Almost free!

I just submitted my math final to my professor- yesssssss. I feel so much better considering I have a monster exam tomorrow that I'm still studying for... and I require much more studying for. But at least now that's the only thing left. Man, it's weird that my first semester as a grad student is already over!

I'm feeling a bit better, I think the antibiotics are kicking in. Which is good because as much as I love sleeping 12 hours a day, it's not conducive to good studying. Or at least a lot of studying. I can honestly say I've never slept this much during a week of finals. Ever.

That's all for now, just studying and getting better, that's all I'm doing until tomorrow night when my finals are actually over. Then Keegan's company Christmas party is on Sunday, so I have that to look forward to :-D

Why do I always get sick during exams?

Since I woke up yesterday with some particularly concerning new symptoms, Keegan took me to the urgent care clinic at Duke. They did a blood test to check for mono, but when the results came back negative the PA said, "Well, that doesn't really tell us much since you've only been sick a week." Gee, thanks. So instead she says she thinks it's some sort of viral infection, which I know can't be treated with antibiotics, but she prescribes anyway on the off-chance I picked up something bacterial on top of the viral, which is why I started feeling a lot worse on Friday night than I did during the day. Fantastic.

On the plus side, I'm much more productive when I'm sick. I got up and did work for 2 hours straight and finished the updates I needed to make on this R21 for my biomaterials class. I want to have it finished today because tomorrow is when my math final is posted, so I want to just have that to focus on. That way I can finish the math by Wednesday hopefully and devote Thursday and Friday and Saturday morning completely to studying for my Tissue Engineering final. But I'm sure I won't work on the math final for that long- I think it's supposed to take 3 hours or whatever the standard exam length is. So I'm sure there will be TE studying in there too. I started studying a little bit yesterday, but then the desire to sleep took over, so I did that instead. I'd rather start feeling better sooner so my studying at the end of the week will be more high-quality.

On a cheerier note, Keegan and I put up our Christmas tree :-) It's very happy and it makes me feel better just looking at it. I can't smell it right now, which is sad, but hopefully in a few days I'll be able to. It's even got some presents under it! How exciting! Keegan's goal this year is to surprise me with his gift choices, since I was able to guess what he was giving me for Christmas the past two years. I love being surprised, but I think it must be difficult to do or something. Maybe I just need to not think about the things he knows I want and could therefore be present candidates.

We also have poinsettias that I bought from the LRHS band decorating our hearth, so they look very festive also. We have LED lights on the tree and they burn for some ridiculous 25,000 hours and use like 1.5 watts of energy, so I plan to have them on almost all the time when I'm downstairs with the tree. It will get me in the Christmas spirit. Of course I think I may have been in the Christmas spirit since Halloween when all the Christmas decorations went up... But anyway, the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas always seems to fly by, and that's certainly true this year. I can't believe it's already the 8th; I take my last exam on Saturday and by then Christmas will pretty much be on the 10 day forecast. That's how I judge when dates are close or not.

I said I would work at Target from Dec 16-19, then the 21, 22, and 23, but I haven't heard anything about if they actually scheduled me. I will be angry if they scheduled me for days when I specifically said I couldn't be there, but I don't need the job, so I'll quit if they try to make me stay on for the days I have other plans (on Dec 15 and 20). I just thought it would be nice to extend my discount and earn a little more money to put towards the wedding.

Anyway, my break is over, so I'm going to finish the final edits on that R21 and then take a shower and a nap before diving into the studying for tissue engineering.

Quick updates

-One final down, two to go. And a final project (which is about 90% finished, just waiting on professor feedback).

-Buying Christmas tree today!

-Am sick, feels like there's an elephant sitting on my chest. And like my nostrils have suddenly been removed...

-Want to start reading the Twilight series now that the movie is getting all that hype. It also makes me want to reread all my Harry Potters (which I do periodically anyway) just to remind everyone that HP will always be the man.

-Went to the LRHS Winter Concert yesterday and it was really nice to hear some Christmas music... but I think it put a serious delay on my recovery process. I felt better yesterday whereas today I feel terrible. But I'm still getting a tree, dammit.

-Started running again, feels so good to be active.

Alright, time to nap I think. Or study. Most likely nap :-)

It's that time of year

Yes folks, it's that time of year again. No, no, I'm not referring to the holiday season, oh no. What I'm referring to is much less uplifting and much more stressful. Ah yes, the dreaded exam season is upon us again. And by "us" I mean those still in their undergraduate studies and those of us wondering why we chose to sign up for another 5 years of school... Actually I'm really enjoying graduate school, I just know not to take 4 classes next semester. :-)

Yesterday something really upsetting happened. I pushed myself all of Monday to finish my last applied math homework assignment so I wouldn't have to return to campus on Tuesday for no reason other than to turn it in. And I did. I put it in the little box right after class and breathed a huge sigh of relief. No more homework assignments. Time to focus on the huge final papers and exams. But NOOOOO. I couldn't just have that moment of glory. It was snuffed out by the posting of yet another homework in my biomolecular engineering class. Which is not due until 12/12, yet our final "exam" (which is a paper) is due on 12/5. Hmmm, to me that meant I would be finished with that class on 12/5. Or actually tomorrow, since all I have left to do on the paper is straighten out my references. *Sigh* what a let-down.

I've also sent my final rough draft for my individual R21 grant proposal to Monty, so that's pretty much out of the way too. It'll probably require maybe 5 more hours of tweaking and proofing and compiling all the sections together with references, but that's not too difficult. It doesn't involve reading ridiculous numbers of papers.

I've also got a group R21 due on 12/3; I've written my section for it, so I feel pretty proud. I think that will be more difficult to compile since it's the work of 4 people being meshed together, but we did well with that on the presentation portion, so I feel confident the group will be able to organize our paper effectively. I really did get a great group to work with; I feel very blessed. That's one of the thanks I can give tomorrow! Although it's trivial in the grand scheme of things, I still think it's important. I made them goody bags to study with for finals. Which means I bought all the candy I wanted for myself, but split it with all of them so I didn't have to feel as guilty about buying $30 worth of candy. Well, maybe $20 worth of candy.

I bought a desk last weekend, which my absolutely wonderful fiance is currently assembling upstairs. What a guy :-) I helped earlier, but then I retired to work on editing my final paper for that biomolecular engineering class. It will be nice to study for finals and work on things while sitting at a desk instead of on the floor. I'm sure that will do wonders to improve my back pain!

Speaking of pain, I began running again last week. It's been so hectic at school I've really been neglecting my personal fitness. I still go to that Body Tone class, but I've only been 3 times (I had to miss it twice for meetings) and it's not really a cardio workout. It really works the muscles, but I need to do more to have a slimmer figure for the wedding. Especially since I bought a dress that fit me almost perfectly. Now I have a goal to stay the same; grad school is not really conducive to maintaining a healthy eating schedule, but I'm working on it. I think once the holidays are over it will be easier to avoid temptation and the 83478534 varieties of Hershey Kisses will not be looking at me from the shelves in Target saying "Buy me! Eat all of us!"

