Good Golly Miss Molly!

Good golly Miss Molly!...I am roasting from the heat! I haven't been able to sleep really well in the past week b/c it's been so hot. My apartment is great..lot's of windows, high ceilings, but unfortunately, the campus apartments don't come with air conditioning or fans! (This is the first time I've ever lived somewhere where they didn't have AC!). Normally the no AC thing isn't a big deal b/c I'm not at home during the day and at night it cools off, so I'm usually good if I just open the front and back doors to let the breeze through. However, weekends are a whole 'nother story! Today I did some volunteering at a nearby soup kitchen and while they didn't have AC either, it wasn't as noticeable since the room was large and there were few windows to let in the burning sun. When I came out to my car though, the outside temperature reading on my dashboard read 99 degrees! "Enough is enough," I thought. I MUST get a fan. Fast forward to failed trips to Target, WalMart, and Mervyns (I guess everyone had the same idea!). Sears was my savior! I grabbed a nice oscillating fan that can sit on the ground (about 15 inches) or can be raised to about 2.5 feet. I am now relaxing on my couch with the consistent breeze of my Blizzard fan while it's 106 outside. Ahh, life is good! (Now if I could only work up the energy to do some cleaning...)

Home Sweet Home

I enjoyed three marvelous weeks at home in HOTlanta. On average, I didn't do much (which is just the way vacation should be). I filled my time sleeping (in my big queen-size bed no less!...Queen beats X-long Twin any day of the week!), reading books (I was expecting a 6 month backlog of books as I hadn't been home since Christmas, but alas, my mum has been sending all of the books to my sister! Needless to say, the bounty never made it up the coast to my neck of the woods!), and watching TV (So You Think You Can Dance, the Hills, 5 Takes - love that show!, Take Home Chef, A Baby Story, Bringing Home Baby, various and sundry Food Network shows, and of course...Bridezillas!).

While I was home I also went to go visit fomer colleagues at the CDC for lunch. It was fantastic! So much had happened in the one year I had been away. The CDC underwent a total physical transformation into a much more beautiful working environment. In addition, the flu branch got an upgrade from a branch to a division, and IVPS got more lab and office space! (Gone are the days of 7 people working in a 4 person office). Plus, there has been lots of people drama, too. Two people had left on not-so-good terms, two people had given birth to baby girls, and one person was pregnant with a girl and due very soon. It was really nice to reconnect to everyone; however, it reminded me of very important fact of life....Nothing is constant, and one should not hold out on the future for a glimpse of the past (Note to self regarding lab choices!).