So cutest thing ever happened a few weeks ago! It started when I got a phone call from Jeanette and she started out the conversation with, "Hi Jess! I have a proposition for you." Which is usually how she starts off requests for me to babysit her kids.
She then proceeded to tell me that two of the triplets, Brock and Quinn, had been invited to friends' houses the next Saturday and Galen, the other triplet, had not. She had asked Galen if he wanted to invite a friend over while Brock and Quinn were gone. He thought about it for a couple of minutes and then informed her that he wanted to invite me over or go to my house. So the whole phone call was to ask me if I wanted to hang out with Galen that Saturday.
Of course, I said yes. And apparently Galen was waiting close by for the answer so I heard Jeanette tell him that I had said yes. I then heard Galen shouting at his brothers, "I get to go to Jessie's house on Saturday and you don't." I then heard Brock and Quinn begging Jeanette if they could go to my house instead of their friends' houses. All I can say is that I felt very loved at that moment in time.
So that highly anticipated Saturday rolled around. I had racked my brain to think of something really special for me and Galen to do because I wanted to make sure it was awesome.
It truly was an awesome day. We ended up going to the Natural History Museum to the see the dinosaurs and stuffed animals. Then we went to the closest bookstore afterwards where I bought him a couple books. I have a feeling that these books will be fought over in his house starting with his Dad.
Oh, have I mentioned that Galen is a miniature me. He always has a book with him. He has a little backpack that Jeanette made that has a little bookworm on it with the caption "I devour books" on it. It is super cute and houses at least four books at a given time. He won't go anywhere without it!
In fact, I will be at their house and his brothers will be watching a Disney movie and he will be in a chair reading. He's reading chapter books and he is five!!! Well, all of the triplets can read. I guess that's what you get when your parents have PhDs and are professional scientists. He even does little things for his parents to earn money to buy a couple new books each month and he uses his library card like a shopaholic uses a credit card. This kid has stolen my heart. I love them all but I'd have to say Galen is my favorite.
To be fair, they actually read books as a family. Just a few chapters every night of the week with a couple extra hours on Sunday. They love this so much that they'll bring the current book they are reading with them when they spend the night at my house. Although, I guess I'm easier to talk extra chapters out of than their parents. They are so fun! I'm going to miss them when I move!
So it has been brought to my attention that there was a 2 month gap between my last blog post and the one before that. So what happened in those two months? Besides me studying, that is.
I went to a Yellowcard live acoustic concert at the Sound Garden in Baltimore. Look how close I am! I could have touched Ryan's shoe! I restrained myself... barely.
After the acoustic concert, I MEET YELLOWCARD!!! Yes, it is that exciting!
I even have signed cds! Awesome day! It was totally worth getting a little behind in my schoolwork.
For Thanksgiving, I got to spend it with family for the first time in a few years! How can you say no to spending time with that cute kid! Even if his Aunt Jessie dresses him like a hippie according to his dad.
I may have dressed him as a Terp fan as well... I regret nothing!
I also turned another year older. Scary how that creeps up on a person. Is it sad to forget your own birthday? Good thing I have good friends and family that help me remember and give me a birthday pie. And the most awesome candle ever! It was pretty much a small firework and this pyro loved it!
And I officially still dislike crabs. Thank you Nella and family for feeding me on my birthday! The mechado is always amazing even if you think I use my fork funny.
I had to make a decision this year when it came to Christmas decorations. Do I buy a tree this year or wait until I move to Chicago? As apparent by my Christmas tree made from books, I chose the latter. It was also eye opening. I didn't realize how many books I own. There are 103 books in the Christmas tree and I still have several shelves of books. Again, I regret nothing!
Then there is always that moment when you start doing weird things during finals like store your spoons in the freezer. I still can't believe that I pulled a Kent.
I also got a couple glorious weeks at home for Christmas and we even had a white Christmas! So to sum everything up, the last few months have been filled with a lot of studying broken up with a few moments of awesomeness.
Whoops! I have kind of neglected the blog lately. My bad. Grad school has taken over my life again. Actually, let me rephrase that. Quantum mechanics has taken over my life. Don't worry. I'm still enjoying it immensely!
So I was able to go to the National Book Festival in DC for the first time since I moved here! It was so awesome! There was books and awesomeness everywhere! And I was able to wear my most favorite shirt ever! Fight Evil Read Books!
I finally made it to The National Book Festival!!!
I'm so glad that I went this year! I was able to meet John Green who is an author of contemporary young adult novels! I've actually only read two of his books but I am a faithful follower of the vlog he does with his brother Hank on Youtube. Yes. I am a nerdfighter. :)
John Green at the Q&A session.
