January

For some reason, time has been passing very strangely for me in the past few weeks. Christmas came and went, we moved to our new apartment, and now I am "adjusting" to life back in the city (almost) where I did my undergrad.

My new job is okay so far. I really like my boss and my coworkers, but it's hard to move from a place and a position where everyone knows you (and you know what you're doing) to something that's quite the opposite. There are only a few things I can do in the lab right now, and I have to ask for help to do a lot of them, mostly because they haven't processed my appointment yet and so I can't even log onto any of the computers.

We share lab space with a few other groups, and they are all filled with people who know each other. A few people have introduced themselves and been generally nice, but still, I am spending all my time with RNA.

I started taking the bus to and from work rather than riding my bike, since I decided that the money saved by riding probably wouldn't be worth the risk of getting hit by a car (which was pretty high considering the way people drive and the nature of the roads out here). I don't mind taking the bus, but I don't like waiting for it in the cold. I do like winter (walking around campus after the snowstorm was really lovely) but I'll be very happy when things start to warm up.

My new boots hurt my feet, but they are getting better. Maybe I should use that as a metaphor. I just need to break my new life in.

I don't miss Boulder the city, but I do miss the friends I made there.

J has been working to unpack and organize the apartment, and has been doing a good job, but there is still a lot of work to do and it's very disorienting to live in a place full of boxes.

I'll feel better once I get paid. We have a lot of bills now that we didn't have to worry about before, so I need to figure out how much money we *actually* have so I can maybe go out and enjoy the city.