I was just waiting for this to happen and it finally did: an American attempted to kill me. Well, pretty sure it wasn't deliberate, but made my heart beat a bit faster anyway. I have to cross a busy highway-ish bit to get to work, and both lights go at once so pedestrians can cross diagonally. So both walk lights were on and we were crossing, and some idiot on a cell phone (naturellement) went halfway through the intersection and stopped three feet away from me. Right in front of me was a granola-looking mom with a baby carriage, and man was she not impressed. Lots of yelling - and the woman on just sat in the intersection on her cell phone! Unbelievable. I got across without incident after that and then the honking started as she was just sitting there blocking traffic from the other direction (and Connecticut drivers take no prisoners).

Other than that, things continue, in a Januaryish manner. Someone hacked my credit card, so once again (AGAIN!) I don't have access to it until it shows up in the post. So no booking flights to go see Del (or train to go see Rebecca in DC, so I missed out this weekend) and no buying anything online or paying my phone bill. Deeply annoying but on the plus side the fraud people caught it right away. I got a call during a meeting asking if I had been buying electronics in Burnaby, BC and then selling them on Kijiji. Um, NO.

It is finally cold here, which is unfortunate because my heating still doesn't work. The registers don't go on and the thermostat does nothing. Luckily it seems to get heat from the rest of the building so it stays around 60F, albeit with a gale howling through the crappy old windows (although I have done my best with blackout curtains and that cling-wrap stuff, it's still pretty draughty). However, I have crocheted most of a large shawl which should help... except that I can't order the last of the wool I need due to lack of credit card!

On the very strongly upside, though, my bed has arrived! It is SO MUCH WARMER sleeping off the floor (it turns out). I used my new drill and it is pretty awesome as well. It comes with a light! This will come in handy for the next hurricane/ice storm. The downside was that my bed arrived sans slats. Apparently they are sold separately. But I couldn't stand having it there and not being able to use it, so I jury-rigged it using bits of wood molding from next door's basement (I found it stuck off in a corner - I have access to use the laundry since our building doesn't have any) and cardboard. There was a metal beam down the middle, so I was able to sort of criss-cross bits of wood to more or less support the mattress. In a stroke of luck, though, my labmate Stephanie took me to IKEA this weekend to get the proper slats, which are now in place, so after a week of being very tentative and sleeping carefully down the middle of the bed over the metal beam, I can now sit on my bed without fear of falling through! Exciting times indeed. (I could have ordered it from IKEA but they charge $50 shipping on a $30 set of slats... I did think of joining Zipcar, but whoops, no credit card!)

Oooh, I also made myself an excellent toque. Sparkly sequinned yarn! (left over from Jude's present). In case you couldn't tell, I have been in procrastination mode all month. Sorry to everyone I still owe presents to. I will buckle down soon! In the meantime, toque picture!

Learned a new stitch with that one, was quite pleased.

Apart from that, work and gym and not much else. Except making crazy stuff for my house. I'm trying to make a sort of screen/room divider thing out of tin cans and stuff off Freecycle. We will see how that goes. Helena is back - green card in hand, having had a January Christmas with her family.

January, blahhhhh....

No matter how annoying life is at that moment, every time I open my Guelph email and see an announcement of a NACS talk (weekly seminars where everyone has to report on their research once a year), I have a moment of pure glee, occasionally accompanied by dancing around the room. I NEVER HAVE TO GO TO ANOTHER NACS TALK AGAIN. Never no more do I have to watch the same people talk about the exact same research, usually three people from the same lab in a row so it's basically the exact same talk. Generally about cannabinoid receptors or some such thing, which is only interesting the first time. And the names listed in the email are usually people who were there when I started and who often ignored me during my years there, and who are still there. And I'm a postdoc! That last bit is still exciting to me.

This really helps when applying for yet another grant that I probably won't get (as I did today). Came up with a cool project, though, and at least everyone is expected to write flattering things about your potential as a young scientist for the applications. On the bright side.

(The talks they have here are much cooler. Today's was about some gene sequencing work suggesting that a gene involved in histamine might underlie some of the problems with Tourettes. It's the H3 receptor, brain-only, not the peripheral ones that mediate allergy attacks. Crazy, no?! Very cool genetic and animal work backing up the hypothesis).

Other than that, this is shaping up to be a deeply boring month, with Helena gone. However, my clinical colleague Stephanie has invited me over for dinner this week, so looking forward to that. I have to bring dessert, and her options for dinner sound incredible so I have to step it up. Any suggestions/ recipes??

