That particular church is always good for a giggle. :o)
Anyhow, Kurt and I made it safely back from our annual pilgrimage to Arizona. It was a little touch-and-go there for a while since we were in the air at the same time that man with the C-4 in his shoes was trying to blow up his flight. The guy in front of us at our airport was asked to take off his shoes, and since Kurt and I didn't know about what was going on, we just looked at each other and shrugged. We didn't see the point in saying anything, not with Marines with M-16s breathing down our necks.
The trip itself was fun. We didn't do too terribly much -- I just wanted to relax after the past hectic couple of months at work. I met more of Kurt's family and really hit it off with Kurt's aunt Kristen, who is in actuality no relation to us (his mother's sister's husband's sister -- see, I told you no relation!). Apparently, she's super religious, but she didn't thump her Bible at me, which I was grateful for. Instead we talked about anything and everything, which was cool. Kurt has other relatives, best left unmentioned, that I didn't get along with. But I smiled and was polite... I just don't see why I need a play-by-play rendition that lasted a few hours of this woman's daughter giving birth, especially since the daughter is now 17 and the father of the baby is 16. More than I needed to know.
And of course, last week we were hammered by the worst snowstorm in a decade in this part of the world, which was pretty cool. Thursday our company was closed, and Friday we worked only from 10am-4pm, so it was a very short week for me (I went back to work on Wednesday after our vacation).
I guess my biggest problem right now is Frick at work (the two new chemists are Frick and Frack, at least that's what I call them, since they're equally annoying). Frick is really getting on my nerves -- when we were open late on Friday, somehow she doesn't make it in until after noon, and then takes 45 minutes for lunch! See, our boss called the night before and told us that the company wasn't opening until 10am the next day if it was opening at all, but he would call back the next morning and confirm. He made it rather clear that we would most likely be open. He hadn't called by 9am, which is when I had to leave, so I left. Frick, on the other hand, waited for the confirmation call at 9:15am, and then took her sweet time getting in. THEN she takes a lunch! That's ok -- she and I live right down the road from each other, both of us the farthest out of anyone in our company, and since I made it in at 9:45am, I sort of made her look bad. Oh well.
The other thing is I just find it so difficult to be nice to her. She rubs me the wrong way in every aspect. Every time I say something about something, she's got a reason for why that is or why so-and-so is acting badly or whatever. She's always got an answer, even when she's talking out of her butt. Then her work ethic drives me CRAZY! Today she packed up in the middle of an experiment, told us she'd finish tomorrow, and lit out of there at 4:55pm to pick up her kiddies from daycare. You're not supposed to do that kind of thing at our company. If you've got to finish something, you're expected to finish it! Michelle and I were at work until 6:30pm on a Friday night because we couldn't leave what we were doing. But Frick doesn't get that. Plus she can't remember anything I say, and somehow or another she screws something up. I'm constantly going behind her just to make sure she didn't totally muck it up. And I hate to criticize, so now I'm at the point where I'm just saying, "Just so you know..." so it doesn't sound like I'm constantly bitching at her. But she can't do anything right. It's the most frustrating thing.
Frack doesn't bother me much at all. She's usually all up in our new piece of equipment trying to get everything set up for a new project, so she's out of my hair. Her only annoying habit is to constantly borrow my graphing calculator which is 8+ years old. She doesn't understand why she should go to Walmart and buy a $15 scientific calculator of her own. Oh well.
Some days I just wish Michelle had never left...