HOLY FLYING MONKEYS, BATMAN!!

Lots of things have been happening lately, and I really shouldn't be blogging right now because my qualifying exam is next Tuesday and I'm not even remotely ready for it, BUT I wanted to make a quick post becauseeeeeee....




OHMYGOD I'M GETTING MARRIED!!!!!






It hit me today that in less than a month we will be driving to California, and in 34 days (THIRTY. FOUR. DAYS.) I will be a wife?!?! Until today the whole wedding has been abstract, like "oh yeah, we're getting married."

And then today I dropped off my ring to be replated so it'll look nice and shiny with minimal scratching, and the sales representative was talking about "how I could just wait...oh no, it's actually pretty close, huh?"

*mental math*

HOLY SHIT I'M GETTING MARRIED!


*cue tears of joy and anxiety. but mostly joy and disbelief*

And now this song is going through my head.

With that, I must get back to reading. :)

The Name of the Game...

... is panic attack! Let's see how many times I have a panic attack between now and May 27th :)

I seriously wake up every morning in a panic about things that have to be done, which are currently:

- Study for quals (written exam is May 1st, oral exam is May 11th)... EEK!!
- Refresh my memory on ecological principles for my field trip to Oregon next week (EEK!!! But that's a good panic... I think).
- Finish wedding planning (and everything that goes with it... EEK!!!)
- Teach students and grade papers for the rest of the semester.
- Get crap ready for moving on May 15th.


It's getting to the point that I almost feel like vomiting all day. Perhaps this will help with the weight loss? Gotta make sure my dress fits though.

I have a hair trial appointment on Saturday morning and I honestly have NO IDEA what to do with my frickin hair. Which is frustrating and disappointing because so few people have my type of hair, it's not like I can look up an actress and stalk her red carpet hair-dos.

Things that I do know:

- Dress is strapless, which probably means down 'do. (Right?)
- I will not be straightening my hair. I don't look like myself and it takes too long. (~ 3 hours. Yes. Three hours.)

That's pretty much all I know. I'm paying $75 for someone to play with my hair and tell me what I can do with it.

The only pictures I can find that are remotely useful are these:

So... yeah. Veil or no veil? Hair accessory? WHAT DO I DO!?!?!

Holiday Travels

Somewhere between the relief and ecstasy of being done with finals and excitement of finally going back home, I have managed to completely stress myself out about the actual traveling. Not quite at finals-level anxiety but close. The knot in my chest, resembling an asthma attack, is omnipresent. The endless list of things to do before leaving keeps adding to itself in my head and I can hardly manage to sit still for more than a few minutes. It takes me forever to finally calm my brain down to the point that sleep is possible. In fact, the past couple nights, I haven't been able to fall asleep without the help of medication.

Simply Sleep is awesome, by the way.

The conclusion to the insanity of the past few days? There's simply not enough time over the holiday break for me to give everyone that I want to see a proper visit. There are so many people that I haven't seen in a long time, especially my Momma. The guilt that I feel for not being able to dedicate a significant amount of time into visiting each person that I want to see, in addition to the stress of not having a detailed schedule for the coming week, is overwhelming.

An interesting quirk I've discovered about myself is that I try to make up for not having a schedule by being as prepared for what I know is coming as possible. Like the flights tomorrow, for example. I started packing on Friday, checked us in online as soon as the opportunity was available, paid the baggage fee for our one checked bag, printed boarding passes and checked luggage receipt, printed airport parking confirmations, started packing snacks and lunch, cleaned house, got my oil changed, charged the Kindle, cleaned out my car... Yeah. I've been busy.

Welcome to adulthood and the two-week vacation.

Now, I will have an opportunity to see everyone at the wedding in May. (Meaning I won't have to wait a year to see my family. What?? What is this nonsense???) That does make me feel a teensy bit better.

The obvious solution is I need to move back to California. The question is: when? I guess I should start looking for potential post doc positions.

In other news, we've been discussing what should go into the garden of our eventual house. So far on the list we have:

• Avocado tree
• Clementine tree
• Tomato plant
• Cilantro
• Basil
• Mint
• Jalapeno 
• Pecan tree
• Apple tree
• Bell peppers
• Cucumber
• Garlic
• Onion
• Parsley

I have no idea if all of those things can be grown together in a single climate. Or how much land our dream garden requires. But it would be nice!! Any other suggestions to add to the list?

