grad student night IN!

hooray for relaxing evenings!

it's been a busy busy week!

saturday: i saw lion king on broadway with jessica -- it was AWESOME!

sunday: i was still tired from saturday, but after church i had a lunch meeting with amber (from church) and after an hour of discussion agreed to start helping run senior youth group in the fall. i'm excited, but apparently really am allergic to saying no (when someone tells me about a niche that needs to be filled and lists the skills they think i have to fill it, i don't think about the big picture of ALL of my time, and tend to say "ok, sure! sign me up!"... i enjoy all the stuff i'm up to, but haven't learned to necessarily budget relaxation like i should ;))

monday: worked in the TA office all morning until our 1pm meeting, ran around quickly to get last-minute errands done for tuesday,... then off to the coffee shop where met with baxter for 3 hours of studying for his qual, then met with esther for half an hour to set a reading list for a seminar we give this fall... while meeting with esther, i ran into a former student of mine, and after meeting with her i ended up chatting math with him for half an hour... so we're talking 11 hour day :)

tuesday: annual REU field trip to IBM... excellent as always, just from leaving campus until our return was 11 hours as well :P

wednesday: (1) meeting at 10am with colleen (not my housemate) to set the reading list for *our* fall teaching seminar, (2) attended presentation about prague by the czech REU students (it was HILARIOUS, see here, especially the intro (see slides 2 and 3) and the section specifically about prague (namely slides 6, 9, and 10) ; they promised there would be things i hadn't seen in the past two years of REU, and oh man, did the pictures deliver ;) ), after laughing for 1.5 hours of prague jokes, (3) i sat in on an hour long meeting where my coworkers at the TA office met with the manager of the campus student center to make room reservations/set up requests for TA orientation next month. it was 4:30pm by the time i was home again.

but here's one of the highlights of my week (besides the czech presentation and going on field trips at age 26 of course ;) ). some of the czechs had requested to go see a baseball game before we all leave the country in 1.5 weeks, so we were going to go tonight... and then it started pouring rain instead... i IMed the czech grad student (jan) and asked if monday would be ok instead (and he checked with the other students who were on campus). then, as we chatted a little more, i commented i was going to watch movies since there was no baseball to be had, and he asked if that was an invitation to join... i have no problem with movie company, so i ran errands and picked jan up from campus (obviously flying in from prague he doesn't have a car)... i introduced him to the wonderful world of "ferris bueller's day off", and we chatted until midnight about all kinds of stuff. for jan, he lives in the dorm with the other REU students, but is more like an analog of me. he enjoys it, but they're all 18-21 year olds, and he'll be 29 this weekend, so on occasion, like me, he feels old and needs a break :P, and i was happy to provide the escape.

most of my local friends are MIA lately... scott's busy, eric's in vermont or new hampshire or something, colleen is in minnesota, leigh's in maine... ben's been missing since april (not missing, just i haven't managed to track him down in person in 3 months). i've been hanging out quite a bit with sara, but most of the rest are gone... it's just fun to hang out with other fellow tired 25+ grad students, enjoy the chatting, and not feel guilty about energy level :)

it was a good day.

(and that's what i've been up to lately... how i manage to keep up with me, i'm not quite sure ;) )

end of ramble.

good night!

as if you need help procrastinating...

click it

just plain funny...

I get the NYC news on my TV... just now, the morning rush hour traffic report came on while i was eating breakfast:

"and check out this picture from I-80/95... we've got a 45 minute delay in the west bound lanes... (other stories)... by the way, that backup on 80/95? apparently rubbernecking due to a man on the side of the road holding nothing but a watermelon"

just when you think you've heard it all... :P

quotes of the day (and it's not even noon yet!)

humberto: lara! you're back! how was your trip! what are you up to this summer?
me: scotland was great! now i'm working two jobs and running around like crazy.... lots of fun!
humberto: wow... i hope that one day i'll be like you.
me: really? why?
humberto: you do so much! i work hard to keep up with just a little, but you do everything and do it well!
me: wanna know the secret?
humberto: what?
me: it's simple... i don't sleep nearly as much as i should.