I want to work more on being a less competitive person. I think the person I'm most competitive with is myself, so I'm not exactly sure how that will work. I look back on my undergrad classes and my performance in my last two years and I wonder how I did it. Really 4 grad classes should not be harder than the 7 classes I had one of my semesters junior year. And I still managed to get straight As. Three As and four A+s to be exact. So what was so different? I think the whole environment of grad school is much more intense, and what I'd like to be doing is narrowing down my scope to start focusing on what I'd like to research on for my thesis. At least doing something that feels like I'm going somewhere. Now it's a lot of reading. I mean a LOT. And almost none of my readings are related to each other, but most are fascinating. I just need to get out of the competitive mindset I had in undergrad; I'm already into grad school. I already got in to every school I applied to, so why do I still feel so pressured? It's a mystery and I'm hoping I can get over it soon. I really have been doing better with homeworks and such this semester than I did in my last years at NSCU; I try not to sweat the small stuff, because once I have that Ph.D. with the words "Duke University" on it, no one will care that I got an 88 on that test or whatever, but it's a difficult adjustment from when I didn't earn a single B on any assignment in any class for years. But really I know that now no one cares what my undergrad GPA was (except maybe the folks at the NSF looking over my proposal), it's just a matter of changing my mind set. We'll see how that goes.

Tomorrow I'm going with my family (Mom, John, Kristin, and Hunter) to have Thanksgiving with John's parents near Davidson College where they live; it will be nice to see them, considering Thanksgiving is the only day of the year that I do see them. They haven't been to Raleigh since Hunter was born (in 1995) but they claim to be coming to the wedding. That would be exciting! I hope they do come since it will be a nice day to share with all of my relatives. They've known me since I was three, so to me that's essentially family I was born with. Keegan will be staying in Raleigh to have dinner with his immediate family. On Friday we're going to go over there to help them decorate their Christmas tree! We're going to be buying our own and setting it up next weekend after I've had my first exam. I think that will be a nice treat for me :-) For both of us, actually!

It's less than a month until Christmas and less than 7 months until the wedding! 206 days according to our TheKnot website. Yay! Hmm, still so much to do... Cait and Sara (?) and I will be going on in a few weeks to finalize their dresses and look at possible flowers. I think those are the biggest things left to do. And they have been for awhile. I seem to get things accomplished in spurts where I order a cake, book a photographer, then buy a wedding dress then to nothing for 6 weeks. You know. In all fairness, I have found some wedding invites online that I really like, and I've been looking at bouquets and flowers too. But it's been too crazy to really get much done.

Well, I should go help Keegan now that I've finished my editing. Then we're going to watch the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special because I'm a nerd.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Remember to be thankful for what you have, rather than dwelling on what you don't. I know I will be counting all my blessings and being thankful for each in turn.
:-)

Looking to 2012

Unfortunately this election year, I think it's the true American people who lost out. Majorly. While I still don't feel that either party produced a candidate I could whole-heartedly support, at least I know I cast my ballot for the lesser of two evils, so to speak. I believe that a President McCain would have unified the country more than Obama ever will, because I know I personally will never call Obama my president. This election was so polarizing in so many ways, and I think that John McCain tried to paint himself as more conservative than he really is, and maybe if he hadn't done that, he would have been able to pull more support.

I think this country needs a more moderate president, which I believe is what President Bush has tried to be, trying to appeal to both parties to please everyone, but his attempts have been met with nothing but stubborness and unwillingness to compromise from both parties. And since control of Congress was lost to the Dark Side in 2006, nothing has been achieved. Basically two years of no growth, no nothing. It is interesting to note, however, that the Congress's approval rating is even LOWER than that of President Bush; this should tell you something about how the liberal ideals actually translate to the real world where we all live, and that's not good. Which us smart folks knew from the beginning ;-)

When I think of the respect America used to command, I am extremely saddened and disappointed by the opinion which most of the world holds for us. And we deserve it. We spend too much time policing the world and not enough time focusing on improvements that need to be made at home. The United States used to be the most powerful country in the world, and now we're crumbling. I mean obviously people still want to come here, as evidenced by the great number of illegal immigrants filling our country and living off our welfare system without paying taxes. But we should be, and could be, so much better, so much more.

In some ways I realize that Obama being elected might be the best thing to happen to the Republican party since Ronald Reagan. The most liberal senator, who served only a 140 something days actually IN session with the Senate, is now going to be in control of our country. How could this have happened? How could someone with no experience be asked to give advice based on it? How could someone who's never respected this country enough to serve her be put in charge of the most powerful army in the world? How could a socialist be elected to lead a country whose very foundations are based on the freedoms to work for yourself to make your own life and to do it your own way? Why should my hardwork turn in to someone else's pay off? I feel like in 4 years this country might be in so much trouble there won't be any way to save it. And this will hopefully awaken the other 51% of voters to the horrible mistake they just made.

I think this happened because no one knows what he stands for other than vague ideas of hope and change that don't translate to anything but B.S. I do believe that after he's finished taxing the American people, some of them will have nothing but change left (har har). I do believe he's not someone to be trusted. I know that most people, if they knew what he stood for and believed personally, would be appalled. The abortion of children into the third trimester? Complete redistribution of wealth? Severe gun control? Where are these things included in what this nation was founded on?

I am reminded from this quote from Atlas Shrugged, an amazing book that everyone should read:

"Do you wish to know whether that day is coming? Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society's virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion-- when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who deal, not in goods, but in favors-- when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you-- when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice-- you may know your society is doomed."
(Ayn Rand)

This is exactly what I see in the results of this election. I'm so disappointed that what should be some of the best years of my life are being marred by this horrible mistake, which is what I might start referring to him as. Just "Mistake". Or "Socialist". Or "Dumbass". All fit nicely.

Well, on some lighter notes, there are 15 school days until graduate classes end, and only on 10 of them do I actually have class :o) Too bad I keep realizing all the work I have left to finish before Christmas. I have a huge presentation today actually, that I think will be killer. Our professor was really harsh on the people that already presented; he told me, however, that my topic is one of the hardest ones, so maybe he will be nicer to me. Doubtful, but who knows.

My dad is coming this weekend, so he's going to get to see my dress :o) And Cait and Sara are going to be there too, looking at styles of bridesmaid dresses, since we need to get on ordering those. Oh goodness, with all the stress of school, the wedding planning takes a backseat. But luckily the spring semester shouldn't be as rough.

Anyway, I have some reading to do before I shower and head to school. I'm sure I'll post more later, maybe next month :-P

Looking to spring

Well look at that, I'm breaking my record for posts in a month :o)

I registered for Spring 2009 classes this morning, and thankfully I'm only going to be taking 3, because 4 is killer (and 2 is full time). So no more 4 classes for me :-D

I'm going to be taking Drug Delivery, some sort of intro to cell biology class, and something with the words "transport phenomena" in the name. And the BME seminar that doesn't count for anything, but I have to take it. But I think the cell bio class is only 1/2 a semester, yahoo! So no class on Friday for part of the semester.

Anyway, I have a group meeting in 10 minutes I have to get to (gotta develop that neural tissue engineering method!) and then I'm going to the body tone class with Emily again. But I'm going to try to run before it since I didn't go to the gym this morning- I registered for classes instead. Then I think tonight Keegan and I will carve our pumpkin!!
:-D

Oh, and I got to have lunch with Amy today; that was nice :o) It's so good to see old friends you haven't seen in awhile!

The amazing exponential workload

So it's actually been one month since my last post, and I'm killing a little bit of time before going to a gym class with Emily, so I thought I'd post a short something.

