Grocery Stores

There are many different trials that awaited me here in Texas that I had no idea were coming: a few of them are things like finding my car title so that I can get plates, trying to find an apartment, determining the location of my favorite items in target, and probably the most complicated is grocery shopping. I lived in St. Louis for almost 6 years, this means that no matter what store I went to I pretty much knew where to find what I needed. In addition, I knew which store was going to have the best items for the best price. In St. Louis I bought my dry goods and frozens at Target and then stopped off at Schnucks to grab produce, meat, and a few dairy products.

I have know lived in Dallas for 4 weeks, I have been to four different grocery stores for groceries. This is insane I need to just pick one and live with it. I have been to Walmart, Walmart Fresh Market, Tom Thumb, and Target Superstore. At this point I don't even know which of these stores I love the most because the reality is that while I normally love to grocery shop I hate it right now because it takes twice as long as it needs to. I have faith that I am going to get better at this but at the moment I don't know how I feel about this.

Since I am still living with my grandfather I don't want to get attached to a store and then have to find another one... omg that is going to be horrific. There are so many things I just love about going to the grocery store but I am very ready for things to settle down and me find one that I enjoy going to and that I am able to find the little odds and ends that are essential to being a good cook.

I don't know which store is going to become my favorite but I am sure it is going to happen soon since I need to be able to shop faster since I am a real working woman these days with a real commute on my way to my real job... this still doesn't seem real.

Weekend Crazies

Now that I am a working woman, I finally understand why my friends are always super busy on the weekends doing things like cleaning the house, running errands, and maybe if they are lucky getting to relax a little. These women have to keep a job, cook dinner, and look great all week long so by Saturday while what they want to do is to sit around and watch TV that is just not happening anymore. They have to clean, cook, make sure people are entertained. To do all of these things well there is little time for sitting around and watching Food Network.

This weekend I have a million things that need to get done, I will list them out in a few minutes but holy moly I have no stinking idea how I am going to get the things I have to get done done much less the things that only sorta need to get done. Oh well at least I am being productive about writing about it here... oops. At least every woman feels this way, that makes me feel somewhat better but not really I feel as if we should hire someone to do these things. Maybe I will get lucky and find a man that enjoys running errands since there won't be much time for dating on the weekends if this keeps up. But I am determined to get after it and get a much as humanly possible done this weekend so that I can relax after work this week. I am determined to catch a few hours of TV this week after work since some of my favorite summer shows are starting up. Bring it on summer.

Well I should give you my list and then get after it since it is not going to do itself.

-grocery store (which means I need a list of what I need)
-Order Toll tag
-go to bank
-get oil changed
-get car detailed or at least all of the seats shampooed
-go to my storage unit see if I can find my car title and pay bill
-clean the house (kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom)
-brush and bath the dog
-find a dog kennel for vacation
-laundry
-scoop poop
-blog

I am sure that I have forgotten a million items for the list but I will just keep plugging away. Now that I have written all of that down I am going to go and get after it, ahhh so many things to get done. I miss my weekends of nothingness from college. Oh well now I am an adult and this is what we do.

First day outfit

I had a hard time choosing what to wear on my very first day of work as Dr. Hannah. I didn't want to be over dressed, scientists sneer at people who are over dressed, but at the same time I didn't want to be underdressed. This was a very hard decision to make. I didn't love anything that I had in my closet, that isn't true I do love it I just wanted something new for the first day. 

So in true southern girl fashion I went out and spent my hard earned money on new clothes. I got several tops from Loft, which I still love. I got some cardigans from target. New shoes, several pairs. I confess these khaki pants are from american eagle, I don't look at anything but there khaki pants. I totally recommend them to everyone, mainly because they make my butt look fabulous, I am not kidding. 

After this shopping awesomeness, I still couldn't decide what to wear. I decided to wear this outfit, which looks super cute on the bed.

This outfit is: a super cute tank from Loft (it is cream with light lilac swirly flower designs), a gray sweater from Target, the awesome khakis from american eagle, and these black and white shoes from pay less. I was pretty proud of this outfit, I look both adult and still super cute.

I loved this outfit right up until the moment I saw my new ID card photo. This tank kinda washes me out, I need a tan if I am going to wear this all the time (which I am). But it might be that my face was a little red in the photo, I almost look a little on the ill side. Oh well, I was cute and I rocked my outfit. I included a better pic of the shoes below.

Hopefully there will be more great outfits to follow. I have another outfit I need to take pics of because it too was amazing.

I love being able to wear more adult clothes, I love wearing cute clothes. I need to shop more.

The first week of work: a review

So I had my very first week of work as a post-doc and it was pretty awesome. I think I am really going to enjoy this job, not that I didn't enjoy the last one but this will be pretty special. On my first day I had orientation in the morning, which is pretty awesome since I work at a medical center I learned lots about how to be good to your patients (I will not have any, I have vowed to be nice to the service people when I call for help and to be good to the sales reps when they come by). The remainder of the week was spent reading science articles and sitting around and trying to observe experiments and not get in the way.

Several years ago, we had a post-doc join our group in the StL. I remember being supper annoyed that he would follow me around and ask a million questions. I just wanted to get my stuff done and for him to leave me alone, clearly I was just being a toad. In light of this I have tried to be courteous to my lab mates and not get in their way and always ask if I can observe prior to watching them do work. I get it, it sucks to have someone hover over you while you are trying to work. Sorry about dude, I didn't know what I was doing back then...

