| pics |
[Apr. 16th, 2009|10:06 pm] |
I owe LJ some pics so here they are:
Lars and I at a dance party at Arthur Murray Dance Studio:
My new shirt from Spud, Paul and Kelly :-D
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| Lars |
[Mar. 25th, 2009|02:06 pm] |
Lars came to visit the weekend before last. I was running late and told him he'd probably get to my apartment before I did, so he decided to stop and do some shopping on the way while he was waiting. The last time I recall that had happened, he gave me a necklace he bought at an antique store, so I was curious to see what he would buy this time. He showed up at my door with a bottle of wine-the first he had bought himself. He also pulled out of his suitcase some silver-coated candlesticks he had bought at a thrift store earlier that week and had polished. We put the wine and candlesticks to good use by having a candlelight dinner. Then we dressed up in fancy clothes (I finally got to wear my little black dress I bought several years ago) and went to a dance lesson/party. Dancing is so much more fun with Lars than with random strangers :-P We came back and watched Dollhouse and BSG all snuggled up on the couch. *Sigh* I never knew watching TV could be so enjoyable.
Saturday was the chem department poster session; I got to show off some of my nerdiness to Lars and he got to meet some more of my friends. Breakfast and lunch were provided, which was nice. After it was over we had more dance lessons--slow dance group class and working on our choreographed first dance ("Till There Was You" from the Music Man). We picked up my wedding shoes from David's Bridal, got 2 free donuts from Krispie Kreme, and stopped by Food Lion for a few groceries. We celebrated Pi Day (3/14) by eating pot pies, and Lars was wearing the Pi by numbers shirt I had bought him shortly after we first started dating. We snuggled on the couch again while watching the Music Man starring Matthew Broderick and Kristen Chenowith (I hadn't seen it before).
Sunday was basically our usual routine of church, nap, Buffy, and goodbye. 2 More episodes till Restless :-D
I close my post with some aww-worthy text messages I've gotten from Lars lately:
"Just a random text to tell you that I love you!"
"It's lunchtime--and I love you!"
"Keep up the good work; I know you can do it! :-* "
"I love you, believe in you, and I know you can do it."
"Just saw a NC license plate and thought of you. I love you!"
"Hope you're doing well and feeling happy! I love you!"
"I love you so much; you have such an amazing ability to encourage and tolerate me. Don't ever stop :-* "
"You are so patient, kind, compassionate, caring, intelligent, thoughtful and more. I'm the one who should feel honored and grateful. I love you so much!"
"P.S. You can finish your paper; I know you can :-* "
"Good morning! I love you very much, and I can't wait to find out how God will use you today! Keep up the good work; I know you can."
"I love you. I know you're special and I know you're eminently capable. Don't let Reza or anyone else ever make you think otherwise. Good night :-* "
"Don't forget: God says that His strength is perfected in our weakness. He can get you through any tough time, especially when you can't do it yourself :-* "
"Good night my beautiful, caring, smart, wonderful, and sweet fiancee."
"It's lunchtime, and guess what?" "We're getting married!"
"Good morning! I hope you're feeling better. Keep up the good work. I love you!"
"Good morning! I love you! You can do everything you need to do--I know you can!"
"It's break time, and guess what? We're getting married :-* :-* :-* "
"It's 8:43! What better time to tell you that I love you!! :-* "
"Good morning! How's my lovely and talented fiancee doing? I love you very, very much!"
"Just wanted you to know that I'm thinking of you and I love you very much!"
"Good morning, love of my life! I hope you're feeling well and working hard. I know you can do it!"
"Boo! ;-)"
"Hey there lover-girl ;-) I hope you're doing well and working hard. You can make this your best paper ever!"
"I've been trying to figure out the perfect time to tell you that I love you, and I think I've found it: 10:49AM! I love you!!" |
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| Long Overdue |
[Feb. 24th, 2009|11:33 pm] |
Yeah, I know. I'm long overdue for posting. Let's see...
I had an amazing Christmas/New Year's with Lars. I drove up to MD Christmas Eve and we went to a church service/production at Grace Baptist. Christmas was a lot of fun. We each took turns picking out a present for someone else to open. I got a pretty dolphin watch from Lars's parents (the watch I had been wearing was held together with a rubber band), a pencil drawing of me and Lars from his sister Becca, a squishy purple pillow, a floofy blue shirt, and from Lars I got a sapphire cross-shaped necklace, which eerily matches the setting in my engagement ring, even though Lars wasn't thinking about that when he bought it. We stayed up in MD for a few days, then drove down to Raleigh for a few days to hang out with Rachel and Brendan.
We welcomed the new year at my apartment. New Year's Day my parents picked us up and we drove to Charlotte. Lars and Danny stayed with my grandma and the rest of us stayed at a hotel. Lars and I had dinner with Duane and Denise Cranford and their kids, some of whom will be part of our wedding. It was really nice meeting people who had known Lars for a long time and they seemed to think we were good together. They also gave us awesome shirts--black for Lars and purple for me; they didn't even know those were our colors! We had a nice visit with my grandma including a strange trip to the Billy Graham museum. The best part of that day was seeing a fellow Firefly fan :-D My parents dropped us off in Raleigh on Saturday, January 3rd, and we picked up Charlie and drove to Goldsboro so Lars could meet the people at my church there. We drove back to my place Sunday afternoon and Lars drove home. It was heavenly spending parts of 12 days with Lars :-D
After New Year's I was sick for awhile. That was no fun. What was fun was buying my wedding dress and making other plans like reserving the church and booking our honeymoon cruise :-D We're planning on going to Canada by way of NYC and we're gonna see Wicked on Broadway!
