Happy Winter Holiday of Your Choice!

In a very festive blogpost, here's some Christmas topics for you. Also, I just realized blogpost is an anagram of blogspot... interesting.

A couple of weeks ago we had a Christmas Friday Dinner, complete with Ugly Sweaters (although not many partook, and Alec came in a suit just to be the best-dressed...) And we had a champagne tower that (sort of) successfully worked. Yes, we're that good.

From top, L to R: Steven, Elaine looking classy, Jenny, Eric's caramel onion, Chris with a very unhappy Nyx, and my dazzling smile.

Maybe you're wondering what that caramel-covered onion is all about? Well, you should be. A while ago, Jenny suggested we make caramel apples, but make one a caramel onion and give it to Eric. The idea was of course very well received. After putting it off until well after proper caramel apple eating season, she did the deed. To ensure that Eric took a whopping bite out of the onion, we made it a caramel apple eating contest (we affectionately, and jokingly, call Eric 'Fat Eric' even though he is very much not fat... he just eats an ungodly amount of food). As we started the contest and everyone took bites of their respective apples and onion, we realized the caramel had not quite cooked correctly and was incredibly brittle. Instead of getting the hoped for large first bite, Eric got a few very disgusting small bites. At which point expletives left his mouth and the rest of us erupted into laughter.

We are such good friends :)

I'll leave you with a photo of my once-beautiful tree that was massacred by my cat. Notice that there are NO more ornaments on it...

Some Christmas cards I hastily made, but they still turned out okay.

 HAPPY CHRISTMAS! :)

Ubughuuu Blargehnguhhh

3 hours of sleep in preparation for my 10:15 final... I'll let you know how it goes (at least the reason I was up late was studying for said final).

Can you OD on coffee?

I Need A Caffeine IV

My apartment is a war zone littered with the remnants of my Christmas tree, brutally slaughtered by the vicious mercenary Moka.

On an unrelated note, I will be happy when finals week is finally over. Sleep- what is this you speak of? I have a potentially brutal final in less than 8 hours. Sometime between studying and waking up I hope I sleep. Did that make sense?

Late Thanks Giving

Friday was our Christmas Friday Dinner (more on that later). During dinner we all said what we are thankful for, since we really never had a Thanksgiving celebration (unless you count Canadian T-giving...)

As this year comes to a close, I can name many things I am thankful for. All I could come up with on Friday was snow and kitties... I am thankful for:

Friends! For new-found friends, for old friends, for renewed friendships.

My BFF Naomi and her goofy dad :)

Physics Club end of the year dinner at Yogi's

Elaine and I starring in a Christmas Slaughter

Rollercoaster shenanigans

My REU 'family' for the summer :)

Family- especially ridiculously adorable babies!

Couldn't find any good photos...

Kitties! Especially that one!

Moka is fascinated by the snow!

Snow! Who knew crystallized water could be so beautiful? (Notice kitties and snow are still on the list...)

B-Line trail this morning

Amongst many other things, but I won't get too sentimental just yet. :)

Spherical Cows

The best preface to a physics problem ever (that I've seen yet):

"An extremely limber rope of uniform mass density..."

Oh Physics, thou art such a fun subject!

My Cat Is Cuter Than Yours

I'd rather sit here and listen to Christmas music and hold my warm kitty than study for exams any day.
Moka is such a procrastination enabler.

Supposed Fail = Epic Win

Sometimes things that happen in movies do work in real life.

!

I feel a big fail comin' on...

Updates later on The Murder Mystery Dinner!

Jack Johnson & Physics

I am sitting listening to Jack Johnson and reading my book 'The Flying Circus of Physics'. It's a really interesting little book about the physics behind day-to-day phenomenon (such as mirages, tides, and why wintergreen lifesavers spark when bitten). I had a long and very stimulating conversation tonight with a good friend about physics, astronomy, the point behind both, why astronomy is a worthwhile science, life in general and green flashes, amongst other (non)related things. Astronomy is an endlessly fascinating subject (to me, of course).

Last weekend I took a practice physics GRE, which is a notoriously challenging and frustrating exam. I scored absolutely dreadfully, but to be honest, I'm not that upset. I had never seen quite a lot of the material, simply because I haven't taken the classes yet, or reached the material in current classes. And the majority of the material was based on previous classes I haven't thought about in... well, too long I guess. All in all, I'm not happy with my score, but I'm not unhappy either. Also, it was just a practice exam! The physics GRE is unlike any other exam a physics student has ever taken or will ever take again. This seems Just Plain Dumb to me, but just yesterday one of the astro profs explained her reasoning why the GRE is actually indicative of grad student success. It made a lot of sense at the time, especially for physics grad studnets, but much less for astronomy, and unfortunately there is no astronomy GRE... But yes, I scored pretty low- a 500 out of 999, which isn't toooo bad for this test, but the GRE is very odd in the sense that it is (essentially) scored on a comparison scale of how others did on that particular exam. On this certain one I took (from '91...), others scored fairly high, so I was only in the 13th percentile, which means I scored higher than only 13% of the test-takers for this particular test... Yeahhhhh. Not the best %, but my raw score wasn't horrendous. I've had to have this process of scoring explained to me a few times before I fully grasped it, so don't really worry about the details... Long story short- the physics GRE sucks.

