one more miracle

I had an awesome time seeing my two college best friends this past weekend. I spent Thursday night and Friday with Rob - we went into Philly Friday, saw Under the Sea in IMAX at the Franklin Institute (I REALLY wanted to see the Body exhibit, but tickets were almost $30, WTF, and we didn't really have enough time to justify that kind of money), had lunch at the Reading Terminal Market, and wandered around. We met up with MICHELLLLLLE, my lover, and took her out for dinner at an awesome Mexican place. Then Rob went back home and I spent Friday night and Saturday with Michellllle. Our time consisted entirely of: being in pajamas, ordering in Thai and pizza, and watching the entirety of Band of Brothers (well, eps 4-10 since she'd seen 1-3). IT WAS GLORIOUS. Michelle is my most favorite person in the world, and being with her is actually more relaxing than having time to myself, which is kind of the only person I can say that about. And now she's finally seen all of BoB! And knows just how completely Nix and Winters are married! Yay! It was fun. I still cry at the very last bit: "But I served in a company of heroes." ALKDJFLKSJD WINTERS. ;____♥

Anywhoodle, that was grate and I am very glad I got the chance to see pretty much everyone I know on the East coast, including dozens of high school teachers and college profs, and my parents of course. Good times, good times.

Now I am back at the grindstone and it's mostly okay. Just got an unexpected deadline dropped on my shoulders in lab and I'm a little freaked out because I'm really really not sure I can generate the results in time, but um. Deep breaths, it will be okay.

What I really wanted to post about though was a piece of potentially quite bad news I got today. My dearest darling Francisco, one of my two best friends here at Michigan, is currently rotating in a lab that he thought he was going to join. However, the professor has been offered and has accepted a job at the Scripps Institute in Florida. And here's the kicker - he's thinking about going with her.

I was seriously devastated when I heard this news. I mean - he's my Francisco. Over the past few months, he has quickly become someone very near and dear to my heart. He and Steffen have become my little support network, the people around whom I can truly be myself. And the thought of losing Francisco makes my heart ache in a very real way. I don't know if it will actually happen, and believe me I am doing my very best to suggest alternatives to him, and to make enormous sad eyes at him to guilt him into staying. The thing is, he really doesn't want to move to Florida - his family's in Chicago, he's already started to find a home here, etc. But he feels like there's no other lab for him in our program. I have to believe that isn't true, but the other lab he might like to join is Jason's, aka the one I have my heart set on, and Jason only has so many funds, and a lot of students interested........ yeah, it's kind of a problem.

I'm really really worried about this. My heart literally goes all clenchy and my eyes get hot and teary if I think about it at all, and I just. I can't deal with the thought of losing him. I'm not going to examine those emotions too closely right now - I just know I need to try my best to keep him here. Because he belongs with us.

Update on my real life shenanigans! I spent Wednesday with my friend Rob and we had an AWESOME time. He lives on the Jersey shore, way down on the south tip (Cape May and Stone Harbor, for anyone who knows the area) and the beaches down there are so nice. We had a 95 degree day and we went KAYAKING IN THE OCEAN \o/ It was so much FUN. I was kind of scared at first, but I sucked it up and paddled out there like a pro, hee. I got flipped several times by the waves, but I managed to catch some fun rides! The most fun was just kinda goofin around out there, the kayaks were so fun to be in and it was such a gorgeous day to be in the ocean. My biceps are still feeling it, hee, and I've got purple bruises all over my shins from the boat bumping into them, but it was totally worth it. We had a blast.

Then we saw Bourne Ultimatum on the BEACH! They had a huge inflatable screen and you just sat in beach chairs on the sand and it was amazing. There was a lovely breeze off the ocean and I played with the sand with my feet the whole time :D And the movie was INCREDIBLE, oh my god. I never had a super strong reaction to the first two (I don't even think I've seen the whole of Supremacy) but this was just GREAT. It felt really human and grounded and I followed it really easily, understanding who everyone was and their motivations and what was going on, and I really appreciated that. Plus? Matt Damon is hot and kicks ass \o/ Win! Yay! Definitely go see it.

THEN we walked around on the boardwalk, rode an old rattling wooden rollercoaster, peeked inside an awesome music poster and tshirt store which was OUT of Panic! posters, thank god, or he would have had to drag me away. There was lots of Fall Out Boy though, and a bit of whimpering on my part, but I managed to stay strong *g*

All in all it was a super fun visit, and I'm so glad I went. He's one of my two best friends at college and I'm really going to miss him while I'm in Ireland. This was like our last hurrah before I jet away! It's a really great memory to have with him though, so yay for that.

Then I came home! Four hours up the Garden State Parkway = about 10 dollars, including the Tappan Zee Bridge toll. I have zero change left, haha. But the drive was fine (if HOT, gah) and now I'm home! With my daddy, yay! My brother is being something of a dick and I already want to strangle him, but whatever, par for the course.

Tomorrow I set out AGAIN. We're driving up to Michigan (10 hour drive!) to chill with various familial types. I'm SO SO excited to see my cousins again, the ones that I lived with last summer. I've missed them! So that's exciting, if a bit overwhelming after all my traveling!

On the fandom side of things, I've just been reading lots of super fun Panic! fic. I don't think they could be any cuter if they TRIED. Oh boys. There's also the adorable virgin fest vids and pics and yep, still super fabulous! ♥ Also, I GOT MY METALLICAR TSHIRT! I ordered it from Glarkware aaages ago and it arrived while I was in Lancaster. It's black and pretty and the Metallicar has one of her headlights busted like in the pilot and it's AWESOME. Yaye!

Well that's enough rambling from me! Off to finish organizing packing, which is SO HARD when things you want are scattered through your own car in boxes and bags *facepalm*

Today was quite the day!

For starters, I GOT TURNED INTO A ZOMBIE!!! :O

Then, I ate ROB and turned him into a ZOMBIE TOO!!! (Rob the Zombie! Har har! I have to go make fun of him for that...)

It's actually a lot more fun being the zombie because you're IT! You don't have to be paranoid anymore, you just get to ATTACK. And mere humans tremble at the sight of you! It's hilariously fabulous. My favorite incident of the game today was when I was in the dining hall and I saw my friend Ben Berg walking past the window - and he was still a human! So I LEAPT out of my chair, RACED out the front door and CHASED him all the way down past the length of D-hall. We stopped, he turned and we circled each other for a minute before he threw a marshmallow and I was hit, dammit! Heehee. It was hilarious. Apparently my desire for BRAAAAAINZ motivated me cause Rob and Michelle said I ran super fast, aha! And all of DHall was watching! I made a spectacle of myself! Heee. So, so much fun.

I also had a Stat test which went really well; got a Physics test back which did NOT go so well, dammit; found my lost cell phone, yay; and had organic chem lab, in which my first try at the experiment failed miserably (I got charred little pieces of graphite instead of my product, hexaphenylbenzene) so I had to start again and ended up staying a half hour late, making lab a total of 4.5 hours. Then I had kickboxing and have now arrived at home, exhausted. Luckily I don't have much work to do really, so I plan to go take a shower and then collapse into bed and mainline some Farscape! \o/

ETA: I forgot to mention that I got my Stat paper back! The one where I used the Stargate Atlantis example, only without names! My teacher wrote "Sounds like a movie script" "Nice." and at the end "I enjoyed your example." And I got a 99 on the damn thing! \o/ Victory! Hee.