Small Acts of Kindness - Thank you

I'm inspired by  Canadian GirlPostdoc to thank the anonymous skiers who were so wonderfully kind to me yesterday.

I've been having a rough time this semester as I'm TAing for the PI from Hell. S/he is very passionate about teaching undergrads, really really wants them to do well and expects me to care and be as excited about the class as s/he is. I've TA'd this course previously, but s/he has changed the content in hopes of it being more relevant. My biggest issue is that she is a control freak who asks for my opinion but then disregards whatever s/he doesn't agree with and gets visibly angry if I express disagreement. And S/he dictates exactly what I must do, to the point of getting angry if I deviate even slightly to help the students. Its frustrating and demeaning.  It is rude and disrespectful to micro manage me and to treat me as if I have no experience or intelligence.


But whatever, I'm away this weekend on yet another ski trip. We're not at are usual 8+ drive away to the amazing family resort we usually go to but to the closer, large touristy mountain. I expected large crowds with people being annoyed at monkey and me for being so slow. I was wrong. I was in the mountaintop food purchasing line up. It was just monkey and my prego self. The poor little guy was tired and hungry from the morning adventures and was basically only capable of holding his gloves and following little instructions like go get the chocolate milk you want to drink.  So I was holding his helmet, jacket, my goggles, toque and wearing all my gear (so I"m HOT!!!), while also holding our tray of food, when I noticed he had dropped one of his gloves in the line up behind us. It was so crowded behind us and I"m no longer able to easily maneuver  that I just said we would have to go look for it after. I tried looking all on the ground to see if I could find it but I couldn't. While this is happening, so random boarder/skier noticed, went back found the glove and gave it to me.  Thank you!

All day, individuals helped me as they saw me struggle to keep monkey engaged, carrying all the gear. Keeping an eye for monkey's gloves, asking if I needed help. I did not expect this at this mountain. It was refreshing.

Shocking but true - lavaland is still kicking everyones ass

are we really that surprised? Ricardipus must be picking the linemates of her her picks, as he's holding perfectly parallel just below.  Bob & GertyZ are slowing down, as am I. I guess we actually have to do things other than follow all the hockey stats, eh? That is a joke.  I shouldn't be too sad, I'm sitting at 10 points for this 2 game week.  Lets see if the player updates next week play havoc with anyones teams. I know they totes nailed me last time.

Hey Pot did you know you're black?

Yep thats me trying to be funny or witty or something.  You know the old saying, its like the pot calling the kettle black? When you tell someone do not something or tell someone they're being unrealistic, even though you are exactly the same? My BFF are kinda like that and when one of us got a bit preachy about the other shouldn't be so hard on themselves, they're expectations are to high blah blah we would look at each and laugh. Or point at ourselves, say "kettle" and then at the other and say "pot".  I'm having that moment.

You see this is where Mxx will laugh at me and say, honey do you not remember you're own advice to me on that post you linked to? Hahahahaha!!!!!

This semester is turning out to be a bit of a bitch. Right now is the first time since probably before christmas where I am sitting down and sorting out thoughts. Its been go go go go. Partly because I'm TAing for the most control freak, incredibly demanding of my time PIs.  S/he wants me to attend every lecture despite the fact its a class I have TA'd before, expects me to meet with s/he at least 1x/week, mark >40 assignment / week and assist with developing the mid-term and homework questions. Since all that would take more than my 12hrs/week I am assigned, I have refused to help develop questions. Plus why the fuck should I? S/he's been teaching for over 2 decades, they shouldn't need my help.  The freaking class sucks up 2.5 days of my 5 day work week. 0.5 day is suck up with lab meeting and whick really leaves me with 1.5 days to get data for the the first aim of my thesis collect before the parasite pops out.

Yeah I'm freaking out just a bit. It doens't help that things at home are busy, only because last year was such a cluster fuck of a year that I'm totally behind on home organizational shit. You know that little things like makings sure all the important papers are filed away in a manner that makes putting out taxes together in a month easy. Getting our personal finances back on track. As in actually tracking where are money is being spent so that I can figure out how to squeeze out another $1000/month for daycare in a year.


Oh and apparently we're supposed to be getting our kitchen renovated so that we aren't paying for heat that is going out the windows that don't shut properly and that we actually have space to put all our dishes etc. 

Did I mention that monkey now has after school and weekend activities? I swear I don't sit down till I got to bed, which is usually by 9:30 because I can't fucking stay awake. It also means I'm waking up at 5am freaking out about the shit I didn't read / prep / clean the night before.

Did you also know that monkey turned 4, over 2 weeks ago and I have yet to write my yearly letter to him???!!!! I should've done that now, but I needed to vent. I'm sure my baby will understand.