Happy Friday :)

Hi everyone... well, it's another Friday. So first off... updates. :) So my computer arrived yesterday... that was WAY fast considering that we ordered it Sunday night! My computer is way cute. I know, every guy is sitting there going "cute"?? Hey, I'm a girl... :) Of course, as expected... I didn't actually use my computer because Mark had to "set it up." That lasted from 7pm until 9 when I gave up and went to bed. He was sad that it took longer than he expected and that I just didn't care by the end of the night. Apparently the problem was that they installed a trial version of Office on my computer (we didn't pay the extra $250 to order it since he already had a copy himself, so they put a trial version on... aka, more crap to remove) so he had to uninstall that. But then apparently his disk with his copy of Office was bad, so he was trying to fix that or something. I don't know. All I know is that it WILL get fixed this weekend... no matter what. Or there is going to be a very ticked off Doodle on Sunday night. I told him that the computer is basically worthless to me without Office on it... so it needs to be installed pronto. Mark was basically desperate for me to use my computer so he brought it up to me in bed and made me check my e-mail. I was just like... this is ridiculous. But whatever. I checked my e-mail, had nothing in there (shocking) and handed the computer back to him. LOL Next time I'm taking it out of the box and doing it all myself. LOL Screw this nonsense!!! And yes, I do realize that Mark actually cleared my computer of all the useless crap that they put on there (like AOL in 15 different places) and installed some of the other programs that I wanted. But part of me was like... I just want to play with my new toy tonight... we can work out the kinks tomorrow. Oh well... I think he's more excited by the computer than I am. We still have to figure out what to do with my old monstrosity. I told Mark that if he wants any parts, he needs to take them out now... otherwise, it's getting trashed. I want it off my desk by the end of the weekend... so that will be a project.

In other news... apparently Mark's phone is on the fritz since I can't call him... it just puts me right into voicemail and he isn't able to make an outgoing call. Lovely. I sense a trip to Verizon this weekend if the problem doesn't correct itself quickly.

So moving on... I will be in Cali for a few days next spring. AACR's annual meeting is in LA, so I will be there. I'm actually staying at a hotel in Universal City and then getting shuttled in by one of their official buses. Most of the downtown hotels were completely booked up already... or if there was space, it was almost $300/night. I was just like... you've got to be kidding. I only have $1500 in travel funds and the hotel alone was going to eat it up!!! So I'm staying in Universal, paying half the price. And as long as I don't have to drive in the traffic, I could really care less. Plus there will be way more to do in Universal... I've never even been to Citywalk... so hopefully that will help me while away some of the hours. Mark is going to fly out with me on Friday and stay through the weekend (at least... still figuring that part out) so I plan on getting him to SCV on Saturday to see my old home, etc. Hopefully I'm going to catch up with some friends there... working on that right now. So yeah... everything is good to go, I just have to book airfare. But I'm waiting to see what Mark wants to do time-wise so that we can book together. Also, prices are kinda expensive right now... not sure what that's about. It's almost $300 for a ticket right now... I'm just like... what?!?! O'Hare to LAX?? Are you kidding?? Considering that those are two major hubs for United (and American flies there a ton also) prices should NOT be that expensive. So yeah... we'll see what happens. Kent was telling me that I should plan an extra week of time to just enjoy myself. I love these type B's... I was just like... I'd have to cancel over a week of class!! Right now, I'm cancelling one day and that's more than enough, in my opinion. The only reason it's not more is that I'm not teaching on Tuesdays and Thursdays. But yeah... just crazy. If it was spring break, then sure I'd stay longer... but it's not. So I'll be getting myself back home. :)

Another interesting thing I found out today during coffee... apparently being department chair for my department is on a rotating schedule. I don't know if it was always that way. But Earl told me that the only reason Kent took the position was with the understanding that it was temporary. He only wanted to be there for a set number of years and that was it. So that's what is happening. I guess Jim (Frick U) will be up next. Which tells me that then it will be Paul, then Tamara, and then me (assuming I get tenured). Good to know. I'm not sure how long the rotation is... it's possible that my turn may get skipped the first time if I'm not tenured or deemed "too young." That's fine with me... at this point in time, I have NO desire to be chair. Too much crap to deal with. And I don't even know how good of a chair I will be... the way I figure it, I'll either be a really good one, or a really bad one. But I don't think I'll be mediocre. LOL I mean, my organizational skills will certainly be helpful in being chair (something that is severely lacking right now with Kent!!) and I have learned how to play the game from Mary... who may be one of the "best" when it comes to that. But I don't like to play the game... I don't like office politics, and I don't think I'm particularly good at diffusing situations... plus, if I get an idea of what I want or think should happen, I'm pretty stubborn (I know this is shocking to all of you... HAHAHA!!) So I'm just like... I don't think I'm cut out to be a chair... but maybe things will change in 10 years... we'll see.

Anyway, that is my news for the day... I hope that my readers are all well... have a great weekend and hopefully I'll write again next week!! :)