Day Seven Hundred Twenty Six

Yesterday and today have been extremely busy days. But mostly with fun things, so that's a relief. Yesterday was full of work, picking up packages (a new book AND Seahawks vs Cowboys tickets?! Best packages ever), dinner with my adoptive Austin parents (thank you, Bob and Louise!), and then a movie with Louise right after dinner. We saw Trainwreck, which was pretty funny, but not my favorite movie I've seen recently.

Today was more work, going to a yoga class, buying fancy new shoes for a wedding I'm going to soon, and then a late dinner at Cheddar's. This yoga class was a bit more low key than Sunday's (thank goodness), so I think I'll be able to move with relatively little pain tomorrow. Progress. While both days have been fun, I'm definitely ready for an evening in tomorrow.

Now for blog prompts.

Yesterday's - A Goal You're Working Towards

Get in better shape. I know, this is a boring goal that everyone has, but it's still true. When my stomach acts up, I tend to shrink away from going to the gym or exercising for fear of aggravating my IBS even more, but I'm trying to not let it take me out of the workout game for as long as it used to. Right now a goal I have is goal is to try to go to at least one yoga class a week. I've gone twice this week, so I'm off to a solid start! Now just to stay motivated to keep going consistently.

Today's - Your Favorite Recipe

I can make a mean Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookie. I'd probably go with that. Because obviously I'd choose some kind of dessert. 

Day Seven Hundred Twenty Four

Yesterday afternoon I went to a yoga class - my first since moving to Austin almost 2 years ago. By the end of it, my entire body felt like a limp noodle. Today, literally everything hurts. Yoga, you are just too sneaky. I'm all relaxed one day, then can barely move the next. Well played.

Something big happened a few days ago that I somehow forgot to mention - I finally got admitted to doctoral candidacy at UT!!! For those of you thinking "wait...I thought she was in the doctoral program this entire time...?" -- I was, but not with very much security. Over the first two years of a doctoral program, there's a whole host of reasons the university can use to kick your butt out. These include, but are not limited to...doing poorly in classes, failing written qualifying exams, failing oral qualifying exam, failing introductory exams (thank god I didn't have to take introductory exams - sorry organic and inorganic divisions), etc. Once you pass all your classes (with a 3.0 GPA or higher...harder to maintain than it sounds) and pass all your qualifying exams, you choose your dissertation committee and then send an official candidacy application in. I found out at the end of last week that my application was approved, which means I'm safe from being kicked out. As my friend Scott says, I'm now bulletproof. And it feels good.

As for what I did today...I worked in lab and didn't get home until just before 7pm. So not a whole lot happened today that was overly exciting. Time consuming, yes. Exciting...nope.

Prompt from yesterday - Three things that can instantly make your day

1. The TV show Psych.

Honestly, I don't know how that show couldn't make someone's day better.

2. Finding a coupon for something I'm already planning on buying. Because obviously.

3. Rain. Give me some rain, and I'm a happy camper.

Today's prompt - Something you're embarrassed to love (TV show, book, etc).

Need I say more?

Day Seven Hundred Twenty Two

I learned from my optometrist that when you wear contact lenses, you're supposed to wash your hands with hand soap that is fragrance and lotion free to minimize the amount of residue that comes into contact with your lens before you put that lens on your eyeball. Makes total sense, right? So today I figured that during my trip to Target to get various other contact lens items (solution, eye drops...who knew this whole contacts thing was such a process?) I'd grab some fragrance free soap. Well, I came to the realization that apparently no store carries such soap. Not Target, not Walgreens, not HEB. We have fragrance free laundry detergent, fragrance free dish detergent, fragrance free deodorant, but no fragrance free hand soap. You guys, I spent an hour driving around and looking for this stuff. Then I gave up, went on Amazon on my phone, and ordered it from there while I was sitting in my car in the HEB parking lot. Then I went and got a snow cone. Because it was 96 degrees outside and I was cranky and snow cones fix almost anything.

