Day Ninety One

Happy Halloween! We barely got any trick-or-treaters, but that was probably due to the fact that we were all starving and decided to go out to eat at 7:15. Oops...bad timing. Needless to say, we have a lot of candy left. Which is not good for us, because we will eat it all. Without question. We all dressed as football players from our respective schools when we went out to eat (as seen below), and a random group of guys at a table next to us at Smash Burger (location of the best sweet potato fries ever) looked at us and said "Do you girls actually get along? Well, that's rare."

Happy Halloween from a house triple-divided.

And here's Otter dressed as our rufferee.

Otter.

The best part of the day was undoubtedly having my Physical Organic professor walk into lecture today dressed as a medieval knight, complete with giant sword. Or it also could have been walking past Ricky Berens (the Olympic swimmer who went to UT) when I was walking past the football stadium...nope, sorry Ricky, no matter how attractive you are, nothing beats seeing a world-renowned chemist wearing a chain headpiece wave a sword while telling us all that we better study hard for our upcoming exam.

Day Ninety

I've been living in Austin for 90 days now. Only 10 more until I'm in triple digits, which feels completely surreal. It doesn't feel like it's been that long...probably because grad school keeps me so busy that my days just start to blend together. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

I sat at my desk for the first official time in Shear's lab today, and I'm still way more excited about it then is probably normal. It was quiet and secluded and provided the perfect study area for my exam. I'm still in awe that I'm finally in a lab group, it felt like I would never get here. Now all my anxiety can be shifted to maintaining the required GPA for funding, which is proving harder then I thought. Hopefully tonight's exam went better then previous ones, but I just don't know what to expect anymore.

My phone just scared the bejeezus out of me when it alerted me (with a fire alarm worthy noise) that there's going to be flooding tonight. We've had back to back to back storm cells since 7pm, and the thunder and lightening has been constantly present. But don't worry, the Blueberry is safely parked in the garage tonight. Whew! Thank goodness for small cars that fit in tiny garages.

I'm exhausted. And I still have almost an entire Physical Organic homework assignment to finish. Grad school is hard.

Day Eighty Nine

I've been studying all night. Too tired to post.

Best parts of today - got my Texas license in the mail (the transition is complete) and made microwave smores after dinner (why don't I do this every night? So delicious).

Day Eighty Eight

Guess what? I'm finally an official member of a research group! I am so excited about this. I've joined the research group under the guidance of Dr. Jason Shear. His group's web site is...

http://jshear.cm.utexas.edu/jshear/index.html

I can't wait to dive into things. All I have to do is survive my classes this semester. So help me God.

No broken glassware in lab today! Success! And the Seahawks won!

There were some frustrating moments to the day, but I'm going to try and focus on the good things. Hopefully it'll help me sleep better. I need all the help I can get with the excessive stress I'm feeling about this exam coming up on Wednesday. I have to do well. Have to. 

Goodnight.

Day Eighty Seven

I literally did nothing interesting today, so this post will likely be short. I slept, studied electrochemistry, slept some more, went out to dinner, watched an episode of The Mentalist (Simon Baker, I love you), and then went back to studying. I feel as if progress has been made in my understanding of the material though, which feels really good. If only it was more riveting...then maybe I wouldn't fall asleep on top of it so often.

Good news - the Moonsnails won again today! And it was against my brother's team. Jeff, I love you, but the Moonsnails had to take the Dead Cows down. I know, our parents are very proud of our creativity in making team names. Or they're completely confused. Probably the latter.

There was a HUGE storm that came through Austin at 3am last night. It was very loud and lasted quite a while. Luckily, I had no alarm set this morning, so I just put some ear plugs in and basked in the (mostly) blissful silence. Also luckily, I remembered to park the Blueberry in the garage last night. You best believe that car will not flood ever again if I can help it.

It's time to let electrochem lull me to sleep once more. It never fails.

Day Eighty Six

Today was mind-numbing. I had class from 9am - 11:30am, then came home and graded papers from noon to 8pm. Basically, my Saturday was the lamest Saturday ever. But all my papers are graded and now I'm watching Breaking Bad with my roommate. It was just a Saturday full of chemistry, even in the tv show I'm watching. I can't escape it! We did watch the movie Signs while I was grading though, I forgot how much I love that movie. Oh so long ago when Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix weren't completely insane. Those were the days.

