1079

This has been a wonderful pre-Christmas week.

At my last day of work before Christmas, Wednesday, I found out some interesting things about myself. It was lets pick on Kaitlyn day which I don't mind. I feel sometimes I am so gullible and naive that I deserve this. It started when I was literally elbow deep into a sheeps rumen collecting their rumen contents. Despite the fact that I smelled the exact opposite of lovely and had a thick layer of rumen liquid pretty much covering every square inch of my body. For those of you who have not worked with ruminant animals. Here is the low down... Ruminant animals are those who have 1 stomach with 4 compartments. The largest compartment being the rumen where bacteria breaks down a good portion of their food before it actually passes to their intestines and what not. So this rumen fluid we sample we are looking at the bacterial content... bacteria smell. Let me tell you. They smell really really bad. But, despite this fact, I was excited because I said that in less than 1 hour we were already half way through. Which I was thrilled about because everybody thought it was going to be a dreadfully long day.

One of my co-workers quickly told me to be quiet and not jinx our luck! From this started the conversation about how I was so optimistic. Which really was the biggest shock I have ever heard. Not once in my entire life have I ever been called optimistic. This is because I'm rather skeptical and realistic... and to be honest pretty pessimistic about life's outcomes. I am definitely the glass is not even half empty... it's actually three quarters empty and there is a whole in the bottom of the cup. So the rest of the contents are about to be on the floor.

But my coworkers started talking about how I am the one person in our lab who is actually positive about the outcomes of our experiments and the time it takes to get them done. With this it was decided that research was the perfect field for me because of this. Which made me feel pretty darn good. At least I am going into a field I enjoy and can hopefully continue to be positive about, when everything else in life sucks!

Just kidding. Life is pretty good actually, considering. I did not however get the HHMI fellowship I applied for. But honestly, I wasn't expecting to. When they only pick about 9 people out of hundreds and I didn't get to spend as much time on my application as I would have liked... I find it quite understandable that I didn't receive it. I do feel a little disappointed in Charbie though. I think he has officially abandoned me. Or maybe he is just working hard on those grad school applications for me and couldn't allocate his time appropriately. I am choosing to believe that for now.

But the best part of this all is that work is done for a while. The sheep trial is over and now we just have to run the samples up in the lab. But what this all really means is that I don't have to wake up at 5:30 every morning for a while!! It means I had time to actually go to a bar and hang with people and get in at 1:30 in the morning because I didn't have to wake up early. Granted I woke up at 7 yesterday and 4:10 today. Which really ticked me off! But I didn't have to leave... I could at least sit in my bed and pretend to myself I was sleeping in a little more. And I have time to take a nap now so it really doesn't matter. Oh sleep, I have missed you so much!

With work closing though, means I don't get to see my sheepy. I don't actually like the sheeps. But they have become familiar little annoying faces in their pens. Most of which have been named due distinguishing characteristics or personalities. Some names like Pauli, Smalls, Stompy, Charlie (as in Charlie Sheen... he's beyond crazy. As a matter of fact, he has tackled me. Twice. I don't care for this sheep), Blue... you get the picture.

But one sheep, my favorite sheep, was not deemed worthy enough to receive a name. They said he was too plain and rather boring. But he was so nice. Mr. 1079 aka Pen 15. He let me pet him and was never really afraid of me. So I took pictures with him and started singing "Talking bought my best friend." That is when my coworker decided on a name for him. He is Big and I am Rob. You know, Rob and Big? If you don't know who they are I feel very sad for you. You should watch Rob and Big or Fantasy Factory. They're pretty hilarious. Big is Rob's body guard and I feel this adequately describes our relationship. So I must say I will miss him. But he is out gallivanting around the outdoor pasture... enjoying the freedom!

Also, today I woke up to snow again. Twice in 1 month is pretty darn impressive for Cruces. Quite a lot actually. I hope it continues to snow and stays in place until Christmas. The last time we had a white Christmas I was a little girl. I do miss it.

My mom already had off but my dad didn't. But with the snow came a call from his boss saying he shouldn't come in today because he didn't want him to drive on the icy roads. Oh how I love how our city/state shuts down at the first sign of anything snow. Sorry to all the people trying to come in or leave Cruces though because I don't think the roads are staying open for long.

Just found out that they are now charging for the Yule Log on TV and no longer offering it for free. Oh happy day!! I dislike watching that thing.

Sorry for the randomness of this blog. It is what it is. Now, I am going to enjoy a family breakfast since everybody is home. Then Christmas Eve and Christmas. Even this scrooge is actually rather enjoying the holidays.

Here's to dreaming of  a white Christmas...