Talk Less, Smile More

 “Talk less, smile more. Don’t let them know what you’re against or what you’re for.”-Hamilton (the musical)

This past week has been one of the best weeks I’ve had at TLoTH. (Sidebar, my mom said “Tee-loth” and I wanted to give her a shoutout for saying the most adorable out-loud of an acronym ever.) Two things made it good:

• I stopped giving a fuck that no one expects me to do anything interesting. I’ve worked a lot harder to embrace the mind-numbing nothingness that is inventory and similar work.
• I trusted people who are becoming friends to take care of me.

My goal for the rest of my job is to get the experience of publishing a paper. I will try to prove something with my writing. But if I don’t prove anything, that’s OK. Scientific work that lives in a filing cabinet is useless. If I don’t have a great readership, that’s OK too. I’m fairly sure everything I write will be public so that’ll be cool!

Another thing that really helped was that two co-workers and I spent lunch last Tuesday going ice-skating. I often feel at work that I am inadequate because I do not participate in a sport (or at least one that anyone knows the rules to) or run or hike or climb or do anything active. It turns out, normal people talk about sports. A lot. It has certainly been to my advantage to pretend I care about sportsball at times. But on Tuesday, it was different. I was the only one who was good at ice-skating. I was the only one who was fast. I am never the fast one. I am always the pack-mule who’ll get there eventually and can carry boatloads of stuff but I’m never fast. But after practicing skating for months, I was actually able to be fast on ice. It felt FANTASTIC!

It also felt really nice to just be normal people with my co-workers. I didn’t feel like I was in any kind of weird social situation I couldn’t read. I was just with a couple of friendly people having pleasant conversation and we were all trying not to fall on our butts. Since then, I’ve felt less of a barrier between those two people and myself. I wish I could do something fun like that with the people who I have trouble understanding. Or even eat a meal with those people. Something where I have the opportunity to relax and be myself without being the scary, brass and crass asshole I can be when I get anxious.

The rest of the workweek was literally unremarkable. Doing inventory sucks, no matter where you do it. At least when I did inventory at TLoTH it was with other people. I remember doing a similar thing at BAU and I had to do it all alone. Just me and Sabrina the Teenage Witch for hours on end. Actually, it wasn’t so bad. But damn, some of the chemicals you find doing inventory in any lab are kinda terrifying.

Friday was my day off and I was very glad for that. I don’t always know if I like being on a 9/80 schedule but it pays off when you need to recoup from a week after being away for 2.5 weeks.

I went adventuring with a person I will call Elder Me because she and I are so similar. She is a geologist by training who did PeaceCorps (I did AmeriCorps), worked as a teacher, loves travel and avoids traditional living. We met in a theatre production that I was a <makeup artist> and she was a cast member who could do her own old-age makeup! I really appreciate talking with her because she’s made such different life choices than me, despite our eerie similarities. We went snowshoe adventuring. It was a very odd and unusually tiring experience. She wore snowshoes and I followed in her footsteps, literally. I had these weird things on my shoes called YakTraks that allowed me to keep grip on snow and ice. That was weird because everything about my experience hiking so far tells me that I need to constantly brace myself for slips and falls. Walking in someone else’s footprints also reduces user responsibility to step carefully.

We found some wonky old shit like a giant empty concrete cylinder with one end closed. I sang “Is there anybody OUT there” into the cynlinder thingy and she laughed. I need to make sure to maintain a friend-base that will always get when I quote Pink Floyd. We also found a spooky church that had broken shingles that looked beautiful in the snow. I should probably mention it was snowing hella hard the whole time. Then we explored down into a canyon and at the bottom we slid to on our bottoms to near the creek. Not in it, thankfully! However, it was very snowy (I don’t have snow pants) so the following conversation ensued.

Me: “Ok. In the most non-sexual way possible, I am going to take off my pants AS SOON as I get into your house.”

Elder Me: “Sounds good. In the most non-sexual way possible, I am going to swat your butt because it’s covered in snow.”