Done with Finals! FOREVER!

So fall semester is officially done. My requirements for my degree are (almost) done. The classes that will require finals? DONE. No more finals for me. Forever.

FOR-EV-ERRRRRR!!!!

What? Pinkie Pie says it best :)

Things that have changed in the last... 4 months? 

• I'm officially switching from a Master's to a PhD. :) 
• A result of: wanting a PhD eventually and finally figuring out what I want to do and being able to tailor my current project to that ideal. SCORE!

• I will be teaching again next semester. DQ's Marine Botany lab!
• Apparently I'm next in the rotation of DQ's grad students to teach the lab portion of her class. The nice thing is that I won't have to do all of the grading by myself!

• My wedding dress came in and I went for my fitting and supposedly the alterations are done. Woo!
• I was asked if I wanted to wait for the alterations to be done at a later date. I said no. The sooner things can get checked off of my list, the better!

• Lots of wedding details are coming together, thankfully. Trying to get as much done as possible.
• The dress... the tuxes... figuring out the favors... making my veil... the schedule... wedding party gifts, toasting flutes and cake serving set, and staying within budget! That was a very happy order.

• The guest list is by far the worst part of wedding planning.
• I don't think I've said a truer statement.

• Dissertation proposal still not written, but that's my assignment for myself next semester. Oh and taking quals. 
• :-/

I think things are falling into place very nicely! We're leaving for California for the holidays next week (SO. STOKED.) and I actually get to see my hun bun for an entire TWO WEEKS. That hasn't happened since this summer! 

Christmas gifts this year are rather small. While we don't have to pay for the wedding anymore (still feeling the blessings of an amazing family, bee-tee-dubs), we're still kinda in the not-able-to-afford-lavish-gifts income bracket. Sticking to small gifts for the immediate family and baked goodies for everyone else this year. Apparently my gingerbread cookies are a hit! The tin that I brought for my lab mates yesterday was hoovered by the end of the day. The only issue is figuring out how to get baked goodies to the family in California since we're flying instead of driving this year. 

And you know? I keep getting asked by family members what I want for Christmas this year. And while there are things that I wouldn't mind getting, I can honestly say that I'm good without gifts this year. All I want is to spend time with family that I haven't seen in a year, and my wedding is still happening. I'm good. No. I'm GREAT. 

Happy holidays, everyone :)

Well, Hello Again.

Many apologies for the long hiatus on posting. I know you all have been DYING to know what I've been up to since my last post. A quick summary of happenings of the past few months:

I have...

*...moved to Houston.

*...traveled to San Francisco to visit future sister-in-law and get wedding details arranged (all successes!)

*...bought my wedding dress. (*squee!*)

*...started working as a graduate research assistant at the Galveston A&M campus. The new Ocean and Coastal Studies Building is SO PRETTY. I'll have to take pictures and post next time.

*...been on a research cruise out in the Gulf of Mexico (and will be doing so again next week!).

*...been reading for my thesis proposal (I was supposed to have it written by the end of summer, but there's SO MUCH to read).

*...put up drapes in the living room, dining room and bedroom. So homey and it makes being in the first two rooms a lot more bearable in the morning.

*...made my own hummus.

*...ordered wedding invitations, reply cards, thank you cards, save the dates (all with free envelopes included!) and place cards. I love vistaprint :)

*...taken a day trip to Rice Village.

*...hung out with future sister-in-law for a few days in Houston which included: seeing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 at midnight, a beach day in Galveston, tapas in Rice Village and general laziness.

*...taken part in crazy water month in the lab.

*...tried to go see the Houston Symphony Orchestra perform the Lord of the Rings soundtrack while the movie played on a big screen, but failed. So we improvised and watch the special extended edition at home really loudly instead.

*...dog-sat a vicious demon. No really. He was a vindictive little monster who is no longer welcome in my house.