Lars came down to visit and we had our first dance lesson at Arthur Murray. We like it so much better than the previous place we tried and it's very convenient for us since he can take lessons at the Arthur Murray up in DC and I can take them down here and we can do them together on the weekends we're together.
I went to court and am now officially a criminal. I pled guilty to speeding 9 over the limit, even though I was actually speeding more than that. Thankfully 9 or less doesn't go on insurance or my driver's license. It was a scary experience and I didn't know what I was doing but thankfully it all turned out ok.
I went up to MD again and we had a day filled with wedding items. We got tuxes taken care of, looked at our reception site, and had another dance lesson.
Valentine's weekend was amazing. We had a picnic in the arboretum, several dance lessons, went to see Coraline 3D, went to a flea market, had dinner at an Italian restaurant, watched Madagascar 2, watched our favorite TV shows (BSG, Dollhouse, Leverage, and Buffy), and exchanged gifts. I got him a Jayne hat and he got me a chemistry shirt (If you're not part of the solution...) and some plushie E. coli in a petri dish :-D
Sorry I kind of glossed over everything but it's late and I'm in the lab at midnight and want to go home :-( |
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| research |
[Dec. 22nd, 2008|02:43 pm] |
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I think I'm finally in an upswing with regards to my feelings about my research. A lot of disappointment and frustration and feeling ashamed brought me to the point where I almost quit. I've moved on and I think it best not to dwell in the past too much or else I might break again, but for once I'm actually hopeful about the future with regards to my work. LJ cut is the letter I sent to Reza: ( Letter to Reza )
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| Lars and I are ENGAGED!!!! |
[Dec. 8th, 2008|07:12 pm] |
I went up to D.C. this weekend to visit Lars and on Saturday morning we took the metro downtown. I sat to the left of him, next to the window, but he suggested that we switch places so he could lean on the window and I could lean on him. Little did I know that he was really suggesting that so I wouldn't feel the ring box in his left coat pocket. We went to the Museum of National History and looked around for a few hours since Lars hadn't been there for over 10 years. I half-noticed as we went in that he didn't take a ring box out of his pocket as we went through security, but he did take out his keys and multi-tool pocket knife. When we exited the museum, we ran into a parade of Santas called Santarchy, which included several steam-punk Santas, to whom we talked for awhile.
We took the metro to his Firefly meetup group, who was meeting for lunch at an Irish pub near the Pentagon City Mall. While I was in the bathroom Lars pulled out the ring and showed everyone and they all oohed and aahed. His friend Sophia told us "Have a good evening" as we left, but only Lars knew how amazing the evening was going to be. While we were in the Firefly meetup, it started snowing. We stopped at Macy's to get gloves for him and me and a hat for him before taking the metro back to the Smithsonian area.
We had planned to meet his friends at 6 at the sculpture garden to go ice skating, but they were running a bit late. Lars and I got in line (which was really long) to get tickets for the 7-9 pm skating time. We got tickets and skates, but his friends were too far back in line to make it for the 7 o'clock skating time. It was just as well because they got to watch.
Lars and I skated around for about 15 minutes, but the skates were poor quality and my ankles were getting really sore, so I told Lars I needed to rest for a little while. He said ok, but instead of pulling me toward the outside of the rink where the benches are, he pulled me towards the inside of the rink. He got down on one knee, pulled out the ring, and with tears in his eyes he said:
"Christine Elizabeth Fairchild, you are the love of my life. You are more precious to me than any jewel, but I present you with this one along with a humble request: would you do me the great honor of consenting to become my wife?"
And I said YES!!! and kissed him. Everyone cheered and said "Congratulations!" One of the skating attendants came over and asked us our names so he could announce it over the loudspeaker. He misheard and announced "Lance" and Christie just got engaged. Nevertheless, everything was just perfect--the ring, the proposal, the location at a place where we had previously had a picnic supper, the fact that it was snowing--it was like something out of a fairy tale.
We called our family and friends and then went with his friends to look at the National Christmas tree, which was covered in lights. We took the metro back to my car and then went to IHOP since Lars was really hungry and we wanted more time together to talk.
Sunday Lars gave the sermon in the church at his family's place. It was on Proverbs 31. He originally thought about proposing at the end of the sermon, but his friends convinced him that doing it while ice skating would be much more romantic. So instead of proposing at the end of the sermon, he decided to announce our engagement to the church at the end of the sermon. He could barely make it through and couldn't even read his notes because he was so emotional, so it's probably a good thing he decided not to propose that way.
Sunday afternoon we got engagement photos taken by Mrs. Schaeffer, with whom I stay when I go up to visit Lars. She's a professional photographer and they turned out excellent. I'll be sure to post some when I get them. In the meantime, here's one of my ring:
Sunday night he announced our engagement at 20/20, where he plays the bass for his praise band. His parents came to watch. Then I sadly left to go home to Raleigh, trying to not look at my left hand too much while driving ;)
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| Car Woes and Thanksgiving |
[Dec. 2nd, 2008|01:06 pm] |
On my way back from D.C. two weekends ago, I got pulled over for speeding around 12:15 am with no other cars on the road. I had just gotten off of I-85 (speed limit 65-70) onto US-1 (speed limit 55) and was pulled over for doing 73 in a 55. Going 15 or more over is grounds for suspension of my license; I'm hoping that doesn't happen. I'm going to try to talk to the DA before my court date and ask for a "prayer for judgment continued" which is a guilty plea with no points on the license or insurance. NC residents get 1 every 3 years. Since it's my first offense and I didn't see the reduced speed limit sign (though I suspected it was less) I'm hoping they will be merciful.
