science teachers and space aliens

so, now that things have calmed down a bit, I can catch you all up on the last two weeks. after the conference in san francisco, I headed down to Anaheim for another conference, NSTA. there were a crazy amount of people there, we were guessing like at least 5,000 teachers. massive. the conference was held in the convention center and three nearby hotels. seriously. I got to see a few good talks. Jean-Michel Cousteau was there and K.C. Cole, a science writer who used to write for the LA Times. there were a few other interesting things, but mostly I remember the exhibition hall, otherwise known as science nerd heaven. basically, there were all these booths set up by different organizations and companies, most of them giving away lots of free stuff. I got bags full of NASA posters and hurricane stuff from NOAA and free waterbottles and stickers and computer software and things like that. it was cool. the Sea World booth had two little penguins visit one day (sooo cute) and there were some weird bugs at another. all in all, the conference wasn't all that bad and the weather was definitely an improvement over san fran.

the best part was probably Friday afternoon, though, because I snuck off to Disneyland for the evening. they have these twilight tickets that are good after 4pm, so it was actually a pretty good deal. I hadn't been there in a while and I really really wanted to go on the new and improved space mountain (my all-time favorite ride). I had to wait in line for about 45 minutes when I first got there, but it was definitely worth it. it was much faster, darker (they took out that orange star in the middle), and had a cool soundtrack. and I even managed to go again right before they closed. I did the Disneyland sprint and got myself on all the major rides except for pirates of the caribbean (closed for renovation) and splash mountain (too cold) in about six hours. yes, I went by myself, but it was ok for two reasons: 1. this way I could do exactly what I wanted to when I wanted to and not worry about dragging someone else along. this allowed me to get on all the rides and see the fireworks and everything. and 2. I wasn't really by myself. I have been there so many times with so many different people, that I had all those wonderful memories with me as I walked along main street and waited in line for star tours and bought a churro in front of the magic castle. it was really nice.
oh, and there was a new ride involving buzz lightyear and the little martian dudes. it was pretty fun, you get to be a space ranger and shoot a "laser gun" at targets to take down the evil emperor zurg. the best part, though, was at the end. they took your picture just like a bunch of the other rides, but this time instead of charging you $8 for it, they let you email it to yourself for free! how cool is that? here's my awful picture:

I'm a level 3 space ranger!

san fran pics

well I made it back from Anaheim safe and sound. except, my luggage decided to keep on traveling without me and made a side trip to Baltimore. luckily, it decided to come back later that evening so I wasn't without it for too long.
I will post more about NSTA later. for now, here are some pictures from the rainy trip to San Francisco.


the famous cable cars




riding along the street on the cable car


a look down on Lombard Street


Ghirardelli Square


me being a total dork


Jen, with some big boat behind her


Alcatraz

city of rain (and science educators)

so, today ended my time at NARST this year. tomorrow morning I am leaving rainy San Francisco for hopefully sunny Anaheim for NSTA. the last three days have been really good. sunday was spent mostly travelling and getting situated here.
monday morning we had sometime before the conference started, so we did a bit of touristy sight-seeing. we took the cable car from our hotel near Union Square up to Ghirardeli Square. it was raining a bit, and very foggy, so we couldn't actually see the Golden Gate bridge from where we were, but we knew it was there. we then walked down the Embarcadero to Fisherman's Wharf. we had a nice lunch at Boudin's and then took the F street car down to the Embarcadero Center, where our conference was. I think I got a few good pictures, so I will post those up later when I get back home.
the conference itself was great. I went to lots of interesting talks and was able to talk to some people about my research interests and future things. I have plenty of reading to do now.
also, even more excitingly I was able to see some old UCSD friends today. I had lunch with Mike Ficken, one of the fellow infamous seven RAs. he is going to law school here and it was nice to catch up with him. also, it was pretty hilarious yesterday when I was registering for the conference: someone yelled "Cynthia!" and I turned around and it was Emily! I wasn't expecting to see her at this conference, but it makes sense she was here and it was really good to see her. we went out to dinner tonight and caught up on all sorts of things, from our physics education programs to stuff going on with our group of friends. hopefully we will be able to keep in touch better from now on.
so, I will be a bit sad to say goodbye to San Francisco tomorrow, but I must move on to my next conference this week. hopefully it won't be raining in Anaheim.

