August 3, 2011

Today was cool because my mom took us out to lunch, and I had a great green curry dish at this little Thai place. My dad is letting me redo the bathroom that has had the same nasty wallpaper since before I was born, so today I finally found the perfect shower curtain, rug, towel, and paint with the color scheme i've had in mind. Success! Later, my sister and I saw crazy stupid love and it was very good. My dad showed me how to remove wallpaper, which is the most awful thing, but we made some good progress and I'm excited to see if I'll be any good at decorating a bathroom for the first time :)

August 2, 2011

Wow, it's been basically an entire month since I've posted. I feel like I've been on summer vacation or something since then, even though i've been working, moving, and now I'm home preparing to move across the country to start grad school. So now I'm actually going to try to keep up with this, since I'm unfortunately not able to spend all my free time with a certain young man :)

Today was great because I bought a planner for the first time since college. I love planners. My sister bought me a nice one for Christmas for years, but since I,ve graduated, I really had no need of one since I had a desk calendar at work. But I'm starting to get more and more emails from school with class schedules, meetings, appointments, and I'm so happy and excited about having things to put into a planner.

And the rest of my life is awesome, too. I finished reading eat pray love. It was okay, and I'm happy that its over so i can read other things :)

July 6, 2011

I have REALLY sucked with this. Things are crazy. Everything is going great in my world. Sean and I are "officially" together as of June 25, and I couldn't be happier FO REAL. We went to his friend's lake house for July 4, and we had a fun time playing volleyball, eating, drinking, swimming, etc.

The new girl who is replacing me started today. She's pretty cool, and I hope she'll like the lab as much as I have.

My financial aid package came in, and Pitt is awarding me a few loans, but I still have to come up with 7,000 more per semester.... so I'm looking for jobs and loans and scholarships :) Cross your fingers for some luck soon!!

I did a huge grocery run, and now I have great food, AND it didn't cost as much as I had expected, which is AWESOME.

Our volleyball team played in a very synergistic manner, which was fun!

Yay my life!

June 20, 2011

This weekend was super fun!!

Yesterday we grilled shrimp for tacos out by Alicia's pool. Saturday, Alicia and I went stand-up paddle boarding on White Rock Lake, which was fun because I fell off and she kept spinning in circles. :) Jon came into down Saturday night, and we went to dinner and ate these ridiculous cheese/bacon fries!! And then went dancing at night! Friday, Sean, Adam, Ashley, Allison, and Ryan and I went to this concert at the art museum, and we had fun walking around and listening to music. So classy!

Today was good because we played softball! A guy on our team got hit square in the face and had the SWEETEST ball stitches above his eye that I've EVER seen. When I got home, I lit a candle, took a long bath, and put on a face mask. It's not much, but it is nice to feel like I'm pampering myself after a long day :)

June 17, 2011

OMG. I feel like I've fallen off the face of the earth.

Today was great because Seung Tae brought his really nice, expensive camera to the lab and took lab photos. They turned out REALLY well and we are all very happy.

Sharon is in town, and we are about to go eat Mexican food.

Also, I love everyone.

June 9, 2011

The past 2 nights I've been scrapbooking like a crazy woman, and I've been having so so so much fun :) I printed a bunch of pictures from my trip to El Salvador in 2008, so now I'm finally getting all that into book form!! YAY!! There are 20 slots for pages in this book that my roommate made, and so far I've finished 13. WHEEEEE!!

June 7, 2011

Sean and I saw STOMP tonight! It was awesome :)

I found out I'm a semi-finalist for a scholarship contest! Here's hoping!

June 5, 2011

Thursday night, Sean took me to the House of Blues to see this band he likes called Big Sam's Funky Nation. THEY ARE AWESOME.

Friday night, Alicia planned a surprise party for Elizabeth that consisted of a sushi dinner and dancing at Red River. IT WAS SO FUN!!!! I think Elizabeth was very surprised and happy :)

Yesterday consisted of sleeping late, then meeting up with Amy to watch Bridesmaids, which was hilarious!!!! We had a fun time eating gelato and chatting after the movie :) Sean took me out to dinner (I had a salmon burger.... yuuuuuuuuumm), and then we met his friends for someone's birthday. They taught me and a new friend how to play darts. Yay fun.

Today I checked my Pitt email account to find that a colleague of a lady I had emailed wanted my resume to send out to a few people he knew that would be interested in a grad student! I hope something comes out of this!!

My sister leaves for Prague today!! GO RACHIE GO!

May 31, 2011

Sunday was great because the 3 of us went to our dad's house, and he cooked BBQ ribs and then afterwards we shot baskets in our driveway and taught Stephen how to do cartwheels in the front yard. Rachel and I pulled out our old bikes, put air in the tires, and rode around PG for awhile. We felt like we were 10 years old again! It was great!! I gave my dad the hilarious father's day card I found where you open it and it sings a silly song about baby poop. My favorite part says:

Sometimes it's all warm and gooey
sometimes it looks like dijon mustard
sometimes it looks like melted crayons
but most of the time it just smells like POOP!

Monday was excellent because I went to breakfast with Heather, and then lunch with Lisa, Sharon, Megan, Mike, and Alex. Our server was terrible, but we got some pretty good laughs out of it! It was so so so so nice to see all of them! <3 <3 <3

Today was good because, although zumba was cancelled, I ran into this girl that I talk to in class, and she said, "that's okay, I'm going to do yoga instead!" So I said, "okay, I'll go, too!" And we did. And it kicked our butts, but the instructor came by multiple times to show me better ways to do things, and I was VERY appreciative of her help!!!

Also, today at work, I got completely CALLED OUT and embarrassed horribly for having a drink too many Friday night out with my co-workers. It was HILARIOUS. I turned soooooooooooooo red, but I think everyone got a pretty good laugh out of it, so I think it all turned out okay :)

May 29, 2011

This week has been pretty pretty crazy. Right now, I'm sitting at home in Houston with my whole family, celebrating mother's day yesterday and father's day at my dad's later today. Last night, we grilled hamburgers and watched Toy Story 3 :) It's rare that all of us siblings are in the same place at the same time, so it's been very nice to spend time with everyone! :)

May 24, 2011

This weekend was so fun! Megan, Sarah, and I spent a few hours eating and shopping. We found some ridiculous deals at the mall. I was buying some stuff at American Eagle, and I remembered I had a gift card. I thought it had a dollar or so, but it turns out it had $24 on it. AWESOME!

We all went over to 1013 to eat and watch the Mavs play their 3 game of the western conference finals. They won, and we had a good time!

Sunday, Stephen cooked some awesome chicken for lunch. I got to catch up with Christine on the phone for a few hours, and then I got to hang out with Sean when he got home from his trip. We cooked some stuffed bell peppers with this jalapeno and cheese sausage that he bought. SO DELICIOUS.

yesterday i went for a great swim after work!!

today there were some crazy crazy storms. i was stuck at the lab until about 8:30, when the tornadoes rolled through dallas, so I was stuck there for awhile. Seung Tae and I got to watch the storm roll in before we took cover. The sky and the lightening were beautiful :) I was happy that so many people called/texted to see if I was okay! What good friends I have! so lucky!

May 21, 2011

Friday was a good day because of the following reasons:

My cool experiment worked! YAY! My boss was happy, and I was relieved. A new girl joined yesterday, and she is very very nice. I missed Caroline's WIPS presentation, but Asha brought me back some pizza, which was so thoughtful!

Alicia had the grand idea of putting on our sweatpants and ordering carry out. We ordered from this Thai place I've been meaning to try for awhile, and it was a delicious delicious choice. Megan came shortly after, and the 3 of us had some EPIC girl talk. They showed me this episode of SATC where Carrie gets broken up through a post-it note, which made us laugh extra hard because it's translatable to recent situations in our lives. We all exchanged our silly online dating stories, while drinking great cheap wine. Alicia found this Messages from Match site, and it is SO FUNNY. Later, Megan and I ordered pizza and fell asleep watching the office :)

May 19, 2011

My life is so awesome right now. Magalie came to zumba with me on Tuesday, and afterwards we went to her house to eat Ikea meatballs and potatoes. It was SO delicious. She and her boyfriend showed me their pictures they took at the zoo, and we had such a fun time.

Wednesday was good too :) Volleyball games were fun, and then we had a drink (or two) outside at a table as well as LOADED TATOR TOTS. OMG SO DELICIOUS. I caught up on a few phone calls, hung out with Sean a little bit, and had a great relaxing night.

Today I had a lot to do, which made the day go by really quickly. I am starting a new cool experiment, and it was fun to work on today! I hope it turns out well! After, I helped with final confirmation interviews at the church, and just hearing some of what these high schoolers had to say was very inspiring :)

May 16, 2011

This weekend was AWESOME.

We saw Sherlock Holmes vs. Godzilla at Pocket Sandwich Theater, and afterwards karaoke at Hilde's. AWESOME.

Saturday was Jaime's birthday party, and then afterwards softball playoffs. WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS. The boys almost got in a fight over "illegal bats." We celebrated at this awesome Italian restaurant afterwards.

Sunday Rebekkah and Rob rolled through town, so it was nice to eat and go to mass with them. I got to show Bass the lab when I went to go split my cells. Sean and I walked the Katy trail for a little bit. It was nice.

Today, I woke up right when my alarm went off, so I got to work at 7:45! That was nice to get to leave early. :) We started our Monday softball league, and it was super fun! We lost our first game and won our second. It was awesome. yay life.

