my life

la la la...
typical situation--avoiding doing work. i should be continuing on setting up my template for my stats on one of the parts of my thesis, but i thought i'd do this for a bit instead. when you have over 20,000 numbers to add, you'll understand. so i learned some new chemistry today: separatory funnels (yes, i know these are mad easy, but i've never done them before so lay off). and i didn't blow it up! we'll see if i can continue this streak on monday :-D.

i went home for a few days last week, had a lot of fun despite being wicked sick the whole time. got to see my bro, which was great. it's weird seeing him every 2 years, but i'm glad it get to. he had a lot of stories and pictures and trinkets to show. my fave was the candy he brought home :). got to see the boat where we're having our reception, which was totally awesome. i'm really excited for it! looks like a lot of fun. everything's falling into place, which is still overwhelming, but i'm really getting excited about it all.

just doing a lot of work at school lately...trying to get it all done and wrapped up. my goal is to have the majority of the lab work done by the end of the summer so i can concentrate on writing and TA-ing in the fall. can't believe i'm so far along! kinda scary--real world's right around the corner. my abstract was accepted by SETAC, so i'll be heading up to montreal in november to give a presentation. that'll be a ton of fun--i love that area! and i get to visit reed :).

we took the dog swimming last night. he didn't like it. we'll keep taking him till he does. i WILL have one water dog that likes the water! he likes splashing around and he can swim, he just prefers to dig on the sand and eat things he shouldn't. he also peed right on the beach, so no one go to the beach in yorktown on the west side of the coleman...sorry

anyway, should get back to data analysis and listen to a new cd from em.

peace

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: some weird humming noise

6 months later...
forgot i had this...
the past 6 months have been fun, hard, sad, busy, crazy, awesome, and every other emotion all rolled into 1! i think i'll just divide this into a few sections on wedding updates, school, dog, john.

wedding:
i have my dress!! well, it's on order. i looove it! totally fits me. no more of a description cause john would be pissed :). we have the date: Junly 15, 2007, the church: St. Henry's in Averill Park, and the reception: Captain JP Cruise on the Hudson. getting really excited--starting to plan invites, honeymoon (hawaii!!), service stuff, etc. we had pre cana (pre-marital counseling in the catholic church). i barely survived, but we have a certificate now so yay! it was actually a lot of fun in the beginning until we got the lecture about the church's stance on everything...

school:
am really hating it and had to be persuaded to not quit the other day. 6 more months, don't know if i'll make it. i want to get as far away from science as possible. and as far away from VIMS as possible. i hate what i do and am SO sick of not getting any props from my advisor though i am spending 9 - 11 hours in the lab everyday (and that includes weekends). no more about it or i'll get really irate. thank god i have the greatest friends here or i wouldn't make it.

dog:
doing fabulous! he tore a ligament in his knee but is slowly getting over it. he's really gotten to be a great dog. still a pain in the ass at times, but is such a sweetie and is really starting to behave.

john:
he's the best! it's so much fun working on wedding planning and planning our lives. we've been talking about where to move next (hopefully seattle!) and what we'll do there. i don't really care where we end up, as long as we're together. i know, i know, totally sappy, but i should be that sappy--we're getting married in a year and 5 weeks! soo stoked!!!!

anyway, that's pretty much it....not sure when i'll update next....sorry for not much detail, way too much to cram in rather than giving a broad overview.

peace out yo

Current Mood: content
Current Music: TV

total procrastination mode...
title says it all: i have a boatload of work to do but for some reason do not feel like doing it. i actually sat down to update this thing a few weeks ago, but got distracted in the middle and never clicked update. now for the last month...

i can't really remember what i was doing in the beginning of November...am i getting that old...? in the middle, i attended the annual meeting for the Society of Environmental Toxicologists and Chemists in Baltimore. it rocked. on my way up, i got to crash at brendan's pad. it was great catching up with him, meeting his new chick, and also catching up with his roomie, brian, who i also went to high school with. after getting lost in a sketchy section of baltimore (insert comment about the whole city being sketchy), i found my hotel. it was a lot closer to the conference center than i thought, so i set out walking to the place. i was a little late so i didn't have time to check out who i wanted to see so i went in the first room i found that looked interesting. during the morning break, i located the room i really wanted to sit in on, and found someone i knew through pete. we met up after the morning talks and went to lunch with some people he knew. it felt good to see familiar faces. the afternoon talks went really well and i soon found my roomie, a fellow student at VIMS. we decided to head over to the student dinner because there was going to be free food. it was pretty good and i met some cool peeps. tuesday went well, saw some great talks. wednesday was pete's talk, which went smoothly, with no weird questions. that afternoon i got to meet some of his colleagues, who gave me some advice for my project. i only stayed for 3 talks on thursday morning--i was burned out and wanted to get home. there weren't really any talks that i was stoked about anyway (well, not until 3:50, and i did NOT want to drive out of baltimore alone in the dark...). all in all it was a great conference.

when i got home from the conference, i felt a bit stuffy, but thought it was just from being in a hotel room. wrong!! i spent the weekend and monday on the couch with the worst cold ever. it felt like the flu, without all the stomach stuff. good thing it was a short week! my parents came down wednesday night and stayed till saturday morning to spend thanksgiving with us. it was a really nice visit, and they got to hang out with linus a bit more--and i think they actually like him now :). he's been improving steadily--really fits in with us and is getting SO much better at meeting people *knock on wood*.

