Still Blogging!

Hey all!
No need to fear-- I haven't slumped completely in the blogging department-- yet. Instead, I've gotten addicted to GENEALOGY. This is Nicki's fault. AND IT IS AWESOME. MANY more updates to come on this front!

In other news, I'm off to my first professional conference, ASLO/NABS, in Santa Fe, NM. Again, many pictures and stories to come :)

Needless to say, life is awesome!

I'M FAMOUS!

Hey all,
I forgot to mention-- I'm famous! Over at CraftLit, one of my FAVORITE podcasts that has both crafting AND literature (eeeeee!!!), we're reading Persuasion by Jane Austen. When Matt and I went to England last summer, we visited the Cobb (if you don't know why that's neat, why not join us at CraftLit and listen to Persuasion???) I took a bunch of pictures AND a picture of me pretending to be Louisa Musgrove (spoilers!), and I sent them to Heather, my hero and host of CraftLit. AND SHE PUT THEM ON THE WEBSITE. AND SHE TALKS ABOUT ME. I just need to be interviewed by Matt Lauer, and my fame will be complete. Check out the episode: and dooooo listen to CraftLit! It's really amazing, mostly thanks to Heather!
I AM SO EXCITED.

Prelims!

Hey y'all,

For those of you who didn't hear, I passed my prelims! That means I'm an official Doctoral Candidate. Which means... I still don't know what I'm doing, but I'm allowed to keep doing it until I finish my research. Just kidding-- I have my dissertation relatively planned out now. And I know LOTS of places where it needs work. So that's awesome!

In other news, I'm nearly done getting together my very first paper :)

And in OTHER other news, we have a slight mouse problem. We found out about it when Annabel killed a mouse... and put it in our bed for us. Under the covers... I spent a lot of time telling here what a good cat she was between sobs.

All in all, what a weird 2 weeks y'all...

LOTS of environmental and craft abulousness coming soon. For real

Practice Prelims!

For those of you who don't know, the next major hurdle in my obtaining of three letters (PhD) is my prelims. It's basically a defense of my dissertation proposal and an oral exam combined into three FANTASTIC hours. It's scheduled for Friday, April 30, from 9 to noon-- so everyone be thinking of me then. Anyways, today I did a dry run with a bunch of PhD students, and I did really well! THEY EVEN SAID SO, I AM NOT MAKING THAT UP. AND NOT JUST BECAUSE I BROUGHT THEM DONUTS AND COFFEE. So *phew* I feel a lot less worried about prelims, but still a healthy dose of terrified. Now to find the inspiration to do work...

LOOK WHO'S BACK AND BLOGGING!

Hey all,

The last few months have been more than a bit crazy but also more than a bit fantastic. I will now describe in succinct detail my life and adventures since the end of June...

July

For the fourth of July, I volunteered at and extremely enjoyed the Festival for the Eno, a local festival whose proceeds go towards the Eno River Association. In exchange for a few hours of selling soda and juice to the wonderful attendees, I got free entry to an excellent day. They have vendors, SUCH good food, a ton of music, and lots of hands-on activities and informational booths. Plus I got to see one of my favorite local bands, Lost in the Trees, play a great set:


I also moved to a brand new, gorgeous house with my BFF Katie. I have no pictures of the house. Why? I don't know. They will come sometime soon, including at least one picture of Katie's insanely lovable dog, Foxy.

In the middle of July, I met my Girl Scout troop! I'm co-leading a group of about 13 or 14 twelve-year-olds. They are a group of smart, independent, individual, wonderful human beings who I absolutely love. For the sake of not being creepy, I'm not going to post pictures of them on the web. Just imagine awesome girls. That is what they look like. I'm helping out with running meetings, planning events, and lots of fun little stuff. We're going to do a FANTASTIC Earth Day event this year that the girls are going to be in charge of. The ideas they've had so far are amazing! A large number of them are also thinking about getting the Silver Awards, so I get to help advise them on that. It's like a PhD but... fun...

