What a day

Long story short, Saturday was an interesting, strange day.

I went into lab (yes, I had to go in and no my experiments from Friday didn't work) early in the morning, met with one of my best friends for lunch and coffee (YAY!) and then had to run back to lab to finish the stupid experiment.

Raspberry Mocha from Pete's Coffee (didn't taste as good as it looked, sadly!)

Crazy thing, on my way back to lab I ran a red light (well it was yellow when I crossed the line, I swear).  It was a really short yellow though, which pisses me off because you usually have enough time to cross when you're close to the intersection, but this darn light turned yellow right as I got to the intersection (it makes sense in my head).  If you ask me, its a conspiracy, but who would believe me (check this out).  Anyways, as I crossed the line (or maybe not, I don't know anymore...ahhhh) I saw the camera flash and now I'm panicking about getting a ticket.  !@#$%^ Note to stupid self: DO NOT RUN YELLOW LIGHTS...PERIOD! It totally ruined the rest of my day.

Anyways, I get to lab and park in the back of the building where I usually park on the weekends (you need a permit to park back there, but I've never seen anyone check on the weekends).  The reason I park back there is because unfortunately graduate students (aka slaves) don't get a parking spot and have to park 5 blocks away and walk.  I don't think so! Not when I need to just run in to check something or set something up really quickly.

So, I set up my stuff and as I'm extracting my cells, the other grad student runs in and says ..."did you park in the back...there is a someone walking around giving tickets...".  Oh, !@#$%, I drop everything (I hope my experiment still works), grab my keys, run as fast as I can (with a cold/ear infection) to my car, my heart racing a thousand miles (I got a ticket last week when I parked there Friday night) feeling sick to my stomach about getting another ticket, and thankfully I didn't.  But, I had to move my car just in case, so I parked in the structure (where we can't park either) and then had to run around trying to find a place to stamp my ticket with a visitor stamp at 5pm. By the time I got back to lab, 30minutes later, my ear killing me, my feet aching (I wasn't wearing my good shoes) and sooooo mad I wanted to scream.

This whole parking situation is sooooo bad.  How am I supposed to deal with this for another 3 years.  WTF!

Anyways...I also went to the pet store to get some stuff for Fishi and Spots' new home (that I have yet to set up) and did my pet store routine...here are some pictures:

First I go see all the fishi's and say hi.

Then I go visit the kitties (but they were all sleeping). 

I then visit the hamsters (who were also sleeping, what's going on??)

And last but not least, the birdies (this little guy was shy)

As I was watching these birds in their little cage, playing and nest building and eating seeds, it made me realize how cruel we humans really are.  Why would you put a bird in a cage?  So you can play with it and look at it?  Why do we have pets to begin with?  Why do we take animals out of their homes and put them in artificial surroundings?  What enjoyment do we really get by doing this? What is wrong with us?  I'm not saying we shouldn't have pets (I have 2 of my own), but the animals that really need space (not so much dogs and cats), but birds and fish, should be allowed to live in their natural habitats.  Be allowed to freely fly and swim anywhere and everywhere and enjoy the world we are free to enjoy.  Now, if the animal is sick and you are caring for it, that's another store, but a healthy animal (ie. bird or fish) should be free! If I wasn't given these 2 goldfish I would never want to enslave them this way.  I've thought long and hard about releasing them somewhere, but I know they would never survive.  It's really cruel :(