Good times.

Learned that the proper food after such an excursion is peppermint hot chocolate and fudge. Good to know for future.

Now I have to tell you the best part of my week! Yes, I have one of those this week.

I had a perfect day.

It was great! Saturday was perfect. Good things happened consistently on a pretty high level for the entire day. That is a difficult thing to achieve and I really want to thank and acknowledge it.

It was planned on Friday night that a group of us wanted to go skiing. The Tenor and The Outdoorsy Sage (TOS) are experienced folks at skiing and snowboarding and both wanted to hit the mountain. Myself and Triple Point Dude (TPD) were like…ehhhhhh? TOS told me that she would teach me how to ski. And the cost for the whole event would be less than $100. I felt like it was a very “when in Rome” moment and took a leap of go-for-it-why-the-hell-not. Later in the same bar, I ran into a dude who I’d met a few times and it turned out he also had to pick someone up at the airport on Saturday at the same time as me. We decided to go together so neither of us was lonely on that drive.

Saturday morning I got up unusually early, like 7 am. By the time TPD the Tenor picked me up I was like a happy puppy. I was going to learn how to ski! I found my field rain pants so I would be warmer than the previous day when I wore jeans in the snow. Note: I still intend on making field gear/rain gear for women with real asses. I had no mobility because my ass is so fabulous that it took up the whole pants and my legs had to fight for room. Turns out this is a problem when skiing. Another note: fleece lined leggings are THE BEST.

Lift tickets and gear rental actually totaled less than $50, which was a great start to the day. The boots were tricky but I got them to work eventually. They make you feel really weird, like you’re pitching forward and ready to fall. The rental people gave me tiny skis. I used poles, though I don’t think they were entirely necessary. TOS met us once we geared up and she taught TPD and how to do pizza and French fries. We practiced on a baby little slope next to the lift and then went on the lift. Ok, WHO THE FUCK INVENTED SKI LIFTS? They are terrifying. I’m not usually too bad with heights but being held on with one point of contact and people below you with sticks in your hands…it was not cool, man. Most of the times I went on the lift I spent the entire time squeezing the beam of the frame and pretending the spooky clouds were friendly cloud monsters. I have to hand it to TOS, though. She did an amazingly excellent job describing exactly what was going to happen when we got to the end of the lift. She was calm and encouraging and we talked about how anything outdoorsy can become disastrous when approached with a machismo attitude. If you set specific and realistic expectations of what’s going to happen, it is a lot easier to be ok with whatever does happen. What excellent, wise advice.

It helped that she also had whiskey. That helped a lot with the fear.

Turns out I’m pretty good at skiing. I didn’t really expect this. I thought skiing was for skinny rich kids. Turns out you just need a strong ass and decently strong legs. Those I got. The muscle groups used were very similar to muscles I use in derby so thankfully I have built some muscle in those areas. I went down the hill I think 6 times and I only fell twice. Like I said, the whiskey helped. I like going fast but I hate being out of control. Once I learned how to turn, I could do both speed and control(ish). Seemed pretty straightforward after that. It’s really fun to hang out with friends on a snowy mountain.

TPD fell pretty hard and that ended our day. I found out it’s called a “yard sale” when all your gear goes flying everywhere and you have to pick it up. He hurt his ankle and I felt sad for him. But I was going pretty fast down the hill and I don’t have control so I just kinda awkwardly passed and waited at the bottom of the hill. He and I went home and The Tenor and TOS kept going to do more challenging stuff.