The next big thing was my BFF Viki's stunningly beautiful wedding. Behold the gorgeous bride:
Hahaha jk that's a horse. But Vik's in the background. Here she is for reals, with two fine ladies:
It was beautiful, I got an awesome brunch, and family drama was kept to a minimum. Viki was a fantastic bride and wedding planner :)

August

I got to spend an awesome day with my girl scouts at the beach. We swam a ton, saw an aquarium, and ate some mighty fine pizza. Success.

Then, KAPOW! I went to Angleterre with my beau-friend, Matthew.

We went to Dorchester, Dorset, Lyme Regis, Chesil Beach, Exmoor, York (where Matt lived), LONDON! Oh and... ROME!!! Matt totally surprised me with the awesomest graduation (his graduation from his Master's that is) present ever from his parents: a trip for two to Rome! For some reason he chose me rather than his graceful, well-behaved girlfriend. For that I will always be thankful.

Altogether, we saw a gajillion gobsmacking things... The highlights were Thomas Hardy's cottage and grave (both of them-- one in Dorchester and one in Westminster), Cerne Abbas (heh... look at the picture), Roman ruins, older ruins, lots and lots of farm animals (weeee!), the Cobb (go read Persuasion or The French Lieutenant's Woman if you don't know why that is so exciting), amazing museums, all the big sites in London, ALL THE BIG SITES in Rome, and the Royal Albert Hall. I could keep gushing, but really I am only making you jealous.

One of my favorite-est things, though, was the Roman Cats... There is a little park of ruins where people used to just dumb stray cats :( And then these awesome ladies came together to take care of them! So now the ladies seem to be taking care of most of the stray cats in Rome. There are stray cats EVERYWHERE, and people are always feeding them. These ladies were AMAZING and the cats were so adorable. It was sad because many of the cats had been injured when they were literally thrown into this pit of ruins, but the ladies get a lot of donations and are able to really take care of them. If we had been there longer, I would have volunteered. As it was, I donated a ton of money. The picture below is me with this one really sweet old cat-- they were basically making her as comfortable as possible until she dies. I went over to pet her and she jumped up on my shoulder for about 5 minutes, and then ran over to eat some food. The lady said she barely ever ate, so I definitely teared up a little. I'm amazed we didn't come home with a cat!


It was the best trip ever with one of my most favorite people in the entire world. And we ate caprese almost everyday. It is what makes life worth living, friends.

The start of a new school year! But first, JETS: we went to the preseason Ravens-Jets game... The Jets lost, the Ravens fans were buttmunchers. Nuff said... Also, how about Mark Sanchez? I am in love with him and planning to be married by the end of the year... We'll be heading to the Jets-Jags game in November, and I simply cannot wait. JETS!!!

September

Rather than doing any work, I just kept driving back and forth between Durham and Baltimore. My darling boyfriend was living in Cumberland with his parents for a few weeks to finish up his Masters thesis, so we met in Baltimore for another marvelous wedding-- his cousin Dan and his (now) wife, Elise. They were beautiful. But more importantly, despite a middle of the night fire alarm at our hotel followed by 3 hours of waiting in the lobby, Matt and I looked good...


Matt and his SUPER FANTASTIC WONDERFUL mom, Lisa, forced me to buy a real girl dress and real pretty pretty princess shoes. I was glad I cleaned up so well and had such good people to help me do so.

Then it was my birthday!!! I spent the night with a few close friends and some champagne. It was nice and low key, which might be a first for my birthday.

In other September news, I got to lead my first Girl Scout meeting. It was hectic, but enjoyable. OH and the girls made me birthday cards!!! It was soooo sweet.

Then I was sick for about two and a half weeks and was extremely unproductive.

