"turn forth her silver lining on the night"

it seems weird to have trouble getting back into the swing of things following a weekend that ultimately resulted in a free bonus day with matt (courtesy of the winter storm in philly), but that's still kind of where i'm at. there was a very interesting series of events at the philadelphia airport on sunday that were undoubtedly the epitome of frustration for the weekend, but you have to remember that it's relative to the amount that matt and i typically get excited about things and did, eventually, result in said bonus day and matt being able to fly out of state college (rather than philly) early this morning. so, there is, in fact, a silver lining, as is typically true in stories for which i am the narrator.

all else was fantastic. it seems that we both got a respectable amount of work done before the trip got underway and there was an onslaught of activities to be involved in over the weekend. it all started at this awesome restaurant off of the PA turnpike on our way back from philly on thursday. the pictures don't really do justice to the fantastic decor or the gigantic cow outside the building that originally lured us in in the first place. thank you, pennsylvania. if you are nothing else, you are delightfully eccentric.

the rest of the weekend was really a montage of events associated with it being our developmental area recruitment weekend, "fake patrick's" day in state college (for some reason it gets celebrated twice here. . . i have no idea), and several people's birthdays. plus, people are typically pretty great about wanting to get together and do stuff when there are visitors in town. thankfully, we triple-dated with lacey (i know that three people don't technically constitute a triple date, but just go with it), so we have pictures.

even though it's kind of a strange pic, i have to post this first one, because it's the only visual we have that's related to the really cute story of ryan (far right) being one of matt's biggest fans. i actually think he might have invited matt to his birthday party before he invited me. anyway, at some point, matt walked stepped away for a minute and ryan told me that he really wish that matt lived here because he was pretty sure that the two of them would be "buds." perhaps "best buds." it was actually super cute and earned ryan a solid place as a participant in march-madness-related activities when matt returns over his spring break at the end of the month.

the psu-indiana basketball game and a visit to kristin's house went down in the afternoon (and we totally got free t-shirts, which karen, lover of all free stuff, will appreciate, i'm absolutely certain). then we found ourselves at jess's birthday gathering. given that the rush from event to event meant that we weren't able to eat at all in between a late breakfast and arriving at jess's circa 10 pm, lace, matt, and i were all pretty much starving. thus, the excitement over the menu as renacted in picture two. seriously, yum.

so now i suppose it is buckle down and work time. comps are almost officially 1 month away and i have a manuscript and poster that i'd like to finish before we leave for srcd at the end of the month. actually, the poster has to be finished given that that is what i'm presenting. the manuscript is a self-imposed deadline. spring break is next week, which actually only means that i can work uninterrupted by classes. i'm hoping to make a gigantic dent in my comps readings, on which i already feel behind. and i'm trying not to feel bitter that - were comps not an issue - i might be going to missouri. but. . . two months from now it will be all over, i'll be working on a grant that would possibly fund me for the rest of my graduate school career, and it will be almost summer time.

see? silver lining :)