caffinated....

Last night E and I had coffee with my sister- it was great. Wonderful. And when I was still going strong at 10 pm, I started to wonder what was going on.... until I realized that, in my excitement over the real, live, frapachino, I had forgotten the magic word: decaf. My body was still twitching at 7:30 this morning...... but I'm pretty tired now. Time for bed.

How the Doctors R and E go to the Beach

First, have two people defend two doctoral dissertations in 21 days- extra points if you defend one of them twice.
 
Be sure to have your car break down on the day of the last dissertation- but not until AFTER everything is over, AFTER you've picked up your other, working car from the shop. This works best if you have it break down right next to a parking space on a residential street near your house.
 
Start walking home, until your husband drives by (in the working car) and helps you push the non-working car into said parking spot. Take out your backpack, your change of clothes, your present from co-worker A, and your present FOR co-worker B, lock up, and drive away praising Jesus.
 
Go to the party at your boss's house for your defense- only an hour late.
Be sure to sleep for eight hours, then roll out of bed to a slate gray sky, and pack bathing suits and sunscreen.
 
Walk past the packed boxes, past empty boxes, past laundry, past bills, and past Histology of the Nervous System in Two Volumes, and past backpack and change of clothes still left by the door from last night.
 
Drive past broken-down car, and don't look back.
 
Finally, enjoy a wonderful day at the beach soaking in the sun (or shade), surf, snacks, frozen margarita and dinner date.

Sunday Reflections

Rain.

Ran.

Rain, rain, rain.

Rest.

City Life

Last night I saw all three emergency services in action!

Now, E and I don't actually live in the city. We live between the city line and the beginning of the nice, safe suburbs. Which we're closer to usually depends on where you're coming from. (Figuratively, not literally.)

Last night, we spend the evening with some friends who are bona-fide city dwellers. They are part of an awesome community connected with a church in the city, where we know two families who are comfortable and committed to urban life. They both both own homes and love neighbors in the kind of place your parents don't want you to live. They are pretty awesome.

We went across town these friends to an awesome El Salvadorian restaurant. (The great ethic food you can get here will definitely be something we'll miss when we move). This particular area is known to be rather dangerous- not the kind a place a woman like me wants to walk alone at night. Not the kind of place you need to avoid with a group of four, two of them self-collected men.

We had a nice dinner and walked down to see the water (yes, we live that close to the coast). On our way back, we saw an ambulance struggle through a line of cars headed to the Cinco de Mayo festival that was going on near where we were parked. As we were walking up, we realized there were tons of police cars there, along with a few ambulances and fire trucks. We saw several men laying face-down on the ground, and walked around part of the sidewalk that was sectioned off with police tape. We found out someone had been stabbed- and noticed blood and a crumpled t-shirt at the crime scene! The police were doing great, controlling the situation, taking statements- we noticed they had these plastic handcuff things instead of the metal ones I always picture. I can't imagine being a police officer in such an urban area. The ambulance crew must have already done their thing- we saw one pull away in front of us.

On the way back through town, we saw a huge hole in the street where they've been repairing a water main break for a week. It's causing havoc with rush-hour traffic, but it's not an emergency service.

Having dessert back at our friends' house, we saw a fire truck go by, lights blazing and horn honking. Our friend informed us that when living in the city, the thing to do is go find out what's going on- we could see that it stopped not far from us. So, we went and saw the firemen do their thing- the fire was in an abandoned house that is due to be torn down, and as far as I can tell they didn't even need to use the hose- though they did get it all hooked up, which was cool to see.

It was amazing to see all three emergency services in one night! The crime downtown seemed like a it was pretty serious, while the fire seemed like a relatively minor event. Incidentally, the town we are moving to DOES have volunteer ambulance service and firefighters, we were glad to find out while we were visiting out there the other week. I think they have some police, too, though I imagine that job is pretty different from the police officers here. We'll find out!

Cherry Blossoms!

We went down to DC and saw the cherry blossoms the other weekend! (If you live in the area and pay attention to such things, then you know this post is a little dated). It was a great, semi-spontaneous date for us after church on a Sunday afternoon. We laughed that we are so used to being near Washington D.C- we took the Metro down with only the faintest idea of where we were going, and had to wander around a little bit before we found "the cherry blossoms." E has never been, so we definitely enjoyed the opportunity to see them while we're still nearby- I was teasing him because any flowering tree we saw, he would ask, "Are those the cherry blossoms?" At least now he can recognize a flowering cherry tree! He practiced by taking lots of pictures. While we were there, we also walked around the Natural History Smithsonian- gotta love those free DC museums. We tried to see the Botanical Gardens, too- I saw them in the dead of winter and was excited to see what they had in spring- but it was closed when we got there. While we were disappointed not to meet up with a friend who actually lives in DC, we did have dinner at a great Thai place right by his house in his honor. I especially enjoyed this as E doesn't generally enjoy Thai, and manged to surprise me due to some confusion about Metro stops. Yum!

On Seeing

I wrote this poem a number of years ago... rhodopsin is the protein in you eye that actually senses light. I was learning about the process of vision at the time- it was inspired by the view on the drive back to college:

Bare black branches
against the setting sun
make me wish I were a painter
or a poet.
Instead,
I praise the Maker
for rhodopsin.

Thankful

I have a friend at work. For a few years in my PhD program, I didn't really hang out with anyone at work. This was sad to me. The other student in my lab was a guy a good bit older than I, and though we got along well, neither of us talked enough to strike up a friendship. I was used to it, but it was lonely.

Now I have a friend at work. She joined the lab three years ago, and now she is the easiest kind of friend- the kind you can watch TV with and not feel guilty about wasting time you could spend talking, because you saw them yesterday and will see them tomorrow, if there's anything new to say. Her desk is in the cubby next to mine, and we can lean around the wall and see if the other is doing anything interesting (i.e., something other than work). We work on the same project, meet together with out boss, have lunch together frequently, and generally do a lot of life side-by-side. We report on the day-to-day events of our evenings and sometimes we hang out outside of work. She is a year behind me in school and a few years ahead of me in life. We talk about TV and books and marriage and plans. Sometimes I worry that she wishes I would shove off, mostly since she couldn't get away from me if she tried, and she is too nice even to try. But, I think we both enjoy having someone around who is more interested in life outside of work than in their latest scientific achievement.

She is one of the things that make my life good, the things I am thankful for.