Sunny Skies. Shady People.

Today was an interesting day.

I donated blood for the first time and also signed up to be a bone marrow donor. I thought that donating blood would be a quick process, but it took damn near 30 minutes.

And the needle....I've never seen a needle that large in diameter! It looked like a small nail. Good thing I'm not afraid of them.

Later on in the day, I had my performance appraisal. I was told by my boss that I have the highest intellectual capacity of everyone else on staff. It was a very nice comment, but I'm not sure that's a good or bad thing. Does that mean that everyone else I work with is a dumbass? Or does it mean that everyone will expect all these amazing things from me all the time? Either way, that's a lot of pressure.

I always worry that people think I'm much smarter than I really am. I think I have average smarts. Yeah I'm good at science (because I love it) and great at math (not because I like it, but because it's practical and makes sense), and a decent write, but everything else is like whatever to me. It think what really sets me apart from most people is not necessarily intelligence, but rather common sense. It's really something you just can't teach.

Anyway, my boss basically told me that I was phenomenal and that she hopes I never leave. And if I ever do decide to leave, I should give her 6 months notice.

The conversation we had during the appraisal was really sort of full circle. The past 2 weeks, I really have been thinking about leaving. Not necessarily for a new job, although I did start looking, but more to continue school. For what I want to do (science), it's very difficult to have a full time job while getting an advanced degree, because you need to spend a lot of time doing research. I've been trying to figure out exactly what I want to study, and if I would be financially sound enough to not work, at least full time, while I go back. Basically, the answer to the second question was no; you can't pay a mortgage and adequately feed yourself with a part-time job. I'm not even really sure what I'm going to do about work. I think if I get a significant raise, it might make my decisions a bit easier, so we'll see.

In other news, I came across this article today. It's pretty insane and kind of creepy. It really bugs me that people are treating their kids like adults. It's bad enough that we already have 10 year olds who get mistaken for grown women. But mothers who take their 8 year old in for a bikini wax when they haven't even started growing pubic hair yet? That is disturbing. It's just more proof that lots of stupid people roam this earth. Asteroid...where are you when we need you??