I bought my wedding dress! Last weekend with Cait, and it's beautiful and unique and I'm so happy (but I can't go in to more detail because Keegan reads this blog!) to have found it. It was also "last season" and off-the-rack, which made it about 60% off and in my price range, so that was pretty exciting. As if the dress wasn't "me" enough, the fact that it was super on sale definitely makes it me :o)

I guess the last big things to tackle on that front are getting the bridesmaid dresses in order, picking a menu for our reception, and picking flowers. I hope to get all of those things done before Christmas, but I've got vague ideas for each of them. Then over the break and into January and February I can get smaller things finished, like ordering invitations and making a hair appointment or whatever. I'm sure there are many other things I'm forgetting though...

On the school front I'm slowly being squashed by my workload. The end of the semester is approaching, so that means we've reached the project season. I'm working in a group to develop a method to engineer nerves and then writing an R21 grant proposal on that, I'm working on my own to present and write a paper about unnatural amino acid incorporation into proteins and the genetic code, I'm writing an individual R21 proposal on an unrelated topic for my biomaterials class, and I'm trying to work on the NSF Fellowship application as well. That's on top of the usual load of math homework, biomaterials readings, tissue engineering homeworks, biomolecular engineering homeworks, and monster lab reports. I get so excited when I realize the end of the semester is approaching, then I remember all this stuff has to get crammed in to all that time somehow :-o

I guess there's not too much new to report... just doing school work and that's about it. With some minimal wedding things thrown in there too. I supposedly have a midterm in my applied math for engineers class, but he hasn't posted it yet, even though he was going to about 2 weeks ago. Then he decided he'd post it Wednesday... well, it's Thursday late afternoon and still no midterm. I hope he just waits until tomorrow to post it so that way I can have a night where I just have to do a whole crapload of reading instead of working on homeworks and getting up at 5a.m. And then I can go running in the morning :o) I've only been twice this week and I like to go every day. That's my time so I don't go insane... but somehow I'm still going insane, little by little. But at least I'm getting my exercise. And the dress I bought fit me almost perfectly, it just needs to be taken in a little, so that's my incentive to stay the same weight to I won't have to do major alterations.

Anyway, it's time for the weight-lifting fitness class that I forgot the name of, so I guess I should pack up my stuff :o)

What's goin' on

Since I seem to be posting on a monthly basis, maybe it's time I gave some updates.

School:
Classes are keeping me so busy it's a little alarming. I don't think I'll be taking 4 classes in the spring semester, but we'll see how I manage with this load. It might be easier next semester too when I've got a bulk of the wedding details hammered out. But more on that later.

Luckily I only have one class with an in-class midterm (I have one that's take-home, too), but it's in my hardest class. Somehow I thought Tissue Engineering would be about tissue growth and how to manipulate it, but so far it's all quantitative, which is boring and difficult for me. I want to know how and why cells move and grow in certain ways, and I don't really care about things like radial flow detachment assays. I know they're important, but that's not what I was hoping to learn when I signed up for the class.

My math professor is really, really nice, but I don't really learn too much during class; I learn it all on the weekends when I go home and crack open my book. He's actually very helpful outside of class- I went to his office hours once, and he's hilarious and explains things really well one-on-one. But in class he seems to stress the theory and doesn't do many examples. Or stresses the fact we're allowed and strongly encouraged to solve everything in Mathematica. Maybe I'll actually learn this program! I hated Maple and I never was forced to learn Matlab, so maybe here's my shot to actually learn a program.

Biomolecular engineering is very interesting but still a little over my head. I didn't come in with much background in biochem or even biology (that was high school) and it's a very detail-oriented class. I have my first lab to write, which I'm about 1/3 of the way finished with, and it's going to be beastly I think. There's a lot of reading I still need to do to understand more of the fundamentals behind the experiments we did during lab.

Biomedical materials is keeping me busy working on my IACUC protocol, but that's due on Friday, so then I'll have one thing out of the way for the semester. It's like 35% of my grade though I think, so hopefully it goes well. Monty hasn't said anything bad about the draft I sent him, so I'm crossing my fingers that doesn't mean I'll get an email on Thursday night with a list of 8 things wrong with it. Then after this I'll get to work on the R21 grant proposal and I'll try to turn it into an NSF proposal also.

Wedding:
I went dress shopping with Cait and Sara on Sunday and I think I found "the ONE". It's beautiful and has all the elements I was looking for in a dress and none of the ones that I really didn't like. We also found a color dress for them that they both like (I just told them I wanted blue and they could pick their own style dresses) and will look nice on my sister too. We're going to go out again in a few weekends, just to scout out a couple more places to cover all my bases pretty much. But I have a feeling I'll be back in David's Bridal ordering that dress :-D

Keegan and I met with a photographer on September 12 and she seems really great and her prices are reasonable compared with all the other quotes I've seen. She's very sociable too, so that's a plus. Now we just have to send in the deposit :o)

Speaking of Keegan, his birthday was on Friday- happy 23rd birthday to him!

I've been looking a bit at bridal bouquets also to get an idea of what I want to do with everything else. I know I want calla lilies, but other than that I'm pretty much open. A lot of colors will go with the blue for the bridesmaid dresses, but I'm thinking maybe something yellow or peachy colored. We'll see what sorts of flowers exist for each option. Maybe yellow calla liles for them and white ones with something else for me... Hmmm...

Keegan and I also have our Marriage Prep Forum this weekend at his church, so that will be really interesting and insightful I think. Hopefully he won't realize that really I'm so annoying he can't deal with me for the next 70 years. But I think we've already discussed a lot of the major pitfalls to relationships (finances, kids, careers, values, etc) so we're probably in better shape than some couples.

Well, my lunch break for myself is just about over, so I'm going to get back to working on that lab report. I'm about 2/3 of the way finished with my tissue engineering homework due on Friday, but I'll try to get some sort of idea on how to do the first one this afternoon too. Then I can go home, cook dinner, watch House, and then work a bit more before bed. Sounds like a pretty sweet time, huh?

Projects galore!

So I've just finished my second week at Duke, and I'm definitely keeping busy. It's not so much work work as reading work; essentially I spend 4 hours reading for a class, then I feel exhausted and don't really have anything to show for it. Except now I can tell you all about different drug delivery methods. But that's not the same as having 10 pages of homework to turn in or a 5 page essay. But that's okay, I'll get used to it I'm sure.

My classes are really interesting, and all the professors just jumped right in; it's really neat to be in such specific classes that are all about what I actually want to know. Except for the math class. Is it bad that as an engineer, I don't care about applied math for engineers? I understand how statistics or something will be extremely useful, but I don't really care about residues, complex integration, and imaginary numbers. I'm hoping as the class progresses I see the relevance to it, because that will motivate me more.

I've already got 2 projects assigned, and I have third, but it's not been finalized yet. For my biomedical materials class, the Ph.D. students have to write an IACUC procedure (which basically describes how you're going to use animals in your research) and a mock R21 grant proposal (which is a 15 page proposal describing a research project you'd like to do- but for me I'm actually going to describe what I would like to do in the lab). I believe if you're awarded an R21 grant you get $250,000 over two years or something like that. Monty really wants to submit the grant I think, and it would be nice to have that money to work with :-P I'm really thankful to be writing a grant so early because it's getting me thinking seriously about what research I'd like to be doing, instead of a vague idea of something related to what I'd like to do. For my Intro to Biomolecular Engineering class we also have projects already assigned, and mine is called "Unnatural amino acid incorporation into proteins and biopolymers", which (because I'm a nerd) I'm pretty excited about. I think it will be tangentially connected to the research I'll be doing for the mock grant, and I think the class itself is really going to help me. We have a lab associated with it, and over the semester I'm going to learn how to purify DNA and transfect it so I can make the DNA create a specific alterned protein that I could use. I know a lot of people already use those techniques all the time, but I've never used them, so I'm excited to learn.