May 11, 2011

I forgot to mention that yesterday, when I came out of the mouse room, I lost my little shoe-covering-bootie thing we have to wear to not track pathogens in and out of the facility. I had my arms full of cages and binders, and a lady stopped and put it back on my foot saying, "Just like Cinderella!" It was great.

Today Sean picked me up and took me out to lunch on his way home from his test. A very unexpected but awesome adventure :)

Ashley and I did a FANTASTIC job in our confirmation lessons tonight, and I am thrilled that they are done!!

May 10, 2011

Work today FLEW by! That was a nice change of pace. It was a good day.

Zumba and the YCP speaker event were good, too!

Sean came over and we finished watching best of Will Ferrell and ate Half Baked ice cream. OMG.

May 9, 2011

This weekend was great. In summary, James came to visit. We saw Rio, and it was awesome. Saturday Magalie invited me to her zumba class, and then James and I met his cousin for lunch. Afterwards, Kate came over, and then later we went dancing. Sunday we went to the Mavs vs. Lakers playoff game. Mavs won by a million points, and it was actually really exciting :)

Today was good. I met up with Sean to work/study at Cafe Brazil. I got a bowl of fruit, and they even made it WITHOUT melons! YAY! Strawberries, pineapples, bananas, and oranges. mmm mmm mmmm.

May 6, 2011

It's 3:00 on a Friday and I'm not at work anymore. That is unexpectedly joyous, although I think I have some kind of stomach virus/food poisoning/weird reaction to something I ate, so the circumstances surrounding my early release are not particularly great, but this whole blog is about finding the positives, right?! RIGHT.

Since I became sick suddenly last night, I did a lot of laying in bed and watching tv. I saw an episode of Jimmy Fallon and his guests were Whoopi Goldberg, Jennifer Hudson, and ELMO. YEAH. IT WAS AWESOME. If none of those 3 make you happy, I don't know what will. :)

and now, back to laying in bed

May 4, 2011

Yesterday was good because Scott cooked this ridiculously delicious chicken for dinner. Seriously, it was out of this world tasty. Note to self: invest in Montreal seasoning.

Today was good because Angela A. is in town for training for her new job, so she, Yajaira, Heidi, Drew, and I met up at Starbucks to catch up! It is always so much fun to be around those girls (+ husband), and I look forward to seeing them again soon!!

Magalie and I ate lunch outside, and we had a great conversation in the sunshine!

Rachel + vball team taught me how to set. Rachel threw a ball up for me, and as I was setting I yelled "setting!" without even thinking about it, and everyone laughed, and I felt funny for the first time in awhile :)
I bought a little box of sushi from Kroger when I went to buy some groceries, and there wasn't nearly enough ginger for my liking. I put the wasabi on it instead, and it was for the first time I've eaten it since I initially tried it and decided it wasn't for me. This time, however, I thought it was surprisingly good. Maybe this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship between wasabi and me. Wasabi and I?

May 2, 2011

Stephen, Jamie, and Jaime came over for dinner :) The latter brought crack cookies (my weakness...)! Stephen showed me chimpanzee riding on a segway.

I have the best brother and friends.

May 1, 2011

After posting yesterday, I grabbed lunch with Sean, then ran errands (like dropping off my recycling... which was great because it was causing huge stress-inducing piles in our laundry closet). Softball game, then took Magalie and her boyfriend to Ikea so they could buy a few things. I took them to Torchy's Tacos for dinner, which they both liked :)

AND THEN I HAD THE MOST EPIC NIGHT'S SLEEP.

It was dark and gloomy outside (and cold! 50 degrees!! WTF, Texas?), so I made the executive decision to stay in bed and watch my Jimmy Fallon episodes on DVR until noon or so.

I hunted for scholarships and research positions for a ridiculously long time, took a break for church. Fr. Joseph had a really great homily, and he told a funny story about how he started singing "this little light of mine" in the elevator at his sister's workplace and everyone started singing along and clapping (he said, "they must have been Baptists."

Then I returned some body wash to Kroger which had been sitting on my counter for about a month. WHEEE!

I worked on more school stuff, then decided F THAT. I put on my Big Bang Theory DVDs and finished 8 pages of my Italy scrapbook I started a few years ago. I have maybe 5 more pages until it is DONE! What a feeling that will be.

AND THEN PRESIDENT OBAMA ANNOUNCED OSAMA BIN LADEN IS DEAD! USA! USA! USA!

April 30, 2011

I'm sorry for not keeping up with anyone's blogs!!! I can't wait to go through and read the posts I've missed in the past few weeks. One of those moods, I guess :)

Sometimes my life is so epic I can't even stand it. Exhibit A:

Last night, Elizabeth invites me to this country music festival thing. Her friend from college was coming into town and invited her to go. I was really looking forward to spending some time at home, but I decided I was being lame and agreed to accompany her. Because who doesn't love a little live country music? RIGHT?

So. Her friend tells us it's a little west of Fort Worth (about 45 minutes away). And we could bring our own beer and that we would have a place to stay if we drank too much or if we were too tired to drive back afterward. And it would cost $26 to get in. All fine. Great ideas.

So it wasn't actually a "little west of Fort Worth." It was actually in Stephenville, TX. Almost 2 hours away out in the freaking boonies. And by "place to stay" meant bring your tent... because they are camping on the concert grounds.

We didn't know what to expect at this point. We didn't really know how far it was, but E had a map pulled up on her iPhone, which then died as soon as we made it to the town. We stopped at a gas station to ask how to get to this ranch where the concerts were, and continued on while trying to get a hold of her friends on my phone.

We pulled into this ranch land by dirt road, where hundreds of people had parked their RVs and set up tents, beer cans strewn everywhere. We can't get a hold of her friends, so we pull up to figure out where to park. The parking attendants inform us that we can't park with E's friends because only 1 car is allowed per campsite. If we want our own campsite it would cost $44 to park. Otherwise, we could go down the street to park for $15.

Not cool.

So then they inform us that we can't buy just a 1 day pass (like the website said we could) for $26. We would have to buy a 2 day pass for $40. At this point, it was around 10 pm, and we only wanted to stay that night. E and I were like uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh NO. Finally her friend answered his phone and came and found us at the gate. He found a simple solution to the problem:

We snuck in through the barbed wire fence into the camping area while he parked the car somewhere since he already had a weekend pass. So yeah. Elizabeth and I, carrying her friend's 24 pack of warm beer (our nicely chilled beer was left in the car), climbed through the barbed wire fence and wandered around until we found the stage. This isn't like... campground in the forest scene. It's a huge plot of land with REDNECKS everywhere. Tents and trucks and beer and bbq pits. And overalls. And jorts.

We ended up having a really fun time listening to music and eating corn dogs. It was soooooooooo windy and we were covered in dirt and beer, but we didn't mind after a little while. Since it took us all day to get there, we decided to pitch E's tent and drive back in the morning.

That's the basic gist of last night. We were REALLY iffy about it, but it ended up being a really epic adventure :)

April 27, 2011

Diana and I went to Iron Fork, a conventiony type thing where all these restaurants in Dallas give out tastes of their food and wine. There was a chef competition, too. WE ATE SO MANY GOOD THINGS. IT WAS RIDICULOUS. AND AWESOME.

April 26, 2011

Easter weekend was fantastic :)

Cowboys Thursday night!

Drove home Friday, went shopping with Mom!

Museum of Natural Science with Mom Saturday to see the Texas history exhibit, then Easter vigil mass with my Dad. Then met up with Sarah, Heather, Vanessa, and E in midtown :)

Drove to Austin in the Camry Sunday to eat lunch with my sister and dad, then back to D-town in the Rav. It's nice to be back in my old car and not in a rental.

Got my fingerprints done for my Peace Corps application Monday! That was pretty cool. My fingers were red from the ink the rest of the day!

Today was a good day of zumba and dinner with my brother!

April 20, 2011

Today was good because:

1. Volleyball was fun! I almost didn't go last minute, but I'm glad I did.
2. I received s bunch of legal documents to fill out to give to the peace corps recruiter, and I got some sheets so i can get finger printed. Coooooool :)
3. I keep a box full of important papers, and today i cleaned all the stuff out that I didn't need anymore and i feel accomplished.
4. A bunch of us ate lunch in the break room at the same time, which I feel like rarely happens (or maybe I feel that way because I never stick around and eat there), so that was nice.
5. I had my chat status saying "on the scope" and every time bass got on, he changed his status to make fun of mine or to counter it. The raegan jumped in, too, and it was fun :)

April 19, 2011

This weekend was just great.

Friday: Allison's birthday dinner and drinks with Travis. Good times.

Saturday: SOFTBALL. Made some awesome catches in left field. The sprinklers came on in the outfield, so we had to delay our game while we waited for them to get shut off. That's silly. Preston came in from Boston, so we went to dinner with some of the old UCC crowd and then went dancing at Cowboys. Made new friends. yay.

Sunday: My bro came over for dinner. That was fun. Something else good happened that day, but now I can't remember what it was!

Monday: Everything was good.

Tuesday: Today is good too. I'm so tired.

April 14, 2011

I got all of my stuff out of my car, my sheep Balthazar included, and got to say goodbye. Maybe that's lame, but I love inanimate objects. Sometimes more than i love certain people.

Some stainings I did worked, and my boss was happy with me. Boss happy = Emily happy

Went to my first Texas exes happy hour with Elizabeth, and we made a new friend.