 So I heard from Q Conn shuttle. They called me last week.  Apparently the driver didn't read the whole email he was sent, so he only had my work number. He tried calling that (once) and obviously I wasn't there, so he gave up and went home.

Oh, ok, that makes it ALLLLLLL better then. GAH.

Their explanation for picking me up at 2.15 for a 3.30 departure was that they didn't want me to miss my flight. Their explanation for calling with this news just before picking me up? Didn't have one.

I imagine I will either get a refund from them or the credit card company without too much trouble, though. That was blatant. I emailed Yale and told them my sad sad tale, and today a scathing email went out from the director of travel for Yale to the shuttle company asking them what the heck (with me copied). Apparently they haven't had other complaints (find THAT hard to believe) but they want Q Conn to explain themselves. I suggested maybe they could refund part of my outward journey too. Hey, worth a try - I must have had a Dad moment (what's the good guy price?) So far no response but I don't imagine they'll be happy!

Safe Home at Least

I had a great Christmas with Del and the family and now I am back in New Haven.

Not without drama, though.

Here is the rant penned on the train up to CT:

Wow. Never again am I using Q Conn shuttle. What a crappy outfit. On the outward journey, when I needed to get to LaGuardia airport to go to Edmonton, they called me at work at 1.30pm. This surprised me as I had confirmed a 3.30 pm pickup at the hotel by my house. I missed the call and called back but the guy didn’t pick up until my third call at 1.50pm, at which point he told me he was picking me up at 2.15. I was still at work and hadn’t finished packing (plan was to go home at 2.30 and spend an hour doing last-minute things and throw everything else in the suitcase) so I tried to at least negotiate a 2.30 pickup and he wouldn’t do it. Told me 2.15 or no ride.

So, I rushed home like a mad thing, leaving my computers at work with stuff all over the place, and threw some stuff in a bag and was more or less ready at 2.15 (of course I later found out I left a number of key things behind – I forgot a whole pile that was ready to throw in because of the last-minute change to being picked up more than an hour early).

So I rush outside at 2.15 and the guy is there, but he then stands talking on his cell for 15 minutes outside my house. This is driving me nuts because I REALLY could have used that 15 minutes for packing! THEN he drives BACK to the med school (the workplace I rushed home from ) and circles it a couple of times before finally picking up some other guy, so now there are four of us crowded into a random SUV. Oh, which also smelled of weed.

THEN the guy stops on the highway ten minutes out of New Haven and shoves us all out and into another van full of other students. At this point someone asks if he will make his 6.30 flight out of JFK and the driver shrugs.

We drive to NYC and it transpires that half of us are for LaGuardia and half for JFK, and the JFK half are on track to miss their flight because we drove around for so long. Another girl tells me she waited outside her house for half an hour for the driver to show up and she’s STILL going to be late for her flight. The driver gets on the phone and arranges for another car to pick up the JFK half of the people. We pull off at Dunkin’ Donuts and wait around. For twenty minutes. The JFK people are now well and truly screwed. Other driver never shows. We drive on down the road (with the driver muttering darkly under his breath) and pull over, this time on the side of the highway. Another SUV pulls up and those of us for LaGuardia are dumped into it. I make my flight (I might be the only one who did) but had to wait around the airport forever because buddy picked me up so early.

Fast forward to last night… I get an email confirming my pickup at LaGuardia at 5.22pm. Perfect. I get my bags and wait by the shuttle pickup until 5.22. No shuttle. I wait 20 more minutes. No shuttle. I text Helena to get their number and call about ten times. Nobody answers, and it goes to a voice mailbox that is full. I get the airport people to radio the other terminals to make sure no one there is waiting for me. No such luck. Finally, an hour later, I give up and cram myself onto an M60 bus into the city. I don’t really know what I’m doing and I don’t have the right change and I can’t manage my luggage that well (since I expected to be picked up) but some New Yorker takes me under his wing and explains the route and where to get off. The bus driver is insane – at first I think it is just me and my sheltered country ways, but everyone else on the bus is also clinging on for dear life and muttering about taking their lives in their own hands.