Showering after going skiing is one of the best sensations in the entire world. It’s not quite on par with snuggling after sex, but it’s not as far away as you’d think. As I got dressed (I got dressed somethin’ fierce for no reason other than I was clean) I listened to the soundtrack of Hamilton. And now suddenly I can’t wait for the Tonys!! If you haven’t heard of this musical yet, it is “the story of America then, told by America now.” It is about the founding fathers of the United States portrayed by a mostly Black cast and almost all of the music is hip-hop inspired. I was really surprised that I identified so much with the main character. The refrain spoken to him throughout the play by Aaron Burr is “Talk less, smile more. Don’t let them know what you’re against or what you’re for.” Miranda realistically (from what I can tell) develops an antagonistic relationship between the two men so it makes theatrical sense that Burr beats Hamilton in a duel, ending in the latter’s death. But Hamilton continues to not give three fucks about what he’s told and maintains a rogue-ish attitude the whole time while doing what he believes is right for the situation. It felt really good to see some aspects of what I struggle with in my professional life portrayed so accurately in a play. There is definitely going to be some point in the next few years that I will be very poor for a while after seeing this musical and never complain about it because it will be worth it. ^____^

Then I went on a driving adventure down towards the airport. I’m going to call this new friend the B-Boy Dancer We had a sincerely thought provoking discussion about why would hiring managers ever care about diversity. That encouraged me see the issue in a different light. If you look at it from an investment perspective, there is no motivation to go beyond quotas or make risky investments in employees. I don’t agree with that attitude, but I can kinda see where they’d be coming from.

We investigated the store where this state hides all of their Asian food. I was more than a little bit in heaven. I bought pho, ramen and soba noodles. SOUP FOR DAYS!!!! I got so much and it cost so little. Next time I pick someone up from the airport, I will sincerely make an attempt to go there again.

We picked up friends from airport and then had some equally deep convo on the way home. I realized through this conversation that my definition of success is as follows:

“Travel. Meet new people. Make deep connections. Eat wonderful food.”

I have not had the opportunity to do many of these while at TLoTH. I have travelled a lot but it has mostly been in escape of the place, not because I was necessarily exploring the area. I need to keep this definition (or redefine as appropriate) in mind while making my next couple of life steps. I appreciate quieter people who allow me think through my thoughts before speaking because I don’t feel rushed. That is a quality I need to work on, but I love talking too much.

To wrap up, I want to say a quick note on David Bowie.

I found out David Bowie died this morning and I guess it didn’t really hit me. I talked about it with co-workers and they acknowledged him as a singer or maybe they brought up Labyrinth but they weren’t attached to him so his death wasn’t devastating. Only when I got home and saw the amount and type of outpouring on my Facebook feed did it hit me. A lot of my co-workers are straight. Bowie does not have the gravitas as a cultural icon to the mainstream as he does to the LGBT community. It was such an unexpected and grief filled moment to realize that David Bowie is one of the few celebrities who has been openly bisexual. There is no real cultural way to be flamboyantly bisexual. Bowie embodied the grapple between two sets of expectations in many ways from costume and hair down to his two very different eyes. His “oddity” has been a beacon to the queer community for decades, saying: “It’s ok to be different. It’s ok to be so different it feels like you’re from space.”

Being a bisexual woman in a long term heterosexual relationship makes my relationship to my sexual orientation a topic that just doesn’t come up. And it shouldn’t. But I want to be a role model to people and maybe I’m not trend-setting in Lycra but I want people to be comfortable being themselves so that they can continue making awesome stuff and saving this planet from our own destruction.

Here is my new anthem:

And a tribute to Bowie that’s been floating around the internet today:

Depression: Episode 1

As I may or may not have told you, PartnerPenguin is still in the Key Route City trying to pick up a new gig since his last job found a Thai kid who does about the same quality of work for $8/hr. Yay, the joys of being 13 hours behind your client! 

I’ve been doing a pretty OK job living on my own, in general. I haven’t tried since I was 19 so there are aspects that are rusty. Like putting my clothing in my room after it’s been worn; particularly in the dirty clothes bin. But getting in the room is enough of a win in my book.

