I thought sneakers were better for your feet than flip flops!
I've had a stress fracture in my foot for a while now. I have a 2nd appointment with the doctor this week, and I thought I was going to report that my foot was better. You see, I splurged and bought myself FitFlops and I love them. My feet (and back) usually can't handle regular flip flops because they are so flat. I've been wearing these for 2 weeks and now problems.
Well, today I decided to wear my sneakers. Sneakers! And now my foot is throbbing. I think I'm gonna throw these out! Anyone want them? I just can't believe a flip flop would feel better than sneakers.
So, in the end, I'll report to the doctor and yes, I will probably end up in a boot. Fingers crossed, but we'll see what he says.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Odyssey to the IMAX
First off, I want to say that I am tired.
My sleep has been thrown off all weekend and forgive me if what I say... doesn't make sense.
The Dark Knight has been out for a bit now and some of us at school decided that even though we had already seen the movie on the big screen, we wanted to watch it on an even bigger screen. The plan was to head to Portage on Friday night and watch the 9:20 pm showing. We'd get out about midnight there and head back and it'd only be 2 am. Not bad, especially since it's the weekend.
This is what really happened.
There were 2 cars of people going. Car 1: the Americans Car 2: the Germans (plus 1 Venezuelan). Those of us in Car 1 went to Panera for dinner, then to Ritter's for dessert. We took our time and at about 8:30 pm we decided to head to Portage since Car 2 was just going to meet us there. As we are driving across town to get to the toll road, we get a phone call from Car 2. "Our car broke down and we are just outside exit 77. Can you come get us?" Uh oh. We went back to Jon and Natalie's, they picked up a car, and the plan was that the people in Car 2 would get split between Car 1 and Jon's car (Car 3). We didn't really know what to expect at this point, just looking for a bunch of Germans stranded with their car on the side of the road. So we keep driving and start looking for them.
By this time, we had received more information. They had gotten a flat tire and put the donut on. The donut was flat too. So, they were driving at 20 mph with their emergency lights on towards the nearest plaza. We were still looking for them. About 15 minutes later, we finally found them and we pulled over. They wanted to continue to the plaza, since they couldn't leave their car in the shoulder. 2 people joined Car 1, Car 2 kept driving and now Car 3 was following them. Car 1 was going to get to the theater and save seats for those in Car 2 and 3. Car 2 was going to the plaza and then they would join Car 3 and rush to the theater.
Car 1 - we made it to the theater despite bad Google Maps directions. (It said turn right and we needed to turn left.) We get our tickets at the box office, walk into the show and see that practically every seat was taken with the exception of sporadic single empty seats and the front row. The front row? To watch an IMAX movie? No way. Besides, the movie had already started. The ticket tearer had made a comment about a nearly empty midnight showing and so we made our way to the front. At this point, we'd talked to Car 2 and 3 and decided the midnight show would be the best bet. So, we talked to the girl at the front and we convinced her to let us exchange our tickets, and the tickets for Car 3, which hadn't even been picked up yet. So we waited for Car 3.
Car 2 (with Car 3 following) was driving 20 mph on a flat donut to the nearest toll plaza which was only 3-4 miles away. Signal DPS stage left. They got pulled over. The cop laughed when they told him that they had a flat tire, AND their donut was flat too. He was nice enough to follow Car 3 and escort them to the plaza. They get there, Car 2 piles into Car 3 and they take off - at this point, it's 30 min. til the start of the show and they are at mile marker 60 something. Car 3 finally makes it to the movie theater, they send someone to pick up tickets and exchange them (we were going to surprise them) as they are parking the car. This is 20, almost 30 minutes after the movie starts. We fill them in on our doings and we decide to head over to the Buffalo Wild Wings in the parking lot - a 10 minute walk away.
We spent about an hour in the restaurant, most of us hungry again, drinking, and having fun. It's 11 pm central, midnight according to our time. We walk back to the theater and wait for our theater to empty out. This is when we start to get tired. Some people start playing air hockey, some just sit. When we finally get in to the theater, I can already feel my eyelids start to close. It's 1 AM, and I'm exhausted. We did get to watch the movie finally. I fell asleep a few times, but the IMAX was awesome! Heath Ledger is amazing as the Joker. The movie finally got out at 3 AM and we head back home. Fortunately, I didn't have to drive or else there would have been trouble! I sort of slept part of the way, but it was 5 AM by the time we got back and I got into bed. I just wanted to sleep and I realized I had to be at a Jeff & Tiffany's at 8 am since they were packing up and moving on that day (to Maryland). I set my alarm for 7:45 am and went to bed.