work has been steadily increasing--i always forget when the semester ends cause it's so much earlier than potsdam--tomorrow is finals week! i made it through my final presentation in water pollution on thursday, and still have 2 finals to get through. my pre-qualifying interview is tomorrow and i am stoked--i have a new person on my committee and i get to meet her tomorrow. she sounds super nice and is wicked smart. she's from UMaryland at Solomons Island.

last night i went to the opening of my friend elizabeth's art exhibit in richmond. it was awesome! she's so talented. and i want to go back to that part of the city--looked like a lot of fun.

john and i leave for home on dec 24. should be interesting--we'll have linus with us for the 12 - 14 hour trip. fun fun. that's all that's new, happy holidays everyone!!

peace

Current Mood: anxious
Current Music: music in my head

TGIF!!!
been a wicked long week! i've been going nonstop trying to catch up on all my class work that i neglected while i was writing my paper and presentation for my pre-qualifying interview, which has been pushed back until 5 december. actually looking forward to it, so i can get lots of ideas and get started studying for my qualifying exam. i am aiming to qualify in early february. i'm nervous but want to get it over.

wedding planning has taken over my free time! some things are set, others are falling apart, and the rest i'm not dealing with yet :). my bridal party is all set: my best bud julie is going to be my maid of honor (totally stoked to have her be there with me!!! love ya jules!!!!) and em, noelle, and lynnie are my bridesmaids. lynn is doubling as flower person as well. i'm glad that i can have all the people that mean the most right there with me on my wedding day. plus, i know they'll throw a killer bachelorette party haha. we are planning on getting married in our church back home, but have to do marriage counseling down here. just have to find a priest who doesn't chew me out in the middle of mass and we're all set :). reception is up in the air--anyone know of a good place?! that i can afford?! taking suggestions! i want something outside or with outside access, but may end up taking anything at this point. i'm tempted to have it in our old high school gym, where the dance was that john and i hooked up at lol.

the new place is doing well, cramped but cheap :). linus is doing really well too--getting used to seeing lots of people on his walks and getting used to the new smells. our neighbor, steph who goes to vims, has a fenced in backyard and she has invited linus and i over twice to let her dog and linus play. it's awesome, and tires linus out. he's so cute off leash--we don't trust him off leash so it's fun to see how he acts with other dogs when i'm not dragged behind. he's so active and is on the lookout for holes in the fence. what a beagle.

i've also joined the gym with lynn and emily. we get there at 6am and power through cardio and then i do weights while they run. i feel so in shape! great figure for my wedding coming up :)

well i should get back to work...bleck! i am writing a presentation and designing a model of DNA damage this weekend. i want to get as much done today as i can so i can enjoy the gorgeous weekend coming up--mid 70's!! have a great one

peace out

Current Mood: exhausted
Current Music: guster

the engagement!!! and the buzzkill :(
that's right! i'm engaged!!! john proposed monday night on our 5 year and 10 month anniversary. we went out to a nice dinner in yorktown at the riverwalk landing restaurant. then we got sherbet at ben and jerry's, which is right down from the restaurant. we ate sitting on the beach. john suggested a walk, so we walked around on the beach for a few minutes before stopping to chat. i kept complaining i was cold, but john kept talking and dawdling before he finally proposed! i don't remember much of what he said--when i realized what was going on i tackled him in a bear hug and said yes, and he started laughing cause he hadn't really asked yet. so i stepped back and let him propose :). he did the whole getting on one knee thing (so romantic!) and of course i said yes! the ring is gawgeous!! (i picked it out lol). it's white gold with a large round diamond in between 2 diamond-shaped sapphires. the band has 5 small diamonds on either side of the sapphires. i'm so excited!!!! we're planning on summer 2007. *squeak* john's bro already agreed to be the best man and lynn agreed to do flowers. i think that's all the planning so far lol.
so for the buzzkill... when we were leaving to go to dinner, we wanted to take my car but the check engine light came on and it acted weird so we took john's truck. the next day, john took the car to toyota to figure out what is wrong. $447 later, a part has been ordered. when they install it, it will be another $120. right. like i have that in my bank account. but at least i wasn't as bummed as i should have been because i am engaged!!!!! hehe it's a disease around here...lynn and tate got engaged saturday night, and there are 4 other VIMS peeps that have gotten engaged recently. i'm part of a club haha.
work is crazy, so i gotta get going. catch y'all later!

cheers

Current Mood: bouncy
Current Music: the songs in my head

getting better at this journal thang....
just finishing up a few busy days in the lab, so i thought i'd take a break and write all about it :) pete said i did fine on the exam after taking a quick look at the answers, so i can relax about that. this is a long week in the lab--i'm running a western blot which will be over tomorrow, and then i think i am going to run some more gels after that. and do class work. and remember that the dog needs some attention sometimes :). things have been going well, i feel almost totally normal health-wise, which is SUCH a relief!