My new sperrys came in, and they fit nicely.

I learned how to work the air conditioner in the rental car, that was a good move.

I beat Robson in words with friends! I never win! Yay!

April 13, 2011

Asha and Chris both got papers accepted to be published this month (or at least very very recently), so Michelle brought in a bottle of champagne to celebrate :)

We started a new volleyball season, which we won 2/3 games and made new friends. Yay.

Also, my car is totaled, but my insurance company is going to cut us a check for over $10k, which is nice. Overall, my mom didn't really lose any money out of this situation. They also extended my rental car use until the 22nd, which is very nice, too. This situation really sucks, but I'm really really really trying to put on a happy face and find the positives (although I haven't been doing a good job, I'm really trying).

April 11, 2011

Today was good because:

1. I thought I was going to be super late to work, but I made it to the collision repair place, got my damages assessed, and got a rental car... And still made it to work around my usual time.

2. The guy who I met with at service king repair was around my age and super hot. And we made jokes and were less than professional. I could have sworn he was chatting me up, but that's probably his job. Oh well :)

3. I hit a major Monday wall earlier than usual, but i bought a dr. Pepper and it changed my whole morning around!

April 10, 2011

After I posted Friday, I really wanted to go buy myself some new Sperry top-siders to celebrate my accomplishments of the week. Alicia and I head to the mall for happy hour and shopping. I order some new shoes, yay.

On the way out, I got into my first car wreck ever. The joys of the situation: nobody was hurt, my car is damaged only in the front. Alicia was there to help me maintain my hysteria, Megan was there for me at my apt, my mom wasn't mad, and Vanessa was there via g-chat to let me talk about it for a really long time when I couldn't sleep.

Saturday: Megan and I watched season 1 and 2 of the office all day, then Kristin and Robbie came over. We played cards and Bananagrams, then went to dinner, then to see Your Highness (which is awful, btw). Then we were joined by Scott and Travis for some dancing at Cowboys. Travis took us home, and we all tried to watch a movie but we all fell asleep... haha

Sunday: We watched more Office, then Stephen and Rachie came over for lunch. We all ate lasagna and laughed about all sorts of things. Hung out with Megan and Travis for awhile longer, then did laundry, took a nap, went to church, ate dinner, here I am. Fun fun fun weekend!

April 8, 2011

Took the day off from work.

Peace Corps application = DONE!

April 7, 2011

I made a decision! I am going to Pitt in the fall! I feel about 100000 pounds lighter! My deposit is in the mail, and there is no turning back.

Yay.

April 6, 2011

A lot of things went right today:

1. I finally did an overhand serve at volleyball that went over the net!! It was in practice after the game, but it was still awesome.

2. Christine agreed to be my 3rd recommendation for my PC application. yay.

3. The volleyball league shirts say "winning!" on the front. That is also awesome.

4. I heard a new (maybe?) Jason Mraz song on the overhead radio thing in the grocery store. Maybe I've just never heard it before. But that was awesome.

5. I watched last night's NCIS as I cooked/ate dinner, and it was SO good.

6. I spent a good chunk of lunch just praying about school. That was definitely awesome.

7. As I pulled into the parking lot, a lady came down to her car and was tearing it apart. Then a guy came out onto his first floor patio right near her car, asked if she was looking for her cell phone, because he just found it in the parking lot and picked it up to turn it in. It was, in fact, hers, and she was very grateful. What a nice guy!

April 5, 2011

The wind was blowing just right when I walked out of the front doors to the building to walk to the parking lot so that I could smell the newly bloomed roses in the garden out front. Beautiful!

Tonight was the monthy young catholic professionals speaker event, and the guy who talked tonight was the creator of carpool at a&m. Sooooo cool. Also, my autocorrect just changed a&m to s&m... And I wonder who programed that originally...

Elizabeth and I had a good heart to heart, and my dad and I did, too. Great day!

April 4, 2011

Boss's birthday celebration at work!

Rangers game with $4 tickets. I bought a hot dog (okay, 2 hot dogs) for the same price each. Yay. Rangers won so everyone was happy. I don't care about the Rangers, but I love me some baseball and some friends and some hot dogs, so it was a good night :)

April 3, 2011

Whee! This weekend in Austin was SO SO SO GREAT.

Friday: Amy and I had a great drive. Vanessa and I hung out and watched Stephen Colbert sing Rebecca Black's "Friday" on the Jimmy Fallon show. SOOOOOOOOOOO FUNNY. We watched Ghost Adventures, Vanessa's guilty pleasure, and I got scared but we had fun :) We watched something and one guy said to another "I will rip your endocrine system out of your body" and we laughed.

Saturday: LA alumni picnic! My sister came and we saw many old friends :) SO GREAT. Met up with Jamie/Ray/Rebekkah/Rob for hiking in the greenbelt, then dinner at Santa Rita combined with Ramon/Nathan/Vanessa/Angela, and then met up with Lisa/Bill at Mozarts to laugh about old times. Also, Jamie got pooped on by a bird on her balcony right as I got there.

Sunday: Julia cooked me lunch and then Amy and I had nice drive back to Dallas, then mass, then my brother cooked me dinner followed by ice cream and Modern Family.

SO SO SO AWESOME

March 31, 2011

Tomorrow we are celebrating the boss's birthday, and I was in charge of getting some flowers. During lunch, I went to Kroger and bought some yellow, red, and pink carnations and a vase, and they look beautiful and smell awesome.

I'm also going to Austin this weekend!! I can't wait to stay with Vanessa at her new place!!!! I'm also excited about the drive together with Amy!

On another note, I got accepted to the pcmi program at Pitt :)

March 30, 2011

The best thing that happened to me yesterday was unexpectedly getting an email from Sarah, giving me a $25 gift card to donorschoose.org that she had gotten by taking a survey. Sarah blogs/facebooks about the projects she donates to, and it always seemed super cool but I hadn't taken the initiative to really delve into it.

Well thanks, Sarah, because I DID AND IT'S AWESOME. I picked a science project from my hometown, and considering I really got my start in college in a grasshopper lab, this really seemed to be perfect. So far I'm the only donor, so you should donate, too :)

Insect Inspectors

The best parts of today:
- There are some pretty sweet coupons in the weekly junk mail.
- Amy/Adam/Ashley and I finalized our plans to go to the Longhorn Awakening Reunion Picnic this weekend.
- Caroline came back from Taiwan (with bangs) and I missed her so I am happy.
- I was feeling lonely so I called my mom, who at the end of our call said, "I am so happy you called, sometimes I get to feeling lonely." I didn't tell her that's why I called, so yay it made both of us feel good!

March 28, 2011

I REALLY liked Pitt. A LOT. My trip was fast and furious, but I liked the school, the city, the department, the people... it was great. Just really really cold. I was blessed with safe travels and everything was awesome. Way too much to say about that, so I just won't.

Today:
1. A new girl joined our lab. She is from France and she's very very cool and I want to be her friend.
2. It was cool out, and I went for a nice jog after work. Since it was the first time I'd been out to the trail to run in awhile, it felt wonderful.
3. The leaves on the trees in the courtyard where I like to eat lunch are the most beautiful shade of green. I love spring!!
4. I bought Americone Dream ice cream (the one I saw on Colbert) AND IT TASTES AMAZING.

March 23, 2011

At volleyball, some promoter of Sun Drop were out and about, so I drank a diet Sun Drop for free. Apparently:

Emily + Diet Sun Drop = gigglefest for an hour straight.

I seriously could NOT stop laughing. My entire volleyball team thinks I'm insane.

Also, I'm going to Pittsburgh tomorrow and I'm very excited!

March 22, 2011

I found out today that I am a finalist of the PCMI program at Pitt! I set up an interview for Friday!

PCMI = Peace Corps Master's International
= 1st year of MPH + 27 months Peace Corps + 2nd year of MPH

HOLLA! I hope they like me :)

March 21, 2011

Why today was awesome:

1. I downloaded some ecoupons onto my Kroger card, and along with coupons I clipped from a few weekends ago, I saved $8 at the store. Granted, I bought a lot of things that I didn't need right then (but there were lots of coupons for shampoo and feminine products... and shoot, we gotta use all that sooner or later), so that was fun! yay saving a little money!

2. I'm cooking dinner for Travis tomorrow night, so now my kitchen/room/bathroom are clean, papers are organized (for the most part), etc. Not that boys notice for the most part, but I'm hoping to make a good impression, and I feel that my apartment is now good-impression-worthy.

3. I got really sunburned at the pool yesterday, but thanks to aloe vera, the wonder plant, I am just a little pink today. I think I may avoid peeling altogether!

4. I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT VISITING THE UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH ON THURSDAY. I have a really really good feeling about this place before I even get there. Maybe I'm just excited to have these visits done so I can make a decision? Either way, I'm looking forward to a new adventure :)

5. As I just wrote that, Evangeline just sent a message to me and some of her Pitt friends asking them to adopt me and be my friend for the trip. YAY!!! I am so excited!! Seriously, Evangeline, you are phenomenal, and I hope we end up in Pittsburgh together :)

March 20, 2011

THIS WEEKEND WAS SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO GREAT.

Lisa and Rebekkah, 2 of my old roommates/BFFs from college came to Dallas to hang out for the weekend :) I LOVE THEM. We had so much fun! It isn't so much what we did, it was just being together that was fun!

