one more miracle

I had a truly wonderful Thanksgiving. Drove with my dad and sis and uncle up to see our beloved cousins who all live in a tiny town an hour away. Our Thanksgivings are marvelously low key AND delicious, a wonderful combination IMO. Almost everyone is a wonderful cook and the food is simple yet scrumptious, while the company is even better. We stayed for hours drinking and chatting (and debating about ISIS and gun laws, though that wasn't terrible - we all come from the same place of compassion on all those issues, we just have somewhat different perspectives.) My amazing cousin Meg and I spent a while talking about books and audiobooks which was delightful. I convinced her she MUUUUUST read The Martian, as she enjoys 1) books and 2) science, so you know, SHE SHOULD READ THE MARTIAN. I can't wait for her reaction. She also showed us her new location for her incredible small business dyeing gorgeous yarn (Twisted Fiber Arts, look it up fiber people!). Unfortunately it wasn't a good reason for a new location - her last place was destroyed due to a fire in the restaurant next door, so it's been a rough restart. The new place is basically a huge metal shed.... that used to be a porn studio. YUP. But it's actually an awesome open space and they've really made it their own. She's so fuckin awesome. I hope to be half as awesome when I'm 40 something.

I ALSO SAW THE CAP 3 TRAILER AND I'M FREAKING OUT OKAY!!! FREAKING OUT!!!!!!( Mild overall plot spoilers ahead, as well as general positive emotions. )

Ahem. So there's that. I hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving too! <3

This was my weekend:

Friday - drove from Michigan to Connecticut with my sister. 13 hours. Lots of music and silly car games and trying not to fall asleep.

Saturday - Got my car emissions tested as required by Connecticut (where it is registered). Passed! Hung out with my daddy and sister. Hung out with my mom, step-dad, and brother. Fought with my brother, who is a selfish douchebag. I would rant about him but it's not really productive. Watched RockNRolla, Guy Ritchie's ridiculous film starring Gerard Butler but actually starring Tom Hardy in my heart. Unf. Also the guy who played Archie was amazing. But seriously, ridiculous film.

Sunday - DROVE BACK TO MICHIGAN. Yes. That was indeed 1500 miles (and $140 in gas and tolls) in three days. Holy moly. Drive went smoothly except for when I stopped for lunch I noticed one tire was very flat, so I checked it and found that it had only 10 pounds of pressure when it should have 30. o.O Um, scary! So I filled it and called my daddy, and he said that sometimes that happens - I had driven over a curb really hard accidentally yesterday, so sometimes that can just knock the tire loose and cause temporary pressure loss. I checked it again a few miles later, and then again later, and it was fine, so I guess that's all it was, phew! That was scary though. There were also a lot of assholes on the road, and my middle finger and horn got quite the workout. Oy. They should require a test to drive these things! ....oh wait. :P

So there goes another weekend down the drain. This summer has been SO hectic and all over the place. I seriously haven't felt like I've been in Ann Arbor for more than a week at a time, and my research is really suffering. I honestly feel terrible and wish it wasn't this way, but everything I've done has been unavoidable for one reason or another. And I'm not even done yet - I'm going to California in three weeks, Chicago the week after, then Chicago again in October. I'm also going to three concerts in the next two weeks. Why am I so childish and irresponsible? I feel like I totally don't have the dedication or focus I need to be a successful PhD student. It's not that I don't want to do my work - I really do. But I also haven't learned to say no to fun things that I can do now that I have the financial means, and a boss who is really way too lenient with me.

/self-loathing. Aaaanyway.

I have a music rec! The fabulous novembersmith gave me a rec in my last post that has really sunk its teeth into me, and I wanted to pass it on. It's this band called Spinnerette, which is the solo project of Brody Dalle, who used to be in punk band The Distillers. Her sound is grungey and fast and raunchy and SO AWESOME. It was great driving music. Check it out!



