Erin, do you need a Google Voice invite? That way in future stuff you can use your GV phone and even if the phone line gets turned off like that, you can still see and grab the messages online. I'd be happy to send you an invite.

I hope you find a way to sleep. I'd suggest a hot bath just before planned bedtime but I'm guessing you've already tried that one.

Congrats on the successful lunch, Drew! I hope you're on target for the tube coming out tomorrow.

Oh, Erin. I wish there was something I could do.

It is, however, phonetically identical to "This toilet is occupied".

BWAH!!! Well, at least you wouldn't get peed on? By anyone other than Ryan, of course.

Drew, that's fantastic news. Fingers crossed that everything stays down properly and you're extubated by morning.

And ugh, Sox. I am totally cockpunching that prof with my brain.

And damn, Erin. I just two days ago managed to get off the no-sleep train after a good month or so of worry-induced 3-5 hours a night unless chemically assisted. I just wanted it to go away, not migrate to someone else.

Today, my officemate went off on a rant about how the TIAA-CREF retirement fund is forcing him to invest in all kinds of things that he doesn't want to invest in, because he'll only invest in precious metals, because that's the only real commodity, and the Fed is ruining our currency, and a dollar isn't worth anything anymore, the only thing worth anything now is gold.

Why are all of your officemates crazy? And if he doesn't want to invest in other things, he should open a freaking Roth IRA and have someone invest him money at his direction. TIAA_CREF is not compulsory.

BWAH!!! Well, at least you wouldn't get peed on? By anyone other than Ryan, of course.

I think I'm most intrigued that you believe this represents a change from my current circumstances.

Today, my officemate went off on a rant about how the TIAA-CREF retirement fund is forcing him to invest in all kinds of things that he doesn't want to invest in, because he'll only invest in precious metals, because that's the only real commodity, and the Fed is ruining our currency, and a dollar isn't worth anything anymore, the only thing worth anything now is gold.

Why are all of your officemates crazy?

To be fair, this officemate sounds less crazy than the former officemate.

SO FAR.

Oh, it didn't migrate to me, JZ; it's always here. Dammit.

Oh, well, I suppose I'll just watch lots of movies and read some books. Nothing to do about it.

I guess I could go get some sherry, and wash some OTC pills down with a couple of wee glasses. I don't get GOOD sleep that way, but maybe I could get some.

I don't like it, but it's a possibility.

Yah, JZ me too kind of. Punching myself more. I just had DH read one of his response emails to me and it's not me making up the "happy to support this kind of research" sentences that for a moment this afternoon I though that Tino must have slipped into my brain. They were there. Prof wrote them and hit send. I guess either the fact that I was calling him on it, or that I wasn't just out of undergrad turned this guy into professor tino. Bah.

Why are all of your officemates crazy?

This is what I'd like to know!

To be fair, this officemate sounds less crazy than the former officemate.

No, this one is definitely crazier. Or, at least, much more irritating. The old officemate was a nice guy, just with lots of questions. Like, I can recall several times that we had a calm, rational discussion about the sorts of political things that usually lead to 100-post facebook comment threads, and he'd listen to what I was saying, and sometimes actually change his mind about stuff after listening to what I had to say. This one was shouting about investing in precious metals for close to five minutes. At first I argued, but then I realized that he wasn't actually listening to anything I said, so I just went with, "OK, sure, I'm going back to reading now" about ten times until he stopped.