Tomorrow will be a study day. Exam this coming Wednesday...nooooo! I have three and a half days to get to the point where I completely understand Electrochemistry, Mass Spectrometry, and Atomic Spectroscopy. It'll be intense, but I'm hopeful. Bring it on, advanced analytical class. Bring it on.

I'm sleeping in tomorrow. For the first time in a week. It's going to be blissful. And my dad is coming to Austin next weekend. After this ridiculous, stressful week, things may just be looking up (minus the whole exam part...).

Day Eighty Five

This morning, I spent four hours grading the same question on 70 exams. It was mind-numbing, and in the words of a fellow grader, "I want to die." It was ridiculous, but it's over. Then I graded lab reports for another hour later in the day. It was just a day of docking points, which was fine for me but probably won't be enjoyable for the people getting the grades. Oh well.

Class was comical, once again. Our professor started talking about detecting heavy metals in marijuana plants grown on an old army battle ground (I'm still not sure how he got off on this particular tangent), but when someone said, "Wait, you're growing a marijuana farm on military ground?" and the professor replied, "Don't worry, we're in Washington." Everyone laughed, I just shook my head and looked at my feet. Oh Washington, you follow me everywhere I go.

I shadowed some more today and got to watch laser fabrication for the first time, which was pretty awesome. Everyone cross your fingers that next week I'll finally be able to join this group.

It was dinner time by the time I finished shadowing, so I meandered over to the Union to get some Quiznos, only to find out that all the restaurants in the union close early on Fridays. Ridiculous. Luckily the Drag across the street had a local sandwich place called Potbelly's that was even more delicious then Quiznos. And it was really cool looking on the inside.

Potbelly's

After dinner, I went to a pumpkin-carving party at a fellow first year's apartment, which was really fun. I met some new people, ate some good food, and carved a pretty fantastic pumpkin.

Skeleton face pumpkin!

On a final note, our neighbors are having what appears to be an epic Halloween party that we weren't invited to. Bummer. But the outside of their house is pretty impressive.

Day Eighty Four

I was on campus from 9am to 5:45pm today. In other words, I drove to campus in morning traffic, and drove home in evening traffic. Timed to perfection. But I also timed my snacking perfectly so I didn't starve before getting home for dinner. Dinner at home = saved money = happy budget.

Office hours this morning were uneventful. No one showed up, but it gave me time to do some grading, which I guess was good. Then I ate lunch at a table in the covered NHB patio with a friend of mine who asked me about the "University of Pudget Sound." That made me laugh real hard, as he pronounced it just the way I typed it. It was nice comic relief before I went to Physical Organic lecture. It's a good thing I bought that recorder, because I've been so exhausted today that even while I was in class I wasn't fully comprehending what he was saying. It was extremely frustrating on my part, but I felt better knowing I could at least go back and listen to it again later. Whew!

Then I shadowed a 5th year researcher for 2 1/2 hours, which was fun. Lots of standing and waiting was involved, but the work was interesting and the people in lab are really nice, so I enjoyed it. And hopefully it put me one step closer to actually joining the lab, which would be superb.

After shadowing, it was time to proctor an undergrad exam. So...more standing and waiting while staring down 70 undergrads to make sure no one tried to cheat. I have to help grade said exam tomorrow morning, which will probably take 3+ hours. And each grader is assigned one question, so it'll be 3+ hours of staring at the same question over and over again. Should be a super good time.

I'm sitting on the couch, and all I can think about is my upcoming exam on Monday, just looming like a black cloud over my head. I have to do well on this one after the sub-sub-par performance on the last one. I'm kind of terrified. Which means it's time to stop writing for tonight and go study.

Tomorrow = grading, class, more grading, shadowing, halloween party with fellow first year doctoral students. So it'll start slow, but hopefully end with a bang (and an awesome carved pumpkin).

