Halloween Weekend

Halloween was a lot of fun. It’s not a holiday that I’m all that into, but I love a good party, so even though I had had a rough day, I put on a costume and went out with some friends to the school party. I went as “Little Bo Peep” in a dress that I found at Goodwill for $9. Here is a picture of me with my friend Andrea and another picture of my friend Peter (tall with the white sailor hat) and Veit in some real US Navy uniforms that I borrowed from my friend John so the German boys would have something to wear to the costume party.



The next night I was at my friend/mentor Eicke’s house for a going away party for our friend Veit. Veit has been a post-doc at UMass for the past 2 years and on this coming Friday is moving back to Germany as a professor. Eicke and his wife and his au pair prepared a fabulous dinner and we hung out and talked and drank wine and celebrated Veit’s stay here. I will really miss Veit. He’s a great brotherly-type of person to have around in the lab... he’s serious when he needs to be, but likes to joke around and be funny too. But I am happy for him. He and his wife Julia and daughter Clara are moving to Bonn (they are originally from Munich)

My friend Cathrine and I had accepted an invitation to a masquerade party that very night before we had been invited to Eicke’s. So we left Eicke’s place around 11pm and headed to the other party with the masks we had made. This is a picture of us with our masks on.

Where Have I Been??

I took a look and recently realized that I haven’t written anything in a couple of months... like since August. Life has been more than crazy, but that isn’t why I haven’t updated. To be honest, I am unsure if anyone reads this anyhow. But I had begun to think ‘why on earth would anyone want to read about what’s going on in my life?’ mostly because nothing is going on... except school. Still. So I’ll update you: I’m still in school.

I love my job. I’m there all the time, so it’s definitely a good thing to enjoy what I do. I really enjoy working long hours, late at night and on weekends. I like it because I like the good feeling of knowing that I am giving it everything I’ve got... so if it’s not good enough, well, there’s nothing I can do about it. It’s really hard to meet people and many of the people that I have met that I enjoy are home with their families on weekends and evenings, so I mostly just work. But like I said- I love my job.

I’ve have had some good times recently. I have made some really good friends. Most of them- unfortunately- will be gone by Christmas. They’re moving back to their homes in Brazil, Germany and Norway. But the good news is, I’ll get to go to those places someday to visit them. But I still ache a little bit to be losing them. I don’t like losing friends that are a lot of fun to hang out with. In the up-coming posts, I’ll talk about them a little more and put up some pictures.

I could use a little Water Polo in the Lab...

Well, I'm not going to lie... I've been a bit stressed out. I love my job so i sometimes forget that it is definitely a job that some would call "stressful". I have to manage and coordinate everything I do, all of my supplies, all of my reading and intellectual contributions and on top of that, I carry out the actual experiments. I'm having a hard time seeing the end goal. I'm just not getting it... and frankly, its hard for me to go crazy with experiments when I'm having a hard time putting them into the "big picture". That's about all I've got. It's been affecting my sleep... which I am not used to... hopefully it will all work itself out. I know I'm capable of it, I'm just not sure that I'm all that interested in working 60+ hours a week for the rest of my life.

To be honest, I'm hoping it will be like water polo was for me. My first year and a half of water polo, just "getting" the game mentally wasn't working so well. Then, literally one day, in the middle of a tournment, I just "got it". I don't know what happened but something had clicked in my head and I became an unstoppaple machine in the pool. It was glorious. I still remember the exact game that it happened in. It was a night game, the last tournament game of the day, and the pool deck was quiet, not a huge crowd, and we could see the stars over the Poway HS pool. My coach had said that he had to do a double take to realize who it was out in the game swimming smart and catching stray passes with her left hand. That was an exciting time for me. And that was just sports... not my future career.

maybe I just need to find a groove...

what a weekend!