If you are not familiar with the term nerdfighter, it is the online community that has sprouted up around the VlogBrothers channel. They do these really awesome things like support cancer charities like This Star Will Not Go Out and by donating money on Kiva to help people in 3rd world countries start businesses. All in the name of decreasing world suck and not forgetting to be awesome. Nerdfighters are also fans from almost every fandom but specifically Harry Potter, literature, science, and video games.
Speaking of nerdfighters, I stood in line with 1800 of them to have John Green sign my book! 1800 was the count before they started turning people away! Holy cow, right? Everyone in line for John Green were super nice and courteous. It was awesome to look around and see people reading while they were waiting in line. Not to mention they all have an awesome sense of style. You should have seen all of the nerd shirts people were wearing! I now have a list a mile long of nerd shirts I want to buy!
It was so cool being among people who share the same love of books that I have. My boss made me admit the other day that if I wasn't in the sciences I probably would have been a librarian or a serious book blogger. Did you know you can make money blogging about books? Can you say dream job number 4? But back to John Green.
I wasn't the only one excited to see him. Nella was so excited she almost started hyperventilating. Don't believe me? Bam! Photographic evidence.
Do you think she is excited?
Nella and I were joined by our friends Faith and Lindsay. It made it quite an enjoyable experience. I tried to read from my copy of The Fault In Our Stars but I was too excited. The Fault In Our Stars is John Green's latest book about a couple of teenagers who have cancer. I think everyone should read it! Just be warned, John Green writes books that will make you love them at the same time the plot is ripping your heart out. The Fault In Our Stars made me cry! Books don't make me cry. That should tell you something.
I would like to tell you that we waited in line for other authors but it was pretty much John Green for us. Although there were other authors I wanted to see. I wanted to meet Lois Lowry who wrote The Giver but her book signing was at the same time as John Green's. I also wanted to meet Christopher Paolini (Eragon) but he was scheduled for Sunday while I was in church.
Let me tell you about the rest of the day with pictures! Actually, there is not much to tell besides we sat in line and got our books signed.
Despite the large amount of people, we only had to wait in line for an hour and a half to get our books signed.
This is our group in front of the sign that indicated we were in the line for John Green.
Here's a close up of the John Green sign.
We're getting closer! I really like this picture because you can see the barely suppressed excitement. We're like a bunch of kids at Christmas. Hard to believe that we all are in the age range of 23-25.
John Green signing my book!!! He said he liked my shirt! :)
Operation Book Signing was a success!!! All of us with our newly signed books!
My signed copy of TFIOS! It has taken up permanent residence on my coffee table to display the awesomeness.
John Green's signature J scribble. I also got a DFTBA! Actually, only Nella and I got DFTBAs in our books. We deduced that we probably got them because we were wearing nerd shirts which is a good indicator that we are nerdfighters. Oh for those who don't know, DFTBA is a nerdfighter motto that means Don't Forget to be Awesome.
And something just as cool as getting my book signed happened. I made it into the intro of a Vlogbrothers video!!!
Okay, I can't point out where I am specifically but I'm in there! Somewhere. Oh and that's really how the squirrels are on the National Mall.
Overall, it was a great day! It was so nice to take a break from the
worries of grad school and chill out with some awesome books and even
more awesome people!
You all may have noticed that I have posted a ton of posts today! I have had them mostly done for a while now but only got to posting them today. It has been a busy few weeks. I just got back from visiting the University of Utah this last weekend and I'm preparing to go to College Park this next weekend. Choosing a grad school may not be as stressful as applying but it is way more tiring though. Traveling is fun but I will be glad when it is over.
The best thing about Utah is I got to see family and friends. My parents and grandparents got a room in the hotel I was staying in and my sister, Brittany, came up for a day. I also got to have lunch with my good friends, Clint and Ryan. It was fun even though they tricked me to pay for my lunch. Don't they know I wanted to pay for them? It is kind of crazy to think of how much has changed since we all were going to ISU. They are both interviewing for grad school too. I just never thought that we would all end up where we are now. It's interesting where life takes you.
Today was awesome because I finally received the lunchbox I won from one of my favorite blogs, Stellar Four. This may be the first time I've ever won anything! You know you are a nerd when you're excited that you now have a Star Wars lunchbox. Be jealous, my friends. Be jealous of my lunch box. It even came with sandwich cutters in the shape of a stormtrooper's head and a TIE fighter.
Isn't it exciting?!? It's addressed to me!
