drop that new beat

A couple weekends ago, my friends Shane and Shannon came and stayed with us while competing at a ballroom competition here in Philly. I got to pretend I was still a ballroom dancer for two days, and it was glorious. Shannon had me try on all of her very glamorous costumes, and I got to go to the competition and watch them dance Saturday night. I loved every minute of it. It was a pretty small competition, but randomly Riccardo and Yulia (current world champions) happened to be competing at it. BEST SURPRISE EVER. Shane and Shannon also looked fantastic. I couldn't stop smiling while watching them dance, I was just so proud. I kept pointing them out to the grandma sitting next to me, those are my friends! I don't think I would have wanted to do something professionally with ballroom, but it was certainly fun to live that life vicariously for a couple days.

the butterflies fly away

After listening to "Party in the USA" three times to get myself pumped up Tuesday morning, I went and did my oral candidacy exam, and now I'm an official PhD candidate! Yay!

We celebrated by eating lasagna for the third night in a row and watching an episode of The West Wing. We know how to party.

i was just wondering

I have never been pregnant so I have no idea what I'm talking about, but sometimes I think pregnant people are making up pregnancy cravings. If you're craving pizza and ice cream, doesn't that just make you human? Maybe someone who has been pregnant can enlighten me.

march madness commercials are pretty great

Aaron finished his shelf exams yesterday, and we are so happy. It's been an absolutely lovely Saturday with those out of the way. Today we cleaned the church, cleaned our shower (East Coast mold is the worst), went grocery shopping, bought shoes for Aaron, got bagels at Spread (so good-you should have one), and watched a lot of basketball.

Tonight we will keep "watching" basketball and also make risotto. I have watching in quotes because I will actually be working on preparing for my candidacy exam/getting distracted by pinterest. Speaking of basketball, though, I'm really proud of the fact that I'm currently winning the Elder's Quorum bracket. Especially because it's the first time I remember filling one out. YEAH TAKE THAT BOYS.

Also...go Duke!

The end.

well, we are in the school of ARTS and sciences

You wouldn't know it, but our lab is full of talented artists.

you've had a birthday shout hurray

I turned 24 on Sunday, and it was lovely:

dan dan noodles from Han Dynasty

puff paint note and glow stick bracelet from Sister Andrus

presents from Mom (the fabric of those Everlane shirts is unbelievably soft)

homemade funfetti cupcakes

chocolate cake with salted caramel frosting (complete with candle holes)

Aaron and I went out for crepes at Beau Monde on Saturday night, and then on Sunday we had friends over for games and cake and cupcakes. I had a wonderful time! Thank you for all of the well-wishing! Lucky for me, there is still chocolate in my cupboard, so the joy and gladness continues. 

(Also, I learned that doing a crumb coat when frosting a cake actually works. For some reason, I am dumbfounded by this revelation.)

i also love birthdays and mine is on sunday!

I wasn't sure how to write a list of things I love without being semi-boring. Obviously I love Aaron, and I love my family, and I love my friends, and usually I love chemistry. So here's a list of things that maybe you didn't know I love instead?

sparkly nail polish (used sparingly because removing sparkly nail polish is horrible, unless you use pure acetone...which I've never taken enough advantage of in my lab...hmmm)

wandering around Center City by myself on Saturdays (weird?)

Avatar: The Last Airbender cartoon

tiny stirbars in lab that are the size of grains of rice (I hoard them in my drawer)

bright bright pink Cy3 dye and bright bright blue Cy5 dye (used to fluorescently label my protein)

taking care of my cast iron skillet (also probably weird. but no babies or puppies around here, so I have to take care of something. It might as well be a skillet.)

Tell me what you love! It will make me happy.

Cy3 dye. I love you and your fabulous pinkness.

"leave it, it fuels my hate fire"

I was going to write up a post about love and Valentine's Day and nice things, but instead, here is a list of things I irrationally dislike a lot (plus parenthetical comments!):

construction companies

"free printable" (I don't know why??)

"gluten-free"

"no chemicals!" (this one's rational)

quinoa (I've never actually tried it but am averse to the rampant quinoa worshipping online)

dealing with raw chicken (UGH it's so gross and I'm convinced I'm going to die of salmonella)

trucks

I think that's all I've got for now. Maybe I'll come up with a list of things I love to even out the tone around here. Hmmm.