Ross has obviously done a much better job at this than I have.  I’ll try and do my best to keep on blogging. Anyway….Camping.

So, my PI (aka boss) had this idea that everytime we go to fly meeting in San Diego – the lab goes camping for a few days in the desert before the meeting starts.  On monday, I will be camping with my boss and two other lab memers.  This will be the second ever lab camping trip.

I consider myself to be a lot of things….a camper, however, I am not.  The last time I remember ‘camping’ was setting up our tent  in the backyard and sleeping out there.  We went a few times with my Dad when I was growing up, but that usually invovled picking up KFC on the way to the camp site — and camping at a site with bathrooms and shower facilities.  Starting Monday, I will be camping at Anza Borrego Desert State Park – at a campsite with NO showers…and NO bathrooms.  I’m not sure how I’m going to handle all the stinky sweaty-ness that is going to be invovled.

While preparing for the trip – we were making a list of things we needed to go camping.  I did not seem to have anything that I needed (surprise, surprise).  So – now I’ve borrowed  a sleeping bag, sleeping pad, flashlight, headlamp, fanny pack, long sleeve dri-fit shirts, dri-fit hat and purchased the rest of the things I will need for camping/hiking in the desert for two days.  Now that I have the gear that I need, I’m feeling a little better about this whole camping/hiking trip.   Still a little nervous about the rattle snakes, scorpions etc that I will be sharing the desert with.

We’ll have to see how it goes…

So since my dad visited I’ved changed to a new sleep schedule. When my dad was here he was going to bed around mid night. So since I knew he would be up early I also was going to bed at that time instead of my usual 2AM or later. As a result I was getting up before 8 each day. Even after dad left I’ve continued on this sleeping pattern of getting up early which means i’m exhausted by 11 and end up going to bed early. This past week has been kind of interesting with the new sleep schedule. On one hand since i’m getting up around 7 or earlier each day i’m getting up at the same time as nicole which she appreciates.

Since i’m now up at so early in the morning i’ve needed to find something to do with my time since I still can’t leave for work till at least 9:30 AM because of the daily traffic. On the upside this time before I go to work has been fairly productive for me. I’ve gone to the gym a couple of times in the morning, done laundry, paid some bills, cleaned a drain, did the dishes. It’s kinda nice to be able to come home and just relax and do nothing and not feel guilty since i’ve already done some household chores. It also means that I’m leaving for work on time and when i do get there I’m actually hungry for lunch when the rest of the guys want to go. Except on the days where i’ve had some food at home cause I wanted breakfast.

The only downside so far is that at the end of the work day and on the drive home i’m much more tired since i’ve been up for several hours more than I’m used to. We’ll have to see how long this lasts if it lasts. I kinda like it.

I hate car alarms. Really whats the point of them? Short of when your car is in your driveway of your house a car alarm is pretty useless. 90% of the time you aren’t within hearing distance of your car alarm so if it is triggered all it does is cause noise pollution. If you think someone else might hear it go off and might do something about it you’re fooling yourself. Have you ever done something when someone’s car alarm was going off? Now days i think if someone hears a car alarm going off they don’t think ‘oh someone might be breaking into that car’ its more likely ‘why doesn’t the owner come out and turn it off or it turn itself off’.

Why am I so annoyed at car alarms right now? I just spent 20 min trying to take a nap in my car in the parking lot but couldn’t cause some jerk had his car alarm going off the entire time. All it made me want to do was to go over to the car and break the windows. I was really tired since i didn’t get enough sleep last night since i was an idiot and was up reading till way too late. Anyway i figured it would be better to go take a short 20 min nap in the car and rejuvinate myself for the rest of the work day instead of dragging all afternoon and being afraid of drifting off and falling asleep at my desk. Oh well now i’ll just be tired and grumpy at my desk for the afternoon.