October

I got myself fully trained as a cat volunteer at the Animal Protection Society of Durham. It's a fantastic organization that not only provides shelter to animals and tries to get them adopted, but also does a huge amount of outreach. On that note, GET YOUR ANIMALS SPAYED OR NEUTERED. NOW. If you are not doing it because it is expensive, there are often low-cost, subsidized options available. Contact me and I will look them up for you. If you are planning to breed your animal, please consider the HUGE number of homeless pets that are euthanized EVERY DAY before you add to the number of pets in the world-- and take potential homes away from those in shelters. Finally, if you're thinking about getting a pet PLEASE at least consider a shelter animal. Those are pets that need loving and a good forever home.

I adopted my cat, Annabel, from APS almost exactly a year ago, and I'm so happy to be giving back to that shelter. Especially because I basically get to play with cats whenever I'm there!

THEN MATT MOVED DOWN HERE. He is still getting all his furniture settled, but the living in sin is going extremely well. He's looking for a job, so if any of you have leads for Durham jobs... you let me know ;) Again, pics of the house to come...

The busy beehive of the Girl Scouts participated in a local Diwali fest-- four of them danced in a show-- and the Buddy Walk, a great event put on by the National Down Syndrome Society. It was fun and the girls got to help out a good cause.

I also got to see (and host) one of the best bands in the entire world, Wye Oak. If you like music, listen to them and see what you think. If you don't like music, THEY WILL CONVERT YOU. Andy and Jen were great, even though poor Jen was a bit sick. Also, in case I didn't mention it, AN AWESOME BAND SLEPT IN MY HOUSE. I felt like a patron of the arts. It was neat.

And that about catches us up on the major events of my life! Coming soon, the awesome environmental stuff I've been up to!!! You can't wait and I know it.

Concerts Abound!

Well the past 5 days have been music-filled. I was lucky enough to see The Decemberists in Raleigh, Phillie, and Baltimore, with Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3 opening for them at two of those shows. Plus Andrew Bird also opened at the Baltimore show AND we saw RH&V3 at a separate show in Annapolis. All in all, the shows were fantastic.

Before the Raleigh show, I finally made peace with tapas and ate at the wonderful Humble Pie. The Napoleon was simply amazing. The chocolate martini was simply not. The Raleigh show was probably the best, because the audience seemed the most in to the show and people were actually dancing around. Blind Pilot, who I really liked but were a wee bit slow, were a great opening band. It was a bit weird seeing the Decemberists at a seated venue, as I normally spend most of a Decemberists show bouncing up and down and singing loudly. In Raleigh, people actually went up front and danced around-- and two awesome peeps got up on stage and guitar-dueled. If you want to see how inspiring it was, check out their cover of Heart's Crazy on You, noting the fantastic vocals of Becky Stark and Shara Worden, honorary Decemberists.

In Phillie, we tried to get up front for the second half of the show-- and Marlie, Jordan, and I spent five of the best minutes of our lives 3 feet from Colin Meloy. And then the security guards remembered that they hate everyone, joy, and puppies, and made us (and a few dozen other people) sit down. It was worth it, especially because Colin loudly said (twice) that it SUCKED that they made us sit down. I really can't wait til the next tour, when I can dance my way through the show and hopefully get up front.

RH&V3 were awesome all three times. I think we scared people with our enthusiasm for them.

I continue to hate Merriweather. It just has such an anti-rock'n'roll feel to it what with the constant checking of tickets and forced hipness... My grudges run deep, even for music venues.

And thus ends my musical extravaganza. For now...

Vinegar to the Rescue! and All Cars Hate Me

We have had some mold problems due to previous flooding and whatnot, and we've been meaning to clean it up and hope for the best for a while. So, with my new found eco-lution, I decided to go after it with vinegar. It was pretty amazing. The mold immediately started running down the wall, and I was able to wipe up a lot of it (which I think you're not supposed to do, but I didn't really think I should just let it all run down and soak at the bottom of the wall) and then respray and let it set. We'll see how it works-- hopefully it will keep it from growing back. And hopefully I haven't inhaled a ton of mold spores to my lungs. That would be unfortunate.

