Day Eight Hundred Sixty

My head is not cooperating with me as of late. I had a migraine from Wednesday night through Friday afternoon, which took me off guard since I can't remember the last time I've had a headache last more than a couple hours. I guess that's what sinuses and grad school tension does to you? It was unpleasant. Today I was blissfully headache free, and went to lab to work on a custom stage with a labmate...only to smash my head in to the corner of a cabinet door. Awesome. I've traded out a migraine for an angry red line and bump on the forehead. Oh well, atleast this one is less debilitating and more just annoying.

In my effort to find anything that would ease my migraine, I had my first ever facial massage. And oh my gosh it was wonderful. Chandra, you miracle worker of a masseuse, I give you credit for eliminating the final remnants of my headache. So for anyone who wants help getting rid of a headache (or just wants a lovely relaxing experience), I highly recommend Zen Well (the name of the massage therapy place). It's delightful.

Aside from my run in with the cabinet door today, the custom stage construction was successful! Now when I get back from my Christmas vacation I'll have a snazzy new stage to fabricate with. Props to my labmate Olja for spearheading the creation of this slightly ghetto looking, but very usable, stage. The boss will be pleased. And when the boss is pleased, we all live much happier lives.

Day Eight Hundred Fifty Three

I went golfing today! The professor I TAed for this last semester invited me to join him for a round of golf at a nice golf club he's a member at, and I decided to take him up on it (even though it's been two solid years since I've played a proper 9 holes of golf). The tee time was 9:15am, and while I'm happy he's not one of those "we must start our round at the crack of dawn" players, I still had to get up at 7am to be ready and on the road by 8am just to get there on time. For the record, it was totally worth it, but man was it a trek to get there.

I'm very proud to say that I managed to hold my own against the retirees! I shot a 52 on 9 holes, and that score would have been even better if I hadn't hit my ball in to water hazards twice. Not to shabby for the first time back on a golf course after an extended hiatus. But now I've got the golf bug again......and I have a feeling my clubs and I will be having much bonding time in the near future.

When I got home I napped for an hour and a half. It was glorious. And I'm already ready to go back to bed again. I've forgotten just how exhausted a round of golf can make you.

Day Eight Hundred Fifty

I went golfing for the first time in a year and a half today. Well, to the driving range, not a proper 9 holes (I'm doing that on Saturday, and figured I should go hit golf balls at the range to make sure I still remembered how to get one airborne). Good news - I hit them remarkably well considering I haven't played in so long. Go muscle memory! There are few things more satisfying than being the only woman at the driving range and shanking fewer hits than the surrounding men.

That being said, muscles that I forgot I had are now quite sore. Always a fun surprise.

Day Eight Hundred Forty Nine

Please attribute my lack of blog posts for almost two whole weeks to the end of the semester and upcoming holidays. Things get crazy this time of year, with grading and proctoring and now, tutoring. It's amazing how many tutoring requests one gets starting two weeks before finals. I've had one student I've been working with for about two months now, and in the course of two days over Thanksgiving break that number grew to four students who asked for tutoring until finals are over. Don't get me wrong, I honestly enjoy tutoring and genuinely like all four students I'm working with - but man does it take a lot of time (on top of my already busy end of semester/holidays schedule). Hence, I've chosen sleep over blog for twelve days straight. But I promise to be better!

Thankfully the class I'm TAing is over, and after a marathon 8-hour grading session yesterday, all papers are graded and grades are entered. While I'll still be going to work up until the 23rd, it's a very nice feeling knowing that I won't have a stack of exams to grade greeting me during that time. The professor I TAed for is one of my favorite people at UT though, so I'm sad I won't be seeing him twice a week anymore. Good thing I'm going golfing with him on Saturday. Yeah! Considering I haven't even swung my golf clubs in a year, this round of golf could get interesting. And by interesting, I mean mortifyingly bad.

I was so tired today after spending all day grading yesterday that I apparently wasn't looking as alert as I should have been sitting at my desk. How do I know this? My boss threw a mini-Snickers bar at my face and told me to wake up. It's hard to be annoyed at that when the end result is me getting chocolate. I'm just glad it wasn't a full size candy bar, because that may have actually hurt.

Day Eight Hundred Thirty Seven

10 days with no blog post?! Madness. Just madness. Things have gotten progressively busier as the holidays have crept up and the semester has started coming to a close. Exam grading and gift buying and......massages? I had a horrible knot in my upper back that I first noticed a week ago, so I decided to schedule a 15 minute chair massage. Because those are supposed to be relaxing and peaceful and soothing, right? Um, no. Not even close. What happened was a 15 minute deep tissue massage during which I learned that I had way more knots in my upper back and neck than I realized, and attempting to get rid of them resulted in tremendous pain. Some of them surrendered, others have remained stubborn and are still present. So because that first massage was so pleasant, I scheduled another chair massage for next week. Because this has now become a personal battle of me (and the massage therapist) versus the monster muscle knot. I will keep you all apprised of who comes out victorious. At this point it feels like it could go either way.

But for now, Happy Thanksgiving from Virginia! I left Austin bright and early this morning in order to make it to Richmond in time for some turkey, and am very very happy to have a break from all things grad school. The second leg of my trip today took place on what could only be described as a toy plane. One seat on one side of the aisle, two seats on the other, and a ceiling so low that if I had been even an inch taller I would have had to hunch over to make it to my seat. So that was an interesting 3 hours. But the flight was relatively smooth and I made it to my destination unscathed, so I can't complain too much.

Time to go rest up for some shopping tomorrow! Bring it on, Target. Bring it on.

Day Eight Hundred Twenty Seven

On my visit today to Ulta to buy some new concealer, I got sassed by the lady that was helping me. I acknowledged that I'm pretty pale, and she immediately responded with, "oh, we don't use that word." Then proceeded to tell me how she had to go on a quest for the "fairest of fair" concealers for me.

.........I just didn't have the heart to tell her that we literally said the same thing.

Day Eight Hundred Twenty Six

Yesterday waaaaas......Wurstfest day! Every year in New Braunfels, TX there's a German festival called Wurstfest in which people put away entire pitchers of beer as soon as the gates open (around 11am). It's a festival where you're lucky if you can get through it without having beer spilled on you (I was not lucky), and all the foods are greasy and fried and some have names I cannot pronounce (I planned ahead and snuck almonds in). I also get to say hello to my parent's friend from college, Charlie, who I always enjoy talking with. Thanks for finding me an excellent parking spot, Charlie! You're the best. Once I got in the gates, I met up with my old roommate Kelly and some of her friends and we took in all the weird food and fun music and overpriced lederhosen.

Kelly may have had the authentic outfit...but she didn't have my excellent hat. At least Charlie and I were able to match on that front.

Today I made sure to wear my Seahawks jersey and go grocery shopping to maximize the number of people that experience my Russell Wilson jersey. I feel confident that they all appreciated it. Then I did four loads of laundry...why does every other piece of clothing seem to have different washing requirements? We should only make clothes that can all just be thrown in the washing machine together without worry.