This next blog prompt is one I don't necessarily like, but will do anyway in the interest of finishing all 30 prompts.

Something that makes you awesome

I feel like this is a real awkward one. Does anyone actually like the people who constantly talk about how great they are? I'm pretty sure the answer is no. Regardless, I'll go with something I do that I think people enjoy - at least the people on the receiving end of them - and that is write hand written letters. I don't mind emails, but whenever I want to contact a friend just to see how they're doing, I almost never use email. It feels too impersonal, too easy to quickly glance over. I'm also not a superstar at having long phone conversations with people (with the exception of Mom and Dad and my brother, because they're family), those awkward silent pauses just kill me. So, I've settled on sending letters via snail mail. There's something special about knowing that someone actually took the time to sit and write you and seeing someone's handwriting always makes you feel a little bit closer to the person (at least for me it does). If you have free time and you're not sure what to do with yourself, I suggest you write a letter to someone. It will probably make their day when they get it. Plus, USPS still makes some real cute stamps. A few years ago they had special edition stamps that featured Pixar characters, and I bought so many of those. Bring them back, USPS. Just bring them back.

Day Seven Hundred Twenty One

I'm pretty lucky to have a brother that takes my sometimes off-the-wall comments and runs with them.

Jeff, you're the best. I wish you and my awesome sister-in-law didn't live so far away.

It's late and I'm exhausted, so thankfully the blog prompt for today is blissfully short.

Your favorite photo you've taken.

This one is actually really easy. It's the same photo that's been the background on my laptop for 4 years running, and I don't see it changing any time soon.

Resurrection Bay in Alaska. Probably my favorite place to be ever. It's relaxing and beautiful and you're surrounded by wildlife everywhere you look. And yes, I promise I took this photo.

Day Seven Hundred Twenty

First things first - Richmond photos! Well, the few Richmond photos I have from my phone, the rest are being emailed to me from the family photographer (aka - Dad). 

Day three in Richmond was a trip to Historical Jamestown, which was so cool. Part of it is an active archaeology site where you can watch the archaeologists at work and see them pulling out various things. The downside was it was about 1000 degrees outside (not really, but the heat index was at 115 degrees, so it was basically the same thing). We took a guided tour where they told us about 4 sets of remains that were recently discovered and would be announced by the Smithsonian on July 28th. They said they couldn't tell us who the 4 people were, but that there were 2 captains, a knight, and a religious figure, and that we may recognize some of the names from a Disney movie. It doesn't take a genius to deduce that they probably found John Rolfe (John Smith from the Disney Pocahontas movie).

Skull that was found buried in Jamestown that revealed that cannibalism took place.
Apparently you aren't supposed to take photos in the museum...oops.
But I figure no one from Historical Jamestown is reading this blog, so I should be safe.

Other highlights of the trip were shopping with Mom, dinners with my parents and their friends, walks around the neighborhood with Dad, and going to the Richmond Holocaust Museum. My parents live in a neighborhood with a street called Lady Allison Lane, so obviously this happened...

If it looks like I'm holding on for dear life, it's because I'm holding on for dear life. That light post ledge was small. I also went to a couple used bookstores, because I try to go to one in every city I visit. One was an amazing antique used book store called Black Swan Books, the other was called Book People and was located in one half of an older lady's house. I'll let you figure out which one was fancier. Spoiler - Black Swan Books (SUCH an awesome place!). But, the lady that ran Book People was adorable and I couldn't not buy something from her.

The illustrious Book People

Imagine your house filled with books. Now multiply that amount of books by about 30 and take away any semblance of air conditioning and you might be able to understand what Book People was like. If nothing else, it was certainly an adventure.

As I flew back to Austin (in First Class, where you get offered a hot towel for reasons I'm still not entirely sure of), I managed to snap a nighttime photo of Austin as we descended.

