My Most Recent Conquest....

I will not apologize for my absence. No one reads this damn thing anyway so it's like apologizing to no one. I will offer an explanation. The past three weeks may have been the most busy of my life.

Conquest #1: Surgery Recovery

My oral surgery recovery took much longer than I expected. I had bargained for two or three days but ended up feeling like shit for approximately two weeks. After week one, I refused to take my antibiotic and pain killer leading to a lecture from the surgeon about infection and a sneaky slip of religious literature dressed up as "post-op care tips." Thanks but no thanks, Doc! If I hadn't felt so doped up I would have really told you how I really felt.

Conquest #2: Career Advancement

I missed only two days of work, technically. I am not sure my presence in a vegetative state counts as me actually working. Those lortabs really knocked me on my rear end but work has been hectic and fulfilling. The workshop I have been planning for the past six weeks went off without a hitch and I have received many a follow up email praising the experience...one more notch on the old job security belt. Now if I could only get a raise so that the belt is just a little bit nicer. During the workshop I was offered a fully funded Ph.D program from the University of Maine. It sounds quite promising and the guy that offered it to me seems like he would be cool to work with. My student worker was VERY quick to tell me that he thought Dr. Yada Yada was hitting on me. Maybe so but a free ride is a free ride and I won't scoff at it. It may be one of the only times in my career that I won't be marginalized for being female. Wait a second, was that me throwing my feminist coat out the window. It's possible. Desperate times require desperate measures but I am not feeling all that desperate.

Conquest #3: TiVo

The boy got a bit of a pay raise and to celebrate he bought a TiVo. I have managed to figure out that little guy pretty quickly. The boy never once became irritate with me and barked at me to read the manual. Nope, I figured it out all on my own. For those of you who don't know, this is a bit of a MAJOR accomplishment for me. I am not that digitally savvy. It normally takes me a year or two to figure out how to use all the bells and whistles on my cellphone and by then I decide I want a new one. I consider myself a decent problem solver. I spend 8 hours a day at work trying to figure out how computer models function but when it comes to things like VCRs, TVs, etc. I am a big ol' dummy. TiVO, I win!