Spring always seems really insane: I think the stir-craziness everyone's been feeling all winter finally peaks in late March/early April, and, if we're lucky, the weather turns nice and people are able to break their solitariness, go outside and run around. Everyone seems to drive faster and smile more when the weather first turns nice.
Work at my newish job has been good, but super busy. It's not a perfect job--it pays so !*&^% little that I feel like I'm being taken advantage of--but I like my boss(es) generally and I like doing something in my field. If only it paid more and was a little less research-y and a little more...public-y. Alas, it is not my perfect job. I honestly doubt the perfect job exists in this state.
Actually, there's been a lot I've been thinking about in relation to both my job, the direction of Public Health and health care and where I think I fit into this giant fucking mess we've created/was created for us....but more on that at a different time, when I'm in a more reflective mood.
On a completely unrelated note, Sunday marked the third anniversary of my first date with Scientist. Who would've thought three years later we'd be married and living so far away from the town in which we met?
Showing posts with label Scientist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scientist. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Saturday, April 18, 2009
New Yawk and Other Trips Further East
Over Easter weekend Scientist and I made the short trip up to New York to see the city. I have been to a fair number of places, but somehow New York had been one of the places in the US I'd failed to see.
So, despite the face that we had just made a very expensive purchase, which we've had very little time to enjoy due both this trip and the work, we saddled up and headed out.
We saw pretty much everything we could have hoped to see in 3 days: the Brooklyn Bridge (on an extremely windy day no less), Wall Street, Soho (including PURL, where I bought some great yarn for my first sweater), Times Square, improv at The Upright Citizens Brigade and Central Park. I was really impressed at a) how clean the city was compared to other larger cities I've been to and b) how incredibly nice everyone was to us.
One of the highlights of our trip was our fabulous and elegant dinner at Gramercy Tavern. In addition to the great atmosphere and food (I had foie gras for the first time ever), the people watching was top notch. In fact, I heard the couple next to us get into a fight, which ended in the woman making a dramatic exit to the bathroom as her cheese course arrived. I felt bad for eavesdropping, but the temptation was just too great for me NOT to listen.
NYC was awesome--better than I expected, actually--and exhausting. I realize we didn't even come close to seeing all the things I wanted to see, so hopefully we'll be able to fit in another couple trips before we leave Morgantown.
In other travel related news, Scientist and I bought tickets this week to go see my dad in China next September. He'll be getting married, and while there won't be a formal ceremony, we decided this is a good time to go see him and meet his new wife. I'm excited, although the prospect of a non-stop 14 hour flight fills me with dread. Nevertheless, this will be an epic trip (we'll be gone 16 days) and I'm excited about seeing a country and experiencing a culture far removed from any of the other places/cultures I've ever seen.
So, despite the face that we had just made a very expensive purchase, which we've had very little time to enjoy due both this trip and the work, we saddled up and headed out.
We saw pretty much everything we could have hoped to see in 3 days: the Brooklyn Bridge (on an extremely windy day no less), Wall Street, Soho (including PURL, where I bought some great yarn for my first sweater), Times Square, improv at The Upright Citizens Brigade and Central Park. I was really impressed at a) how clean the city was compared to other larger cities I've been to and b) how incredibly nice everyone was to us.
One of the highlights of our trip was our fabulous and elegant dinner at Gramercy Tavern. In addition to the great atmosphere and food (I had foie gras for the first time ever), the people watching was top notch. In fact, I heard the couple next to us get into a fight, which ended in the woman making a dramatic exit to the bathroom as her cheese course arrived. I felt bad for eavesdropping, but the temptation was just too great for me NOT to listen.
NYC was awesome--better than I expected, actually--and exhausting. I realize we didn't even come close to seeing all the things I wanted to see, so hopefully we'll be able to fit in another couple trips before we leave Morgantown.
In other travel related news, Scientist and I bought tickets this week to go see my dad in China next September. He'll be getting married, and while there won't be a formal ceremony, we decided this is a good time to go see him and meet his new wife. I'm excited, although the prospect of a non-stop 14 hour flight fills me with dread. Nevertheless, this will be an epic trip (we'll be gone 16 days) and I'm excited about seeing a country and experiencing a culture far removed from any of the other places/cultures I've ever seen.