The next morning, I went to Tiffany & Jeff's place, tried to help load up the U-Haul, and said my good byes. They will be missed, but they are off to bigger and better things. Good luck!
Now, I just need to catch up on my sleep.
My sleep has been thrown off all weekend and forgive me if what I say... doesn't make sense.
The Dark Knight has been out for a bit now and some of us at school decided that even though we had already seen the movie on the big screen, we wanted to watch it on an even bigger screen. The plan was to head to Portage on Friday night and watch the 9:20 pm showing. We'd get out about midnight there and head back and it'd only be 2 am. Not bad, especially since it's the weekend.
This is what really happened.
There were 2 cars of people going. Car 1: the Americans Car 2: the Germans (plus 1 Venezuelan). Those of us in Car 1 went to Panera for dinner, then to Ritter's for dessert. We took our time and at about 8:30 pm we decided to head to Portage since Car 2 was just going to meet us there. As we are driving across town to get to the toll road, we get a phone call from Car 2. "Our car broke down and we are just outside exit 77. Can you come get us?" Uh oh. We went back to Jon and Natalie's, they picked up a car, and the plan was that the people in Car 2 would get split between Car 1 and Jon's car (Car 3). We didn't really know what to expect at this point, just looking for a bunch of Germans stranded with their car on the side of the road. So we keep driving and start looking for them.
By this time, we had received more information. They had gotten a flat tire and put the donut on. The donut was flat too. So, they were driving at 20 mph with their emergency lights on towards the nearest plaza. We were still looking for them. About 15 minutes later, we finally found them and we pulled over. They wanted to continue to the plaza, since they couldn't leave their car in the shoulder. 2 people joined Car 1, Car 2 kept driving and now Car 3 was following them. Car 1 was going to get to the theater and save seats for those in Car 2 and 3. Car 2 was going to the plaza and then they would join Car 3 and rush to the theater.
Car 1 - we made it to the theater despite bad Google Maps directions. (It said turn right and we needed to turn left.) We get our tickets at the box office, walk into the show and see that practically every seat was taken with the exception of sporadic single empty seats and the front row. The front row? To watch an IMAX movie? No way. Besides, the movie had already started. The ticket tearer had made a comment about a nearly empty midnight showing and so we made our way to the front. At this point, we'd talked to Car 2 and 3 and decided the midnight show would be the best bet. So, we talked to the girl at the front and we convinced her to let us exchange our tickets, and the tickets for Car 3, which hadn't even been picked up yet. So we waited for Car 3.
Car 2 (with Car 3 following) was driving 20 mph on a flat donut to the nearest toll plaza which was only 3-4 miles away. Signal DPS stage left. They got pulled over. The cop laughed when they told him that they had a flat tire, AND their donut was flat too. He was nice enough to follow Car 3 and escort them to the plaza. They get there, Car 2 piles into Car 3 and they take off - at this point, it's 30 min. til the start of the show and they are at mile marker 60 something. Car 3 finally makes it to the movie theater, they send someone to pick up tickets and exchange them (we were going to surprise them) as they are parking the car. This is 20, almost 30 minutes after the movie starts. We fill them in on our doings and we decide to head over to the Buffalo Wild Wings in the parking lot - a 10 minute walk away.
We spent about an hour in the restaurant, most of us hungry again, drinking, and having fun. It's 11 pm central, midnight according to our time. We walk back to the theater and wait for our theater to empty out. This is when we start to get tired. Some people start playing air hockey, some just sit. When we finally get in to the theater, I can already feel my eyelids start to close. It's 1 AM, and I'm exhausted. We did get to watch the movie finally. I fell asleep a few times, but the IMAX was awesome! Heath Ledger is amazing as the Joker. The movie finally got out at 3 AM and we head back home. Fortunately, I didn't have to drive or else there would have been trouble! I sort of slept part of the way, but it was 5 AM by the time we got back and I got into bed. I just wanted to sleep and I realized I had to be at a Jeff & Tiffany's at 8 am since they were packing up and moving on that day (to Maryland). I set my alarm for 7:45 am and went to bed.
The next morning, I went to Tiffany & Jeff's place, tried to help load up the U-Haul, and said my good byes. They will be missed, but they are off to bigger and better things. Good luck!
Now, I just need to catch up on my sleep.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Almost 4 months now...
It's a few days shy of 4 months since I've written anything at all in this blog.
