Cat day: Success!

I have a cat and he is big and black and fuzzy.  I will give him a name soon.  Whoever called him "Cougar" clearly doesn’t understand that cougars are not black.  I am using "Panther" as a stand-in, because I’m pretty sure that’s what they meant.  I am tempted to name him after scientists.  Bryan thinks Schrodinger is a little over the top.  I’m still rooting for Mendeleyev, but I think Pascal will win out.

I’ve told myself over and over again that I won’t write about work here too much, because it’s just not worth my time to feel frustrated with how boring it is or how much my college degree doesn’t count for anything.  BossBoss has crossed a bit of a line, though.  Somewhere in the last few days she realized that I haven’t been doing jack shit since I started working here, so she’s started loading me up with quite a lot of tasks.

Normally, I’d be happy to help out.  I’d really be happy to do anything at this job.  I offer to do data entry for pretty much everyone on my floor.  I’m that bored.  This, however, is not useful things that she has asked me to do.  She has made up useless work for the sole purpose of making me look busy.  She wants me to write a "detailed checklist" of things to do when shutting down my instrument.  Problem?  There’s a script that does all of that.  What if the script doesn’t work?  There are about five backups.  She wants a huge document on what basically amounts to pushing a button.

This puts my emotions somewhere between
 – Squeezing my face tight, clenching my fists, and growling "Rrrrrrrg"
and
 – Just breaking down in tears

I’ve had a hard time dragging myself to this job in the past, but it’s just getting ridiculous.  The absolute futility of bureaucracy sets me on edge.  Working for the government means wading hip-deep in it.  Today is one of those days where I really wish I could just quit.  Except, you know, the whole needing money for rent thing.

My one really, really happy thought through all of this is that I’ve been accepted into the University of Washington, which is a good school.  Not only do I definitely know that I’ll be going to graduate school, but I feel like my shot at MIT just went way up.  I am very optimistic about my career’s future, and rightfully so.  Soon I will be surrounded by academia, free of most bullshit, and most importantly valued for my worth rather than for my time.

Also, at least this job is not as bad as the last place I worked.  Shauna liked punishing people who did their jobs as scientists rather than as lackeys.  *shudder*  We shall not go back there.

I am very pleased that it is a three-day weekend.  I don’t have to think about BossBoss for three whole days.  And when I get back, I will have a new tool at my disposal: the knowledge that if I’m not going to be doing anything at this job (no one does anything at this job, to be truthful), that I should endeavor to either look busy or go hide in the lab to read.  Hopefully this will be a powerful tool in my arsenal.

Jason’s birthday is on Sunday, and I am stoked.  We plan on playing Pathfinder for most of the day, and having it slowly devolve into drunken antics and karaoke.  It probably doesn’t help that there’s a bar literally next door to our game site.  Jason’s birthday present to himself was to buy some Bombay Sapphire for the party.  This not because he loves the gin for himself, but because it is my favorite drink, and he knows I won’t be able to resist it.

It’s nice to know that many people classify me as "the life of the party," and that they really enjoy my company whilst intoxicated.  (This is definitely an improvement from high school.)  At least, the cuddly people enjoy me while intoxicated.  No one’s said so to my face, but I’m pretty sure people with personal space issues never ever want to be near me when I’m drunk.

I like hugs.  🙂

I also like that I get to go home to a lovely kitty cat!  He’s already started following me around the apartment everywhere.  His foster family didn’t teach him many manners, and it’s been a bit of a struggle to keep him off of the counters, but he’s getting it.  He also learned very quickly that I do not like him clawing me.  Very quickly.  It was an easy transition from the couch to the scratching post, which was a relief, because that is my weakest area training cats.  This will be my first success as far as scratching posts are concerned!  Whee!  Hooray for my couch!  What a good boy, Mendeleyev/Pascal/Panther!

P.S.  Is it bad that I want to do this for my wedding?