Day Eighty Three

I think there's been movement on the research group front. From the sound of things, I need to shadow a graduate student a couple more times, and then I might finally, finally be an official member of a group (the name of which to be announced when it - hopefully - happens soon). So, the morning started out well with a positive meeting with a potential research advisor. Then my hectic day began. I'm starting to think that my next 5 years of graduate school will just be one big clump of never ending hectic days. Time management, we need to work some things out.

Then I had a TA meeting, which went well and was shorter then usual (woohoo!), read some electrochemistry, went to class, quiz TAed, came home and took a short nap (shhh), went grocery shopping, went to Whataburger, then worked on lab reports the rest of the night. Long, busy day. Tomorrow will be even busier. My goodness. Grad school is exhausting.

I good news, I filled up my car with $2.99/gallon gas. What?! Gas under $3/gallon?! Don't worry, I took a photo as proof.

Also, I saw this yesterday at Best Buy. It merely confirms that in Austin, you can find literally anything you want with a UT twist.

Even Hello Kitty cheers for UT.

Day Eighty Two

It's 1am, and I just got in bed after finishing a 6 hour homework marathon. Bed beats blog post.

Day synopsis - got Texas drivers license, went to office hours for class, bought ink (and the movie Mouse Hunt...YES) at Best Buy, ate pizza for dinner, did homework until my brain died. Goodnight.

Day Eighty One

The Blueberry and I were reunited today! It was a wonderful moment, only made better by the entire team of service representatives going "Hey! How's your fantasy football team playing this week?!" They were impressed when I told them I was in the lead again this week, so I told them they were all welcome to come to me for advice. I'm not sure there's much that is more enjoyable then being a young-20s female offering sports-crazed men advice on how to win a fantasy football game. I'm happy to report that the Blueberry is back in top condition (thanks Howdy Honda!). I'm also happy that I no longer have to drive that beast of a rental car. I'm finally back in a car that fits in every parking space (and sometimes only takes up half a parking space). As my mom said to me today, I've gotten too used to "driving a car the size of a Hot Wheels."

The one week streak of no broken glassware in lab was ruined today. That was a bummer. Then lab took extra long and I had people arguing report grades. Needless to say, we've had better days in lab.

Tomorrow is hopefully new drivers license day. And class was cancelled. Hallelujah! Now I can have free time to...do homework, read textbooks, and grade papers. Yay?

Day Eighty

Well, Jeff had to head back to San Antonio tonight. It was an extremely short visit, but I loved every second of it. Today we went to see Captain Phillips at Alamo Drafthouse at lunch time, and the movie was fantastic. Like Argo, it was a movie where everyone knows how it ends, but you're still completely stressed out watching it. I recommend it to everyone.

After the movie we headed to campus to go to the Co-Op and just explore in general. It was a beautiful day out (not a million degrees or a monsoon), thank goodness. I got to show him around the tower, Welch Hall, and the stadium. He seemed bummed when he asked if Bevo was ever around and I responded with "not usually," but then we walked by the stadium, and there Bevo was in his trailer. I'm sure he came to campus just for Jeff to see him. And he was as odiferous as ever (Bevo, not Jeff). Then we just came back to the house and relaxed. Overall, another extremely good day.

And tomorrow...I get to pick up the Blueberry! Well, as far as I know I get to pick up the Blueberry, unless something horrible happened to it over the weekend. It should be all dried out and ready to go, and I will be happy to turn in this behemoth of a rental car I'm in. Then, the day continues with class and lab. Just living the dream. Here are a couple photos from today.

Day Seventy Nine

My brother is here! My brother is heeeere! I'm so happy, not even class at 9am could ruin this day. I went to class, came home, should have graded papers but took a nap, then waited for Jeff to get to the house. Then we went to County Line, Barnes and Noble, and came back home to watch the WSU football game. It's not going well for WSU, but I don't care, because my day was awesome. Here are some photos to prove it.

As we were leaving my neighborhood to meet my grandparents, we drove
past a guy on a horse. In the middle of the neighborhood. He flashed us a
Hook 'Em sign. Welcome to Texas, Jeff.

The longhorn at County Line was feeling extra festive for Halloween.

Big brother!

Then we got home and Otter crawled into my lap for
a while. This will not be as pleasant when she's 70 pounds
and huge.

Good day. Exhausting day. Time to get some sleep so tomorrow can be just as fantastic.