This past Wednesday I was planning to pick up my brother from the airport at 7pm. As I was leaving lab around 5, I noticed I had a flat tire. I called USAA since I have coverage for that sort of thing and they called a tow truck. Since it was one of the worst traffic days of the year it took the tow truck a long time to get there. Thankfully Lars arrived in time to wait with me for about half an hour. The tow truck finally arrived and we took my car to Pep Boys and they put on 4 new tires (my old ones were getting bald). In the meantime, we went over to Chipotle and ate dinner and got some to go for Danny (we sneakily got our refills with new lids and straws to be his drinks with dinner). We finally picked up my car and drove to my apartment to get my suitcase and drove to the airport. It must have been about 9:30 or so by then. We finally got home to Goldsboro around 10:30 or 11, I think.
Thursday was a nice Thanksgiving with Lars and my family. We had a turkey and all the usual fixins and decorated our Christmas tree. Lars and I went to see our neighbors the Edgertons, watched Newsies while Danny and Catie went to see Twilight, and watched Casino Royale with my parents. Friday we went to visit my grandparents, aunts, and uncles in Williamsburg. Uncle Eb and Aunt Jodi were out visiting from Montana/Colorado, so we especially wanted to see them. We ate a yummy lunch and Lars and I took a walk with my Aunt Beffie and Uncle Rich down to a little marina and then Mom drove home. We made Lars watch our stupid comedies (Stupids, Man Who Knew Too Little, and Rocketman) in the minivan on the way there and back. *evil laugh* Saturday our family, Lars, and Danny's friend Ben went to see Quantum of Solace. It was the second time Lars and I watched it together and it made a lot more sense after rewatching the first one. We ran some errands after that and then ate spaghetti for dinner and Lars, Catie, and I drove to Raleigh. We went over to Jason and Rebecca's house, where Lars was staying the night, and played Nerts with them and some of their friends. Sunday I picked up Lars on the way to the airport to drop Catie off around 8:30 for her flight back to PA. Lars and I went to church, ate lunch at Beansprout Chinese Restaurant with some people from my Sunday school class, and watched the latest Futurama movie (Beast with a Billion Backs). Then Lars left. :-( |
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| DC with Lars |
[Nov. 19th, 2008|03:41 pm] |
This past weekend I went up to visit Lars in DC again. We were planning to meet in Lynchburg for his brother's birthday, but then his brother decided to go up to DC to celebrate so we changed our plans to meet up there instead. Friday night Lars and I went to see Quantum of Solace. It was pretty good, but also pretty confusing. I think we mostly figured out what was going on by the end, though. Saturday we went to see the Pompeii exhibit at the National Museum of Art. It was really interesting--had a lot of statues, some frescoes, some figurines, etc. that were collected from villas in Pompeii. Most of the statues were naked--I guess that's the influence of Greek culture. I was surprised to see Egyptian influence also in some of the items. After going to the Pompeii exhibit, I went with Lars to his Dungeons and Dragons group. I watched while they played (and ate some pizza, Cheetos, and cookies and drank fun Japanese sodas). It was pretty fun--I think I'll try to join in next time, though I'll especially need help whenever a monster needs to be fought. Then we went to his family's place for dinner. Some friends of the family were visiting, which was nice. Sunday was pretty much the usual two church services with band practice in the middle. I got gas for $1.89/gallon on the way home in VA! Also, Lars was really sweet and secretly filled up my gas tank when I arrived in MD (after he dropped me off for the night) so when I drove home I noticed I had over half a tank even though it should have pretty much been on empty :)
This weekend I'm going up to MD again for Lars's small group's Non-Thanksgiving dinner. Then Lars is coming down to have Thanksgiving with my family. Then I'm going back up to MD the next weekend to go ice skating at the sculpture garden in DC. It's nice that I get to see Lars more than twice this month :-D |
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| Goldsboro and Raleigh |
[Nov. 2nd, 2008|06:42 pm] |
Last weekend was Catie and Danny's fall break, so they both flew home. Catie flew in Wednesday evening. My parents were coming to pick her up, but on the way my dad got sick to his stomach and they had to turn back around. I was on my way to the state fair when my mom called and told me what was going on, so I turned around, walked home, and drove to pick up Catie. Mom can't really drive at night, which meant Catie had to spend the night. I didn't mind; we watched Waitress, which she enjoyed (and of course I did too). My mom drove in the morning to pick her up. Then Danny flew in Thursday night and I rode along with my family to pick him up and they dropped me back at my apartment. Friday was the NC State Biotechnology Symposium, at which I was presenting a talk and a poster. It was a lot of work trying to get ready for that. I guess it went well; the guy in charge told me twice that I did a good job on my presentation.
I drove home Friday evening and we had a little birthday dinner for Catie and my dad (about half way in between their birthdays). Mom made the cheesecake which was my other choice for my birthday. She had gotten the ingredients for both cheesecakes and we had the one on my birthday and the other one for Dad and Catie's birthdays. So it was kind of like I got two birthday cheesecakes even though this one was actually for them. :-P Saturday we prepared for and had a dinner at church for all the people who gave money to support my dad, sister, and a few other people to go to Germany for the World Youth Conference. We made pancake soup as the appetizer (it has some German name that I forget)--basically you make pancakes and cut them into little strips like noodles and put them in beef broth with chives. Sunday was church and driving back to Raleigh and then I went to the State Fair with the Internationals group from my church here in Raleigh. Needless to say it was not a very restful weekend, but still good.