the week ahead

so, I finalized plans on Thursday as to what exactly I will be doing this coming week. the original plan was to go to the NSTA conference from wednesday to sunday, but after my class last wednesday night, my professor was really insistent that I try to get myself to the NARST conference in the first half of the week. she was so insistent in fact that she volunteered to pay for part of my trip if I could get the funding for the rest. so, I emailed some people the next morning, and next thing I know, I have a flight Sunday morning (that would be about eight hours from now) to San Francisco for one conference, and then another flight on Wednesday from San Fran to Anaheim for the second conference. I'll get back next Sunday, so it will be a long week away.
I am looking forward to it, though. it should be great to meet some new people and talk about all this stuff I'm interested in. hopefully it won't rain the entire time in San Francisco so I can get some good pictures. I will update from the road.

spring break

spring break was a couple weeks ago, but I wanted to post the pictures up. Angel and I drove to San Diego for a few days. he had never been to the west coast or even seen the pacific ocean, so we made sure to include that on our itinerary. I showed him some of the cool places in SD that I missed (like Balboa Park, PB, and Da Kine's) and he met a few other of my friends that I hadn't seen in a while.
here are some highlights in picture form of our trip:


here's the famous La Jolla Cove


me at the Cove


Angel, meet the Pacific Ocean. Pacific Ocean, meet Angel.




the lazy seals


me and Carolyn

friday, finally

wow, this week seemed to take forever. spring break is next week, so of course, I had a bunch of stuff due this week. luckily, I didn't put too much off 'til the very end so I was able to sleep at least 5 hours each night. but it was still a bit crazy.

so now it's spring break, which is not really a "break" for most graduate students, such as myself. although I don't have any classes, I do have lots of work to do (basically catching up on my own research and the stuff I couldn't finish the last couple weeks). I also have an abstract due for a summer conference on thursday and if I'm town, I have a research meeting on friday. which, because I'm a nerd and I love my research, I actually want to go to.

in other news, they asked me this morning to go to another conference in april (all expenses paid, of course) in anaheim. woo hoo for that. should be good.

birthday pics

so I turned 25 last sunday (yeah, I am old now) and we had lots of fun to celebrate. saturday night a bunch of people accompanied me out to dinner at Gordon Biersch. we all had lots of good food and drinks. afterwards we went to the Cue Club on Mill, played a bit of pool and just hung out. then some of us went over to Brian's house for a small party (it was his birthday the weekend before). all in all, it was a great night. thanks everyone for showing up.
on my actual birthday, I slept in (hooray!) and then had a soccer game that evening. we totally kicked ass 6-0 to put ourselves solidly in first place. after the game, some of team went to Rula Bula for the chips and curry sauce (my favorite!). then, a few of my other friends persuaded me to go out to celebrate even though I was super tired. I had a pretty good time, but was glad to get some rest after that game.

here are some pictures from the Saturday night dinner. thanks again for everything, guys, it was awesome!








this was the biggest piece of chocolate cake I have ever seen...and it was yummy too.

this is winter?

so it's been like almost 80 degrees here. which is hilarious. but it's sooo nice. it almost makes me forget how awful it is during the summer. aw, well, what are you going to do?

so I have made an executive decision to write a masters thesis with the data I am collecting this semester and then to transfer over to the college of education to finish my PhD. it makes so much more sense than I can possibly say. and I feel really amazing about the decision, as if I'm suddenly free to do what I want (which I am). the more I think about not taking the comps again, the happier I am. :)

each week of this semester I am busier and busier. but it's much better than not having stuff to do. and I really like my classes and my research and the people I'm working with now and all that, so it doesn't seem to matter as much that I have like almost no free time anymore (that is, if I want to sleep).