This weekend is going to be crazy, but I will have a lot to say at the end. Until then, enjoy some photos from my recent(ish) life. 

Jenny and I at the Rent show!

Moka bein' cute

One of the most legit meals I've ever made: Pan-fried tofu and veggies with thai noodles (after I ate some of it...)

Some Things

My beautiful Autumn decorations, skillfully cut and wound by Jenny and Lauren

Last Friday Dinner was in the spirit of Autumn and Fall-themed. As a double-header, we also celebrated Halloween by wearing costumes (those of us that were cool enough to dress up). On the Autumn Menu:

-Barley with peppers from Steven's garden
-Homemade bread
-Green beans
-Sweet potato
-Soup
-Pumpkin bread
-Pumpkin pie
-Steven's homemade rhubarb sorbet
-A nice white wine
-Hot cider to top it all off

Such a happy family we make! From left: me, Alec, Jenny, (Steven taking picture), and Lauren. Eric, as always, is late.

 Let the apple bobbing begin! I can remember bobbing for apples once ever in my life and it was very long ago. I went into it thinking it would be a piece of cake. YEAH RIGHT.

Superman's first attempt. Not as easy as it looks.

Eric and I try to tag-team it by using teamwork. Another fail.

 After much eating and talking, we played piano and sang a myriad of songs late into the night. Inevitably things ended with Steven and I going through the score of Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. All in all, a great night.

Oh, I suppose that I forgot to mention who came in costume. Jenny was Superman, Alec a cowboy, Eric dressed as Con, a professor in the astro department.
I of course portrayed Gravity, dressing up as a tree. When people asked what I was, I would drop an apple (that I carried with me all day, waiting with palpable excitement for someone to ask what I supposed to be) and say '9.8 m/s/s'.
All in a day's work for this uber-nerd.

Finally I just cheat and push the apple to the bottom, sinking my whole face in. BUT I GOT THAT APPLE. (Look at that guilty face...)

10/10

About this time last year I wrote something about all of the things I did in October. This year's edition:

-Got my first tattoo, Elaine pierced her ears and I cut her hair AND Jenny dyed her hair... all in one night.
-Went home and visited Riley Fest with family and best friend.
-Got a cat! And she is cute!! >^.^<
-Flag football with the astronomy club team 'Galactic Cannibals'... we lost all 3 games but I had so much fun! Manged to depants 2+ QB's and hit another one in the crotch.
-Brought a big cardboard box and traffic cone into the AURA.
-Canadian Thanksgiving at Jenny's house in the middle of the woods.
-Saw Rent with Eric and Jenny.
-Eric being in a 'stripper-cake' for Teresa's 21st birthday party. Don't ask.
-At least 2 happy-hour Steak 'n Shake visits.
-Studying Quantum Physics at Lake Monroe.
-One-year anniversary of the first Friday Dinner.
-Physics & Astronomy Open House, where IU physics club performed a truly astounding demo show 'Captain Planet and the Physiteers'... lighting my hands on fire and electromagnetized hair.
-Dennis James playing the organ to the silent film The Bat.
-Halloween Bowling and dressing as a hippie.
-Fall Friday Dinner dressed as 'gravity'. Good food, friends, and music.
-Took part in a haunted house. I got to scare the pants off people for 7 straight hours... pretty tiring but lots of fun!

College is great. :]

"I Smoke Myself to Sleep...

And blame post-modern things I can't relate... like alcohol and coffee beans."

I've been listening a lot to the album Dog Problems by The Format lately. It seems fitting.

E&M exam in 10 hours- goodnight.

"I've reached the point where all I want
Is to sleep around in hopes that I will catch back up
We are parallel lines
We’re running in circles
We're never meant to cross"

Appeal THIS Citation

Well, today I received my first ever parking ticket. I heard that IU built a whole parking garage off of parking fines. A little ironic, really. If I had left twenty minutes earlier I wouldn't have gotten the ticket... grumble grumble

The Week of Nightmarish Busy-ness is almost over. 2 homework assignments, 2 exams, a paper (in Italian...), physics/ astronomy open house and an undetermined volume of coffee later, I'm about to cross the finish line after one last exam tomorrow. That is, until the multitude of other things spring up like they somehow do.