Oh! They even put a pretty ribbon on it!
The awesomeness of the Star Wars lunchbox.
The sandwich cutters inside the lunchbox! I'm so making a sandwich tomorrow just to use them!
Well, if you need me, I will be somewhere quoting Yoda. May the force be with you, my young padawans.
My first grad school interview was at Northeastern University in Boston, MA! It was my first time visiting! Boston is a really cool place! Not to mention Bucket List Item #24 has been checked off my list! (One of these days I'm going to post my whole bucket list onto this blog.) The city is so easy to navigate! My trip made me realize how much I have grown over the last year and a half. When I interviewed at my current program in Baltimore, I was too scared of getting lost to leave the hotel room even though I really wanted to see the harbor. That was not the case when I went to Boston. I went everywhere! And I did it all by myself! I used the subway and the bus system not to mention how much I walked! And I didn't get lost once! I wouldn't have been able to do that a year and a half ago.
But enough of the self-realization portion of this post; onto the awesomeness! I've decided to divide my trip into two posts: The Freedom Trail and Fenway Park.
I arrived in Boston before 9am on a Friday and I couldn't check into my hotel until 4pm so I decided to see some of the sites. I had heard the Freedom Trail was pretty cool so I started at the Boston Commons Visitor Center which is the recommended start site for the 2.5 mile trail. I bought a map and started all the while the song "Boston" by Augustana was playing in my head.
I'm not going to lie, I was a little giddy to be standing in the Boston Commons. I was actually in Boston getting to see things that I've only read about! I am such a nerd but let me take you on a pictorial tour of Boston via the Freedom Trail.
***Disclaimer: This is not a completely representative tour of the Freedom Trail due to me missing a couple of the points in my walking and some cool things I found on the way.
Getting ready to start my tour of Boston via the Freedom Trail. The City of Boston did an awesome job marking the trail. They had put a red brick line in the sidewalk and most of the sites had this little place marker by them.
Stop number one: The Boston Commons!
The Boston Commons is America's oldest park.
Funny enough, it was originally bought as grazing land for cows but was then used as a training ground for the British troops.
The skating rink at the Commons. Skating/hockey is apparently a big thing in Boston since this was the first of 5 different rinks I found in my explorations and they were all completely full!
It even had its own zamboni! That's pretty hard core in my eyes.
The Massachusetts State House was kind of cool! Look at the gilded dome!
The Park Street Church was the first thing most travelers to the city saw in the old days. The steeple makes the church a whopping 217 feet tall. It's also where the hymn My Country 'Tis of Thee was first sung. It was also nicknamed Brimstone Corner and the first anti-slavery speech by William Lloyd Garrison was given there.
The King's Chapel was the first Anglican church constructed in America. The land was seized by the King for its construction. It was originally made of wood but the church soon became to small so they built the stone structure around the original church. Can I say that it's two churches in one?
The Old City Hall. Right outside its front gate is a marker marking the place of the first public school in the U.S. It was called the Boston Latin School and its still operated today, just at another location.
Outside of Old City Hall is a statue of Ben Franklin because he was born in Boston. Kind of cool to note that I have visited both his birthplace and where he died.
The Old South Meeting House was where some of the crucial events that led to the American Revolution. The largest happened to be a protest against the tea tax with over 5000 people in attendance.
The Old State House is where the Boston Massacre occurred in 1770 and where the Declaration of Independence was read in July 1776.
The marker for the Boston Massacre site.
Faneuil Hall served as a meeting place and an open air market. It is nicknamed the Cradle of Liberty because it's where Bostonians began to oppose the British. It was the meeting place that they opposed the Sugar Act, the Stamp Act, the Townsend Acts, and the landing of British troops. After the Revolution, anti-slavery and women's rights rallies were held here.
Quincy Market is an open air market a lot like the markets here in Baltimore.
This is Boston's Holocaust Memorial. The six towers represent each of the major Nazi concentration camps and etched into the class are the numbers one to 6 million. Each number represents a victim of the Holocaust.
I got distracted by the cool bridge for a little bit.
A view of the Boston skyline from a park that was built after the "Big Dig".
Here's Paul Revere's house and right around the corner is the Old North church. Did anyone know that he had 16 kids?!?
I thought this was an interesting way to 'rope' off a square.
Statue of Paul Revere
The Old North Church where Sexton Robert Newman hung the two lantern system that were used to signal Paul Revere's ride to warn Adams, Hancock, and the countryside that the British were coming. One if by land, Two if by sea.
The modern day view from Copp's Hill.