in other news, I got a DVR for my tv. and contrary to popular opinion, I am watching less tv than before. and I'm watching the shows I actually want to see. and I don't have to wait up to watch Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, which is so nice. and I don't miss Grey's Anatomy when I play soccer anymore. and I can watch Project Runway anytime I want. life is good!

side note: I am addicted to NPR.

a new beginning

I meant to post sometime during last week and then after last weekend, but it just didn't happen. to bring everyone up to speed, let me sum up the last two weeks: the 11th and 13th I took the physics written comps again (which was not as painful as the time before, but I'm still not feeling really confident - which is fine), then I participated in a two-day soccer tournament with my Brilliant! team (lots of fun, but ended up really sore and with possible shin splints), then one day off to recooperate from all of that, followed by the first week of the new semester.

I am feeling really good about this new semester. I am taking three education-related classes and am super excited about two of them (the third should be alright, but won't be as interesting as the other two). I have a history/philosophy of science class, a philosophy of education class, and another one on how to "generate" and analyze qualitative data.
I have come through the break with a new apprecation for my research interests and have decided not to apologize for them anymore. regardless of the outcome of the comps, I am seriously considering switching over to the education department, even though that is something that I initially was very against (due to some discussions I have had in the past with other people in my field - this is not because I think any less of the education department but because it is widely acknowledged that it will be more difficult to do future work in physics departments with a degree in education instead of physics). but I am starting to come to terms with the fact that I may be better suited over there, since their department is populated with people who actually seem to care about me and about what I want to do. the physics department is a big mess right now, and on top of all of that, my advisor is leaving and I need to find another one (and there is only like one other person in the department that would be able to advise me and I just don't know if that would work out). lots of things would need to happen for me to stay. I might be able to find an adviser in the math department or something like that. we'll see what happens. but regardless, I have told myself that by the end of this semester I need to have it figured out. I need to have a new advisor who understand where I am coming from, what I want to do with my research, will be able to help me with my research, and I also need to form my committee and start thinking about dissertation topics. oh, and I need to edit my paper from last semester and try to get it published. on top of all of that, I also have about 200 pages of reading each week, not to mention all of my research for the project that is paying me and my personal research as well. it is going to be a really busy semester, but I work best when I am busy, so I am happy about that.

happy 2006

I am currently holed up in my apartment in phoenix trying to study and not procrastinate. but clearly, I must take breaks for my own sanity, so here are my thoughts on the new year.

after a fairly uneventful trip to LA to see the folks for christmas, I drove down to san diego for new years and stayed there about five days. I caught up with a lot of old friends and that made me really happy. I hope that we can all keep in touch throughout the year. I saw Cogan at Jeremy's house, saw Eric K for some greasy mexican food (yum!), had lunch with Mike and Jen on sunday (really good to see them!), Carolyn and I watched WHMS sunday evening, and I chomped on pizza and beer with Ficken on monday.

the new year's eve festivities were quite nice. a lot of people came over and we all imbibed champagne and other intoxicating drinks. luckily, Jared and I woke up super early that morning to go to IKEA to buy champagne flutes; they were only 10 cents each (just that day - hence why we woke up early). we were only supposed to buy 8 each, but we went back in the store again and picked up another 16.

the rest of the weekend was lots of fun. we went to PB one night and Hillcrest another (wine tasting) and the boys even convinced me to play counterstrike with them for an hour or so one day (it wasn't so bad, but not something I am going to want to do on a regular basis). it was really nice being in san diego, and of course I didn't want to leave to come back here. I mean, really, what I was thinking leaving that place originally?

I was going to resolve not to have resolutions, but that sounds kind of silly. so I made some up I might actually follow: I resolve to read more books and watch less TV (unless it's really good Tv - then it doesn't count). I resolve to cook good food more often and to not go to fast food places (except In-N-Out burger which is the best place ever). I resolve to take the stairs instead of the elevator (unless the elevator is broken or I'm really in a hurry or I'm with someone else who obviously doesn't want to take the stairs).

merry christmas, etc.