I also have a project in my Tissue Engineering class, but it's a group project and hasn't been assigned yet. I think it's going to be something along the lines of "Here's a problem faced in tissue engineering- how would you solve it?" then you use what we've learned in class to try to develop a method to do whatever needs to be done.

Wedding planning is slowly chugging along, but I think once I get settled into my school routine it will be easier to know when I'll have free time and can set up appointments for things. I am going to try to go dress-browsing on September 20 with Cait, and on the 27th Keegan and I have our Marriage Prep Forum, so that's a step also. We should be able to place the order for our cake in the next week, too.

Even though it's Saturday, I'm going to be lame and work on homework. It's raining outside anyway (thank you, Hanna!), and this way I can enjoy the afternoon and evening when the weather should be much nicer. And I can also avoid being swamped later in the week.

PS: I was at Target yesterday, and the Halloween candy was out. I want fall to be here! That means the changing colors of the leaves, slightly less hot days, college football (yay for Duke winning a game- shocking!), Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas! EEEEE, I'm way too excited for those things, considering it's September 6. I think it's because Keegan and I went to visit my dad in the mountains last week, and the leaves were just beginning to turn yellow. I've caught the fall fever. Which is odd, since I hate cold weather. Hmm... okay, back to work.

Let the Ph.D. begin!

Tomorrow is the first day of my Ph.D. work at Duke; I can't believe it's here already! I'm about as ready as I can be- I bought the supplies I need and the textbooks the store had in stock. Only one class had books at the store, and I've already spent $265 on books. For ONE class. Boooooo, no wonder college students are poor! And my first stipend check won't be coming in until the beginning of October! Looks like there will be a lot of Ramen noodles in my future...

I only have two classes tomorrow, but I think we will probably dive right in. As a grad student, we only have classes for 3 months, since our classes end before the undergrad classes (my last day is November 25) so I've got 12 weeks to learn a LOT of things. Looking over the syllabus I have for one of my classes, we spend about one week per topic, and that's a little intimidating. All of my classes meet twice a week (except the lab and seminar), so that's like 2 classes per topic... and I'm hoping I will be able to keep up! But I keep telling myself that if I could make it through some of the hellish semesters I had at NCSU with 7 or 8 engineering classes, that I can handle 4 grad classes. We'll see how that theory pans out...

Yesterday Keegan and I met his priest, and I really like him; he's an NCSU alum, and when he greeted us and we filled out our info sheets, he told me that his grandparents were Presbyterians. I thought that was a pretty tactful way to make me feel less uncomfortable. He showed us around the church and answered the few questions we had at this point. Then we went to Duke for me to buy the books, bought a couch (yay! somewhere to sit!), AND went to a wedding consultation at Edible Art.

Edible Art is a store we're looking at for our cake, and they were so helpful there! We got to sample 4 types of cakes and several different fillings to help us choose what we might like, and then we described what we'd like the cake to look like, and we were able to get some price estimates. We have another consultation on September 7 with another bakery, then we'll decide which to use, but I know we both found what we were looking for at Edible Art. I'm a lemon person and Keegan's a chocolate person, and they were definitely able to meet those tastes! Mmmmm :-D

I think the next step of the wedding planning will be to meet with some florists and hopefully I can start looking at dresses in early October. Then there's ordering invitations, programs, picking a menu, bridesmaid dresses, finding a photographer, etc. But it'll get there eventually. I have a feeling a lot of this planning will be done over my Christmas break :-)

Well, that's all for now. I'll try to update again relatively soon about how all of my classes are going.

Life in Durham

I'm moved in to my townhouse in Durham now, and I really like it! There's still a considerable amount of unpacking to be done, but that's okay. It sort of looks like a home now, I mainly just need a couch and a desk. I found a desk I really like at Office Max that is a nice L desk that fits in a corner with two separate workspaces (which is what I really want), so once I start having a reliable income, I'll venture out to buy it.

I've started some minor decorating too; it's nice to have room to spread out all of my important things and trinkets where I can see them. Speaking of trinkets, Cait brought me a really neat coffee pot from Ethiopia; it's made from clay so they can grind up their coffee, put it in the pot, and then put the pot right on the hot coals. She also brought me a beautiful scarf and gave me some of her money from the countries she visited. I like to collect coins, and considering that I haven't really visited many countries, I've got a lot of foreign money! I still need to print a lot of the photos I've taken in Ecuador, at the beach, etc, to use for decorations. I also have a few small paintings I bought in Ecuador that need frames. So maybe by the time it's time to move into a house when I graduate, I'll be finished unpacking and decorating :-P

I haven't made a lot of progress on my wedding planning, but I have started looking at photos of wedding cakes to get a general idea of what I want. I'm going to start looking at photographers also, but I'm not sure how to know that I'm getting a good deal; I know they are expensive. I don't really have much money to spend on this wedding, so I hope I can find something I can afford. On Saturday I'm going to visit the hall where our reception will be held to see what it looks like all dressed up; it's so exciting! I will also set up a time to sample the menu of snacks and things we could choose to have at our reception. Our meeting with the priest has also been set up, so I suppose I am making a little progress :-)

Yesterday my old senior design team met with the Office of Technology Transfer at NCSU to discuss starting a patent application for our design project, that's really exciting too! They're going to start contacting companies we listed as possible competitors to see if they would be interested in licensing our idea. Then we could decide to file for a patent. Looks like my plan of just living off royalties from my inventions might actually happen ;-) Then again, maybe not...

Orientation starts next week; it's hard to believe classes are about to start again. But I'm excited because now all the classes I take are ones that I want to take and are actually in my areas of interest.

I'll try to keep this updated with wedding details as I go, but here is a link to our Knot website:
Alice and Keegan

Wedding plans

Well, I'm off and running with the wedding plans. It sounds a little crazy to be planning now, but once school starts, I'll be really busy with my classes. This fall I will be taking:

Biomedical Materials
Introduction to Biomolecular Engineering (a lab and lecture)
Tissue Engineering
Applied Mathematics
BME seminar

That's quite a full course-load, but I'm going to finish ASAP. None of this 6 year Ph.D. nonsense.

So Keegan and I will be getting married June 20, 2009 at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Raleigh. This is the church his family belongs to, and I think it's really pretty. We'll be having a simple ceremony, since I'm not Catholic and no one in my family is Catholic, I'm not having a wedding that excludes my family. Before the wedding, we have a Marriage Prep Forum we need to attend; it's an all-day event, but it's supposed to help us prepare for marriage (as the name implies) and I hope it is useful. We will also be meeting with his priest a few times, and I might require extra meetings with him because I'm not Catholic and I'm not going to convert. I've also done some investigation into their hall to rent for the reception, but the woman in charge of scheduling those is on vacation until Monday, so I'll call back then. Now that we've got a date set, I guess I need to start tackling all the other things that go into a wedding... eep!

Right now I'm in the process of packing everything I own to prepare for my move to Durham. My brother and I are preparing to trade bedrooms while my sister is away at band camp. It's sneaky, but she'll throw a fit when she doesn't get my room. My room is the biggest of the non-master bedrooms, and my sister is older than my brother; however, my brother's bedroom has two doors that connect it to the bonus room and the hallway and bathroom where the rest of the bedrooms are, so everyone walks through it at all hours of the day. It's sort of like another hallway, and I think he deserves a room with one door. Plus if Kristin takes my room, then Hunter moves to hers and I move to his and that seems like one more move than is necessary. And she's going to college in 2 years anyway.