Friday: We went out to a bar in uptown after unsuccessfully trying to meet up with some other friends + brother, but we landed a nice patio table at the MAT, and Elizabeth joined us after her party dispersed for the night. Afterward, we went to Pluckers, and BK got wings and Lisa let me pick off her chips and salsa.

Saturday: I woke up a few hours before the other girls, so I sat out on my balcony to enjoy the beautiful morning and read Memoirs of a Geisha, which is so good I can hardly put it down! After they got up, we ate and went to this part of town my cousin, Karen, told me about called the Bishop Arts District, which is an old historic part of town that got into a lot of trouble with drugs and crime and what not, so they are trying to rebuild and gentrify it. It has some really cool shops, like this homemade/crazy chocolate store (one of their most popular is dark chocolate + blue cheese + sea salt... SO GOOD), homemade soaps/stuff boutique, and this super cool place called The Soda Gallery, where they basically have every soda imaginable, plus places to sit and Chinese checkers. Then we went to our first softball game of the spring, and we DESTROYED the other team. The lady umpire had a huge stick up her butt, and it was fun to watch people on our team talk back to her and piss her off. C Bass brought the boom box and played silly walk up songs, and everyone was happy and having a good time. Kate joined us, and we all went back, showered, and went to dinner at Kate's fave place in Dallas, Veracruz. At the end of dinner, this sprinker by a tree behind Kate and BK went off and soaked them and their stuff... and it was hilarious. We ended up just sitting around my apartment, talking and joking for the rest of the night, and it was AWESOME. And playing Bananagrams. AWESOME.

Sunday: We went to the botanical gardens in Fort Worth to walk around and see the pretty flowers. Not everything was in full bloom yet, but there were some beautiful poppies, pansies, a few roses, flowering dogwoods and my new favorite, chinese wisteria. We went into the Japanese garden there, which was amazingly beautiful. They left, I went and laid out by the pool, and some random guy brought me a beer and invited me to come lay by him and all these girls, so I did and it was awkward since they didn't talk to me and I didn't talked to them. I talked to Diana on the phone, drank my beer, and left, and nobody noticed. Funny?

March 18, 2011

LISA AND REBEKKAH ARE ON THEIR WAY AND I AM SO HAPPY!

March 16, 2011

Why today was awesome:

1. I finished Grimm's Fairy Tales today :)

2. I can't remember exactly what he said, but Chris made some joke and I almost spit coke out all over the break room.

3. We won 2 of our 3 volleyball games today! The wind was ridiculous, and whoever was on one side of the net ALWAYS won or went ahead when we switched sides. GO US!

4. Last week, there was the funniest episode of The Colbert Report I've ever seen. Maybe I blogged about this already? I can't remember. If I didn't, Jimmy Fallon came onto the show and they argued about who had the better Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavor. SO SO SO SO FUNNY! I wanted to save it and watch it again, but I accidentally erased it from my DVR. There was a re-run of this episode last night and my DVR picked it up, so I just got to watch it again :)

PLEASE WATCH THIS CLIP. You won't be sorry :)

And then this clip to follow :)

March 15, 2011

BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH!
I always think of Rebekkah when March 15th rolls around, because when we were roommates, somehow the ides of march became a big deal (not sure how). We're so silly!

To start the morning off, some people from the office at my apt complex were giving out free donuts at the gate. They gave me a pink sprinkly one, and I was happy :)

At work:
(Important backgroud: Asha just had a baby)
Asha: My legs hurt.
Me: Why?
Asha: I've gotten fat.

I wish I could convey the hilarity of the way Asha said this. It was sooooo funny. Poor Asha.

I was delirious from spending all day in the mouse room, so at the end of the day I was saying some crazy crazy things, like making up a song with Chris about the PLZ dosage test we were doing to the tune of Bohemian Rhapsody.

Dinner at Alicia's with her and E, along with E's two new yorkies. Mix them with Alicia's yorkie and you get hyper lovable dogs everywhere :) If puppies don't make you smile, I don't know what will :)

March 14, 2011

PI DAY!

This weekend was fun! I chaperoned a church retreat for the high schoolers that I taught that one time, along with Allison, Amy, Adam, Ashley, and Preston, who were a few of my friends from church back in college. The retreat was fun, well-run, and pretty organized, but the best parts were hanging out with them, as well as spending a little bit of time with the girls on my side of the cabin. They were so silly and fun, and I really hope they go far in life :) It was a beautiful weekend of sunshine, prayer, and good food!

Since little sleep happened, I took a 3 (ish) hour nap Sunday afternoon when I got home, and part of my dream involved eating gummi peaches... and I woke up drooling all over myself. Pretty attractive, right? Scott cooked us some BBQ ribs, and I made a salad :) Due to the nap, I couldn't sleep, so I filled out the FAFSA and felt productive.

Today was good because I used some of my credit card rewards points on Kiva to lend some money to a lady in Bolivia who is trying to raise money to send her daughters to school. You lend $25 to help a person/group with their small business, and they pay you back in small installments. YAY microlending! Here's who I just made my first loan to:

Mrs. Felicia Quispe, 36, has two daughters in her care. She’s a single mother who was abandoned by her husband. She and her daughters live alone in Quillacollo. She sells clothes at wholesale and retail. The clothing is both new and used that she brings sometimes from Santa Cruz Department.

Felicia buys the clothes by the dozen directly from manufacturers and resells sometimes at higher prices. If she sells by the piece she earns more profits. During market she goes to Santa Cruz to sell her merchandise and returns with other merchandise to sell. This is how she’s always seeking ways to obtain more profits and better income for her family.

Felicia, in her zeal to find better possibilities to improve income, came by in person to request a loan to have working capital. An evaluation was conducted and it’s clear that she is a woman who works very hard for her family’s wellbeing. Felicia wants to use this loan to finish paying school costs for her daughters so that they will become hard working, upstanding citizens.

Yay! I feel happy.

March 10, 2011

Why today was awesome:

1. Alejandra mailed me a huge padded envelope FILLED WITH CHOCOLATE BARS FROM SCOTLAND AND A POSTCARD OF A PLACE WHERE THEY FILMED THE HARRY POTTER TRAIN omg omg omg. I love my mini-roommate!!

2. Robson is staying with me tonight!! Jaime and Alicia both joined us for spaghetti tonight at my place! Mmmmm I love those guys!! Watching HIMYM and talking about college days... nothing beats it!

3. Greg is letting me borrow his sleeping bad for this retreat this weekend. When I went to pick it up, he made silly jokes about how he sweated/peed in it/left bugs in it, and I enjoyed them immensely!

4. Kayla randomly texted me about how she enjoyed my hug line song, and Yajaira and Serena randomly sent me messages on FB! Seriously? I am too lucky.

March 9, 2011

Today was a good day because:

1. Everyone at work asked about how my trips went, and it was nice to feel cared about!! :)
2. At lunch, Asha let me try some of her food which included bitter gourd, and it tasted so gross and bitter and nasty, which is why she wanted me to try it. We bonded, I think...
3. I like Ash Wednesday because I am still excited about whatever I'm giving up for Lent, and I still feel like I CAN DO IT! I'm giving up going out to eat, which should be pretty interesting... it's something I enjoy, so it's a sacrifice, but it will hopefully take the burden off my wallet for a little bit :)
4. Our Texas Exes volleyball team started playing again today, and it was fun to hit the sand with the same people I played with in the fall. We played really well, surprisingly, although we lost 2/3. Next week we will be great!
5. Since it's cold at night right now, our feet get really cold in the sand, so half of us played in socks. Socks + sand is a really silly situation :)

March 8, 2011

DANG. The past 6 days of my life have been out of control. Here are some super fast highlights:

Thursday: Flew to Seattle! Figured out my way around the light rail and the Harborview medical center (in the rain), had meetings with Dr. Scott McClelland and Dr. Stephen Hawes (WHO IS SO AWESOME) about their research, etc, wandered around UW's super awesome campus (in the rain) then had a dinner with other prospective students/current students in the Epi department. SUPER EXCITING DAY! I'll try to elaborate later :)

Friday: Nice walk to campus (not raining), breakfast, info session, meeting with Dr. Rachel Winer, heard talks from professors, including Dr. Hawes from yesterday, and I paraphrase:

Dr. Hawes (whose research is mostly in STIs and HPV, which is what I want to do... I think): One girl I met with yesterday, I won't say her name so I won't embarrass her, loves chlamydia and is really excited about research it. Well Dr. so and so does this..... lakjs;gla

So it turns out I am STILL the chlamydia girl, years after my internship. LOVE IT.

Then later I met with Dr. Alyson Littman, and then my FAVE part of the day was spending a few hours wandering around downtown Seattle, the Pike Place Fish Market, and Capitol Hill. Met the group for happy hour, then met a friend, Kate, for chocolate, dinner, drinks, and good times with her friends. We really had a lot of fun, and it was so nice of her to take me under her wing! Wild salmon pot pie for dinner. YEAH. We went to their regular Friday bar and hilarity ensued. The end.

Saturday: Kate showed me some other cool places downtown, Space Needle area, etc, and then I flew back to Dallas, read a good chunk of Pride and Prejudice, beat Plants vs. Zombies on the plan, and then hung out iwth my bro and Alicia for awhile, then fell asleep.

Sunday: Drove to Houston, hung with my mom and played wii together. AND SHE BOUGHT ME A NEW CAR!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2007 Saturn Ion. It's so awesome. I am SO HAPPY.