Sunday, September 07, 2008
Married!
The wedding went perfectly. The weather was gorgeous (80 degrees with blue skies and no humidity), everyone showed up on-time, fully awake, dressed and in good spirits. We had had some problems in the previous days with getting suits pressed at the last minute, arranging ties and vests, so I was a little on edge about something really stupid going wrong.
In fact, something really stupid did go wrong: the day before Scientist was about to head out to Iowa for wedding he burst a blood vessel in his left hand while lifting weights. Of course, his hand turned red and swelled up all cartoon-like. The one finger he needed--his ring finger--remained too swollen for me to fit his ring on it during the ceremony, so I had to make due with sliding the ring down to his first knuckle. I tried not interpret this as a bad omen, but rather some messed up coincidence. I guess this will be one of those funny stories we'll tell our child/children (along with the story about how mommy and daddy slept on the floor of a shitty apartment for 10 weeks while the government messed around with paperwork, delaying the delivery of their furniture--HA!).
It's funny, I got increasingly more and more nervous as the morning wore on (we got married at noon), but once my father and I were standing behind the doors of the entrance of the church about to go in, I suddenly relaxed. During the ceremony, as far as I was concerned, the only people there were Scientist, myself and the minister (who sweated profusely throughout the ceremony).
There were two times I had to hold myself back from crying--once while Scientist was reading his vows to me, and then while I was reading my vows to him. I had been really nervous about sounding like a sappy idiot, but I ended up creating vows that were both simple and meaningful without being ridiculously corny.
Afterward, we took pictures (which I'll post as soon as I have, but, from what I've seen, are absolutely gorgeous), and then had a small luncheon. Ice Cream Man gave a nice toast in which he ripped on Scientist and, my honor attendant, Brian, gave his own toast to love in Russian. They were both beautiful (thank you Brian for not telling terribly embarrassing stories about me involving ridiculous amounts of vodka).
When we were originally planning the wedding, Scientist and I decided we wanted to combine both the formal and informal. Obviously the ceremony and luncheon were the 'formal' part. The pig roast we had later on that evening, while maybe a little nontraditional, was an opportunity to really talk spend time with our guests. One thing we kept hearing over and over again while we were planning was "You'll be so busy you won't have an opportunity to talk to anyone," which totally would have been true, had we not had the pig roast. I feel like I really got to spend time with my dad, who I only see once a year (he lives in rural China), and some friends I rarely see because we live so far from Iowa City.
In a week we will leave on our honeymoon to Italy and Croatia. If you're jealous that's okay--I would be too, if I weren't so ridiculously happy to be going on this trip myself. I promise to post pictures of both the wedding and the honeymoon once we get back.
In fact, something really stupid did go wrong: the day before Scientist was about to head out to Iowa for wedding he burst a blood vessel in his left hand while lifting weights. Of course, his hand turned red and swelled up all cartoon-like. The one finger he needed--his ring finger--remained too swollen for me to fit his ring on it during the ceremony, so I had to make due with sliding the ring down to his first knuckle. I tried not interpret this as a bad omen, but rather some messed up coincidence. I guess this will be one of those funny stories we'll tell our child/children (along with the story about how mommy and daddy slept on the floor of a shitty apartment for 10 weeks while the government messed around with paperwork, delaying the delivery of their furniture--HA!).
It's funny, I got increasingly more and more nervous as the morning wore on (we got married at noon), but once my father and I were standing behind the doors of the entrance of the church about to go in, I suddenly relaxed. During the ceremony, as far as I was concerned, the only people there were Scientist, myself and the minister (who sweated profusely throughout the ceremony).
There were two times I had to hold myself back from crying--once while Scientist was reading his vows to me, and then while I was reading my vows to him. I had been really nervous about sounding like a sappy idiot, but I ended up creating vows that were both simple and meaningful without being ridiculously corny.
Afterward, we took pictures (which I'll post as soon as I have, but, from what I've seen, are absolutely gorgeous), and then had a small luncheon. Ice Cream Man gave a nice toast in which he ripped on Scientist and, my honor attendant, Brian, gave his own toast to love in Russian. They were both beautiful (thank you Brian for not telling terribly embarrassing stories about me involving ridiculous amounts of vodka).