I think I've finally understood why my life is so crazy busy. Well, I can tell you the obvious answer (or trivial solution, as we call it in linear algebra... Ha! Get it?! No?...) to that, which is just that I do too damn much. But, the underlying reason is that I simply cannot say no. I should have paid more attention in elementary and middle school when they taught how to say no to drugs... When people ask me to do things for them, or if I want to be involved in such and such, or go to dinner, or be in a haunted house, etc. etc... I can't say no! Mostly because those things are fun and exciting! And, let's be honest, you're only young once and college is the time of life when you will have opportunities to do some amazing and unique things that you probably won't be able to any other point. There is so much cool stuff going on all the time! How can you say no to playing flag football, or going sailing on a clear autumn day, or going to a concert on a wednesday night before an exam?

Eh, in 10 years I'll be able to look back and 'appreciate' my lifestyle. Ok, let's be honest- I'll be more insane by then. Unlike a wine, I do not mature with time. Luckily I get sweeter! And my humor gets drier! Haha! Am I not so witty?!

A Word From The Not-So-Wise

Things that work in movies rarely, if ever, work in real life. Just so you know.

But I'm a big fan of the 'try everything once to figure out if it works' method. Which often backfires.

People...

They be makin' me mad.

Big News

I got a cat!

I got a tattoo!

Jo

GAH. GAHHH. GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.




This is how I feel right now.

To All You Rude Starers Out There,

QUIT YOUR RUDE STARING. Didn't your mother ever teach you to not stare at people? IT'S RUDE.

Maybe I shouldn't get so irritated when somebody makes eye contact with me for more than 2 seconds, but seriously, can I help you with something?

Fitter Happier

As you've probably already noticed, I changed the layout of my blog! Or maybe you haven't noticed... All the blogs that I read I get updates from through google reader and rarely even visit the actual website. Technology these days...

I'm drinking some chai tea that I purchased in Flagstaff this summer. Cue the bittersweet nostalgia.

I can honestly say that this summer was by far the most exciting, memorable, and fun time of my life. I met numerous very cool people, saw nature at its most intense and awe-inspiring moments, got caught in a wildfire, did some amazing hiking/camping, did some really cool research, learned more dance, and made some amazing and truly fantastic friends. This summer will forever live in infamy, in the top echelon, a sort of dreamy and unreal time of my life when everything was perfect. When I drink this tea, it's like I'm transported back to Arizona: I'm sitting in the parking lot at McKay, my apartment building, talking on the phone, watching the clouds roll in over the San Fran peaks. A pristine day in Flagstaff. I'm happy in that carefree way where it seems that everything in your life is just going so perfectly. Work is satisfying (well, mostly), there are no obligations once I return home and am free to contentedly hang out with my friends all night, I'm physically active, there are mountains in my backyard, I write super cool fortran programs and plot fun things in SM, and I'm happily involved with the man that it seems I've been waiting my whole life for.

Isn't it strange how the most innocent and subtle of senses can trigger such an intense deja vu or memory of a specific time or point in your life? It always surprises me that such simple things such as a song or a smell or even a type of weather condition can take you back in time. Yeah. The weather.

Now fast-forward 2 months from that unrealistically perfect Flagstaff day.

Me? Bitter? Never.

At least a cat always loves me unconditionally.

Regret

That Chipotle burrito I ate yesterday is officially out for revenge.

A more substantial post later, I hope.

One O' Clock Jump

Look at me, Miss Susie Homemaker at 11:30pm.

Time Stand Still

3 exams down, 1 to go! I studied my butt off this weekend and did awesome on 2 of the exams, and just okay on the third one, but I expected as much given it's a 400 physics course. It's hard to understand physics exams if you've never taken one, but getting a 50% is considered a great score in more cases than I'd prefer... I'll never understand their grading system. Moral of the story: I'm satisfied with The Mother of Exam Days.

Tomorrow's should be easy in a sense- simple memorization. Now all I have to do is memorize a lot of things... 1:15 am and here I go!

Homogeneity

I have 3 exams tomorrow and 1 Tuesday, but yet here I sit in the AURA (Astronomy Undergrad Research Area), aka, The Lab, updating my blog.