Christmas was really nice this year. I didn't get into any arguments with either of my parents, which in years past has been quite a damper on the occasion. but sunday went off without a hitch and I had lots of fun at my aunt and uncle's house with my mom's side of the family and also at home with my dad and brother (and the dog). the weather stayed nice and we had the stereotypical 80-something degree los angeles christmas.

monday I met up with an old friend from high school that I hadn't really talked to since graduation. it was so nice to catch up and see how she is doing. we gossiped a bit about some people from high school, who was getting married, who was pregnant, and so on. it was pretty interesting (and a bit scary). neither of us could imagine having kids right now. when I got back from seeing her, I broke open the yearbook and reminisced some more about the good old days of high school. things were so different back then, and a lot simpler in many ways. but I definitely wouldn't trade it for what I have now: independence and opportunity and choices to make. the other thing I looked up when I got back was myspace. this was how we were re-acquainted and I wanted to see who else I could find on there. well, what do you know but about 36 girls from my class are on there (it was an all-girls school) which makes up about one quarter of our whole class. the problem is that I'm getting sort of addicted to looking at everyone's profiles and seeing what they are up to. it has been quite interesting to say the least. the one I just saw (and hence promoted me to blog this right away) is that my ex-boyfriend is getting married to someone that was in my class! what?! all I can say is, wow, I hope he's no longer crazy (for her sake). I don't even think they knew each other in high school. that is sooo weird.

back in the valley again

after recovering from a version of the common cold over the weekend (when I also attended a fabulous holiday party at russ and amy's), I cleaned my apartment monday and prepared to leave for the holidays (yes, I am celebrating more than one thing during these two weeks, give me a break). yesterday I left sunny phoenix and drove the 400 miles to los angeles (which was actually sunnier and warmer - how did that happen?). I made the whole trip in about five and half hours (with a short stop to eat a sandwich) and on only one tank of gas. that's right folks, my car is awesome (I got about 38 miles/gallon). anyway, the trip wasn't as bad as I was expecting and it was sort of nice to be back home. the soundtrack of the trip: broken social scene (a new canadian band - very good; it was different and interesting), wilco - kicking television (a new 2-disc live cd of a concert they did in chicago a little while ago - very excellent, wilco is amazing as always), and white stripes - get behind me satan (which I've had for a while but hadn't listened to in a couple months - helped with the traffic situation when I got into LA). no sooner had I gotten home, though, and my step-dad and I got into a "discussion" about the whole intelligent design thing. he has this thing where he doesn't listen to other people, so it's kind of hard to talk to him about anything, but this was totally ridiculous. anyway, luckily my brother showed up and interrupted us before it got really ugly.

today my mom and I had our first shopping day. we actually got a lot accomplished and didn't get into any fights or disagreements (normally shopping isn't such a good mother-daughter activity for us). so that was good. I only have a few things left to buy before christmas. then I drove down to LA to have dinner with marla. it should've only taken about half an hour, but of course, the traffic was completely ridiculous and it took almost an hour and a half. such is life (in LA, at least). the 405 was like a parking lot from the getty all the way to my exit at wilshire. that is basically four miles and it took me half an hour. but, when I got to marla's apartment, none of that mattered. it was really good to see her again and we had a really nice dinner and visit. her apartment is super cute and so close to so many things. she is really lucky to have found it. we caught up on all the happenings of our friends and what is going on in our lives. her experiences with teach for america are really interesting to me and the things I'm doing at school. she was definitely interested in hearing about how education researchers think about the program and I was interested in hearing her take on the same issues. it all makes a lot of sense now and it's really good to hear about it from all the sides. anyway, after that, I hung out with my brother and we watched 'crash' which is a really excellent movie. you should all go see that right now (it's on dvd).

