Updated

Last week was the crappiest week of all time. Every bad thing came at me all at once. It's getting better now. Just working through things one at a time. Earlier in the week I felt really beaten down. But things are looking up. So I just want to focus on some good things that happened.

I had dinner with two of my co-workers, Tasha and Courtney, last Monday night. Courtney brought her husband Greg, so we could check him out and see if he was good enough for her or not. Turns out that he's pretty awesome. Courtney bartends at Joe's Crab Shack two nights a week to bring in a little extra money. She gets a sizable discount when she comes in as a patron. It was a sweet deal. I ate an entire bucket of crab legs! Yeah, an entire bucket. Soooo good, but sooooo incredible painful later that night. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

I really love working with Courtney and Tasha. They both are relatively new in our section. They are doing an amazing job. Their hard work is taking a significant load off of my shoulders. I'm almost starting to not mind going into work again. Almost. I didn't think that anyone could be as awesome as Scott Lukens was, but they're proving that wrong. They're both so enjoyable to work with. I really luck out in the co-worker department.

(left to right) Tasha, Me, our massive buckets of crab, Courtney, and Greg

I trained at Absolute almost everyday last week. It seems like that's the only place that I really want to be anymore. When I'm there I don't have to think about anything else. There are no problems at the gym. It's all about focusing on what you're doing right then and improving on it. I feel normal and less like an emotional wreck. I hit real hard when I'm mad. Scary hard.

On Friday night I went to the cage fights at the Deseret Peak Complex in Tooele. Three guys from Absolute were on the fight card. Five were supposed to fight, but Brad's opponent backed out, and Steve got a staph infection and couldn't get doctors clearance. Tragic. Our guys did real well. Dave won his fight by knockout. He got his opponent with a crazy kick to the head. He went two rounds. Shawn won his fight in the first round. I forget how he won it though. It was either by technical knockout or throwing in the towel. Our other guy (I forget his name because it's one of those confusing Polynesian names) lost in the first round. He fights in the Ultra Heavyweight division. The guy weighs 350 lbs. He did well while he was standing, but when he was taken down he was choked out.

This really is an exciting sport. This is the first time I've been back to the fights since I saw The Boss fight last August. I'm finally understanding what I'm watching. I can see what the fighters need to do. I'm recognizing what they're doing and what their fighting styles are. I'm loving this! It's not brutal. It's sport!

I have a roommate for 6 weeks. This is Victoria Rath.

We were friends a few years ago at Weber State while doing our undergrad work. She's been at graduate school in Florida the past couple of years. She's doing an internship at a physical therapy clinic in Sandy. It's been really fun to have her around. We don't see each other too often, but when we do we make the most of it.
So there you have it. A slight update on the Life and Times of Vanessa The Scientist.