Then I was surprised at the bottom of the airport escalator with this. Two wonderful friends of mine who made me the biggest sign in the airport, which I think means I was the most important one? I'm pretty sure. Dawn and Hannah, I adore you both. Even though you spelled my last name wrong.

Since my big Richmond adventure ended, it's just been back to work for me. So I'll finish this (extremely long) blog post by picking up where I left off in the blog challenge.

Something You're Looking Forward To

Going to see Jon McLaughlin in concert again! I love live music, and I love Jon McLaughlin's music, so I cannot wait to go see him sing live again. Oh, and I'm going to see the Seahawks play in Dallas this fall. Just in case you didn't read that last sentence carefully - I'm going to see the Seahawks. In person. OMG.

Day Seven Hundred Thirteen

So, there's going to be a brief hiatus on the blog prompt challenge because I'm visiting my parents in Virginia and left my laptop in Austin which is where the prompt list is located. This is the first time in recent memory that I've flown somewhere and not brought my laptop (ah, the joy of taking no more classes and having no more assignments to type up!), and I must say it makes the carry on bag much lighter. I also flew first class for the very first time flying out here! I felt quite pampered, and they kept plying me with food on the Dallas to Richmond flight, which I was not against. I learned that I'm around a totally different type of person in first class. The people I sat next to on both legs of my trip were full of stories of box seats to sporting events and extravagant trips to places like Paris and New Zealand. I didn't have many (ie - any) extravagant stories to share back, considering my most exciting trip recently was to Louisiana with the highlight of a swamp tour (while I found that trip to be awesome, they didn't seem like the type to share my enthusiasm over riverboat casinos and alligators). They were both very nice though. I even exchanged emails with one of them so she could send me photos of her sisters corgi. Because all corgi owners, past or present, are immediately good friends.

Today was my first full day in Richmond, and it was a relaxing day of sleeping in, a little bit of shopping (my mom and I are bargain finding masters), getting my hair cut, a delicious dinner, and a slideshow of my dad's recent trip to Japan. Tomorrow things ramp up a little, and I'm sure there will be photos to go along with it. But I won't ruin the surprise about what it'll be.  :)

My two benadryl are kicking in (yay allergies!), so its time for me to go in to a mini coma. More from Virginia tomorrow (or the next day if I forget to post tomorrow)!

Day Seven Hundred Ten

I wish I had exciting experiment news to share from today, but my bacteria didn't grow like they were supposed to. So what happened today was a big fat nothing. Hopefully tomorrow sees more progress! On to the blog challenge.

First - 10 On 10 Photos, With or Without Captions

First of all, I don't entirely understand this prompt. What does "10 on 10" mean if you don't have to use captions? This was poorly worded. But I digress, here are my chosen photos.

Three things I miss - my puppy, my home state, and snow.

Homage to one of my best friends Amanda, who just got engaged!

Capilano Suspension Bridge park in Vancouver, BC. Still one
of the most beautiful places I've been.

Also beautiful? My undergrad. I mean...look at it.

One of my favorite places from back home - Tumwater Falls Park.

Taken on my flight from Washington to Texas. When things finally got real
about leaving home and going to grad school.

The moment I realized I'm pretty much the only PNW person out of all the
UT chemistry grad students.

That moment when you realize your love for the UT Baseball team
outweighs your love for the UT Football team.

One of my favorite photos from Jeff's wedding - love my big bro!

Last up - my favorite people in the world.

Next prompt - What's In Your Purse

1. Coach wallet (that I got on deep sale at the outlet mall, because no wallet should be as expensive as Coach wallets are normally)

2. EOS lip balm in the flavor Mint

3. Bath and Body Works hand sanitizer in the scent Cucumber Mint (I'm still on the fence about whether I even like this scent or not, but I bought it so it's gonna get used)

4. Glasses case

5. Kleenex (because allergies here are so very terrible all the time)

6. Pens and a small notepad

7. Compact mirror

That's it. I try not to clutter my purse too much. Those suckers get heavy when they're full of crap.

