Day Two Hundred Ninety Nine

And here I thought I'd make it through a whole year in Texas without a car accident on the highway. The Blueberry and I got rear-ended rather roughly this afternoon. I'm okay, and the Blueberry will be okay as well after a little TLC at the collision center. That poor little car has been through the ringer these past few months.

Day Two Hundred Ninety Eight

My big brother and almost sister-in-law graduated from medical school and officially became doctors today. I couldn't be more proud of them, and I wish so badly that I could have been there. I love you both and can't wait to see you soon!

My world has largely been dominated by reading these past few days, both for fun and for school (not so fun). Reading textbooks...the natural tranquilizer. I'm on the first of four recommended textbooks to read and memorize in preparation for qualifying exams this coming fall, so its clearly going to be an awesome summer. Good thing I like analytical chemistry, or this would be even more miserable then it already is.

We had a crazy thunderstorm pretty much all day yesterday. At one point the radar was lavender colored, which is the maximum severity for rain. Why would they choose such a soothing color for the most intense rain? That just makes no logical sense. I expect better from you, meteorologists of the world. Anyway, most of my evening yesterday was spent sitting in front of our giant living room window watching the madness unfold outside. It was wonderful.

Day Two Hundred Ninety Four

I spent a lot of time in the car today. But it meant I got to see extended family that I don't see very often, so it was definitely worth it. I got an early start driving down to San Marcos to my cousins' house, then after a quick breakfast Emily and I jumped in Aunt Carole's car and we were off to Port Lavaca for my other cousin Brandi's baby shower. Port Lavaca is right on the gulf coast, which was really cool to see (I've never been that far south before!). The water isn't quite as pristine looking as I'm used to with the ocean up in the northwest, but I still liked it.

The baby shower was a success, with lots of cute clothes for baby Ava and some delicious cupcakes. Brandi's 7 year old son Bryce made a paper fortune teller and proceeded to tell a few of us our fortunes. These were the results: Brandi (his mom) has cow teeth, Carole (his grandma) has slimy teeth, Emily will be a weird mom, and I will be a ninja turtle. I'm pretty sure I came out on top. Oh, the mind of a 7 year old.

Day Two Hundred Ninety Two

Today was phase one of Shear Lab cleaning. Mindy and I tackled the cabinets in the main room, and were immediately bombarded with roughly 400 tangled cables and cords. We also were transported back in time when we found floppy disks and zip disk converters. It was filthy and overwhelming, and at one point when Mindy asked what to do with the mice she found, it actually took me a second to realize she meant computer mice and not living mice. This is how dire the situation was. And we've barely even scratched the surface. This is going to be a very dusty summer in lab.

It was a beautiful day outside today. If only it weren't so humid. Regardless, I got some pictures of campus on my walk back to my car. They include: Welch Hall (my home away from home), the football stadium, and my new squirrel friend that decided to get up close and personal when I crouched down to try and get a better photo.

Day Two Hundred Ninety

My roommate has strep throat. I can't help but feel a little ominous about potentially catching it. Don't do it, Kelly! I know sharing is usually a great quality, but please keep this one to yourself.

I helped hook up more lasers in lab today, which involved more hunting around dusty rooms and attics to find power cords and various other accessories that are somehow extremely adept at hiding.

Last, I got my mini Sophie collages in the mail today (one for me, one for Jeff). They turned out perfect. Now to the real dilemma...should mine stay at the apartment or up on my desk at school? Life choices.

Day Two Hundred Eighty Nine

No, I haven't given up on blogging! It was just a rough few days after losing Sophie followed by an extremely boring (yet relaxing) weekend where I just had nothing interesting to write about.

I got my summer TA assignment today, and am happy to say that I got bumped to being a lecture TA instead of a lab TA! This means that, at least for the summer, I won't have to worry about students breaking expensive instruments or spilling chemicals on themselves. Which is actually a huge relief, as both of those are very real possibilities during every lab session. As a lecture TA, I only have to worry about them turning homework in on time. Much less stressful.

We also acquired a new (used) laser today. We had to move it from one lab to another using a rickety cart, and we were probably extremely suspicious looking moving a laser worth thousands of dollars around the halls of Welch Hall. At one point my lab mate Mike asked if we should take a photo to commemorate "the day we took our laser for a walk." This didn't happen, we were all too focused on not knocking the thing over. Now I'm a little disappointed that we didn't.

To finish the day I went to a friend's birthday dinner at a place called Whip In. She described it as an "Indian restaurant/bar/convenience store." This description is entirely accurate, but it should be noted that it was actually pretty cool on the inside (I'll be honest, I was expecting it to look real shady). I couldn't eat any of the food, but the company was fantastic. One more time - happy birthday, Natalie!

Day Two Hundred Eighty Five

I got my grades today for spring semester, and am very happy to report that I made it through with a 3.2 semester GPA. Academic probation has once again successfully been avoided. YES. Bring it, grad school. Up next, qualifying exams in the fall. Let the summer of intense studying commence.

Today was pretty low key. Went to school, did some research, then left to go to the grocery store and the gym. Not nearly as exciting as yesterday, but still a pretty good day otherwise.

And now, I'll post the photos I meant to put up yesterday. First my new squirrel friend on campus, then the series of exciting things from the baseball game. Enjoy!