My life has been OH SO busy recently. I have only myself to blame, to be honest. Turns out trying to be VP of physics club, be in astro club, do intramural flag football, have a job, be on a newsletter committee, and take upper-level physics classes isn't as easy as it sounds. Sheesh. If I just sit around and chug out problem sets and study physics and math, though, I go a little crazy. Speaking of all these things, I have a lot of things I'd love to say, but it would be the longest post in history. So, a brief recounting of my life recently:

A couple weeks ago I went and saw California Guitar Trio at the Bishop, a bar/music place. I'd never heard of this band, but had been told they were really great. I went with two friends and it turned out to be REALLY great. It was 3 guys playing guitar (as you could have guessed, although none of them are from CA...). They were really talented, and it was a great show. Somehow after the show, myself and the 2 others ended up talking with the band for a while, helped them take the guitars/equipment to their cars, and then took them out for drinks and dinner (don't worry Mom, I didn't didn't partake in the drinks part). I have NO idea how it happened, but somehow I became a roadie for an awesome band I hadn't heard of until a few hours just before. It was really great, and the guys in the band were really cool.

Even further back than this, though, I hosted the first Friday Dinner at my apartment! The theme was based off the rainbow, and everyone brought food of a different color of the rainbow. It was pretty spectacular, and unfortunately I didn't take any photos... sorry. If I remember correctly, the foods were:

Red- red wine & red jello...

Orange- butternut squash

Yellow- lemon and chicken pasta

Green- amazing salad

Blue- blueberry muffins

Violet- eggplant and blackberry cobbler

Brown- chocolate cake

White- rice

Jumping forward in time, my first official task as physics club VP was to make liquid nitrogen ice cream for the callout meeting. I had never actually made it myself, but it was a ton of fun. Plus it was really dramatic. And delicious. My next task as VP was to organize a group to build a boat for IU's annual Cardboard Boat Regatta. The physics club has repeatedly gotten owned at this event, so this year was the time to get first place. After 'borrowing' a lot of cardboard from a recycling dumpster (hey, I'm recycling it in a way) and buying a lot of duct tape, myself and a small group of wannabe engineers put together Schroedinger's Boat, a masterful design in buoyancy. This past Friday was the day of the big race, and with our Physicists at C, we set sail against other student organizations, my coworkers, and even my bosses. Our boat performed admirably, floating much better than everyone else's (if I do say so myself), but unfortunately, physicists are not experienced rowers... After failing to row together and straight we made it across the pool far behind... Oh well! It was fun anyway! NEXT YEAR!

The day before the regatta was the astro club's first flag football game, against Chemology. Our team, the Galactic Cannibals, lost, but it was still a ton of fun. I now have war wounds from a so-called NON-contact sport... Psh, yeah, non-contact...

Oh! Last thing- after the regatta, I went to dinner with some friends, then we went to the opera to see Il Barbiere di Siviglia. I'd never seen this opera, but it was funny and entertaining. I really enjoyed it, and it actually ended happily! I generally leave operas depressed, but for once nobody committed suicide or lost their true love.

Woo. I like that all these things are out of order. Lots of things. And homework. Lather, rinse, repeat. I like to be busy, though.
And when your life is filled with stupid boys, or rather, one really stupid boy, busy-ness is nice.

Subject Not Specified...

My wishlist for life at the moment:

-GET MY HOMEWORK DONE. Going to concerts and hanging out with friends is fun, but it makes for some rough long nights... You're only young once I suppose!
-Napoleon Dynamite soundtrack
-DT cover of Pink Floyd (don't even worry about this one)
-Blender
-A cat
-World peace
-8 hours of sleep... ha! This is college, after all.
-My two front teeth
-A hovercraft

Okay, I'm going to bed. I'll have to update sometime with a real post that involves a colorful dinner, the nation's longest covered bridge, inadvertently becoming a band groupie, and sidewalk astronomy (these did not occur at the same time).

It has been a looooong day, and I am just now sitting down and taking a break after running around campus all day. Woo. Goodnight!

Things

I am officially back in Bloomington!

The most exciting news in my life recently has been the fact that this year I am the proud tenant of my first apartment. I began the move two weeks ago but finished last week and then spent some time getting everything unpacked and set up. The (preliminary) finished product:

My bedroom!

'Hallway' view from the living room.

Bathroom (obviously)

Kitchen

Living room

I really like the new place. The landlords are really nice and helpful. I've only met a few of the other tenants but they are friendly and nice. It's a pretty good location, and is even next to an adult bookstore (which I visited the other day with some friends... a very interesting place). It was recently renovated so has new carpet, drywall, etc... It's really exciting to finally have a place of my own!

This week started classes. It was sort of weird for school to be back in session, but things are going well. My classes this semester are:
-Electricity & Magnetism 1 (yuck)
-Analytical Mechanics
-Linear Algebra
-Italian 3
-Intro to Buddhism (fulfills TWO of my general requirements... score!)