This past weekend Lars came down to visit for Halloween. He and I had a nice candlelight dinner on Friday. I cooked quiche (one of the Waitress recipes, only slightly modified to be less soupy) and fixed a salad with homemade mandarin orange dressing. Then we went to a party with Rachel and some of her friends for awhile. Around 9:30 we came back to my apartment in case anyone showed up for a party for my Sunday school class. Unfortunately they all had other parties to go to instead :-P We tried to watch a movie but Rachel's DVD player wasn't working and neither was the one in my laptop. We gave up and watched a little TV instead.
Saturday we went to a Halloween store to try to get discounted costume supplies, but nothing really appealed. We came back to the apartment and watched a couple movies after hooking up the DVD player from my bedroom to the TV in the living room. Then we went to Pullen Park (where he found that ring that belonged to the undergrad in my lab) and walked around until it got dark. Then we came back and had dinner with Rachel and Rania and played Rummikub with Rachel. We watched a few episodes of Angel before he went to where he was staying for the night.
Today we went to church, had lunch with Rachel, Rania, and another friend at On the Border Mexican restaurant, and then walked around William B. Umstead park for awhile. I showed Lars some of my China pictures on my laptop back at the apartment and then he drove home. The weekend was fairly restful and Lars and I had some nice romantic moments, so while not terribly eventful as far as activities are concerned, it was still a great weekend. |
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| mountain retreat and Lars's birthday |
[Oct. 20th, 2008|12:08 pm] |
Last weekend I went to the mountains with the internationals group from my church. I drove one of the vans, took care of the children, and led the singing,so I was busy pretty much the whole time. We drove up Friday without too much incident. Saturday we went sightseeing at Grandfather Mountain. It was BEAUTIFUL with the fall leaves over 5000 feet in elevation. Driving the van through hairpin turns up and down the mountain was pretty scary, but we made it unscathed. Also scary was losing my purse, but I managed to find it where we ate lunch on the mountain. There were some funny bears in an enclosed habitat which stuck out their tongues to catch peanuts the tourists would throw. After Grandfather Mountain we had some free time so I went walking with some of my new Chinese friends. After dinner was the evening session with a speaker; I took care of the kids during that. Then we had a campfire and made smores. Sunday we ate breakfast, loaded the vans, had another session, went shopping in historic downtown Blowing Rock, and drove home.
This past weekend I drove up to Maryland again for Lars's birthday. He and I, along with his roommate Brian and friend Steve Russell went ice skating, which was quite fun. It was especially amusing, being Brian's first time ice skating. Then we went to Steve Russell's apartment and some more friends met us there. We ate cake and Lars opened his gifts. I gave him a bluetooth earpiece for his phone and a Redskins checkers game (with football helmets as the pieces). Unfortunately I had a bit of a curfew (12:30 am) due to staying with some friends of Lars's family, but it could have been worse.
Saturday Lars and I went to the zoo. We saw lots of cool animals and ate lunch at the Panda cafe. We saw a huge Anaconda--probably 18 feet long! *shudders* Most of the animals were actually active since the weather was nice and cool. The pandas were lying around as usual, though. Then Lars and I ate dinner at an Irish Pub, which didn't have much Irish food, but they did have a band that reminded me of the Demerits (they even had a didgeridoo). After that we went to Maurice's house and watched The Spiderwick Chronicles, which was decent but not amazing.
Sunday was pretty typical, going to both of Lars's churches. I left around 7:45 and then ran into some heavy traffic in D.C., but still made it back around 12:30 am. I was exhausted, though. Almost pulled off to take a nap despite being close to home, but then I saw a Raleigh city limits sign so I pressed on till I got back to my apartment. |
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| Ring Saga Continued and DC Weekend |
[Oct. 7th, 2008|10:09 pm] |
As mentioned in the previous post, Lars and I found a silver heart-shaped ring at Pullen Park on his prelim weekend visit. I wore it into lab the next couple of days and my undergrad Grace saw it and said "That's a pretty ring. In fact, I had one just like it, but lost it in Pullen Park when I was pointing at some ducks." I told her that the ring was probably her ring and she verified such by looking at some of the markings on it, so I gave it back to her. A few days later when she came in again she brought with her a silver four-leafed clover ring and gave it to me because it was lucky that I found her ring that she had bought in Singapore and lost here. Really, this whole chain of events was very improbable. It makes me laugh.
This past weekend I went up to DC to visit Lars. I drove up Friday after lab and got there around 9:15 pm. We went to IHOP and I ate dinner--pumpkin pancakes!!! We tried to go to a park, but it closed at dark so we weren't allowed to walk around the lake. The ice skating rink at the park was also closing so we couldn't do that either. We ended up just going to the house where I would be staying that night with some friends of his family.
Saturday Lars and I went antiquing in the morning. We found a turn of the century, leatherbound 15 volume set of Charles Dickens books for $65. Some people were selling a similar set online for $995, so we think we got a good deal. We also ate at a little vegitarian cafe at the shop with the Dickens books. Then we went to a wedding of some friends of his. We thought it started at 1, but it started at noon so we arrived late at 12:30. Thankfully we didn't miss much since the wedding started late. After the reception we did some more antiquing and I bought a beautiful glass decanter made in Italy. Then we went to the house of Lars's friend Maurice. We went bird watching, ate dinner, and watched Iron Man on DVD.