That's all for now; I've got more packing to do before I go to work! (Still working at Target until next Wednesday... gotta earn all the money I can before I move and start school!)

The BIG question

Hey everyone!

Well, in case you didn't know, Keegan and I are getting married! Someday in the future at least, but we're engaged now. We haven't really worked out the wedding day details, but when we've figured them all out, I'll be sure to post more info and I'll probably be making one of those "theknot" websites. It's so exciting! A little daunting too... the prospect of planning and paying for a wedding is a little stressful and I haven't even started yet! I suppose the whole Ph.D. thing is lingering there too... but at least for the first year I shouldn't have too much research going on yet- more planning time! We're thinking possibly some time next summer for a wedding; that sounds really soon, but seeing as how I will have a possibly rigid research project schedule in my later years at school, it might be best to get married before all that kicks in.

That's about all for now, as if there could be any more exciting news! I think that's enough big news for me for one day.
:o)

Brochufest 2008

I'm back from up north and settled into where I'm house sitting until July 15. I also have a townhouse lined up for the next year- I move in on August 9, yipee! I'm really looking forward to having a place of my own that is not shared with my family, as much as I love them. This house sitting gig is a test run for living on my own I suppose.

The trip up north was really fun and I enjoyed meeting more of Keegan's relatives- they're hilarious and when you get a big group together, it's a lot of fun. Keegan, his dad, and I all went up to the reunion in Vermont while the rest of his family stayed with relatives on his mom's side of the family. At the picnic I met about 100 people (at least! look for pictures on Facebook soon!) from Mr. Brochu's side of the family and the reunion was held up on a mountain farm, so the views were really amazing.

I got to check Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Vermont off of my "states to visit" list; that gives me a total of 9 new states for 2008 (so far!).

I'm meeting with Monty (my Ph.D. adviser) next week so I'll be signing up for my classes soon after that! I'll let everyone know how intimidating they sound once I'm enrolled. He also sent me a paper to review so we can discuss it at our meeting- goody, goody, homework! Nah, it's not too bad :-) Gotta get used to how my life is going to be from now on!

Happy hunting

The all-out hunt for the perfect (or mostly perfect) apartment has begun! Except now it's morphed into the hunt for the perfect townhouse. I've found a few that I like, but I'm still working on narrowing them down by reading online reviews, comparing distances to school, grocery stores, etc. Nothing major :o) But in the next two weeks or so I should have one all picked out so I can move in during August.

I've started that summer reading I was rambling on about in the last post. I've read Lord of the Flies, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, and the Odyssey in the past week. I'm thinking I'll go with my sister and mom the next time they go to the library so I can scout out some more books to read. I haven't decided what I want to read next, so the library should help me pick something out.

One week from tomorrow I leave for the Brochu family reunion! Too bad that I work every day until then... but I'll only be working there another 5 weeks or so. It's not bad, it gives me something to do, but standing up and walking around restocking shelves and putting back things that are returned to the store or left in the wrong place for 8 hours is tiring.

I was thinking about all the traveling I've done this year. It's not as exciting as Caitlin's trips to Guatemala and Ethiopia (she leaves on the 29th- I'm so excited for her but jealous at the same time!), but I will have been to a fair number of places during 2008 by the end of the summer.

• Ecuador
• Florida
• Georgia
• North Carolina
• Virginia
• Nevada
• California
• Arizona
• New Mexico
• Utah
• Maryland
• Delaware
• New Jersey
• Pennsylvania
• New York
• Massachusetts
  
• Connecticut
• Vermont

Quite a list! Maybe I can sneak into New Hampshire while I'm up there- just to be there. Plus it's supposed to be gorgeous! Also, who knows where I might have reason to go this fall! Maybe I can attend some BME conferences to learn what all is going on elsewhere in the BME research world.

"Light" summer reading

I've decided that as much as I love my Harry Potter books, I should probably branch out and read more of the "classics" that I wasn't forced to read in high school. And I should probably continue rereading most of the books I read back then, assuming they will mean more to me now than they did then.

I've looked up several of the "Best 100 Novels" lists to try to determine which books I should start with. One list I found has a board's list of the best 100 books as well as a reader's list; four of the top ten books (including #1 and #2) on the reader's list are Ayn Rand books! I highly recommend Atlas Shrugged to all who read this blog- that's definitely one I need to reread. And I should start on The Fountainhead too. I have some books that I really want to read, not because they are or aren't on the list, but just because I want to have read them. Like the Lord of the Rings books, more F. Scott Fitzgerald books, any Hemingway books (would you believe I'm 22 and I've never read anything by Ernest Hemingway?), more Jane Austen novels, Ender's Game, and many of the books with depressing names written by Russian authors with complicated last names that I can sort of pronounce but I certainly can't spell.

On an unrelated note, I've posted pictures from my southwest adventure on Facebook, so you should definitely check them out :o) In a few more weeks I'll have pictures from the Northeast to post also; I'm going from one corner of the country to the other!

It's just starting to hit me how much I need to accomplish in the next few weeks; some furniture went on sale at Target that I really like (it's not too fancy, but I like it anyway), so I'm thinking of ordering it this week, since it's 25% off for the sales price, so that'll be a total of 35% savings for me using my team member discount. I need to buy a lot of furniture, determine what project I want to adopt for my Ph.D work so I can go ahead and register for my fall classes, buy a parking permit (eww), and most importantly, actually FIND somewhere to live. I've got to fit that in around the 35 hours I work each week, so it'll be an exciting challenge, I'm sure.

Well, it's late, and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is waiting to be finished (for the 15th time...). Wish me luck with my endeavors for the next few weeks!

Southwest adventures!

I'm back from my fantastic trip! Well, I've been back since Thursday morning, but I've worked 9-hour days at Target on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, so I haven't had a lot of time to relax. I saw so many things on the trip, I'm not exactly sure where to begin.... Las Vegas is HUGE. Well, the strip is HUGE; hotels there are several blocks long, and not Raleigh-sized blocks. We're talking hotels that are a mile long, so even though you want to go "right next door" to visit the Bellagio or Caesar's Palace, it will take you 30 minutes to get there. The city was filled with people, especially since the first weekend we were there, the World Series of Poker was being held and it was Memorial Day weekend, so all those Californians had taken over the city. I was able to visit the Mirage and see their mini zoo; they have Siegfried and Roy's white lions and tigers and other assorted large cats and the hotel also has a dolphin exhibit, so that was neat :o) We visited Hoover Dam, which was much bigger than I thought it would be (for some reason). There was a tour that went down into the dam so you could see the power generators and things, so that was pretty cool also. I would post pictures, but there are so many that I'm just going to put them on Facebook (once I pick out which ones of the ~700 pictures are worthy to be posted).

We left Las Vegas after 2 nights and drove through the southern tip of California through a town called Needles just so I could say I'd been to California. Our final destination was Flagstaff, Arizona, where we stayed for 4 nights. From there we visited the Grand Canyon, the Petrified Forest, the Painted Desert, the Meteor Crater, and the city of Sedona. We also made a side trip to New Mexico when we were in the Painted Desert ("We're only 40 miles away, what the hell?" said my Poppop). Even though I'm going to post pictures of all those places, I could never actually describe to someone how beautiful they were. There's nothing like standing at the edge of a canyon that's a mile deep and 18 miles wide (at least for some of the canyon) and trying to explain what it feels like; you'll just have to see it for yourself!

