monochrome

So in a fit of becoming-my-mother, I organized my drawers and my closet last night.  I feel good about this, but looking at the closet in order to be pleased with the new tidiness has made me realize something else.

I see the following colors:

black
white
brown
grey (mostly charcoal, but a couple of lighter things as well)
red
blue (mostly navy or nearly-navy, but one or two lighter blues)
purple (mostly a deeper, plummy sort of purple; not sure if I have anything lilac-y)
pink (just a bit, a kind of candy pink)

In the drawers I do a little better, in that I also have green (one kelly and one army) and a sort of coral, not at all the same as the pink but not all the way to orange.  (If you include bridesmaids' dresses, I've also got a hunter-green and a burgundy (it may actually have called itself "mulberry"), but the odds I will ever wear either of those again are nil plus the fact that they no longer fit.)

It feels weirdly monochrome in there, although writing it down I guess I can see that it's not.  But:  there are other colors, aren't there?  The entire family of yellow is, as sanj says, forbidden unto me, but ... I don't know, but I feel like now that it's September maybe there will be some kind of rust-colored stuff out there I can buy.  Provided, of course, that I will ever wear it.

knuckleball in the dirt

My team:

1. Supervisory boss-type person A, who doesn't actually do research work on the project
2. Supervisory boss-type person B, who also doesn't actually do research work on the project
3. Project Manager, who keeps us focused on deadlines and whatnot
4. Primary Investigator
5. Researcher 1
6. Researcher 2
7. senior research-type person we'll call Researcher 3
8. self
9. whatever minions I can rake up from time to time when we can afford to pay them

#1 and #2 do not, as you see, do research work on the project. Neither does #3. #4 has a four-month-old baby at home and may not yet be back to 100% employment after family leave. #6 is on vacation and will follow this with a year-long "leave of absence" for a visiting-professor gig somewhere else (scare quotes because nobody thinks she'll actually come back from this). #7 is divided among several projects, as is almost everybody here.

#5 just announced that he's taken a job in the private sector and will be leaving October 12.

We see that this leaves ... well, me. And the occasional minions, who can be helpful but who sometimes need enough training in whatever they're helping me do that it would frankly be faster to do it myself. (This is not the case at the moment.) I am assured that everyone all the way up to the tip-top knows that this project needs to be completely re-staffed. I am not, however, reassured. In fact I'd like to go somewhere and hit my head against something hard for a few minutes and then cry.

Fortunately, I have recognized that this reaction is at least 50% due to the fact that it is lunch time. The transcription I am working on is slightly more than half done, which is good, because it's a bear. I will now make a sandwich and drink some soda and read Carolyn Hax's chat. Thank god.