one more miracle

Monday mornings aren't supposed to be unexpectedly nice, but I'm not going to complain! This morning, I was sitting at my computer in the lab, back to the door, and suddenly someone's hand landed on my head and kind of rubbed my hair a little bit. I started, assumed it was my friend Ryan from downstairs, turned to say hi and did a hilarious double take, because it was DAVE!! Dave is my lab coworker from last summer, and it turns out he was just passing through for the afternoon and came into the lab to do some researching through our online resources. It was such a wonderful surprise!! He graduated so he's not around anymore, and I MISS him something fierce. Some of you might remember that I had a massive crush on him last year, and while I'm over it, he still makes me super happy just by being around. He teases me a lot and we're just super comfortable together. It was so lovely to just chat with him for a couple hours (I totally didn't do any work in that time.... oops!). I asked him about his new job as a lab tech at Dupont, which he got straight out of college, and he told me that he's making $56,000 a year, PLUS benefits. Holy crap!! On top of that, he was OVERqualified for the job. This is so encouraging for me, since I'm planning on getting a similar job right out of college to save up for grad school.

So that was a nice start to my week! \o/

Let's see, what else is goin down. I talked to my daddy for an hour on the phone today. I asked him if my tattoo could definitely be my bday present, and he said yes. I then went on to explain my tattoo philosophy to him (which is, ahem, stolen from Frank Iero, because it is that awesome - in short, it's that each tattoo represents who you were at some stage in your life, and if you give them enough consideration that they ARE true to who you are in that moment in time, you can never get tired of them because you don't (shouldn't) get tired of yourself). He seemed reassured and impressed that I give the whole thing so much thought. I think it still weirds him out a little that I'm getting tattoos, and talking about them like this is just the start. He said that he was actually surprised I was brave enough for the pain, and I laughed and said that Mom said that too. And he said that that's probably because I was such a WUSS when I was little, sobbing over the tiniest of boo boos, so he and my Mom both associate that with me still. Even though it's not really true at all anymore. I thought that was really sweet and cute. Somehow we got on the topic of how my daddy raised me and I got to tell him how much I love and appreciate him and his approach to my upbringing, which was very much to let me do what I wanted to do, while just giving me guidance by example in terms of ideals and morals. I am very grateful for my parents in that respect especially - I ALWAYS felt free to be exactly who I wanted to be.

/sappy!

Talking about The Incredible Hulk made me want to see it agaaaaain. Like, ASAP. Ungh so good. I'll just have to make do with Fight Club... my life, so hard!

Hay you guys, fangirls are awesome (or embarrassing? no, mostly awesome) and MADE DAVID HEWLETT SAY "I LOVE YOU TOO JOHN SHEPPARD." NO REALLY. Eeeeeeeeeee!


Ugh ILHIM.

This weekend - WARPED! The weekend after - DC with all of my American girls from Dublin!!! ALL OF THEM! Emmy (Cary's sister) accidentally let slip that EMILY IS COMING TOO! So it's a complete reunion and I am SO RIDICULOUSLY EXCITED I CAN'T EVEN. I knew that this would be perfect timing, because as predicted I am so over this America thing and sinking into a funk of need-Dublin-NOW, so seeing them will really help to stop that downward spiral. They UNDERSTAND my PAIN.

Well, this was a random post! I'm going to go be productive now.

XOXO

Hello beautifuls! I know I haven't posted in a while, I'm sorry. I've been extremely busy!

The major development is that I moved back to Pennsylvania into my new apartment at my college to do research for the summer. I drove down on Thursday night, crashed on a friend's couch, and moved in Friday morning (after an annoying kerfluffle to get my hands on my keys). My apartment is surprisingly lovely, and looks like it was just completely renovated, which I did not expect! Brand new furniture, everything spic and span, and it's BIG. It's for three people and it's almost twice the size of my four person apartment in Dublin. We each get our own bedroom, with a double bed and closet. The living area is big, with a dining table and chairs, a couch and armchair and side tables, and the kitchen is big with loads of counter space and a DISH WASHER. But it also has character, since I think it was just recently a very old and crappy apartment, so it retains some of that age. The walls on the outside are white-painted brick, and criss-crossing all the ceilings are water pipes that are painted a pleasing dark green. There are also three big wooden support beams exposed at intervals down the hallway, they're cool. I really love it, and I can't wait to share it with my two best friends! \o/

I spent the last couple days buying an obscene amount of STUFF to supply it, because although it was furnished, it had NOTHING else, not even, like, a shower curtain. So I went to Sears and the grocery store and Walmart and completely stocked up. At Sears I found this adorable bathroom set on clearance sale, so everything in my bathroom matches, from the shower curtain to the bath mat, to the toothbrush holder, hand towel, and trash can. It's awesome \o/ I also got dishes and utensils and pots and pans and FOOD. It was quite the undertaking, but I am very pleased with my home making efforts!

My friend Thomas, who graduated last year and whom I haven't seen since before I left for Dublin, is living in DC right now so he took a train up and spent the weekend with me! He helped me shop for stuff, and we hung out with our other friends that are here for the summer and had a really good time together. It was really really nice to see him again. It's also great to see the other people staying here, including Fei, Ryan, Audrey, Kathan, Alyssa, and others who I haven't run into yet. I don't think I'll get too lonely this summer :)

Today before I took Thomas to the train station, we took a walk on campus, and we ran into this woman and her son who was wearing a Trinity College Dublin t-shirt! I asked if he went there, and it turned out that his older brother is going there for four years! AND, the woman had a lovely Irish accent!!! They live in Massachusetts but she must have grown up in Ireland. I was so excited! We talked about Trinity and F&M (my college, which her older son considered and her younger one is considering now) and how jealous of her son I was for getting to spend four years at Trinity! She was really lovely, and it was such a coincidental, fun encounter. Even funnier is that her son is in freshman science, so there's a good chance he knows Dara, Paul, and Richard!! So weird, but really cool. That totally made my day :D

So that's kind of all the basics of my current situation. I start work tomorrow morning (blegh) and today is going to be spent first going over to Fei's to watch the Italy-Spain quarterfinal, then unpacking and organizing my new apartment, and reading up on papers to brush up on my research project. I wish my life would slow down a little bit, but I'm okay for the moment.

OH AND ALSO I WATCHED THE LEAKED SGA SEASON FIVE PREMIERE AND PLEASE FEEL FREE TO COME SQUEE IN THE COMMENTS OMG IT WAS AMAZING.

Ahem. /squee :D

Toodles, loves!