The End of My Life as a Chemist

Since I blogged yesterday, I spent another afternoon at work bored out of my mind and left early. Then I headed to see a table after work with my mom. Though it was the size I wanted, it wasn't exactly the quality I wanted. But, I bought it because it was $25. Now I'm kind of regretting it and am thinking of just reselling it (it needs to be refinished and who has that kind of time?), but I'm also thinking I could just throw a tablecloth on it and not deal with that either. We shall see.


After buying the table, I headed to the gym to get my sweat on. I don't know why, but I was really craving a nice, sweaty workout. Luckily, while I was there, my friend Ali showed up and jumped on the ArcTrainer right next to my elliptical. It was nice spending my last 20 minutes (I did 32) talking with her. She went to Grand Valley State University for her undergrad (which is in Grand Rapids) and we chatted for a bit about GR as well as life in general. It was a really great workout. I worked up quite a sweat and really enjoyed myself.


Shortly after I got back home, Lisa showed up with some goodies for dinner and for me!

She got me flowers and an awesome balloon to congratulate me on getting into medical school. It was so sweet of her and the flowers are gorgeous!

After arranging my beautiful flowers (thank you so much, Lisa!), we set to work on the salad we'd be having for dinner. We also peeled the husks off the corn we'd be having. We finished making everything right as Alicia was arriving, so her timing was perfect. Here's our spread:

Yum! While enjoying dinner, we had some really honest, great conversation. It's evenings like these that make me wish that all of my friends had been chemistry majors at U of M and were coming to medical school with me. Life would be so much better with them around all the time!


After dinner, I made two batches of brownies for work and then hopped in the shower. Alicia and Lisa entertained themselves while I was busy and then we headed to go bowling - one of our favorite past times!

We tend to take a lot of random pictures when we bowl:

Bicep curling like a beast 

We also have lovely bowling names

Lisa attempting my Elvis lips

My Elvis lips 

Love this photo of them!

Somehow Lisa lost at both games we played

We headed back to my apartment after bowling for some brownies and then the girls left a bit after 11:00 p.m. It was pretty much a perfect night.


This morning, I woke up and weighed in, per usual. I didn't take a pic mostly because I didn't feel like trekking to the kitchen to get my camera. I am the exact same weight as last week, probably because my eating has not been so hot as of late. Whoops! And it didn't exactly get better when I had two [small] brownies for breakfast.


I took the rest of the brownies in for my coworkers along with a thank you note as today was my last day of work. I also dressed up a bit because it was my last day. It helps that I haven't done laundry in a very long time and didn't have much else to choose from.

Ready for my last day!

Work was pretty boring. My boss sent out a lovely e-mail announcing my departure (pictured below - double click to read it in a larger font) so I had a few people visit to say goodbye and a few e-mails to return during the morning.

I hung out with Dillon until it was time for lunch. We went to Big Apple Bagels and then headed to the bakery next door for dessert. I didn't take pictures because well, I didn't want to when all the attention was already on me.


The afternoon was pretty boring. I cleaned out my desk and threw away all old data printouts. I cleaned off my shelf in the lab and made sure to brief Sheli and Carrie on all my ongoing projects (so, like two things...) and then had nothing to do again. Around 3:30, I was getting really restless and decided to head out. I had my boss called out of a meeting with some bigwigs from our parent company (Lubrizol) and we said a quick goodbye. Then I went around saying some short goodbyes and left at about 3:50.


It felt very odd leaving for the last time. I know I'm moving on to bigger and better, but that was my whole world for a year. And though I didn't necessarily like the work I did or all the time I spent there bored out of my mind, I will definitely miss some of the people. I honestly feel really blessed for being able to work there and learn about an industry that I knew nothing about beforehand.


Once home, I decided to finally watch the Glee Project from this past Sunday. Um, why in the world would they kick off Hannah!? She was pretty much my favorite contender. She was so positive all the time and she would fit the show so well! Instead, they let Lindsay continue. Ughs. That girl really rubs me the wrong way.


After catching up on my TV, I took a quick nap before going to training with Emily. I was toying with the idea of doing some cardio after our session but I have a lot to do before my big move on Friday/Saturday, so I wasn't sure what I was going to do. However, when I saw that my water bottle had leaked all over my gym bag, I took it as a sign that I should just do my session and head out. So, after training, I headed home for a quick dinner and then headed to my mom's to begin doing a crap ton of laundry.

Leftover salad from last night with some extra spinach 

Spinach pizza from the other day

Now I'm waiting for my laundry to finish. I've been munching on my mom's candy from her candy drawer. This is bad. I think I've been too liberal with the candy/dessert in my life lately so I'm going to cut all dessert out of my life again - at least until after August 20 when I hopefully meet my goal! I have 5.4 pounds to go! I know I can do it - I just think I've been using eating as a method of procrastination and stress relief as of late. And now that I've realized it, it's time to stop!


Okay, I'm off to collect some laundry and head home. Little does my mom know (well, she will after she read this), but I'm bringing over approximately three more loads tomorrow. Woo!


When you've moved/ended school/left a job, have you ever felt strange? Were you sad, excited, or indifferent?

I'm better equipped now

Surprisingly, these past two days have been rather busy. I shall give you a brief rundown and then I'd like to share some thoughts with you (and hopefully get your opinion).


Monday, I biked to work. It was awesome. I'm pretty sure I angered some of the drivers (I biked on the road for part of it because there's no sidewalk), but when I got to work, I was feeling great. I was pretty happy and glad I got some exercise in. The only bad thing was that I definitely had helmet hair and I was a tad sweaty because I don't really have any bike-appropriate jackets.


At work, the man from Phoenix Tribology arrived to install our fourball machine. It looks something like this:

It has a computer attached as well as a microscope, but this is the fun part of the machine. So, I spent my morning running samples and then watched as he put this monster together.


