perfect recipe

after a very rough week, there is nothing quite like some quality time with family and friends...sipping cosmos and talking with my mom, snuggling with my puppy, and hearing one of my favorite little people attempt to play the piano.

this is the perfect recipe for a change of heart :)

so bring it on monday...i'm recharged and ready for whatever you've got.

who's greg?

laurie & lindsay came into town last weekend and we headed over to saloon happies to party like it was 2004.  senior year we would always go to saloon happies to see our favorite band, steve & todd [they rocked].  unfortunately, steve left, so we were just expecting to enjoy some todd-only tunes.

then we saw the saloon sign...todd & greg?  who's greg?

we got our miller light pitcher and gave this greg a chance to win us over.  at first i was hopeful...he had some fun banter, like how steve used to be.  then he played a remake of TLC...no scrubs [yes, this song].  no offense to TLC, loved them back in highschool...but at saloon happies, sung slowly by this guy?  not so much.

thank gosh for todd, because as we shouted out our favorite songs from years ago, he played them all.  it was awesome :)  the gambler, hey hey, signs, the joker, ring of fire, 500 miles...amazing.

so maybe we'll give this greg another shot...but he's got to pick some better songs...

sandpiper-ing

[see larger image on flickr]

this week was a lot of running back and forth from campus to home, to meetings, to the lab, to classes, and to downtown.  i've felt like a little sandpiper, flitting around quickly to the ebbs and flows of a student's life...occasionally sticking my head in the sand for sleep and tv [yeay for gossip girl being back].

but it's finally the weekend...which means i can just sit back and enjoy the view [while grading papers and reading of course :)]

in action

one of the teams that i'm working with this semester has a PhD student visiting from china, named chunhua.  she is so sweet and asked if we could take some pictures of us working to send back to her classmates at school.  so i brought my camera and we tracked down one of our friends to take some shots for us [brought back memories of the posing i did for IST marketing shots in the good ole undergrad days]

so i thought i'd post one here.  this actually looks like it could be a marketing shot :) our friend michael was an ace with the camera work.

so here i am...in action.

life soundtrack

if you're a sara bareilles fan [love her], then you already know that her new album just came out september 7th.

i got it.

i love, love, love it.

it's awesome.

monday through wednesday were super crazy, so it's been the soundtrack of my life lately.  while reading articles, writing papers, working out, and walking on campus...i've been listening to the new tunes.

have a listen here to one of my favorites, uncharted.  she writes and composes her own music too [did i mention she was awesome?]


i also just posted a flickr photo that i took of a double-rainbow off the coast of denmark.  one of her other songs, kaleidoscope heart, a song about the rainbow of colors within us, came on while i was editing the photo...how cool is that?

hope you're enjoying some fun music today too :)

it's coming

look at those numbers!

[minus the 77 degrees that we'll have to put up with for today ;)...but the rest of the week is looking beeeautiful]

soon it will be homecoming with rowdy football games, tailgating parties, and warm sweatshirts.

i'll be walking to class in the cool, crisp air watching the leaves turn golden yellow and vibrant red.

we'll be carving pumpkins, eating apples, and drinking warm cider.

can you feel it?  it's coming.  fall is almost here :)

cubicle no more

i thought i could "get ahead" this weekend.  i was aiming to finish all of my assignments for the week so that i could start getting to sleep at a normal hour [as in, before 3am].  but, unfortunately, i'm still working on the assignment that is due tonight.

anyway, at least my view is pretty nice.  this is exactly where i'm sitting now as i type this post.  the entire room is floor to ceiling windows. so i'm listening to some new sara bareilles tunes, drinking some yummy coffee, and overlooking the beautiful tree-filled campus.  i'd say this is quite an improvement from being stuck inside all day in a cubicle with no windows.