Day Seventy Eight

Guess what?! Jeff comes to Texas tomorrow!!! The government shut down ended just in time for his San Antonio rotation to get approved, so I get to see my big brother! I am so excited for this, it's exactly what I needed after this week of non-stop deluge of bad things. We're going to compare rental cars, and I don't want to sound overly confident, but I'm not sure he can beat my little red muscle car (that gets horrible gas mileage, by the way).

I'm still not in a research group. I'm hoping next week will finally see it happen, but I've gotten to the point where I just don't get my hopes up anymore. It's exhausting and frustrating and makes me wonder why I ever thought going to graduate school was a good idea.

I also spent some quality time on the phone with USAA insurance claim people today, including both my claims adjuster and car inspector. Thankfully those calls all went smoothly. My car repair and rental car are both covered by insurance - whew! My claims adjuster was a super nice lady who also happened to be very chatty. I'm not sure how we transitioned from my flooded car to talking about college football and how her daughter is in a Masters program, but it happened, and it was a nice distraction for me from the rest of life. And it made me feel good when I told her I was in a PhD program for analytical chemistry and her response was, "My goodness, you go girl!" Claims adjuster, I think we just became friends.

Lastly, thank you mom and dad for taking my downtrodden phone calls and texts through out the day. Lets all pray these end soon as things begin to get resolved. Time to get some sleep, because this girl still has to go to a 9am class tomorrow. Yuck.

It's still weird to see my name listed as "TA." I don't hate it though...

View from 5th floor NHB. So beautiful.

Day Seventy Seven

No word on the blueberry, and I still don't have a group. Those are my big pieces of news for the day, neither are encouraging. But the Seahawks won, so I can't be too unhappy. And it was Thursday dinner with the Avants (just Bob this time), which always makes my week better. We went to Smash Burger, where I was introduced to the most amazing sweet potato fries ever. And since they messed up my initial order, I got twice as many fries. Amazing.

Tomorrow is Friday, and I couldn't be more relieved. I need this weekend...even though I still have class on Saturday morning. Boo.

Day Seventy Six

Well, the Blueberry is at the Honda Dealership waiting in line to get gutted and dried. Poor thing. Subbing in for it as my mode of transportation is a super nice cherry red sedan from a rental agency. Everyone pray that nothing happens to this car while I use it over the next 5 days, or my wallet will take a bigger hit then it already is.

Luckily the service representative team at Howdy Honda (I'm not even kidding, that's the name of the dealership) are some of the funniest individuals ever. I had to wait 45 minutes for the rental agency to come pick me up, and instead of waiting and reading/twiddling my thumbs, I stood with a group of 5 service advisors and talked the entire time. And it was so fun. I even got fist bumped at one point. Thank you Howdy Honda, for putting a silver lining on this otherwise bummer of an afternoon.

Thankfully none of the roads were flooded today and I made it to campus and back just fine. I had my TA meeting, class, and quiz TAing today. I was also supposed to shadow research, but ended up making the trip to Honda instead. Luckily I'll be able to shadow on Friday instead.

Tomorrow I'm going to hopefully take the final step in finding a research group home and formally ask a prof to accept me into his group. I'm nervous about this (if you recall, it didn't work out the last time I tried to do this), so wish me luck.

On a final note, I was in awe of how many people I saw with umbrellas today. All I could think of was how if you carry an umbrella in Washington, you're considered a major wimp. Needless to say, I rocked my rain jacket today, sans umbrella. Gotta stay up with those Washington standards.  :)

Day Seventy Five

Today was a busy day full of mundane things. I did laundry, vacuumed out the remaining water in my car, went to HEB to buy a car air freshener, went to class, came home, went back to HEB to get groceries, vacuumed my rooms, and went back to school to cover an evening lab for a sick TA. So all in all, I spent some quality time with both UT and HEB. Good times.

It's supposed to rain like crazy tonight and tomorrow, so cross your fingers the roads don't flood and I'm able to get to school. Thankfully the blueberry is safely parked in the garage, so I don't have to worry about it flooding during this particular storm. Whew! Either way, I need to get grading done. Pronto. And find a time to get my Texas drivers license in the next fifteen days. I swear, there is not enough time in a day to get all the things done I need to. But at least I have food to eat again thanks to HEB.