> Hi Dr. XXXXXX,
>
> I'm reserving equipment for the week today and checking if you
> need extra equipment for your talk.
>
> FYI, the talk is at noon in XXXXXXX and includes lunch!
>
> Best,
> Lara

I will need a laptop projector and a forgiving audience.
Best Wishes,

star spangled...

this was the back of the church bulletin today... thought it was interesting:

TGIF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i can't believe it's friday. it's been one *cRaZy* week.

* monday: REU field trip... lots of fun... also 7+ hours blocked out of my day before i did anything else. :P
* tuesday: met students on campus in the morning... studied with baxter for his qualifying exam all afternoon
* wednesday: meeting for my 2nd job, and sticking around all afternoon to learn more of the ropes so i really CAN take over in august.
* thursday: misc studying on campus, writing a lecture, REU seminar, and other such fun.... and for my first break all week: i got a much needed haircut (first in 3 months), and ate pizza with leigh and sara.

summary: every day, running for at least 10 hours straight, in many different places... at least my life ain't boring!! :P

today is off to an interesting start... for as busy as i've been, it's better told from leigh's perspective.
leigh was home visiting family in TX for the past two weeks. she was supposed to fly from TX to NJ directly on wednesday afternoon. due to crazy storms, her 3 hour flight became a 12 hour flight with a several hour stall in washington dulles, and she arrived home exhausted and hungry (the plane had no food or drink either!) at 5am on thursday.

leigh spent all day unpacking and repacking... she's in MN for the next couple weeks for a canoe trip with colleen and others... then flying directly to maine to work at a math camp for the rest of the summer... she had stuff to package up to ship, stuff to pack for the canoe adventure, etc... all on no sleep. already a long day... she locked herself out of her car and i had to rescue her... she forgot to lock the house when she went out (so i guess there's balance in the world)... point is, she was exhausted.

*then*, last night happened.

leigh was supposed to fly out of newark airport (on the same airline as wednesday) at 10:30 am this morning. with all her ridiculous amounts of baggage, i was just going to drive her door to door, leaving our house at 8am. instead...

12:30am: i'm getting ready for bed, when leigh goes to online checkin for her flight and announces that it's cancelled.

1am: after being on hold with non-helpful employees for half an hour, leigh finds out that all flights from newark to chicago on her airline are cancelled for today... she can wait til saturday (not good for the canoe trip)... multitasking like crazy, leigh searches online and suggests to the airline phone people that she could fly out of any NYC airport and into any city within 100 miles of minneapolis/st. paul... she gets booked on a 8:30am flight out of laguardia.

1:05am: leigh announces her new schedule and says she doesn't want to put me out by making me drive all the way into the city... she'll struggle with her own bags gladly if i can get her to the local train station in time for the 4:15am train. i announce skepticism about the availability of connections from penn station (where our train comes into NYC) to laguardia.

1:30am: after 20 more minutes of research, leigh realizes that yes, she can get into manhattan but there's no good way from manhattan to laguardia that early in the morning (needing to arrive by 6:30) without just getting a cab. i offer to drive her, and she accepts, sad about putting me out.

4:30am: after 1.5 hours of sleep for me, and 45 minutes of sleep for leigh, we load the car, get hot drinks and a full tank of gas and head off

6:45am: after 2 hours of ridiculously stupid drivers on the BQE, i drop leigh off at laguardia

8:15am: after a slightly less stressful 1.5 hour return drive i come back home to crash

9am: i realize that i really can't sleep when it's light outside, so i'm destined to be awake and running on 1.5 hours of sleep all day... woot!

never fear, fun is coming... i have a meeting at noon, errands to run, etc.... but tonight i invited all the REU students over for board games and movies... i'm looking forward to it! (provided i really do stay awake and coherent that long!!!)

tomorrow, i don't care what happens, I'M SLEEPING IN!. so indeed... back to the title... THANK GOODNESS IT'S FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the end.

