another one bites the dust

ugh, i suppose it was time for these to go, too. they aren't comfortable to wear anymore. can't imagine why. i think after this wedding, i'm going to be needing some new clothes. . .

so, what did you do tonight?

6:19 finish group run. note that the dropping temps throughout made for an enjoyable trek. appreciate being active. feel good.

6:20 note that the sky is getting very dark and comment out loud that, against all odds, i've never actually run in the rain. weird right?

6:22 hurry to car as wind picks up and sky continues to grow dark. still slightly lament not getting to run in the rain, but begin to head home. at least the drive back is always faster than the rush-hour-timed drive there, right?

6:24 wrong. find myself in a real, actual downpour. traffic is stopped. realize that this ride home is going to take way, way too long.

best use of the stop and go (and red light)

6:29 listen to radio announcer say that the storm is carrying wind gusts of up to 70 mph. wonder if my car can handle said gusts. wondering if my body can handle said gusts should they happen to hit between the time that i am in my car and in my apartment.

6:30 decide probably not. at least on that latter count.

6:34 wonder what will happen if my car doesn't make it through some of the deep, standing water that has gathered at these intersections. continue driving, because it looks even deeper in either direction i might pull off to stop.

6:48 finally arrive at my parking space. verify that there is no umbrella in my car.

6:50 walk the two blocks from my car to my apartment building in torrential downpour. grimace at the water on the sidewalks and the edges of the streets that comes up well over my ankles and is starting to develop into miniature rapids. give up trying to run through it.

6:52 fall a little bit more in love with my neighborhood because at least a dozen people have come outside to actively play in the rain. smile in spite of myself.

6:56 arrive inside apartment completely safe and completely, completely drenched

end of a rainy walk home

the ties that bind (or lack thereof)

ever feel like you're hanging by a thread? i definitely did this week. I was waiting for this strap on by bag to bust all week and leave my stuff scattered around the streets of madison.

so i had to break down (no pun intended) and get a new bag. it's not quite as roomy as the old one, but that's probably for the best. and it really was time, i  suppose.

although true to form, i haven't yet been able to throw the old one away.

and just like that, summer is half over.

bagel street deli = still one of my favorite places in athens

well, that was an interesting. . . um. . .entire month of june. there was about a week in between my last post my leaving for athens. however, i definitely hit a point during that week when i was so exhausted and so stressed and so completely overwhelmed that i kind of had a mental breakdown. but i'm happy to report that i am fully recovered. still busy, but feeling like i can (pretty much) handle it. and the parts that i can't handle, i will try to delegate to matt. lucky him.

so, i spend the last two weeks(ish) in athens. it was an interesting trip, to say the least. one of matt's high school friends got married in a gorgeous, vintage themed outdoor wedding that was pretty spectacular. i wish i had taken some photos. rumor has it that the bride planned every last detail, and she did an absolutely lovely job.

what she likely didn't plan on was there being a horrendous storm the night before that knocked out power for roughly 500,000 people in the ohio-west virginia area. this picture of the debris in matt's back yard (through the screen, because it was a gabillion degrees outside) doesn't really show anything accurately. some of the pictures that accompany the articles about the storm in the local papers do a little better. but it was a mess. there were whole trees pulled out of the ground, trees fallen on cars and houses, and of course electrical posts and wires torn apart. we were pretty lucky in that we only lost power at matt's place for about 12 hours. and this amazing bride held it together like a pro. there was no electricity at their wedding venue, but they ran what they could off of generators. they put out fans and vintage handkerchiefs to help people deal with the 100-degree weather and 90% humidity, and they really lead the fray in as far as sucking it up and having a good time. and props to them. because it was one of the most lovely things i've seen in a while.

believe it or not, it kept trying to storm in athens. one grey sky after another moved into town along with ominous, howling winds and (mostly temporary) torrential downpours. we braced ourselves a couple of times for our luck to run out, but we ended up doing pretty well.

here's the part that i didn't totally understand. when it rains in the midwest on hot, humid days, what usually happens is that the rain takes away the really gross, heavy, wet feeling in the air. in ohio - somehow - i think it actually made it worse. this feels like it might be against the laws of physics, but i swear that it's true. my mom used to comment about days like this being the occasions when "it didn't rain enough," which is the best way to explain how it feels. (and then usually, as if she was some sort of psychic fortuneteller, it rains more later and everything feels better). i was trying to keep up with my running schedule, but i just couldn't even make it happen, because it was so hot and humid every single day. eventually, i also stopped getting my hopes up that rain would resolve things.

note: this makes it a total crap shoot how the color run is going to go in 2 days. . .