Tomorrow presents another research shadowing opportunity, assuming I get to campus and don't have to leave early to avoid getting stuck in heavy rainfall. Stupid car leak. The Honda dealership better be able to fix you.

Day Seventy Four

Good news - I was worried that the roads would be flooded and I wouldn't be able to get to campus today, but they weren't and I made it just fine! Yay!

Bad news - My car decided to flood instead. Not cool. And not the surprise I was expecting or hoping to get this morning. Lots of towels later, I drove to campus with my air on full blast, parked in a garage, and hoped things wouldn't get too smelly by the time I was done with lab at 5pm. Thankfully they didn't, and now the blueberry is parked in the garage with all the windows down and a giant fan pointed inside. How did that car not flood once while I was in Washington, but it does in Texas? That just doesn't make any sense at all.

Thankfully the rest of the day went pretty well, with my advanced analytical professor providing comic relief (as usual). But also as usual, he ran over time, and I had to sprint to my lab that started in less than 5 minutes. And...we had our first week with no broken glassware! Hallelujah! Unfortunately one of the students started unknowingly dismantling an instrument, to which the lab director said "Well...that's a first." Don't worry, I scolded him about not asking me when he was unsure of how to load a sample. And thankfully it was easily fixed.

I keep forgetting to post this photo from this weekend. So, two days late, here's a photo from the wedding that Kelly and I went to last weekend.

Day Seventy Three

Wait. The weekend is already over? What? It went by way too fast, but it was so nice getting out of town for a little while. I got to sleep in this morning, chat with my uncle, go to lunch with my aunt and cousins, then go shopping at the Galleria with my roommate before heading home. For lunch we went to Buffalo Grille, which was so delicious. And they serve breakfast all day, which I love and believe all restaurants should take part in. Then it was off to the Galleria through semi-flooded roads. It's been raining almost nonstop since yesterday afternoon, and while I love the rain, there's nowhere for it to go in Texas...so everything floods. The Galleria was GIGANTIC and overwhelming, but I found some burnt orange jeans on sale, so I consider the trip a victory.

The trip home was in much calmer weather then the drive yesterday, thank goodness. We waited in Houston just long enough for the big storm cell to pass, then we ran for the car. And sang along to some 90s pop as we headed home. Don't worry everyone, I still know all the words to every Nsync song, so I didn't struggle at all in that regard. We also stopped at Buc-ee's, which is basically a super-mega (but very nice) gas station. It had atleast 30 pumps, and the store had every possible snack you could imagine. I got chocolate and peanut butter covered pretzels. It was a very good decision.

When we got home we emptied out the fridge, as our power was out for 7 hours this morning and half the food had spoiled. Awesome. Time for an unexpectedly expensive trip to HEB.  But in good news, I booked my flight home for Christmas (yay!!!), the Seahawks won, and I beat my dad in fantasy football. Not a bad end to the day at all.

Day Seventy Two

I had an exam this morning. It was a 20 page beast. Then my roommate and I trekked to Montgomery, TX for a wedding, driving through downpours of biblical proportion to get there. And now we're at my Aunt and Uncle's house in Houston and I'm too tired to write more. Goodnight!

Day Seventy One

Tomorrow is EXAM DAY. I'm legitimately frightened, this thing will be 20+ pages long. I decided to take a short break from studying, and my roommate jumped on my study break with a suggestion to watch Breaking Bad. I figured it's chemistry related, so what could it hurt? Probably not the best reasoning, but I welcome anything but studying at this particular moment.

Today was the usual Friday, but with a recitation session added in for Physical Organic (basically a last minute study session for all the frantic grad students). Then I walked outside and it was raining, and I was so happy. I've realized that when it rains in Texas, everyone else starts running while I slow down just so I can enjoy it. The resulting wet shoes weren't great, but it was still worth it. Then I studied at the big covered patio in the middle of Welch Hall, and this was my view. Pretty great, right?

Tomorrow after my exam my roommate and I are headed for a weekend in Houston. Mainly for a wedding, but also so I can visit family. It should be fun, and will be a very welcome break from the madness of graduate school. It's supposed to rain in Austin, which I guess means it will likely rain in Houston as well...so hopefully the wedding is indoors. Or at least adequately covered.