Then the bus driver makes a totally unintelligible announcement, but my new friend tells me the bus is ending and to get on the bus right after it. There is no room at all for me and my huge bags but some guy in a uniform tells me to climb in the back door. I try but I have a LOT of luggage. Someone boosts me up and I sort of climb on top of my luggage so as not to block the aisle. Eventually the bus stops, and I ask if it’s the train station and someone says yes, but it turns out not to be, but by then I’ve been semi-shoved off the bus so I run the next few blocks through Harlem to the train, hoping I will see the station when I get there. I do, but I spill everything everywhere trying to get a ticket. The New Haven train leaves. I look for an elevator but don’t see one, so struggle up the steps bag by bag. Some man takes my bag for me and asks what the heck I think I’m doing. I thank him profusely and then see the sign for an elevator somewhere at the end of the platform. Looks like a good day to depend on the kindness of strangers.

But I finally got the train and so far so good. No thanks to Q Conn, those jerks. Unbelievable.

Anyway, this one’s for the search engines and anyone who is googling this and wondering: Do NOT take Q Conn Shuttle from New Haven/Yale University. Q Conn shuttle is terrible, unprofessional and really on my hate list right now. I’m now wondering if there’s any way to contact Yale and get them taken off the officical “suggested ground transport” page, since that’s how I found them in the first place. Bad, bad news.


p.s. I disputed the shuttle charge on my credit card. Fingers crossed they will just refund...

Making Good Time

We went to see the New Haven Christmas tree being lit up today. It looked amazing - it is a GIANT tree all covered with lights top to bottom. Very cool.

The ceremony, however... well, let's just say it was hosted by Ronald McDonald. Welcome to America, I guess.

They had a lot of stuff for kids, including rides on hilarious sort of giant stuffed animals on wheels (might post a pic later if I get around to it) and sleigh rides. The kids seemed to be loving it though. A lot of them looked like kids who might not get a lot of extras under normal circumstances so that was nice.

We then hit up the Yale Art Gallery, which has just reopened (and was promising refreshments, otherwise probably would have skipped!) Just sort of casually strewn with van Goghs and lots of other cool stuff - I will definitely have to go back when my blood sugar isn't so low.

Have been exhausted and burnt out all week, probably because of my slightly crazy weekend. Hired my car on Thursday morning and drove drove drove all the way up to Guelph (only stopped twice! Made good time!) which was about ten hours. Sort of forgot to eat though, so that was a bit bad at the end. Luckily Nicola is awesome and fed me delicious leek and potato soup before sorting me out a bed on her couch.

Spent Friday busily getting an international drivers license (so chintzy! It is just a square of cardboard with a photo of me with my eyes half-shut!) and two new bank accounts and meeting with my former supervisor and various people in the lab and generally running around like a mad thing. Then that night went out with some Nicola people and on Saturday emptied the storage unit and loaded up the car. I sold my futon to Nicola when I left and gave her everything else. It was very odd visiting a friend and recognizing the entire kitchen, the glasses, the kettle, the bathroom towels... and now of course I have to buy all new ones, but I couldn't take them back. Wish I'd known I was staying on the East Coast! oh well.

Anyway, Nicola suddenly decided she was going to buy a bed and asked if I wanted my futon back. I said, there is no way we are fitting a double-thick futon and frame in a Volkswagen Jetta. She said, sure, we can do it, come on! So we tried... we somehow managed to wedge the frame in diagonally behind the driver's seat across over into the front passenger's. There was no way the mattress would fit. I was going to give up but we somehow managed to tie it down with twine in quarters and shove it in the trunk (required jumping up and down on it a few times to get it to go in!) So now I had six or seven Rubbermaids and boxes that certainly wouldn't fit. So we unpacked them all, shoved everything in garbage bags and WEDGED it bodily in wherever it would fit. Then I went to the lab and got all the stuff I left there (two boxes, whoops) and tied everything down with twine. It was a sight to behold.

Nicola, bedless, ended up staying at her boyfriends for a few nights. Whoops. I am excited to have something to sit on, though.

Anyway, the drive was rainy (like sheets of water pouring down - luckily it wasn't below freezing or I would not have been going anywhere) and the border guard just waved me through (whew!) Unfortunately I had to wait in a queue for an hour because the guy on the way in had screwed up my paperwork, but should now be good. Everything was fine until I got to Connecticut, which was crazy as usual, and got a bit lost on the way into New Haven, then unpacked all my stuff and took Helena grocery shopping while we had the car. And was SO TIRED. But it is all done and slowly being unpacked (as best I can with very few shelves/hangers!) and I should get over this exhaustion soon...

