Hello? Hello-o?

I keep checking my blog for updates...see how that's funny? Because, for there to be an update--you get it, right? Anyway, one of the ugliest downsides of taking 6.5 years to finish my PhD is that all my friends have abandoned me and I'm all alone. So, it's most pronounced now that my officemate has left. It's an office for four but one of the desks has been allocated for someone who doesn't actually come to work and the other one belongs to one of these night-owl people. So, I come in at my regular time and spend several hours all alone. I keep forgetting that there are people out there, in the other offices, in the laboratory, on other floors. It's like being stranded on a desert island to be alone in an office for four. I don't know the people in the adjacent offices so I have to walk a long way to find someone to talk to. I don't even turn on the lights because Ben always did that when he came in. It used to get on my nerves, years ago, before we got our rhythm down. I would come in, and maybe not be totally ready for full-on lights and then Ben would come in ten minutes later and flip on the lights without asking me if I left them off intentionally. Now Ben is gone and I left my lights off all day yesterday...sad, right? I never did get around to turning them on. And, I mean, the night owl's not going to do it. She works in the lab all day so, really, this is just a storage depot for her stuff. She came in yesterday afternoon to eat her lunch (around 3:30) and I talked to her the entire time. She was very friendly and pretended that she was interested, instead of edging toward the door to get back to work. But, as soon as I stopped talking, she hopped up and jetted back into the lab...boo. I NEED to graduate...