Day Two Hundred Eighty Four

I'm still missing my little corgi like crazy, but today provided enough unexpected twists to help distract me from the sadness of it all, and for that I'm grateful.

First off, the professor I helped TA for took all 3 of his TAs out to lunch today. We all expected he'd take us to Quizno's or Chick-Fil-A or something...instead he took us to the University of Texas Club at the football stadium. This is a very fancy members only kind of place, and apparently Dr. Holcombe is a member. People were wearing suits. I was wearing jeans and a bright red fleece pullover, Mindy had on yoga pants, and Daniel was wearing an obscure rock band t-shirt. We stood out just a little. The food was delicious though. Then I looked around at the other people milling about, and Andy Roddick walked by me. Famous retired tennis player Andy Roddick. I was so confused as to why he was even there, and no I did not get a photo...I'm not a big enough fan of his to interrupt his day. It was a pretty cool, unexpected celebrity sighting though. Those don't happen often.

Later this evening I went to the final UT home baseball game with the Avants. It lasted 4 whole innings until the game had to get called due to thunder and lightning. However, lots happened in those 4 innings. I won Tuesday Twitter trivia and got a free UT baseball t-shirt (as well as a retweet by Texas Baseball...yeah!). Then we moved up to the highest row to avoid the incoming rain and ended up sitting next to the camera guys from the local news stations. I decided to talk with the one sitting right next to me about his camera (inspired questions such as "how heavy is it?") and the station he was working for (KEYE tv, the local CBS affiliate). I just assumed he was some camera lackey for the station. After he left to go edit footage, Bob Avant informed me he recognized the guy and that I had just been chatting up the sports anchor, Adam Winkler. Well alright then. I'm extra proud of those camera questions now. He was super nice though, and even held up his camera so I could get a photo for instagram/twitter/facebook/blog. I tagged him in the Twitter post and promptly got retweeted by him. This may be the first day I've actually genuinely enjoyed having a Twitter...so many fun things happened with it today!

I'm sleepy.

Day Two Hundred Eighty Three

Due to the unexpected passing of my sweet corgi Sophie this past Saturday, its been an extremely rough few days. Thank you to everyone for the kind words and birthday wishes.

Day Two Hundred Eighty

I am so tired, I almost posted this as "Day Two Hundred Seventy Ten." Unfortunately, that isn't even a joke...it was a completely serious thought. Hello, post finals brain. I haven't missed you.

I had my big cumulative final this morning, and I'm so happy its over. After finishing I went back to my office, caught up on some emails, and stared into space for a while. It actually ended up being a good waste of time, as a few big storms passed through Austin at the same time. Sometimes, I'm very thankful that I work in a gigantic, practically indestructible brick building. Even though it sometimes smells weird.

To celebrate the end of finals, Kelly and I got dinner at Schlotzky's and indulged in some frozen yogurt for dessert. YUM. Then we went to see one of our favorite comedians, Jeff Dye (seen in the photo below), at a local comedy club. The perfect way to end an initially very stressful day.

Day Two Hundred Seventy Eight

I have my one final for the semester this coming Friday, which means mass panic-studying has been happening all day today (and will continue throughout tomorrow). Cumulative finals are just the worst.

In good news I got some actual research done on Monday and Tuesday! It's been the first time I've been able to dive into my own project, and its been really exciting. Also exciting (in a bad way) was the GIANT wasp that somehow found its way into lab today. Mike almost put his hand right on it when peering around the windowsill to look for it, Mindy grabbed an old textbook to eradicate the situation (seriously, a text book was the only thing substantial enough to take this bug down), and when the first swat didn't kill him, frantic swatting with both the textbook (by Mindy) and an old poster (Mike was serving as back up) ensued. The wasp is no longer a problem. Success!

Final note - we're dog sitting a snuggly corgi for the week. I don't hate it.

Day Two Hundred Seventy Five

I went to the grocery store today, and the volume of the purchases people around me were making made me wonder if everyone in south Austin was stocking up for the apocalypse. All I had was a box of Ensure drinks and a hand basket of food...as opposed to the teeming carts full of who-knows-what that I was stuck behind at the checkout line. Goodness gracious.

After enduring the checkout line that never ended, I came home and finished the book I bought last Friday (as in 2 days ago). It feels so good to be able to indulge in my obsessive reading habit again.

Most exciting part of the day...tweeting about one of my favorite comedians
(Jeff Dye) and having him Favorite the tweet a few minutes later. A minor freakout on my end occurred. My roommate can confirm this. But it was awesome.

Day Two Hundred Seventy Four

Today was a blissful day of doing nothing school related. And also going to my first handbell concert. Bravo, Baylor Bronze and director Bob Avant. You introduced me to handbell music and caused me to reminisce about my own band days.

Day Two Hundred Seventy Three

Spring semester is almost.......done.......all I have is one final next Friday, then I can officially put my second semester if grad school in the books! How crazy. And you know what's awesome? My take-home final from my other class got cancelled because neither the prof or the TA wanted to grade it. Best. News. Ever. There may have been jumping and cheering and high fives thrown around once we left class after learning that.

Today I finished grading my last batch of lab reports for my spring labs. I'm relieved to be done with it, but I'll also kinda miss those undergrads. They can be super needy at times (I'm now positive I was too in undergrad), but they definitely grow on you.

I got to spend time with one of my Austin parents tonight, eating dinner and going shopping. Thanks for hanging out with me Louise!