Time Sure Flies When You're Having Fun

Time really does fly when you're busy! I'm not doing so well at keeping this blog updated. I've been busy and outside of a few awesome events, I live a boringly great life. That being said, I can't believe we're almost two months into 2015 already. It seems like so much has happened in the past several months.

I started dating someone. That's been fun.

Mom came out to visit for Thanksgiving!

I passed candidacy which was one of the most terrible and rewarding thing I've done in my academic career so far. That's including my Master's defense. But Woo! I passed!

Christmas and New Years has come and gone.

I had to have my tonsils removed as a 28 year old. That is probably one of the worst things I've ever had done.

I've been snowed in or wind chilled in several times. Thank you, Chicago winter.

The nephews came to visit for Valentine's Day!

I finally got to meet Brandon Sanderson and he signed all of my books!

I'm sure a lot more has happened, but it seems like I've had a lot of quiet time since Christmas. Some of that is thanks to me being perpetually sick for most of the month of January and having my tonsils removed the first week of February. Let's just say I've had enough quiet time that I've been able to easily keep up on my required reading for school/work as well as read 30 books for pleasure.

Other than the being sick part, it's been nice. Now that I'm done with candidacy, I get to be a normal person when I get off work and I have this wonderful thing known as free time. Hence all of the reading. It helps balance out the science and it keeps me sane. Books complete me in a way that TV and movies will never be able to. Which is good because I've learned that I've gotten terrible at keeping up with tv shows and movies lately. And oddly enough, I'm okay with that. Bring on all the books!

I'm still book blogging and it has been amazing! I've read SO many great books and have met so many awesome people to talk books with. Outside of blogging, I joined a book club that some of the post docs go to. It's been fun and has gotten me to read several books that I probably wouldn't have picked up on my own.

As I said, I live a rather boring life, but I love it! I love the science and the books and just everything about it. I love living in the Chicago area and I need to take more advantage of that outside of taking everyone who comes to visit out for deep dish pizza.

I'm going to try harder to keep this blog updated. My goal is to post at least once a week. Some weeks will be easier than others. There's a lot of stuff going on this year. I'm already lined up to go to several conferences and apparently this year is my ten year high school reunion. I can't believe it's been ten years! Honestly, I don't think I'm going to make it to the actual reunion because I'm pretty sure I have a conference that same weekend, but it's an important milestone nonetheless.

So while I hope that I have fun things to share about life, there will be weeks where the most exciting thing is a new author or band I discovered or how I've finally perfected cooking a certain food. I'm going to write about things that are of interest to me. Blogging is as close to journaling as I'm ever going to get and I'm okay with that. So here's to my goal to keep up with it. This is going to be fun.

Secretly I Want To Be Dr. Harker, Book Blogger Extraordinaire

I was recently out with some friends that were in DC for a forensics conference. Have I mentioned I'm going to miss the constant influx of friends who come to DC for conferences when I move? But like all friends who haven't seen each other in three years, we got to reminiscing.

"Hey Jess, do you remember that time you almost broke your ankle mountain biking and it was the size of a grapefruit for a week?"
or
"Jess, do you remember that time I ran into you on the way home and you were awkwardly holding what was left of your shirt together?"

Sometimes reminiscing can be painful and a good reminder of why some of us don't do chemistry involving 70% hydrogen peroxide anymore.
The best part of the evening for me is the time me and this set of friends start to wax philosophical. One of our ponderings revolved around the question: "Where do you think we'd be if we hadn't gone into science?" with the stipulation of engineering not counting as an alternative. We have a ridiculous amount of friends who are engineers.
Tim would have gone into the world of sports reporting and of coaching hockey. You have to love my hockey friends!  We tend to have a one track mind when we get together. Go Avalanche!
Matt apparently has spent an enormous amount of time thinking about being a Civil War historian. I have to admit that he'd make a good one. His kids can tell you the generals and commanders that belong to each battle. They even can tell you the reasons why General Burnsides' defense of the bridge at Antietam was moronic.
Jeanette still dreams of being a wedding planner which is kind of funny considering she and Matt eloped.
Elizabeth would have gone to culinary school and opened her own restaurant. I kind of wish this had happened. Elizabeth is an amazing cook, baker, and candy maker! She was kind enough to bring me some of her famous English toffee. Although I'm ashamed to admit that I ate it all the next day...
What about me? I would be either a librarian or a book blogger.
It's not like that is a huge revelation for those who know me. I love reading books! In fact, I buy books like any respectable book blogger which means I buy a lot of books. I budget money out of each paycheck to buy books which I faithfully spend each month. Have I mentioned I need another bookshelf?
Actually to tell the truth, I have seriously considered becoming a book blogger and I've added it to the 30 things I want to do by the time I'm 30 list.  I even blog on my friend Patrice's blog for her bookstore which she runs in Seattle. Maybe when I move into candidacy I'll finally be able to pursue my book blogging ambition.

A Day With Galen

 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!

Playing Catch Up

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.

12 Books For 2012

 

I know I've mentioned my friends' Matt and Jeanette and their horde of kids a lot lately. It's just because I see them a lot now that they live near DC and I live near DC. I love spending time with them and their kids! They have this awesome tradition of reading a few chapters of a book each night as a family. The kids will not let you forget to read to them. In fact, if they stay the night at my house, they bring the book they are currently reading with them.
So it shouldn't have surprised me when I was at the triplets' birthday party when the twins' brought me one of the presents. Thinking that they were confused on who to give it to, I tried to get them to give it to one of the triplets. I was then informed that the present was for me. I was a little confused since it wasn't my birthday for at least a week.
The gift was a book with a card that informed me that for my birthday and Christmas in 2012 I would be receiving 12 books spread out between now and Christmas. 12 books for the year 2012. Apparently, I babysit too much since a couple of books were books the horde wanted me to read to them.
It was an excellently executed plan. I found myself eagerly anticipating and trying to guess which book would be next. The best part was the horde's excitement over every book I was given. I can't help but smile every time I see one of the books. And I'm happy to report that we are about halfway done with one of the books and they are loving it! Also, thanks Jeanette for being my book soulmate and not letting your kids choose all of the books!

1. Call of the Hunt by Patricia Briggs
2. Briar Rose by Jane Yolen
3. The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
4. Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
5. The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
6. Bitterblue by Kristen Cashore
7. Cinder by Marissa Meyer
8. They Called Me Mad by John Monahan
9. Spindle's End by Robin McKinley
10. The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson
11. Sunshine by Robin McKinley
12. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Thanks for the books, Matt and Jeanette!!! I love them! Now I just need to find the time to read them...