Orientation and Cucumber Ice Cream

Today was more or less an uneventful day at work. I mostly just worked online completing the new employee orientations. I plowed through most of it today, but I am still not done. I should be able to finish the rest tomorrow. A few hours into it, I noticed directions to complete in "two or more days" but to try and limit it to under a week. And here we are trying to do it all in ONE day! Curtis finished, but I did not. I'll try again tomorrow.

I have my first laboratory meeting tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. I guess we will have these weekly, every Wednesday. I hope that I am not expected to know anything yet . . . I am still learning.

My name badge could not open any doors today either. I knocked on doors to get into my desk and the Conference room (essentially a break room with a really nice table in the middle). I even had to have someone open the bathroom door for me. I have no idea why the bathrooms have locks on them, but they do; at least I know they are safe? The next time you use a public restroom, be grateful you did not need to ask someone to let you in; unless you did, then you understand my situation.

Since it was Curtis' birthday today, after work I made it up to his stomping grounds and ate dinner with him at Chipotle. (I think I am starting to figure out this shuttle business; I took the Circulator back up to the Hospital and a Johns Hopkins shuttle to the Homewood Campus --- that's close to where Curtis lives.) It was a laid back birthday dinner, but at least it wasn't by himself!

After dinner we walked over to the Dominican Ice Cream place and got some delicious ice cream. They had five specialty ice creams that they make there and buy and serve other flavors, I assuming to suit the crowds. I sampled all five veggie flavors and got a scoop of spinach and a scoop of cucumber. The other flavors were also really good: sweet potato, squash, and (Isaac's favorite:) BEET! I thought they were tons of fun! The cucumber tasted just like cucumbers, and the spinach did not taste like spinach, although you could see it in there. I was greatly amused. Curtis got mango and strawberry cheesecake, if I remember correctly.

We walked six blocks to the shuttle stop as Curtis told his girl stories, as only Curtis can tell stories, just like he used to in the lab when we were working at USU.

Something I forgot to write about yesterday when I met Kristin was one of the conversations we had. I was telling her that I was from Utah and she asked me if I was married, or engaged. When I laughed and said I was not, she asked if I had a boyfriend. Another negative.

There is definitely a perception that all people from Utah are married or easily married. I guess there is a lot of truth in that. I has been interesting to see the drastic differences in cultures from Utah to Maryland. I love to hear what people think!