When we were originally planning the wedding, Scientist and I decided we wanted to combine both the formal and informal. Obviously the ceremony and luncheon were the 'formal' part. The pig roast we had later on that evening, while maybe a little nontraditional, was an opportunity to really talk spend time with our guests. One thing we kept hearing over and over again while we were planning was "You'll be so busy you won't have an opportunity to talk to anyone," which totally would have been true, had we not had the pig roast. I feel like I really got to spend time with my dad, who I only see once a year (he lives in rural China), and some friends I rarely see because we live so far from Iowa City.
In a week we will leave on our honeymoon to Italy and Croatia. If you're jealous that's okay--I would be too, if I weren't so ridiculously happy to be going on this trip myself. I promise to post pictures of both the wedding and the honeymoon once we get back.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
A Simple Wedding
After Scientist first asked me to marry him last year, I promised myself that I would not a) have a complicated wedding and b) become one of those women (or one half of one of those couples) who expects people to spend a lot of money/time/energy on my wedding. So far, I've been successful at avoiding both of the things I feared.....or so I thought.
Having a low maintenance wedding and being a low maintenance bride is extremely difficult. Scientist and I are having only one person each in our wedding parties--both of whom, incidentally, are men (my friend Brian, who put up with me throughout my rough Peace Corps service, is my 'honor attendant', and Scientist's childhood friend, Ice Cream Man, is his best man). We're getting married at noon, not in the late afternoon or evening. We're not having a band or giving our guests little mementos of our wedding which would eventually end up gathering dust in someone's cupboard for the next several decades.
And yet, I am overwhelmed with crap to do for the next 2 1/2 weeks I'm back in Iowa. I have to meet with hair stylists because my stylist backed out on me after I made an appointment right after we got engaged (very professional--she's not getting my business or my mom's business any more, no matter how long we've known her), make-up people, the florist, the caterers.....I'm astounded at how complicated my 50 person wedding has gotten. I shiver to think at what would have happened had I not bitten the bullet and hired a wedding planner to help me plan all this. Grad school, work and planning an out-of-town wedding would have driven me crazy and we would have eloped, I'm sure of it. In fact, eloping doesn't sound like to bad of an idea right now.
Having a low maintenance wedding and being a low maintenance bride is extremely difficult. Scientist and I are having only one person each in our wedding parties--both of whom, incidentally, are men (my friend Brian, who put up with me throughout my rough Peace Corps service, is my 'honor attendant', and Scientist's childhood friend, Ice Cream Man, is his best man). We're getting married at noon, not in the late afternoon or evening. We're not having a band or giving our guests little mementos of our wedding which would eventually end up gathering dust in someone's cupboard for the next several decades.
And yet, I am overwhelmed with crap to do for the next 2 1/2 weeks I'm back in Iowa. I have to meet with hair stylists because my stylist backed out on me after I made an appointment right after we got engaged (very professional--she's not getting my business or my mom's business any more, no matter how long we've known her), make-up people, the florist, the caterers.....I'm astounded at how complicated my 50 person wedding has gotten. I shiver to think at what would have happened had I not bitten the bullet and hired a wedding planner to help me plan all this. Grad school, work and planning an out-of-town wedding would have driven me crazy and we would have eloped, I'm sure of it. In fact, eloping doesn't sound like to bad of an idea right now.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Thursday, July 12, 2007
The Story
I should have known something was up.
About 3 1/2 weeks ago I came home from hangin' with my mom to find Scientist cleaning the refrigerator like a man possessed. Now, Scientist isn't a slob, or even a sloppy guy, but, like me, he's not one to take on big projects like cleaning the fridge for no reason. Especially on a really beautiful day. But he was, and figuring I should help, I decided to pitch in.
After we had finished, we started preparing some dinner. Since what we were making required us to marinate the meat for awhile, we decided to go for a walk at Kent Park, a park we started frequenting right after we met. It had just rained, so we figured there would be less people out there than usual.
Seeing as how I was totally stinky, I changed into something clean. Scientist did as well, changing into a nice clean navy shirt and some new shorts. I thought this was a little strange, as we were going to be gone for just a little while, but figured we had been cleaning, so he probably felt grungy or something and wanted to get into new clothes. He grabbed the camera and we headed out to the car.