Sunday we went to church at Lars's parents' house. I met his grandma, which was nice. We finished writing our song for the Evil League of Evil in the afternoon and then went to praise band practice. We had a few minutes to practice our song after that and then the actual service started. I stayed for the service and then afterwards Lars and I filmed us singing our song. We plan to dub it with better sound quality vocals and guitar and then put it on YouTube in order to submit it to the ELE. I won't ruin the surprise for you by telling you what our song is about :-P |
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| Prelim and Celebration |
[Sep. 22nd, 2008|10:30 am] |
Thursday was my prelim day. My mom helped me with some of the snacks and came to watch, which was nice. The presentation went really smoothly. I wasn't too nervous, my voice didn't shake, and I remembered everything I wanted to say. The Q&A with my committee members was brutal, lasting an hour and a half, but I survived somehow. They gave me an unconditional pass, so I'm free to stay in the program. I'm officially a PhD candidate, or what some of my friends would call a PPhD (Pre PhD). It's definitely a huge relief to have it done and no longer have it looming in the distance. I don't envy my fellow 3rd year students who still have it left to do.
After the prelim Rachel and I went to the luau at our apartment complex and ate hotdogs and hamburgers without buns (they ran out by the time we got there). Then we watched some TV and went to Rum Runners. We invited a lot of people to come but nobody did so it was just us two. I drank about ten drinks/shots, but still was only just barely tipsy. The drinks were small and I don't think there was much alcohol in them :-P The oatmeal cookie shot was indeed as yummy as Rachel said it was. :) The dueling piano guys essentially gave us a private show since the whole place was practically empty. For awhile the two of us were the only people at the tables and then eventually 3 more people showed up. I guess Thursday nights are not very busy for them.
Friday I unfortunately had to go to my lab class, which started at 12:25. It was a long one in which we had to run a gel, purify the DNA out of it, and run a second gel. My lab partner and I had the misfortune of our gel box not working properly (no current at first) so we were behind everyone else for most of the lab period. We also had trouble loading our second gel; the solutions kept floating up into the buffer. It was frustrating and I really wanted to get home so I could be there when Lars arrived. I finally finished and headed home and it turned out to be perfect timing--Lars got there about 3 minutes after me :-D We went to a party at the apartment of a girl from my Sunday school class at which we ate pizza and watched the movie Dragonfly.
Saturday Lars and I went to the NC State/ECU football game with Rachel, Jon, and Molly. The game went into overtime and we won with a touchdown. :-D Lars and I have this theory that every time he comes to visit and we go to a sporting event then it goes into overtime; last time we went to a Durham Bulls baseball game and it went into 4 extra innings. We'll have to test out the theory next time--perhaps with hockey or basketball or soccer. After the football game, Lars and I went to Sonic (he had never eaten there before) and then went to Bugfest at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences. We got to hold some interesting bugs and talk to entomologists and look at exhibits. After that we went to the $1.50 theater and watched Hellboy II. Then we came back to my place and watched an episode of Angel before dropping him off at my friend David's house for the night.
Sunday was church and then a meeting for planning the retreat for the internationals group in October. The meeting included pizza, which was nice. Then Lars and I went to Pullen Park and walked around for a little while by the pond. We cuddled on a bench for awhile, counting the number of couples who passed by. Some older man walked by and saw us cuddling and said, "Ain't love great?" and I think the answer to that is a definite yes. As we were walking back to the car, Lars noticed something shiny on the ground on the other side of a railing and he hopped over to get it--it was a silvery heart-shaped ring (which of course he gave to me). It's about 1/2 size too big for the ring finger on my right hand, but overall pretty nice and it was free :-D Then Lars and I came back to the apartment and watched Phantom of the Opera before we said our goodbyes and he left. :-/
Overall the weekend was wonderful and a much-needed change from the constant studying of the previous couple of weeks. |
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| last post before prelim |
[Sep. 15th, 2008|11:37 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  stressed | ] |
My prelim is looming in the not so distant future (3 more days). I finished my document about a week ago and turned it in to my committee members. I had my first practice last Thursday in the presentation room. It was pretty shaky, but not awful, and I got some good suggestions. My advisor said I was about 90% of the way there. Today I had presentation #2 in lieu of group meeting. It went much more smoothly (since I practiced it at least 5 times since presentation #1, including in the shower and at the gym, and basically have it memorized now). I still have a few things to fix and a few things to emphasize more in the presentation, but overall it's just about ready. Now I need to focus on studying for the Q&A. I have mechanisms and pKa's and such to memorize as well as looking over some gen chem stuff like kinetics and basic organic chem things like SN1 vs SN2. Wish me luck! |
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| Dragon*Con Part II |
[Sep. 4th, 2008|01:19 pm] |
Saturday:
Got up early again to be in the parade. Lars and I dressed as Fry and Leela from Futurama. He helped me make an eye out of a touch light, old sunglasses, and other various parts. He did the majority of the work on it and it turned out great! It was definitely the best one there and one of the best ones ever. I also had a purple wig, a metal arm band, grey boots, black pants, and a white tank top. We marched in the group with Fans for Christ and threw candy until they told us we weren't allowed to throw it--only hand it to people. Lars and I went inside after the parade and looked in the dealer rooms for awhile. We went up to my hotel room to take care of a few things like charging my camera battery and sewing some black foam back on my boots. Lars did that while I lay down for awhile. It was really sweet of him to take care of me like that. Then we went to the Battlestar Galactica panel and Edward James Olmos led everyone at the end in saying "So say we all!" We all tried to go to dinner in a big group (of about 20 people) and while we were out we passed James Marsters on the street and talked to him for awhile, which was awesome. We gave up on finding a restaurant to hold us all so Lars and I just ate at the food court at the mall and then changed back into our Kaylee and Simon costumes for the Firefly Shindig. The Shindig was fun with a live band and dancing--Lars and I danced together a little, which was fun. All the people dressed in costumes that were there took lots of pictures together. The best costume was of some girl wearing a Jayne hat costume. Not a hat on her head--one that covered her whole body.