This past weekend was really wonderful. On Friday night I went to a surprise party birthday party for my friend Dominic who turned 25. We met up at Bertucci’s and then we went candlepin bowling. I had never been candlepin bowling… it was interesting. The pins are really skinny compared to normal ones and the bowling ball is about the size of a large grapefruit. Every time it’s your turn, you roll the ball 3 times per frame and you do 2 frames consecutively. According to my friend Jon, if you grow up in New England and you go bowling with your family, its automatically candlepin bowling… not the normal kind that the rest of the country enjoys. To say the least, I wasn’t very good at it… but maybe next time.

Saturday I had breakfast with a group of 6 ladies that are in my Bible study at Fellowship Church. This is a new tradition that we’re starting and hopefully will be able to get together once a month to just hang out and get to know each other better and encourage and pray for each other. It really is such a blessing to share that time with them… the only bummer is that its at 8am. But by the time I have a cup of coffee, I’m fine. After that, I hit the pool for some laps followed by a 15 minutes in a massaging whirlpool. I was so amazingly relaxed!!! It was great. That evening, after going to lab for a couple hours, my friend Whitney and I went out to get gifts for upcoming weddings. At the end of that it was about 8pm and we hadn’t eaten, so we went into Olive Garden and ate at the bar. We split a drink and a meal. Both of us only ate about half of the split meal and the guy manning the bar couldn’t believe it when we asked for a box. Thirteen bucks for 4 meals… pretty good.

Sunday, I hit the beach. I love the beach. Most people who know me would say that is an understatement. The beauty of it is, I don’t care if it’s a beach on the ocean or lake or river… just sand and water and I’m a happy girl. I went with friends that I met at a church in Boston about a year ago. We invited several people but it ended up being just 4 of us which ended up being a really good thing for a couple reasons. The first is that we all fit into one car. The second is that we didn’t really have a plan… we just kinda thought we’d find a beach, park and enjoy the day. Well, if only it had been that easy. Beach after beach was full and there was nowhere to park…. Including the one we were looking for originally (Singing Beach) but had a hard time finding. 2 hours after we started driving, and we didn’t have any more ideas, Sheryl said that she knew of a beach that was never crowded but it also wasn’t super nice. At that point, we were just glad to think of a place that had free parking (or parking period) and didn’t have a million people on it. Sheryl had lived in Beverly for a bit so it was kinda an inside scoop. We showed up and what do you know, it wasn’t crowded and there was parking. It was small and the sand was very course, but the water was moderately warm (~65) and it was quiet and there were bathrooms. It turned out to be a really lovely day. I got to swim in the exceedingly salty Atlantic Ocean, lay out and soak up some sunshine, play smashball with my friend Jon (who was very good at keeping the volley going) and just hang out with some friends. After the beach, we went to church and when I got home, I found out that my Aunt Francie was in town so I went to my friends John and Marianne’s for dessert and to say hello. It was nice to see her and catch up. As soon as I got home, I threw in a load of laundry, crashed and now I’m at work… working…

I love being me.

August 9th- Tower Hill Botanical Garden

Last Saturday I woke up and had no idea what the day had in store for me. As I was lounging around, getting laundry done and watching a little bit of Olympics, I got a call from a friend John Giles. We have been trying to plan a time to go to the Tower Hill Botanical Gardens in Boylston, MA (right near me) for quite some time and just hadn’t been able to coordinate it. John loves that place. When he was diagnosed with cancer some years ago he would go there to walk around and pray and just enjoy the beauty. It was really nice to go there and see the amazing grounds.





One of the most interesting sites was the Folly. If you don’t know, a Folly is a kind of park that was popular during the 18th and 19th centuries. It usually is designed similarly to Greco-Roman style structures thought to be romantic. It was very nice.


You can also see the stone walls in the area. In New England, these walls boomed in abundance from 1775 to 1825 when farming in the area became more popular. In the 19th century, it became required that they be inspected to make sure that they were structurally sound. I think this is funny because they are rarely taller than knee-height (and that would be considered tall). They were used to keep in animals, mark property lines etc. Most people got the rocks from their own land and started using them because they were already on the land. You see these “fences” everywhere… in people’s yards, in national forests, in the middle of nowhere… a true mark of history on the region.

