I suck at updating

Sorry I suck at updating my blog. And Facebook.....oh well. I don't even have a legit excuse like having multiple children or extracurricular activities. I'm just lazy. For instance, right now I'm dipping my grilled cheese in Cholula because I was too lazy to heat up some tomato soup. (It's working out quite nicely, btw)

So here's what's new:

WORK
I started a new job about a month ago as a laboratory technician at a respiratory research facility on the Air Force base. The lab I work in processes (breaks down) tissue samples from animals that have been dosed with radiation (for the purpose of developing treatments for respiratory disorders).
Side note: the FDA requires that drugs cannot be tested on humans until they have been proven safe on at least three species of animals...you learn something new every day!
So anyway, I spend the whole day working on huge batches of tissue samples. It's kind of cool working with stuff that is radioactive! It's a cool job but if I had to do it every day for the rest of my life I would DIE. Definitely not my career of choice. The pay is ok until you look at your pay stub and see a huge chunk of my paycheck go to taxes :( stupid taxes. Is there any way to opt out of paying them? Because I would totally sign up for that.

SCHOOL
A few weeks ago I interviewed at a PA school here in town called St Francis. It's a private school based out of Illinois and is in a building I must have passed a hundred times but never noticed....it's right across from a bar I go to every Wednesday night for Geeks Who Drink (which is awesome!). Anywho, I got my acceptance letter in the mail this week! Classes start January 4th! It's a full-time program that consists of 15 months of school and 12 months of clinical rotations.....after that I'll have a MS in Physician Assistant Studies! And, call me a nerd, but I am really excited to be going back to school :)
My other option would be UNM, since they just got a PA master's program last year, but they haven't even started interviews yet. Their program also has to attend lectures and share cadavers with the med school students, which is pretty lame. If they get their stuff together and call me for an interview soon, I'll consider it, but otherwise I'm sending in my check to St Francis to hold my spot!

KITTY
Little Clementine Woolysocks got some claw caps put on this week because of her awesome habit of scratching the beejesus out of Santiago and I. She is totally psychotic and will scratch for no reason. But the caps have cured her evil ways! She has tried to take a piece out of us but just ends up batting at our arms with her little blunt-tipped nails. Nice try, devil cat! She is so much cuter now that we know she cant sneak attack us anymore!

Clementine just has clear ones for now, but obviously we will be getting the hot pink ones next time!

This is Clementine.

Clementine Woolysocks Ryan-Gonzales.

She is 1 year old and weighs about 7lbs.

She likes to sleep on top of you no matter what you are doing. Most of the time Santiago just calls her "wet noodle cat" 

 This is the bed I made for Clementine. (she is only sitting in it because I forced her to--she prefers the floor...or the couch...or my laptop)

Because she is a wet noodle she will pretty much let you do anything. Like pretend her paw is a machine gun while you make "pew-pew!" noises.

 Sometimes she is mean.

But most of the time she is just RIDICULOUS. 

We love her <3

Life Update

I'm applying to PA school!
And I'm so excited I could PUKE!
But, I have way too much to do before the end of the semester.
Soooooo putting the application on the back-burner until school is out.
I'm taking the GRE on May 6th.
Graduating on May 13th.
Partying it up on May 21st!
And getting a kitten. Probably this week if I play my cards right :) I'm serious. I know I keep saying it but I WILL HAVE MY KITTEN!!!!

Dear Hipsters

I can see the outline of your junk in your skinny jeans and I'm not impressed.

While the cat's away.....

The mice will play!

Except in this analogy I'm just going to buy a cat. No mice involved.
Santiago is in Phoenix, and I'm bored. I want a kitten soooooo bad! However, Santiago is "allergic" and since I kinda don't want him to die I probably won't bring one home. Maybe. I'm still contemplating...

Here is the problem (other than the allergies, which could be cured by me grinding up a Zyrtec into Santiago's breakfast every morning) Either I have short-term memory loss or I just have a bigger forgiveness center in my brain. I just cant stay mad at Santiago for more than......6 and a half minutes. He puts on the cute face, makes me laugh, then kisses me until I can't even fake a frown. I must not have a comparable cute face, because I get the silent treatment until he decides I've been punished enough. I have a feeling that a kitten might land me a good month or so of silent treatment....Which I obviously could not handle since I am needy and require love and attention from Santiago 24/7. (but then again....I would have a kitten to keep me company during my exile!)


So instead, I'm just going to rearrange all the furniture and go shopping.

.

USS Ronald Reagan

Santiago would like someone to name a boat after him.

That is all.

Butter

Occasionally I sample pasta for a local company at Whole Foods. Pasta Divina makes compound butters, pasta sauces, and fresh pasta.

If you think that only rich people shop at Whole Foods, then you've obviously never been in one. I can think of several distinct types of people who shop there: rich people, hippies, people on weird diets, creeps who come in just for the samples, foodies, and old people.

Here is my typical interaction with each of these types of people while I am sampling:

Rich People:
Me: "Hi there. Have you tried our fresh basil linguine?"
Customer: "Great Scot! that pasta is delicious. I'll take 3 of everything. Is there any way you could dip it in gold for me first?"

Hippies:
Me: "Hi there. Have you tried our fresh basil linguine?"
Customer: "Oh yeah I buy this at the farmer's market all the time! Are those cups recyclable?"

People on weird diets:
Me: "Hi there. Have you tried our...."
Customer: "I DONT EAT CARBS" or "IS THAT GLUTEN FREE??!!"

Creeps who come in just for the samples
Me: "Hi there. Have you tried our fresh basil linguine?"
Customer: "Hmmm I don't remember. Maybe I should try 3 or 4 samples of everything."
....and then they'll take their sample cup and dip it in the olive bar, the soup, and anything else that is not locked down.

or...they'll just pop a sample into their mouth and THEN ask what it is. I always cross my fingers that they will have some horrible allergy to whatever they just ate.

Foodies
Me: "Hi there. Have you tried our truffle butter?"
Customer: "SWEET JESUS DID YOU SAY TRUFFLES?!?"

Old people
Me: "Hi there. Have you tried our truffle butter?"
Customer: "what?"
Me: "Would you like to try some truffle butter?"
Customer: "what's truffle?"
Me: "It's a type of mushroom that has a sweet, earthy flavor"
Customer: "mushroom? that doesn't sound very good. don't you have some cheese?"
Me: "No, sorry. But feel free to try the butter if you like"
Customer: "Where's that?"
Me: "right here. It's on a piece of french bread"
Customer: "I thought you said it was butter?"
Me: "It is butter. We just spread it on some bread so you have something to eat it on"
Customer: "So it's cheese?"

It takes every ounce of restraint for me to not strangle these people. I do give some of them looks of disgust...