Day Seven Hundred Nine

Yesterday I spent almost the entire day in Round Rock, a city just north of Austin that's home to the AAA baseball team the Round Rock Express. And also home to a gigantic outlet mall. What a happy coincidence! My friend Brogann and I made a day out of it, shopping (Bath and Body Works Outlet, you get me every time), eating delicious food at Saltgrass Steak House, and then cheering on the Express as they battled the New Orleans Zephyrs. Neither of us knew what a 'zephyr' was, so I google it on my phone. Can you guess what it is? According to dictionary.com, a zephyr is a 'gentle breeze.' That isn't even a joke or an insult to the team we played...that's literally what it means. And it. Is. Hilarious. Unfortunately we ended up losing to the gentle breeze's, but the post-game fireworks made up for the disappointment.

Alright, I'm behind on my blog challenge, so I'll do 2 prompts today and 2 tomorrow. The first for today is...

A photo of your handwriting

I actually had to search through my photos to find this one, because I didn't feel like taking a new one. This is the best I could find - and also functions as a flashback to the day I took my first set of qualifying exams (which is not a memory I often resurrect). And, look at my awesome shoes.

Next up - You favorite color with a photo showing it

I love the color blue. Love it. In almost every shade. Feast your eyes on the beauty that is my hometown.

Day Seven Hundred Six

My head is once again hurting. Curse this hot weather! Time to stay ultra-hydrated.

Today after work I was a coupon and sale MASTER. I got a new (used) book that I've been wanting to read (The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt) for 40% off, a new candle from Bath and Body Works for 50% off, then used a rent-one-get-one-free coupon to get some Redbox movies. I was so proud of myself with saving money that I called my mom to brag about it. Because I had to share my joy with someone.

Earlier in the day I met a very large skeleton illustration in the Biomedical Engineering building at UT. Why does literally every building have to be so much more awesome than Welch Hall?

Time for the blog challenge prompts for yesterday and today.

Yesterday: Top Three Favorite Blogs to Read and Why

I mainly just read blogs written by friends of mine as a way to see what/how they're doing. There's a blog written by the moderator of the online book club I'm in that I occasionally read, but that doesn't happen all that often. I guess what I'm trying to say is I don't have a "top three" favorite blogs because I don't read blogs that often...though it might help pass the time in lab when I'm waiting for bacteria to grow. I may explore this possibility next week!

Today: Your Favorite Quote or Saying

My favorite is probably "Keep Calm and Carry On", I have a sign saying that in my bedroom. I'm a natural worrier (meaning I'm very well acquainted with anxiety), so when I first saw this saying on posters and mugs, I immediately jumped on it. Now I see that phrase everywhere, but I don't mind because at least it helps remind me to just calm down.

Day Seven Hundred Four

The past couple days have just been full of work. I've started working with a new bacteria though, and that always makes things interesting. Some people think all bacteria grow the same way, and while that would make my life so much simpler, it's just not true. So I've moved from letting my old bacteria grow in a petri dish at room temperature to spraying my hands and arms down in ethanol to place my new bacteria in a special incubator with carbon dioxide in it and praying that they don't infect the mammalian cells also growing in the same incubator. Please, streptococcus, just stay in your petri dish and/or culture tube and don't make a mess of things.

Other than work, I've had my nose in books. I just finished reading The Emperor of all Maladies (a biography of cancer through the years), and while it was a total beast to read it was suuuuper interesting. I've now moved on to The Girl on the Train for one of my book clubs. It seems promising so far, which is a relief, because sometimes...book club books turn out to be a total fail.

As for blog challenge....

Yesterday's prompt: Three Ways to Win Your Heart

1. Bring me chocolate

2. Make me laugh

3. Always be up for an adventure

Today's prompt: If You Could Have One Super Power...

