Day Two Hundred Eleven

I graded all day today. If not for the 2.5 mile walk outside with the roommate, I would have silently gone crazy at the dining room table. So. Many. Lab. Reports.

Oh, and we found a cave. Photo evidence included.

Day Two Hundred Nine

Back to the real world today. No one broke anything or burned themselves during lab (yay!), and I got two new stacks of lab reports to grade (nooooo!). I finally remembered to fill out the instrument log books, and found a surprise comment from one of my students last semester (see photo). Awwww. That definitely made my day better.

Day Two Hundred Eight

I'm back! I decided to take a hiatus from everything (including blogging) while I was back in WA just so I could enjoy being home with my parents. And due to unexpected ear difficulties, the trip was extended for 2 days. I've never been advised by a doctor not to fly before, so that was a new experience. It meant a little extra time at home though, so things could have been worse.

Thankfully my flight back to Austin today was, for the most part, ear pain free. I tried out some fancy earplugs made specifically for dealing with pressure changes during flights, and they actually worked really well. As they should have, since one pair was $8. Seriously, airport?! I get that they're fancy earplugs, but they're still just earplugs. $8 is absurd. I also got a giant bag of jolly ranchers, which my two seat mates very much enjoyed. Now...time to get back to the real world. I've avoided it for as long as I can.

On a final note, the trip home was comprised of...Pike Place Market, the monorail (which was sporting some very stylish Seahawks flags), the Space Needle, Seattle Center, Northwest Trek, some doctors visits, and lots of time with family. And I got a pair of Seahawks socks. And some Seattle skyline socks. There was an unintentional theme to my purchases during this visit.

Day Two Hundred Three

I'm home! But one of my ears STILL hasn't popped from the descent. Every rose has its thorns. Allergies and planes are a lethal combination.

Day Two Hundred Two

That homework assignment was a BEAST. Now...only a matter of hours until I fly home!

Day Two Hundred One

I got my exam back today. The one I took in an allergy induced haze. And I did way better than I thought! Which immediately indicated that my day was going to be good no matter what. And it was a really good day, which is always good to have on my longest day if the week. Tuesday, you exhaust me. But I didn't fall asleep at my 8am group meeting thanks to my all-crunchy-trail-mix. The one valuable thing I learned from Drivers Ed - eat crunchy things when you're tired and it'll wake you back up. It definitely works, which is why some days I'm shoveling trail mix in to my mouth all day during class. It probably drives the people around me crazy, but I always share so they can't be too cranky...right?

The random surprising moment of the day was meeting the person sitting next to me at seminar and finding out we're both from Olympia and lived a mile away from each other. What?! This made me so happy. Another northwesterner! There aren't many of us in the grad program, and technically he's a chemical engineer and not a chemist, but I don't even care.

The baseball season home opener was today at 6pm. I elected to go home and eat instead. I still got to experience the rowdiness for a few minutes though, as a hoard of baseball players got on the shuttle with me at 730 this morning. They must have just had their protein/energy drinks, cause they were way too loud and awake and energized for 730am. No matter what time I get on the shuttle, I just can't escape them. And any time pre-9am is just way too early for their loud insanity.

Lab tomorrow at 10am. Time to sleep.

Day Two Hundred

What better way to kick off my 200th day in Texas then a trip to the doctor for allergies? Texas, you spoil me. I can't think of any better 200-day-anniversary gift than a box of Mucinex-D (which actually works really well).

I had a record 6 people at office hours today! And my lab finished 20 minutes early. So, those parts of my day were pretty fantastic. The fact that I had school on Presidents Day? Not fantastic. Not cool, UT. It was a gorgeous day out, I could see it as I gazed out the lab window. So close, yet so far.

Final note, I finally got to watch some Olympic Curling today. I have no idea how its played or how people score, but I just can't stop watching.