And that brings us to the present. Right now I'm still reading for my proposal. Well, obviously not right this second, but that's what has been occupying most of my time. Rather, it's more me trying to read for my proposal and really just feeling burned out about it. It's impossible to read or write in a cubicle. It's impossible for me to want to get things done when working at home. So what now? Do I need to take a week-long vacation and come back to it? To take a vacation would require going somewhere and spending money that I don't have. I've been working from home for two days and being stuck inside is driving me insane. I suppose I'm at an impasse. I leave for a cruise on Monday, and will come back the following Tuesday, which leaves a week and a half until school starts. Do I really want to start the school year feeling burned out? Not really. I only have 2 real classes plus a seminar and research hours.

Maybe I will take a week off or something. Hopefully that will fix me.

Year One: Complete.

I finished classes, both for teaching and for taking, on May 9th at 11:30 pm. The take home final was tedious and annoying, but I finished. Ever since, I have been over the moon. No more teaching. I'm done with the bulk of my classes. I'm a year and a half (most likely) from finishing my Master's degree. It's strange to think that this time last year I was graduating from undergrad. It feels like so much longer ago. It's also strange to think that I'm still 22. For some reason I feel like I should be older. I feel older. Twenty-two sounds really young, and truthfully I'm one of the youngest grad students in the department. But I don't feel that way.

There were definitely ups and downs over the course of this semester. Most of the downs to do with assignments for which expectations were not made clear, uncertainties with what concepts were going to be asked of students on exams, and dealing with juggling teaching 3 classes and taking 3 classes. All in addition to the myriad of situations of undergrads-and-their-lack-of-common-sense.

The ups... this will take me a minute.

- Going out on a boat on Galveston Bay to collect samples and falling into the best sleep I had had in months at 8:30 that night until 6:30 the next morning.
- Teaching my students about recycling and really cool animals that I find awesome. And then having several students pipe in about options for recycling. And then seeing their eyes widen and their faces screw up in concentration as they contemplate how big a blue whale really is when I show them a baleen tooth.
- Talking about concepts related to my thesis in my Biogeochemistry of Estuaries class (taught by one of my committee members!) and debating about what's going on there.
- Booking a venue for our wedding! And planning a trip out to California to investigate vendors.
- Planning a summer that will involve a full time paying job in a lab that I enjoy being in and research cruises out on the Gulf :)
- Almost weekly meetings for lunch and/or drinks with my dear friend and bridesmaid Alicia, who got engaged two days ago! I'm so happy and excited for her and her now fiancee! Wow that's weird. But a good weird.

I mentioned in my previous post (or rather the comments) that I should give at least one story about the good kids in my classes. As I racked my brain, I found that there's really not a story about the good kids. I enjoyed having them in my classes, and they gave me a ray of hope that the world may not end after all. Though for a short story, in the last lab of the semester, Nekton/Benthos, we discussed the effects of pollution through non-recyclable plastics, what different animals live where, and then a series of video clips about things that I find awesome followed (i.e. bubble netting, dolphin longshore feeding, Christmas Island crab spawning, flamboyant cuttlefish, pretty much anything narrated by David Attenborough) and a video about overfishing (look up Blue Planet: Deep Trouble episode).

I swear to god, everything this man says sounds AMAZING. ALWAYS. By far, my favorite documentary narrator.

This was the class that a couple of students spoke up about other options of where to recycle. At the end, one pair of students that had piped in in the discussion came up to talk to me at the end of class to talk about a book she had read for a different class in Environmental Studies. I forget the name of the book, I'll email her about it later, but she said that she was so moved by it that she decided to not eat fish, and she had previously not given any thought to it. It was really... something. I felt fortunate to have been her TA.


In other news, we start our move to Houston on Wednesday. I haven't really started packing yet. Maybe I should start packing up the office tonight. It'll give me something to do other than re-watch the 7th season of Gilmore Girls. I've also been investigating washers and dryers. We're FINALLY moving to an apartment with washer/dryer connections and while it would be cheaper to buy off of craigslist, I'd rather buy new. I think it's worth the cost to invest in something new that I can get fixed in case of accidents. Plus, with applying for a card from the store, I can pay off the washer and dryer but keep the card for future big purchases. It feels so adult!

After moving, we have a week to get settled before jetting off to California to tour our venue and investigate the florist, photographers, cake bakers, hotels, rehearsal dinner locations, and observe a set up of a wedding at the venue. It's going to be a packed weekend, but I'm really looking forward to it. It'll be nice to get something concrete done and not school related for the next couple weeks.