I’ve been doing really well with food, only eating out twice or so because I didn’t plan enough food. I’ve mostly stuck to my cooking all my meals in one day and eating them the rest of the week. I’ve been pretty good about one western, one eastern dish. I’ve even had enough excess food that I’ve fed others. I’ve been consistent about exercising twice a week in Crossfit. I’ve tried to live up to my goal of socializing 5x/week outside of work, even if it’s been with co-workers.

But spending this much time with myself has created some somewhat unexpected issues.

I depend on PartnerPenguin a LOT to keep me mentally balanced. I have quite a volatile personality and without a good grounding stone, my emotions resemble a roller coaster train wreck. I did something this week that made me ecstatic. In the same evening, I had a conversation that brought up so many sad tokens; I wished I could exchange them in for a stuffed animal. Yesterday I had a conversation that I literally could not recover from for the rest of the day. I cried for more hours than I did not cry. Yet I also washed every piece of dirty laundry, line dried it (saving money), did two loads of hand wash and vacuumed all the carpet in my apartment.

I also am discovering that I’m rubbish at asking for help. In some ways, I am paralyzed from the fear of not being able to trust anyone. I have had someone in my life almost every day for the past seven years whom I trust with my life. I am in a new place with new people who I have only known for two months. I have never understood how little trust I feel comfortable putting into new relationships. I know I was not always like this. And I’ve gotten hurt. Permanently. But I never knew it, or was able to acknowledge it in the same way as I am now when I have nothing else to do except introspect.

To some extent, it is easy to feel like you know me really well because I never filter what’s going on with me at that EXACT moment. But in all honesty, I can count the number of people who actually know what’s going on in my life on one hand. And I sometimes disappear from their lives because I can’t bring myself to tell them I’m in pain and I need them.

I am going to submit my next banner to an art show in September. It is going to say “Subtle like a LANDMINE.” I hope it sells, because that is the best description I’ve ever heard of my personality.

I don’t really have a point that I’m trying to make with this post. Sometimes I ramble. Today is one of those times.

Not everything this week has been bad. It’s just been amplified.

Oh yeah, I thought of something I’d like to speak my mind on. The topic of professors.

Three weeks ago, I reached out to a couple professors who I researched with at Big American University. At the encouragement of literally every scientist I’ve met at TLoTH, I am trying to publish my research from Big American Uni. Nothing big, just a poster. The grad student I researched with help me put together a jammin’ abstract and I sent it to the professors three weeks ago. I assigned them a deadline of July 10 so I would have plenty of time to pass through internal approval before I submitted it for a conference. In all of my emails, I offered the opportunity to MEET IN PERSON because I know they both respond better in person. I do not live in the same state as these professors, I was planning on taking time out of my holiday weekend to spend with them.

In the time between the first email and July 10 I received a total of three emails. One email (Prof 1) said, “Good abstract, add more of your work even though I don’t think it has a story to tell.” Second email (Prof 1) said, “Good abstract. I’m in a different country.” Third email, sent at 10 am on July 10 said, “Good abstract. ::asks question directly answered in my thesis::”

At least they both said it was OK to publish.

There were a lot of problematic things about this entire interaction. I set a clear deadline. I communicated my intentions. The professor out of the country had some excuse due to spotty Internet. But over the course of three weeks, the excuse wears thin. I have been quasi-homeless and made sure to check my email every day. The domestic professor, who might have been out of town, did not communicate that and therefore was just absent. Big American Uni has cut their phone lines to professors’ offices due to budget cuts so I was unable to call. I resorted to asking the secretaries to remind him if they saw him in person. I felt like I was stalking but I honestly had NO alternative for this communication.

By far the biggest disappointment of the whole experience was the grad student’s response. She was amazingly supportive through the whole thing and I give her tons of credit for being awesome. But she said something that disturbed me deeply. She said that professors are often like this and there is nothing to be done about it because they are, in essence, more important than us.

I replied thusly:

“I am sorry that you have had to become normalized to such shitty communication and disrespect for your time throughout your graduate experience. You deserve better. Not everyone treats their students in this manner.” They are adults. I am an adult. I deserve to be treated like one.

