I just got a raise! A whole $0.23 an hour! Ok, actually I got the raise a while ago, but it took a long time for it to actually show up on my paychecks. Which is really nice because today, in addition to my larger paycheck, I also get backpay for 812.5 hours as $0.23 an hour. Even though I knew it was coming, that still feel like a fortune to me.

And the gods of public transportation did not listen to my plea. Yesterday on the way home from work, I again heard the operator-is-stepping-off-the-train-to-fix-it message during a five-minute delay. But, even worse, on the way to work yesterday I heard the following: "The train is stopped due to a medical emergency. Officials have been notified. We hope to be moving again shortly." Not only did we have to sit there for 10 minutes, but we also never got any more details. I wanted to know who had the emergency and what kind it was and why the sick/injured individual couldn't wait in the station for the paramedics instead of on the train. The whole thing seemed kind of shady/scary to me, but no one else seemed to mind.

Tonight I masquerade as a grad student. The grad students in my department want me to go drinking with them, and they have a student reception first, so I'm joining them at that. I think I *might* be able to act convincingly like a grad student. Just maybe. I don't really want to drink tonight, and I definitely want to be home very early, but I'm so flattered that they like me enough to ask me out that I wanted to at least hang out for a bit. And the way this week has been I could sure use a beer.

Tomorrow internet shall return. And NU shall beat OSU.