i just can't wait...

to see Lion King on Broadway!!!

my friend jessica and i bought tickets for a week from saturday... i'm EXCITED! :)

shall we count? (again)

updated for another year: http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/~lpudwell/bday.html

enjoy! :P

too funny...

so, after a long busy 12 hour day of running around campus, i headed 30 minutes away to my church for the last women's Bible study meeting before we stop for the summer.  several people remembered that my birthday is tomorrow and hollered "happy birthday!" as i came in the room, but agreed not to sing.... that is, until sonia came, bearing a giant tupperware container.  she explained "tomorrow is lara's birthday, and cupcakes are so outdated, so i wanted to bring something more fun... share, but the leftovers are for lara to take home."... and then since i had a candle to blow out, they did indeed sing.... but tell me, have *you* ever blown out candles on fruit before?  i thought this was great:



happy lara day eve! ;)

be parties one and all!

i am a victim...

... of identity theft! holy freakin crap (pardon the language)

some of my friends make fun of me for how OCD i am about shredding any paper with anything about me on it, etc., but it still happened.

i logged into my bank website this morning to compare what it said against my checkbook (and because transactions from foreign countries depend on the exchange rate of the day)... there was a charge of $75 in georgia from friday, when i was obviously nowhere near georgia this week!

i called up the bank, and they looked into it and said whoever did it had a physical copy of my card and spent $75 on gas.

so i'm out of a debit card until i get to the bank in person this week to get a temporary one while the fraud claim/investigation goes through.

the commercials about identity theft protection are funny, and i thought i was being good by being careful with my card and by shredding stuff, but apparently that's not enough.... not cool.

ergh....

scotland, at last!

alright, so the longer version of yesterday was:

(1) i was supposed to depart newark airport at 9:30 saturday night, arrive in london heathrow at 9am sunday local time
(2) then, i had an 11:50am flight from heathrow to glasgow scotland, landing me there at 1:20pm
(3) from there, me and my friend cathy were supposed to catch a shuttle bus to the main train station, catch a train to edinburgh, then another up the east coast of scotland to a small town called leuchars, and then another bus from there into st. andrews (where i currently am for a conference).
(4) all my travel supplies were supposed to work fine, i would practice my talk for this afternoon, we'd get dinner, and we'd crash for some much deserved rest.

instead
(1) the newark plane didn't leave until 10:45pm. apparently some people missed the flight connection but their bags made it through. apparently regulations said they had to take all the bags off the plane, find those to remove, and reload the plane again.
(2) because of the delay getting going (sitting for 1.5 hours next to a crying baby is NOT fun), we got into london heathrow at 10:20am... one would think 1.5 hours is enough time to transfer flights, BUT....
(3) our connecting flight was in a different terminal, and the workers at heathrow, though plenty nice are not the most efficient, so there were a lot of people missing connections left and right... we made it through express security and ticketing (after begging nicely), and got to the counter for our 11:50 flight at 11:20... they denied us boarding and scheduled us on a 3:15-departing flight instead
(4) our 3:15 flight didn't take off until 4pm due to backlogs of british airways flights taking off from heathrow... we landed in glasgow a little after 5pm
(5) already exhausted and grumpy just taking our carry on luggage, cathy and i decided that we just didn't have it in us to try 4 more kinds of transportation while lugging our checked luggage too, so instead of the 30 pound ($60) each trains/buses options, we hired a car for 105 pounds total (about $110 each) to pick us up at the airport and drop us off at our apartment for the conference. frankly, with how tired and sore we were and all the delays, the fact that we could go door to door, not deal with our luggage, and actually sleep on the way was worth it. (what i did see of driving from the west coast of scotland clear across to the east was beautiful... and there's a freakin lot of sheep around here)
(6) you'd think that that's enough of an adventure, but here's one more. i've had the same international voltage converter for 5 years, and it can deal with any kind of plug on earth. however, i never paid attention to the fact that it only accepts 2 prong american plugs (i've never travelled with anything but a battery charger and an ipod charger that needs it). unfortuately the plug for my laptop is 3 prong. i could plug it into the charger, but without the grounding prong plugged in, you could literally feel the field of static electricity around my computer if you got within a couple inches of it... so instead of practicing my talk and looking over my slides last night, i was too scared of blowing up my computer, so i crashed, and woke up super early to go buy an extra 3-prong adapter just for the week... fun, right?