After leaving Flagstaff, we drove to Page, Arizona which is where Lake Powell is. The lake is formed by the Glen Canyon Dam, which is also on the Colorado River, north of the Grand Canyon; the lake is on the Arizona/Utah border. On the way to Page, we stopped in Tuba City to do some looking around in the trading posts. A huge portion of Arizona is Indian Reservations, so there were loooots of tiny stands by the side of the road where the natives were selling all of their crafts and jewelry. We also stopped at this little place where there were dinosaur tracks visible on the surface of the desert rocks, so that was pretty neat also (since they weren't in a museum!). Once in Page, we spent two nights there and went on a boat tour of the lake. It was beautiful, and the only place on the trip my grandparents hadn't already visited at one point or another, so I'm really glad they were able to see something new. Of course, we drove different routes than the ones they had taken on their other trips, and the scenery was always beautiful and breath-taking, I still felt a little bad that most of the things that amazed me had already amazed them 20 years ago. But my Poppop said that the best part of the trip for him was seeing how everything was exciting for me :o)

After Page, we drove up to Mount Carmel, Utah to spend the night; we toured Bryce Canyon National Park on that day also. I think Bryce had the most unusual features I've ever seen and the most unique on the trip. They're called hoodoos and they look like pillars of rock that used to be great plateaus where everything else eroded around them... I have to wonder what sorts of winds and other forces could create such things on the Earth's surface and if just one other minor thing had been different, there wouldn't have been anything to look at except some flat desert. We visited Zion National Park on the way to Las Vegas (for the second time).

Our last two nights were spent in Vegas at the Flamingo hotel, which is one of the older and more famous hotels. It was shaped like a giant U and on the inside part of the hotel was a huge courtyard filled with waterfalls and tropical birds including flocks of flamingos. Luckily for me, our room was on the 12th floor (of 28) and faced the courtyard, so I could look at it all the time in the evenings to see the lights of the strip also. And during the day I had views of the mountains that surround the city. We went to Fremont Street, which is where all the original casinos are and I got to gamble some ;-) I played roulette with my Poppop and I managed to win about $40 (but I was playing with his money, so I guess it didn't matter). But I must have been his good luck charm because he won $90. That's not a lot or anything, but it's a fair amount when you're playing with $.50 chips. We mainly just toured the city for the rest of the time. Poppop and I went in the Effiel Tower replica at the Paris hotel (my grandmom is afraid of heights) to see the city from above, and we ate a lot of nice food. One morning for breakfast I got this "standard" fruit bowl that had cantaloupe, honeydew, blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, AND grapes in it. In the middle of the desert! One night we went to a nice buffet place with all sorts of seafood (which I don't like) so I ate off the dessert menu- I love trips with grandparents, because regular parents wouldn't allow that sort of thing :-P

Well, I guess keep your eyes peeled for pictures to be posted on Facebook... I'm going to hit the treadmill :o)

Sweet summertime

Summer is off to a great start :o) I'm not too busy because I'm still training at Target, but I'm sure I'll be working more hours once I'm fully trained. Right now I know how to work as a cashier and in "softlines", which are items like clothes and shoes. On Friday I'll be trained in "hardlines" which is everything else essentially; then I'll be prepared to work more than 15 hours a week.

On Saturday I'm leaving for my vacation with my grandparents to the southwest part of the country- I'm so excited!! I want to visit all the states, so on this trip I'll get to add 4 more states to the list of states I've been to. Right now I've been to 13 states, so I've got quite a ways to go! During my trip, I'll be visiting Nevada, California, Arizona, and Utah; I won't be doing anything in California really except driving through the bottom corner of it, and I won't be near the coast, so it sort of doesn't count as visiting the state, but I'll go back someday to really enjoy it.

We're starting our trip out in Las Vegas, where we're going to rent a car and tour several national parks. The trip will start out by driving to Flagstaff, Arizona; we'll also tour Sedona and its area attractions. Then... off to the Grand Canyon!! (Can you tell I'm excited!?) We're also going to see the Painted Desert, Petrified Forest, and the Meteor Crater in Arizona. Next we head to Utah to visit Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National Park; the pictures on these websites are pretty amazing and I'm sure I'll never see anything like these parks anywhere else :-) We'll end the trip by spending a few days in Las Vegas to see the city (but my Poppop says he won't let me gamble... darn). So that will keep me busy until June 5; if you'd like a postcard, let me know and I'll send you one! I even bought the nice postcard stamps (because now that actual stamps are 42 cents, it was worth it to buy the postcard stamps that are only 27 cents instead of just using the stamps I already had).

Later in the summer, I might also be joining Keegan's family at what I affectionately refer to as "Brochufest", which is their huuuuuge family reunion in Vermont each summer. Seeing as how Keegan's dad has 27 biological aunts and uncles, that makes for an absolutely gigantic family once they all marry, have kids, who marry and have more kids... If I go on this trip with them, I'll be adding Delaware, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Vermont to my list of states visited. Combined with the 4 states from my southwest trip, that will get me up to 21 states visited. That's almost 50% of the states! I'll get to all of them someday :-) I'd like to get to all the continents some day too; right now I've got North and South America checked off that list, and I'm not sure how I feel about Antarctica... but I'd like to go to all the other continents. There's so much to see! I sure hope this Ph.D. work will earn me a hefty salary so I can afford all these trips I'd like to take... or maybe I'll invent and patent some amazing method or device, then just live off the royalties. That would be nice too ;-)

On a totally unrelated note, I'm preparing to buy myself a laptop tomorrow. I really, really HATE Vista, so I'm buying my laptop now when I can still buy one with XP Professional. Other than the car I bought last summer, I think this is the most money I've spent on anything in my whole life. Computers are expensive! Luckily I already bought Office Enterprise 2007 from NCSU with my student discount; seriously, I get Access, Communicator, Excel, Groove, InfoPath, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, Publisher, and Word (half of those things I don't even know what they are used for) but it was only $89 at the bookstore. If you buy that preinstalled on a computer, it's like $400 extra. I'm not sure what all programs I might need at Duke with my research, but it was only $15 more than the basic Office 2007 package, so I splurged to save myself potential grief down the line.

Well, I'm going to start getting some things organized for my trip to see if there are any last-minute travel things I need to buy :-)

I am a college graduate!

The past few days have flown by in a flurry of many cakes and pictures, but they've been pretty exciting! I was able to attend Keegan's aerospace engineering and physics graduations (my mom even went to his physics graduation) and he was able to see my BME graduation (his parents came to my graduation, too). It feels weird to actually have the paper that says I'm an engineer, the culmination of 4 years of work all condensed on to an 8.5" by 11" piece of paper....

Mother's Day was spent in High Point visiting my grandparents who were unable to come to my graduation. We went out to eat with them and my aunt, uncle, and cousins, so it was a pretty big crowd!

Yesterday was my 22nd birthday, and it also feels weird to be 22 and a college graduate. No one really cares about being 22; after 21 I feel like there might not be any big birthdays left, except the ones where people start giving you black balloons as gag gifts :-P And 21 isn't that big of a deal for people who don't drink a lot. When I turn 25 I can rent a car- SWEET! That'll be what I look forward to now.