end of the semester

so I survived another semester of graduate school. phew. this one wasn't nearly as bad as the first two, even though I was probably busier this time. the classes I took were actually interesting to me and will be helpful when I start to write my dissertation (whenever that may be). also, I was working on a big research project which was interesting to say the least.
there has been lots of drama in my office in the last few weeks and I'm still not entirely sure what is going on. basically, what it comes down to, is that I'm going to need to find a new advisor sometime next semester. she will probably be leaving here, and furthermore, I don't think she would be able to help me do the kind of research I want to do. so that will be another change to deal with next semester, along with a new job on the project that's funding me and three classes to top it off.

my plans for winter break: I am staying here in phoenix a couple more days. on monday or tuesday I will be driving to see my parents in los angeles. sometime after christmas, probably around the 29th or 30th, I am driving down to san diego to hang with some friends and spend new years down there. then I will be back here on the 2nd. so if you are going to be in any of these places when I will, make sure to give me a call so we can hang out. :)

an update on my dad: he is home from the hospital and doing fine. they found a couple things wrong, but they are both treatable with antibiotics and he should be back to normal soon. so that's a big relief. thank you all for your support last week.

I am a master at the art of time suckage

[quoting Reality Bites, quite an excellent post-college movie]

so, I've decided maybe the only thing that I am really truly good at is procrastination. I mean, really, I had two final papers due yesterday. and did I work on them over the weekend? not really. I thought about them a little bit, but didn't do any real work (i.e. typing up stuff) on them. what an idiot. so I worked on them on monday and tuesday, finishing the last paper a half hour before it was due (and believe me, that was not as close as I have been on other assignments). the thing is, maybe they're not great papers, but I think they were alright, and I got everything in there that I needed to. so, even though I procrastinate, I always finish things. and see, that is the key to good procrastination. if you don't actually finish it, then really you are a slacker and not a procrastinator. that's my story and I'm sticking to it. I am an excellent procrastinator and have honed my skills over my years in college and now in grad school. I feel that I could teach a whole class on how to effectively procrastinate. but perhaps it is not a skill that everyone can master. maybe it is some innate talent that I was born with. hmm. something to think about.

the other thing that was stressing me out yesterday was that my brother called me around lunch time and told me that my dad was in the hospital. he had been not feeling well lately, had some stomach pains, and on monday night, it got worse and he passed out a few times and was puking up blood. very bad. so, he took him to the emergency room and the doctors are looking into it. as of right now, they have determined that he has an ulcer, but they're still not sure why he was passing out so they're keeping him in the hospital for another day or two I guess. I really hope everything will turn out fine. it's just hard being so far away. I can't just go see him in the hospital like my brother can. but at least anthony (my brother) is calling me a lot and letting me know what is going on. that helps a bit. so, please pray for my dad and keep him in your thoughts.

happy turkey weekend

so I survived the long weekend at home. it all started off with a bad omen Wednesday morning when they forgot to put my checked luggage on the plane and I had to wait an extra two hours for it to come on the next flight (luckily I got a $50 voucher out of the ordeal). hopefully that's the last time that happens. the good news was that I got to hang out with my brother a bit longer and that was nice. later in the afternoon, we went to see the new movie version of RENT. I was very happy with how it turned out (see previous post), so that was a relief. I'm going to see it again this week. yay!
Thursday (turkey day) went off without a hitch. we all went over to one of my uncle and aunt's houses in Thousand Oaks and had lots of good food. it was the first time everyone on my mom's side of the family was all in one place in a really long time. it was really nice to see everyone and play with my little cousins (two of them just started playing soccer, so that was fun).
friday, I stayed as far away from the malls as possible, and saw a couple of friends. I had lunch with Laura and then some coffee with Carolyn later in the afternoon. it was so great to see both of them! :)
saturday, my mom and step-dad took me to lunch in Venice Beach and then to the Getty Museum. if it hadn't been such a blustery day, it would have been slightly better, but it was actually pretty nice. sunday, my littlest cousin was getting baptized, so I saw most of the family again for that.
all in all, it was a pretty good time at home. I got some work done, which is good, and saw some people I hadn't seen in a while, which was great.
now, back to the grindstone for a few weeks and then super-study-time through winter break. ugh.