This one's for poor autobiographical memory

Well, I don't have much to say, but on the other hand I'm bored and I want to try and post more. I went to a talk at one point (by a real jerk of a speaker, I must say*) about autobiographical memory. There are people who are super-rememberers and can recall every day of their life with perfect accuracy. Then there are people like me, who can't re-experience life events in the first person. I didn't know ANYONE could do this but apparently they can. My memories are more like reading a book about someone else, and they fade FAST. Luckily I can hold onto stuff by way of photographs, blogging and making things into hilarious stories to tell at cocktail parties, so that works out okay. Still, it would probably be a good idea to try to commit things to writing as they happen, or I will wake up one day and have no idea what I did with my life.

(This can also be very awkward - it took me a long time to convince Del that I wasn't just forgetting things we did/that he said because I don't care. I just don't remember, but I don't remember anything else either...)

Actually, I wonder too how much of this is due to re-imagining my life every few years. Really, in a way you're a different person every time you radically change your circumstances, and every time you make a big move it changes you too so that you're slightly different by the end. But I guess it's unsurprising that my autobiographical memory would be a bit disjointed when my past can be divided into phases that don't necessarily have much to do with each other, but that occasionally overlap.

So anyway, this week it was American Thanksgiving. I decided to work through since I have to go back to Guelph sometime (hopefully this week) to pick up the rest of my stuff. (DREADING this but unavoidable). However, my new supervisor kindly invited me to Thanksgiving dinner on the Thursday, so really I only worked a half day. They got their entire meal in a bag from Whole Foods, pre-cooked turkey and all! Impressive American efficiency (and, I must admit, delicious). They had also invited another family, and that is how I met my very first Tiger Mother. I actually assumed that Amy Chua had exaggerated this style of parenting a bit for effect, but nope, this T. M. was exactly as described. The kids are in music and dance lessons to the tune of $250 per week, she informed us, and in Chinese school on the weekends and being tutored the rest of the time, and they better do well because she wants a good return on her investment. I was astounded. These kids are being groomed for Harvard or Yale, and anything less than that is considered a failure.

I tell ya, it's a whole different world out here. One of the little boys carries around a socket wrench like it's his blankie - it was the cutest thing - and I said, "awww, maybe he'll be a mechanic!" I got a strange look and a "We're hoping he'll be a doctor" in return. However, ten minutes later when we heard the woeful saga of the new generator that can't be hooked up to the house because the house doesn't have a ground wire (?? maybe it's really old?), I thought to myself, this is why one wants an electrician or two in the family if possible. Not much use having nothing but doctors at a time like this!

Anyway, I had a nice time and it was sweet of them to invite me. So that's my first American Thanksgiving under my belt I suppose.

Other than that, mostly been laying low as I don't get paid until Friday and have been surviving on my first week's paycheque (get paid once a week on the last day of the month, so only a small one for October and nothing now until the end of Nov). Had a rough birthday this year - Helena and I had dinner plans at least, but then she got sick and had to cancel so I did nothing at all. Luckily a card and a parcel arrived from the people I can always count on, so that cheered me up somewhat. Then later in the week my friend Rebecca's grandma took a turn for the worse and died, and the funeral was actually ON her birthday. So now I feel bad for complaining. Poor Rebecca, she has had a rough year and I hope we can take her away for a girls weekend or something once I have some actual paycheque available to spend.

Hopefully this whole trip-to-Guelph thing works out for the end of the week. I really am not looking forward to the drives and the border (and Guelph) but it can't be helped. I will cough up extra for a GPS and hope the horrible Connecticut drivers are feeling kind...

*he called out a grad student halfway through the talk, loudly and at great length, for fiddling around on his phone -which granted isn't good form, but who HALTS HIS TALK TO YELL AT SOMEONE?! Especially since some people have note-taking apps etc on their phones.

Third Week Unlucky

Man, it's been kind of a rough week. After the craziness of the first week (i.e. trying to make sure I had somewhere to live and something to sleep on) and the unexpected hurrication the second week, this week it really felt like maybe things should be more sorted, and they totally weren't.

For one thing, although I got paid Nov 1st, the bank kindly put all my money except $100 on hold for a week and a half. This was unexpected because when I deposited it, the teller said it would be available in two days. So I therefore took out most of it and spent it on food and a couple of bits of furniture off Craigslist before discovering that I would then have an extra week to survive and $15 in my pocket. My credit card, of course, is still en route from the UK since I left it behind the bar at the Rusty Bike at my leaving do. Sigh. Anyway, it worked out fine (in part thanks to Rebecca treating Helena and I to a meal out). Bit awkward when people wanted to go for lunch etc, though. However, I made it work, and by the time my cash was released today I still had $3 in my pocket.