Today is my 2 year anniversary with Keegan, and I'm so excited! It's hard to believe that anyone could put up with me for that long; that's why I love him :-) He brought me gorgeous roses for my birthday yesterday also, so I'm definitely enjoying those. We're going to celebrate our anniversary in June once I return from my southwest trip; too many big meals crammed in to one week wasn't working for us. If we're going to eat somewhere nice, I'm going to eat as much of the food as possible to make it worth going out. I can never eat leftovers; I bring them home in the nice styrofoam trays, but they never get eaten. It's just not the same if you reheat the stuff, at least in my opinion. Especially french fries.

Today I'll continue waging the war against my bedroom and all the stuff I still have stored in the attic, but I've done some major clearing out, so at least I'm productive. Tonight I have orientation at Target so I can learn what all I'll be responsible for doing over the summer. Then I can start making the most of that discount!

Yay for summer!
:-D

The perfect end to undergrad

I've been pretty busy the past few days unpacking all of the junk that I brought home from Wolf Village, and I still don't understand how it all fit into such a tiny room. Oh well, it's one of those unsolvable mysteries I guess. I'm also going through what was already in my room at home to get rid of all the things I will never use again; I'm going to donate them or give them to my stepdad to try to sell at the neighborhood yard sale. Things like my Will Smith cds, journals I never wrote in and will never write in (I'm not very good at that sort of thing, as evidenced by how frequently I write in this blog...), jewelry I never liked or don't wear... those things. I think I'm going to be trading bedrooms with one of my siblings this summer since I have the biggest bedroom, and I'm going to live in Durham after August or so; I don't want to be moving random junk around :o)

Now, I usually at least try to be humble, but I destroyed senior year (as far as grades go); I worked hard and I'm proud of myself for doing as well as I did. In fact, I've destroyed the past 4 semesters; pretty much once I got into my major classes, I loved them all, so I did really well in all of them. I'm such a nerd. That's why I'm going to take 5 more years of school (probably only 2 or 2.5 years of those will have classes though).

See? Destroyed.

I bought a graduation dress yesterday with Cait! It was 55% reduced and cost $37, so that was pretty exciting. I'll post pictures of it when I'm wearing it at graduation :o) It's halter-style and a lighter blue with white flowers and then navy "accents" I guess you would call them, but I'm not really good at describing clothes.

Today I'm going to be washing my mom's car now that water restrictions are lowered; it's part of her Mother's Day gift I suppose. Yesterday my brother and I bought her four hanging geraniums that are light purple- very pretty! They're hanging out on our back porch already and I'm sure I'll be able to enjoy them when I go out there to read. I've started re-reading some of the books we read in high school that I didn't like then but think I would like now. Some books are just not going to be interesting for 14 year olds; right now I'm reading Jane Eyre and I like it so much more than I did in 9th grade.

Well, I should get started on the car-washing and room-organizing. Only 3 days til graduation! 5 til my birthday! and 6 til our anniversary! What a happy week :-D

End of undergrad

Wow, somehow I never thought that May 2008 would ever get here, but now it's May 1- crazy!

So since I haven't written in awhile, I guess a lot has been happening; I finished classes for one thing, and exams. I was fortunate enough to not have any exams during the exam week, so I've been relaxing since April 25. Actually more since April 23, because I finished senior design on April 22. The symposium out at the NC Biotech Center went really well I think; it was crazy of course, with 24 presentations going on, and I'm still not sure if my feet have recovered from standing in heels for 8 hours, but hey, it's over now. I just get to wait for all my grades to be posted :o)

Now I'm getting everything packed up and moved back into my mom's house for the summer; I might as well just leave most of it packed, since I'll be getting my own place in Durham when school starts, but I have so much cleaning out to do, it's a little scary. Every summer I clean out my room, and every summer I'm shocked by how much crap I've accumulated throughout the year. But this will be the big overhaul summer where I go through all the stuff I've kept since high school (because you know my AP US history notes are really going to come in handy...) and get rid of it all. I've actually just gotten a job at Target for the summer too. I wanted a way to pass the time and make a little money, but pretty much I didn't want to go insane between now and August, because that's a long time. I can't apartment-hunt for 3.5 months, and now I can get a discount to buy things I will need for an apartment :o) I also didn't look for a summer research project because I want the option to take a vacation, and with research there's not always that opportunity. You've got to feed cells every day or check this and that every 12 hours, so that's not conducive to vacationing, and I WILL have a vacation this summer. I haven't had a real one since 8th grade, and it's time. Band trips don't count as vacations, and my family always went to the beach the week I was at band camp in high school... I wonder if they were trying to tell me something?

Keegan and I also went with his mom to see Bruce Springsteen on Sunday, and the concert was amazing! His politics suck and I came to hear his music, not his views on the death penalty. Eye for an eye man, now suck it up and play "Rosalita". I especially like how "earth-friendly" he is, yet he's willing have have 30,000 cars full of his fans idle in various parking lots around the city for 60+ minutes, just as long as he got that $100/seat price and then a ridiculous $40/shirt for each of them. Ahh, I see how interested he REALLY is in the environment. There's only one type of green that actually matters to those guys.

I've started running a lot too; well, not "a lot", but every day at least. Usually I go 2 miles and walk another 0.5, but sometimes more, sometimes less. Gotta look extra-nice in my graduation dress, even though no one will see the dress under my huge gown and various cords. I'll know it's there though, and that's what counts. I graduate in 9 days! I'll be 22 in 11 days! Our 2-year anniversary is in 12 days! So exciting! Man, too many exclamations there, but I am pretty excited. Back to the running thing: it's also a good way to pass time. There's a lot to think about while you run, and when I've got nothing to do but pack, going to the gym is a nice break from my room :o)

Well, I've got errands to run today; I'll try to be a more reliable post-writer for the 3 people that actually read this blog :-P

Happy May!

One month!

Exactly one month from today I'll no longer be an undergraduate! I'll be a graduate of NCSU and a grad student at Duke.

There's a lot for me to finish in the last two weeks of class... senior design being the obvious one, but that's actually going really well :o) Also I need to perfect my Honors Capstone report, help create the poster and slideshow for our BME Symposium, move all of my junk out of Wolf Village and somehow make it fit back into the room at my house (which sounds weird because the room at my house is much bigger than my room in Wolf Village...), submit a story on our senior design project to Rex Hospital's quarterly magazine, find an apartment in Durham that's not sketch, buy lots furniture and a new laptop... the list will keep going the more I think about it. But luckily only about 2/3 of that list has to be finished in the next few weeks.

Going to see Bruce Springsteen on April 27, yipee!! That's only two weeks from Sunday. And a month from Sunday is my two year anniversary with Keegan :-D And a month from Saturday is my 22nd birthday :-D And again, a month from today is graduation! So this next month is going to be reeeeeally exciting!

And the winner is...

... Duke! I'm going to Duke!

Now I'll just have to train myself to wear Duke apparel and maaaaybe even put a bumper sticker on my car. I've got an NCSU engineering one, so I should be fair :o)

As much as I enjoyed visiting Georgia Tech, the program at Duke suits me much better. After meeting the professors I had interviewed with on the phone, I'm sure I would be happy with either of them; I'll most likely be working with Dr. Reichert though (I posted a link to his research in an earlier post). He has 4 students graduating in the next 2 months, so I have a lot of free reign over the research I'll be doing, or I could even design my own project around his research interests, which are my research interests also :-D

It also doesn't hurt that Duke offered me more money and a nice supplemental fellowship, is closer to my family, friends, and Keegan, and is more affordable as far as living expenses go, but the campus is gorgeous and the students in the Reichert lab are really nice. Now I'm going to be ready to start my own apartment hunt! Oh goodness...

