Monday, Monday.

Another view of the microscope room, shifted to the left from the below shot.

Acid!

I'm cheating with these photos - I took them Friday and just didn't upload them. I know, I know - contain yourselves. How dare I force you to wait an entire weekend before seeing them. I understand - they really are that exciting.

Moving on. My birthday was yesterday. It kind of sucked. It's a bit silly to feel let down about how your birthday went at my age, but I do feel a little let down nonetheless. M. and I didn't sleep in the same bed again (his cough and snoring), and when he came into the guest room on my birthday morning, he said, "You know what day it is?" I answered, "My birthday!" He was like, "Yeah. And we have to change the clocks - it's daylight savings time." No emphasis at all on my birthday, no "happy birthday, Anne," nothing. Just - change the clocks. After that, I spent the morning cleaning the house because his family was coming over for a dual celebration - my birthday and his mother's, which is this week. The family arrived, and we spent the afternoon out to lunch and then at a St. Patrick's day parade. We went back to the house and I served up the cake my mother-in-law brought, made coffee and served that up, ate no cake myself because I don't like sweets, and then cleaned all the dishes by myself while everyone lingered until 6 pm. Which pretty much shot the day, because I also had to do the laundry and go grocery shopping. What fun! Yes, I know - I am martyring myself for a small thing. Wah, I had to do the dishes on my birthday, etcetera. I know. All I really wanted was to have time to myself - to read, to go to a local garden show, to relax. Instead, I spent it running around for M.'s family with pretty much no input from him. I do care for his family, but I feel like they don't really know me. I'm sort of a family joke in some ways - Anne who is "so smart," so vegetarian, so highly verbal that we can't understand her, who is weirdly ungirly with her non-make-up wearing and ragged clothes and ridiculous love for animals. They do respect these differences, but they also don't really get me, and they do all laugh about these things. I know it's in good fun, and that's fine, but it feels kind of isolating. I miss my family, my friends - the ones who do get me, who don't think I'm some sort of anomaly.

Anyway, I realize that this is all intensely self-centered. My in-laws are good people. They mean well, and they probably do care about me. I'm just really tired. That's my way of saying - again - that things aren't going well, and I'm too.... apathetic? energyless? exhausted? depressed? to change it. As I have said, my two main goals this year are to finish the nursing program and to address my mental health. I am actively doing both, so that's something. And some good news? That test I thought I bombed? I got a 94 on it! No, I'm not quite sure how that happened. Seriously. I'm pretty happy about it, though! On that note, I'm signing off until tomorrow. Best to you all.