Okay, time to get back to studying. Everyone wish me luck and send me all your chemistry knowledge vibes from 9am-11am tomorrow!

Day Seventy

I have a huge exam this Saturday. And, in the words of my professor, "nothing in your life in the next 48 hours is as important as studying for this exam." He then proceeded to tell us how he showed the exam to his research group members, who didn't think it was hard enough...so naturally he decided to rewrite part of it to increase the difficulty. You know things will get rough when even the professor admits his exams are "gnarly." And yes, it is weird to see/hear a 5'3 chemist in his 60s say 'gnarly.'

I shadowed a 5th year researcher today (finally). It was fun to finally get involved in research of some kind, and the guy doing the research was really nice and informative about everything he was working on. Part of it was in a laser lab, where my safety advice was "don't bend down, or the laser may cause you to go blind." Needless to say, I stayed upright and kept my hands in my pockets to prevent myself from touching anything. I'm happy to report that I can still see. Yeah!

This is all for tonight. Traffic + office hour + grading + studying + class + professor meeting + research shadowing + more traffic + more studying makes for a tiring day.

Day Sixty Nine

Shadowing got cancelled this morning, so I got to sleep in some more, which was so very welcome. Hopefully third time is the charm and shadowing will work out tomorrow afternoon. Hope springs eternal.

I got to campus just in time for my TA meeting at 11am, then afterwards graded for an hour and a half before going to class. We got our exams back, and I did just as horribly as I thought. Very encouraging. I just need to remember that one exam is not going to kill me...and to get my brain in gear and not screw up the rest of them! I did manage to get all of my grading done today, so the next two days can be devoted solely to studying for my Phys Org exam this Saturday.

I took a new route to the highway today without realizing that it would put me right in front of the capitol building. That was pretty cool. It was also very empty due to the shutdown, which was weird to see.

I got a care package from my parents today! It was fun to get something exciting in the mail, thanks Mom and Dad. I've already put the Starbucks gift card to good use buying some chocolate covered graham crackers (which the barista had to go to the back to find again). This happened right after eating Whataburger for dinner with my roommates. I was the epitome of health this evening.

I need to get some sleep. Early office hour tomorrow. Why did I say it was a good idea to hold my own office hour at 9am? I clearly was not anticipating morning traffic. Lesson learned.

Day Sixty Eight

Research shadowing got rescheduled to tomorrow morning, so I have nothing exciting on that front to share. Which means not a whole lot of exciting things happened today. I slept in (yay!), went to class, read research grants and articles for 2 hours, and then went to a seminar given by Dr. Shear. 

It was weird to realize that a year ago this month I was looking at the UT Chemistry Department calendar wishing I could go see Dr. Shear talk about his research, and today I was sitting in an auditorium doing just that. Every once in a while I'm reminded of how ridiculously amazing it is that I'm in a doctoral program for chemistry at the University of Texas, which is ranked 5th in the nation for my division (analytical). I'm just in awe of the entire thing. The fact that I live in Austin, go to an amazing (and gigantic) university, and am working towards my doctorate. No matter how busy things get or how hard the homework and exams are, I'm working on remembering that life is still pretty fantastic.

That being said, homesickness is killer. I miss Washington and my parents and my brother. A whole lot. I like Austin, but I don't like being so far away from everyone.

Day Sixty Seven

Another day of lab, another piece of broken glassware. It's incredible how adept these students are at breaking things. Lab went well though, only one of the instruments malfunctioned and no one was gravely injured, so I call the day a success.

Today wasn't very exciting. I got to campus early to go to my professor's office hour, but he ended up being busy, so that was a bust. Then I ate a very leisurely lunch due to my unexpected hour of free time and talked with a fellow first year doctoral student. We tentatively planned a movie night for a couple weekends away, but it'll all depend on how busy we end up being. And if I'm learning anything about graduate school, it's that it is very busy all the time.

I got to class and whipped out my trail mix that I had made this morning. I remembered from Drivers Ed (oh so long ago...) that if you're tired you should eat something crunchy. So this morning I made myself trail mix of entirely crunchy things in anticipation of being sleepy in my class. Sure enough, it paid off. I even remembered what we talked about today after I left class. Progress!