Next week I hope to do several different types of experiments. I am going to do some work for one of the grad students, a little genetic cloning to get my feet wet. And I think I am going to start patch clamping!!! I am actually pretty excited about this, I hope that I am good at it. I know there is a huge learning curve and that this is going to be pretty hard to master but I am really looking forward to getting to it. I will be sure to keep you updated on my success and failures on that front.

Here are a few of the things that I absolutely love about my new job:
-I am one of the first to arrive when I get there at 9.
-There is a lab manager to takes care of everything I could need and keeps everyone else in line, this is going to be clutch here in a few weeks when I do experiments. I won't have to figure out what to order just tell her. She is amazing.
-Most days I am able to leave around 5 maybe a little before or a little after. I finally have a pseudo real job, with holidays!
-I am off for memorial day, never happened before I have always had to work.
-The girls seem really nice, I think I will like them.
-I can wear nice clothes, but I can still wear jeans if I want (which I do).
-I get a desk and a bench all to myself, I of course will be happy to share if I need to but this is a glorious feeling.
-My boss has tenure, there is no super mad drive to publish everything (I would however really like it if old boss got tenure)

I am sure that this could go on forever but I have things to do since it is saturday and I don't have to go to work!!! OMG I am going to have a real life, one with friends and things to do. I might even have a hobby... bring it on adult hood!

Aggie Rings

As I have gotten my very first week back in Texas under my belt I am learning a few things: aggie rings are common (and still super hot), people say please and thank you, and it is GOOD to be home. But today I am going to focus on the aggie ring, the one in the pic is antiqued mine however is not it is just solid gold.

I have worn my ring religiously since it was first put on my finger the Thursday before Rita hit. I remember this because there is typically a HUGE ceremony and there wasn't that day since we were being encouraged to get our stuff together and stay indoors. Prior to the hurricane hitting they thought that the hurricane was going to flood aggieland. But that is another story and I digress. But the important thing is that I have worn my ring for years now and for a long long time I was the only one that I saw in my regular day life.

I would play a game when I ran errands, aggie ring or not. In St. Louis the answer was often not since they tend to wear their high school rings for many many years, which I thought was super super weird but it was normal there. I guess to them me wearing my college ring was strange. But I went to a party one night and there was this relatively cute guy wearing an aggie ring and cowboy boots. As I watched him for the rest of the night I realized that I couldn't really say anything since I could tell he wasn't my type of guy.

Months later at a different party I finally met him: he didn't remind me of any man I ever met in Aggieland. For instance, he had the mushiest handshake I have ever experienced it was like giving a handshake to a dead fish. It was horrible. But that could have been because I was wanting him to be someone else. Alas it was not to be.

Now that I am here in Texas, the rings are everywhere and I LOVE it. It is a little different, I feel as if I have finally come home. This is amazing, I am looking forward to football season where everyone will root for the Ags.

Hope your Wednesday goes well

Cowboy boots and trucks

In the last several months one of my favorite songs has been Ke$ha's Boot's and Boys. Now that I have moved back to Texas I have become reacquainted with my love for hot boys in cowboy boots. I always secretly loved them when I was in college but I decided the I was too cool for school and said no thank you for the men in boots. Now that I have moved back down to Texas I am all about boys in boots. I want to date a man with a big truck and some sweet cowboy boots.

If you don't know the appeal of this image, think a young George Strait or really any of the true Texan country music stars. There is just something rugged and handsome about these men, they remind me of men who work hard for a living and like it. These men are often hardworking and love their women with a fantastic fervor. I want a man like this... and he is going to love me something fierce.

I am looking forward to meeting one of these god-fearing men and getting to know them very well. I will keep you updated on my hunt for one of these men. It would be a great thing for him to also be an Aggie but at the moment I will just take my boots and boys! I am so ready for this new adventure, bring it on donkey kong.

I dated a man who had some of these characteristics and it was nice and reminded me about what I wanted in a man, but it didn't work out. Sometimes I wish that it would work out now, I am not sure that it would work but there is always the illusion that maybe just maybe it would work out this time. It isn't that it didn't end up well he just moved back to Texas before I did. So there is still some hope for us to become the cute Aggie couple... Well not a whole lot of hope but a little.

I am on the hunt for this man... I'll let you know when I find him.

Doggie Panic Attacks

Yesterday, Lily had another panic attack here in Dallas. Her attacks involve lots of panting and shaking. As the perfect dog-mom I immediately try to solve her anxiety with snuggles and making all of the scary things go away. This worked to some extent, she eventually calmed down and enjoyed the rest of the day.  At the end of the day I was unsure as to the origin on the anxiety but I figured it was over.

HOWEVER... there were many panic attacks today. I realized that my Lily is terrified of the dryer buzzer. As I am living with my partially deaf grandfather the buzzer is set on super load and goes off every three minutes for thirty minutes. At the end the thirty minutes he has still not heard the buzzer and I eventually go in there and fold the clothes. I have decided to turn the buzzer off until we move out and hopefully this will help Lily adjust.

I also think that much of her anxiety is tied up in the move and all of that. I think once we settle in here I think and must believe that her anxiety will calm down. I also think once we get our own apartment this summer she will finally be calm. Lily is looking for all of her stuff and that.

Looking forward to less puppy panic, hopefully the running will help too.