My classes all seem pretty good so far, but I have a feeling E&M and Mechanics are gonna be tough. Fortunately I know a lot of people in both classes so have some study buddies. I still have my job as a FASE mentor, and am also doing research with an astro prof. Never a dull moment. Some of the more exciting aspects of the past week have been:
-Went sailing with my friend Steven, for which we had perfect weather and wind
-Had the first Friday Dinner then watched Sabrina at Bryan Park
-Had friends over for a housewarming party
-Bike broke and I had to carry it for .5 mile... Managed to mostly fix it though
-Bathtub drain broke but my nice neighbor helped me fix it
-I'm really diggin' bullet points today it seems

I already have a ton of homework, which makes me sad, but such is life. I'm glad to see all my friends again, and hopefully this year will prove to be just as fun and exciting as the previous ones.

Living in the Limelight

My sister had a baby on the 22nd! :) She had a home birth to a healthy little boy. He's such a cutie too! Hearing her talk about the experience of childbirth pretty much cements my suspicions that it may be one of the most intense experiences in life (and isn't for me).

Last weekend myself and some friends attended what will forever be one of the most epic concerts (so far). I fear this post will be similar to the Dream Theater/Iron Maiden one, so if you don't want to hear about Rush, read no further.

Sunday I went with 4 other friends to St. Louis to see Rush. Since all of us were coming from different parts of the state, we all met near the airport, and from there carpooled to St. Louis. We ended up leaving ~3 which was right on time. Since there's a time change to Missouri, we ended up getting to St. Louis pretty early, which gave us time to eat dinner and then head over to the venue.

We had pretty crappy seats, but that was because all 5 of us bought tickets together. We were in the last row of the pavilion, but it was still rockin'. They played an awesome set, including... ALL of Moving Pictures!!! That was incredibly cool. What songs I can remember (probably not in order):

-Spirit of Radio
-Some song off of Presto (which I don't own)
-Time Stand Still
-Leave That Thing Alone
-Workin Them Angels
-BU2B (off their upcoming album Clockwork Angels)
-Freewill
-Marathon
-Subdivisions

Intermission

MOVING PICTURES! Which includes:
-Tom Sawyer
-Red Barchetta
-YYZ
-Limelight
-The Camera Eye
-Witch Hunt
-Vital Signs
-Neil Peart DRUM SOLO!!!!
-Caravan (Clockwork Angels)
-2112 (Overture & Temples of Syrinx)
-Closer To The Heart
-Far Cry

Encore:
-Villa Strangiato (WOOHOO!)
-Working Man (Reggae intro...!)

They played phenomenally. I can't believe these guys have been making music since the early 70's. Who knew 3 Canadian dudes could be so cool? It's amazing how much great music only 3 people can make. I was superbly impressed with all the pieces they played. Everything sounded great and Geddy Lee actually got all the high notes. I'd never seen Rush live so was unprepared for the raw power of the combined forces of Geddy, Neil, and Alex (yeah, we're on a first-name basis). Neil played a crazy drum solo, which as far as I know, is staple to Rush's concerts. Alex Lifeson busted out some rockin' guitar skills, and Geddy was all over that bass guitar. In short, an awesome concert.

After leaving the venue at about 12:30, accidentally driving past the Arch 3 times, and stopping for gas stations 3 times, we were on the road back home. We made it to Indy at about 5am after the time change... Yikes! From there everybody headed their separate ways home. Completely worth the traveling though.

It was a completely epic trip that will definitely go down in the books!

The only salvageable photo from the concert.
Workin Them Angels

There's More Than Corn in Indiana... There's Soybeans Too!

Back in Indiana! Actually, I have been for 2 weeks today, but am just now catching up on blogs. I feel like I all ever talk about is ‘when I was in Arizona this and that’ but cut me some slack, I DID live there for 10 weeks. It became normal to me. Speaking of normal, now Indiana seems so foreign!

Everything is so different here! Some things I have noticed:

• No mountains in my backyard. Got some corn now.

• It’s frikkin’ hot and humid. Weather in Flagstaff was absolutely fantastic- 70’s or low 80’s and sunny all the time (until monsoon season in mid-July). It was a huge shocker returning to Indiana on the hottest day of the year when the heat index was above 100. The heat in the Grand Canyon was as hot and miserable, but it’s a different kind here. I’m not sure which is worse: the super intense sun of the Canyon or the incredibly awful humid Indiana heat…

• Grass!!! As in, there is grass here! That’s one thing I really missed in Arizona. Their grass was really wimpy and all prickly. It’s so green and nice here!

• Green! Everything is grass green here. First of all, there are trees here, or at least more than pine. Second, they’re actual green, not the standard forest green of Arizona. At first I wasn’t really a fan of the greens (or lack thereof) in Arizona, but now the tables have turned and it’s weird here. I kind of feel a bit crowded by all the trees, too. I got used to a mostly bare landscape, where there are no forests or trees over the road.

