asimplechord

I am looking for distraction and/or motivation. There's an opening in a lab that does research on opioid receptors, and I'm reading some papers and holy fuck GPCR signaling makes me crazy.

So comment with a pairing or character and a prompt and I'll write something. And then I'll go back to reading. D:

today's to-do list:

request copy of last paycheck
inquire about pay for accumulated vacation leave
donate blood
sign/post paperwork for the mortgage for the house in Chicago
read at least one review on follicle development
clean out the closet that holds home improvement odds and ends and holiday decorations

+ Bonnaroo happened. I didn't take pics, really, and I'm not going to talk about each act, but Frank Turner was as amazing as always. Nas never disappoints. I still don't get the appeal of Macklemore. And I'm not even a casual Beatles fan, but JFC, Paul McCartney can put on a show. Three hours. It was like watching living history. And really, who else in the world can tell a story about a show with Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton and not come off sounding like a name-dropping douche? At one point a stuffed walrus doll landed on stage, and he propped it up on his piano and serenaded it. Yeah. What more can I say?

+ Paper #2 of 2013 is officially out, and we got the proofs for #3. Paper #4 was resubmitted in my absence. There are a few things I will correct if/when it is accepted and proofs arrive.

~ The house is listed. There's been an open house. No offers yet, but I'm not going to give up hope.

+ Now You See Me. I really enjoyed it.

~ I appear to have developed an Andrew Shaw problem. I blame Tabby.

- Aaron's car is in the shop until Tuesday at the earliest. Life in the 'burbs does not make two-people-one-car at all convenient, especially when it comes to meeting pre-existing goals in differing locations.

~ Soundgarden. They played the Bayou Music Center Friday night. It was an okay show. IDK, Ben Shepherd was phoning it in, the guitar didn’t sound crisp (I’m not sure if it was Thayil’s playing or the sound system), and they need to either project stuff or have a light show, not both. The song choice was good until the very end, when instead of performing something like Outshined or Slaves and Bulldozers or basically ANYTHING upbeat, they performed Like A Suicide and Rowing. Most. Depressing. Songs. Ever. I had tickets to the show in Austin on Saturday, but didn’t feel like making the drive for a lackluster repeat.

+ The Hush Sound. River City Extension opened for them. I’m perplexed about why they were all shirtless, and I thought they used to have more members, including an actual trumpet player? But I like their music and energy. Did not care AT ALL for Hockey. Just, boring lyrics, too much 80s influence, weird vocals effects.

+ The French Open has begun! This is great, as we ‘ve reach the point in the season where there is no longer hockey every night. I’m excited to see if Sharapova can repeat or if Serena will maintain the stranglehold she’s had on clay this spring. And if Rafa’s return takes him back to the finals.

~ Work stuff. I applied to a couple of jobs in Chicago this weekend. And updated my past employers, since they will probably be contacted by future employers. It’s weird; my thesis advisor has been sitting on a paper for 13 years, not doing any work on it. She’s a serious procrastinator. When I applied for faculty positions back in the day, I got notices from various institutions that they’d love to interview me but they were still waiting on her letter of reference. You can imagine how much I appreciated that. So I emailed the prof the other day expecting to get zero response, but she replied WITHIN ONE DAY. And she’s got a student who’s interested in the subject of that last paper, so it MIGHT ACTUALLY GET PUBLISHED SOME DAY. It’s been so long, and other papers have been published on the topic, so what I wrote will have to be re-evaluated. But it might not hide on a shelf forever. I’m excited about that!

+ Star Trek: Into Darkness. I didn’t have high expectations for this movie, because it’s Star Trek. The even-number movies always suck. But I enjoyed it for what it was, despite some annoyances, particularly the flip in Kirk’s and Spock’s roles between this movie and original The Wrath of Khan.

+ Lagunitas' Gnarlywine. Delicious. I'm not always a fan of Lagunitas, but I'd drink this one again. But probably not much of it, because at 9% alcohol it knocked me on my ass.

