one more miracle

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!

Reasons why my Francisco is the best Francisco:

1) He has a 42 inch flat screen TV.
2) He loves Band of Brothers and is really excited to do a full rewatch with me.

:DDDDDD

Oh and, 3) he makes me laugh harder than almost anyone in the world. But, you know, I have priorities. *g*

We watched Currahee on his TV tonight. The hearts in my eyes were stupidly huge. Watching Currahee is still so delightful - all their faces popping up in the background! Doc Roe in the cafeteria! Talbert in all kinds of random places! Cudlitz playing basketball! Grant bringing Sink a beer! Shifty adorably trying to defend Sobel! Tipper cracking up at Luz! Lieb giving mohawk haircuts! Guarnere nomming on ice cream! Mama Lip leading the mutiny! NIX NIX NIX! WINTERS WINTERS WINTERS! Ugh iltheirfacessfm.

Before that we watched Hero with Steffen and Kate, because Steffen loves it crazy amounts. It was pretty! There was lots of swordfighting! Pretty cool stuff.

In other news, who knew an acoustic cover of Hey Ya could be so adorable? STARK SANDS WHAT IS YOUR FAAACE. I can HAS his face (and voice omg!) in JUUUNE! *grabbyhands*

:D

HAPPY BIRTHDAY tjournal!! I hope it is a lovely one. ♥

So my friend Thomas flew in from DC yesterday to visit me, and we went out for a phenomenal dinner at a French restaurant in town and followed it up with beers with my besties and roomies, which was tons of fun. Today: fantastic brunch, wandering around campus, cupcakes, ice skating, and who knows what else! Zany! Should be a good time.

Obviously he is by default my Valentine, not that I could give a crap about that. Hopefully I don't run into too many soppy gross couples today. :P

Well!

That was definitely the stupidest thing I have ever done for a band, but hey, I have to return the failbots' fail in kind sometimes. :P

The weather channel said "snow flurries" for Toledo, 1 inch accumulation. AHAHAHAHAHA. It was snowing hard, with strong winds, most of the drive down there AND during the show AND on the way home. Flurries my ASS. On the way down I got stuck in a inching traffic jam for fully an hour - a semi had gone completely off the road, turned 180 degrees, smashed up its front entirely and split open the trailer part. It was pretty dramatic and terrifying. The roads were just - terrible. Nothing was being done except a little sand.

The way back was both worse and better - the roads were in much worse condition (probably 3 inches of snow built up), but there was almost no one on the road so I could just concentrate and drive straight. So that was fine if exhausting and slow.

HOWEVER, all of my efforts were nearly dashed by two (probably drunk) assholes, two minutes from my house, who did a SKIDDING 360 TURN RIGHT BEHIND ME AT A RED LIGHT. These guys missed me by maybe three feet. WHAT THE FUCK. Then they peeled out, tires squealing, and pulled up next to me at the light. They were cracking up. OH MY GOD YOU SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO EXIST. HATE STABBITY HATE. >>>>:(

Ahem.

Now I am EXHAUSTED, but happy because Empires is always, always worth it. <3333 Especially when you manage to start a war between Ryan Luciani and Mark Rose becuase you're going to the latter's show instead of the former's. OOOOOH. Ryan even wrote a THREATENING NOTE for me to pass on to Mark, ahahaha. What are these boys?! <333

More complete report tomorrow. Suffice to say they were amazing, I love RyanJ's face, and I am so relieved to be home safe.

And yes, I am listening to very old school Backstreet Boys.

*FLOPS*