needless to say, it's been an interesting start to the week. i'm glad i'm here. i'm glad to see old math friends from last year, and i'll be even more happy when my talk is over in 2 hours!

hopefully much better stories and much better pictures as the week progresses!

be parties one and all! :)

LONDON

guess who's stuck at heathrow for the day (that would be me). jealous, right?

the end.

scotland!

in a matter of hours, i get to leave the country for a week of math conference fun... woot!

i mean, seriously, doesn't this sound like a super-exciting time? :P

pictures and other excitement when i return. :)

this made me smile :)

me (4:41:28 PM): dude, so i found out today WHY i have a job at the dean's office
dave (4:41:40 PM): aside from you're awesome?
dave (4:41:50 PM): and interview well with gauze in your mouth?
me (4:44:49 PM): am i awesome?
dave (4:44:52 PM): yeah
me (4:45:02 PM): why thanks

oh, and this too... although for as good as it makes me sound, you have to wonder just how much is true. ;P

happy almost-thursday!

no more drugs...

(...or hopefully almost back to normal!)

what a day! for the first time in a week, i did something besides just watch TV with 80% of my day.

* tooth update: i finished my last dose of penicillin this morning... thankfully, the dull ear/jaw ache i've had since getting my teeth out finally seems to have gone away. my gums are still a little swollen though, so i'm not quite feeling up to solid food yet.... miraculously, i haven't gotten tired of applesauce yet, which is fantastic. :P unfortunately my jaw is still a bit sore to the touch if i bump into anything even slightly... cross your fingers that i get back to feeling totally normal soon! in the meantime, i'm just slow.

* today though, i actually left the house. my friend dave was at a wedding 2 hours away yesterday, and since his return flight was out of philly late tonight, he came to spend the day with me in jersey. it was easily filled between church (with 19 kids getting confirmed, it was a 2 hour service), lunch (i opted for a cheese omelet: look at me moving up in the food world ever so slightly!), and this art exhibit i'd been wanting to see (because i'm ever so exciting. :P). i was quieter than normal since my jaw still hurts, but it was nice to have an excuse to go out with a friend. plus hugs are never a bad thing. :P

this week, the real fun starts though:

* monday (tomorrow!): all my summer REU (research experience for undergrads) students arrive. i'm glad this is my 3rd time around so that i feel like things are under control... hopefully they really will be all day! also, first meeting with my advisor in a month... hopefully he'll be happy with what i've written up in the past month... we'll see.

* tuesday: tooth checkup, and REU orientation dinner... and lots of working on my slides for next week's conference.

* wednesday: my first meeting for the new 2nd job (the one i got hired for friday). not sure how detailed this will be or how quickly i'll assume responsibilities, but i'll find out quickly!

* thursday: first REU seminar, and probably lots of other helping students settle in kind of stuff

* friday: if i haven't yet, spending the day locked in an undisclosed location writing my talk for next week's conference

* saturday: flying to SCOTLAND!!!!!! for a permutations conference. my talk is on monday, and then i can actually enjoy the rest of the week.

with a week like this, and still living mostly off of applesauce and potatoes, i'm gonna need all the luck i can get.