i suspect that it goes without saying that we wanted nothing to do with cooking during these days. matt didn't even want to stand next to the grill. so, we searched our brains and matt's food and wine magazines for things that sounded delicious but didn't involve adding any heat or humidity to the days. this was one of matt's more brilliant ideas. it's a steak salad (broiled. . . so as to cook quickly and involve little sustained use of the oven) turned into a gyro-style sandwich. it was really delicious.

we also got what feels like a bunch of wedding stuff done. we finalized the order of events for the ceremony, filled out our marriage license application to be sent in sometime soon (the application had to be notarized, so we had to do it when we were together), we finalized invitation details with erin garrett (said invitations are en route to me even as i type. . . ), applied for a passport for dr. vess, and even shopped for wedding bands. pretty impressive, huh? the knot produces a checklist to keep you on track with wedding stuff. needless to say, i was checking things off like crazy.

some of you know that matt has gotten a new record player that he absolutely adores. so we spent an afternoon with peggy looking for a wooden crate to store said records in (we also made a few trips to the record store in athens, of course). it actually made for a cute trip to an antique mall/flea market/old-time country store strip mall-type-place just north of athens. there was SO MUCH stuff. this might have been my favorite. and since i know you're wondering, yes, it does actually really play. and it really does sound like a banjo.

that might be it for now. things are always a-brewin' around here, but i think that's most of the recap. i'm getting settled back in and matt will be here for a couple of weeks on august 1. God forbid we should sit still for too long, right? :)

"you're eating leaves"

welcome home to me

how on earth is it the middle of june? i swear that nick and sarah just got married - or that we were running dam to dam just a couple of days ago. it just doesn't seem possible that i'm already freaking out about all of the things that i wanted to get done during june that are still solidly on my "to do" list. and now that job applications are lingering in the near future, that's even more sad. . . and scary.

once i made the billion-hour drive home from lawrence, i slept (of course) and then immediately went and got myself both groceries and some flowers. when you return home to an empty apartment, it is super hot, and you are weeks worth of super exhausted, sometimes you just need a little splash of color. don't get me wrong, i still think my tiny little abode here is absolutely adorable. it's even totally bearable on these 90+ degree days thanks to my amazing fiancé. however, if you all wanted to keep me hooked up year round with a bouquet of color, i wouldn't be angry. these just make me smile for some reason, even now as half of the flowers are moving into an "early wilt" stage because it's been so freaking hot and humid this week, it adds a little humor for those of us who also feel like we might melt away at any moment.

i've spent most of the last couple of days trying to get caught up - both at home and at work. monday and wednesday got scheduled as almost entire days of meetings and in the interim, i'm trying to write and get going on some new analyses for whatever my next project is going to be. i did find time, though, to recreate this amazing salad that i had when i was in lawrence. if you can get past the fact that the purple leaves in these mixed greens look brown, you can trust me that it's surprisingly delicious. it was originally one of those things that i thought might not be good as a salad even though i liked all of the constituent parts. thankfully i was wrong. what are the constituent parts, you ask?

mixed greens

a few tomato slices

dried cranberries

slivered almonds

& shaved parmesan cheese

another lawrence delicacy

top it off with some balsamic vinaigrette and you've got yourself something pretty amazing. and nice and fresh for these super hot summer days. thank you, lawrence, for this treat.

i finally got back out to run today (although i had to wait until 8pm, when the temperature finally slipped back below 90). the humidity makes things a bit tough, so i'm making a mental note to keep my inhaler filled. other than that, it's just a matter of learning to deal with being disgustingly sweaty.  bets are still out on whether i'll actually be more comfortable with the heat and humidity first :)

i also went to the salon next door for my first facial today. matt's been giving me a (good-natured) hard time about it, but they're offering all of their skin services at half price (and rumor has it that they will be for a while, as the esthetician is new and is still building up a clientele) and with the wedding approaching i thought, "why not?" i wasn't sure what to expect exactly, but it was pretty wonderful. part gentle massage and part a series of face masks, i found it delightfully relaxing. plus, my skin feels amazingly soft (and actually moisturized, for once). so if any of you lived here, i would send you to taj immediately. PLUS, she actually complemented my skin, affirming yet another way that my 30s are totally better than my 20s. because the 14-year old version of me definitely did NOT see that coming.

p.s. the quote in the title of this post comes from the daughter of my friend kristi, who i met for dinner (along with her family) in wisconsin dells on sunday night. part way through my salad, i looked at samantha and found her giggling at my "meal."
       

nerd ALERT

mini update:

my grant is totally in. like through all of the the UW offices that it needs to go through and now sitting ("sitting") at NIH out of my hands type of in. and matt's is soon to follow. i want to say his due date was about a week or so after mine. so in another week, we should both be free of grant applications. and God willing, in another six months, one of us might be en route to real, actual funding. wouldn't that be nice?