At lunch, I biked home and was pretty much covered in sweat by the time I got home. Okay, not covered, but I definitely had sweaty armpits and my back was sweating. This is probably because I wore my fleece while riding, which has absolutely no ventilation. So, again, it has come to my attention that I'm going to need to invest in something to wear while biking.


Once home, I stripped down to my underwear to cool off and blow dry the sweat off my clothes (don't judge) while my pizza cooked.

Lunch!

After I finished my lunch, I drove back to work because I knew I wouldn't have enough time to bike home and get to personal training on time. Also, I didn't have to worry about being sweaty and gross again.

During the afternoon, we had training on how to use our new toy. Then, I was coaxed into going out to Bennigan's (and canceling personal training) with Mike and David (the guy from the UK training us). David got a half-pound burger because he said red meat in America is way better and way cheaper than in England. Mike got the Turkey O'Toole (pictured below) and I stuck with salmon and steamed broccoli. It wasn't the best salmon I've ever had, but it was a healthy choice.

 After dinner, I dropped David off at his hotel and then headed to the gym. I was really considering not going, but then I reminded myself that I'm doing a two-week challenge and I had to go. So, I put in a good hour's workout and finally went home.


Once home, I had an orange as an after-gym snack and video chatted with Matt.

Matt and I worked on his résumé, cover letter, and writing sample for this awesome job he's applying for. Ironically, it's also in the lubricant industry. I guess that's where all the cool kids go. Haha...just kidding.


Anyway, after helping Matt, it was rather late, so I headed to bed. In my rush to get to sleep, I must have forgotten to set my alarm. However, this morning, I ended up waking up at 7:22 and getting to work right on time. So, that worked out. But that meant I couldn't ride my bike. However, I already planned on driving because it was raining most of the morning. Boo.


At work this morning, we continued our training and then I came home and had some leftover pizza for lunch. I also had a yogurt because they're going to expire tomorrow so I need to gobble them up soon!

After lunch, we continued training and learned how to run an actual test on our new toy. As I'm the youngest, I volunteered to go first/make an ass of myself. But really, I didn't screw anything up and I probably learned it the best of the four of us since I had to figure it out on my own. After training, I threw a sample in our GC-MS sampler and headed out to Birch Run, to get some jackets to wear while biking.


When I got to Birch Run, I decided to stop at Old Navy first to see if they had any jeans I liked. They only had their wall of jeans (of which I don't really like any), and a ton of shorts. So I left empty-handed. Then I went to Lane Bryant to see if they had any cute tops. Nope. So, I walked from Lane Bryant to Under Armour to see if they had any jackets that would fit the bill. Nope, not so much. An XL there doesn't even come close to fitting me, so I left empty-handed. Then, I stopped in the North Face outlet store. One of the employees there helped me find two good jackets to wear while biking. I grabbed both in an XL, but, when I tried them on, I couldn't get them to zip over my chest. So, I told him that I was too chesty and he suggested we try the men's section (where the sizes are bigger). He was excited when we switched to men's because he said there was more selection in what I was looking for. I tried on a few more things and settled for this jacket in a men's large. It's super lightweight and has vents in the armpits and on the back where I sweat the most, so I'm pretty excited about it. Also, it only cost me $85 because I went to the outlet.


After I went to North Face, I decided to go into the Adidas outlet store where I found another jacket (for $40) that would be great for biking, but was a bit heavier. I think I'll be wearing that one until summer really hits. I also found a white wicked pullover for $30 that I really liked. After trying it on, I came out of the fitting room and saw the same thing in the men's section for $10 less. So, I got that one instead.

It's like the perfect thing to wear to and from the gym because it will be well-ventilated but still give me another layer to keep me warm. I also splurged and got another pair of gym shoes because my feet have been hurting lately. So, I bought these babies:

And, I'm happy to report that although all of the things I bought were on sale, since they were all running/training items, I got an additional 20% off. So I left the store having spent only $114 on some quality pieces that I'll get a lot of use out of. Score.


Then I headed home. I had a hard time convincing myself that I didn't need to stop for fast food despite the fact that it was 7:00 and I was super hungry for dinner. But, I made it home and had some gnocchi that I gobbled up before remembering to take a picture. My bad.


After dinner, I went to the gym even though I didn't really want to go since it was already 8pm. But, I decided that I could watch Glee while I worked out, so it couldn't be that bad. And, honestly, I'm glad I went. I was sweating up a storm and I know I'm building up my quads, which should definitely help with my knees.


Once I was done at the gym, I headed to Starbucks to get a birthday cake pop. Why? Because tomorrow's my birthday and you deserve birthday cake on [the day before] your birthday. If you've never had one, you need to get your ass to Starbucks this instant and get yourself one. Why? Because they're amazing. It's basically cake at the end of a stick.

Starbucks birthday cake pop

Inside view

Apparently they are made by baking cake, mashing it up with frosting and then shaping it into a ball. They poke a stick in it and the coat the whole thing in a chocolate/frosting coating. Sound heavenly? Oh, it is. So you must give me many kudos for driving all the way home to take a picture of it rather than gobbling it up immediately like I wanted to. And, I also deserve some kudos because I only got one though I could easily eat a dozen. But, you should be warned. This little piece of heaven packs 170 calories and 9 grams of fat. And they cost $1.50. 

Anyway, now I'm chilling at home, updating you. And now that I've reached this point, I'm pretty pooped. I guess my thoughts (and your opinions on said thoughts) will have to wait until another day. I most likely will not be blogging tomorrow as my day is packed with fun birthday stuff, but I shall be back soon!

What do you like to do on your birthday? Also, what part of cake do you like most: the cake or the frosting?