retreating

it was with great trepidation that i regarded our two-day research retreat in woods hole since i first heard of it during orientation. two days and two nights of nothing but university-affiliated research presentations, mediocre food, free mediocre booze, and unlimited binge drinking and faculty dance moves and moonlight skinny dipping.
i went because it was "required," but i have new news for you, my invisible internet friends: nothing is required anymore when you're 25, except death and taxes. and one of those is negotiable.

the past 36 hours have been the most boring, tedious, stomach-churning journey into further disillusionment. i thought i had hit my max long ago when, at my first research job, i happened upon my post-doctoral boss taking test tube shots out of waitress' cleavage and playing quarters on a beer-slicked bar stool in new orleans. oh mentors, how easily from the pedestal you do fall. but just because i've seen it once, doesn't mean i want to see it again.

at 3 am, i let in my drunken roommate (some loquacious broad hitherto unbeknownst to me) who was pounding on the door because she couldn't figure out how to work her key. having told her at dinner that i managed to find a ride home tonight and was going to forgo the DJ/keg/mixer soiree, she wasted no time in finding some random urchin and littering the room with their sweat-laden clothes, pausing only in their fetid fetishes to let me in to collect my luggage. bleh, i thought i was done with having to endure that rank college olfaction of evening activities.

and so, i am on my way home, to be with kz, my teddy bear fred, my comfy bed, my bathroom with so many motorsports magazines to pass the time, and my healthy pantry and full DVR. sweet jesus, i love my normal life.