one more miracle

Firstly, thank you everso to the lovely xsnarkasaurus for the adorable dragon on my profile! ♥

I had a most wunderbar weekend on a ski trip with my friends! It was preceded by a nutso week. I shall talk about them! (With a couple visual aids!)

( My nutso and (sometimes) wunderbar life. )

This weekend was ALSO a fantastic weekend for my beloved football teams. Sadly I wasn't able to watch it live, but since I was off having so much fun that's okay. :) I got back from snowshoeing Saturday to find that Mainz had won 4-0!!! The noise I made when I saw that would have terrified dogs, haha. My beautiful Ádám scored for the first time since coming back from injury, AND it was against the same team he tore his ACL against more than a year ago! I'm so happy for him. Zidan scored his fourth goal in four games for us, bless his heart. My favorite teeny one, Nicolai, also nicked a goal, and EMCM finished poor Kaiserslautern off. It was our big derby too! Beyond pleased to see all my boys so happy. ♥♥

Also happy were my other boys in red and white, who won THEIR derby 5-2! That's right, Arsenal TROUNCED Sp*rs, and it was glorious. They went down 2-0, then came back to score 5 unanswered goals, including a truly glorious Robin van Perfect strike and FINALLY a Rosicky goal after which he looked so happy I got all teary. AND a Sagna header! AND a Walcott brace! Ahhhh! Take THAT, Gareth fucking Bale, with your stupid face and your stupid dives. The relief of the Arsenal boys was palpable, and the Emirates was just hopping (I managed to catch part of the second half on a skippy stream at the lodge). YAY!


Ádám and Mo are my darling derbysieger! <333

Lalala that's it for tonight!

Just for the record, this is what has stolen me away for the past month:



Those are my beautiful Mainz boys, Lewis and André, who are talented and tiny and perfect and the hugest BFFs. *sighs and chinhands* (Lewis is the one that's allergic to clothes <333) Sadly they're BOTH leaving my team next year, and they're not even going to the same place, so that's a little bit heartbreaking. But I love them, and I love them for bringing such a perfect year to my team, and I will continue to love them wherever their paths may take them.

I just wanted to share their cute little bromance with you. You're welcome. :D

Life is mildly crazy right now. I went from being only in charge of my own self to being responsible for training two new students in the lab! *flails hands* The high schooler is doing great - I've had her a couple weeks and she's really caught on fast, she's a sharp cookie. She also just graduated so technically not a high schooler, but still never worked in a lab! I'm very impressed. The other one is weirdly more tough; even though he's an MD-PhD student who knows his shit, I'm teaching him something he's never done and I've only done two YEARS ago, so we're kind of the blind leading the blind, oops. Also my boss isn't around right now and it's tough to figure out exactly what he wants when he's not, you know, here. So that's an adventure. Luckily he's a good humored dude with a sharp tongue and we spend half our time cracking up, so I think we'll at least have fun while we're mucking about.

Josh came over last night (Sunday) even though he had had a long tiring weekend with his family - I told him he didn't have to and he told me not to be silly. :3 We just cuddled and watched Serenity (his first time!!!) and it was amazing. \o/ That movie still makes me gasp and cry, it is my favorite in the whole wide 'verse. He really enjoyed it too, I am happy to report. :D Even though I sent him home at a reasonable hour I didn't get much sleep and was basically a zombie today, oops, and since he's a princess who needs 8 hours of beauty sleep he probably was worse off. But you know what? 100% worth it. And I may or may not be seeing him again tomorrow. (Can't stay away, omg.)

As for the OTHER man in my life - my daddy, hee - we just made plans to go out for a daddy-daughter dinner on Thursday! \o/ I'm treating him for Father's Day of course, and since it's Restaurant Week I get to REALLY treat him, yay. I don't know if I ever mentioned it here but my dad moved here last fall to live with his brother (lost job, lost house... yet he's happier than he's been in a long time) and it's amazing to have him around all the time. I love my daddy ever so!

