Science (non) Fiction

OK, I know it’s been forever since I’ve posted. I kept waiting and waiting and waiting til I had some solid answers about the future, but as it seems my life will stay in a state of semi-chaos for a while longer, I figure it’s time to catch y’all up with the goings-on.

First of all, in case you’ve forgotten, in my absence, what I look like:

And, even though I posted since then, I don’t think I’ve actually said that Rebecca and I have moved into a cute little house in Ardmore just over a mile from school and less than that from church:

We love it – it’s been really nice to be close to school again (not that I was that far before, but it’s still nice to be closer), and to have enough space to have people over regularly (despite having a couple issues with neighbors), and Dinah appreciates having more people to regularly love her.

Also, this has been my life recently:

I’ve been running gels like mad, trying to get things wrapped up so I can finish this thesis and graduate in the near future – for those counting, it will likely be either May or June, so stay tuned in for the last-minute thesis issues that I’m sure will be coming along shortly. I’m looking for jobs in the area, as I’d love to stay here, but I might end up looking farther afield, but still in the state at least. Let me know if you hear of any good teaching jobs (preferably small, liberal arts colleges, but I can be flexible).

The brother is still doing well out in Cali:

Well, he doesn’t look like he’s doing well there, but he just wasn’t pleased with all of my picture-taking at Christmas. He’s working at Sony, doing some writing, and looking for a good production job now that things are gearing back up after the strike. Dad got to fly out and visit him this past week, so I’m very jealous. Maybe when I have a real, grown-up job…

Mom is still adjusting to her new job and schedule – and she and Dad are having to make some tough decisions in the next little bit. I’m going home tonight to celebrate Dad’s belated birthday, so that will be good.

Hopefully I can keep this more updated than it’s been lately – entering the home stretch may make that difficult, but I will try.

I submit the following photo for your viewing pleasure. Mom brought back these shirts from her trip to Disney World last year (without us, I might add), and we finally got around to taking a picture of us in them this Christmas while Matthew was home from Cali for the holidays. Enjoy!

…aaaaand now I have ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ stuck in my head. Maybe you do too. I’ve been getting really random songs stuck in my head lately – songs that have no reason to be there – songs like ‘Baby got back’ that I shouldn’t even know all the words to (but I do). It wasn’t even playing on the radio in lab, it just suddenly appeared out of nowhere and I found myself humming it as I was making media. Then someone walking by heard and asked what I was humming and when I stopped to think about what I was humming, I was shocked to realize it was ‘Baby got back’. And it chose to stay there all day – nice for me. hehe.

In other news – my parents are heading up to Wisconsin for a vacation/’quick dash to see everyone’ trip – they are (I’m pretty sure) taking the cute new Civic they just bought – it’s a lovely dark blue and very nice. My brother is happily working in Los Angeles, looking into getting his own place with a friend or two, and getting some good experience in production by working on the set of The Biggest Loser as they wrapped the current season last week. I told him he has to get a nice enough apartment/house that I can come and visit once I get a real grown-up job and can take a vacation.

Things I’ve done lately: saw Top Gun at an outdoor movie showing (fun!), saw Paris Je T’aime with some girlfriends (sooo fun and a cute movie! 18 short films set in Paris in one movie!), got Dawn moved into her new camp in Reidsville (she has her own nice big room) and hit a new high score in Wii bowling (for me, that is – 228, baby!). Lots of fun, but I need a little down time, if only to do some laundry and cleaning.

Have you ever had the sudden realization that the way that you see something is not the way that some people see the same thing? That your impression of something, be it a person or a situation or whatever, is quite different compared with perhaps the person next to you? How do you reconcile something like that? I’m having trouble trusting my feelings/impressions about things when they can be so radically different from person to person. Is that just par for the course in life?

Dad and Larry landed safely in Charlotte yesterday afternoon, and I got to talk to him as they were pulling away from the airport – Larry was on his way to the hospital, and I haven’t heard back yet about what the final verdict is about his leg – I’d forgotten that he’s had two hip replacements, so they’re worried it could be a problem with one of the artificial hips. But I’m sure he’s glad to be back home so he can get the best medical attention possible. And we’re all glad Dad is back safe and sound as well!

In other news, the brother is doing some cool things out in LA, sorting through and archiving costumes and props from movies like Gladiator and Disturbia and Transformers, and sitting on the discarded sets of The Brady Bunch. Crazy. He’s got some leads on jobs, possibly on some cool TV shows – the up-in-the-air nature of Hollywood jobs would kill me, but he seems to be taking it all in stride.