confessions of a renthead

in the fall of 1997, when I was a junior in high school, a friend of mine introduced me to the musical RENT. I remember the first song of it that I heard and I remember exactly where I was: on a school field trip, on the bus, listening to "one song glory". the rest is history. I quickly became obsessed with jonathan larson's amazing rock opera. for the first few months, I listened to the entire show every single day before I went to sleep. I basically fell in love with it. it was so optimistic, so idealistic, so full of life and love, of strength and family & friends overcoming tragedy and loss. it gave me a new philosophy on life; a new way of looking at people and the world and myself. and it has changed me forever. I don't think that any other thing has affected my life in such a deep and meaningful way as RENT did and does. I saw the stage production three times, in los angeles and in san diego and even saw the original mimi in one of the casts. each time I saw it, it reaffirmed my beliefs that love and hope can overcome anything.

so you can imagine my feelings of both apprehension and excitement when I heard that they were finally making it into a movie. on one hand, I couldn't wait to see it on the big screen and to see six of the eight original cast members that I had fallen in love with. on the other hand, I had such high expectations and ideas about what it should be. however, I had faith that they would not let the movie lose what makes the show so special.

so, I saw the movie this morning, and I must say that I am really impressed and amazed at what they did. somehow they were able to translate from the stage to the screen without losing too much of the power and presence that the stage affords the musical. each medium is different and it is interesting to see how things have to be altered and how certain things work better in one or the other. there were minor changes, and they added some extra stuff in to fill in some of the gaps, and I can honestly say that I loved it. they definitely did the best that they could and I can't ask for more than that. (and I definitely can't wait for the dvd to see the few scenes that they deleted.)

so, in conclusion, I am still a proud renthead, and can't wait to see the movie again later this week.

no day but today!

aargghh!!

what is wrong with these people?
http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/11/08/evolution.debate.ap/index.html

how appropriate that today was the day I gave a presentation in my science ed class about the philosophy and nature of science. argh. makes me so upset. and motivated. I guess I won't be out of a job for a while. *sigh*

my solution: I'm joining a new church so I don't have to think about this any more.

more pirates!

new travelogue

so, basically, geocities sucks. there is a rate limit on how many people can look at my webpages and there is that dumb ad on the right side that is super annoying. so, for the past few months I've been trying to figure out some other option for hosting my travelogue (for free, since I am a poor grad student). I love blogger, and did eventually figure out a way to get it to work the way I wanted it to. the benefits of the new site are that I can put up as many photos as I want (and if you click on them, they are bigger than they were before) and it's totally easier to use. right now, I have up the same content that was on the other site (basically, days one through twelve). I am now going to start on finishing up the rest of the trip and will let you all know when that is finished. let me know what you think (and yes, I already know that the dates are wrong. I am going to fix that last, along with adding links at the bottom of each day to the next day).
the new travelogue: http://cynthiaeurotrip.blogspot.com/

teaching an old dog new tricks

so, as I'm sure I've mentioned previously, the movie version of RENT is coming out in november. and while the trailers look amazing and I keep hearing from the cast and directors that it is going to be great and very true to the original musical, I am still hesitant and am anxiously and apprehensively waiting for the day before thanksgiving. the first step towards this process of accepting the new came yesterday. the movie soundtrack was released two weeks ago, but I was broke (well, I still sort of am) and I was busy, so I didn't pick it up until yesterday. I was having a pretty shitty day and I hoped that listening to the soundtrack would make things better. and of course, RENT always pulls through.