It's been too long

I thought I should elaborate about my trip to Ecuador, so here goes:

I went with a group of 20 people and we started the trip by spending 2 days in Quito, where we landed. Our first night there, we just sort of explored and ate some local cuisine. The food in Ecuador was delicious, and I tried a lot of things that I couldn't ever see myself eating (like guinea pig and wolf!) not to mention about 15 fruits that I had never heard of before my trip. I miss eating like I did while I was there; 3 different types of freshly-made juices each day, 3 fruits for breakfast, some sort of rice and meat for lunch (usually served with homemade banana chips- so good!), and then another form of meat and rice/potatoes for dinner. Not to mention all of the crazy snacks I ate while I was there. We're talking like... 3000 calories per day! Well, maybe not that many... but a lot :o)

Our first full day in Quito, we went out and visited an ancient volcano crater, the equator, and the cable cars that I mentioned in my last post. All of those experiences were pretty sweet, and definitely once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. The next day (Sunday) we drove from Quito to Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, which was about 4 hours through the gorgeous Andes mountains. Once we settled in to our hotel in Santo Domingo, we went on a tour of the Tsáchila community a learned a little bit about their culture. It was pretty neat to see the community and their way of life; I've read about Native American tribes in the US, but it was really neat to see a tribe that lives mostly the same as it has for hundreds of years.

Monday we started our work; it was pretty back-breaking honestly, but totally worth it. We made the foundation of the house, so it was a lot of concrete mixing, digging holes, moving rocks, cutting iron... basic foundational tasks. I was really surprised at how well our group worked together; it was really nice that we didn't have any people who didn't get along or were obnoxious to each other. It's rare in a group that size to not encounter problems, so it was a really good trip overall :o) We also worked briefly on another housesite, which was near completion when we got there. On Friday the group worked a half day, so we were able to present the keys to the house to the family; it was really emotional, but very nice to see the whole project come around. It was difficult to envision a house where we first started with 9 holes in the ground, so I'm glad we were about to see the whole cycle. Then we drove back to Quito later on Friday afternoon, went out for our last night on the town, and a lot of the team members just stayed up all night because we had to leave for the airport at like 4:30a.m.

So that's my trip... in a nutshell :o) Then I landed in Raleigh, spent 18 hours there, and boarded a plane to Atlanta for my interview, which went very well. I'm very excited about having offers from both Georgia Tech and Duke, and now I just have to think over my situation carefully and chose where to go. Also, I turned down NCSU/UNC and Johns Hopkins already, for anyone who really wanted to know...

Well, I should get back to work now... get a jumpstart on the week. Only 25 days of class left! 5 solid weeks... but then I'm no longer an undergraduate! As of 7p.m. on May 10 :-D

Spring break updates

Soooo it's been awhile since I've written anything in this blog. I'm such a slacker! No really, just crazy busy, but as Cheryl told me this morning, there are only 30 days of class left. 30 more days of classes as an undergrad... whew!

Anywho, I spent Spring Break in Ecuador working with Habitat for Humanity, which was pretty sweet. I got to see some volcanoes (granted, very ancient volcanoes), a mudslide, la mitad del mundo (the equator), a native Ecuadorian group called the Tsáchilas, traveled in cable cars up over Quito to see the whole city (13K+ feet in elevation!), and I saw some really sweet waterfalls too.

I actually overestimated the time I had before I needed to leave for a senior design meeting, so I've got to go, but I'll add more about Ecuador and my Georgia Tech interview (and offer with full stipend in addition to fully paid tuitions!) later.

Counting the days til Easter break!

Interview number three

I have an interview at Georgia Tech also! The number 2 BME grad school... yipee! The only thing is that the interview weekend is March 9-11, and I come home from Ecuador on March 8 in the late afternoon/early evening, so that's going to be a lot of flying for me in a short span of time. No complaints though! :o)

GA Tech is flying me down to Atlanta, putting me up in a hotel, paying for all my food, and even having current grad students meet me at the airport. Pretty sweet accommodations! It's unfortunate that I have to miss several classes, but hopefully my professors will be understanding.

More to come later!

Interview results!

Like I said in my last post, on Friday I heard from a professor at Duke who wanted to talk, and he then provided me with times on both Saturday and Sunday that he was available to talk with me.

So I had my phone interview earlier today where we talked about his work (which is really fascinating!) and my interests, and he told me he's only working to recruit two students. And he only wants two students to add to his lab. It looks like I have a place at Duke if I choose to go there :-D

Here's a link to Dr. Reichert's work, in case any of you want to know what I might be researching this fall:
http://www.bme.duke.edu/faculty/reichert/index.php

Yipee! I have somewhat of a plan for next year!

Point proven

I was offered an interview at NCSU/UNC on Wednesday and I was invited to visit a particular professor at Duke on Friday. I'd say that definitely all a girl needs to get an interview is another interview.

Just waiting to hear from some out-of-state schools now...

Grad school interviews!

I heard from my first school today- I've got an interview with NCSU/UNC in two weeks :o)

Hopefully I'll hear from some of my other schools soon. I've heard the saying that the only thing a girl needs to get a date is another date, so maybe the same principle holds for grad schools. The only thing I need to get an interview is another interview...

Christmas pictures

I had a suggestion to try to add more pictures to my blog, so here goes :o) I thought I would add a few of my Christmas break activities.

The Home Stretch!

Well, it's here. The last semester. Hard to believe that I've been at NCSU since August 2004. But anyway, yes, I'm old, enough of that.

I've been to each of my classes already; my Mechanics of Tissues and Requirements for Implants (whew!) class looks like it's going to be really interesting. And even though it's a MWF class, the professor says he's only going to lecture on Mondays and Wednesdays... sweet! Fridays are for the occasional quiz and for homework help. I also went to my fitness walking class, but the instructor was sick. Keegan had the same coach for his golf class and he said she canceled about 1/3 of his classes, so I'm thinking it won't be too difficult.

Today I had Spanish conversation and reading; I think it's going to really help improve my speaking- just in time for my Ecuador trip! It does seem pretty suspicious though that I can get a minor in Spanish without ever having to speak in Spanish; a conversation class isn't required to get a minor, but I need to learn to speak properly. That and the only other class that would fulfill my minor and fit into my schedule was from 8-8:55a.m. MWF. Uh, no thanks. It's my last semester, and I'm going to enjoy my 10 credit hours in all their 11:45-2:20 each day glory (except Fridays, where I have no class unless there's a quiz or I need homework help).

I know it looks like this semester will be a piece of cake, but senior design is going to be really challenging also. There's just so much ground to cover and I sometimes worry that I (and the rest of my group) may not have all the skills we need to test this device we've designed. It looks great in theory, but hopefully we won't hit a brick wall and discover that we have to use PVC pipe with a 5 inch diameter to support our patients or something.

So in other news, my winter break was pretty great; lots of relaxation. I was able to visit with a lot of my family, including going up to Virginia to spend several days with my dad. I also went to the Biltmore House with Keegan and his family; it was a lot of fun! Very gorgeous :o) Too bad it didn't snow though. Maybe later this month... or February. Or maybe just next year. Who knows? It may snow a lot where I end up next year- Philadelphia or Baltimore perhaps. All the grad school applications are in, along with the references, and I sent my GRE scores over a month ago (yet somehow Georgia Tech STILL says that I haven't sent them...), so now I just get to sit around and wait. My mom and I are planning to take trips to go up and visit the schools I get into, so that will be fun for us (I hope!).

4 months from today is campus-wide graduation for spring 2008! Yay!