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!?!?!

Life Adventures in 2012 So Far

Howdy doodles!


We survived the trip to California, not much worse for the wear. We didn't get to visit everyone and everywhere that we wanted but overall the trip was a success (and too short, but isn't it always?). We made it back home with our apartment intact, our plants still (mostly) living. I inadvertently killed our basil... apparently you're supposed to pinch off the flowers? The stems transitioned from herbaceous to woody for the most part. Our mint still lives but I think we're just going to start over and have each herb in it's own pot instead of the windowsill box. 


George's sister did us the favor of going to the venue's meal tasting for us, as they were unable to accomodate one for us while we were in the area over the holidays. She sent us her notes and our menu is done! Etiquette says that I need to wait until the 3 month mark to send out invitations (just under 4 months now!) and I'm getting impatient. I've had these invitations since July. Patience is a virtue and I have limited quantities of it. Just ask George. I gave him his Christmas present before Thanksgiving because I was too excited about it. He opened his birthday/anniversary present 4/13 days before the actual occasions. 


Dress is done with alterations, though I haven't had the chance to do my final fitting before taking it into my possession. George ordered his wedding band. A close friend is going to premarital counseling as mandated by the church that's doing the service. After hearing that, I thought "Should we be doing that? Why didn't I think to do it in the first place? What if we don't match up on paper? Ohgodohgodohgod." Thankfully we were able to go through pseudo premarital counseling by asking ourselves these questions (which went very well! We're very excited about the future.) I'm starting to get to the stage of planning where I'm getting sick of planning and I just want the damn thing over with.


Our five year anniversary was last week! It was a very low key day, but it was wonderful :) Our last dating anniversary! This next year is going to be awesome. 


We've been dealing with new neighbors since we came back from break. All of them have the neighborly consideration of a frat house. I've had to knock on each of their doors several times because I can not only hear what they're watching on TV but the bass is so loud that the pictures on our walls shake, and my feet vibrate. I HATE SHARING WALLS WITH PEOPLE. I cannot WAIT to move. Honestly?! Who does that? Why would you have your volume and bass up that loud when you share walls with three different apartments??


I'm applying for several scholarships, one of which is very distinguished within NOAA and the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. It would fund the remainder of my graduate career and would make life OH SO MUCH EASIER. I came in with a two year scholarship from College Station, and after dealing with the bureaucracy of being a TA in Galveston but taking College Station hours and figuring out who pays for what, I just want to be self sufficient. Fortunately the huge grant I'm applying for sounds like it was written for me, but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed. I'm also STILL WAITING to hear back from the Office of Graduate Studies on my change of degree from Master's to PhD. Even though they've had the paperwork in hand for weeks. The sooner they process it, the sooner I can submit my grant application and not worry about confusion for technically being a Master's student when I applied, when actually I'm PhD. 


I'm teaching Marine Botany lab this semester and already I can tell that it's going to be interesting. Their first assignment was to pick one of the five scientific articles that we posted to the class website and write a 250 word summary. Now keep in mind that they have access to the rubric that we're using to grade their assignments. THEY KNOW WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR. And still people submitted incomplete assignments. Two of my students very blatantly plagiarized. One of the two submitted a summary with not a single original sentence. Everything, and I do mean everything, was copy-pasted. This same student submitted a nearly perfect paper this past week with everything cited, which sent off red alerts in my head. Something fishy is going on with this student, but I have no proof of anything. 


A couple of my students can't write proper English to save their lives. One of the papers they were given to summarize (which the majority chose) was an article about how whale fecal matter in the upper water column contributes to the nutrients available for phytoplankton to utilize in photosynthesis. The following is an excerpt from a summary submitted by a college senior:


The authors use wishy-washy math and have "conservative" answers eluding their uncertainty. Poop, while grim; this was an interesting take on how it enhances life.




Take a minute to read and let that soak in. 




Still don't understand what he's trying to say? Neither do I. Here's a short list of the few problems I have with this excerpt:

• Since when is math "wishy-washy?" 
• Why are you using the phrase "wishy-washy" when writing a scientific article summary?
• Do you know what the word "eluding" means?
• Why did you say "poop" when writing a scientific article summary? The article clearly references "poop" as "fecal matter."
• "Poop, while grim" is not an independent clause, therefore there should not be a semicolon after it. 

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How do these kids get into college? How have they gotten this far? Why are they trying to make my life miserable? WHY???

(I have the feeling that I'll be asking the question "WHY?????" a lot this semester.)

The "poop" student also submitted his next report with a picture of his grading rubric instead of the document. He could have just copy-pasted the rubric into his report, but instead he took a picture of a printed rubric and inserted the picture into his report. 

WHY????????

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 :)

Roller Coaster Week

The past week has been an emotional roller coaster in the most literal way I can express. I have never experienced so many ups and downs in such a short amount of time, that, honestly I was tipsy from the emotional whiplash and needed to sit down.