it was really such a strange thing listening to it. imagine listening to something that you have had literally memorized (down to each instrument and vocal aside) for the past eight years, yet it sounds totally different. I knew all of the words but it was new. it was kind of trippy. but interesting. all of the songs are different in some way, some much more obvious than others. there is a heavier, more rock sound to most of them. there are also two new voices out of the eight original actors and that is definitely taking some getting used to, especially Mimi. I'm still not sure yet about Rosario Dawson playing her. I'm really going to have to wait until the movie to see if she can pull it off. the new Joanne (Tracie Thoms) is really great, so I'm excited about that. all of the returning people are great as well. Adam Pascal (Roger)'s voice has changed a bit in the last nine years, so that is interesting (but he is even hotter than before, so that's really good. hehe). and Anthony Rapp (Mark) is still amazing. there are a couple lyric changes, but even those are very very small (for instance changing 'christmas eve' to 'christmas day' in one case which I'm sure has to do with some change in the timeline of events). Besides all that, though, I am enjoying the cd and as part of my get-used-to-the-changes plan, I am not going to listen to the original broadway cast recording until sometime after I see the movie.


in other news, school is still humming along. I'm busy as usual. friday night, a bunch of us went out to get cuban food and then went to a couple of art shows in downtown Phoenix. that was pretty cool. the ASU football game was really fun on saturday. me, Brian, Steve, and Keely got drunk beforehand and made a big racket. one of the highlights was when Steve fell like three rows forward and landed on some girl (not really like on top of her, but just sort of into her). she was sooo mad. it was hilarious. all in all, it was great fun. too bad we lost. that sucked. sunday my grandparents were in town visiting, so I went to my aunt and uncle's house (they live about 40 minutes away on the other side of Phoenix) to have dinner with them. it was really nice and a good way to end the weekend.

catching up

I've been a bad blogger. I'm sorry. it's been way too long since I've last posted. I've meant to be better. I apologize.

the last few weeks have been a bit crazy. or at least it seems that way. school has started to consume my life once again, but at least this year, I think it is mostly by choice and not because it is being forced on me. I am starting to seriously think about what sort of research I want to do for my dissertation (even though I don't really need to start working on it yet) and how that is affecting my current research. I feel very overwhelmed because I have a general idea of the direction I want to go in, but no clear focus or way of getting there yet. but I suppose it's good that I have a direction. that seems like an important first step. I had a meeting with my advisor last thursday to talk about this sort of thing and I began to talk about the direction I was thinking about in vague terms because I'm not sure she was expecting it or will be willing to accept it down the road. we'll see what happens. she has some ideas in her head about what she wants me to do, but I don't really think that's exactly where I want to go, so hopefully we'll be able to find some middle ground that will work out. one interesting thing that came up in the conversation is that I might have the chance to go to south africa for a few weeks next summer to work on a research project. that would be super exciting and I hope it all works out. they would pay for everything except a few things like my visa and vaccinations. so that would be even better. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

along with all the school stuff, I'm having fun too. I bought a student season ticket for ASU football (and basketball too, but that hasn't started yet). I was at the LSU game and the Northwestern game (which we were able to sneak jpg into when he came to visit) which were both fun. but last weekend, the USC topped them all. it wasn't all that comfortable because it was a 12:30 game, so it was ridiculous hot out. plus, all the drunk frat boys around us were sweating alcohol so it smelled totally gross. the first half of the game was really exciting; we were winning 21-3 at half time and we all really thought that we might be able to win it. but then the second half something happened and we just went downhill. our quarterback, keller, threw a bunch of interceptions and then our defense got really tired because they had been on the field too long and we just couldn't hold them any more. with about 5 minutes left, usc finally pulled ahead and ended up winning. oh well. at least it wasn't as bad as last year's lost.

friday was the one-year anniversary of scruin day and the little grape's birthday, so we celebrated with a small party at my apartment. katie, angel, hwi and I made shirts for the occasion which were pretty hilarious. some other people came over and we ate grapes, drank wine, and watched monty python and the holy grail (because it's funny, not because it had anything to do with grapes). and a good time was had by all.

in other news: my soccer team, brilliant!, has won our last two games 11-0 (same score both times, isn't that weird?). our team rocks. also, a new in-n-out opened like a mile from campus so that is super exciting. I don't have to drive 20 minutes to get my burger fix anymore (although I still have to drive that long to get my chipotle fix. hopefully that will be remedied soon).