If I hate your love seat, may I call it a hate seat?

Big time changes.

First off, new apartment. Goodbye to the old cavernous place, hello to the cozy new one. It's a lot smaller, but I actually like that. It doesn't feel like a waste of space. It feels like a good fit. So now I want to get a few pieces of real furniture. I think I've reached a point in life where I don't need to live out of Sterilite stackable modular plastic storage units. I can buy a grown-up's dresser. I've already started this post-adolescent upswing with a fancy do-it-yourself bookshelf from Target. My books no longer live in milk crates and Yaffa blocks.

When I bought my fancypants DIY bookshelf, the cashier asked me if I was a student at VCU. tuh! To her credit, I did buy it amidst the swarm of college n00bs who were there to fill their dorms with cheap, wobbly end-tables, beanbag chairs, mini-fridges, and James Dean posters (ah, if only they'd been Che Guevarra). Anyway, I said no, that I was just working these days. Nope, not a college kid anymore. I wanted to answer with a big, flagrant "HAAAYYYLE NOOOO" but a.) I don't actually see myself saying that, like... ever, and b.) I thought that might've been a bit superfluous.

In my search for cheap-but-not-crappy furniture, I've browsed craigslist on a daily basis. And people... I can not say this enough... I can't BELIEVE how terrible some people's taste in furniture is. Most of my craigslist browsings are punctuated with outbursts of "eww, REALLY?" at the ugly-ugly-ugLAY things people are getting rid of. The real kicker is that there WAS one point in time where someone saw this crap and said, "HAY, THAT'S GREAT STUFF RIGHT THERE" and put it in their home.

I prefer sitting on Yaffa blocks to a mojave-patterned love seat, thankyouverymuch.

Back to you, Dan

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

It's another fine day here in the land of Public Health. The coffee I made this morning is the ideal ratio of grounds:water:creamer, the office is peaceful and quiet, and they just replaced my ghetto old work computer with a shiny new one. Life is good.

I've kept busy in my little blog-sabbatical. I've done some traveling, I've had two different kinds of tonsilitis, and I passed my ASCP Medical Technologist exam. The only significance that last bit has at this present juncture is that I've added MT (ASCP) to the end of my name on my auto-signature on outgoing work emails.

I'm seriously thinking about doing more science writing. I'm considering lots of things, from creating a science blog, to writing books, to doing nothing in particular at all. I won't get anything started for another solid month or so, because I've got a busy month ahead. I'm moving to a new apartment next weekend, and I'm going on what will easily be THE BEST VACAY EVAR* for the last week of August.

*A week spent in OBX with 17 other people in one gigantor beach house.

Oh! But something I did want to write about was the fact that it has almost been one year since I moved to Richmond. That in itself will be a good, solid post. It'll be a collective look at the year. A review, if you will. The good, the bad, and the fugly. I didn't technically get here until September 1st, but I'll call it a year as of now. It's like every December when newspapers and tv stations start having "year in review" articles and shows when technically, the year is still in progress. That sort of thing. So that's something to look forward to on another day. Or perhaps later today if I don't have too much going on.