In other news, all cars hate me. Yeah. For real. Yesterday, driving from Durham to Baltimore, I parked at a 7-11 to pick up some brand new Dr. Pepper Cherry (mmm so good) and then had a tight spot to back out of-- there was a car at the gas pump directly behind my car. So, being a good and responsible driver, I slowly backed out. Inching closer and closer to the car, staring out my back window calmly. Just as I got close enough to begin point 2 of my three-point turn, I hear a honk. I assumed someone must be trying to come up somewhere and that my next turn would bring me into their path... No. It's the lady in the car that I'm still a good six inches away from, honking and staring at me with abject terror... I just looked at her, thinking, "Really? Am I not backing up slowly enough?" and then pulled out. Honestly, it pissed me off quite a bit. I can understand someone getting nervous if the other driver is moving quickly or if you're not sure that the other driver sees you, but I was clearly moving VERY slowly (as I myself get nervous in tight spots) and STARING out my back window. So it just seemed absolutely unnecessary.

This morning, as Marlie and I went to Starbucks (evil, but I did use a travel mug), I was backing out of a spot with a car in the drive through directly behind me. I started to tell Marlie the story, and right as I said, "And then she honked!" We hear a honk. I laughed, and continued to slowly and carefully back up my car, staring at the car behind me... And then the honk became sustained. I stopped and looked and the lady in the car was staring angrily at me, waving her hand. Again, all I could think was "Really? I am at least six inches from your car and this is the only way to get out of this spot!" I, in fact, was so annoyed that I rolled down my window and said, "Was I REALLY that close to you???" And the lady, without rolling down her window-- because clearly I am an impolite hoodlum of a rascal that would knife her, said, "YES YOU WERE THAT CLOSE!!!" Too which I just shook my head and drove off. Admittedly, I was shaking with anger. But I came up with a plan for if this situation occurs again: I will park my car and go and see how close I actually was... I am pretty sure that, again, I was at least six inches. But this way I can check and show them that they are, in fact, being friggin' absurd.

After all that, I decided to walk up to Walgreens rather than drive (plus it's a nice walk and hurray for not using a car when it's not needed), and crossed oh-so-legally at the crosswalk. Madame le Left Turn decided she didn't really want to watch for pedestrians-- and stopped about 3 feet from me. Didn't say like, "Oh my bad sorry or any such thing-- just stared at me as if I shouldn't be there.

So, dear cars, and more importantly drivers, please stop hating on me and be nice. Please.

J E T S GREEN GREEN GREEN

The Jets, as usual, are the best team in the NFL.

A Lovely Weekend

This weekend was filled with two momentous events: my little sister's graduation and my best friend's wedding shower.


My little sister graduated fourth (or something absurd like that) in her class (of about 513). We were very proud of her, but all the pomp and busy-ness was a bit silly. I had an elderly lady yell at me to "PLEASE NOT PUSH IN FRONT": I'm pretty sure I was just standing near her. The graduation, as such things go, was pretty quick, and I was able to craft my way through the whole thing. No one was supposed to cheer after each name (513 students means it takes a while, even reading all the names quickly back-to-back), but of course some people did. I would love to graph the relationship between cheer after name in high school graduation to some level of achievement in life. Which is a snippy way to say, SHUT UP AND BE POLITE. Afterwards, though, we all got ice cream. Then we went home and Marlie played on her new MacBook, and Jor played on his iPod touch, and we all watched an awesome zombie movie, "Dance of the Dead." Seriously, it was wonderful and had a similar tone to "Shaun of the Dead". For those of you with FearNet on Demand, you can (and should) watch it for free.


Viki's Bridal Shower was absolutely gorgeous. The weather was lovely, the food was delicious, and the people were great. We played fun games and just had a lovely little shower. Viki, of course, looked wonderful. She was thoroughly bridal-showered.

I've also been crafting A TON, but they are entirely presents for people... SURPRISE PRESENTS. So, alas, I will have to put off posting pictures and their stories until after they've been given... Marlie, you can take some pics of the awesome presents I got you, as I forgot to do that :)

But What is KAYLEIGH Doing???