Err that's it! Just trying to get back into this regular posting nonsense. And also trying to get back into the rhythm of flist reading! It feels really good to dip my toes back into your lives again! I'm really looking forward to rejoining this community, as much as I can. ♥

So one of my New Year's resolutions is to try to reconnect with LJ. I'll probably fail miserably, but I genuinely miss both the community and the amazing record of my life LJ was for such a long time, so I'd really like to get back into the swing of it. Twitter is a serious hindrance, and I have a whole other social life there, but I'm going to try my hardest. If you DO have Twitter though, please do follow me - I'm exsequar there too and always reachable. :) It's not at all about soccer/football anymore, I made a separate account, so if you're worried about that, please don't be! I'd love to talk to you. ♥

Starting small, I'm just going to make a Life post about my week and stuff! So on Tuesday I completed a reasonably large hurdle of my PhD program - the second year seminar. It's kind of a warm up for our candidacy exams but felt pretty huge on its own. Basically I had to make a 20 minute presentation on my research, presenting to people outside of my lab for the first time. This meant that I had to very clearly introduce the material for people unfamiliar with my field, present and justify my hypothesis, and present what data I have that supports that hypothesis before, as well as providing a coherent plan for my research moving forwards. I also felt I had to be very very comfortable with the literature because I could get ANY questions afterward. What this basically meant was that I spent 4 days with my family for Christmas, then immediately began spending 10-12 hours in lab every day, reading papers and putting together my presentation, as well as getting that last crucial piece of data. I bought a lot of frozen food and essentially lived in my lab. But it paid off, because my presentation went great! My actual slides ended up really pretty - including a model I built from scratch using Adobe Illustrator because all the old ones my lab uses are so ugly - and my labmates and boss helped me construct a clear, coherent narrative so it felt fluent and comfortable. Then I got a really great set of questions and was able to easily answer them all, with bonus references to the literature because I had spent all that time reading! I got lots of positive feedback afterward, and my dad even got to see it and was very proud. I'm so relieved to have it done, but I'm also really proud of how well it went. It was the first time I felt maybe I could really do this thing - that is, be a grownup. Not necessarily a scientist, but a grownup. It's a step in the right direction. ;)

I then spent the rest of this week turning that presentation into a poster to give at a conference this weekend in Chicago! It's a very busy week, yes it is. It's the same conference that I went to last year and I really enjoyed it then, so I'm happy to be going again, I look forward to it. I also get to meet up with some darling fangirls tomorrow night so I'm excited. :D After all of this whirlwind, then it's just back to the normal grindstone of lab research. Doing all of this work on making my project clear to others has made it clearer to ME too though, so I hope that I'll feel a bit more confident in my research as I move forwards.

Also super exciting is THE BUNDESLIGA STARTS BACK UP TOMORROW!!!!! *giddy wriggling* That's the German football league for the majority of you out there who are totally lost. :P It's been on hiatus since before Christmas and I have been DYING of boredom. I mean, it was good timing because I wouldn't have been half as focused on my work if it hadn't been on break, but now it's coming BACK and I couldn't be more excited. :DDD I get my beautiful baby Lewis and my badass Basti and hopefully both Mainz and Bayern kicking ass and taking names. I can't help it, I love Mainz, sorry to my Bayern girls out there. At this point I just want both of them to do really well. It's kind of inevitable that Bayern will end up in at least second, so I don't feel bad for rooting for Mainz to do the best they very can. At this point I would like to register a prediction for the end of the season, and we'll see how far off I am: Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen, Schalke 05, Mainz. That would put Mainz in the Europa League next year, which would be a fantastic achievement for my little baby club. ♥ (And little Lewis has been hinting that he'd like to stay in Mainz for another year... oh please please pleeeease let it happen, football gods!)

In hilarious fandom-sports related news (yes that was a totally valid segue), Johnny Weir is coming to my Borders for a book signing. Lol. Lololol. I'm tempted to go just for the lolz but I should really be at work at that time, so I probably won't. Oh Johnny. Maybe I'll feel the force of his sparkling from my lab.

Speaking of sparkling, OMG THIS T-SHIRT. Dear My Chemical Cupcakes, ILU. (Danger Days is still, like, the best album ever. Well, after Three Cheers. But OMG SO GOOD.)