Tomorrow I'll shadow a 5th year student during his research, as the project he's beginning to work on may potentially be a project I take over if I join this particular group. I'm pretty excited about it! Then Thursday I meet with another professor about her research group. I'm hoping to find a permanent research home soon...all these meetings are getting exhausting! Wish me luck.

Day Sixty Six

Well. I just got home from seeing the most exhausting movie ever. If any of you have seen the new movie Gravity, you'll know what I'm talking about. It was so good, but so stressful. The random guy next to me started crying at one point, then at the end he and I talked about how emotionally drained we both were. And, walking in to the theater, we had another random guy show us that you could see Saturn pretty clearly up in the sky. It was weirdly relevant to the movie we were about to see. Eerie...

With the exception of the movie, today was a pretty relaxing day. I got up, watched the Saints win on TV, watched the Seahawks lose on my computer (noooo!), and watched my fantasy team play horribly for the first time this season. Somehow I'm still in the lead by 10 points, but my opponent still has one player to go...so things aren't looking good. I guess the Seahawks and the Moonsnails couldn't stay undefeated forever. It was fun while it lasted.

Tomorrow is lab day. Cross your fingers no one breaks anything. It'd be a first.

Day Sixty Five

Game night last night must have been good for me, I didn't even almost fall asleep in class this morning. Which is kind of unusual for Saturday morning classes. I also used my recorder for the first time! I can listen to Dr. Anslyn talk about acids and bases whenever I want. I know, you're all jealous. Don't worry, I'll share if you ever want to listen to some graduate level physical organic chemistry lectures. It's all the rage these days.

Then I came home and immediately went back to bed for an hour. Because it's the weekend, and that's just what happens. I also knew I'd need my energy for the Costco trip Ally and I had planned. Her dad came along as well, and it went how Costco trips usually go. We got a little over-enthusiastic and bought a 5 pack of Crest toothpaste. Other then that I stayed to my list of 3 items, which I was pretty proud of (this rarely happens in Costco...or Target). Life is expensive, I'm learning to budget it.

The rest of the day was lazy and wonderful. Pizza for dinner, dog walk in amazingly cool weather, and a mini Rizzoli and Isles marathon followed by a movie. I need to relax as much as possible this weekend, because this upcoming week will be full of homework and frantic studying for my giant exam next Saturday. And when I say 'giant' I'm being serious, his exams are on average around 30 pages long.

Tomorrow I'm going to see the movie Gravity with the roomies. I'm pretty excited, especially since Alamo Drafthouse has amazing fries. What more could you want?

Day Sixty Four

Yay! It's the weekend! But not really, since I still have class tomorrow morning at 9am. Insert cranky face. I got the voice recorder I ordered in the mail today though, which means if I don't remember anything the professor talks about tomorrow (which is likely, my brain shuts off on Saturdays), I'll have it recorded! Yaaaay! One lecture, twice the amount of fun (or more, depending on how many times I have to listen to it).

Today was a good day. I went to a group meeting for another potential research group this morning. It was a lot of fun, even though they talked about nanoparticles, and I have very little knowledge on anything remotely like that. Then I went a did Physical Organic homework for 2 hours (it's due tomorrow), ate lunch, and went to class. I was so tired that I have no recollection of what we even talked about. Hence, the voice recorder. I didn't nod off (I was close), but I definitely wasn't entirely paying attention. Oops.

Then I walked back towards my shuttle, where I watched it pull away about a minute before I got to the stop. I was bummed, until I looked across the street and saw BEVO! Day = made. I've never gotten to see him up close before, and it was pretty cool. He was super calm, just chilling outside.

Bevo!

Once I finally got on the shuttle, I made my way home, dropped all my stuff off, and headed over to the Czimskey's house for dinner/game night. Austin City Limits started today, so traffic was horrific, but dinner was seriously delicious which made up for it. Thank you, Natalie and Justin! Then we played Pandemic and saved the world together. It was great. But it's exhausting eradicating all the world's diseases, so it's time to sleep.

