once bitten and twice shy

For two of the last four nights I have dreamt that my career as a graduate student was in jeopardy because I was a successful contestant in a reality show singing competion å la "Making the Band" or "American Idol". In both cases, I had made it to near the end of competition, but the stress of trying to get lab work done was preventing me from getting dance routines down and lyrics memorized, and I was on the verge of having to quit grad school in order to give myself the best shot at impressing the shadowy P. Diddy character running the show. In the first dream, there was a vignette my dreamself witnessed in which one of my labmates explained to Zena why I had not been in lab a lot recently, to which she responded, "Why does no one tell me these things?!?".

Last night I hostessed (?) my third lab Christmas party since moving to SF. Unlike past parties, this time I made just about the right amount of food, but grossly overestimated the amount of drink...I guess people are more responsible now, or are simply disinclined to get tipsy on mulled wine and schnapps-laden cocktails? As a result, I now have a ridiculous amount of alcohol in my place, complete with a liter of Grey Goose that is too big to shelter in any piece of furniture I own. I suppose I will have to have another party of hard-drinkers soon, lest I succumb to alcohol poisoning in an effort to decompress my liquor cabinet....