I’ve got some interesting possibilities for the holiday weekend coming up – some concerts and cookouts, and book club as well. Looking forward to a long weekend, even if I have to be in lab during parts of it!

OK y’all – my mom just called to tell me that Dad is on his way back from Africa as we speak, because Larry (the guy who runs the orphanage and went over with him from the states) hurt his leg pretty badly. They should be back in Charlotte tomorrow afternoon, but I can only imagine how awful this trip (which is already normally quite long and difficult) is going to be for Larry. Dad said he’d try to call from Amsterdam tonight, but I have no idea what time they should even be there. So if you could, please say a prayer for them tonight and tomorrow – for safety and ease of travel and as little pain for Larry as possible. Thanks!

I’ve got Killing Me Softly stuck in my head – I think we talked about it Wednesday night at Ishi (is that right?), and it’s been solidly lodged there ever since. Maybe I can spread the joy. hehe.

Turns out Dad can’t access the internet easily right now, but I’ve not given up hope that he might eventually be able to while he’s over there – so…

Tuesday night was the series finale of Gilmore Girls, and the fabulous finale party at Kari’s, including Gilmore-esque snack foods (danishes!!!), favorite scene viewing and a trivia game (which was won by yours truly ). The finale was really great, not trying to do too much in terms of wrapping up every single loose end while still giving us hope for a happy future for our favorite Stars Hollow residents.

(Unfortunately, the CW also canned Veronica Mars, which means my Tuesday nights are officially free now. Boooo.)

Wednesday night’s church-wide picnic was cancelled (due to torrential rains that started right at 5:30 and lasted about 30 minutes and soaked everything), so my small group went to Ishi instead and then hung out and played some Wii – good times. Picnic will be next Wednesday instead, hopefully with better weather.

Yesterday was a slow-ish day – I did get to take a nice long walk around Ardmore while one of my experiments was progressing veeeerrrry slowly. And The Office’s season finale was awesome! Really, it was one of my favorite episodes, at least from this season if not the whole show. So great! (Sorry there’s so much tv in this update – it’s just because everything is wrapping up at the same time.)

Tonight I’m going to a concert at a coffee house outside Greensboro with a friend from the lab – I haven’t been to a concert in quite a while, so that should be fun – plus this friend and I have rarely hung out outside of lab, so it will be nice to get to know her better. This weekend will be spent mainly cleaning house, doing laundry, working in the lab and hopefully making it to the Greek Festival in town at some point.

Oh, and I’ve decided, unless something major pops up in lab, that I’m going to the Musical Heirs reunion the first weekend of June – Frances and Alexa will be there, among many others, so it should be a good time to catch up with old friends and see how my favorite children’s choir is doing these days.

So my dad is in Africa (at an orphanage about an hour outside Nairobi), and he may be able to check the internet a bit more often that we can (or at least I can) reach him by phone. So I will try to keep this a bit more updated with the goings-on in my life, at least so Dad can stay up-to-date.

Mom and I spent the weekend together (Dad’s gone, clearly, and Matthew just moved to CA) – I drove home Friday night, we had dinner with one of our favorite people (Valerie!) and then leisurely drove up to Mars Hill Saturday morning (well, actually afternoon), stopping at antique stores and crafts shops along the way. We toured the (beautiful) B&B where we were staying (Dad, it’s that huge white house next to the Baptist church right off campus – just up the street from the Deli) and then drove around campus, noting all the improvements and incredible new buildings going up, and around town. We ate at a newish ‘casual dining’ place on Main Street, and retired early to our lovely suite of rooms upstairs and read. We slept in (well, I did, at least) and had a very nice breakfast before checking out and heading to church at the UMC church (where I went my last few years in college) – it was nice to see some of the same faces, even though a lot of people were out of town. We did get to meet up with my favorite biology prof from college and we took her out to lunch in Weaverville and got to chat about the college and students and possible jobs (*much fingernail biting*). Very good times.