with rachel and tim at dinner in MN

the ICIS conference is also done. i must say that it was really nice to be able to drive. i hate carrying those poster tubes through airports and on planes. although i'm happy to have mine (and fewer "smooshed" posters), it's never comfortable, i'm always worried about leaving it somewhere, there is nowhere to put it in bathroom stalls, and i just really don't like carrying extra things. so, i was thrilled to forego that awfulness.

i was also pretty thrilled that a meeting in minneapolis meant getting to stay with karen rather than at the conference hotel. this equated to not only saving a bit of money, but also to getting to combine business with pleasure. conference or not, karen always seems to keep my schedule busy enough that i never walk away with pictures of our activities. that is particularly unfortunate for this visit, because we went on a gorgeous walk along cedar lake.

well, and we're adorable. . . obviously (*wink, wink*)

so, i got time with my karen, time with my former labmates (some pictured above), and two delicious italian meals. plus, i got a ton of work done last week. my only regret is that i took the whole week off from running. typically, i have three runs each week and i hadn't missed a single one since i started the program in march. my perfectionist tendencies are not even remotely thrilled about this. but i'm trying to put it behind me, move on, and just tell myself that i can stick to the program for the next 10 weeks in the way that i want to. hopefully.

 

there is a lot of irony in my schedule for this week. a lot of times, going to conferences shows me how nerdy some of my academic world really is. it's quite humorous, it's occasionally kind of sad; i definitely was feeling both of these things as ICIS progressed. the irony, of course, is that i'm spending this week (monday through friday) at "stats camp." yep. it's not like i could have done anything nerdier.

oh my gosh, i just remembered that i went to a math bee in middle school. i totally forgot that i had done that. and i kind of forget what it was like, except that a bunch of us went, we all took individual paper-and-pencil tests, and i don't even remember how we finished. *doh* i really could put together quite an eclectic lifetime resumé, couldn't i?


in any case, the stuff that i'm learning this week will hopefully be answer the question regarding what the appropriate thing to do is when one has missing data (so, when someone skips a question on a questionnaire, for example, or when a family misses one of the laboratory visits that all of our other participants are doing annually). so, obviously, my hope is to take away with me something that i will use for pretty much the rest of my career. no pressure :) 


so, that's all the news for now. more statistics, more travel, and hopefully more sleep to come in the future.

all fun and games until someone goes to stats camp.

i know what you're thinking: where the heck is a steadfast recap of the past few weeks? i know stuff has been happening. . .so, what's the word?

well, first let's wish matt happy birthday. YAY! it kind of sucks that i always have something conference-y going on during this time of june. one more reason life will be better when matt and i can live together. then i can help the birthday boy make sure that he recognizes that it's his birthday (and maybe even spoil him a bit. . .just as he does for me)! so, happy birthday, Dr. Vess! this world has to let us celebrate together sometime soon!

second, let me tell you why you don't have a super-detailed recap of what's been going on around here. and let me tell you that story in list form, k?

what happened on friday 6/1:
work on grant during morning

Lined up for the Race with the Masses

insane amounts of wedding planning
food decisions
timing decisions
flower decisions
rehearsal decisions
cupcake decisions
too many decisions
way too many
packet pick-up for Dam to Dam
swimming with amy, patrick, & the kids

what happened on saturday 6/2:
run 5k race (and finish)!
go to farmers market in downtown des moines
lunch at jimmy johns with kara
to Pella for Nick and Sarah's wedding
back to Altoona for Reception
catch up with college friends
big hugs for Jilly Bean

With Kara, Gabe, & Dy

what happened on sunday 6/3:
surprisingly less than other days
drive back to madison
unpack
work on grant
prep for week's meetings
call mom

what happened on monday 6/4:
morning meeting
spill entire water bottle on my lap during  
                  said meeting
work on grant
print poster for presentation at conference

pick up library books on hold

submit manuscript for review

free chocolate milk!!

what happened on tuesday 6/5:
more meetings
pay bills
get oil changed
register for color run in minneapolis
lament how little i have practiced talk for conference
wish matt HAPPY BIRTHDAY
skype with briana
do laundry (with no bats this time)

fun, right?
boy, how i have enjoyed it :)

tomorrow i have morning meetings and then i'll be leaving for minneapolis. karen is loaning me her couch for a few days so that we can catch up. . . so long as ICIS has put a conference smack dab in the middle of her city.

then i'll stay with mom and dad on saturday. hopefully finally getting a full night's sleep :)

then i'll make the jaunt down to lawrence kansas on sunday for a week of "stats camp."
it all sounded decently cool until then, didn't it?

poop.

well, at least i have this super cute picture of max and ivy, who hosted me on thursday night once i realized that i only made my hotel reservations for friday and saturday. my bad.

later gators.