Last night I saw I Love You Phillip Morris!! I've been wanting to see this ever since I heard it was being made like three years ago. EWAN MCGREGOR!!!!! Ugh, he was so precious and wonderful, all blonde and earnest and Texan and sweet and I WANTED TO PUT HIM IN MY POCKET. I mean, Jim Carrey was great too, and it was a really good film, funny and weird and poignant and tragic. I enjoyed it a whole lot. But mostly EWAN!!! I now want to watch every single film he's done again. Yes even The Pillow Book. Ewannnnnnn. I miss him. *draws pink sparkly hearts*

I should probably pack for Chicago.... so I'll leave you with that. It felt really good to write an LJ post again, I'm not gonna lie, so hopefully I'll start being able to keep it up. Tell me what's up with you, darlings!

Today I spent a lovely Sunday afternoon at the outlets with my roomies! I didn't plan on buying much (lol) but came away with this ridiculous haul:

• Shirt from Banana Republic ($11)
  
• Henley from Old Navy ($12)
  
• Deep purple peacoat from Anne Klein ($99 down from $280, oh my god)
  
• Two pairs of jeans from Aeropostale that actually FIT ($42 on a buy-one-get-one-free deal)
  
• Three bras from Bali ($45)
  
• Five bags of cookies from Pepperidge Farms ($10)

SO BASICALLY I WOULD CALL THAT A WIN. The purple peacoat in particular I am soooooo excited about - it's mid thigh length, with this beautiful tiered collar and a belt and UGH I LOVE IT. :') I was sort of idly wanting a new peacoat because mine is all tattered, but when I put this one on I just fell in love. And how can you argue with that price?

Besides being an entirely successful shopping spree, it was just a lovely day with my girls! The weather was SO BEYOND PERFECT, mid 60s with cotton ball clouds and sunshine, and I loved it to pieces. My roomies were chilly but it was just ideal for me. :) And speaking of roomies, I have two new ones! Our two public health roomies moved out, leaving me, Emily and Nichole, so we chose new roomies over the summer and I must say that once again we hit the jackpot. Alex is starting law school with the intent of working in international conflict resolution. She just finished a masters program in BRUSSELS and once spent a semester in Ireland, omg! AND SHE LOVES ALL THINGS JOSS WHEDON, I MEAN WHAT, HOW IS SHE SO PERFECT. HER FAVORITE CHARACTER IS FAITH!!!! She's beautiful and funny and smart and giggly and assertive and I might have a little girlcrush, LOL. But I really love hanging out with her. And Kortni just graduated from UM and is now working in the UM hospital as a research assistant for a neuropsych prof. She's tall and funny and a little absurdist sometimes - she spent our walk home from drinks tonight PRETENDING TO BE A PTERODACTYL, ahahahaha, Emily and I almost broke something laughing. So obviously she's super fun to have around. :D Basically it's an awesome mix of personalities again and I'm so happy! I love having a fun house of roommates, but also my own awesome room so I can retreat whenever I need to.

Hey, look at me, doing a daily update! I'm going to try to get back into the swing of this because it was SO nice to have LJ comments in my inbox again. I promise it won't be all fussball all the time. *g*

In work related news, I have been.... really stressed out and in a bad place recently. Nothing seems to work at all anymore, and I have a research plan to write from my boss and I'm having a hard time with it, and I read some things in the literature that make me seriously doubt my hypothesis, and I've been seriously doubting whether I even want to be a scientist, and etc etc etc. I honestly think that coming for my PhD was kind of the easy way out of an otherwise grueling job search, but I've never been able to envision myself as a bench scientist or a professor in the long term. I'm not sure what I DO see myself as though, is the problem. I've been looking at all kinds of alternative types of employment, but in the meantime, I've still got 4 years of research to do. I really hope I can find the heart to see me through it. I'm sure I'll feel a bit better once SOME experiments start going well again.

...that's it! I should probably go to sleep!

Yesterday was pretttttty fantastic, and I'm going to tell you why!