Then, just as we were about to leave, Scientist said he needed to go get a CD, jumped out of the car and ran inside. When he came back, however, his hands were empty. He made some excuse about how the CD he was going to get was a "good" CD, as opposed to a burned one, and he didn't want to ruin it by putting it into the car stereo (for some reason, the car stereo eats CDs, so we try to only put burned ones in it, lest we lose it forever to the car stereo gremlin living there). I shrugged. Then, finally, we were off.
Once we got to Kent Park we started on our stroll. It had rained earlier, but the sun had come back out and it was late enough in the day that it wasn't humid and sticky, but rather pleasant.
Kent Park is unusual in the number of bridges it has. It has a lake where people fish, along with a beach and 4 or 5 bridges that surround the perimeter. There are always a lot of families with little kids running everywhere. It's very Midwestern.
At one point we stopped on one of the bridges and started doing cute couple stuff like making out and gazing into each other's eyes. After a minute though, Scientist said we should continue on to "our bridge". Like I said earlier, soon after we started dating we would go to Kent Park to relax and be together. The first time we ever went to Kent Park we took a bunch of pictures on this one bridge; this bridge, of course, gained some sentimental significance to both of us as our relationship progressed, and we considered it "ours". Disgustingly cute, I know.
But as we got closer to the bridge, we noticed it was occupied by three people with fishing poles and an extremely excited dog. When I pointed them out to Scientist he snapped his fingers and exclaimed "DAMN IT!" with far more annoyance than necessary. I was kind of surprised at his reaction, but he seemed to get a hold of himself and said something about how we could just stop on the bridge we were on.
That was when Scientist started in telling how much he loved and cared about me. Then he broke away and asked me to come stand away from the side of the bridge. I was a little confused by the way he was acting at this point, but followed him anyway away from the water.
That was when he pulled out a ring and asked me to marry him. After I had recovered from the shock of what he had just asked me, I told him yes.
We had talked about getting married for a quite awhile, but I had figured we wouldn't get engaged for at least another year, what with all the stuff that's been happening lately (my grandmother's death, his thesis, being unsure where we're moving to in the next few weeks, our impending homeless beginning on July 31st). He had gotten the ring on Monday and had been hiding it in various places, like the toolbox in the car and in his backpack, all week trying to figure out when the best time was to ask me. After he explained it to me it all made sense: him changing clothes, grabbing the camera, getting excited about people being on our bridge, etc. He had wanted me to stand away from the water because he didn't want to drop the ring in the water out of nervousness.
I'm extremely happy. We both are. The wedding should be sometime next year, probably in August.
And that is the story of how I got engaged.
About 3 1/2 weeks ago I came home from hangin' with my mom to find Scientist cleaning the refrigerator like a man possessed. Now, Scientist isn't a slob, or even a sloppy guy, but, like me, he's not one to take on big projects like cleaning the fridge for no reason. Especially on a really beautiful day. But he was, and figuring I should help, I decided to pitch in.
After we had finished, we started preparing some dinner. Since what we were making required us to marinate the meat for awhile, we decided to go for a walk at Kent Park, a park we started frequenting right after we met. It had just rained, so we figured there would be less people out there than usual.
Seeing as how I was totally stinky, I changed into something clean. Scientist did as well, changing into a nice clean navy shirt and some new shorts. I thought this was a little strange, as we were going to be gone for just a little while, but figured we had been cleaning, so he probably felt grungy or something and wanted to get into new clothes. He grabbed the camera and we headed out to the car.
Then, just as we were about to leave, Scientist said he needed to go get a CD, jumped out of the car and ran inside. When he came back, however, his hands were empty. He made some excuse about how the CD he was going to get was a "good" CD, as opposed to a burned one, and he didn't want to ruin it by putting it into the car stereo (for some reason, the car stereo eats CDs, so we try to only put burned ones in it, lest we lose it forever to the car stereo gremlin living there). I shrugged. Then, finally, we were off.
Once we got to Kent Park we started on our stroll. It had rained earlier, but the sun had come back out and it was late enough in the day that it wasn't humid and sticky, but rather pleasant.
Kent Park is unusual in the number of bridges it has. It has a lake where people fish, along with a beach and 4 or 5 bridges that surround the perimeter. There are always a lot of families with little kids running everywhere. It's very Midwestern.
