Friday the 13th

Today is mine and Keegan's 3.5 year anniversary! I know it doesn't much matter now that we're married (5 months next Friday!) but I always get a little nudge on the 13th of each month because back in the early days of dating it was exciting to be dating for 5 months, 18 months, etc. so I looked forward to the 13th. And it's also Friday the 13th, oooOooooOoo.

Yesterday I submitted my NSF application and it's nice to have that weight off of my shoulders. Of course, I didn't start the essays until Monday night, so I guess even though I wasn't actually working on them for a long time, they were lingering in the back of my mind for awhile. Now I'm going to work on the DOE and NDSEG fellowships too, but I think a lot of the same info will be asked on these applications. Last week was so busy, catching up from when I was sick, taking 2 midterms, and then writing an abstract to submit to the Society for Biomaterials on Monday I sort of lost track of time. And I feel like I submitted that abstract weeks ago but really it was only 4 days ago. Man.

Today Keegan's mom gets back from the Galapagos and Machu Picchu! Exciting! I'm sure she will have shocking numbers of pictures (I can't really talk -- I took at least 1500 pictures in only 7 days in Bermuda and she's been gone for 2 weeks). So Keegan stayed at his family's house Monday-last night while his dad traveled for work so that his younger siblings wouldn't be alone. It was so nice to have him back yesterday! It gets lonely hanging around the townhouse while it's pouring and the wind is whipping around the building. But, as I said, I had a lot to work on.

Tomorrow my dad is coming down from VA and he and Keegan and myself are going to the Duke/GT game! I haven't been to a Duke football game yet and this is the last home game I can go to; there are only two more home games, tomorrow and then the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend, when Keegan and I will be doing Thanksgiving with my dad's side of the family. On Thanksgiving day we're going with my mom, stepdad, and siblings to see my stepdad's parents. I only ever see them on Thanksgiving and they were unable to come to the wedding, so Keegan has never met them. John's mother is getting up there in years but she is so funny! I want Keegan to have the chance to meet them, so this year that's what we're doing on the day of. Next year we'll have Thanksgiving with Keegan's family I'm sure :-) Now that his aunt and uncle are officially moving to Wilmington in January (his aunt got a job here!) they will probably do Thanksgiving at Keegan's family's house. That will definitely make for a huge crowd at their house!

The rest of the weekend will be spent getting back to work on my review paper (I've been neglecting it because of school junk) and reading for immunology. Our house also desparately needs to be cleaned, but I'll be doing that tonight so it will be somewhat presentable when my dad gets here tomorrow. I think I will also do a little bit of Christmas shopping today just because I feel like wrapping something and I already know a few things that Keegan wants; our families have been pestering us for Christmas lists, so I've had to think about stuff I want and stuff Keegan wants and now I'm ready to go buy it! I think I'm also going to cave and go to the bookstore and buy a Duke sweatshirt to wear to the game tomorrow. Damn, I haven't paid for any college apparel like... ever. I have a zillion free NSCU and WISE stuff and then I guess I did pay for Duke grad school shirts (but $5/shirt doesn't really count for a total of $20). But I don't own anything Duke except those shirts and the grad school bumper sticker I put on my car. It's time.

Also I FINALLY changed my name on my bank accounts so I'm officially Alice Brochu now. I guess that means I need to start practicing signing that way. And change my name at Vanguard, on my car title, with Duke's registrar, and on my various forms of insurance. Then I think everything will be changed. I would like to share that I think it's ridiculous that changing my name with payroll at Duke does NOT change my name everywhere at Duke and that I have to go to the registrar if I want to change my name in the system and on my records. Annoying.

I can almost see the light at the end of this chapter of immunology notes, so I'm determined to finish before this presentation I'm going to during class time (as class was canceled).