One week back from the holidays and I find myself tied up at the lab until well past 5pm, which seems slightly unreasonable to me, but regrettably justifiable and hard to avoid, the reason being that my schedule is in part determined by the schedule of those helping teach me the ropes in the lab and by my boss who has partial control over when I do things. Sure, I still set my own pace, but right now it's in everyone's interest for me to go as fast as possible. The learning curve is steep and the faster I start out, the quicker I may be able climb this steep hill to a gradient I find more comfortable.
So finally it's the weekend. I took the opportunity to check out the Burgess-Rushing Tennis Center here in Lubbock as part of my scouting of local tennis clubs I could join. This place is quite awesome, featuring 16 outdoor lighted hard courts that appear to be very well kept, and most courts even have wind guards. It was however, quite quiet there for the time being, as it's still a bit chilly these days, with temperatures getting (temporarily) down to the single-digit temperatures (Celcius). Afterall, it's winter...even in Texas. But the sight of sounds of birds, reminds me that this is no winter I've really experienced before. I wonder if the birds will disappear completely at all during these winter months, of it this is the final destination (for some species).
I also had to re-stock my fridge...Walmart style...haha...it's still such an odd thing to see beer and wine being sold there. I shall continue to relish 6-packs of beer and bottles of wine for $6-8 and $5-7, respectively. One of the places I've come to like is this place called World Market, which is apparently a large chain and they're located throughout the States (and you can buy online)...they have foods, beers, wines from around the world (i.e. with beer, it's not just Bud Light and Sam Adams), including a great coffee selection and non-perishable foods like Indian curry sauces, noodles from China, even Japanese snacks.
Having just gotten more established and another bank account opened, I've also re-applied for a credit card - I wonder if it'll get approved. It appears that they view credit cards as a way to get loans down here and ever since the recession, I think banks are all paranoid about giving credit cards out...if only they'd understand that I'd only be using it to get points and make payments and were able to check my credit history from Canada. They're treating me as someone without any credit history, which is technically true in the US, but it's not like I was born yesterday - they could do some investigating and find out I've always paid my balances in full in Canada...and I still have at least one credit card and a couple accounts active in Canada. Ah well, it's not the end of the world. At least I have a chequing account (or "checking" as they would spell it) to use.
One thing I like about the cable TV down here, is that I have a plethora of shows to watch on demand. I previously got caught up on the Sing-Off, and just this week, got caught up on The Event, which I watched a few episodes of in the fall, but never found it that interesting...but watching them back-to-back actually lets me make more sense out of the show and easier to understand. The next show I may catch up on is Dexter, which everyone always raves about. However, only episodes that are moderately recent are available, so they only have Season 5...but that's OK, I may go for it. However, one bad, bad minus, is that it's not possible to get the NHL network or NHL CenterIce with my current provider, and I can't exactly put a dish up for satellite service in the apartment I'm renting. The internet it is...maybe next season, I may buy the NHL CenterIce online version, so I could watch it on my computer and even then broadcast it on my TV...we'll see. It's not really worth it at this point.
Lastly, my current boss wants me to give a brief seminar this coming week followed by a question and answer period, which I am NOT looking forward to. Looks like half my weekend will be spent doing some work. I never mind the question part of it...I just hate the "answer" part of it...cause my brain has already deleted the traumatic memories of my PhD defence from my memory, along with some pertinent information...I think it's a brain defence mechanism to get rid of traumatic memories so the individual can function in everyday life. Haha...we'll see how that goes...the silver lining is that it may force to me to get acquinted with a local bar the coming weekend!