friday night was awesome--me, john, em, lynn, and bethany decided at the last minute to head out to va beach to teach lynn how to surf and hang out. it was so much fun! the water was cool at first but we got used to it. it was great to watch the sun go down as we played in the water. lynn was awesome! she actually caught some waves and almost stood up. she even mastered sitting up while waiting for a wave, which is SO much harder than it looks. we caught up with pat while we were there and he gave lynn some pointers as he surfed. we were hungry so we stopped by my new fave restaurant, the jewish mother. such good food!!! the latkes are to die for and they have decent bagels. ahhh...a taste of new york in virginia :). actually, pete was in nyc last week and i am still kicking my ass over not asking him to bring me back bagels.

saturday i worked for a bit in the lab, hung out with john and linus, and worked on reading papers. i also remembered to relax--it was saturday after all :). sunday i worked in the lab from 9 - 2 and then went to our new landlord's barn to work with her kids and her horses. total waste of time. the horses are crappy, the kids can't ride, and above all they didn't really listen to me. well, the horses aren't terrible, but one should be hunt seat instead of western and the other is totally awesome but the kid won't train it right. it was sad to watch. i even offered to lunge him properly for her, but she refused. whatever. i told them they should join 4-H, but i don't see that happening. oh well. not my problem, except the kids are probably going to try to come over all the time to talk about horses. at least it's only for a year!!! haha

so now i'm in the throes of deciding whether or not to do my phd here...pete wants me to stay, and my project is really a phd project, but i don't want to be in va any longer than i have to. i'm actually thinking of going to stony brook, seeing as how john doesn't want to move to alaska. whatever. haha--j/k. linus would have to wear sweaters! but i don't feel like becoming a long islander...i'm not that rich or snobby. though they do have good bagels and pizza. we'll see. maybe i'll take my surfing career and join the pros. or i'll become a bum and live in jamaica. or i'll win america's next top model. i have excellent back up careers :)

peace out

Current Mood: tired

takin a break
hey all! one week between entries? i must be bored! or have lots of work to do that i don't feel like doing. your choice. this morning was my first exam in protein biochemistry. there was so much to cram into 2 hours that i almost broke down in the middle of it but realized i didn't have time for that. i finished with 2 minutes to spare--i have never worked on an exam for that long. oh well. it's over and i feel pretty good about my answers. now i am going to rewrite my prospectus--i changed fish species and am reworking some aspects so i decided to pretty much start over. it's for the best in the end, just sucks for now. i am aiming to do my pre-qualifier at the end of october and qualify in january. i think that though my classes are working me too hard, they are excellent preps for my qualifier.

not much else is new...hurricane just missed us. we got high humidity and high winds, but no rain. saturday night i had the best time i've had in a while. we went to see rachael play in a traditional celtic band in va beach, which was awesome! she's so talented :). afterwards, me, lynn, em, rachael, quinn, and bethany bought ice cream and ate it on the beach. we parked in the 30's and there was live music. we sat and ate and listened and gazed out on the beautiful ocean. it was a full moon and the waves were coming in sets of 2 with the rest of the surface being glassy. it was amazing. then we started dancing to the music and played in the waves for a while. before we left, we took a short walk around before heading to the strip to do a drive-by. it was crowded, but not as packed as peak season. however, it was still fun to people watch. i'm glad i have a great memory to look back at when things get me down. i love my girls! monday was international talk like a pirate day (aaaaarrrrrrrrggggghhhhhh!!!!!!) so we dressed up and went to pirate's cove mini golf in williamsburg to play. we had soooo much fun! plus, on monday all my medical tests came back fine. they had been TOTALLY stressing me out, but everything's normal. doctors still don't know what's wrong, but at least it's not serious--just persistent. props to everyone who kept me going waiting for the results :). last night was a lot of fun. i went home to study while john distracted linus and just when i got settled in, we got hit with a t-storm that knocked out power. i finished studying by candle light and when i was done, john and i got to talk and hang out for over an hour. it was great! we got to catch up on each other's lives and just hang out without the tv on, no computers in the way, and linus was cuddling with us cause he was scared of the storm. we just sat in the dark and enjoyed being with each other. it was the best :)

well i gotta go write so i can take a break to watch the season premiere of america's next top model with lynn!

peace

Current Mood: peaceful
Current Music: air conditioning

awaiting the hurricane...
i've been wicked busy lately so no time for updates. this will have to be quick too as i have a lot of reading before my first exam next week.

the york river has had a massive bloom of red tide, making it smell like low tide in new england, which i like but everyone else hates. it's nasty--the river is literally red and full of harmful dinoflagelletes. grosstastic

c'ville was a blast, john and i left early in the morning and headed to UVA. the campus was beautiful, and we saw lots of awesome sights thanks to em's suggestions and directions. we wandered around to the shops near UVA for a bit, and then headed downtown. most of the stores were closed, but it was really nice to walk around and just hang with john--without the dog for once, who was being watched by noelle. we got some good pizza, and i got a cool bracelet to commemorate the day. we had a lot of fun on the drive out as well, chatting and listening to music and eating cheetos. just like old times :). when we got back, we headed into yorktown to see the HMS Bounty. neither of us had any money on us, so we couldn't get on board, but it was cool to see anyway.

