conference prep

I've been getting ready for my conference over seas and I leave Friday. I've been working for about 10-12 hours a day so I'm behind w/ my blogging. I think I'm finally almost finished w/ my poster today and I would like to get it printed and off my list. I need to start packing, exchanging money, printing out reservations, directions etc. I am getting really excited because E is meeting me there after the conference and then we are traveling for fun! He has been great this last week by taking care of the house, doing laundry and booking all of our hotels.

Perseid shower

E and I got up at 2:30 am last night to try and catch some of the Perseid meteor shower. We each saw around 15 shooting stars and one was an 'earthgrazer' which was really cool. It was brilliant white and left a streak across the sky for several seconds. We were going to get up at 3 but I woke up early so we just got up and wandered up the hill by our place away from the lights. I was surprised by how many people were just up but not star gazing. I guess I shouldn't be surprised in a college town, before classes have even started but it still seemed odd.
Tonight you should be able to catch them too if you look towards the NE and try to go where there are few city lights.

goodbye

So I officially said good-bye to great grad school friend today. The other one leaves next week :( They are in different programs than me and study different stuff but they have been part of the rocks that have held me together in my 6 years here. I got her a gift for her party over the weekend. Today at our good-bye lunch she gave me a friend necklace. It was really sweet of her. She told me that I and our other mutual friend have been some of her best friends of her whole life. Which made me get teary eyed. I will miss the fact that they get me in so many great ways and LISTEN so carefully. When I thought I couldn't take being in the lab one more second, or cope with more departmental crap I could call either of them to go grab a coffee/ or lunch. They will have to return to defend next year. I want to see them again but I really want to be finished by the time they return here. I think I will have many more lonely/working lunches in the lab days ahead this year. I hope their moves go smoothly and their new positions are less stressful than being here!

working from home

I didn't go into lab this weekend which is unusual for me. If I'm in town I almost always spend Saturday or Sunday at lab. I did work from home and my husband helped me code some data for about 4 hours. After which I decided we had had enough and we drove out the 'lake' and went canoeing for an hour. We met a friend out there and went to dinner at a cute eclectic cafe in nearby small town. They hand cut their fries and mix in sweet potatoes too, so they are really good! Sunday I worked some more on sorting my data and coding some other parts. We also attended a good-bye party for a friend of mine. Two of my friends are leaving for a year and I will miss them terribly. All the more reason for me to focus: collect, analyze, and write as fast as I can to not be the lonely one left here.