Temporary Shower

A LOT has happened since I last wrote: 1) I got engaged!!! I kind of saw it coming but the actual proposal was a surprise. I came home late on Sep 10th. Dave and I had planned to go on a picnic so when I got home, I changed and he asked me to grab a blanket. When I went to the basement, there was a picnic laid out with candles, flowers, and a basket with two stuffed animals (one holding a ring pop). It was such a surprise! 2) I started wedding planning. We found a nice venue for an intimate wedding but gosh, weddings are expensive! It is also hard to please everyone. I am trying hard not to stress about it but it is hard. 3) I went to Bali with Dave and some friends. It was interesting. I think Bali is great if you want to just stay in one place and relax but we moved around quite a bit so it wasn't as fun. It was also really really hot! 4) I went to Hawaii. This was a last minute decision to join a trip my parents had planned ages ago. It was great to have the whole famil

I can’t believe it has been so long since I’ve updated. I was doing good for awhile but then life happened. Peru was amazing. Ash and I saw many animals in the wild and to our delight, we even saw a jaguar! I especially loved the monkeys and the colorful birds but the whole amazon experience was amazing. I only wished Dave had been there too. The second half of our trip was spent hiking to Machu Picchu. There were some real highs…Salcantay mountain, making a wish to the gods, and seeing macchu picchu. We went through the company Viajas Cuscos and it was dirt cheap ($250 for 5 days 4 nights including meals and entrance to the Macchu Picchu). However, the downside was we had to carry all our stuff the fourth day and we felt there was some mistreatment going one with the cooks/porters. We were shocked by how little everyone was tipping. I know the entrance to Macchu Picchu alone is 150 so the last 100 dollars were split between the guides (who probably got more), the 2 cooks, an

Yes it has been awhile but between getting through my rebuttle, b2b, and other obligations, I have had very little time to write.   Of note, I started an art class (color pencil) and it meets once a week. I love it because it is something I don’t normally get to do and I find it very relaxing. Back in high school, I was actually good at art so with my last PhD year, I decided to do all the things I know I won’t get to do when I go back to medical school. Yes….you heard right. I think I only have a year left (maybe even less so if my committee agree). I will be finishing my current papers and hopefully not taking on anything new. I just gave my (hopefully) last journal club today on supergene in fire ants. I think the faculty was ok with it and I felt that I did a decent job (though I could have been more familiar with the experiments).   I also told my boss I’d like to graduate next spring. That way I’ll have a month to travel to either Butan or Micronesia with an optho group to

Last week was a whirlwind of meeting friends and rebalancing my life. My old roommate was in town and we got to hang out a lot. We watched a movie Wednesday, had coffee Thursday, and on Friday, Dave came back so in all fairness, I didn’t have to miss him too long. Saturday was especially fun cause I went to the planetarium with Felicia in the morning (we watched Hubble 3D) and in the afternoon; Dave and I went to the annual MedProm. Yes….it is just like the high school prom but with food! We met up with some friends to get ready and I have to say we looked stellar! I got pretty tired towards the end of the night but had a really fun time. Yesterday we just hung out. I got to sleep in which was really nice. We met up with some friends for coffee, did a bit of shopping, made wonton soup (yum!) and watched The Amazing Race/Cosmos. It was nice and relaxing. Up ahead is final countdown to the bench to bedside competition! I am stress about it but happy.

Hellos! Long time no see right? Well. I have been busy. Rebuttle for my paper is almost done and I have to say that things are going better then I imagined. I feel like I am doing well in life and in the lab. This scares me because sometimes I worry more when I am too happy. Weird right? I recently got back from New York with Dave. He, his mother, and his younger brother had planned a trip to Europe a year ago and we were in new york because his youngest brother lives there. This was my third time to NYC and I liked it a lot more this time. I think it’s mainly because Dave was there and we didn’t do any touristy stuff. I got to meet up with some friends, visit Chinatown (finally!) and eat lots of yummy food. When I got back, I was a little sad because Dave isn’t here and we really haven’t been apart more than a week but work has kept me busy and I celebrated my birthday with friends who flew in for Match. This was my second time going to Match Day and though it was such a hap

I forgot in my last post to mention that I was hit by a car. I was trying to turn right and the lanes were merging. The car in front of me stopped so I stopped but the car behind me rear ended me. To make things worse, the girl backed up and rear-ended me again. I haven’t have been hit in a long time so it really shook me up. I get tense everytime I am stopping for fear that the car behind will hit me. All this has led to a few things: a) a bunch of headache trying to get the damages estimated and eventually fixed b) a sense of gratefulness for it being a mild accident and c) a desire to take public transportation more. As luck will have it, there is a direct trax line 3min from Dave’s house up to the university. I tried it for the first time last week but went to the station 20min away, got on the wrong line, and had to make Dave help me figure out what to do. It was a disaster. Since then though, I think I’ve rectified my mistakes and figured out how to get to work on time. It