the next day was labor day, and noelle and i hung out after working in the morning. we got ice cream and went on the Bounty to take pictures for my dad to enjoy. we had a great talk and a good time in yorktown. i'll miss living so close, but i'll like having $500 a month more to save :). i also got to hang with lynn on saturday and go shopping, something i couldn't really afford to do but had a blast doing anyway :). it's hard to keep up with friends now that core is over--i don't see people anymore! i am always in the lab or in my office studying. so if i have to buy some new clothes, i guess i'll just have to suck it up... haha

so taking 2 classes was a mistake...they take up so much time and i still work tons of hours in the lab. plus, i have to miss a week for the annual SETAC meeting, which will put me behind a bit. oh well--i'm sure my profs will understand (one will be there, and the other is pete, who is having me present).

now i am currently awaiting ophelia to hit us while i attempt to study. i still haven't been feeling well lately, so i am seeing the doctor again tomorrow. wish me luck!

i think that's it for now...

peace

Current Mood: exhausted
Current Music: iTunes

a quickie
dog's being a pain so this will have to be quick. so much to talk about since last update!
let's see....
found a new place to live! it's tiny but we will save $500 a month so it's totally worth it. plus, i can walk to work and don't have to cross the bridge 12 times a week. john will have to deal with it now, but at least he is only crossing 5 days a week. they increased the fare, so cutting back on crossings will be a huge savings. we are moving sometime in october. what's really funny is that the person we're renting from is the person who analyzed my nutrient samples for 502 lab. the first time i met her, she almost made me cry. now we live on the same property. but she's actually really nice when she's not at work. what's even funnier is she's one of the 2 other people in one of my classes. we'd better get along cause we'll be seeing a LOT of each other!

i have been feeling sick for a while, so i've been to the doctor tons of times but still feel lousy. they don't know what is up--could just be stress, or lyme disease--i get tested again tomorrow. fun fun.

dog is doing ok, going through one of his non-behaving phases right now, but hopefully it'll end soon! basically, he stops being a pest with one thing and finds 2 more to irritate us with. his new ones are picking up the carpets and chewing on them and chewing on the bath mats. oh, and he ate my sunglasses. there went $150 down the drain. i got a cool new pair tho--metallic blue oakley minutes. i took linus to petsmart tonight, he did really well while we were there--fairly quiet, behaved while i was giving commands, and was friendly with people. total 180 from saturday--noelle and lenny came over to watch a movie and he barely let lenny in the door, and wouldn't let him walk around for a while. he got used to him and by the end he was snuggling on lenny's lap, but i wish he'd get over his shyness sometime soon.

lab stuff has been going ok, slowing down a bit. classes started last week. i am taking protein biochemistry with pete (my advisor) and water pollution (with rob, who's on my committee). i have been working on extracting my sludge to find out what exactly is in it, hope there's some fun stuff! the new students have arrived, and are pretty quiet overall. there are a few fun ones, but they seem a tad unsocial. disorientation is this weekend--hope they come out of their shells! pete and i are going seining tomorrow for fish, i'm all out of adults. should be fun--muddy, wet, mosquito ridden, but better than being cooped up indoors reading and outlining notes.

well i think that's it for now. sunday john and i are planning a trip to charlottesville to hang out and get away for a bit to spend some time together. should be lots of fun :).

peace out

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: cicadas

same old
just a quick update, mostly been in the lab and reading lots of papers, trying to piece together all the parts of my project to make it make sense. last week i ran my first ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) and it turned out great! i am relieved--something went right. you NEVER get actual results on a prelim test and i did!

saturday me, jen, em, and pat went to the beach to catch awesome waves from TS Isabel. they were 4 feet high and were rocking. it was great, i caught a bunch of waves. i just wish it wasn't so crowded, woulda been able to stand up better if i wasn't trying to dodge little kids learning to surf. we had a blast, and finished the morning by going out to lunch. i spent the rest of the afternoon exhausted but happy. i rented 'open water' and while it didn't freak me out about swimming/ surfing/ shore dives, it has freaked me out about doing open ocean dives. not that i'll be diving anytime soon tho--no money to get an updated certification.

sunday john and i hung out all day long....looked at a new place to live, went to williamsburg, made pizza, talked, and totally enjoyed being together. we're so lucky to have each other :)

dog is good, starting to learn manners *knock on wood*

that's it, hopefully next time i'll be able to say we got a new place

peace

Current Mood: drained
Current Music: television

so much to tell!
i have been wicked busy and haven't had time to write...
my parents came down to visit from the 28th to the 2nd. we had a great time, saw lots of sights, and got to catch up. thursday night we hung out and ate dinner together while defending our food from linus. friday afternoon after i had ditched VIMS work, we went to gloucester court house to walk around and grab lunch. after that we headed off to a marsh on mobjack bay, which was beautiful. that night we took john's new car out into norfolk for some real southern food. we stuffed ourselves on shrimp, gritz, chicken pot pie, mashed taters, fried chicken, and scallops. mmm... saturday we headed off to the blue ridge mountains. they are beautiful! we did skyline drive for 40 miles and enjoyed awesome sights. i have missed mountains!! sunday john had the day off so we went to va beach in the morning to swim and so i could show off my mad skilz on a surfboard. i paddled out, and it started thundering. perfect. we came home, had lunch, and went to the virginia living museum. it was awesome! tons to see, tons to do. that night my mom and i cooked up some pizzas and garlic knots for a good new york style dinner. it was awesome :) monday i worked for a bit at VIMS while my parents went to the outlet malls. we decided to pick up some japanese food and brought it home to watch anchorman. they left tuesday morning, and i went back to my boring life :) oh--my dad ran linus everyday for 4 miles each time, and we didn't see a difference in his activity level. what a dog! :)

