One upper, one downer.

I'll start with the upper. When I got home last night, Ryan had a surprise waiting for me. He dyed a disc for me with a picture of Albert Einstein. How much does that rock?!?! I actually worked in the very same physics department that he worked in at the University of Bern in Switzerland a few years ago. I walked by his statue every day to get to my lab, and by his apartment every day to get to and from my own apartment. I'm so excited about this disc. I had been having a rough few days, and the disc really put a smile on my face.

So as for the downer....I was getting my things together to go to school this morning. I have a class at 10am. I realized that I locked my keys in my car the night before. Ryan has a set, and we had been using his, so I left mine in the glove box. Well, shoot. Ryan was already at work, so I went to the Tri-Met website to figure out the public transportation system. Their system is easy, you enter your starting and ending addresses, and it gives you all you need to know to get from point A to point B. Still, by the time I figured out my travels, it was 9:43 am. Hmm....the next bus leaving from 2 blocks away comes at 9:44 am. Eeek! Grab coat, wallet, directions, and the container with all our laundry quarters (I carry no cash, and the bus won't take a credit card). Run! I barely catch the bus, huffing and puffing.

I took the buss to downtown Portland, walk a few blocks, and catch the Max train into Beaverton. About a third of the way there, and conveniently inside a really long tunnel, the train starts experiencing "technical difficulties." It can't get itself up to full speed. So there we are, crawling at a snail's pace through a tunnel under the zoo. We all have to get off at the underground station, and wait for the next train to come through. Of course, even when it gets there, we immediately catch up to our crippled old train, and have to crawl along behind it until we reach a service turn out for it to pull off the main line.

When I finally reached my stop, I still had to walk a half mile to get to campus. Oh, did I mention it had started to rain? In my mad rush to catch the bus, I hadn't even considered rain, and neglected to bring an umbrella. So I finally arrived in my lab at 11:32 am. Class ends at 11:40, so I missed the whole thing. Oh, ya, and I'm soaking wet too. Yippy!

Oh, and 48 hours and still no response from my advisor about the email I sent her. Perhaps I should have just stayed in bed.