Day Sixty Three

I'm watching the Texas vs. Iowa State game. There's 1:08 left in the game, and we're down by 6 points.  Oh my gosh. I want UT to win, but I also just want the game to end so I can go to bed since I have an early morning tomorrow. Oh the dilemma. And now it looks like Texas may have fumbled on the 1 yard line. STOP THE MADNESS!

Today was another busy day. Chased down the shuttle at 8:45am this morning to make it to my 9am office hour on time. After the office hour was over, I finished grading lab reports (aka crushing student's dreams) then ate lunch. It was breezy outside at lunch time, so it was actually surprisingly pleasant to eat at a shady picnic table. Then...class time! Our professor decided to list all of the things we've gone over so far to put the fear of God in us for our exam in a week and a half. It worked. Especially when he said, "there will be a couple questions covering material we haven't gone over in class, but I just expect you to know." Um, what? Not cool.

I usually would have headed home after this, but instead I got to go through two hours of instrument training for future labs I'm TAing. It was actually kind of interesting though, so it wasn't too bad (minus the fact that there's minimal air conditioning in the instrument room). I got to light flames and analyze hot sauce and generally just play around with very expensive chemical instruments. Pretty awesome. Unfortunately, this training caused me to hit afternoon rush hour, so I picked up Chick-fil-A waffle fries to help me through it. It was a very good decision. Then, I chased down the shuttle once more. How do I always time it so perfectly to where I'm always frantically waving down the shuttle? Every. Single. Time.

Texas WINS 31-30! It was just the ugliest win in the world, but it's still a win, so I'll take it. Thank you to the Avants once again for a delicious dinner and having me over to watch the game on your seriously gigantic TV. It almost felt like I was there.

Tomorrow is Friday. Thank the Lord. Which means game night at the Czimskey's is tomorrow, and I cannot wait. Let's get this week over with!

Day Sixty Two

Today was a ridiculously busy day. I had a meeting with a potential research advisor at 10am and had to run to the shuttle stop to catch the shuttle that was just about to leave for campus. If I had missed it, I would have had to wait 10 minutes for the next one and been late to the meeting (which probably would not have looked good on my part). Luckily I wasn't too sore from the gym, and I made it to the shuttle stop just in time. Whew!

The meeting went really well - we talked about a project started by a 5th year grad student that I could potentially take over if I were to join the group. The next step is to find a time to shadow the 5th year as he does his research so I can get a handle on how things work in the lab. This will probably happen next week, and I'm really excited. Unfortunately, the government shut down has put a halt on all research grants, so now all the professors are even more worried about funding. It's not a good time to be a 1st year doctoral student. Or a professor looking for money. We're both in tough spots.

Then I had my TA meeting, which was unexpectedly short, leaving me with 2 hours to eat lunch and grade papers. This turned into eat lunch and try not to fall asleep on top of papers. It was rough. I think I may have dozed off for a couple minutes, then startled awake, but I'm not sure. We also had another emergency alarm test today, which is the siren that sounds like we're about to be attacked by a nuclear bomb. Pretty comforting. Especially when the random deep voice somehow projects over the entire (gigantic) campus. Then, immediately after the alarm, the UT tower started to chime "A Whole New World" from the movie Aladdin. It was just a weird sequence of events in general.

At 2pm I ran upstairs to quiz TA the afternoon lab, then I ran back downstairs to the shuttle (which I had to frantically wave down again to stop it from leaving me behind) to get to my car. I had an oil change scheduled at 3pm in south Austin and had to go pick up Bob Avant to go with me. He knows literally everyone that works there, and I'm pretty sure it worked in my favor. Bob, you continue to be the best. Thanks for my $30 coupon - free oil change!

And, when my day was supposed to be done, I had to go back up to campus for a guest lecture from 5-6pm. More electrochem, more confusion. It's been an exhausting day. Tomorrow should be way calmer, though any free time I have will be filled with grading, homework, and studying. Grad school is busy, and grad school is hard. Time to go to bed.

Day Sixty One

I went to the gym today. And did homework and studied and did all my laundry. I'm too tired to post.

But thank you to the Starbucks employee that went searching for some chocolate covered graham crackers when I couldnt find any by the register. You sir, are the best.