other than that i have been in the lab non-stop trying to get things to work. i'm in the one step back stage of progress where you do a lot but don't seem to have a lot to show. i finished my pre-prospectus, which is good. i also wrote a huge chunk of my prospectus. that really helped me to understand what is going on and why i am doing all the aspects--tied it all together for me. i feel like i am learning so much lately, and because of that i feel so much more confident. saturday i went surfing and met up with karen (fellow education major from potsdam) and we had a great time catching up on the beach. when i got back to my car, i found it had been broken into. perfect. they didn't take anything, but rummaged through everything and put my wallet in a different place, causing me to freak out for a while. thankfully karen was there to calm me down. that night i picked up noelle from the airport, which was so much fun. we hung out for a while and cheered me up--everyone has been gone lately and i have been lonely, so it was nice to talk to her. sunday i picked up lynn and emily from the airport and got to hang with em for a while afterwards, which was great. i feel so much better mentally, it's been kind of rough lately (land lord problems, water problems, no one's around problems, lab issues, etc). oh yeah--'funny' story: so you know how i don't like snakes very much? reason #500 to not like them: one ate the fish at my reference site. jerk. now i have to find a new site.

well that's about it around here. john's good, working as usual. he totally loves his new car, and i do too--it's awesome! reliable and fun to drive

peace

Current Mood: hopeful
Current Music: rain on the window

quickie
totally exciting past few days!! thursday night, em came flying up the driveway to let me know that a guy at our local surf shop was selling his funboard surf board and his longboard skateboard. i promptly called and arranged to meet him on saturday. i also got word of a car for sale, which john turned out to be interested in. saturday was chosen as the day for him to look at the car. ready? on saturday, john got a car (a 1994 Ford Explorer 4x4, 4wd, 4 door, hunter green) and i got both a surf board and a skateboard! what a day!! i loooove my skateboard already! it's a 42" longboard by sector nine. it's pretty live, but lots of fun. surfboard is a 7'6" funboad by hotline, a local company, has 3 glassed in fins, is a glass board, interesting design that i wish wasn't glassed on, and has traction pads. i intend to try it out next weekend. i am so stoked!!!!!! john gets his car on tuesday, just in time for my parents to come down and see it. today john and i celebrated by being woken up early by the dog and went to the yorktown beach to take him for a swim. he likes to wade around more than swim, but at least it tires him out. we then cleaned the whole house for when my parents come--they have to have somewhere to sleep! we then rented 'national treasure' which was really good. now we're going to continue on with 'harry potter.' it's interesting so far, but we haven't seen a lot of action yet so i'll reserve judgment until then. now for an exciting week in the lab! i am actually going to try to get a lot of reading, article searches, and some writing done. my gels did ok this week, but the results have been inconsistent. oh yeah, and i wiped out 35 out of 50 fish in one exposure. guess that exposure is over. 14 out of 90 days. oh well. it's all prelim, right? i'm just glad there are so many other facets of my thesis that i can work on and get over with. though the exposure is a critical part, there are a lot of other things to keep me busy :). well it's off to hang out with john. later all

peace

Current Mood: stoked
Current Music: chatter with johnnycakes :)

still swamped
Hey all,
so remind me why i wanted to do this grad school thing again? why i gave up a 8 - 4 work week with weekends free? oh yeah, cause i want to better myself :-P. it's not so bad, i've just been soooo busy lately. but, on the other hand, i had been getting so bored with having little to do that it's a huge relief to be getting going on everything. i have been running gel after gel and collecting so much data i have not had time to do literature searches to figure out what it all means lol. oh well, it's great to be busy and feel like i am getting somewhere on my degree.

i had another great weekend--surf's up dudes! saturday i spend the day cleaning and doing housework. sunday a bunch of us went to va beach and surfed! john came, and we were joined by em, jen, lila, will, and meredith. we brought a few short boards, but they weren't so great in the small surf. there was a pro playing in the waves on a long board, and he let me borrow it to actually catch some waves. it was great!! i got to paddle into some good waves. i got to paddle into some great waves on the short board too, but it couldn't catch them. whatever--i was at the beach! it feels so right to be on a board, like i belong there. it feels comfy and i feel totally secure. i have found my new passion! i wish i could find a cheap passion one of these days! next time we want to bring linus with us so he can play with jackson and izzy and swim around. oh--we saw dolphins too! it was so cool to be out on a board with dolphins swimming by. maybe virginia isn't so bad after all ;).

this week has been craziness, running gels, collecting fish, collecting samples, cleaning my exposure tanks (yeah, dry heaved all morning on that one...and got hives on my face...), and catching up on literature searches (which is what i should be doing now...).