I'm sorry.
I don't have any real excuse for not writing except I've been: 1. Busy 2. Lazy. I can't explain the lazy part, but I can explain the busy part.
Since April, I've been busy with research, trying to continue it and trying to write up some results for a paper. May and June included 3 weeks of traveling. I had a wedding in Minnesota, a couple days off, a wedding back home in TX (my brother!), and finally a conference at Penn State.
I'd never been to Minnesota before, but I was able to go from Thursday to Sunday. It was a decent drive and Minnesota turned out to be very pretty. The Best Buy corporate offices are apparently located in Minneapolis and Store # 1 is across the highway from the offices. Friends told me that VP from corporate were always surprising this store and trying out new stuff, so they had the BEST Best Buy in the nation. I didn't get to go, but if I take another trip, I'll definitely stop by.
My brother's wedding went well. It was a small affair, just her parents and little brother (from Boston College - boo! hiss!) and my dad, my sister, and me. The judge ended up knowing my brother, turns out he had DJ-ed an election party for him early in his career, so the ceremony was very pretty and not your standard JP wedding. It was followed by dinner in a local restaurant complete with mariachi's.
The conference in Penn State was really good. It was a small conference but several big names in my field were in attendance. My boss's advisor when he was a post-doc at Penn State was there and was one of the organizers. We were able to visit his lab on Thursday and meet several of his students and on Friday, he took us all out to eat, along with some people we all cite in our work. It was awesome to sit next to some of the bigger, or rising, names in surface science. One such person, currently from U. of Houston, whom I sat next to, found out I was from TX too. He went on to invite me to visit his lab whenever I was in the area - which will be in October for my friend's wedding. So, I am definitely going to go visit him in case he is in need of someone with my skills when I finish. :)
In the middle of all these trips, the big semi-annual faculty meeting was held where faculty discuss the progress of their students. My boss came straight from the meeting and told me that I need to finish my candidacy proposal and submit it before we went to Penn State. 10 days after arriving from Penn State, I defended my candidacy proposal amidst having 2 people in lab, forcing to me to do research for 9 hours a day instead of working on my proposal.
Fortunately, my defense went well enough that I passed - yay me!!! Now I've spent the rest of the summer working steadily with a local high school teacher and high school student (not from the same high school).
'
Working with the high school teacher was... interesting. I'm 28, she's 58, and I think it was the source for some insecurity in her dealings with me. I like to think that I'm pretty easy-going, but she managed to be condescending enough to really make me want to... scream. She was perfectly nice, but seemed to always want to question whether I knew what I was talking about. She felt she should know everything I was trying to teach her, how could she? She'd never worked with my research before. She felt she should catch on faster than I had and doing a better job than me. It was all very frustrating, and the fact that I had to give her a "pep talk" was difficult for me. What was worse for me was her terrible attitude towards the students she is going to teach this upcoming semester. She was convinced that they were basically dumb and didn't know anything and any discussion about them involved her comments, "Well, if they were REGULAR chemistry students, they would know that, or would learn that easily, but THESE students are going to struggle with that and you shouldn't even try to teach them that." What?? You are telling me that they shouldn't even bother trying to learn it because they aren't smart enough, are you serious? I visited some of her classes and I liked her "dumb kids" better than her "smart kids." They had less attitude and tried harder. Anyway, we'll see how the semester goes working with her students.
The high school student has been such a joy to work with. He is super bright, really goofy, and such a nice kid. We are playing with a green laser, using it to heat up my samples and blah, blah, blah. But who could forget this?
As of now, I'm done doing research with the teacher and the high school student is "officially" done. However, I'm going to be working with the teacher in her classroom throughout the year - hopefully that will go better when I'm on her turf - and I will working with the high school student through the semester as he submits entries to the Siemen's Westinghouse Competition and whatever else he's submitting it to. He wants to get into MIT, so that gives you an idea of how smart he is. One of my friends from when I started grad school is teaching chemistry and physics in a private school and I'm also supposed to work with him some this semester by bringing a portable version of my instrument into his classroom. All in all a busy year to come.
The last month, I've been fighting with my instrument. It is acting funny - my signal is picking up something not normal - and I have to figure out how to fix it. So far, I've found out that there were screws loose - not mine thank you - and I'm hoping that I've taken care of the bulk of it, but I guess I'll find out on Monday.
It's been a crazy summer and school is right around the corner. I'm sorry I having been blogging, but I will sincerely try to keep all of you up to date more often.