1. I woke up epically, ridiculously sore. Like, difficult to lift myself out of bed sore. That's not the fantastic part! The fantastic part is that I'm sore because of indoor soccer and every time I think of that it makes me smile. :D
   
2. SCIENCE!!!!1!!!1!11 Science totally WORKED for me yesterday, and I got this awesome amazing result that will guide my project into truly exciting directions. I am such a nerd but this was SO happy-making. I've been feeling a little blah on the science front lately so this was a highly welcome kick in the pants. It also means I get to start doing new and exciting experiment types, which is great cause I was bored of what I was doing before! YAY SCIENCE! I had a great brainstorming session with Jason (my boss) and we have sooo many ideas. *twirls!*
   
3. DIE NATIONALMANNSCHAFT! In the past few days, this amazing book has come to light called Die Spieler which is literally 200 enormous glossy pages of photographs of MY BOYS dressed up as old 40s crime drama film characters. SERIOUSLY. THERE ARE HATS AND SUITS AND OLD MERCEDES AND PIANOS AND CAKES AND PILLOW FIGHTS AND POOLS! STRIPPING IN POOLS! Um. They might have deviated from the crime theme a little bit in favor of NAKED WET FOOTBALLERS, but I am seriously not complaining. Unffffffff. One bit that should be delightful to any girl with a beating heart is the following clip, in which Mario says "Wow wow wowwww!" about Basti and Basti declares that "This is fashion!" Yes in English!
   
   
   ♥♥♥♥
   The only thing that sucks is that I WANT THAT BOOK SO BADLY but it is $55 with shipping from Germany. :((( I may cave yet...
   
4. Relatedly, all of my girls at loewsmiserables! (The fan community for the German national team.) Even though the World Cup is over, the fandom rages on with so much life and laughter and delight! I have made three posts there with over 100 comments of giddy glee and gifs and awesomeness. I love that place and I love our boys. <3333 It's really cool to feel so involved in a fandom - it's been a while!
   
5. Also relatedly, my #Ger girls on Twitter! I posted on Loews asking if people wanted a Twitter support group during the World Cup about 3 weeks ago, and what resulted was this super awesome group of girls with whom I have exchanged literally THOUSANDS of Tweets. It's been a blast. I love you guys. ♥
   
6. And the best for last... I went on a date last night! :D

So I already told the story about how a barista at my favorite coffee shop offered me his number but I ended up giving mine his later and blah complicated silliness! Well, we have been on two (~three?) dates since then! :D He (Matt) called me last week and asked if I wanted to go to dinner and a movie, and so we did, and it was quite nice. We saw Winter's Bone, the Sundance festival winner - a very stark and gorgeous film, I highly recommend it. Then we got dinner and drinks and capped off the night with a stroll by the river where we hung out on a bench at 2 AM! It was quite a lovely date, but I must admit that I wasn't feeling a zing - there were a couple things about him that rubbed me the wrong way, so I was having my doubts. But then yesterday he texted me and asked if I wanted to go out for dinner, and of course I wanted to give him a second chance so I said sure, and suggested this noodle bar next to his coffee shop that he loooves but that I hadn't been to yet. So I go to the restaurant and he's not there - turns out he locked his keys in his car, WITH THE CAR RUNNING, and is waiting for AAA. *facepalm* Lolz. He was only a couple blocks away so I walked there, laughed at him, and we hung out on the grass for a while waiting for the AAA dude. It was a beautiful summer evening so I didn't really mind! Then we went to dinner, and then to my house for a bit where I gave him my Empires and Gold Motel CDs because he's totally into little indie bands and I want him to LOOOVE them, and also my Dollhouse DVDs, aaaand everything was lovely! I think we were both a lot more relaxed this time and everything was just sweet and fun and he really makes me laugh a lot. I'm definitely, definitely fond and will be seeing more of him!

Now I can tell you a lot of the reasons he's awesome, since this appears to be continuing. So he's a super experienced barista at my favorite coffee shop, which = free coffee and also he's a coffee nerd, which I find AWESOME. He got his degree in "general studies" at UMich after transferring from a couple places, and that included mostly English but also Womens Studies (!!!!) and a bunch of other random stuff. He's from a tiny town in upstate Michigan. He loves Firefly and Arrested Development and knows way too much about way too many indie bands (though he's not TOO pretentious about it). He's good friends with most of the people in the local music scene. He rooted for Germany in the World Cup (mostly because his boss is German, but still!). He smokes quite a bit of pot but is smart about it, haha. He wants to get his MFA in POETRY. I just. How is he real! I looove that he's a nerd so we speak the same language, but he's a totally different KIND of nerd than I'm used to. It's extremely refreshing to spend time with someone who isn't a scientist!

SOOOOO that's my life right now, in a rather long winded nutshell! Soccer = awesome, science = awesome, fangirls = awesome, German fussballers = awesome, and new boy = awesome.

\o/