Hey all,

You're probably wondering what I'm up to... Here 'tis:

• I've finished finals and did fantastically in my first year.
• I'm starting my summer research, which means I've been spending a large amount of time both staring at GIS models in the lab and wading through urban streams in the Research Triangle. Both have been a lot of fun...
• 
• Sadly, many people here graduating or moving to the Duke Marine Lab at Beaufort, NC. It's great that people are moving on to new things, but sad that I won't get to see them as much.
• I'm currently working on becoming a Girl Scout co-leader and will hopefully find a troop over the summer.
• Finally, I'm trying to be more health-conscious. Specifically, I've been using two Apple-cations (get it??? like for my iPod Touch...) called "Eat Right" and "Eight Glasses a Day." "Eat Right" is a good way to make sure I'm getting the right servings of vege, fruit, dairy, protein, and grains. Yay me! "Eight Glasses a Day" is, unsurprisingly, a simple way to make sure that I'm getting at least eight glasses of water. I usually shoot for way more than that, though, because my body apparently really enjoys being dehydrated. I'm also trying to get better at putting on moisturizing lotion with sunscreen in it daily and coating myself in sunscreen whenever I'll really be out in the sun for an extended period of time. Even on rainy days. Even in not-summer.

That's pretty much it for now. Lots of fun things coming up and to be posted soon.

So it begins.

Previous to now, almost all of my blogs have been focused on just keeping my family and loved ones informed about my banal, but loveable, doings. However, with Earth Day, I've recently been feeling the call to eco-reform and search out simple, easy ways to be more eco-friendly. As a plus, most of these are almost much more economical. In response to those feelings, I'm going to attempt to use my blog as a way to tell my friends and family the neat tips I find-- plus, you poor folks will be forced to listen to fewer eco-rants. Potentially. We'll see.

I'm also hoping, to be honest, that having more of a focus to my blog will encourage me to update it more regularly... you may have noticed I'm not great at that currently. However, I'm constantly finding fantastic eco-ness and wanting to share them with others. Thus, I'm hoping it will come more naturally-- To be sure, talking about myself on the internet does NOT feel normal.

However, I quite understand if you hav eno desire to read my eco-tips. Well, I don't understand, but it is your prerogative. So, I'm going to make sure to label all the posts about me and my life as "kayleigh", and all of the eco-awesome as "eco" -- along with other, more specific tags. So, if you scroll down and look on the right, you can select the tags you like and read any subject you desire. Or, as is hoped, you can read or skim through all of it.

Much love to all. I'm excited and hope you are and hope it keeps up...

However, to let you all know, and to stop any confusion, I will be tagging things carefully. Those about just me and my life will be tagged "kayleigh", while eco-awesomeness will be under "eco". That way, whether you prefer hearing about me or hearing about being green, you can make your own decision. I certainly hope you want to hear about all of it, but I understand either way.

Let's hope that you're excited and that my momentum keeps going...

The 2008 - 2009 School Year in One Blog!

Hello out there all my fine people! It has been approximately forever since I last wrote on this blog to update all my beloveds (and anyone else out there on the interwebz) about my super exciting life as a graduate student! Well, let me get you up-to-date, and then I have an awesome announcement about the future of this blog (and why I hope to update it more often)....

In order to keep this interesting, I shall utilize the minimalist formatting of "bullets"

September 2008

• Matthew came down for my birthday, and what a birthday was had

birthday cupcake and coffee-- for breakfast

• I came up to see the New York Football JETS play an awesome game, back before the horror that was the 2008 season truly began.

• I looked longingly into Matt's eyes, knowing this he was really going through with this whole 'grad school in England' thing:

October 2008

• The awesomeness of the Jets continued somewhat unscathed

• I adopted the cutest kitten ever: Miss Annabel Somers, also called Banabel, Banana, Nanner, Nan, Nannerpuss, and the ever-popular "GET OUT OF THE DRESSER"

• Halloween came and went-- I actually spent that night watching Goosebumps, building an IKEA dresser, and having a glass of wine. Needless to say, it was lovely.
  

