Thursday, December 21, 2006

I'm off!


Alrighty folks. I am heading back home!! I am so excited to see my family and friends and catch up with everyone. And eat lots of good food and go to the beach with my dog. And stay with my sister in San Francisco and do lotsa shopping and lounging about. Oh and read all those bizillion papers I have and write up my research from my rotation. But nevermind that. I am so happy to be able to have a little break. I am going to miss our little house and lovely Chapel Hill, but it will be here when I get back. I hope you all have a wonderful holidays with the ones you love and take a minute to realize how fortunate we all are. Best wishes!!

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Cute Cropped Coat


How cute is this little coat? I love cropped coats, but I also have an amazing long torso in relation to the rest of me. So would this be ridiculous?? Probably. Oh well.

Why all these stinking transitions??


Today is my last day in the Frog Lab. I am definitely sad to go. It was weird, going in to the rotation everyone knew I was leaving at the end of the semester, but it still feels awkward to leave now. I did learn a lot and I think the PI and I will be friends and hopefully work together maybe someday. I am gonna miss my frog homies, I will have to come back and visit the new baby frogs. Sad day!!

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Mini Trent


Check out my version of my sweetie. Rocking the PSP and a nice glass of Bogle Syrah. And his new Carolina cap and Ben Sherman sneaks. What a cutie. This WeeMee thing is awesome. Or at least an awesome way to pass some time!

New Favorite Thing!


I have a new favorite thing. Aveda Institutes. I pretty much didn't get my hair cut ever after leaving (or passing her along to Emily) my beloved stylist Nikki at G-Squared in SF. But it was getting a little rough. But being a slightly broke grad student, I couldn't really fork out Nikki-esque prices for a new 'do. Enter.. Aveda Institute. Ya, they are all students, so you do run a risk of newbies, but there are tons of teachers wandering about and chances are you'll get someone good. And.. it is insanely cheap. And you get lotsa little perks like tea and a facial and makeup touch-up afterwards. My cut isn't the best I've ever gotten but it is definitely cleaned up and looking a lot better. And due to the low price I splurged on some fancy Aveda products. "The art and science of pure flower and plant essences." Anything that has science plus plant in it's slogan is okay with me!

Monday, December 18, 2006

It's a little Jean!



Thanks to Sara, I was playing around with WeeMee. I think the results are almost eerie.. but awesome!

Birthday Outing

I have to include some photos of my 24th celebration. It was awesome. We started out at Linda's, where we usually start the evening. First order of business, an Irish Car Bomb!



After a bit of mingling about, it was time to start the dancing! Which cannot be done at Lucy's on 80's night with out singing along.



Trent was exhausted and headed home early. So I got to deal with some secret admirerers. I had no idea who this guy was, and he never tried to dance or even talk with me.. just kinda stood there like that.



More dancing and singing ensued. At least I know these foolios.



Matt and Deirdre love the 80's.




All in all, a fabulous evening was had by all. Dancing till 3am. Man, I was a sleepy one the next day. Until that evening when there was ANOTHER 80's dance party. What is with the dancing fellas?


Where have I been??

Not blogging, apparently. Sorry about that. Things have been absolutely mad trying to tie up all the loose ends before heading back to California for the holidays. Which I am SO excited about. Here is a recap of some of our events.

1. Here are the pictures from Thanksgiving. Finally. It was a blast but quite a stretch for our little house to hold 15 or so people for the big dinner. But we all managed to sit down together, which was awesome. To get seconds you had to go out the front door and back in through the porch... but oh well.

2. After all my hard work, my first results from the Rana EGR-1 gene expression assay.. were inconclusive. No statistical significance. Which is a bummer, but I've learned that science NEVER works on the first try, and I feel like I learned a lot and gave the project my best effort. Also there are tons of beautiful frog brain slides left for tons of other people to analyze. I just kinda don't care that much any more...

3. Teaching was a blast. But I am quite glad it is over. I definitely want to give it another go though.

4. Trent is in the community band of Chapel Hill. Last night they had their first concert at a retirement village. It was maybe the cutest thing I have ever seen.

5. I signed up for a marathon!! Cuz I am not going to be insanely busy with my next rotation (which I am getting very excited about) I thought I might as well just run a few.. 26, miles. Running has been a great catharsis for me with stress, and this one is down in Myrtle Beach, SC, so I am very excited. 9 weeks to train!

6. Taking Christmas card photos by riding all over campus with the bikes and taking pictures in front of pretty buildings is a blast.

7. I've learned that biology graduate students love to talk about science all the time. And they love to dance to 80's music. Alllll the time.

8. Apparently winter in Chapel Hill means 65 degrees. Which I am SOOO okay with.

Anyways, sorry for the lack of updates, and I can't promise to be much better soon because we are heading back to the West on Thursday. But I will try. I hope everyone has a very happy holidays filled with my favorites; food, family, and fun.