Is the ability to become invisible a super power? I think that would be pretty sweet (and extremely useful at times). Controlling time would also be a good one, but only if I'm not allowed to use invisibility. I don't know what the rules are here...

Day Seven Hundred Two

Today I submitted my final batch of paperwork for doctoral candidacy! Assuming it moves up the chain of command and gets approved by everyone involved, I should officially be a doctoral candidate by (hopefully) the end of the month. Basically what this means is it's now waaaaay harder for UT to kick my butt out of the program. And for that reason alone, I'm thrilled.

I also did an experiment using a new strain of bacteria today - a type of strep, but thankfully not the kind that causes strep throat (not that I'm planning on infecting myself, but it's at least comforting to know). Nothing worked today, but I'm hopeful that tomorrow will go a little better. New strains of bacteria mean learning new methods to grow them and subsequently not kill them (until you actually want to kill them with antibiotics). It can be quite the process.

I also decided to switch to a new local book club today, and went on a Half Price Books mission to find the book for this month. I found it, got all excited, then when I went to RSVP for the next meeting...I learned the meeting is during the short time I'm in Virginia. How dumb. Hopefully "Everything I Never Told You" by Celeste Ng is good, because I'll now be reading it with NO ONE TO DISCUSS IT WITH. Book club fail. At least there's always next month.

The blog challenge prompt for today is all of one word:

5. Home

This is actually kind of tough to answer now, since the place a grew up and the place my parents now live are on separate sides of the country. Home has always been where my parents live, but now it's shared between where my parents live (Virginia) and where I grew up (Washington). I'll always consider myself a Washingtonian first and foremost, though growing up in an Air Force family, home also meant Nevada and Alaska for short periods of time. While I may live in Texas now (and will continue to do so until this stupid doctoral degree is in my hand), I could tell early on that this just wasn't, and still isn't, a place I consider becoming "home" in the long term. I'm not saying it's a bad place to live, just not a place that I consider mine.

Day Seven Hundred One

I would love to say that I didn't post on Day 700 in Austin because I was too tired from having wild, crazy 4th of July fun...but in reality, it's because I was lulled to sleep reading my book after watching two movies from Redbox. Like a true patriot. BUT, that's not important, because to day I found out that one of my very best friends got engaged yesterday! Amanda, I absolutely love you to death, and could not be happier for you! You're one of my favorite people to ever exist.

And the blog challenges for yesterday and today were...

3. What you wore, in detail.

Well, yesterday was 4th of July, so I wore my one shirt with an American flag on it, which happened to also be a Jon McLaughlin shirt. I combined that with a very stylish pair of grey yoga pants from Target and bright blue socks. It was a glorious look, and perfect for lounging on my couch to read and watch movies.

4. Something/Someone that makes you happy

Well I'm pretty sure if you just scroll back up you'll see that Amanda is a person that makes me happy, and the fact that she just got engaged is something that makes me very happy! Other people that make me happy are my parents/brother/sister-in-law, and my labmates up at school for keeping me sane. As for other things that make me happy...I'll have to go with a good book and a good scented candle. Preferably when experienced in tandem.

Day Six Hundred Ninety Nine

I just realized that my 700th day in Austin will be on July 4th. Which for some reason, I find awesome. Anyway, I have a headache (didn't drink enough water today...oops), so this post will be very quickly written so I can go to sleep.

Today I...went to work! I know most people get today off, but UT is all "why would we give you July 3rd off? July 4th is the actual holiday, and it's on a Saturday. Get your butt to work." So, that's what I did. 

After work, it was off to learn how moonshine is distilled! I bought a tour for 2 to a local moonshine company called Crystal Creek Distillery as a birthday gift for someone. Just because I can't drink the moonshine doesn't mean I don't find the process intriguing (and it actually was pretty interesting). Plus the person I took got to drink my half of the tasting samples as well, which made him pretty happy. And we both got to take home free souvenir drink glasses at the end, which made us both happy. Overall it was a pretty cool experience, and I definitely recommend it to anyone who's remotely interested (and you can get the tour discounted through Groupon!).

