Science (non) Fiction

Just some good things happening in my life right now (or now-ish):

~ Good, deep conversations with friends about important (and some not-so-important) things

~ Knowing that going to see WICKED is only ONE MONTH AWAY!!!!! (SO excited!)

~ When experiments actually work correctly reproducibly, and move my work forward instead of backwards

~ The fact that LOST and How I Met Your Mother is back on TV regularly, and many of my other favorites will be back shortly (April 10th for The Office!)

~ Broadway musical soundtracks (Lately it’s been old favorites that I’m revisiting like Les Mis and Into the Woods, plus Wicked of course)

~ Long, fun voicemail messages from friends and family about cat’s brains or cute coworkers

~ The fact that my birthday is exactly two weeks away!

I will not post the accompanying crappy things that are going on, as the good things generally outweigh them right now.

So what’s going well in your life right now?

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.

Sorry I’ve been so absent lately. But to distract you from the pain caused by my lack of blogging, I present you with more excellent LOLcats.

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and my current favorite:

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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!

LOLCats are my new current obsession - I don’t even think I can explain why I find them funny, but I do, quite hysterically so. So I’m going to share a few of my more recent favorites.

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It’s been a long time since I posted last - sorry. Things have been really busy, and I’ll eventually try to update you about the goings-on in my life lately. But that will have to wait til I have more time. Until then, enjoy this list.

Things you might not know about me

1. I almost have to have the toilet paper roll over the top in order to use it - it drives me crazy to have it come out from the bottom.

2. I care way too much what people think about me. I’m working on that.

3. I think I walk in a strange way - when the ground is wet, my shoes throw water droplets onto the backs of my calves - does that happen to everyone?

4. I have a tiny scar under my right eye from falling into a metal-rimmed ping-pong table when I was little.

5. My handwriting varies a lot from day to day - I mean, if I signed two checks on two different days, it might look like two completely different people signed them.

6. I am often easily coerced into agreeing with you, unless I really don’t like you.

7. I hate throwing anything away. Seriously, anything.

8. I am seriously bothered by grown adults who refer to themselves in the third person. *shudder*

9. I don’t like talking to people I don’t know on the phone. Though I’m getting better at that.

10. I can’t wink my right eye, only my left. And I apparently have no control over my right eyebrow.

There you go. 10 useless facts about me. To tide you over until I can really post.

I think I need to take more risks.

(I’m sure this would get a resounding AMEN from my mother at this point, actually. So I’ll pause for that.)

I have never been much of a risk-taker - even as a kid, I think. I was never the one that went the highest up in the climbing tree, or that liked to speed around corners on roller skates (or later, roller blades), or that enjoyed having the older boys in the neighborhood take me on go cart rides careening through the streets. This has led to not liking roller coasters, or downhill skiing, or going too fast in cars.

And I think a lot of it comes down to me needing to have control over what’s going on with me and the things around me. If I don’t feel like I have control over my body when downhill skiing, for example, that removes all of the enjoyment from it, despite the adrenaline rush from the speed. And maybe that means that I just need more experience (and/or lessons), so that I do have a bit more control, but part of me feels like it’s the desire for control in the first place that’s the problem.

I know that I’m not ultimately in control of my life - that’s in God’s hands, and I can say that I trust Him with my life, but am I actually living that? Is my fear showing a lack of faith in God’s ability to rule my life?

(And this totally applies to things less physical than roller coasters as well. Like taking risks with relationships and telling people how I really feel. But that’s a whole other post.)

Now I’m not talking about sky-diving or base jumping or anything crazy. But I’m thinking I could use a little more ‘risk’ in my life. Maybe a roller coaster at the fair this week? or pulling out the roller blades for some roller derby-style racing? or heading up to Virginia for some downhill skiing when it turns chillier? I am open to suggestions for my risky-ness. What do you think?

A random list of things I currently love:

~ Sugar-free popsicles - yummy, especially in the heat we’ve been having.

~ Robert Sean Leonard - also yummy I’m watching House season 3, so I get to see lots of him as Dr. James Wilson.

~ Over the Rhine’s new album, The Trumpet Child - so awesome and beautiful.

~ Gail Godwin’s books - Father Melancholy’s Daughter was incredible, and Evensong is also enjoyable so far.

~ COBigelow Mentha Lip Tint from B&BW - yummy (again) and light color.

OK, I finally bit the bullet and cut my hair - it was soooo hot at that length, and had no body at all - so we cut a whole hunk off for Locks of Love, which Rebecca demanded to document. For those of you who won’t see me for a while, I am providing here picture evidence of the new look.

Last picture with long hair:

The big cut:

New ‘do:

…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?