Monday: Visited UT SPH. It was way cooler than I thought it would be. Meeting with Dr. Christine Markham and Dr. Ross Shegog, both WAY freaking cool. Two super cool students showed me around. It was a really nice trip. then went back to my dad's and ate sushi and watched Denzel movies with my dad :)

Today: Drove back to Dallas, regrouped and got life back to normal.

GREAT DAYS! ADVENTURE! I could type for days about the good things about the trip, but I hope that catches the main ideas :)

March 2, 2011

Today is Texas Independence Day!! YAY TEXAS!

My weekend was great. So, my life is insane right now and I LOVE IT. I'm flying to Seattle tomorrow to check out UW! Also, the cool kids call it U-Dub, so really this adventure should be labeled:

E-Dub goes to U-Dub. I really like that a lot.

February 24, 2011

Today was a nice change from the rest of the week. Kate called around 7 this morning, so it was nice to chat, even if it wasn't about the best of topics. I value Kate as a best friend and i think of her as a sister, and it makes a person feel special when they are the person people want to call when things go wrong.

And so i went into work on a cleaning rampage, so I reorganized this area on top of our freezers so things don't fall on my head when I reach for them :)

Raegan organized an impromptu happy hour after work since it was a beautiful evening, and it was just beautiful to me to sit and laugh and laugh and swap stories and laugh with good people.

And then I came home and got in bed around 9, talked on the phone, watched some modern family on th iPad, and thoroughly enjoyed a night off. Robson was supposed to roll through town and stay with me, and I'm bummed that he couldn't make it... But it was nice to be able to be worry-free, just for a few hours. I'll get back go worrying tomorrow :)

February 23, 2011

Amy and I have been planning our confirmation class lessons for a week, and it's been super stressful. Today I taught our lesson, and it went over very well. We way over planned and didn't get to everything... But we were afrraid we wouldn't have enough material, so I consider tonight a success!

Michelle taught me about how to get around in Seattle, and now I'm feeling much less anxious about my trip. Two huge weights off my shoulders! :)

She also brought donuts. Mmmmmmmmmm :)

February 22, 2011

I woke up happy this morning :) I was in an inexplicable good mood all day today!

THE END.

Just kidding.

Actually, on second thought, I don't have too much I'd like to say! THE END AGAIN.

Okay, here's an edit:
After I wrote this, I read Kayla's blog (a must read, btw), and she gave me a super sweet shout out and I wanted to die I was so excited. Kayla, if you read this, I think you are wonderful, and I wish that we could have spent more real-life time together... but sometime in the future I am sure we will :) Thanks for being awesome.

And for no reason at all, this song is stuck in my head. CLICK IT.

February 21, 2011

It's been a few days since I've posted but I'll hit the good and silly points of the previous days.

Friday: left work a tad early, and went to the YMCA for a nice swim in the lap pool since it was a beautiful day. A lady was swimming in the lane next to the shower where I was rinsing my hair out, and she said, "hey beautiful!" haha I said, "hello." turns out she thought i was her girlfriend. I thought she was just telling me I was beautiful... Hahah thanks for nothing, lady! I saw Caroline perform in the med school's multicultural show in a Bhangra act. They were amazing!! My brother and I spent the evening watching boy meets world.

Saturday: i went to this training about watching for child molesters at church stuff, from which i left feeling more than slightly depressed. As i turned on the street where my apartment is, there was someone outside of one of the taco stands dressed up in a sandwich costume dancing around.... And i seriously couldn't stop laughing!!! it was just one of those things, i guess. :)

Sunday: my dad came to visit Stephen and i. He brought zep, and we went to the park and played frisbee. Later, alicia and I bought pink softballs at the store, and then met Scott at the park to hit the ball around :)

Monday: president's day = no work. Jog, lunch at cosmic cafe, ran some errands to complete my brother's house warming gift... A bamboo plant in a vase with some pretty rocks! He bought my sister and I both bamboo plants, so now we can all match. Finished a bunch of emails to faculty and finished a lot of our lesson plans for confirmation class. I'm feeling much less stressed out than earlier this weekend. Yay!

February 17, 2011

First flip flop day of the year. I also didn't wear a jacket or long sleeves for probably the first time this year. Man, I love living in Texas.

Scored my first meeting with a faculty member in Seattle. Sweeeeeet.

Mike is teaching geography to high school freshmen, and he sends out a mass text whenever something especially funny happens. Today he sent this:

Student #1: Mt. Everest is in Asia?!?
Mike: Yes...
Student #1: Why are our presidents carved on a mountain in Asia?
Student #2: That's Mount Rushmore you idiot!

February 16, 2011

My brother woke me up super early because he needed an iron, so I got to work a full hour earlier than usual, which means I got to leave an hour earlier than usual! And now it's 9:45 and I feel like it should be a lot later than it is, but I am enjoying this extra time at home!

When I came home, I sat on my balcony with my tulips, caught up on words with friends, and just sat still for a little bit. On one Longhorn Awakening retreat, someone talked about the importance of just "being," and I like to think about that idea. I think it's actually very helpful to just "be" every so often. It's very soothing.

We cooked this Italian soup stuff, and it turned out very yummy! I am excited about eating leftovers for lunch.

We also watched Modern Family together, and I forget how much I like that show. Note to self: start recording it.

Also, when I was leaving work, there were a bunch of us crowded into an elevator. I was one of the last people in, and as the door shut, the one man in the elevator said "7 women at one time!" And some woman said, "You're one lucky man!" Silly.

February 15, 2011

It was 70+ degrees today! Lunch outside happened, and I watched a bunch of travel podcasts as I ate. Beautiful.

The 1013 boys + girlfriends invited me over for tacos after zumba, and we stuffed our faces as we watched The Biggest Loser. Ironic much?

Skype date with Lisa :) She is great.

My sister told me I was her role model :)

And I got a nice call from a really awesome faculty member at the UT SPH telling me I was accepted :) WHEE!

February 14, 2011

My friend and I had lunch at a Mexican/Salvadoran restaurant, and I ate pupusas and they were DELICIOUS.

A long time ago, I filled out this survey for our qPCR machine manufacturer, and they promised a free t-shirt in return. WELL IT CAME. It says:

qPCR Goddess
n. Female who eats, sleeps and breathes real-time PCR.

I LOVE IT.

Also, I love having my brother here with me. He is great, likes my cooking, and went to the park to work out while I did, and watched HIMYM with me. Best brother ever. THE END.

February 13, 2011

This weekend was extra great. I am falling asleep as I am typing this, but highlights:

Friday night: 500 Days of Summer with A and S. yay.

Saturday: So much got done like whoa. I played Suzie Homemaker all day, ran 7000 errands, sewed the buttons back onto my new coats, mended some shirts, went to work, went to Amy's and we saw Harry Potter in the dollar theatre. yay. I also bought myself some tulips at Kroger. Happy Valentine's Day to me!

Sunday: Mass and a cool lecture with CB at HT about theories of evolution and how they can intermingle with Catholic teachings. SO INTERESTING. Then Ray came to Dallas and surprised me! He brought me flowers and candy. We called Jaime to join us, I cooked those boys lunch, and then we drank root beer floats at this awesome restaurant called the Twisted Root. Walked around Deep Ellum, then my brother came! We sat around and chatted for a long time, they left, and bro and I got some sweet hang out time.

And I got into the University of Pittsburgh! WHEEEE

February 9, 2011

Joys from today:

1. Snow again. Went into work at 10. :)

2. I had another day of straight up hard work, and I got a lot done, including getting the results to the stuff I did with some of the tubes from yesterday. Chris was very happy with my work, fixed it up a little bit to show to our boss, who was very pleased with our preliminary results. Chris made it a point to note that these results were the product of "Emily's hard work today." I was happy someone noticed :)

3. Confirmation class was canceled, which was a total bummer, but I used that time to work on my UW research. I think I finally finished looking through enough faculty at UW to contact about their research and possible positions, so now I just need to start emailing. I was looking forward to teaching my first lesson, but things really worked out well for me!

4. Ray told me today that after he got to work, his car doors froze shut and his lunch was stuck inside. Poor Ray, but that's hilarious. :D

5. Nanny sent me a Valentine's Day card. She always puts $2 in it and says "Have a Coke on me." I can't wait to buy a Coke tomorrow. She also says that it makes her day when I call her. I think I'll call her tomorrow to thank her for the Coke. BEST GRANDMA EVER.

February 8, 2011

Today's little joys:

A. I've had 52 tubes of stuff for 2 separate experiments that needed to all go through this RNA isolation + cDNA synthesis process, which takes multiple hours and a lot of patience. All of my tubes started the day off at different stages of the process, but by the time the day was done, the final group was in the machine to finish the sequence, so I can do the real experiments tomorrow and have results by the end of the week! I've been gathering said tubes from various weeks of experiments, and it felt so nice to work hard all day and get these things finalized :) yay, science!

B. I bought a Barnes and Noble groupon the other day ($10 for $20 worth of stuff). On BN.com, I found a bunch of great stuff for super cheap! I bought Hook, The Breakfast Club, and Seasons 1 and 2 (I think those are the only 2 seasons?) of the British Office. If you bought $25, you got free shipping, so I went ahead and splurged. My total came to $27, so really I paid $17 for all that awesome stuff. And it shipped today, and I am excited!