OH AND TODAY WAS BASTIAN SCHWEINSTEIGER'S BIRTHDAY. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BB!!!! I love him more than words can express omg. *__*


The wee ones love him toooo!! Get down with yo bad self Bastiano! <3333

Also also, today the Germany U-20 women's football team WON THEIR WORLD CUP!! Super fantastico! :D On home soil, no less! They sealed it with a 2-0 victory over Nigeria. Wooo! The German youth programs are so, so awesome. :D (Now it's time for that to translate into THE World Cup victory... right? Right?)

And now I'm going to collapse into bed in order to face a new week. Gah.

How are you, LJ? ♥

I had a most lovely weekend! My dear cousin Meg came down to visit me from where she lives near Lansing. She's 36, married to a great guy with two kids, and she and I have received many of the same genes from our shared side of the family so we have clicked ever since I was a wee thing. She is made of awesome and win and we had such a great time with our girls' weekend! The weather was PERFECTION the entire time - sunny, 70s, with a light breeze. Saturday we went to lunch at a great place, and then we went to a bead store, the used bookstore, a great fair trade clothing shop where Meg bought TWO awesome jackets, and my favorite coffee shop Lab (where the adorable German barista remembered me again and I found out his name is Toby - which is also Meg's son's name, hilarious) where one of the baristas recommended a iced raspberry mocha to Meg and she was very pleased. Then we went to my actual lab and I showed her around, and we hung out with Francisco because he was the only one there late in the afternoon on a Saturday, what, nerd. She was super charmed by him and even sadder for me that he's leaving. This was a theme of the weekend.

We went home, watched some Big Bang Theory with my roomies, and one of my roomies and her boyfriend grilled chicken and veggies for us! ♥ Then we went out for cocktails because Meg wanted to pretend to be a grad student for a night. :) We hit up two of my favorite bars with my roomies and Francisco, and there was some hilarious girltalk over martinis while Francisco literally squirmed and tried not to look like he wanted to die. IT WAS ADORABLE. Meg reiterated that the universe is a cruel cruel thing for stealing him away from me, and all I can do is agree. Ugh, it's ridiculous.

Hilarious explication of my post title: my roommate Nichole has a super intense Korean boss who frequently drives her to tears. However, this boss sometimes comes out with hilarious gems when they are out drinking as a lab (which they do pretty frequently!). Apparently, according to Nichole's boss, if you don't meet the other person's eyes when you are clinking glasses, you will have SEVEN YEARS OF BAD SEX. LOLOLOL WHAT IS THAT. So, APPARENTLY, when they are out drinking and people go to clink glasses, Nichole's boss just says "Seven years. SEVEN YEARS." and is super intense about it. OMG HILARITY. So of course we kept clinking and staring intently into each others eyes. Awesomeness.

We ended up going to sleep at like 4 AM, what, and then Sunday morning we went to brunch at this amaaaazing place downtown. I had a spiced apple and walnut crepe, om freaking nommmm. Also amazing coffee. Then we went to my favorite, the Cupcake Station, because it is an Ann Arbor MUST. Thennn we walked around an art supply store and Borders, walked by Lab and saw the Cute German Barista there again (he seems to sit outside reading a lot - we hypothesized that he might actually be one of the owners? Hmmmm!), and finally headed to my apartment so she could drive back home. All in all it was a relaxing/exhausting (because of all the walking!) weekend filled with good chats and good friends. Meg has worked nonstop for the last 7 weeks (LITERALLY - she runs her own company dyeing yarn, and works 65 hours a week, on TOP of being a mom to two) so I think this downtime was really good for her. She seemed to enjoy herself, anyway! Yay. :)

I finished off my day today by taking a beautiful drive through the country in the sunshine - there are few things more relaxing to me than zipping along back roads, blasting music and generally feeling at peace with life. Then I went to Kohl's, where I got an AMAZING deal on luggage - I bought this adorable five piece luggage set for only 67 DOLLARS. Down from $180! Eee I love Kohl's. I had pretty much no decent large suitcases, and I wanted something good to bring to Dublin. I got more than I was hoping for, because the small suitcase is going to be awesome for short trips too! Love itttt. And it's all pretty too. :D