monday we had a vet scare with linus--he acted like he had a really bad injury on his foot--wouldn't walk on it, cried, shook, and chewed on it. we ran him to the vet and it looks like he got bit by something. he's ok now, but it was scary. later that night we went over to john's aunt and uncle's house where 2 of his other aunts are staying for the week. we had a bbq and caught up with everyone. it was so great to see everyone; though they aren't technically my family, it was nice to see people who feel like family.

oh--we saw charlie and the chocolate factory on sunday: 2 thumbs waaay up. awesome. go see it.

yesterday was such a connie day in the lab: i stepped on a fish that i was trying to sample (and thus lost the sample), stabbed myself with needle nose tweezers, and fell in the creek when i was trying to catch fish (and i saw a water snake which freaked me out); pete fell and twisted his ankle; danielle fell down the stairs and her samples went flying. go team! :)

i think those are all the updates for now. stay cool (it's 110 here!!!)

peace

Current Mood: energetic
Current Music: iTunes list

swamped!!
My thesis is finally under way!!! Last week, everyone was out of town from the lab except for pete and I, so we got started on my stuff. I got a bunch of fish on Thursday and began sampling from them. yeah, that's a polite way to say euthanizing them and taking various measurements. We also discussed and clarified much of my project. Pete has some great ideas, and I have a lot to choose from. Fortunately, due to an awesome undergrad research project, I am well prepared for a lot of this. It is a very similar study, just taking the next few steps. this week I officially began my preliminary exposure study: exposing 320 fish to various treatments of control and low and high dose tanks. Going great so far! Working in the lab was a little stressful today, nothing was working right, but my gel is in fixer overnight and i am just going to cross my fingers--my first figure of my thesis! Oh--and a paper I am an author on just got accepted today! They are going to put a rush on it to get it out in the next issue, it's that good.

So, anyway, back to the rest of my life. My birthday was awesome! I love my friends!! It was nice to see (almost) all of my close friends here. We went out to dinner and had a lot of fun. I was so stuffed when I got home that I fell asleep at 9:30! Of course, I was up from 3 - 5am, but oh well. I also got to meet our new neighbors. Suckers. They already are having a 'fun' time with the neighbors. I got some cool presents too--a bookcase from John and a Victoria's Secret gift card from Linus (he keeps eating my panties!!). Thursday night, John, Noelle, and I played tennis and had a lot of fun hitting and chatting. I love how John gets along with all my friends--they love him and think he's a really good guy (I coulda told them that :) ). Saturday I got to relax and do some work around the house. Sunday Emily and I had the best day--we took a surfing lesson!! It was the freaking bomb. We surfed for an hour, coached by a local pro surfer. I have found my new sport!! So much better then wind surfing. I even stood up a few times, which not many people do on their first day. Em stood up on her first try!! We were so stoked and can't wait for our next opportunity. And we can't wait to buy boards, but that will have to wait a bit. I need to get a skateboard to practice balance on too, so I don't have to keep paying for lessons where I learn how to stand. Then we got brunch and commemorated the day by buying rash guards at the local surf store. When I got home I totally crashed before making pizza and garlic knots for John's and my dinner. We watched 'Anchorman' again (good movie--hilarious!!). Last night we saw 'Batman Begins' and it was awesome! Total thriller and it depicted the Batman story so well. 5 stars.

That's about it for now, hope y'all are having a good week!

Peace

Current Mood: happy
Current Music: the blessed air conditioning

happy birthday to me!
now there's a shameless plug... happy birthday to my dad as well :)

I am back from another awesome weekend--after scheming with my aunt, uncle, and grandmother, I ordered a ticket home to surprise my dad on his (our) birthday. Well, a few days before our birthday. Saturday I flew home, arriving at Albany International around 12:45. My aunt and uncle picked me up and we headed over to my parent's house where there was a party planned for my dad and my mom's best friend, whose birthday is the 7th. We pulled in and saw my mom coming out of the garage with Sadie on the leash. She screeched, dropped the dog, and started tearing up. I then knew that getting up at 3:30am and spending 8.5 hours driving/ flying/ at airports was totally worth it. Everyone else was just as surprised. It was great--and the dinner was pizza, so that was totally awesome! We relaxed the rest of the afternoon, enjoying some good story trading (including my recent fishing trip where I caught 2 striped bass and a sting ray (d'oh!!)) and enjoying having most of the family together. One thing I could not get over was the weather--I was freezing! It was about 75 and dry (well, dry for me) and I was sooo cold. I didn't realize how used to southern weather I have gotten. Sunday we went to church and saw John's parents, which was great. I was hoping I would get a chance to see them. After church we went to the new coffee place near my parent's house--wish they had that when I was still living there! It was a great place, good coffee, good food, and they even had a laid back dog to pet while you sipped coffee. Then we went into Stuyvesent Plaza to shop at EMS (my Teva's are wearing out... :( ). I picked up a new pair along with a cute shirt, and managed to convince my mom to get a pair as well. I've corrupted another person! I had to stop shopping after that due to limited space in my carry on--that's right, I made the whole trip using just a book bag. I also picked up a new purse at the Cincinnati Airport (which I have deemed the most confusing airport ever!). It's cute, small and black. Only $20 from Tommy Hilfiger. Score. While we were out, we ran into Aunt Debbie, which was so random but nice. We headed home soon after we had finished shopping because I was getting tired (surprise surprise). After recharging for a bit, we went out to dinner at Jack's. Man do I miss that place!! Then we settled in for a night of chatting before heading off to bed. Monday morning, my grandmother came over for breakfast--bagels and sausages, life doesn't get better :). Then it was off to the airport for another 6 hours of travel. The first flight was direct to Atlanta, which was irritating because we basically flew over Yorktown. Oh well. I slept for the 2 hour duration of the trip. I treated myself to Ben and Jerry's for ice cream at Atlanta while I caught up with John on the phone. Then it was another hour to Norfolk. I got home around 7 to be greeted by my 2 fav guys. John welcomed me with a big hug and Linus wouldn't let me pet him until he was done sniffing out Sadie and Phoebe on my jeans. Today has been great so far, just tired around the edges. I got plants from Danielle, which were totally welcome seeing as I don't have any. She stuck some tennis balls in one for Linus, which was so sweet. John got me roses, a bookshelf, and McDonald's for lunch. I also got to set up my tanks today--sewage sludge madness. Great smelling stuff. Smells like crap haha. Tonight we are all going out to dinner at a Japanese restaurant. I have the best friends :) Lately I have realized who my true friends are, and I am lucky to have them.