August 3rd- Michael Burns comes to MA

Another Blog to catch up on… the Burns visit… the weekend of August 2nd in general was good. Saturday Whitney and I went to south shore, then I got to visit with my friend Mike Burns who was in town from Germany. Unfortunately, there was a death in his family so the circumstances that brought him home for 2 weeks was unfortunate. But, we got to hang out with quite the crowd and enjoy each other’s company. Mike is like a brother… easy to talk to, fun, and unique (in a good way… most of the time) haha… here’s some pictures from that. After church on Sunday, a bunch of us headed over to a “Mexican” restaurant called Moe’s for some food. Burns really likes that place… boo. But we had fun anyhow…

August 2nd- The South Shore of MA

Two Saturday's ago (August2nd) Whitney and I decided that since we had a free Saturday, we were going to go somewhere we had never been before. We decided on the south shore because although we had been to Plymouth, MA we hadn’t seen anything else.

We started in Quincy (pronounced ‘Qwinzee’) which is technically NOT “south shore”. It is in Norfolk county just outside of Boston. It is called “The city of Presidents”. It was home to presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams. We went to tour the home that the presidents lived in. It was really nice. We only saw the outside because the wait for the $3.00 tour was 30 minutes and frankly, we had other places to go… other things to see. But we’ve been there! The gardens were beautiful… and I’m a sucker for a nice porch…




After Quincy, we headed to Hingham. In World War II, Eleanor Roosevelt described the town as “the typical town in America during wartime” with “the most beautiful Main Street in America”. With accolades such as that, we thought we should see this town and its Main Street. It was neat too because there were houses along this Main Street built in the 16, 17 and 1800’s. The houses were beautiful and the street nice and clean, but I’m not sure about the praise that Eleanor Roosevelt gave it. It was just like any other street.



However, along the street there was a really neat church. This church is called “The Old Ship Church”. Built in 1681, the church is the oldest meetinghouse still in use today and has an active congregation. It’s called “Old Ship” because back in the day, old shipbuilders began coming on-shore and building buildings. You can see in the pictures the structural similarities in this building compared to ships. It was quite magnificent. It was also neat because there are no pews, except on the top level, and people sat in groups with their families.




After that, we went on to Hull and stopped along the way at Nantasket with the nice beaches there. My favorite part of Hull were the wind turbines. Go green energy!! You can see on this map that Hull has a unique shape and at parts is very narrow. Lots of beach although only one side had beach; the other side was incredibly rocky. But we were reminded again of the intense patriotism that New England has compared to San Diego. (I’d say the rest of the country, but I only have San Diego to compare).





After Hull we headed to Scituate (pronounced ‘Situate’). It was a nice town with a fun harbor and a very artsy downtown area. We did stumble across a “Scituate Heritage Festival” with music and fair-type of activities. Whitney and I were laughing because it was totally a hipee thing… but it was interesting to walk around.

After that, we were done. And just in time because about that time, the sky decided to explode and the summer rains picked back up. My impression of the south shore is different than I had expected it to be. It is kinda like the OB area of San Diego residential communities. It is basically the overflow of people that don’t fit into the Boston area. It’s not super nice like on Cape Cod or the North Shore. Although there are a handful of Coronado-type homes along the water, overall, the homes are like what you would find in OB or Clairemont in SD. But- we’ve officially been there. Plymouth county has been seen… at least enough of it to get the gist. I hope you like the pictures!

Little Italy of Boston

Last Friday night i went into Boston with some friends to celebrate my friend Andy's birthday. He's Italian so we went to the North End where, for the month of August, they are having a festival each Friday to celebrate a different saint. There is lots of food and people and music. A very lively scene.



We made one mistake though. We chose a restaurant that looked like it could seat all 10 of us and get us food relatively quickly. We chose a place called "Spagnuolo's". I'll start with the positives 1. the food was good 2. we could all sit together at one table. HOWEVER, it was not worth it.