OH YEAH I'M LEAVING FOR DUBLIN IN TEN DAYS OMGGG MY LIFE WHAT. :DDDDD

Ahem. Yay for good weekends! Now I am numb with exhaustion and have to face a Monday morning, but whatev whatev. ♥

So busy busy times, but the weekend went on to be just as delightful for the rest of it! Greta and Gold Motel were truly truly delightful, and I had such an amazing time with the Chicago crowd. I'll maybe post a recap and some pictures and videos, but since it's Christmas and there's a lot of family stuff going on, well. Who knows when I'll have time! I've been spending most of my free time rewatching Band of Brothers in Crazy Hi Def and flailsqueaking over Nixters and Speirs and Lip and Doc Roe and Buck and um. I love them a little bit, okay?

My dad and brother and sister arrived from Connecticut yesterday, yaaaay. :D We all hung out at my uncle's last night, which was lots of fun, then my sister spent the night with me at my place and we watched (500) Days of Summer. Now we're chilling out and planning on going for brunch and shopping, woo, girls' day! Last night my brother expressed an interest in staying with me for a night so we could "catch up", and this was my face: o.O Maybe he's actually growing up? Wacky. (He's a freshman in college.)

Happy Christmas Eve, all! I hope you are having lovely days with family and food and suchlike. <33


Goin' my way?

So I just watched Ocean's 13 for the first time in a while and ADLKFJDLSFSAFDLKN I LOVE THIS MOVIE. Ahem. It just gives me such unadulterated giddy glee! The plot is so cheeky and clever. I love how if you watch it a second time, you realize that they basically told you the surprise ending ahead of time, but they talk about it so vaguely that you don't realize! It's all just incredibly clever. My favorite bits that I noticed this time were: when the random guests were getting their payouts, one guy at the cash-in counter was the bouncer guy who "beat up" Danny in the first movie! HEE! And my other favorite bit was when they were talking about the Susan B. Anthony, one of the brothers asked Saul "Would you go through that for 10 million?" And he says "No. But I'd do it for 11!" And then at the end of the movie the payout is 11 million! HEEHEE. Oh boys, how so adorable?! <33333

And of course, of course, there's Danny and Rusty. Boys of my heart, omg. Whenever George is on screen, I get a little tingle; when Brad is, I get a BIG tingle; and when they're on together, well. Let's just say this movie inspired me to go hunting for some of my favorite Danny/Rusty fic. AHHHHH ILTHEM. I love how they sometimes speak like they're the same person, absolutely no space between where one leaves off and the other picks up. They're SUCH an old married couple, and it makes me gleeface.

I love revisiting old fannish flames, it makes me happy in my heart. :D

Tomorrow I'm going to visit my most favoritest cousins! Yay! I'll probably be up there Saturday night, but I have to come back some time pretty decent on Sunday so I can... go into the lab! Of course. I have to seed bacteria, seed yeast, and finish a peptide (maybe). Life is exciting! I also had a couple really interesting meetings with my professor today. He has this massive question he wants to answer, but he honestly doesn't know the best way to go about it! So we had two big brainstorming sessions, and I think I contributed at least somewhat. Every time I do I feel very pleased with myself. This whole period feels a little bit like a trial run, you know? No matter how much I want to join this lab, he also has to want to HAVE me, so I feel like I'm trying to prove that I can handle it every time we talk. And so far I think I've been doing pretty good with that! But anyway, with the project, we bounced around at least 5 different approaches today, and it's all kind of overwhelming. It will probably end up being a multipronged attack, but next week I'm going to try the simplest (and roughest) and see how things go. Science! How exciting!

I know I keep talking about it, but it honestly feels amazing to love going to work every day. I'm going to ride the buzz as long as it lasts! :D