It hurt and made me so so sad that not only was this behavior accepted and normal, it’s what to expect in some fields of research. It takes a person who actively works through their own ancestral abuse to change the cycle but no one talks about cycles of abuse publicly when it comes to PhDships. Add in active discrimination or even microaggressions at any stage of the game and it’s not really surprising that diversity isn’t great in the ivory tower of academia.

I found this song a little while back; I feel it’s oddly appropriate. Warning: song does contain some harsh language, including the n word.

Update: I went over a friend’s house and actually told her what’s wrong and she listened completely and compassionately. NEVER underestimate the power of compassionate listening. 

And now for something completely different:

Come With Me Now

Damn, living on my own is awesome and busy. I did it; I made it a week without my PartnerPenguin!Among my personal goals I wrote out when I started out this week was the following:

Do only what serves my highest potential.

I feel like I did a pretty great job doing that this week. I am finally taking a night to catch up and food shop and blog and wash my stinky clothes. Oh the stinky-ness!

Well, the week went pretty well. I don’t actually remember what I did last Monday but I’m sure it was cool. I did make all my food last Sunday. I figured out a pretty good strategy, for now. I make 2 dishes, one Western, one Eastern. Alternate those for lunch and dinner. Get something different for breakfast. This past week Partner Penguin left me 4 lbs of boneless skinless chicken boobies so I had boobies for days. The Western dish was one of my own concocting involving butter, dark red wine, onions and mushrooms. The Eastern dish was a Trader Joe’s premade curry simmer sauce with obscene amounts of coconut oil and milk. In addition to chicken, it had red onions and tomatoes. I get really bored of my food really easily so I found a good way to combat this is to pick up a different fresh vegetable each day. So I have my entrée and a new veg dish and it’s <$3 per day after initial chicken/meat/protein investment.

Tuesday and Thursday nights I did CrossFit. I decided it was more worth it than a gym/YMCA membership for me right now because there is a built in community to support you and it a designated time commitment. I lifted a 25lb barbell this past workout and I rowed about 2000 meters in all. I am very proud of myself, and I hope to continue in a productive manner.

Wednesday brought girls’ night and we had a pretty good crowd this week. My next-door neighbor came out with us. I’m not really sure if she spoke to anyone besides me but she seemed like she enjoyed herself. Wine+estrogen is always a good idea, especially when you have ChromeCast available to watch the trailer for “Movie, The Movie”.

Cool, I went a bit out of order but anyway my week was swell. Then I had a badass weekend.

In case I haven’t mentioned, I am on a pretty cool work schedule that allows me to take every other Friday off. So Friday being my day off, I got to do a bunch of housework and pack. I laminated the first geology map I made in school; I’m super stoked to put it up in my office.

In the afternoon, I met up with some friends and we went camping for two days. It turns out that when you’re not camping for research or classes it’s actually an incredibly relaxing and peaceful experience! I really liked it and was super glad I had some good friends organizing. I did two important firsts this weekend too.

1.   I pooped in a hole. Including research trips, field camps and educational camping trips, I have certainly been camping for a total of more than 3 months of my life. I just evaded that particular issue forever. Whatever, I know you don’t care but this isn’t your blog.
2. I shot a gun. This was a little more profound for me than pooping in a hole. I am scared of guns and the noise hurts my ears a lot. This was a 45 caliber dude. PartnerPenguin asked me the brand and I told him “black” and he said that wasn’t a brand. The one thing that I was impressed with myself about was that I aimed at the target and hit exactly where I aimed. I then gave the gun back to its owner and ran away. 

 Other than that, I’m still working through the book The Bees; a mini-epic of a dystopian feminist world solely populated by bees. It’s pretty violent and incredibly compelling. I appreciate any author who successful writes about smell and pheromone communication between animals. Plus, it had Margaret Atwood's stamp of approval.