...okay, back to reading about how to most effectively use ethnomethodology for system design [it's actually more interesting than it sounds].  fun times :)

we remember

[see larger image on flickr]

"we remain the land of the free because we are the home of the brave."

i took this picture earlier this year in new york [while drinking an overpriced coffee] at dean & deluca near rockefeller center. it was the perfect seat right across from the nbc studios, with a little hint of patriotism waving in the wind.

it's hard to imagine that this beautiful city suffered such a horrible attack only 9 years ago.

it's inspiring to see how the city and the people of america are so resilient...and brave. we've moved forward to repair the damage, physically and emotionally, with determination and hope.

but in our hearts we will always remember...and we are a stronger america because of it.

just because

i bought myself flowers today.  i probably shouldn't have, being on a student budget again, but i did anyway.  so i tried to justify it...

...because i finished my 3rd very difficult week of school
...because i survived my presentation to 200 undergrads
...because i ran for the first time in a long time

...or, maybe, just because flowers make me smile :)

bingo. i'd say that's worth $9.99.

loyal ex

although i've left my job at j&j, i'm still quite the loyal ex-employee.  i get so excited when i see their products.  all over campus there are purell dispensers, and each time i see one, i smile [and in this case, i took a picture :)].

i even cheer on my roommates when i see that they use clean&clear, aveeno, or neutrogena bath products.  and i still get excited and point at the tv when one of the product commericals come on.

but i'm not the only crazy one.  just today one of our IT tech guys was helping me set up the fancy projectors for a presentation and i mentioned i had worked at j&j...guess what he said?  "i wear acuvue contacts!  that's j&j right?"  beautiful.

so i guess it's true...you can take the girl out of j&j, but you can't take the j&j out of the girl...

hope

[click for larger image on flickr]

 "hope is the thing with feathers, that perches on the soul,
and sings the tune without the words, and never stops at all"
- emily dickinson

lately, every day seems to begin with hope. i suppose moving to a new place by yourself will do that to you.  i have hope that i'll meet new friends...hope that i'll be happy here...and hope that, in the overall journey of life, this is the place where i'm supposed to be.

arigaa taikuu

we had our first lab meeting today, which is where i met the undergrads, grad students, and post-docs working on our lab's research over the next year...definitely some really interesting people.  one student, troels, is visiting from copenhagen, which is awesome [i definitely told him all about the segway tour that our family took this summer around copenhagen].

so i made brownies [of course], because that's what i do when i meet new people i'm working with...try to win them over with baked goods :)

i also left some extra brownies for my sweet roommates and the one from alaska, lynda, left me a little note saying "arigaa taikuu" which means "very good, thank you" in the inupiaq language.  very cool!  so, see, i'm learning all kinds of new things...including native alaskan inupiaq phrases...who would have thought?

rewind/replay

i finally made it my old undergrad hang-out with my dear old undergrad friend, andy.

back in the day [a phrase like that is the first sign that i'm an old grad student], there was nothing quite like drinking miller light out of plastic cups on the outside patio of cafe 210 enjoying the summer night...just talking, laughing, and relaxing.

who says you can't hit rewind and replay those great moments every once in awhile?  ...so that's what andy and i did.  and although we're a tad more jaded and can't quite relate to the undergrads anymore [they are so young!], it was still wonderfully relaxing and just as i remembered it :)

flip-flopped

well this queen of heels has reliquished her throne...and has switched over to flip-flops and flats.  can you believe it?

i can't.  i'm short again...and all of my pants are too long.  but guess what?  i'm happy about it [just please don't tell my beautiful stilettos].  my feet just feel so much better at the end of day, which usually consists of walking miles all over campus.

so you'll still see those fabulous heels on special occassions.  but, for now, this campus-trekking girl has flip-flopped over to the comfy shoe side of the world.

prized possession

tuesdays and wednesdays seem to be my "coffee days"...when i just can't seem to get enough.  lots of classes, lots of reading...lots of late nights.

i've already run through my starbucks gift cards and the campus coffee just doesn't seem worth the $1.75.  so right now this is my most prized possession...

i don't know what i'd do without my dear, delicious keurig coffee maker.