All Growed Up

Today I went to a laundromat alone for the first time in my life. I have been before, but never to actually do my own laundry. This year, I have done my laundry at friends' places who have machines (free!), at home, and once in a dorm basement. I avoid laundromats at every cost because:

a) They can be dirty
b) Sometimes they cost a lot
c) I'm extremely paranoid someone will steal my clothes
d) I don't want strangers to see my bras and undies

Today marks a monumental point in my life when I finally overcame my irrational fear of laundromats (out of necessity- I had one pair of (clean) underwear left).

Anyways. I've been neglecting the blog lately. Here are some recent updates from my life that I should have posted about loooong ago:

-Went ice climbing in Wisconsin (did I say this already? Oh well). It was TONS of fun.
-All in one day my car ran out of gas, the battery died, and a (already worn out) brake pad FELL out of my wheel. Did I mention this was during spring break, so I couldn't go anywhere?
-My car died again thiNM, NSO, Astronomy,s weekend. Did I mention it was in Lafayette? At least I got to see Naomi!
-Organized and ran the Physics Club "pi a professor day". I'm going mad with all this power.
-Presented a poster at a research symposium.
-Taking the physics GRE this saturday morning... KILL ME NOW
-And some other stuff I'm sure.
-Band concert in a couple weeks! :)

And the biggest news in my life recently is that I got accepted in the Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) REU internship for this summer!!! Back to Arizona I go, but Tucson this time. It's way hotter :( I'm really excited though! I'll be working with a research scientist named Dara Norman. I spoke with her on the phone and she sounds great. My project looks really exciting too. I'm going to be looking at the distribution of x-ray AGN (active galactic nuclei... galaxies with blackholes at their centers!) in galaxy clusters. The bulk of my work will be reducing spectra, which is less exciting, but I'm sure will be informative. There's nothing like doing the behind-the-scenes work to truly understand what's really going on.

Until the next time I get a few free moments to update!!! Here's me exacting revenge on my professor during the pi a professor day.

Just pie'd my EM (electromagnetism) prof in the face...
Can you say F?

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. :)