Sunday morning I left hella early and braved the treacherous dirt road back to the main road. When I got home, I showered the most delicious, cleansing shower of my life. Then I hit the road again and headed up to a local ski village for a music festival.

Now I’ve been to a couple folk festivals and a couple large venue multi-band gigs but I had no idea what to expect. The headliners were international with an average of one top 40 charting song. The event didn’t publish the set list so I got there when it opened at noon only to find out the first act wasn’t until 3:30. Haha. They had filler music groups until the event. Among the artists, I was not surprised to see Mariacha or Flamenco group. The group that did surprise me was the Native group who sang traditional prayers around a drum. Something about their presence and performance was so piercing. Maybe it was because many other areas do not have enough of a Native American population to offer such a group. Maybe it was the timbre of their singing that just saw through everything mortal and spoke to spirits directly. I was glad they were present.

I passed the time exploring this wonderful new place and basking in its artsy-fartsy-ness. I found a jeweler who I really liked as well as an all women artist collective. I ran into my boss’s-boss’s-boss’s boss which was…interesting. I guess she was the one who suggested the ski village in the first place so it wasn’t that surprising.

Back to the concert. I have to give kudos to the opening header act, Rixton. They had fabulous stage presence and encouraged a really energetic crowd. The one audience participation act they did was they encouraged everyone in the audience to put their arm around the people they cared about the most. The lead singer then asked everyone to say

“I appreciate you.”

He then encouraged everyone to turn to a stranger and say

“I don’t know you, but I appreciate you.”

I would really like to point this out because such a simple act of gratitude should NEVER go unacknowledged or underappreciated. I hope the band will become more technically proficient and enjoy their already successful career. I also hope the lead singer and the guitarist are boyfriends because the former kissed the latter a whole bunch and I hope it was consensual. Anyway, this is the song you’d know if you know them at all.

The act that I went to see was KONGOS. Damn they rock. And HOT DAMN is their bass player one fine specimen of man. They certainly had different personalities than Rixton but they worked the crowd well in their own way. Most of the music was extremely heavy in bass drum and bass guitar but there were some pretty fabulous accordion and guitar solos. I was convinced the solo in “Come With Me Now” was an electified dulcimer but the guitarist played it on his guitar. Slight disappointment. Now I need to learn how to play the dulcimer and do heavy metal covers with it. Obviously. The set ended with rain and excellent head-banging and some really really rad covers of the Beatles and New Order. I don’t think I’ve ever actually heard such a successful cover of Elenor Rigby but it works really well with a heavy-metal-accordion band.

The rest of the fest was unremarkable except three things.

1. A woman asked me “Is this what people are normally like?” She was very intoxicated but I think there was some horrible truth in her question. She looked so lost and terrified that people were so horrible.
2.  A lesbian couple (it was relevant to my shirt) told me they lived in an earth ship. Apparently that’s a particular kind of zero waste house.
3. A woman extended her hand after talking for a while, presumably to shake and exchange names. I extended my hand and touched hers. Instead of shaking it, she pet her face with the back of my hand. I’m fairly sure this isn’t normal, but as long as bodily fluids aren’t involved, I don’t judge.

Then I drove off into the sunset and so ends my story today.

Diversifying the Friend Portfolio

Since this is the boring exposition portion of my time here at The Lab on The Hill (TLoTH), I will take this opportunity to introduce the characters that will likely be important in the coming year. I could be grievously wrong about their importance so we’ll see what happens together!

The following is partially inspired by this brief gem of television history:

Cast List:

Chinese MomBoss

Y’know when you’ve read about a concept and you think you’ve seen it in action but then you see someone who COMPLETELY embodies the concept and you realize how wrong everyone else has been? Chinese MomBoss is like that. She exemplifies what the word “mentor” really means. She is interested in helping all of her students further their careers while taking in feedback about what can be done to help her science. Although she is an infrequent presence in the lab, she is a powerful one and I look forward to learning from her this year.