The not-too-bright dude at the gym also screwed up my membership, meaning that although I paid on Nov 1st, I didn't have access until yesterday after I had made about ten phone calls (he apparently doesn't answer his phone) and trudged over there during a Nor'easter (wind warnings! exciting weather lately) and stood in his office for 45 min waiting for him to get back. The office was open with a  sign saying "come in", with his keys and phone on his desk... apparently he was just bumming around upstairs. He's lucky I didn't rob him blind. Anyway, I was annoyed a). because I really could have used that money for something else this week, and b). exercise is my stress relief, and without it I started getting in quite a bad way. Blah, so unpleasant.

Oh yeah, also my heating wasn't working, and due to said Nor'easter/wind warnings it was COLD. Which, along with stress and no exercise, made it hard to fall asleep. Double blah.

However, things are looking up: the bank released my funds; the maintenance dude, who is probably getting sick of my place, sorted out the heating; and I found the email address of someone who could actually fix the gym fiasco and am (apparently) getting a free month in return for all the nonsense. (As the same dude is the one in charge of this, I am skeptical though).

So yes, things looking up. Tomorrow I can finally afford to get some curtain rods!

Work is also going a little better, I think - I have been having a lot of trouble focussing lately but I've now been introduced to a bunch of different pieces of software that I can use for data analysis, and have a much clearer idea of what it is that I'm expected to do. Now I'm actually quite excited to dig my teeth into this data and see what I can find. I am waiting on new computers (one Mac, one PC, lucky me!) and some software, which I'm sure will bring its own series of frustrations, but once I'm set up at least I sort of know what to do.

So here's to a better 4th week... if nothing else I am going for a birthday dinner at a restaurant that serves nothing but cheese!

Frankenstorm

Okay, I am feeling distinctly uneasy. Why? Because I just checked my Yale mail and in part it read:

"STAFF - ONLY ESSENTIAL STAFF ARE REQUIRED TO COME TO WORK ON MONDAY. We all owe a great debt to the hundreds of essential staff who have already made plans to be on campus starting tonight and/or tomorrow to care for the campus and undertake essential services ranging from dining to health services to utilities, police/security and grounds—and many others. If you have any doubt about whether you are considered an essential service provider, please contact your supervisor immediately.
NOTE: Those staff with clinical responsibilities for patients at Yale Medical Group or the Hospital will receive a special email from the Medical School tonight to outline which staff will be needed to report to work since some patients will be seen tomorrow.
For all staff who do not provide essential services, your work is cancelled for Monday and you should not report to work. Because the University is undertaking the almost unprecedented action of cancelling classes and closing offices on Monday, you will receive your regular pay and not be asked to use vacation/sick time. We will make the decision about Tuesday work requirements by Monday early evening.
YALE HEALTH – Urgent Care will continue to operate throughout the storm. All non-emergency appointments for Monday will need to be rescheduled. Please call to reschedule once the storm has passed.
OFFICES ARE CLOSED for Monday except for essential services. This means that all of the libraries, the Payne Whitney Gym, and regular student support services will not be available. As noted above, the Medical School will be making its own decisions about the clinical practices for patients.
ALL EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES ARE CANCELLED FOR MONDAY. This includes rehearsals, performances, varsity, club, and intramural sports practices and contests, and the like.
TRANSPORTATION - The fixed-route Yale Shuttle System will not be operating after Midnight tonight. The door-to-door Safe Rides will also stop operations at midnight; if you have a true transportation emergency, please call 203-785-5555. We will post when Yale Transportation Services resume on www.emergency.yale.edu"

EEK. They are taking this hurricane business super seriously and now I am slightly regretting moving into a studio that consists of one room with four giant windows (plus bathroom, also with giant window). Hurricane safety 101 says get into a room with no windows. Not gonna work in this place.

I have some bottled water and food in case the power goes out (nothing exciting - Powerbar type stuff and cereal and hummus and almonds) but no flashlight or anything of the sort due to (SIGH) having $9 in cash to last the week and no access to my credit card because I left it at the Rusty Bike in Oxford at my leaving do... Great timing as per usual.

At the moment it's just windy and nothing too crazy going down, but feeling uneasy in that herd mentality kind of way. Tornadoes I know how to do; hurricanes are a new one on this Alberta girl.

Maybe the whole thing will be an anticlimax?...