Peace

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: iTunes Mix

jet-lagged but happy :)
Hi all,
I've been pretty busy lately getting set up for my project. Scrubbing tanks is the most fun one can have :-P. I've also been helping out in the lab a lot, running and developing gels. It's been good to keep busy around here, makes me feel like I'm earning my paycheck :). This past weekend was the best--I judged a schooling show at Plumbrook on Sunday. I got into Massena around 6:30pm on Saturday and chilled for a while, catching up with everyone and seeing the horses. Reed looks great--fat and happy. He is def showing his age, but looks good for being 22. We went out to dinner, where I ended up with a migraine that turned my stomach. Rich took me home and I fell asleep around 9:30/ 10:00. I woke up completely refreshed around 7 the next morning. It was great to wake up to the sounds of birds chirping and the sounds of a farm, I have totally missed that. I made my way downstairs where I ate half my dinner from the night before and felt totally normal. After getting ready, I headed out to the barn and helped get the day ready for the kids. I got set up in the bed of the truck under an umbrella with a little table. Soon the kids started arriving, and the fun began. We started a little late, but got moving full swing and didn't stop until 12:30 for lunch. I had so much fun--the kids looked great and I was so glad I got to talk to them individually about their performances. Each group rode in an Equitation, Pleasure, and course work (obstacles for walk-trotter, ground poles for beginner W-T-C, and jumping for advanced W-T-C). Some of the kids really impressed me--especially the walk trotters, who knew their diagonals and were so cute on their ponies. Reed looked with his kids too--made them work for their placing. The afternoon kids were the advanced ones, which were the best to work with. I could really comment to them and it meant something to them. I had to be careful not to rip the beginners a new one in a few cases, but the older kids could take more criticism, and appreciated it. Right before lunch my parents showed up, which was really nice. They brought bagels and hugs, some of my favorite things :). They also brought my good western saddle, which I enthusiastically threw on Reed as soon as the last kid exited the ring. I had a great ride--he's just as smooth and responsive as ever, and such a joy to ride. I used to take riding him for granted--not that it was ever mundane and boring, but I thought I would always have him. Now, I just cherish every ride and any time I get to spend with him. He is so special and will always be a part of my life (he's only been in it for 15 years...lol). Sunday night Kathy, Mandy, Matt, and myself went out to see "Madagascar" which was hilarious. I had such a good time hanging out with everyone--I really miss them! 4:30am yesterday morning found Kathy driving me to the airport for my 5:15 flight. I arrived home in Norfolk around 10 and drove home to see Linus. He was confused, but eventually greeted me. He's so cute :). I came to the lab after lunch and a shower to make some gels and figure out my tank situation--apparently one of the other advisors has a grant to do work with PAH's that require light 24/7, which does not fly with my fish. Pete and I found a place to put everything yesterday, and moved my stuff there today. it only took 5 hours... But it was a good workout, which lets me justify ice cream tonight. Also, the fact that I am constantly sweating in weather that has a heat index of 102 makes me justify that I sweated off enough weight to refuel :). Now I'm off to home and then to PetSmart with Linus to work on his training. Hope y'all are great, stay cool

Peace

Current Mood: exhausted
Current Music: Shaggy

tired and sore but happy
after 2 nights in a row of playing tennis, i am a little sore, but it feels good. i'm getting in shape! well, i have been running for a few miles every day to get linus to settle (doesn't work very well) but tennis works a few more muscles. it's summer so i gotta look good to get sunburned on the beach again :) i am starting my experiment within the next 2 weeks (hopefully) cause guess what? i got a fellowship! it's through the virginia water resources research center and will pay for my tuition and supplies for one year.

it's also nice having john home again. i really missed him while he was gone, and so did linus. we're both happy and eating our whole meals again :)

that's about all there is to report...just worked in the lab today. last night john and i went out to dinner at the olive garden and their new seafood canneoli (sp?!) was amazing! i ate the whole thing. today i got to catch up with lynn and emily during an extended lunch, which was nice. exciting life, huh?