At one point we stopped on one of the bridges and started doing cute couple stuff like making out and gazing into each other's eyes. After a minute though, Scientist said we should continue on to "our bridge". Like I said earlier, soon after we started dating we would go to Kent Park to relax and be together. The first time we ever went to Kent Park we took a bunch of pictures on this one bridge; this bridge, of course, gained some sentimental significance to both of us as our relationship progressed, and we considered it "ours". Disgustingly cute, I know.
But as we got closer to the bridge, we noticed it was occupied by three people with fishing poles and an extremely excited dog. When I pointed them out to Scientist he snapped his fingers and exclaimed "DAMN IT!" with far more annoyance than necessary. I was kind of surprised at his reaction, but he seemed to get a hold of himself and said something about how we could just stop on the bridge we were on.
That was when Scientist started in telling how much he loved and cared about me. Then he broke away and asked me to come stand away from the side of the bridge. I was a little confused by the way he was acting at this point, but followed him anyway away from the water.
That was when he pulled out a ring and asked me to marry him. After I had recovered from the shock of what he had just asked me, I told him yes.
We had talked about getting married for a quite awhile, but I had figured we wouldn't get engaged for at least another year, what with all the stuff that's been happening lately (my grandmother's death, his thesis, being unsure where we're moving to in the next few weeks, our impending homeless beginning on July 31st). He had gotten the ring on Monday and had been hiding it in various places, like the toolbox in the car and in his backpack, all week trying to figure out when the best time was to ask me. After he explained it to me it all made sense: him changing clothes, grabbing the camera, getting excited about people being on our bridge, etc. He had wanted me to stand away from the water because he didn't want to drop the ring in the water out of nervousness.
I'm extremely happy. We both are. The wedding should be sometime next year, probably in August.
And that is the story of how I got engaged.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Atlanta?
I know its been something like 4 or 5 weeks since I've posted anything. However, since no one has e-mailed me bitching, I figure y'all understand I'm a very busy graduate student and after acquiring my cool new job I've had very little time to do stuff like blog.
So, as some of you may have guessed from the title of this blog I WAS ACCEPTED TO EMORY! I think I'm still in a little bit of shock--this is one of the best public health programs in the country, and I got in.
Unfortunately, since nothing is ever easy anymore, I'm not sure if Atlanta is in the future for us despite my acceptance into such a phenomenal program. Scientist has to get a post doc or some other job, and then we'll very seriously consider moving.
See, Emory would cost me $40,000 plus per year, so before we pack our shit up and head down there I need to be absolutely certain that the advantages of transferring there will out weigh staying in Iowa, which may, in fact, be the case. The Center for Disease Control is in Atlanta (its even physically located next to the Emory campus), so, in theory I'll have more opportunities for both internships, which would help out financially, and jobs post graduation. That, and the curriculum, not to mention the tremendous number of resources, at EU make Iowa pale in comparison. Here I can't really specialize in anything--all I do is take one fucking required course after another-- and at EU they have course after course dedicated to STIs, HIV/AIDS, reproductive health, immigrant health....IT'S AWESOME.
So, there will be some major decision making being done in the next few weeks. I'll keep you all updated. Promise.
So, as some of you may have guessed from the title of this blog I WAS ACCEPTED TO EMORY! I think I'm still in a little bit of shock--this is one of the best public health programs in the country, and I got in.
Unfortunately, since nothing is ever easy anymore, I'm not sure if Atlanta is in the future for us despite my acceptance into such a phenomenal program. Scientist has to get a post doc or some other job, and then we'll very seriously consider moving.
See, Emory would cost me $40,000 plus per year, so before we pack our shit up and head down there I need to be absolutely certain that the advantages of transferring there will out weigh staying in Iowa, which may, in fact, be the case. The Center for Disease Control is in Atlanta (its even physically located next to the Emory campus), so, in theory I'll have more opportunities for both internships, which would help out financially, and jobs post graduation. That, and the curriculum, not to mention the tremendous number of resources, at EU make Iowa pale in comparison. Here I can't really specialize in anything--all I do is take one fucking required course after another-- and at EU they have course after course dedicated to STIs, HIV/AIDS, reproductive health, immigrant health....IT'S AWESOME.
So, there will be some major decision making being done in the next few weeks. I'll keep you all updated. Promise.
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