• There’s a lot of bugs. Mosquitoes, crickets, cicadas, you name it. I guess it was the elevation of Flagstaff, but there weren’t hardly any insects there. Now it’s so loud with all the bugs!! And I have a lot of mosquito bites! Didn’t miss those.

• The sky is lighter! Teresa and I kept on commenting about how the sky is SO blue in Arizona, and a much darker shade than back here. Kathy told me it was because there’s no moisture in the air and the elevation. It’s really noticeable though.

• Speaking of air, there’s a lot of it here. Flagstaff is like 10 times as high as Indiana, and I got used to the decreased oxygen. It feels pretty great to run/exercise here. Like my lungs will EXPLODE!

• The Midwest is boring and devoid of places to hike.

Walking Sadie with the lil sis Lizzy. The dramatic Indiana landscape dominates.

It took me about a week to finally get back in the swing of things here. I went from spending pretty much all my free time in Flag with the other REU students to not being to see them at all, and it was pretty rough for a bit. It was indescribably bizarre to be back home in Indiana. I feel like everything is different! You try spending over 2 months living in and exploring the west and finally returning here, and then you can tell me to stop talking about it. I’m really happy to see all my friends and family though (and my fish!!!). And I’m excited to start school on the 30th.

Last week I got to see the lovely annual Perseid meteor shower. The peak night was the 12th- I watched from about midnight to 12:40 and saw probably 20 or so. The peak rate can easily exceed 60/hour, but you have to watch later into the night. So, I set an alarm for 3am. I only went out for probably 30 minutes or so, but I definitely saw them at least at a rate of 60/hour, probably more. There were some pretty spectacular ones as well. My friend Steven pointed me to this page, but the first photo is taken from Flagstaff! Representin, yo.

Also, last Sunday, said friend Steven and I headed up to Conner Prairie in Fishers to see A Prairie Home Companion, a radio show on NPR hosted by Garrison Keillor.

Garrison Keillor- the semi-crazy guy wandering through the audience.

I was trying to describe what it was to a friend of mine and could only come up with 'it's a show where this guy sings and tells stories and someone makes funny sound effects'. The show was great! We had a mini picnic and the weather was nice.

And finally, I'll end with this photo... what do you think it is?

?

Back in the Saddle Again- AZ to IN!

My last few days spent in Arizona were busy busy busy. I was leaving Wednesday morning, and our presentations and papers were due on Monday. We had to give the presentations Tuesday morning. Not to mention the fact that I had to move all of my stuff out of the apartment, clean it, and check out sometime in there.

Luckily I had my paper and presentation pretty much finished the previous week so that I could leave the last weekend for the Arches trip. I put some finishing touches on it Monday and gave a practice talk to Teresa and my adviser. I rushed around Flag buying people souvenirs (of course I wait until the END of my 10 week stay to do this...) then began packing my stuff that night.

Okay, so throughout the summer, the REU students have sort of had a penchant for pulling pranks on each other. To be honest, we pretty much just stole a lot of stuff from Eric (including his phone multiple times, his french press and probably more things). As a final goodbye, Teresa, Nick and myself went over to the boys' apartment at about 9 or 10pm Monday night and stole Eric's mattress!!! We carried it down one flight of stairs, across the property to our apartment, up to the third floor then threw it in mine and Teresa's apartment. Man, I'll tell you: I never knew how heavy a full-size mattress could be... It was totally worth it, though. Once it was in our apartment, we proceeded to jump on it like the mature college students we are.

Nick and I going to town on the mattress.

We put the mattress on top of my mattress on my bed. Eventually around 11 or so, I got really tired. I didn't know what else to do so I just went to sleep on top of two mattresses. At about midnight, I was rudely awakened to a phone call from Eric asking if I knew where the mattress was. The gig was up, so Nick, Eric and I moved it back.

The next morning was THE day. The day where we had to give our research presentations to a room full of experienced astronomers who will probably rip us apart with questions (people from Lowell, NAU, and the USGS were invited). Eek! I was going 4th out of 7, so I got to sit around nervous for a bit. Everybody gave really good talks! I was pretty impressed. I thought for sure somebody would get too nervous and goof up (most likely me) but everybody did really well.

Notice my star trek cup that I brought specifically for the talk! :)

I thought I did pretty well, although I forgot to say some things, and was a little intimidated by the professional astronomers there. I was satisfied though, and that's all that matters! I answered all my questions but one that I didn't know (my adviser answered it for me though).

After our talks- we can finally relax! From left, back: Eric, Nick, Nicole and Teresa. Front: Me, Kathy (program director and our psuedo-mom), Sarah, and Cailah.