Sunday:
Got up early again to go to the Fans for Christs church service. The worship leader was dressed as Phantom of the Opera and Lars and I were dressed in our Kaylee and Simon costumes again. Other people had costumes too. We went by the "Walk of Fame" with all the stars signing autographs. Lars got a picture signed by Sean Astin and Brendan got Hayden Panettiere to sign his Heroes DVD set. While Lars was in line for Sean Astin, the line started forming for Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk so I jumped in that towards the front. Lars got his Serenity DVD box signed by them and I got my Firefly DVD set signed by them (well, technically it's Lars's, but I'll trade him for my unautographed one). All of us went to the Firefly panel with Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, Morena Baccarin, and Jewel Staite. I waited in line to ask a question (since they were giving out free autographs to those who asked questions), but there wasn't enough time for everyone. After the panel Lars and I stopped by the consuite, which had free food like nachos and sandwiches. Then we got autographs of Morena Baccarin and Jewel Staite and I got my picture taken with Jewel (I was still dressed as Kaylee). She commented on my costume saying, "great attention to detail" and said that I "look great." I also wanted to get an autograph by James Marsters but I had left my Buffy box set back in my hotel room (2 hotels over). Lars held my place in line while I ran all the way back to get it. I was out of breath, but I made it just as Lars got to the front of the line. Perfect timing! James wanted to sign on top of Sarah Michelle Geller's face since they told him he wasn't allowed to, so I said that would be fine. After running all that way I was exhausted so we rested for awhile. In the evening Lars and I went to see the Masquerade (people showing off their costumes and sometimes doing short skits). There was a cool costume with a boy dressed as a transformer that could go from humanoid to tank. There was also an adult costume with Iron Man--only it was a clothes iron. There was some pun about Starch Industries. Afterwards we tried to play a little Munchkin, but I was worn out so Lars walked me back to my room.
Monday:
We packed up and tried to leave around noon. The guys had trouble acquiring their vehicle and Rachel and I drove in the wrong direction, but after a rocky start we finally ended up together heading in the right direction. We drove pretty much all day; arrived around 9:30 or 10. There were some nice moments of cuddling with Lars in the car and when we got to my parents' place I got to use my new guitar to play him a song I had written for him.
Tuesday:
We aimed to leave at 10, so of course it was a little after 11 before we actually left. Brendan followed Rachel and me back to our apartment in Raleigh to say goodbye to her, as they had become attached over the course of the trip (they are now officially dating). Lars and Brian went their own way back up to Maryland. :-(
I had a really really great time--I hope I get to go again next year! |
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| Dragon*Con Part I |
[Sep. 3rd, 2008|11:22 am] |
I had a marvelous time at Dragon*Con. I guess I'll break my post into things that happened each day.
Wednesday:
Rachel and I drove to Goldsboro after working in the lab all day. Lars and his roommate Brian drove down from Maryland after work. Their friend Brendan drove down from Ohio. We had a little birthday party for me (one day early) with pumpkin cheesecake and presents. Lars and my family bought me an awesome purple guitar! It was perfect! I also got some bath stuff from my aunt and various cards and such from other relatives. Then the 5 of us con-goers stayed up late playing Munchkin; it was the first time Rachel and I had played it.
Thursday:
My birthday!!! We drove down to Atlanta for most of the day in two vehicles. I rode shotgun with Rachel for the first bit and then in Brendan's car with Lars while Brian drove for the second bit and then back in Rachel's car to drive the third bit and then Rachel drove the last bit to the hotel. We got there around 9 or 9:30 but by the time we checked in it was too late to get our badges for the con so we had to get up early the next morning to do that. In the meantime we went down to the Fans for Christ table and Lars and I played a fun card game similar to Munchkin (I forget what it's called) with some of the people down there. Lars, Brian, and Brendan shared a room in the Mariott. Rachel and I shared a room with 4 other women and a 10 or 11 year old boy in the Hyatt. It was fairly crowded and rather annoying in that they were too loud too late at night, but it served its purpose of giving us a legal place to sleep.
Friday:
We got up early and got in line around 8am to get our badges. Of course I had the longest line (they did it alphabetically once you got past a certain point) :-P It only took us about an hour of waiting in line, which wasn't too bad. Rachel went to her friend Claire's house for the afternoon/evening. Lars and I gave blood and got free T-shirts. It was his first time because they had finally lifted some restrictions regarding his time living in Belgium. I was also afraid I wouldn't be able to donate because of visiting Cambodia but after some discussion they finally let me. Then Lars and I went to a Firefly panel with Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk. They were funny. Later that afternoon we went to a Stargate panel. That one was not quite as good as the moderator kept taking over and asking her own questions, but it was still interesting. Then Lars and I went to the Dr. Horrible Sing Along Blog and Buffy Horror Picture Show. Both of those basically had the episodes playing on a big screen and people acting out the parts on a stage. Lars hadn't seen Buffy the Musical before (he's only up to Season 4) so I had to tell him a few spoilers :-/ |
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| Prelim |
[Aug. 14th, 2008|10:58 am] |
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I now have my prelim scheduled for Thursday, September 18th at 2pm!!! Roughly one month left to correct my paper, tweak my presentation, and study for the Q&A session. My paper will probably just barely meet the lower page limit; that's the problem with being too concise :-P I have over 40 references and the current page count is 37 pages, 1.5 spaced. Most of that is figures, I think :-P Single spaced without figures it's slightly under 15 pages. My advisor seems to think I'll be fine, even if I bomb the Q&A, which is likely. I don't do well when I have to think quickly and out loud. Hopefully if I study enough I can at least pretend to know what I'm talking about ;) |
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| weekend in DC |
[Aug. 11th, 2008|11:05 am] |
I had another really nice weekend in DC with Lars.