November 2008

• I saw a really awesome Decemberists show with Jenna, Jordan, and Marlie. I believe I touched Colin again, which made my oh-so-schoolgirl heart cheer with joy. However, no pictures were to be had due to... us being lame and forgetting our cameras. Also, Jenna and Marlie were found to be very poor at following directions and/or common sense. This was not surprising.
  
• Thanksgiving! It was awesome! We ate food! It was awesome!
  
• I'm sure something else important happened... What was it... Oh yeah! GOBAMA!!!! I should really type something more thoughtful or thought-provoking, but basically I was just really happy. And still am.
  

December 2008

• December was hectic, and not just due to finals (all A's, yay me!) and traveling up and down the eastern seaboard.
• I also got to see my mother, my baby nephew: Chris, and my nephew's lovely parents (also known as my sister, Antonia, and my brother-in-law, Mark... but let's stay focused on the cute bundle of joy, shall we?)

proud new grandmother and baby

proud new aunty and baby

proud new family with baby (please note Mark's awesome shirt: "The angels have the phone box"-- if you don't know what this is from, your life is sad)

proud new Jets fan...

• Plus I had about 8 Christmases-- one with Mum, Antonia, Mark, and Chris; one with Dad, Marlie, and Jordan; one with Matt's close family; and multiple with Matt's extended family.
• Matt's family was especially wonderful and inviting and gave me a chance to see Matt at his best:

January 2009

• Back to the grind! Three new classes: Biogeochemistry (the science of the entire world in tiny little bits of awesome), Wetlands and Stream Restoration Ecology (all the details of my research), and Spatial Analysis (awesome statistics that could blow your mind)
• I also got to TA an Intro Environmental course with a ton of wonderful undergrads and a semi-deity of ecology and nicest man ever, Norm Christensen
• Plus I re-potted my sweet plants
  

February 2009

• Matt and my's TWO year anniversary, spent far apart but in love nonetheless
• Continued the grinding
  

March 2009

• We had a gorgeous, and rare snow day down here in NC

• It was also Jenna's birthday, AND Marlie applied for (and got, of course!) the Humanities Scholarship at UMBC

Jenna, current Humanities Scholar

Marlie, future Humanities Scholar
We are a serious bunch.

• That strange man, Matt, showed up again. We had an epic Baltimore and Cumberland tour of awesome.
• A high point was seeing "Tis a Pity She's A Whore" at Center Stage which was so fantastic, and we got to go with Los Humanitios
  

April 2009

• Guglhupf, a fantastic bakery in Durham, makes bunnies for Easter WITH SUGAR BUTTS. To be honest, the bunny didn't impress me too much (unlike most of their pastries) but was worth it for the cute-factor

• Got to see the FANTASTIC AND ORGASMIC (if you don't know who he is, check him out! for your own sake!) Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3 in Carrboro, an area that requires more inspection
  
• That Matt person showed up AGAIN. This time at my house in Durham.
  

finally fulfilling one of the promises our relationship is based on, Matt made me an Epic Cheese Plate that I could eat every day (and did for about a week)

• We also ate multiple awesome meals and went to a few fun bars
• I ate in the same room as Robert Redford and NEARLY got my pic with him
• I went to Ben and Jerry's for Free Cone Day and got a card for one year's worth of 10% off at B&J's
• Attended 3 or 4 end of year / beginning of summer parties that were all fantastic
  

May 2009

• I continued the epic end-of-year party crawl

• With the beginning of summer, I've been able to bike more regularly and go to the famous Durham Farmer's Market, which consists of everything good in the world, including the Scene of the Crime Rovers by far one of the coolest bands ever.

And with that, I have updated you to the present time. The next blog post is going to be legen- wait for it...