peace out

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: linus digging on the furniture

bored...
hi all...
i'm bored out of my mind. john is home in NY at his cousin's wedding and is hanging with his family for the weekend, so it's just been me and the dog. it's weird not having school work to do, cause i'm so over watching tv, and now i don't know what to do with myself. most of the day linus just slept and was boring, so i went to see Star Wars III (it was good as a movie, but not in the series). when i got home, linus was raring to go, so we went on a 2 mile run after dinner. he's still raring to go. or, raring to be a pain in the butt. we finished dog training last night, and got many good pointers on how to deal with his particular personality. unfortunately, as we train him, he will become frustrated that he doesn't get away with certain things anymore and begin to take out his frustrations on us. check. he's getting better at some things, but is picking up new annoying behaviors as well. but, now we know how to deal with it all, so it's going to work *knock on wood*. tomorrow morning i am planning on taking him to the beach to tire him out. we didn't go today cause i spent most of the day waiting around for our landlords to come over to look at our pipes (our last water bill was $217!!!!). john comes home tomorrow evening, which i'm looking forward to. it's weird being in the house all by myself, especially with our creepy neighbors (people with dogs that attack us/ root through our garbage, kid with rock band, guy who pees on the lawn, the bounty hunter who wears a motorcycle helmet that says 'die yuppie scum' etc). welcome to the south.

well, i should get going. the house just got refreshingly quiet, but that makes me wonder what linus is destroying...

night!

peace

Current Mood: bored
Current Music: the neighbor's party music

lazy friday...
this is me doing work on a friday afternoon after a long week. it has finally cooled down after about 2 weeks of high 90's. it actually feels cold out--i'm wearing a sweater. it's 81. that's sad.

john is home for his cousin's wedding tomorrow so it's me vs. linus. so far it's been ok, linus is totally missing john--won't eat, mopes, stares at his car in the driveway, and is subdued. any other time i would appreciate the change, but i'm a little worried about him. tonight is his last night of doggie training--he'll be a fully trained dog after 6pm tonight :-P. well, we tried. actually, he's come such a long way since our first class 2 weeks ago. he's much better behaved overall (he still has his moments) and seems more settled now that he is learning the rules of the house. i am planning on a beach trip with linus tomorrow morning to tire him out so i can clean the house in the afternoon.

my gels did better yesterday. not perfect, but much improved. however, now that the samples have been thawed so many times, the proteins are breaking down, so the images are not as clear as i would like. oh well. you live you learn. this morning was spent cleaning out my tanks to start my exposure study soon. the rest of the afternoon will be spent doing literature searches for good references on protocols and general information.

that's all the updating i have for now, just trying to enjoy virginia and school. one of my friends from potsdam is moving to va beach next week and i am so excited to have a friend moving down here. we were the cut-ups in our education classes (well, part of the cut-up group--rick had to move to arizona). now i have another excuse to go to the beach and get sunburned :)

have a good weekend

peace

Current Mood: bored
Current Music: radio

i'm getting better at this journal thing!
hey all,
getting used to having this thing back, it's nice to have something to sort out your thoughts in. yesterday was our 3rd dog training class. linus did well, just very distracted by all the other dogs and smells in the store. he's getting better tho. last night we worked on heeling. he picked it up, but it was hard to get his attention without shoving food in his face. then we had it for about a second. but i think he's trying, which is enough for me.

yesterday was a frustrating day in the lab--my samples from monday did not run on the gel very well (I loaded too much protein by accident) so i had to start over. great--redo 2 days of work, when i have sooo much other stuff to do. gotta love science! i don't think you can succeed at unless you have tons of determination, persistence, and a boatload of luck :). i'm working on the last part. i'm also working on getting my sunburn to stop hurting. i'm up to wearing real pants instead of sweat pants and can lace up my running shoes (i had to leave them unlaced cause it hurt too much to have them tight). i'm still in tank tops tho cause my neck and collarbones are really sore. my goal is for friday to be a normal outfit day.

i got a cool link to go to: http://www.northcountrynow.com/hometown-photos/default.asp?a=Norfolk&p=1. click on the links titled, "horse lesson show" and "pony farm open house." you can see reed! he's so cute. i can't believe how old he is and he looks almost like he did the day i met him (15 years ago!!!). i can't wait to see him at the horse show in potsdam that i'm judging. i'm a little nervous, but i am also really looking forward to seeing everyone and riding reed. it's so weird to not have reed either as my horse or have him somewhat local; he's been around ever since i started riding. but, he's at a wonderful farm now with lots of kiddies to keep him young, and i can still occasionally see him. i feel very lucky to have known such an amazing horse for so long. i am going to try to get a lesson next week at the western farm. if not, i'll try the english barn again, i had such a great time there. and our electricity bill is cheap this month, so i can put the money towards a lesson that would otherwise have gone to that. how's that for budgeting ;)

i think that's most of the updating i had. linus needs some attention and dishes need washing.

have a good night

peace

Current Mood: relaxed
Current Music: air conditioning--it's 95 degrees here!

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