C. Zumba.

D. YCP speaker event! The speaker tonight was this badass lawyer lady who only represents clients who make ethical decisions. She only decided to work with this firm because they let her have a family and didn't make her retire when she had kids. This lady was the freaking coolest. I want to be like her, except not a lawyer. She made it seem super easy to show your Catholic faith in the real world... very inspirational, and I want to be her friend. And there was this amazing pizza and sangria. And I was only 1 number off from wining an awesome raffle prize. I sighed really loudly and the MC guy was like "wow, just heard someone sigh. they must have had #82up43829." And I did. Jerk. Hahaha. Yay tonight.

February 7, 2011

This weekend was excellent!

Highlights:
1. It snowed about 6 inches on Friday. YEAH. I walked to work in the snow, and it was SO BEAUTIFUL and so so so so fun. :D
2. 1013 House Re-warming/Bass' birthday/Greg-got-into-Stanford Party :)
3. Superbowl at 1013
Other cool things happened here and there, but those are the big ones!

Today was beautiful because:

I had an epic EPIC kitchen fail. Here I was thinking about how good of a cook I've become, but tonight I attempted paella and it was a disaster. I realize my mistake, and I'm determined to try it again and succeed... but it is an epic epic epic fail. And you can't help but laugh when little humbling situations like that happen.

Also, the sun came out today, and during lunch I sat outside for about 30 minutes and I even took my jacket off. And my arms are now PINK. Sad. My skin has missed the sun, and it felt so nice :)

I went to a class called BodyFLEX! at the Y tonight, and it worked me good :)

Goodnight, world :)

February 3, 2011

Email from the University of Washington:

CONGRATULATIONS! I am delighted to inform you that the Admissions Committee of the Department of Epidemiology has made a favorable recommendation on your application to enter our MPH (General Track) program. An additional formal notice of admission should follow in 3-4 weeks from the UW Graduate School.

OMG I GOT INTO GRAD SCHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

February 2, 2011

The best moments of today are very silly:

1. I was debating whether or not to go to work today, since the wind chill the morning was below 0 degrees. In my attempt to turn on the news and check how bad the roads were, I pushed the 'Power' button on my TV remote. At the exact moment, all of our lights/tv/fan/heater/etc shut off. I WAS FREAKING OUT. i.e. HOW DID I DO THAT?!

I was disappointed to find out about the rolling blackout schemes in Dallas today and that I did not, in fact, control electricity.

2. Since I didn't take my car yesterday, the hood and other parts were still covered with a pretty sweet layer of ice. Luckily, my windshield wasn't affected. Unluckily, all of my doors were iced shut and I seriously could not get into my car! Eventually, after some jiggling, I managed to get my passenger door cracked enough to pry it open and climb into the driver's seat. After about 15 minutes of letting the engine warm up enough to put on the defroster, I pulled out of my parking spot. About 10 yards later, my 'door ajar' light comes on. So all of the doors that were frozen shut apparently were not. Silly.

February 1, 2011

Yesterday was great because:
I got to spend the entire evening talking about Jesus with AMY! We are teaching 2 classes at Allison's church to confirmation students (I will teach the Wednesday class, and she'll teach the Sunday class). So our first class starts next week, and our chapter is about Jesus' Mission and Message. Amy is truly inspirational, and I wish I could be her student. Her passion for Christ is AMAZING, and we had a great time planning our lesson together! AND she had a coupon for buy one, get on free entree at Cafe Brazil... so it was awesome. I think we have some pretty solid ideas for our class!

Today was great because:
IT SNOWED. AGAIN. But more realistically, it rained ALL NIGHT and then dropped to 15 degrees. Everything is covered in these tremendous layers of ice... it looks pretty but it's super dangerous out there. Both airports shut down, the roads are scary, etc. My boss emailed us and told us to be careful and only come in if we have to. Well, unfortunately, she needed some of Chris and my data (Chris's and my? what is the appropriate grammar?), so I went in.

Due to my lack of sweet tires and the 70000 pounds of ice on my car, I thought it would be much safer to walk to work. And it was awesome. I wore my big rain boots, big socks, jeans, a sweater, my fleece jacket (thanks, sister), and my new red plaid pea coat, gloves, and a burnt orange beanie and trekked to the lab! I don't know how people do this on an everyday basis, and I'm sure it gets old, but it was fun to slide around the ice, crunch through frozen grass, and have the few brave drivers out there stare at me funny. I almost fell down about 800 times, and everyone else who came in made it safely :)It's not supposed to be above 30 for the rest of the week!! BRRRRRRRR!

Other than that, I recorded Colbert from last night, and I paused it so I could concentrate on my blog. Colbert is frozen with a very comical 'deer in headlights' kind of look... and it's making me giggle.

I love you, guys! Thanks for writing comments. You make me happy :)

January 31, 2011

Today marks 1 whole year as a working girl! What a crazy year this has been. I moved to Dallas Saturday Jan. 30, 2010, and started my first real job on Monday, Feb. 1st. I remember how terrified I was my first day. I was in this huge auditorium all day with all of the other new hires, which was over 100 people, not knowing anyone, not having a clue where anything was, or when to even report to my boss. I had no internet access in my apartment, no computer log-in, and no access to the wireless, and I was a stressed out mess. Luckily, I remember that night before, I called and begged Jaime to let me come over and use his internet so I could figure out where to go the next day. I remember eating lunch with some random girl I haven't seen since. I hope she's doing well, wherever she is! We learned about parking at UTSW's missions and policies and structure and payroll systems and benefits and retirement plans and blah blah blah. It was long, boring, and super scary.

WOW. I seriously can't believe that was a year ago. So many things have changed. I am happy with the work I have done this past year. I went from knowing absolutely nothing about heart development or working in a lab. I still don't know much about heart development, but I can sound like I do to Joe Shmoe :) I've learned techniques and protocols and stainings and procedures. I've killed my first animals, cut off my first heads....

I've had my own bench with my own drawer and my own shelves with my own jars of my own reagents that I made. I have my own storage space in the different freezers, I have my own tasks and responsibilities. People know my birthday, where I came from, what my handwriting looks like, and know not to steal my pens (well, maybe they are working on that).

My boss tells me all the time that she appreciates my attitude. I've learned how to make other people in the lab laugh, and I've learned to read their actions to find out when their pissed and don't want to be bothered. I've learned that co-workers are co-workers, and 99% of the time, they don't want to be your friend outside of work, as much as you like each other.

As you can see, I'm pretty stinking proud of myself for what I've learned this past year. I've been reflecting on just how much I've grown up, and although I am sad that I've lost a little more of my "youth" (or whatever), I am extremely happy with where I am now and the adventures of the year that got me here. Thanks, God, for all you have given me :D

Great things happened today, but I'll leave that for tomorrow. Thanks if you read this lengthy and more serious post :)

January 30, 2011

Last night at E's we watched the Prestige WHICH IS SO AWESOME AND BLEW MY MIND.

And I finished Shawshank Redemption WHICH IS ALSO SO AWESOME.

Today was a very productive day. I, for once, felt in the mood for breakfast food, so I cooked half a package of turkey bacon that I've had in the freezer for a long time. And quite honestly, I think that was the first time I've ever cooked bacon for myself. YEAH. I'm 24. GO ME. So that felt cool.

E, Alicia, and my new friends Mary Claire and Cameron, went to Pocket Sandwich Theatre to see their production of O Brother, Werewolf Art Thou? It was a cute little theatre where they give you popcorn to throw at the actors, and they encourage you to cheer for the hero and boo/hiss at the bad guys. It was super fun :) We ate ice cream brownie sundaes there. YAY. YAY YAY YAY for today!

January 29, 2011

This is post #101! Whee!

This weekend, thus far, has been the bomb.com. We planned to go out to Knox Street Pub (originally a girl's night, but that kind of didn't happen) and have fun, and since I'm broke, no drinking for me. A night of good clean fun!

So after a full week of low self-esteem, I decided that needed to change. I broke out the cute black dress. AND my newly purchased red high heels. I needed to know that a random sample of young men are capable of thinking I'm pretty and want to talk to me. I needed to prove to myself that I've still got it.

And girls, I've still got it. :)

So then today, Alicia and I went shopping so she could get some new outfits for a special occasion, and it was fun to pick out cute dresses for someone else to buy :) And then we went walking on the Katy Trail with her Yorkie for about an hour. The weather is SO SO SO beautiful. It was about 75 degrees this afternoon (while our friends in NYC are having the snowiest January ever... HA).

GREAT DAY. Movie night tonight. Doesn't get any better than this.

January 27, 2011

Scott took me to the Rockets vs. Mavericks game tonight as my Christmas present. The Rockets were down by 20+ at the half, but they really came back to make it an extremely exciting 2nd half. We ended up losing by a few points, but it was fun!! I still maintain Houston teams > Dallas teams.

My boss was very happy with me today. I like being on her good side.

I had lunch with Ellen. I brought her some chicken quiche that I made, and she liked it :)

TOMORROW IS FRIDAY AND THAT BRINGS ME GREAT JOY

January 26, 2011

Ray got a job today!! YAAAAAAY

My new coats came in today!!