First Two Weeks of School

HEY NEATO I FOUND AN OLD BLOG I STARTED WRITING BUT NEVER PUBLISHED. Check out what I was thinking more than half a year ago!!!

Well, I spent the first two weeks of school being pretty darn sick with a horrendous head cold. So sick that I got through two and a half seasons of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, which was the upside of being under the weather. Nonetheless, I made it to all of my classes.

I am taking three academic classes: Landscape Ecology, Wetlands Ecology, and Introduction to Geospatial Analysis. Landscape Ecology is all about looking at spatial heterogeneity and patterns at a landscape level. Wetlands Ecology is about... wetlands. And their ecology... Intro to Geospatial Analysis is about Geographic Information Systems, which consists of mapping and lots of data analysis.

I'm also taking two more casual classes. One is just a seminar that consists of a lecture every Friday. The other is a two-day-a-week meeting with first- and second- year ecology students and a few professors to discuss articles on different topics in ecology.

So that's the general idea of my semester. Now for a few specific stories. The other Saturday, I went to campus to print out a few things, and I was still feeling a bit sick. When I got there, I couldn't figure out how to get into the gated parking lots. I had been told that they were open on the weekends, but I had missed the part about needing to swipe your Duke ID card to get the gates to open. So, instead, I had to drive around campus and park far away from the building. Walking over, I dropped my ID card on the road, and didn't realize it until I was already at the building, which I couldn't get into without the card. I walked back to my car, assuming I had left it on the seat. As I walked to my car, another car went around me and I heard a loud clicking noise. I looked over and there was my card, having been hit by the car. Luckily, it was only severely bent and not actually broken. I managed to straighten it out enough to get into the building and print the articles. As I was packing up, I hit my usb drive with my knee and broke it in half... I was able to fix it with some army duct tape eventually. After all that, I drove home and crawled back into bed-- and probably watched some Buffy, although I don't really remember at this point.

Orientation Week!

I am now officially orientated!

The first day was mostly Nicholas School stuff-- meeting some of the head peeps in charge, other first-years, and some older students. I learned all about being a good TA and felt vaguely less lost getting around campus.

I also had a more general Graduate Student orientation, where we were talked at for awhile about fairly informative things and then got to walk around to a bunch of tables of people giving away free stuff and information for services and groups around Duke. I myself received multiple pens, a flashlight, and a variety of stickers.

On Wednesday, I visited the lemur center, where the lemur that played Zoboomafoo now lives. This excited me to no end, but others seemed considerably less impressed. They also allow some of the lemurs to live in a separated part of the Duke Forest, so that they can be studied in an approximately natural habitat. It was really interesting, and one of the other first year PhD students is going to be working there, so hopefully I'll get the inside scoop on those crazy lemurs... Wednesday night we went out to an interesting bar and got some decent panini type food. It was nice to relax a bit with people.

On Thursday, we had our Responsible Conduct of Research orientation. This was basically a really long repetition of "Don't Cheat", but it had some interesting discussion about what to do if you felt that someone was using questionable practices and how copyright works. Plus, we got a lot of decent food. A few of us met up later at Felix, one of the first year PhD student's house, and had a couple of beers. It was nice to just sit around and relax. I'm really glad that everyone in this program is so friendly.

Friday was pretty much open, so I biked on to Duke campus. It didn't take too long, but I felt a bit tired so I parked my bike on east campus (which is a bit closer to my house) and took a really short shuttle to west campus. There, I met with my advisor, Dean Urban, to discuss some specifics. It was a good meeting, and I felt much more certain about many aspects of my PhD. When I returned to my house, I felt strangely tired and my throat was hurting. Concerned, I decided to relax for a bit and curled up in bed. Little did I know that a hellish cold had been set upon me.

All Moved In...

Well, I've been here for a week and am approximately settled. I have all the furniture I need, other than a dresser-- which I'll be picking up from IKEA the next time I am in the Baltimore area. Here is the basic idea:

It's really nice, and I actually have more space than I thought I would. The bed in there is actually the former roommate's, and I'll be putting up a sofa bed when she comes to pick that up in the next few weeks.