Afterward we went to NiMarco's, the same pizza place we visited on our first day in Flag. A few of the astronomers who attended the talks came as well. It was really fun and yummy. After that, Teresa and I ran all over the place (Target, NAU to give Kathy our leftover food, and Lowell to clean out the office). We frantically packed up our stuff all afternoon and cleaned the apartment like madwomen. Eric and I made a recycling run from all the stuff we've been accumulating all summer and got some espresso at Macy's. I don't think I've ever mentioned Macy's but it's a European style coffee shop. They have the best coffee I've ever tasted! But yeah, went back home, cleaned and packed more. Went back to the physics building at NAU to print off my plane tickets (woops! almost forgot to).

Flagstaff sent me off in style!

FINALLY I got back and tried desperately to use all my tortillas by making a lot of quesadillas (I succeeded). We had a last blow-out party with everyone and a USGS friend Eric (too many Erics). It was lots of fun, but I ended up staying up until 3:30... and then woke up at 5:30.

Wednesday, I did indeed wake up at 5:30, and proceeded to run around the place doing all the last-minute things I forgot to do before. At 6:40, the RA in our building came to check both Teresa and I out. We passed 'inspection' and I headed across the street to the parking lot where the shuttle would pick me up. I got Teresa and the boys to come help me bring my stuff (we woke them up at about 6:30 to MAKE them say goodbye to us). My shuttle arrived at 7:10 and I was off to Phoenix. Exchanged my final goodbyes with Teresa, Eric, and Nick and I was on my way.

It was three hours to Phoenix, and once there, I got through security like a breeze and had a couple hours to kill there.

In Sky Harbor Int'l Airport in Phoenix.

I sat around tired and bored until boarding at 11:40. It was a hard goodbye, but farewell Arizona!

Last glimpse of mountains at the airport.

I went from Phoenix to a layover in Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas. I slept for pretty much the whole flight. I had about 3 hours waiting in Dallas, and my flight was a little late. I ended up leaving about 9pm Central time for Indy. I had a pretty amazing flight- I saw an incredible sunset (and Venus!). I happened to look down at the right moment to see a fireworks show going on the edge of some body of water. There was also a big storm in the distance. It was really cool to see lightning from the top down! I timed a minute and saw somewhere around 60 lightning strikes! After picking up my luggage in Indy, it was about midnight. From 7am MST to 12am EDT is 14 hours of traveling. I feel like most of it was just spent sitting around in airports though. I got a lot of reading and gameboy tetris done though!

All of my flights were fine, and I spent the night at my sister's house near the airport after arriving in Indiana. I slept like a brick, or a log, or whatever they say. This summer has been phenomenal and I'll dearly miss Flagstaff and all of the close friends I made there. I was lucky to have all really cool and awesome people in the REU group. I still get to see Teresa since she goes to IU, but hopefully I will see the rest of them at this winter's AAS (American Astronomical Society) meeting in Seattle. Until then!

The perfect sunset on my return flight from Dallas to Indy (notice Venus in the upper left!). Au Revoir Arizona! :)

Arches Arches Arches

In an attempt to catch up on blogs, here I am (I feel like this is all I ever do- get behind then have a burst of blog posts in a short period).

The week following the weekend of Sedona, Bear Mountain was spent wrapping up research and preparing my talk and presentation. I was enrolled in two classes while at NAU, one was based off research where we were required to write a 5-10 page report over what we had done over the summer. The other was based off the seminars we had twice a week. For that class we had to present our research at the end of the summer to those in charge of the program as well as anyone else who wished to attend. More about how those two things went later!

That week for our Dancing on the Square, we learned the hustle! It was a lot of fun! We got a bit rained out during the night, so Teresa and Eric (whom we managed to convince to come) and I went for some fried okra, chicken wings and apple pie at a nearby restaurant. Good stuff.

Ok, so on the weekend of July 30-August 1st, we ventured back to Utah! This time our destinations were Arches National Park, Mt. Peale, and Monument Valley. To start off our journey, we planned on leaving Flag at about 3-4pm Friday afternoon. Of course, road trips never really start on time. Friday it rained REALLY hard in Flagstaff. Like, two inches in 20 minutes hard. Up at Lowell, one of the building's basements was flooding, and on the first floor water was squirting up through the cracks of tiles. It was pretty intense. There's been a lot of uncharacteristic rain lately in Flagstaff (I blame global warming). This is bad news for people living north of town, because of flooding. After the Schultz fire, there's been a lot of flash flooding and it's been a real mess. Anyways, the main road through town, Milton, was completely flooded and impassable- right near the bottom of Mars Hill (where Lowell is located). We were pretty much stuck at Lowell until 5:30 or 6. Traffic was incredibly awful, and no one could get anywhere. Our ride coming to get us took 45 minutes, when it normally takes 5.