My skin was extremely dry and awful, but I just used a boat load of lotion so my skin feels so happy :)

January 25, 2011

Yesterday's joys:
1. My brother sent me a text in the morning saying "I love you big sis, kick some rat ass today." <3
2. I responded by sending him, my dad, and my sister a picture of a mouse I killed with it's intestines and uteran horn + embryos hanging out. I followed it up with a picture of said embryos in a petri dish. Everyone was grossed out and it was awesome. I sent them to James and Scott eventually, and they both freaked out. I enjoyed that greatly.
3. Dinner with Alicia and Elizabeth. Girl talk yayayayayayayay :)

Today's joys:
1. I was feeling super super stressed today, but I asked the undergrad intern for some help and he followed through in a BIG way. He embedded some hearts for me (which takes a good 2.5 hours), froze them into a block, and sectioned them for me. Seriously, this saved me probably 3 or 4 hours of work. I am so indebted to him today. WOW. Nice nice guy. It made me feel really cool today, also. Normally people give me work to do to help them on their experiments, and finally, I got to be the one asking for help on menial but time consuming tasks. But yay, Tao, for saving the day!
2. At zumba, two girls introduced themselves to me. They work at a church downtown, and they were very nice. New friends! yay!
3. I made this awesome sausage and vegetable stew. OMG it tastes so good, and it's really more substance than broth, which I really really really like.
4. I got to catch up with Diana and Megan via phone. <3 those girls!

January 23, 2011

This weekend was so relaxing.

Friday: I drag Scott to eat at Roly Poly (I loved this place in Houston but they shut it down... so I was REALLY excited to find one in Dallas) and Pokey-O's for dessert. POKEY O'S TAKES TWO COOKIES OF YOUR CHOICE AND PUTS A HUGE SCOOP OF ICE CREAM IN BETWEEN. Obviously, it was AMAZING on 3 different levels. Then we came back to my apartment, and because all I wanted to do was lay on my couch and read my book, he got his book and read it on our other couch. Yay, good friends and book club :)

Saturday: SLEEP SLEEP GLORIOUS SLEEP!
I finished a scrapbook of my college life summer 2007-December 2008. YAY!
I also ran 4-ish miles. Stephen invited me out to his cousin's birthday at Pete's Piano bar, and we had an awesome night of singing!! I requested Proud Mary and Ice, Ice Baby, but they only sang Tina Turner... surprisingly. IT WAS SO FUN!

Sunday: My cousin, Karen, invited me over to watch the Packers vs. Bears football game. I've never really hung out with her or her husband before, but they were super cool and their friends were very nice. They cooked some fantastic chili!

January 20, 2011

I got an email from Victoria's Secret with some promotion codes. I always read them, but never buy.

BUT TODAY I DID.

An extra 30% off of clearance coats? Free shipping for purchases over $25? YES PLEASE.

I bought THIS and THIS.

FOR A TOTAL OF $75.

Greatest purchase of all time.

January 19, 2011

Today was awesome because:

1. Across from our lab building is another building connected to the main one by a 3 level walkway encased in glass (or whatever... you can see through it). I looked out the window of the break room this morning to see about 4 different guys with huge nets chasing a bird that got into the glass hallway somehow. I watched them running and swatting frantically for about 5 or 10 minutes, and they couldn't catch this pesky little bird! Another guy was flapping his arms, clapping, and banging on the walls to, what I assume, scare the bird off of its various perches. This scene was hilarious :D

2. I've had a pile of papers on my bench of various notes, calculations, instructions, and orders that I've been meaning to put in my lab notebook, copy elsewhere, put in the computer, etc. The last 30 minutes of the day, I consolidated/pasted in my notebook/input into the computer everything, and I am very very happy :)

3. I am dog-sitting for my boss, and her dog is adorable and awesome!

4. I learned to play Low Rider on my harmonica.

5. I've been singing "Purpose" from Avenue Q all day, and it makes me happy.

January 18, 2011

I started reading a collection of Grimm's fairy tales, and these stories are so bizarre and not at all kid-friendly, which I personally find hilarious. I was reading one at lunch about this princess who dropped her golden ball in a pond, and a frog told her he'd get it for her if she promised to let him be her companion: live with her, eat with her, sleep in her bed, etc. She was like "yeah, sure, whatever frog" and totally got her ball back and blew him off. So the frog shows up at the castle, and the king makes her hold up his end of the bargain. So after dinner, the frog wants to sleep in her bed, but she gets grossed out and throws the frog up against the wall to kill it. And then it turns into a prince and they live happily ever after. yeah... okay. Hahaha

In zumba tonight, I came late so I had to stand at the front of the class. After class, one of the guys in class says "hey, fancy feet. Have you been inspired to learn to dance. I have. You look like you've got some latin moves." Or something to that effect. I was happy that I didn't look like a complete idiot to someone and my salsa lessons have, in fact, paid off :)

I'm going to re-start re-teaching myself the harmonica again :)

January 17, 2011

TODAY WAS MLK DAY! NO WORK!

So, I found out last night that I didn't get into Emory, which honestly came as a complete shock. I have awesome GRE scores, a great GPA from a great university, great references, and great experience. I guess there are just better applicants out there, which makes me REALLY REALLY sad. However, that makes me happy since these people are going to be huge game changers, going out into the world and making a difference in the health of thousands around the globe, so I guess I should be mature and be happy for that :) I took the night to cry, eat cookies, and watch mindless tv, but I really really really appreciate my family and the few friends I mentioned this to, who all called and left me some nice voice mails and text messages. :D My mom sent me this email this morning:

Good morning Darlin.

I hope you are feeling better today.

I’ve been doing some thinking about the Emory decision. Here’s what I have come up with:

You cannot let one institution of higher learning determine what and how you learn. It can only determine where you learn.

Emory rejected your application, they did not reject YOU. It is not personal decision, it is only business to them. So don’t take it personally. Apparently, there are many people with great resumes wanting to do the same thing you want to do. This might just be a blessing to the world.

Now is the time when your courage and faith are being tested. It is time to accept the challenge of finding the right place to go to school and have faith that you will excel wherever you go to school.

I have faith in you. You will be fine. So put your “big girl” panties on and go to the zoo. Don’t let a good day go to waste by being sad.

Hugs and kisses from a girl that has graduated from several fine universities of hard knocks

I have a great Mom.

So today I decided to just let it go and start being awesome again. I threw that stupid rejection letter in the trash can, along with their stupid info packet they sent me, and got on with my life. I was going to donate some stuff to the Salvation Army, when I saw a sign for an oil change for $19.99. Yes please. I stopped in, and the guy was SO NICE. He had all these repeat customers coming in, and he remembered exactly what kind of car they had, what their problems were, etc. They all talked about how great this place is. Cool! So it's my turn:

Guy (German accent): How can I help you?
Me: I saw your sign for your oil change for 19.99 and I want one.
Guy: Oh, well I will have to charge you a little extra (with a laugh so I thought this was a joke)! What is your name?
Me: Emily
Guy: Oh that is a very popular name. We have many customers named Emily.
Me: That's because Emilys are the greatest.
(he laughs and goes to get my car)
Guy: Emily the greatest, your car is ready.

YES.

And then another lady came in and was finalizing my paperwork:
Lady: $29.99.
Me: What? I thought it was $19.99...
Lady: Oh, that price is for smaller cars. they didn't tell you?
Me: NO! (well, I guess he actually did, but I thought he was joking...)
Lady: Oh! Okay! Well we will charge you the special price then! Add us on facebook.

YES.

And then Kate and I went to the Fort Worth Zoo. It had at least 7 giraffes, a baby chimp, baby flamingos (which are gray and super fuzzy... who knew?), bears, tigers, lions, and otters, etc. And every single animal was out playing around. I guess they appreciated the rare afternoon of sunshine we had today, after about a week of freezing temps and rain. We went to the botanical gardens, threw leaves at each other, stopped on the way back for ice cream sundaes, and it was a great day.

January 16, 2011

Yesterday wasn't as productive as I had hoped, but it was extra awesome. Jaime called and we went on a food adventure! We ended up at Rock'n Taco, which I've been wanting to try since I moved here :) It was tasty and awesome. We watched Boy Meets World all day, and then met Lobo and her cousin + friends for dinner. One of said friends is the president of the young adults group at my church, and she invited me out to this event I've been too nervous to go to. Now I have no excuse. Lobo + Alicia + E + Scott and I all went to Lemon Bar and met Diana + friends. I ran into my friend Mitch from my time in Brownsville + his old fraternity brothers, who really hit it off with my friends :) We made new friends throughout the night, and we had a really great time.

Today Lobo and I slept super late, then I threw some stuff in the crock pot to make Garden Vegetable Tabbouleh Stew, so I'll try it here in a little bit (hope it's good)! Went to work, then to E's to watch Shawshank Redemption, then to mass, and now home. It's been a great day.

Which is great because this blog totally just served it's purpose. I just got some really bad news, and after typing this I've been reminded that life is actually quite awesome, I have been blessed in so so so so many ways, and that everything is going to work out okay.

January 15, 2011

The past two days have been excellent!

Thursday, after work, I made instant mashed potatoes and bbq chicken, and I subsequently ate the entire bowl of potatoes. We're talking a LOT of mashed potatoes... :D YUM. Scott and E came over, and we all drove out to FW to go to Billy Bob's, world's largest honky tonk. AND IT WAS AWESOME. I love living in Texas! This place was enormous, with a stage, dance floor, bigger stage and dance floor for concerts, pool tables, a few bars, a restaurant, arcade games, a rodeo arena, a fake bull to take pictures on, and a gift shop. Kate, her brother, Lobo (who is in town for the weekend!!!), and Diana all met us there, and we had a really fun night!! At one point, per Diana's request, we "wolfpacked" and went up and asked a group of guys to dance, to which they were huge jerks and gave us all kinds of excuses, and all their friends came up and started yelling and causing a scene.... so we were like WTF let's go, and we danced with each other, which was definitely more fun than dancing with them, I'm sure. LOSERS.