Midwest MomBoss

Midwest MomBoss is who my aunt would be if she were a scientist. She has adorably quaint sayings and anthropomorphizes everything. She is fastidiously organized and doesn’t believe that time should ever be wasted. Hyacinth (see below) and me spend most of our days with Midwest MomBoss so we get to know her pretty well. She started cross-fit this month, so we’ll see if she hulks up soon.

Africa’s #1 Badass Geologist

As far as badasses go, this dude is tops. I recently told him that he should lecture at universities just so he could verbally whoop those little entitled Freshmen into shape. Africa’s #1 Badass Geologist went through some pretty intense stuff to get where he is, but damn does he deserve the prestige. The thing I like most about him though is that he is completely un-self-involved and wants to know about my life and my research. He’s quick to correct me on mineralogy and make jokes. His office has these vinyl hangings of Nature magazines his work’s been featured in. Dude’s a badass.

Lunch/Office Buddy

My L/O Buddy is pretty swell. She’s super smart in microbiology and chemistry. I feel she has a very healthy work/life balance and I really admire her for that. She shows us videos of her little baby eating solid food for the first time and laughing maniacally at a bottle of ketchup being flipped repeatedly. She thinks I’m well read and I think she’s well travelled. 

The Patron Saint of Rock Climbing

I’m going to assume this dude is a saint because I have literally never seen him get mad. He sits in my office-area when he’s not science-ing on microbial masses that we collectively call “bugs”. The bugs smell bad and he mostly sits in noisy rooms measuring out micrograms of stuff. He’s also got a four-year-old daughter who’s super cute and put their cat on time-out while we visited to pick up some gently used dishware. He gives good insight on what it’s like to be a tech in a world filled with prima donna scientists.

Hyacinth

Hyacinth is my day-in-day-out work buddy. She’s pretty damn cool and I appreciate that her personality is so opposite mine. She is reserved and listens well. She’s got a kickass taste in music so I’m including a song she showed me recently. We do a lot of jobs that require astonishing amounts of cooperation so I appreciate that she puts up with a lot of my bullshit and works with me anyway. We’re identical as far as the higher-ups are concerned so we often get mistaken for each other. She likes hiking and climbing so we eat wraps together and watch the clouds roll in over the Rift Valley when we have training.

______________________________________________________________

Outside of work, I have been trying really hard to have a different set of friends. I feel like I work best in living situations where my weekend folks aren’t the same as my workday folks. So here’s some of the weekend crew!

The Enforcer

This lady is the one in charge. She is wonderful because she organizes events and ensures consistency. She is merciless at the game Resistance. She is the kind who comes in and cleans your house till it sparkles if you give her permission. She’s a woman of convictions and enormous amounts of love mixed in with the spices of some healthy sarcasm. The Enforcer is going to be the one who makes us all into family, I’m sure of that.

Excitable Business Engineer

There is a time-bomb of when this man will move to the Bay Area. He currently runs the only operational startup in town. He is chill and tries to appease as many people as he can. But he is a practical man and most of his criticisms are about people sitting on their asses and complaining that they have not hiked to the top of a mountain. He lets us use his office as a kind of nerd-community center.

Dori

Like the fish. Only slightly more human-ish. We have the same exact car as her so obviously we invited her into our social group and are now bosom friends. Because that’s how we roll here, a month and a half in.

Needs a Shave and a Haircut

Designed a pretty interesting and involved deck-building-but-also-fighting game. I simultaneously understood it (not a small feat) and was a little bored with how slow it moved. Hopefully the pace picks up as the rules codify. Then I’d be happy to try it again.

The Unselfish Physicist

In an inwardly spiraling circle-jerk of people doing ground-breaking whatnots and whozie-whatsits, it is hard to find real people to talk to. This man, The Unselfish Physicist, is one of those real people. I have been so grateful to talk for drunken hours about silicon tetrahedra because he was generally interested in mineralogy. He stays home with the kids so his wife and sister-in-law can have a night out. He’s just one of those people who has made this place a little better since I got here.