Rapunzel, Rapunzel

In my head this post started with "As I start my #th time locked in the tower...", but I've lost count of the number of times. Really, I'm not even trying to be dramatic. I sat down and tried to remember how many times it's been and that's when it hit me: I was hired to do another person's job. 

2 people's jobs, to be exact. I was initially hired as a temporary technician when Co-worker A (aka BBF) and Co-worker B (aka Sister Wife) were both out on FMLA 2 years ago in May. Mind. Blown.

My visit in the "tower" (this is really funny if you know where this lab is. It's on a teenth floor in a building with 'tower' in the name) this time has been fairly tame so far. The BBF still hasn't offered a return date (& an end to my sentence), but I feel fairly certain that I will remain in the tower for the rest of the week which is kinda okay b/c I have an extensive lists of things to better up there.

I have, however started growing out my hair in the event that I am not released in the week to come. You never know when a prince might pass by. 

Mountains out of molehills

I have recently decided to dial it down a notch (okay so temp dying your hair purple might be a contradiction to that statement, but indulge me). As a footloose and fancy-free SINK (single income, no kids) 20-something I tend to make mountains out of molehills/big deals out of small ones/bear gifts as burdens. This week's challenge to myself: don't.

So here goes my celebration of small things instead of the exaggeration of my world-ending "problems":

1. I know that Etsy has been a thing for a long time, but on Monday I came to fully appreciate that browsing-for-a-few-minutes-while-dinner-finishes can quickly turn into 3 hours (and few odd glasses of wine) of curating and it is amazing.
2. Speaking of curating, I ordered a whistling kettle and my first piece of original art because I'm an adult. I'm beyond stoked to move my art from wall to wall to find the perfect resting place. I will probably stare at it for hours when it arrives while drinking tea prepared with hot water from my kettle.
3. Oh, Tuesday. On Tuesday, The Shelf of Shame that has held a few pounds of disheveled protocol materials for the past year found itself victim to my mad organizing skillz - add that to the list of "things I know". 
4. Also I had an evening coffee date with my main squeeze Friend#1 in the out of doors. It was delightful.
5. Wednesday was all kinds of wonderful (cue a list within a list!)
• I did about 17 things that have been on my "Daily Grind" to-do list at work for about 7 weeks. Approximately.
• THEN !!! there were flowers in my apartment (okay, I put them there. I am allowed to be the person that cares enough about me to get me flowers). 
• I also found temporary purple hair dye that I don't have to reapply everyday       = I can rock lavender locks all week long with a third of the effort
• Playing my mandolin sounded a bit like songs being played on mandolin instead of someone repeatedly running into a wall with a mandolin in their hands
6. Today's discovery of accessories at Nordstrom rack is a nice coat of frosting on the decadent Olexa-esque cake (this cake elicits an "I'll have what she's having" from anyone in the establishment not already eating cake) of this week so far. How I've survived without floral-print hair clips until today I will never know.

Why am I doing this?

There have been a handful of time in the past few years when I've been encouraged to blog. Each time I find myself carried away with an abundance of brilliant blog ideas that I immediately begin writing them down. Those ideas then sit there for a few days before I decide that they are no longer pertinent and probably no one would read it anyway. Probably true. 

Here's the thing. I don't actually have a clue what I should talk about (which is pretty important for a blog). After taking a walk to do some reflection (okay so it was the 2 blocks from my lab to my parking deck) I decided that in order to succeed I should stick to what I know: 

1. Lists
2. Art & Crafts
3. Other peoples' jobs

Honestly, I don't entirely know how that translates to a blog so I'm just going to end with a list of the things that make this manic Monday a little bit better.

1. Not only can I do my co-worker's job, but I can leave said co-worker's workspace cleaner than I found it. 
2. If my favorite 2 year old can refuse to give me a hug goodbye, I can refuse to take a message for someone who doesn't work in my lab.
3. We can all rest assured that when the maintenance man asks for the cavalry, he will receive.
4. Sometimes you need to work in the same space with someone completely out of sync with what you're trying to do because the constant interference gives you a good chuckle. 
5. A long time ago someone's grape juice went bad, but they drank it anyway and now that's a thing.