Our waitress had had a rough day although I'm not sure that she'd be any different on any other day. In a nearly empty restaurant, she didn't speak, but instead yelled at us. If you had a question about the menu, she couldn't explain it or was at least very put off that you had a question. We were a little bit afraid to ask for beverages to drink, which was probably good because they charged $2.50 for a CAN of coke. The plates were hot so watch out, she can't be expected to carry those, so she'll just throw your pizza at you... unless she first drops it on the floor while bringing it to you. Sorry Mike, you'll just have to watch the rest of us eat. The salad that she served our friend Michelle was "the best she could do for this late in the evening". They were out of bread to serve with the meal. They were "out" of bags for you to carry your food home in... so have fun with that on the T. Although, I had seen someone with a bag, so I did ask her if she was sure about the bag situation and she miraculously found one bag. And if you were talking to her, pay attention, she'll probably start her sentence in the kitchen. At one point, I think about the time I asked for the bag, I got poked by a friend who told me to listen because the waitress was talking to me... from 15 feet away as she came towards us. Wow.

Now, are you ready for this? This is the best part: the bill. Now, most waitresses are used to serving large parties. It was clear that she had been doing this profession for quite some time, however this was a huge issue. Most of us had cash but one couple did not, so we wanted to put a bit on their card and then the rest cash. Now, I'll say this, just getting to the point where she would put some money on the card and take the rest cash took about 20 minutes. It was like she had never been asked to split a bill before. Frankly, the fact that 9/10 of us had cash was wonderful... it can really get ugly sometimes if multiple people need to use cards. The service had been absolutely terrible, so we weren't too keen on giving her a big tip. We weren't going to leave her with nothing... just not 20%. The bill was around $110. And somehow she got it in her head that she was getting a $25 tip. We told her to put $25 on the credit card that our friends were using to pay since that was what they needed to contribute, then we had cash for the rest. But the thing is, the cash that we gave her didn't leave her with a $25 tip. So, she charged the credit card $37 AND kept all the cash. Jeff (whose card she over-charged) was not happy about this. Who would be? I'm really glad that he made a fuss because they had charged more than was authorized, and we made her give us $12 cash.


We finally got out of there, she got a $15 tip, and we were totally exasperated. Afterwards, we did some serious debriefing and counseling about what had gone on in there... all the way home! Andy- nice choice- quite a memorable birthday huh? :)

Horseneck Beach

Yesterday I went with a friend of mine to Horseneck Beach in Westport, MA with my friend Laura Daman. It worked out because this week again is slow for me and next week won’t be, so I decided to hit the beach. Laura is a teacher and is spending her summer volunteering and tutoring but Wednesday is her ‘play day’. It was a perfect beach day (hard to come by in New England): 85°F with a water temp of ~70°F. I had to go into work in the morning for a bit, but I made it to Laura’s by about 1:30 and we were at the beach by 3pm. By then, many people were leaving, but as far as we were concerned we only missed bigger crowds and the really intense sun. Both of us are super fair skinned so we were glad to miss the latter. We swam, we read, I walked around and took some pictures. Have I mentioned that I LOVE the New England coast?!? It is soo different than what I am used to in CA and each beach is a little bit different, yet the same. We left the beach around 6:30 and then found a place that the locals like to go to for fish and chips and ice cream. It was a really great day.

Here's some interesting side notes about New England Beaches:
1. they decorate sand castles with rocks instead of shells
2. Laura said "wow- this beach has really great waves" (anyone in CA may have thought we were at the bay)
3. The lifeguards are mostly all high-schoolers working a summer job because there is no need for year-round guards
4. lots of rocks
5. grainy (not soft) sand... although, the further south you go- like Rhode Island and about where we were, the softer the sand gets
6. bath houses and concessions
7. nearby clam shacks
8. lighthouses
9. sand dunes
10. you have to pay for parking