It was a great weekend, though coming back was a bit of a shock, like we’d been away for much longer that a day or two. I did go on a nice long walk with Beth when I got back into town (after stopping off at the lab of course) – we walked around Ardmore (TONS of houses for sale!) and caught up on the crazy-ness going on in each of our lives. To come from MHC, where we’ve been talking about the possibilities of me teaching there in the near future, to go back to Winston, where I already feel so settled and comfortable and established (sometimes), it was all a bit … jarring. Anyway, I’ve got a lot to think/pray about, and talking with Dan sometime in the very near future. (We did, for the first time in a while, talk about a date for me graduating sometime in the near future – I think I’ll be shooting for early fall, with the knowledge that I can push that off a bit farther into the fall if need be – I’ve really got to get my second paper underway then…)

Let’s see… what else… I finished Life of Pi by my book club discussion – very interesting read, but I’ll save my thoughts for after the discussion, which should be really good, I think. I’ve started The Boleyn Inheritance (Philippa Gregory again), which continues the story of Henry the VIII’s 3rd and 4th wives (I think) – good and entertaining so far, as I expected – she’s a really good story-teller, and I’m already interested in the time period, so I’ve been quickly absorbed. (It’s a bit confusing at times, because I read Innocent Traitor a few weeks ago, which is about what happens after Henry dies and his son takes the throne and immediately after. So this is jumping back in history a bit. hehe)

Well, I’ve got a busy week ahead of me – I promise I’ll write more later on. I love you, Dad!

I’ve been really slack about keeping y’all up-to-date with what’s going on, mostly due to laziness is actually writing about anything. Here are some bullet points to get things going:

~ Matthew is now officially in California. and So happy and excited for him, but really sad that he’s that far away – I do think we’re closer emotionally than we have been in a long time, so hopefully that will compensate some for the distance. He’ll be staying with some friends of ours out there, and he’s actually already got at least a short-term job already in the works, at Dreamworks (I think), thanks to his friend Adam who’s already out there. Keep up with his journey here.

~ Dad is heading to Africa for his third trip to the orphanage outside of Dubai, Kenya. Since he’ll be gone for a while and Matthew was leaving, we celebrated Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and Matthew’s going-away all at the same time last weekend. Good times! Many thanks to Alisa for taking some great pictures of Matthew and me that we framed for Mom and Dad as gifts – I think they were a hit. He’ll be helping out with carpentry and maintenence projects, like he has on past trips. You can keep up with Dad’s trip through the links at the right – one for his page, and one for the orphanage.

~ Mom and I are going to be having a girl’s weekend next weekend, spending the night at a bed & breakfast, going back to my alma mater Mars Hill. It’s actually graduation weekend there, but I’m sure we’ll be able to find fun stuff to do while we’re there. It’ll be great to be back up there, and see the town from a different perspective, and spend some good girl time while the boys are gone.

~ I’ve finished a few more books recently, which you can read about here. I’ve just started Life of Pi (Yann Martel) for a book club, and I think I might break my rule and read two books at the same time, because I’ve got a non-fiction book that I don’t think I’ll be able to just read all the way through – Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life was featured on NPR a couple weeks ago, and as I’ve decided that I need to learn more about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, I’m excited about this one – but I think it’ll be easier if I read it along with whatever other book I’m reading so I don’t get bogged down too much. And I’m going to have to start my re-read of the Harry Potter books, in preparation for the new movie and the last book, all happening this summer!

~ Things I’m currently enjoying: Iron Chef America (well, almost anything on Food Network right now), Gilmore Girls (two more episodes til the SERIES FINALE! ), Nintendo Wii (the only game system I’ve ever wanted to own – soooo fun!), my nursery babies (so cute), and lots of phone time with the brother (enjoying that while I can).

~ I’m getting a haircut this week (finally), and while I considered doing something more dramatic (shorter, maybe), I think I might let it grow and donate to Locks of Love, since it’s already pretty close to that long anyway – but it might frustrate me enough between now and then to just cut it off… we’ll see…

OK, that’s enough for now.

I updated the link in the right sidebar so you can now get to my dad’s new blog site ‘Greater Grace’, which chronicles his missionary trips to Africa, including his upcoming return trip to the orphanage this summer. There are lots of cool pictures of the projects he’s worked on over the past couple years (this will be his third trip), plus the adorable kids that live at the orphanage. Check it out!

I added a link (to the right, under Family) to the Kajiado Children’s Home in Kenya. This coming May my dad will be going on his third mission trip there, spending almost a month helping out with various contruction and maintenance projects. He always comes back with such incredible stories about the kids there, and his pictures are pretty amazing. The website has photos of the campus and lots of the kids, plus a way to contribute to the home – if you’d like, I can put you in contact with my dad about getting some support information from him – I’m sure he’d love to have as many prayer and financial supporters as possible! Just a short plug for my dad