Yikes! Okay, so after packing hurriedly and shoving all of our stuff into Eric's car, Eric, Nicole and myself took off for Utah. We were the only ones on the trip because 2 people were going out of town, and the other two had a lot to do with their projects (presentations and papers were due the following Monday). We ended up leaving town at about 6:45... It takes about 6 hours to get to Moab, UT where Arches is!

A pretty rainy sunset leaving town.

The trip wasn't bad at all! We listened to a lot of good music, and saw some amazingly superb lightning for the majority of the ride actually. I wish we could have seen the ride in the light to see the landscape, but occasionally the lightning would light up structures in the distance. It was fun to imagine what they were, but would have been more fun to actually see them.

Nicole fell asleep with my cat, Gwynavere. :)

We ended up getting to our BLM (Bureau of Land Management) campsite at about 12am I think. There were lots of public, first come-first serve campsites around the park. We set up camp right next to the Colorado River and fell asleep to the sounds of water and bugs and to the sight of a nice clear sky.

The next morning we ate a breakfast of bagels (a baker's dozen for the trip!) and coffee. Then we drove over to the actual entrance to the park.

My first photo of the area! On our way to the park entrance.

There were an endless number of cool things to see in the park, so get ready for an explosion of photos. I'll try and restrain myself as much as possible!

We took just about every scenic view stop we saw. The first was just inside the park and had a nice view of the La Sal mountain range. It is named La Sal ('salt' in spanish) because when first discovered in the middle of a desert region, people couldn't believe it was snow on the peaks. Of course it makes sense that instead it is actually salt...?

The La Sal mountain range

The Three Gossips

The Organ. I have a hard time seeing it...

Balanced Rock! Name is self-explanatory I hope.

The Fiery Furnace.

That last photo is of the Fiery Furnace- a really cool place to hike, but you have to buy permits and it's incredibly easy to lost without a guide. Maybe next time! Our hike was the Devil's Garden primitive trail loop. About ~7 miles round trip. It was hike with the most amount of arches to see, so why not? First on the trail was Landscape Arch.

Landscape Arch

It was really cool! Back in the 90's some huge chunks fell off and since then they have deemed it too dangerous to walk under, so you can only get as close as this photo was taken. Next was Partition Arch.

Me standing under Partition Arch!

We had a lunch of, you guessed it, bagels under Partition Arch. Not a bad view at all! We stopped briefly at Navajo Arch next.

Nicole and Eric under Navajo Arch.

We went on to Double-O Arch. It was pretty neat!

Double-O Arch.

Next to the Dark Angel. It only looks like an angel from about this distance.

The bizarre landscape at the park.

We were starting to run out of water on the way back so we were quiet and didn't really take any more photos. We were pretty happy to finally get back. After getting hydrated and taking off our pretty smelly shoes we headed to Moab for some info and ice cream. While hiking in the park, we had seen rain in the distance and wondered if it was still possible for us to hike Mt. Peale, let alone get up to the trailhead. After stopping by the information center, the outcome seemed pretty bleak. The road to the trail was unpaved and after flooding in the area would be impossible to traverse in Eric's Malibu... We decided to wait until the next morning to make the final decision about climbing a mountain. Mt. Peale is the highest peak in the La Sal range at 12,726 feet.

In the meantime, we got some ice cream and espresso at a local shop, then drove to our new campsite at the foot of the mountains, near some lake. It was pretty nice because there wasn't hardly anyone there (bad weather has its advantages!). We washed off in a creek (so classy) and made a dinner of quinoa (leftover from the Zion/Bryce trip...) and veggies. We slept outside on our sleeping bags for a bit, but it started raining in the night, so into the tent we went. It continued raining through the night and stopped sometime in the morning Sunday. Definitely not climbing any mountains. Not only would it be pretty stupid and dangerous, but there's no way we could've driven to any trails.

After coffee, breakfast, and packing up camp, we went back to the park and took a short hike around the North and South Windows (also known as the 'Spectacles'), Turret Arch, and finally went to Double Arch. These were all short, 1 mile or less hikes so it was more crowded than I liked, but oh well.

North and South Windows aka The Spectacles.

Under an arch- maybe Turret?

Double Arch- it was really big and awesome to climb under/around.

Finally, it was time to head back to Arizona. The drive back was fine and dandy. We drove through Monument Valley, which was on the border of Arizona. It was incredibly weird but also cool.

Looks like somebody tilted the land...

Some of Monument Valley.

I drove us back home (so nice to drive for the first time that summer!), and we arrived home about 8pm I think. (We also tried stopping at a dinosaur museum and a coffee shop but both were closed for Sunday).

Woo! An action-packed weekend. I'm a little bummed we didn't get to climb a mountain (sometimes you just want to climb a mountain, you know?), but I had a ton of fun at Arches. It was a unique experience I'll never get again, and the landscape in Utah is incredible!