Yesterday was fun, too! After we all finished our work, we had beer hour at work, sans boss. Caroline and I kind of monopolized the beer since the boys were being shy about it. Fun times ensued, and we got to know the new guys. Caroline, Chris, and I all went to Gloria's afterward, which is the first time we've all really gone out together. I enjoyed spending time with them :)

I am excited about today! I've decided it will be full of productivity before Lobo gets here :)

January 12, 2011

WAH! I didn't post yesterday! I was so sleepy!! Which bummed me out because there were lots of little joys found in yesterday's events.

1. Even though I worked til 7, I got to know more about these new people in our lab, and I think they will be very cool.
2. Elizabeth volunteered to pick me up to go to the Young Catholic Professionals event, which was super nice and out of her way, because I was stuck at work til 7. I thought she would be waiting on me, and that stressed me out tremendously, but she literally called me the second I opened my apartment door. Seriously, perfect timing.
3. The speaker last night was super cool, and we got to meet a lot of cool new people, including a food scientist for Pizza Hut and another girl starting grad school at UTA. I saw Ashley and Paul there, along with a few other people I've met the past few events. :)
4. Elizabeth and I had a great heart to heart in her car when she dropped me off, and I like having great conversations like that.
5. Somehow in the middle of the night, the cat climbed into my t-shirt drawer and then proceeded to get itself stuck. So around 3 am I hear this weird noise, figure it's the cat causing mischief, only to find it hanging in my clothes in my dresser.... hahaha.

Today!
1. Everyone felt so cohesive at work today. Everyone was in a great mood, cracking jokes, working together.... it was just a joy to be around everyone today.
2. I've had this itch to redecorate my room, but then I called my mom to get some advice, and she poo pooed the entire idea, saying I need to wait til I get where I'm moving to. Save money now and do it later. Which made me REALLY sad since I was at the store picking out things I loved. So I started trudging out of the store having a little pity-party, and then I looked up and this random girl smiled at me. And seriously, the power of a smile is amazing. I snapped out of that stupid funk, realized my mom was right, and I felt better. Thanks, random girl in the store.
3!!! THE MOST AWESOME THING HAPPENED TODAY. Apparently, they raised the coke machine prices to $1.50 (or maybe it has been that price for awhile but I just thought they were $1.25? Who knows). Anyway, I only took $1.25 down to the coke machine. I put it in, press Coke Zero, and the machine is like NO YOU CAN'T HAVE THAT IT'S 1.50!!! And it won't return my change. There are people waiting behind me, offering me only scowls and no help or words of encouragement or anything. Then, thank the Lord, as I'm banging on the machine, these guys walk out into the hall (I think they were maintenance guys):

Guy: Machine eat your money? Ate mine last week!
Me: WAH. I know! I don't know what to do! It won't give me my change back!
Guy: Oh! Looks like you just need a quarter right?
Me: Yeah, but I have one upstairs, I just....
Guy: Hold on, let me get you a quarter.

The guy goes up to all his buddies in the hall asking for a quarter.
They don't have one.
Guy runs outside to catch someone else... yelling HEY GIVE ME A QUARTER.
Guy gives me a quarter.
I buy coke zero.

WHAT A NICE GUY!!!!

And then I end the night with a skype session with Christine, Lisa, and Ray. And then I find a really nice comment from Kayla on my last post. WONDERFUL WONDERFUL WONDERFUL DAY

January 10, 2011

"Tearing up my Heart" came on the radio today. FOR REAL. How can that NOT make you happy?

Alicia took me to Urban Taco for dinner, and then introduced me to Dexter. After 2 episodes, I'm pretty sure I'm hooked.

I'm uploading pictures to facebook from the past year that everyone has been bugging me for, and I am happy to look back on so many great memories, mostly weddings, of 2010.

Two new people joined our lab today, and I am pretty much the welcoming committee. I felt important when people came to me for questions. YAY I'm mature and responsible!

January 9, 2011

Some really cool things have happened in the past 24 hours that are very rare:

1. Last night, out with Diana and Alicia, I was introduced to one of the guys on UT Cheer. So nice and so hot. Well done, world. However, I stopped talking to him because:
2. I met this girl who is the future me (hopefully). Seriously. Same basic undergrad experiences (except hers were a lot more awesome), but is in her 2nd year at Emory. Studying public health. Global health and epidemiology. WHOA. THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I WANT TO BE DOING OMGOMG OMG OMG. She gave me her number and said to let her know when I get accepted, and if I come to Atlanta, I'll have a place to stay. WOW. MOST AWESOME ENCOUNTER EVER.
3. Today it snowed!!! Didn't stick on the ground, but snow is snow and it was pretty to watch from my window as I did nothing all day.
4. That's not true. I finally hung some pictures (of our awesome UT photo shoot, old friends and roommates, and a painting from Ray) on the wall and finished my Tucker Max book. I have all sorts of ideas of how to improve my room and life, and I'm excited to act on them.

GREAT WEEKEND.

January 8, 2011

Yesterday was stellar because I got to chaperone a high school confirmation lock in with some old friends from college, Allison, Amy, Ashley, and Adam, and we all wore burnt orange sweatshirts independently. We looked like an awesome mafia. I had a lot of fun catching up with them and sharing laughs as we accidentally ripped the fake linoleum off of the floor and stopped teenagers from beating each other up with pool noodles.

Today has been great because we finished the lock-in, and then I went to the lab to finish some stuff, then I passed out for a solid nap. Got ready, then Stephen picked me up to go to his friend's wedding out of town. The wedding was beautiful, the reception was fantastic, with lots of dancing and barbeque. Stephen and I really got a chance to talk and it was nice. Now, about to hit the town with Alicia and Diana and I'm very excited (even though I was already in my pjs ready to go to bed)! <3 today

January 6, 2011

Last night this blog thing was down so I couldn't post, but I just wanted to say that yesterday was good because I made awesome pork chops, corn, and mashed potatoes for dinner. And I cleaned my baseboards and ceiling fan and they look AWESOME. And I did laundry as I worked in my new red heels. WHEE.

Today was good because I brought leftovers of said dinner for lunch today. tastaaay tastaaaaaay. Scott got a gift card to cheesecake factory, so we ate there, and now I have lunch for tomorrow too. And it's before 11 and I'm going to bed. GOODNIGHT!

January 4, 2010

Asha didn't come to work today WHICH PROBABLY MEANS SHE'S HAVING HER BABY!! wheeeeeeeeeeee BABIES!!

Totally in love with Billy Currington's new song.

My goal for the week is to NOT spend any money. I REALLY wanted a Diet Coke today, but I didn't cave! WILLPOWER FOR THE WIN!

I also realized halfway through the day my panties were on inside out... which made me laugh silently to myself throughout the day :)

There were a lot of new people in zumba tonight, and there was this one girl who literally ran around during one song and started crazy dancing next to different people. Maybe she knew them, maybe she didn't? And after one especially booty-shaking song, she announced, "this class is going to get me a boyfriend!" I laughed.

After the Chris suggested it, I half-wrote some lyrics to an "I'm on a Boat" remix about being in a lab. If I ever complete them, I'll post them :) But it's funny to me, because I'm created a whole music video of my lab in my head. :D

During cooking/eating dinner, I watched Prince Caspian! AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME. FOR NAAAAAARNIA!

January 3, 2011

Dear blog of mine,
It's been awhile since I posted. I promise I won't neglect you any longer.

We were given Christmas Eve off, and I took the entire next week off from work. 10 WHOLE DAYS OF VACATION! It went by too quickly, and I feel super refreshed and happy. The past 10 days were fantastic. We went to Nanny's for Christmas Eve/morning, and spend the afternoon with Dad. My family and I got to spend a lot of time together, which is so important nowadays since all of my siblings and I live in different cities with completely different life schedules. Rachie is at UT, my brother is a grad student in Houston, soon to be moving up to big D for a hoity-toity fancy-schmancy accounting firm internship, and here I am working full time. It's funny how we've grown up, but we all decided that we'll always be close to each other. I had a heart to heart with Stephen in the car one afternoon, which may have been the first time EVER. MY FAMILY IS THE GREATEST!

Not only did I get to spend a lot of time with my family, but friends were all home for the holidays, as well, and it was a rare treat to see some old faces together again, as well as meeting some cool new people!

New Years was great, too. Christine and Roger were in town for a wedding, and some of their friends plus Alicia and I (after waiting an hour for a cab) went to dinner, then to Victory Park in an attempt to watch the fireworks and ring in the new year. However, it was crowded and smelled bad, so we went to a cool bar and spent the night laughing and having a chill time :)

Today was the first day back at work. womp womp. I was pretty ready to be back, but now I feel like I need a vacation again :) I'm excited to get stuff going again, and I hope this turns out to be a good year for me!

Why today was good:
I walked home for lunch today. That was fun! I made a salad and put baby corn in it. WHO DOESN'T LOVE BABY CORN?!
I also put some chicken in it, and left some little pieces of chicken out on the counter for the cat to eat. :)
Alicia lent me this book called "I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell". It's awful but I can't put it down.
My boss brought us all chocolate from Germany!
I bought pictures to put in my new collage for my wall. YAY.