I drove up Friday and parked at the Anacostia metro station and took that in to the Smithsonian metro station. From there I walked to the sculpture garden where I was meeting Lars and my friend Yun and two of her friends (she's up there for the summer for an internship). I got there around 5, which is pretty much exactly when I was hoping to get there. Lars had trouble finding how to get there because of Independence Avenue being closed and then he had trouble finding parking so it took him at least an hour longer than it should have and he arrived sometime around 5:30 or 5:45. Yun arrived about 15 minutes after that, along with one of her friends, and the other one arrived even later. We had a picnic supper on a blanket under some trees and talked and half listened to the "jazz" music in the background which was actually tango music. Yun and her friends left to watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics and Lars gave me a ride back to my car at the metro stop. I stayed with his family again, which is always nice. We played Tri-Bond and Mr. Cade won by a hair (I was one space away from winning myself).
Saturday Lars and I spent the day with Christine (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) tbonecats) and her friend Chris. We took a 5 mile hike and went to the Air and Space museum and looked at the monuments. You should read her blog for a more detailed and amusing description of the day. :) Some other things I enjoyed about the day were reading The Onion with Lars on the metro into DC, falling asleep on his shoulder on the metro on the way back from DC, and reading Foxtrot comics with him back at his family's place that night. It was really nice to spend time with Christine again, especially in a place like DC which we had fun visiting together before.
Sunday was a typical church day--church at his family's place in the morning, lunch with his family, and band practice in the afternoon. Lars also helped me make an eye for my Leela costume for Dragon*Con and we had a small dinner at Popeye's before saying our goodbyes. It also happened to be our three-monthiversary: a quarter of a year. He pointed out I'm going to be a quarter of a century old so I've known him 1% of my life. It sure seems like more than that (in a good way). |
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| 2nd Lynchburg date with Lars |
[Jul. 28th, 2008|09:11 am] |
Friday I drove up to Lynchburg to meet Lars. I arrived at his brother's place where we were meeting, but had neglected to find out the apartment number so I was calling Lars to tell him I was there and to find that out when a car drove by with a guy in it who looked like he could be Lars's brother Justus and that had a Maryland license plate. I followed it to where it parked and yelled out "Justus!" Thankfully it turned out to be him; it would have been embarrassing otherwise. When I called Lars I left a voicemail, but he didn't see it until after he arrived about 45 minutes later. So thankfully I arrived when I did--just in time to see Justus. Otherwise I'd be sitting out in the parking lot for awhile. It turns out Lars was a little later than I expected because he stopped in an antique shop on the way and bought me a beautiful necklace :-D
Justus, Lars, and I went to see Dark Knight since Lars hadn't seen it yet and it was worth re-watching for the other two of us. Then Lars and I went to IHOP and then went back to a lake near Justus's apartment to look at the stars. After that, I drove to his friend Angelica's place and Lars stayed with his brother.
In the morning on Saturday, Lars met me at Angelica's place and we drove to the public library to use the computer to get directions to a park we had been told about called Blackwater Creek Park. We asked the librarian for a pass for the internet and told her why we needed it and she walked over to a little display and got us some maps, including one for Blackwater Creek Park. We decided we didn't need the internet after all and set out for point #1 on the map which seemed like a good entrance point to the trail and also had a waterfall that we wanted to see. After driving past where point #1 should have been and not finding an entrance, and after driving around quite a few streets to search for it, we finally stopped at a gas station to inquire about it. They told us that we should enter at point #4 and that it's right behind a Greek Orthodox church. We never did find the Greek Orthodox church, but we did find some signs leading to the park. The signs led us to a cul-de-sac which had some ambiguous signs related to when parking was allowed. We decided to park there anyways; thankfully we didn't get towed or get a ticket.
We set off down the trail, crossed a couple of bridges, saw a lot of spiders and walked through many of their webs accidentally, and finally came to a place near a road. We decided to go up to the road to make sure we were where we thought we were, and we saw a little shop across the street. It sold vegetables, knick-knacks, and had a little cafe. We stopped in the cafe for drinks and lunch and inquired about where we were. As we thought, we were about half-way from point #4 to point #1.
We continued on the trail and ended up at an athletic park with a baseball diamond. We weren't sure where the trail continued from there, but we followed what we thought was the trail. It led us through what looked like someone's backyard or at least some sort of private property, so we decided to turn back. We went up to the road and followed it for a ways. An old guy who was sitting in his driveway yelled out to us to ask if we were afraid of his dogs and we started talking. Apparently he was the one who owns that property we were starting to walk on. He intentionally clears it for hikers such as us. He pointed us in the direction of where the trail supposedly continued across the street. It looked just like a dense forest to me; the trail was quite overgrown and really not even distinguishable as a trail. He warned us there would be snakes, but we didn't see any. We walked through the woods for awhile, trying to stay away from thorns and navigate over rocky terrain. We finally made it out to the road near where point #1 was supposed to be. We found a little trail leading to a waterfall, although it was much less impressive than the picture on the map led us to believe. Perhaps in rainier seasons it would have been better.