I'm sorry.
I don't have any real excuse for not writing except I've been: 1. Busy 2. Lazy. I can't explain the lazy part, but I can explain the busy part.
Since April, I've been busy with research, trying to continue it and trying to write up some results for a paper. May and June included 3 weeks of traveling. I had a wedding in Minnesota, a couple days off, a wedding back home in TX (my brother!), and finally a conference at Penn State.
I'd never been to Minnesota before, but I was able to go from Thursday to Sunday. It was a decent drive and Minnesota turned out to be very pretty. The Best Buy corporate offices are apparently located in Minneapolis and Store # 1 is across the highway from the offices. Friends told me that VP from corporate were always surprising this store and trying out new stuff, so they had the BEST Best Buy in the nation. I didn't get to go, but if I take another trip, I'll definitely stop by.
My brother's wedding went well. It was a small affair, just her parents and little brother (from Boston College - boo! hiss!) and my dad, my sister, and me. The judge ended up knowing my brother, turns out he had DJ-ed an election party for him early in his career, so the ceremony was very pretty and not your standard JP wedding. It was followed by dinner in a local restaurant complete with mariachi's.
The conference in Penn State was really good. It was a small conference but several big names in my field were in attendance. My boss's advisor when he was a post-doc at Penn State was there and was one of the organizers. We were able to visit his lab on Thursday and meet several of his students and on Friday, he took us all out to eat, along with some people we all cite in our work. It was awesome to sit next to some of the bigger, or rising, names in surface science. One such person, currently from U. of Houston, whom I sat next to, found out I was from TX too. He went on to invite me to visit his lab whenever I was in the area - which will be in October for my friend's wedding. So, I am definitely going to go visit him in case he is in need of someone with my skills when I finish. :)
In the middle of all these trips, the big semi-annual faculty meeting was held where faculty discuss the progress of their students. My boss came straight from the meeting and told me that I need to finish my candidacy proposal and submit it before we went to Penn State. 10 days after arriving from Penn State, I defended my candidacy proposal amidst having 2 people in lab, forcing to me to do research for 9 hours a day instead of working on my proposal.
Fortunately, my defense went well enough that I passed - yay me!!! Now I've spent the rest of the summer working steadily with a local high school teacher and high school student (not from the same high school).
'
Working with the high school teacher was... interesting. I'm 28, she's 58, and I think it was the source for some insecurity in her dealings with me. I like to think that I'm pretty easy-going, but she managed to be condescending enough to really make me want to... scream. She was perfectly nice, but seemed to always want to question whether I knew what I was talking about. She felt she should know everything I was trying to teach her, how could she? She'd never worked with my research before. She felt she should catch on faster than I had and doing a better job than me. It was all very frustrating, and the fact that I had to give her a "pep talk" was difficult for me. What was worse for me was her terrible attitude towards the students she is going to teach this upcoming semester. She was convinced that they were basically dumb and didn't know anything and any discussion about them involved her comments, "Well, if they were REGULAR chemistry students, they would know that, or would learn that easily, but THESE students are going to struggle with that and you shouldn't even try to teach them that." What?? You are telling me that they shouldn't even bother trying to learn it because they aren't smart enough, are you serious? I visited some of her classes and I liked her "dumb kids" better than her "smart kids." They had less attitude and tried harder. Anyway, we'll see how the semester goes working with her students.
The high school student has been such a joy to work with. He is super bright, really goofy, and such a nice kid. We are playing with a green laser, using it to heat up my samples and blah, blah, blah. But who could forget this?
As of now, I'm done doing research with the teacher and the high school student is "officially" done. However, I'm going to be working with the teacher in her classroom throughout the year - hopefully that will go better when I'm on her turf - and I will working with the high school student through the semester as he submits entries to the Siemen's Westinghouse Competition and whatever else he's submitting it to. He wants to get into MIT, so that gives you an idea of how smart he is. One of my friends from when I started grad school is teaching chemistry and physics in a private school and I'm also supposed to work with him some this semester by bringing a portable version of my instrument into his classroom. All in all a busy year to come.
The last month, I've been fighting with my instrument. It is acting funny - my signal is picking up something not normal - and I have to figure out how to fix it. So far, I've found out that there were screws loose - not mine thank you - and I'm hoping that I've taken care of the bulk of it, but I guess I'll find out on Monday.
It's been a crazy summer and school is right around the corner. I'm sorry I having been blogging, but I will sincerely try to keep all of you up to date more often.
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