Procrastination to the max

I often have to remind myself that I am an adult now. I should no longer need looming deadlines, nagging hens, and other devices to get my work done, but, alas, in 29 years I have yet to finish anything before a deadline. Hell, I was even born late. So now that I have a huge proposal due on 17th and have not written one word, I thought it should be the perfect time to update the blog.

On Friday, our lab had a party at noon to congratulate two compadres who has managed to escape this hell, by successfully defending their work. We were all really proud of them and other mushy sentimental stuff. While we were happy for them, the problem with having a party midday is that it reeks havoc with your schedule. Once you start drinking sparkling wine, there really is no going back to work seriously. Of course there is the half-assed attempt at doing work, but come on any work that can be done buzzed probably is not that important at all. I could have stayed late into the night working. Could have, would have, should have. I decided to go out with a friend I had not seen a long time instead.

Saturday, I was going to buckle down. I did get a marginal amount of work done. I did a few experiments, but no work on the proposal. Saturday night, poised in front of my computer, my friend D called to have dinner. "Of course, I'm free to hang out." I said. We went to a local Russian restaurant, Cafe Samovar. A man at the piano banged out, what I imagine to be folk songs from the gulag, and the bright lights reflected off the gold, red and green tablecloths as we entered this little piece of the motherland. The food was excellent, salty, fatty with nary a vegetable in sight. I had the grilled trout with roasted potatoes, while D had the beef stroganoff. We went all out with blintzes, soup and dessert in addition to our entrees. We took our time as the wind was howling and sporadic noreaster rain beat down on the pavement, and we were nice and cozy at our little table. A very romantic setting, omitting the fact that we were gossiping like little school girls and comparing notes on fashion.

Sunday is no longer a sabbath, and I was determined to do work. But CURSE YOU iTUNES!!!! With your tempting, 30 sec tidbits, and user friendly interface. I spent much of the night ripping my roommate B's CDs onto my computer. Yes, the nice laptop purchased for me by the US government for the express use of furthering my scientific training, now houses approximately 1200 choice songs for my listening pleasure. Well, at least I had my computer on and opened.

All I can say to myself is T-172.3 hours and oh wait the Senate wants to trim the Medicaid budget, I guess I should really look into that.....