day 1: a recent picture of you and 15 interesting things about you

I've been posting a lot of recent photos of me lately with engagements and all, so I decided to post this one instead, from when I was two years old and we lived in Boston. I'm the one with the blue dress and the purple sock on. Obviously, my sense of fashion started young...


1. I don't drink milk, even on cereal.
2. One of my legs is longer than the other.
3. When I was eight, I was obsessed with Star Wars. Later, when I was maybe 11? 12? I got obsessed with Star Trek and I'd offer to babysit for my mom so she'd let me stay up to watch Voyager or Deep Space 9.
4. When I was little, I wanted to be a marine biologist. When I realized you actually had to get in the ocean (a huge fear of mine back then), that put an end to that dream.
5. I eat a Yoplait lite yogurt every single morning. Harvest peach is my favorite, with pineapple upside down cake in a close second.
6. My socks rarely match.
7. I've lived in three states: Utah, Massachusetts, and Indiana.
8. I didn't even consider chemistry as a career until my senior year of high school. I thought I was going to major in humanities until I took AP chemistry.
9. I used to be a stellar student-National Merit Scholar (which, I am proud to say I have yet to lose in college), valedictorian, and rocking AP tests.
10. I think it would be really fun to be an editor for a scientific journal.
11. Summer is my favorite season.
12. Christmas is my favorite holiday.
13. Ender's Game is my favorite book.
14. Between me and my sister, we own all seven seasons of "Gilmore Girls".
15. I've never broken a bone, but I did get a concussion when I was eight years old from falling out of my brother's crib.

thankfulness

I'm a day late, but this year, I'm really grateful for this guy, for the fact that he asked me to marry him, and for the fact that we can be together forever.

meh

I like how eating nothing but pizza, chocolate, and a cream cheese danish and fantasizing over buying clothes I can't afford is how I choose to be self-destructive. 

Man, I am a rebel.

If anyone is looking/knows someone who's looking for housing...well...I've got a contract that I'm desperate to sell. It's in a beautiful house a couple blocks from campus, and I'll write you a $500 bonus check if you'll buy it from me. Click here for the craig's list ad with all the info.

Thanks in advance!

30 days

I'm not even entirely sure where I found this...it was somewhere in a long, rambling blog stalking episode...but I think it's kind of a fun idea. You take 30 days and write 30 posts as outlined below:


day 1- recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself
day 2- the meaning behind your blog name
day 3- a picture of you and your friends
day 4- a habit that you wish you didn’t have
day 5- a picture of somewhere you've been to
day 6- favorite super hero and why
day 7- a picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you
day 8- short term goals for this month and why
day 9- something you're proud of in the past few days
day 10- songs you listen to when you are happy, sad, bored, hyped, mad
day 11- another picture of you and your friends
day 12- how you found out about blogger and why you have one
day 13- a letter to someone
day 14- a picture of you and your family
day 15- put your ipod on shuffle: first 10 songs that play
day 16- another picture of yourself
day 17- someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why
day 18- plans/dreams/goals you have
day 19- nicknames you have and why you have them
day 20- someone you love.
day 21- a picture of something that makes you happy
day 22- what makes you different from everyone else
day 23- something you crave for a lot
day 24- your last five facebook status'
day 25- what I would find in your bag
day 26- what do you think about your friends
day 27- why are you doing this 30 day challenge
day 28- a picture of you from last year and now, how have you changed since then?
day 29- in this past month, what have you learned
day 30- you favorite song


Anyone else want to try it?


Oh, and coincidentally enough, I'm getting married in exactly 30 days!!! :)

pam shortt's broken both her legs and i wanna dance with you!

Last weekend was the first time since 8th grade that I've gone to Dancesport and not competed.

I almost cried, walking into the ballroom and hearing the blaring samba music and seeing everyone in fake eyelashes, fake tan, fake nails, and rhinestones. Under the pressure all of the school and wedding stuff that's been going on I haven't really had time to sit back and miss ballroom. And I didn't realize how much I really do until then. I mean, seriously, is there any better feeling than hearing your name announced as a finalist in amateur latin or standard and walking out on that floor like, Yeah I'm hot, and you know it? 

But here was the other thing, as I sat there watching my friends and sisters dance, I felt disconnected. That isn't my world anymore. I chose to leave on my own terms, and I picked a pretty dang good reason (*cough*Aaron*cough). 

Even if I sort of wish I could participate in all of this glamor and competition again:

So thanks ballroom, for all the good times and even the not-so-good times.

But I think I'll be a [engaged] chemist now.

*Congratulations to everyone who competed! The caliber of dancing was really excellent this year!

to and fro

My lovely friend Sara emailed me this great talk by Sister Patricia Holland. This paragraph was particularly striking to me:


"We must have the courage to be imperfect while striving for perfection. We must not allow our own guilt, the feminist books, the talk-show hosts, or the whole media culture to sell us a bill of goods—or rather a bill of no goods. We can become so sidetracked in our compulsive search for identity and self-esteem that we really believe it can be found in having perfect figures or academic degrees or professional status or even absolute motherly success. Yet, in so searching externally, we can be torn from our true internal, eternal selves. We often worry so much about pleasing and performing for others that we lose our uniqueness—that full and relaxed acceptance of one’s self as a person of worth and individuality. We become so frightened and insecure that we cannot be generous toward the diversity and individuality, and yes, problems, of our neighbors. Too many women with these anxieties watch helplessly as their lives unravel from the very core that centers and sustains them. Too many are like a ship at sea without sail or rudder, 'tossed to and fro,' as the Apostle Paul said (see Eph. 4:14), until more and more of us are genuinely, rail-grabbingly seasick."


Full talk here.


Oh and chemistry GRE? So done with that. Scores to come in 6 weeks. I'm just glad it's OVER!!!!

maybe i should've checked the syllabus

Turns out the paper wasn't due until this afternoon.

Oh well. Gotta have an [almost] all-nighter at least once a semester, right?

plasmons and phototherapy

I am having horrible flashbacks to 391 (go here, here, or here for a taste of what that was like)
because it is 4:50 AM, and I'm still working on my paper for chem 514. It's actually pretty interesting, because wouldn'tcha know I picked an awesome group on the periodic table (copper, silver, and gold) for my topic.
There are so many cool applications of gold nanoparticles! You can do tumor cell imaging! And then proceed to selectively kill the tumor cells!

But I would really, really, really like to go to bed now.
Only 3.5 more pages...

sweet

Really not liking the picking the reception food part of wedding planning...
I don't want to do an ice cream bar, brownie bar, cheesecake bar, or pies. I wanted to do a crepe bar, but at $5/person, that's getting a little too pricey for me.

But. I do love cupcakes.
And I am getting married in December.
So I was thinking cupcakes + hot chocolate.

Is that too simple? Too little food? Too much cake?! I don't know.

Thoughts?

P.S. Thanks for the invitations feedback! My lovely friend Natalie designed a BEAUTIFUL invitation for me that I'm getting printed this week! I would post, but...you're probably going to be getting one in the mail anyway. :) Take that overpriced etsy file...

envy

Bedding from CB2.

Oh so tempted to shell out $120 for a duvet cover + shams right now...

Self, remember you are going to be a poor married college student in <6 weeks