Photo Excursion

first of all, i got my midterm back. and i beat the average by 3 points. woo hoo!! which means that i'm officially "good enough" this quarter. which means i'm on track to being done with classes. just have to make it through the next four weeks, and then one more quarter. and then perhaps i will be done with classes forever.......okay, so i know that's not true at all. at least, i hope not. but it would be nice to be done with chemistry classes......





jeff and i spent the weekend up in santa barbara, and we thought it was funny that we were both sporting such provocative shirts. so, naturally, we had to take a picture. unfortunately, it was raining off and on, so we had to cover up our greatness while we were out and about downtown SB. (and if you don't understand the humor in his shirt, and you were alive in the 80's, then you should either put yourself on time out, or take yourself out back and kick your own ass) we had a good time relaxing and sleeping in, which is something that neither of us got to do last week because we were both working too damn hard. and we celebrated a belated valentine's day, complete with a candle lit meal and some central coast wine. oh, and he got me some really nice perfume from nordstrom's. so i can be a real girl. or, at least smell like one. now i just gotta find a reason to smell pretty. (somehow, it seems kinda pointless to smell pretty when i spend all day in a room full of smelly chemicals) but watch out! i may just turn into a real girl after all.......oh, and there was a fairly impressive thunder/hail storm this weekend. that was fun. especially since it started after i was asleep, so i kept waking up to different weather and had some really disjointed dreams.




and best part of today was that i got to see august!!! he's visiting from france, and was nice enough to stop in LA to spend some time with me. august was one of the first people i truly connected with in san luis obispo. he's also one of a handful of people that i could say that without him i probably wouldn't be here. and even though he lives on another continent, in another time zone, and we don't get to talk all that frequently, i know that we'll always be very close friends. he even said that he would dress up in the musty the mustang costume (with a dress) and be my maid of honor at my wedding. if that isn't true friendship, then i don't know what is. = )

i remember years ago, back when i was a freshman in the dorms, augie and i decided that we'd be friends for life. and besides being at each other's weddings and being honorary aunt/uncle of each other's kids, that we would some day be 80 years old, sitting in rocking chairs on a porch somewhere, still harassing the hell out of each other. and i have no doubt in my mind that that will happen one day.






since i'm on a photo sharing kick.....he's a picture of this really creepy stained glass goblin-looking thing. there's a bunch of them on the side of the building we like to call "kick-er-off". and we're not sure what the hell they mean, or how anyone ever thought that they were a good idea. this one kind of looks like a gremlin humping a crab. now, there may be some deep symbolism there that i'm missing, but i'm afraid if i think about it too long i'll have nightmares for weeks.




in case you didn't believe it, (which is okay, cause sometimes i don't) here's a picture of me actually doing something in lab. granted, it has nothing to do with actual research, but it was still a good learning experience. one of our vacuum pumps has been leaking, and the guy who is supposed to fix that kind of thing (jailhouse joe) hasn't been able to. so our last option was to take it apart and see if we could figure out the problem. it was a fun process, as four chemists sit around and try to open up a virtual puzzle box. plus trying to keep track of which bolts went where and how each part connected, all the while covered in hot oil. yeah, it was an adventure. the good news is, that we got it put back together, and the thing actually turned on. whew. now we'll just have to see if we managed to fix the leak.


oh, and i wanted to recommend a website to you all:

Post Secret

it's a site where people send in secrets written on postcards. it's very very interesting, and also quite addictive. and they just put out a book, so if you like what you see then you should check that out. and the website is updated every sunday. sometime sad, sometimes funny, but most of them time they manage to make you feel some kind of an emotion. which is pretty cool for a piece of paper with some writing on it.

that's it for now. maybe some more photos soon....but don't hold your breath. chemistry may be taking over my life for a little while...

Posted by *erin* | 9:29 PM