A view of the Bunker Hill Memorial from the Charlestown Bridge.
The Bunker Hill Memorial looks a lot like the Washington Monument, don't you think? The Battle of Bunker Hill was one of the bloodiest in the Revolutionary War and it's where the phrase "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes!" became famous.
They let you climb to the top of the Monument and this is the warning they give you before you enter the monument. It wasn't lying when it said there were 294 stairs. I counted them on the climb up.
About stair 100 is where I started to feel the effect of climbing the stairs. They had markers like this every 25 stairs.
I'm standing at the halfway point on stair 147.
About this point, all I could think about is only 94 more stairs!
Only 47 more!
I made it! Victory is mine!!!
The photo that commemorates me making it to the top! Man, grad school has really made me out-of-shape.
A view from the top of the Bunker Hill Memorial.
Another view from the top of the Bunker Hill Memorial.
Another view from the top of the Bunker Hill Memorial. This is the direction I came to the memorial.
Another view from the top of the Bunker Hill Memorial. So pretty!!!
I'm getting to be ok at self-portraits. Me at the bottom of the memorial after climbing all the stairs.
I'm also not shy so I asked someone to take my picture.
This is a dry dock. I had never seen one before and I didn't realize that they were so big!
The ship is big too! This is the USS Cassin Young which is a WWII destroyer.
This is the USS Constitution. She is the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world! She is still manned by an active duty Navy crew. She earned the nickname Old Ironsides in the War of 1812 when British cannonballs bounced off her sides and the crew shouted "Huzzah! Her sides are made of iron!".
I was amazed at all of the rigging that was on the ship. How did the sailors not get confused?
A Cannon.
If I had had another person with me, I would have taken a photo in a Titanic-esque pose.
Old Ironsides has a lot of cannons! I counted 48 but it was said to man 52 cannons.
Seriously look at all the rigging! Good thing I was never a sailor in the early years of our country.
Old Ironsides can still be sailed under her own power. In fact, she went for a sail on her 200th birthday in 1997.
This is for you, Roger! I thought of you when I saw it. Go Celtics and Bruins!
So when I finished the trail, I took the T (the subway) to my hotel. During my sightseeing, it had decided to downpour and I was soaked. Northeastern put me up at a 5 star hotel called The Colonnade which is located only half a mile from Fenway Park. I had this huge room all to myself!
I seriously fell in love with this bed! It was huge and oh so comfy!
The bed won the approval of my friends Matt and Jeanette's kids. We tested it by jumping on the bed. All 5 of the kids and me. Matt soon joined us. Jeanette, I'm sorry you were prego so you couldn't join us too!
They gave me a rubber duckie! Isn't he cute?!? He now resides on the side of my tub at my apartment here in Baltimore. He was almost stolen by one of the twins but he has been officially named Dr. Ducky by the triplets. The triplets also filled the tub and gave Dr. Ducky his first go around a tub.
Here's a pic to show you how big the bed was using me as a reference. Thanks Jeanette for taking a picture when I wasn't paying attention!
While I was there, I got to meet up with my friends Matt and Jeanette and their five kids. It was so fun to see them! Matt and Jeanette have five boys under the age of five with another kid on the way. A set of triplets, age 5, and a set of twins, age 3. The doctor thinks that Jeanette may be having twins again. And before you ask; no they are not using fertility drugs. All of their kids have been naturally conceived. They met me at my hotel and Jaden (one of the triplets) had a mug wrapped in bubble wrap in his hands. He gave it to me and all of them shouted "Welcome to Boston, Jessie!". Matt explained that the boys had shared the responsibility of picking out the mug and bringing it to me. The bubble wrap was a back-up in case one of them dropped it. And according to Matt, he figured it wouldn't hurt to have it in bubble wrap as precaution for me as well. Oh, Matt, you know me too well.
It's such a cute mug! Good job, boys!
The boys wore me out. I have no idea how Matt and Jeanette do it on a daily basis. We took them to the Boston Commons via the T. Matt had the hands of one of the twins and one of the triplets, I had the other two triplets, and we let Jeanette have the other twin. Jeanette got the easiest child because she is super prego. It was fun to watch Matt interact with his boys. He played with all five of them while me and Jeanette sat on a bench and talked. A lot of things have changed since I first met you, Matt. I really admire how well you take care of your family! I'm really proud of you, bud!
After an exciting round of froyo, I said goodbye to them to prepare for my interview the next day.
The interview went really well and I was accepted to the program with a stipend and a TA position. Unfortunately, I don't feel like it's the right school for me. But I got a pretty nice vacation out of the deal.
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