We were tired and we certainly didn't want to make that trek through the woods again so we decided to follow the roads back to his car. We thought it was odd that we didn't pass a certain landmark that we expected, but kept on walking. We stopped in a Mexican tienda and bought authentic Mexican sodas in apple and sangria flavor. We kept walking and finally saw a street we knew was the wrong direction. We had been walking nearly an hour the wrong way. It would have been too long and exhausting to walk all the way back so we called his brother. Thankfully his brother was able to pick us up and take us to Lars's car. We looked at the map again while we were waiting for his brother to come and we noticed it said something that referred to 1996 as the future, so that explained why the trail to the waterfall was so hard to find.
Lars and I had dinner at Vinny's, an Italian restaurant we kept passing, and then we planned to go to the $1 theater. It wasn't playing anything we wanted to see, so we just looked around the shopping center for awhile and went back to the lake by Justus's place for a few minutes before driving back to my car at Angelica's place and leaving to go home.
It was an exhausting weekend, but definitely worth it. I really enjoyed spending it with Lars :-D |
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| I caught the bouquet :) |
[Jul. 23rd, 2008|02:44 pm] |
This past weekend was pretty fun, though exhausting.
Friday night, Rachel, Matti, and I went to dinner at Gourmet Factory and then went to Rum Runners. While we were there, a guy named David started flirting with Matti and eventually he got us to stick around by buying us another fishbowl of fruity drink. I didn't really want any so I ended up being the DD using Rachel's car. David's friends Timmy and Richard came over and joined us so there were 3 of them and 3 of us. We told them that I had a boyfriend, but then I explained that he lives in Maryland and so in their minds I guess I might as well be single :-P I ended up mostly talking to Richard, although that's using the word talking loosely. He's as quiet as I am so we mostly sat in silence :-P
Saturday I went to a wedding of a friend from Goldsboro. Yes, one of the maybe three people I could remotely say I'm friends with there :-P Shea (the groom) and his younger brother Ben are especially good friends with Danny so they've been over to our house a fair amount. After the wedding, they did the thing where the bride tosses the bouquet. Ben shouted out to me "I hope you have Lars's number on speed dial!" and everyone heard. Funnily enough, I did actually catch the bouquet.
Sunday I went to see Dark Knight with Rachel and Mac. Only a couple things disappointed me just a smidgen, but overall it was excellent.
I've been working on writing the document for my prelim. I'm hoping to have a rough draft done by the end of the week. Right now I have 36 pages out of about 50, I think. Sometime at the beginning of August I'll schedule my prelim for September.
This weekend I'm planning to see Lars again. The plan is to meet up in Lynchburg, VA on Friday and stay one night and then drive back Saturday night. Hopefully his brother can find me a place to stay. I'm definitely looking forward to it; it would have been torture to have to wait a whole month before seeing him again :-P |
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| amazing weekend with Lars in Raleigh |
[Jul. 15th, 2008|11:19 am] |
Friday night we had a housewarming party at our new apartment. A lot of people showed up--more than I expected. We ate sloppy joes, taco salad, spinach and artichoke dip, and apple cobbler, as well as food other people had brought. The party started at 6 but most people showed up around 6:30. Lars drove down from Maryland; he arrived around 7pm. A bunch of us played Apples to Apples and used almost all the noun cards. On one round, Lars and I picked each other's noun cards; people thought we were cheating. After the party, Lars and I went swimming and then sat out under the stars. It was very romantic. We ended up staying up way later than we really intended, but the sacrifice of sleep was worth it ;) It was nice of Joe (a grad student in the chem department who lives in our apartment complex) to let Lars stay at his place for the 2 nights he was here so we didn't have to drive anywhere.
Saturday we slept in and then Lars and I went to lunch at 35 Chinese with Rachel, Rania, and Joe. I ordered food in Chinese, which is always fun. The broccoli was a lot spicier than I thought it would be, though. :( Then Lars and I went for a walk around the lake by my old apartment complex and I gave him a tour of the labs at school. We met up with Rachel to go to a Durham Bulls AAA baseball game and watch Josh and Sharon sing the national anthem with their choir (Josh is another grad student in the chemistry department). Amazingly enough, the Bulls were playing against the Rochester Redwings, which Lars had watched quite a bit growing up when he lived in Rochester, NY. For the majority of the game the Bulls were stomping the Redwings but the Redwings came back in the 9th inning and after 13 total innings they one by a point. We only stayed for 12 innings because it was getting late. Afterwards Lars and I took a short walk at my apartment complex and sat on a bridge eating cherries for awhile. It was a very pleasant evening.
Sunday Lars and I got up early to go to the contemporary service at my church as well as Sunday school. Then we drove to Goldsboro and Lars met my family. We ate lunch at Nino's Italian restaurant in Mount Olive near where my dad works. It took us a long time to get seated, but the good food was worth the wait. We went back to my family's place and gave Lars a little tour of the house. We walked down by the pond in our back yard and Lars and I told each other we love each other. I think we had both been dying to say it; I know I was :-P We went back inside for a little while and visited with my family and then headed back to Raleigh. Lars gave me a really sweet poem he had written in iambic pentameter and then headed back to Maryland.
We did a lot during the weekend yet it still seemed to end too quickly. And now I can officially say I'm in love. I'm madly in love. And I don't care who knows it :-D |
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