this journal less of a reach. He works hard and has been working A LOT to get it done. I have hope that he can get it done, and this journal will like the story.

Maybe this weekend I will give y'all an update on what I have actually been *doing* if you are interested. Off to uncross my fingers and get those manuscript revisions done.

Things that...

...suck. I am trying to be positive, but life does make that more difficult sometimes. The other title I thought about giving this was something to the effect of, "A list of things that would suck less if you did not have to deal with them on your own." Suck less = glass half full?

• A completely broken car air conditioner. During a 100 degree+ week in the northern Midwest. The compressor is kaput; there is also a short in the wiring to the compressor. Let's just say it would not be cheap to fix.
• Someone keyed my car the day after the AC broke.
• A new car = car payments, and that would severely limit my ability to save money beyond the limits of being a post-doc to begin with.
• Several days this week there has been a big thunderstorm 30 to 60 minutes before I intended to get up. Living alone, I should be able to at least sleep until my alarm goes off.
• I have sliding windows in my apartment. After searching dimensions and types of units online, I have confirmed that there is no air conditioner worth buying that is less than $300. Ones that cost less are not so effective, according to online reviews. If you own a home or rent out apartments in a place where central air is not the norm, you should only put in sashed windows.
• I worked all day on the 4th of July, you know, a national holiday. I do not REALLY care, but it is more the principle of the thing. That is the same day my car's AC broke.
• Having people comment to me over and over and over again about ME moving to where CF decided knowingly and of his own free will to move. I remind him that I do not appreciate the assumption. He left me a beautiful bouquet of flowers; that does not make it okay.
• Three or four weeks ago now, someone hit my mail box and the two next to it (with a bat or something, not their whole car). The other two were mildly damaged, and I fixed them. I just cannot fix my own. I do believe my mail carrier has officially stopped delivering mail despite my note in the mailbox explaining this and that my landlord knows and I have someone who will be fixing it on Monday. It is not even my fault that it is all flimsy?
• Also, WTF with blogger only "supporting" google chrome. I know blogger is free and all, but come on. It is like they are giving the heads-up that they will intentionally be putting something in the site that will prevent you from using anything but chrome.

In other attempts to be upbeat...

• My credit cards are paid off. Next step is getting a month ahead of
• I do love the guys at the car shop where I go.
• I could list other stuff, like I have a job, can pay my bills & afford luxuries like cable and internet. This stuff only makes me feel guilty about being frustrated with life though.
• I leave next week for about 10 days back East trying to catch up with as many friends and family as possible. It will be nice to get away.

Time to finish "working" and head out into the heat sans AC.

In the car

On my way home tonight, I sang along to two favorite songs. This one I love singing along with.

Well that night was long, there was one more song and then we were on our way
Driving slow, no place to go and nothing more to say
And the rain came down around that car like we were underneath the sea
In the back seat, almost drowning, holding on to me

It was almost fine, you were almost mine
And from town to town we chased it down on a broken white line

The beginning of this song gets me every time. For many reasons. And I do not think I have posted it before.

We bid our friends goodbye
We promised we would write them
And headed north up 95
Into the great unknown
We turned up our stereo
And felt so reckless and alive
We didn't know who we would be
We didn't know where we would end up
When we headed down that road
[...]

And it's a long way to Michigan and back
And it's a long way
Cause it's a long way, the clouds upon our backs
And it's a long, long, long, long way

Mechanics

After getting my used Jetta from an unnamed dealership in the Boston area (where they did not even friggin' oil the door hinges like they were supposed to on the check list and then offered to do so if I brought the car back but I said I didn't think I would because who knows what else they charged me for and didn't do), I started taking my car to a regular mechanic. I used the Car Talk Radio website to find a mechanic. My Boston mechanic was a guy and his dad and his sister worked the desk usually and they were Brazilian and quite nice and sometimes funny.

My mechanic(s) here are likewise a good find, also thanks to the Magliozzi brothers' website. It is a Napa Auto parts, and I think I am an even bigger fan of them than the Boston place because they have a national name and a standard guarantee on their work. And I see them at least monthly for an oil change or more.

Last time I had an oil change, I remembered how the guy at the front had previously said:

"One of the guys is a Yankees fan and said he hates when your car comes in for work.

I joked back that you do NOT what your mechanic dreading your car coming in, but I understand where the guy was coming from. This is what he sees when my car comes in:

Before my last oil change (6/23 - this will be important later in my suspenseful story) I printed out a Yankees logo and taped it to my front license plate and dropped my car off. Later when they called...

"Two things.."

[Insert stomach dropping because something must be seriously wrong with my car.]

"Your car is ready to pick up. And who is the Yankees fan you live or work with??"

Hahahhaha....I totally made their day. The Yankees fan took a picture and was going to post it on FB. When I went to pick up my car, I was told again how they'd been laughing about it all day...Also, I got a free tire rotation because one of the guys was bored. I did assure them I only put the paper on there AFTER I dropped off my car. I certainly would not have driven around like that.

Anyway. I have spent a fair amount of money at this shop. When CF's car broke down on the way home from the airport and he was near my work, it was towed to this shop. They kinda know me know.

So I call today because my car has had an exhaust leak since we got back from my bro's wedding on 7/4. The guys asks for my name and then says:

"Weren't you just here?"

Not really something you want to hear from your mechanic. But, I am sure we will get a good laugh about the license plate again, and apparently I won the free oil change drawing in June.

OH. And the dates. I had an exhaust leak back in Boston, so I got my old paperwork to see what had been done. On 6/24/2008 I had an oil change. On 7/1/2008 I had an exhaust leak fixed. Coincidence? If so, it is potentially an expensive one.