Let's start with last Thursday, my birthday. Not a remarkable day as far as birthdays go. It was actually kind of very sucky. The birthday wishes from friends and family, in addition to a nice birthday dinner at the Kemah Boardwalk and a ferris wheel ride (eee!) helped stave off the suckiness until later in the evening.

I had been notified that I would have to take care of my fees for school this year, which isn't much compared to what I had to pay for undergrad. However, when you think that you have a scholarship for the term of your enrollment, and find out that you don't, it's kind of a slap in the face. George wasn't sure that he was going to have funding for this year either, and I could feel this sinking feeling in my gut that something's gotta give. How could I possibly justify to myself that I needed to pay for a wedding, when I've always been the person to put school first? How could I possibly pay for a wedding when we didn't (and still don't) know our funding situation for the year? I couldn't. And neither could George.

So at dinner, we decided that we would cancel our wedding in May so that we could reserve the money for paying for school if needed. As soon as the decision was made, I felt awful (and broke down in tears) but I also felt immensely relieved. Heartbroken emails were sent, canceling what we couldn't use for any contingency plans, and I started thinking about what to do instead.

Elope? I imagined being eviscerated by my mother in numerous ways that made any Fright Night movie look like Disneyland's Haunted Mansion by comparison. Not only that, I wanted her there, whatever we did. We both wanted our families present wherever and whenever we decided to get married.

The brainstorming turned to San Francisco City Hall as we had originally planned, only this time during winter break 2011. We're going to be in California anyways visiting for the holidays, our families would be off from work, and it seemed like the perfect solution. However, work schedules and city hall availability dates were not cooperating. I was screaming to myself and anyone who I was talking to that day

THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE SIMPLER, DAMMIT!!!


I was almost in tears (again) when I called my fabulous/gracious/generous aunt to ask for my cousins' winter break schedule. It appeared that nothing was going to work for getting married over winter break. And then she suggested the most mind blowing and generous idea I have ever heard in my life:

"What if your grandma and I took over paying for the rest of the wedding if you can get everything back for the May date?"


(If you couldn't tell, that was the point that I had to sit down.)

I couldn't fathom someone voluntarily taking care of everything. That's a lot of money! It felt like too much to accept. But according to my aunt and grandma, I was going to receive help anyway. I've always been the kind of person to try to take care of things on my own, and I don't like asking for help. It never really occurred to me to ask. Silly? Probably.

I've never been religious by any means, but in that moment, I felt so... BLESSED. I couldn't believe that we were going to get the wedding we wanted and planned for without having to break the bank. I still feel incredibly blessed with such generous and loving family. So unbelievably lucky.

The next 24 hours consisted of me frantically emailing and calling the vendors that we had canceled with, and miraculously everything was still available. No refunds dispersed, contracts still honorable. Like magic, the wedding-date-that-almost-was materialized, as if it hadn't gone anywhere.

A quote that I want to share comes from a conversation with my uncle, explaining the changes:

Me: Well, we were trying to pay for it ourselves...
Uncle: WHY would you do THAT??
Me: Because I'm silly, apparently.


So while my actual birthday was probably one of the worst of my life so far, this year will be great. I can feel it :)

Oh, and I also went on a research cruise for 8 days. The water was a gorgeous cerulean blue and we managed to convince the captain to let us have a "fire drill and man overboard exercise." AKA each of us scientists got to man the fire hose and jump off the back of the boat and swim around for about an hour.

And I almost got pinched by a crab.

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.

Highlights of the Weekend.

Instead of the usual in depth rundown of my thoughts from the past couple of days, I will give the highlights.

I stayed home Thursday because I was a coughing, mucus-y mess.

Thursday night/Friday morning it snowed. We got a few good inches. The university closed, and I didn't have to teach my class. Unfortunately, now I have to make up the lab the week after Easter. Again I stayed home because I was still sick.

Friday through Sunday was a lot of wedding planning.
*We figured out the best course of financial action so that we can pay for the thing without stressing about it.
*We have a venue for the ceremony and reception.
*We booked a flight out to SF for Memorial Day weekend so we can visit the venue and go over details. If we don't like it, we don't lose much financially. Plus, we have bakeries and a photographer that we need to hire, so it will be a productive weekend.
*Flight prices are annoyingly arbitrary and expensive. Kayak.com was actually better than trying to buy directly from Southwest Airlines.
*We have a wedding website :)
*I started compiling addresses for our friends and family.

Last night was the Super Bowl.
*The only thing I liked about the halftime show was that it was Tron-esque.
*Woo the Packers won.
*The Volkswagen commercial was my personal favorite. It makes me giggle.
*I made cinnamon streusel muffins. I craved something fluffy and sweet.

I've moved on from coughing to sneezing. Or needing to sneeze and not having the sneeze come when I want it to. I would very much like to breathe out of both nostrils. My trash can is full of tissues.

Sarah introduced me to quite possibly the funniest thing I've seen in a while. You should check it out.