After hanging out at the distillery, an epic 2 hour Nintendo Wii Mario Party battle commenced. It was intense, and a close match throughout. In the end, neither of us won. The computer did. How lame. Though secretly satisfying, because if the computer hadn't won, my human opponent would have gotten 1st (with me in 2nd), and we can't have that.

Alright, so for day #2 of the 30 day blog challenge, the prompt is...

Day 2 - Describe your morning routine

The truth is, I spend a solid 15 minutes each morning in complete denial that I have to get out of bed. Some people can jump out of bed the second their alarm goes off, and I never fail to be impressed by this. Because I set 3 alarms knowing that the first one will wake me up, I'll ignore the second one as I surf the web on my phone, and the third one is my "alright, you've avoided this enough" signal to actually move. Then, I drink an Ensure for breakfast (a nutritional drink that I've been told by numerous friends that "only old people drink"), get dressed, make a lunch to take to work, and head out to campus. If I know I'll be seeing people other than my two lab-mates before I come home again, I'll put makeup on. If I know I'm only going to work and home, I don't even bother with makeup. And that's my morning. Unless it's a weekend, where I sleep in and sometimes don't change out of my pajamas until I eat lunch. Like a true champion.

Day Six Hundred Ninety Eight

Today's photo is a belated one from my trip to Half Price Books a few days ago. When you're in Austin, sometimes the used bookstores have old UT yearbooks. And where there are old UT yearbooks, there are potential photos of my parents. And what do you know...I found Dad!

You guys, today my experiment worked. IT WORKED. It wasn't anything overly exciting or even publishable (it was literally just a growth curve for a new strain of bacteria), but just the fact that it worked put me on a high and made me not even care that I didn't even leave campus until 6pm. I also learned the benefit of leaving campus at 6pm instead of 4pm - the weather outside is marginally cooler, making my walk back to my car slightly less miserable. Yeah! I'll take it!

Since I sometimes run out of things to write about on here, I found a 30 day blog challenge that will give me something to write about every day this month (minus yesterday, of course...but since there are 31 days in July, it works out). So first up is...

1. Something Beautiful to You

So this first one is vague. And a little difficult, because there are an abundance of things that are beautiful to me. If we're talking scenery? I think Resurrection Bay in Alaska is the most beautiful place on earth.

That photo has been my computer background since I took it in 2011, and I don't see anything taking its place anytime soon.

In a more generic sense, I think organization is beautiful, which probably sounds weird. Clutter feels chaotic to me, and when things are thoughtfully arranged, I feel so much calmer. Here's a common conversation between my mother and I when I'm hanging things on the wall --

Mom: "What if we offset things a little, made it a little more interesting?"

Me: "Nope, I think perfectly even looks just fine."

Lastly, I'll put something I saw for the first time very recently that I found astoundingly beautiful. It's called the Pennybacker Bridge.

Obviously, I did not take this photo. But seriously, how gorgeous is this?

Day Six Hundred Ninety Seven

You guys, I'm really tired. Grad school is exhausting. Being an adult is exhausting. I'm not saying this as something that's horrible or depressing, I'm just genuinely that tired. This being said, I didn't take any exciting photos today. BUT, I did get a ticket to see one of my favorite singers in concert.

If you've never listened to Jon McLaughlin, you probably should. He's incredible. And he's extremely handsome, which also doesn't hurt. Needless to say, I can't wait to go watch him sing and play piano like a beast.

Today was another day full of experiments and meetings. Then I went to a game night tonight with some friends from church, where my team was able to pull out a victory at Taboo even though I was essentially half asleep the entire time. Yeah!

And now, since I've been thinking about sleep all day, I'm going to go spend some quality time with it.