Wow, I've been gone for so long I almost forgot how to get here.

I'll spare everyone all the grisly details of my graduation from my beloved U of I, move back home, job search, job found (yay!), move to Chicago-area, new "I-think-I'm-in-over-my-head" job , yadda yadda. Let's just say I wasn't away from GS all this time because I don't like it (I still love you, GS). And I have to say... I'm not back per se, just popping in. Hopefully I'll be able to pop in with more frequency, but I make no promises at this point.

Anyway, just want to say hi to everyone I haven't talked to in so long. Hope everyone is well. And to anyone who sent me a pm... I had, like, a million, so I just erased them all. Sorry, but I just couldn't bring myself to go through each and every one.

Aj

Yep, that pretty much sums it up. I haven't been on here for weeks, I haven't had a decent IM conversation in a month, and I feel like I'm going to lose my mind. A brief overview of what I've been doing: finishing my thesis revisions since the deadline for submission is June 27th, applying and interviewing for jobs, working hellishly long hours at the lab, and packing since I have to be out of my apartment on the 28th of this month. As I don't actually have a job lined up and new place to live, I'm moving back home temporarily. When I moved out 7 years ago, I never thought I would be heading back, but life's funny that way. I don't mind, obviously, since I go home a lot anyway, but I need to get a job right away so that I'm not leeching off my mom. So wish me luck with all of that.

Basically my schedule has only allowed for about 2 hours of "free time" every evening before I crash on my couch and slip into unconsciousness. I've been spending the time catching up on some reading and I finally finished getting 5 stars on all the medium songs in Guitar Hero I and II. That game is like therapy for me, I don't know what I would do without it to take my mind off things.

Anyway, that's why I haven't been around. It will be awhile before I am since I'm going to be disconnecting my internet soon and I hate the dialup at home . But once life settles down a bit I'll make my triumphant return. Oh, and I'm currently writing the Acknowledgements section of my thesis and in it I thank "all my friends who have supported me through my trials and tribulations" and that includes everyone here, especially all who read these sporatic blog posts even though I never read yours in return, the members of the MoL who make me laugh, and especially Yami and Nano for IMing me even when I can't respond. It means a lot to me. Thanks everyone Hope to talk to you all soon.

Aj

Another long blog post explaining where I've been and where I'm going....

First off... I told someone the other day that this crazy busy schedule sucks because I haven't been able to talk to my friends for weeks. Of course I then got the heavily sarcastic comment "oh, you mean your 'online friends'? How can you miss people that you've never met? " This really pisses me off, because I do consider my online friends to be actual friends, and in fact there are people I talk to online that know me better and seem to care about me more than some of my "real" friends. So, I'd just like to say you guys are great, and sorry I haven't been on and thanks to everyone who has been leaving me messages even though I haven't been on and replying in a timely manner.

Secondly.... my garage sale. We ended up making more money than we thought we were going to, so that's good. We made $880, $600 of which I got to keep. Time to put a small dent in my credit card bills.... And even though the sale went well overall, it was miserable. From Wednesday to Saturday my grandma (whose house we have the sale at) just drove me absolutely nuts. We ended up getting in an argument and giving each other the silent treatment. It was also hot and the windiest it's ever been during one of our sales. And so on top of my obligatory sunburn on my arms, face, and ears.... I also got windburn on my face and ears. So my skin blistered, opened up and started oozing, and then forming these large, yellow scabs. Very attractive And now my sunburn has started to peel so I leave bits of skin and scabs wherever I go. Normally I wouldn't care, and would even use this to gross out the people at work... however I have a conference next week and I need to look a bit more..... normal.... for it.

Which leads me to my third topic. Our annual meat science conference. Some may remember that we hosted this conference at my university last year and I absoluetly loathed the entire experience. But this year it's in South Dakota, so it won't be as bad. However, my main goal this year is to convince someone there that they want to hire me. So I'll be armed with my resume and business cards.... and my sun/wind burn Anyway, I'll be in South Dakota from Saturday (6am, yay) until Wednesday night. If you don't hear from me after that, then I probably melted into a pile of oozing flesh. Maybe Nano can collect my gooey remains and boil some of my enemies in it (I'll make you a list, just in case)