Dad, Marlie, Jordan, and Matt all drove down with me and helped me move in. It was sad to see them go, but it has been great talking with them on the phone and chatting online-- after being in New Zealand where I could really only talk to my family once a week, this does not feel very far away at all. I was even thinking of driving back up for the weekend, but I decided that it would make the most sense to just stay put and try to get comfortable in my skin. Plus, the bike coop I want to try to get a decent, inexpensive bike from is only open on Sundays!

I've spent most of the week driving around Durham, finding every thrift store, hunting for furniture, and meeting a ton of great people via Basma (my housemate). I am considering investing in a GPS for my car-- I've gotten lost every single time I've gone out, and I've been told that I should pretty much expect that. Durham has many winding roads that randomly change names and directions, in addition to various roads having the same (or extremely similar) names.

In happy news, Matthew's family sent me a peace lily that really cheered me up and also freshens the air! Hopefully I'll be able to keep it alive and happy. A few days later, Matt sent me a beautiful bouquet of purple flowers for our year-and-a-half-iversary, thus again proving himself to be the best boyfriend, and one of my favorite people, in the world!

I was able to get most of my furniture used, from moving grad students or a neat place called Trosa. I also went to Trader Joe's in Chapel Hill, which has an exciting and cheap selection of decent wine. Maryland does not sell alcohol anywhere but in liquor stores, so I am excited to again live in a real state, where wine is not closeted into sketchy corner stores that close on Sundays. Hurray! On Saturday, I dropped in on the Durham Farmer's Market and bought an insanely good batard, which I've been eating with jam daily. I hope to get fresh, local tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil for a matthew caprese salad at some point in the next few weeks. Besides all the delicious food, there were a few musicians around and free yoga in a nearby park. All in all, it was a feast for all the senses!

Basma and I dropped by the Duke gym, and it is gorgeous. I am excited to try out a simple and short circuit of weight machines, which I can hopefully work into my fitness routine. I've also found a pretty good jogging trail. It goes through a local park, which used to be a bird sanctuary and part of the Museum of Life and Sciences-- which means that there is a huge brontosaurus next to part of the path. I'm not joking. Go here and scroll down to "Points of Interest": the dinosaur on the right is about a 5 minute walk from my house.

On Sunday, I went to the Bike Co-op and had quite an adventure. They have a program that allows you to buy a bike for cheap-- you have to help fix it up and whatnot, but it's way less expensive than a new bike. I worked on a bike for about two and a half hours, got it ready to go, and then we decided that it was actually too small for me... Then we found a new, nearly ready bike, and got it ready to go in about 30 minutes. It was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot. AND, I'm now a member, so I can go back to the store to fix my bike if there are any problems. Once I get a helmet and a lock, I'll be good to go!

Orientation fills up this week, and then school starts for real next week...

Saying Hello to Durham

Hurray! New blog up and running! Some quick info for peeps...

To the right are buttons to subscribe to my RSS feed, so you can INSTANTLY know when I publish a new blog. You could also email me if you want me to set up the blog to email you when I update... Or, you could just check out my blog whenever you get bored enough to amble on over. I plan to update every two weeks or more often, so it shouldn't be too hard to keep up to date with me...

I also put up an archive, groupings of blog entries by subject, and a bunch of links (including my Amazon wish list!!!) and such on the right.

And now on to my current plans...

Saturday morning, I will be heading down south in a convoy of three cars packed with most of my earthly belongings. The drive is about five to six hours, and we aim to be at my new house by mid-afternoon. The trip should involve many humorous pictures of overly-filled cars, sweaty family members, and angry and threatening people... All in all, a good way to remember my loved ones for a few weeks before I see them again.

Once down there, I am going to settle in, deal with all the fine tunings of living in a new town and state, and try to explore the area and meet new people! As you can tell, this will all be fodder for my blog...

Stay tuned!