\o/ Proofs for the migration/invasion paper came back. I'm not really happy with the figures - we had them the size we wanted, and the publisher shrank them about 25%. I'd've used more of the white space if I'd known they'd do that. But still. Paper #2 for 2013. One more (a mini-review) is under editorial review, there's another for which I'm doing experiments to respond to reviewers' comments, and there should be at least one more submitted from this lab in the year with my name in the byline, because I started the project even if I'm not going to be the first author.

~ A real estate agent from Aaron's future employer came and assessed the house. Their estimate is about $30K higher than the last tax assessment, but we'll list it there and see what happens. She had three things she wants us to do (all stuff we've talked about but procrastinated on actually doing), but there's nothing major. Paint a couple of things, powerwash, re-tile the master bath's floor. Aaron's going to take care of most of that, because he is FINISHED work. He's being paid for the vacation time he had accrued, but Wednesday was his last day of work for Dow.

? There's a fic meme somewhere for hockey fandom that's all about the stupidly hilarious things that hockey commentators say, right? If not THERE SHOULD BE. Like, no, really, how many times can someone talk about Malkin's penetration or someone getting wood on it without earning a smirk and a laugh?

? I want to see Star Trek: Into Darkness some time this week. WHO WANTS TO GO SEE IT WITH ME?

OK. Rafa's playing in Rome on TTC, I've got to finish reading The Good Earth before the Blackhawks/Wings game, and there's choc chip banana bread to be baked for Carmen's crawfish boil, so I should get moving.

I told my boss, and my family knows, so I guess it's OK to say it in public now: Aaron has a job offer in Chicago, so we're moving there ~July-ish.

I've been waiting for my credit card company to call me all day. In the last two days, I bought A's birthday gift, most of the groceries and decorations for his birthday party, and four tickets for Fall Out Boy's fall arena tour, on top of the Soundgarden tickets and Buzzfest tickets already purchased. Even if the bank doesn't call to check on the activity, I think my wallet is whimpering in pain.

While I'm thinking about the birthday part... what do people do when couples get divorced and other couples are still friends with both parties? ( cut while I ramble about background details )

What do people DO when their friends get divorced? Pick sides? Try to stay friends with both?

I guess I'm lucky that this is the first time it's really happened in my close social circle.

1. Aaron has pneumonia. Apparently there's a mini-epidemic in our 'burb of runners coming down with it, and their expanded lung capacity makes them not realize how sick they are until they are REALLY sick. The doc gave him a shot and a scrip for an inhaler and antibiotics, and he was noticeably better last night, so I think he'll be okay in the next day or two.

2. Reviews back on the last manuscript submitted. The suggested experiments from two reviewers do not appear too onerous.

3. GREEEEEEN DAY. (I'm still going to SXSW for Friday and Saturday at the very least, even though this has turned into the most hectic week at work and home.)

4. Flyers vs. Devils tonight. I'm hoping that the Devils' recent slump has reached its end, and they'll put the Flyers into the bottom of the Atlantic division in their next couple of games.

5. Jason Zucker :( Chances that Granlund goes back to MN? I favor sending Larsson up instead, or maybe Fontaine, because I don't think Granlund's fast enough to contribute the way Zucker does, but Larsson's solid enough offensively and defensively and Fontaine's right behind him in terms of scoring, while Granlund would benefit from more playing time back with Houston.

1. I've basically spent most of the last 72 hours alternately taking cold medicine and sleeping. The only thing I've been awake for is the the Aeros game last night against the OKC Barons. (Holy crap, Matt Hackett, keep making saves like that, 36/37.)

2. Someday soon I might finish reading Sean Pronger's Journeyman and have something intelligent to say about it.

3. I should probably write some trope-fic, shouldn't I? But mostly I just want to poke more at comment-fic and see if anything else falls out of my head.

4. Did y'all see the stats sheet for this game? Check out the video and that right column, particularly for the third period. 244 penalty minutes. Jeez, I thought the Rockford/Lake Erie game was bad for penalty minutes. Mostly I think the coach's, "They're a very caring group in there," is HILARIOUS, because multiple couples-skate fights does not make me automatically think, "Oh, clearly these are very affectionate, loving dudes."