... and THAT is the end of my needlessly long and uninteresting play-by-play of the week... thanks for reading... be parties one and all! (and wish me luck...)

hired!

so apparently i can still make a favorable impression with a mouth full of gauze and while still on drugs.

i interviewed this morning with the university dean's office for a job that will last this summer through when i graduate, on top of all the other things i'm doing.

it's for a program that runs workshops, writes publications, etc. to help TAs throughout the university. it's kinda unique in how inter-departmental it is.

and it's really exciting that i got the job since they only hire 2 graduate students at a time to help run the program.

first meeting is next week. loads of fun to come :P

hooray.

the end.

one drugged up week

this week has been so bizarre.

i barely ever take medicine for anything, except an occasionaly ibuprofen for a bad headache, so being on 3 different kinds of prescription drugs this week has thrown me for a loop.
* penicillin (not so bad, just to keep me from getting infected)
* dexamethasone (also, not so bad, just have to eat with it to keep it from making my stomach hurt... to help with swelling, etc.)
* hydrocodone (pain medicine... the one that's been driving me nuts)

i just finished my last dose of the middle one, and i gave up on the vicodin (hydrocodone) yesterday. my jaw hurts a little, but the pain medicine was making me dizzy, uncoordinated, sleepy, and grumpy... it's hard enough mostly sitting still for several days, but not being able to do much without knocking stuff over and getting upset about it, and not being able to focus enough to read even juvenile fiction made me even more grumpy, so i just stopped taking it. it was the first two that are most important anyhow.

now that i'm just down to penicillin, i hope to get increasingly coherent. i went to work today briefly and did about 20 minutes of stuff in an hour and a half. hopefully efficiency will increase quickly :P

here's the rundown in the near future (aka why i really hope to feel much better in the next two days so i can be productive again):
* interview tomorrow morning with the graduate school dean's office for what could be my 2nd summer job plus extra money during the school year... more on that if the interview goes well.
* REU (the summer research program i've run for the past two years and am doing again) starts monday. goal: be able to at least smile without pain by then :P
* i leave for scotland for the next permutations conference in 9 days... i haven't been coherent enough to prepare my talk yet. hopefully it comes together quickly!
* in other fun, my friend dave (of valpo fame) is going to another valpo friend's wedding in central PA on saturday. i'm not feeling up to going, but he's coming to visit me for church/lunch sunday. in the interest of being a good host, i'm hoping i feel up to more than just sitting around. we shall see. :P

anyhow, the summary is: life gets busy again soon, and i'm surviving... hopefully significantly closer to normal each day... wish me luck!

random survey

Name 7 things in your bag (or if you're male…wallet/ pocket):
1. wallet
2. ibuprofen
3. travel umbrella
4. pedometer
5. LOTS of pens
6. math book
7. non-math book (i only carry bags large enough to house a travelling library :P)

Name 6 things you do when you're really stressed:
1. do math
2. drive
3. sleep
4. walk (or now that i have a bike, perhaps this will change to "go for a bike ride")
5. blast music
6. snack

Name 5 favorite fruits:
1. mango
2. strawberry
3. peach
4. kiwi
5. hungarian sour cherries

Name 4 names you go by:
1. lara
2. la
3. grits
4. daughter

Name 3 things you are wearing right now
1. running pants
2. ben and jerry's t-shirt
3. a random array of bandaids (when they tried to get an IV in me to remove my wisdom teeth yesterday, they said i have practically no veins)

Name 2 people you are thinking about right now.
1. eric
2. leigh
(the two who have graciously been taking care of me since the dreaded tooth extraction yesterday)

What are you thinking about right now?
how happy prescription pain drugs are

Where is your phone?
plugged into its charger 2 feet from me

Where do you sleep?
on my bed, in my room, in my apartment in NJ

Where did you get the shirt you're wearing?
i bought it in vermont on spring break with scott last year

What was the last thing you ate?
peach-flavored applesauce -- flavored applesauce, mashed potatoes, and pudding are basically my entire diet for yesterday and today... exciting, right?

the end.

i survived!

dude,

so glad this morning is over... will be super glad when a few more days are over.

i got so many stories from so many people of what it's like to be put unconscious for getting teeth out. none of them applied.

they got an IV in me (after several attempt... apparently my veins are super hard to stick so i've got quite an array of bandaids on my arms).

my face/mouth were completely numb, and there was an IV in me the whole time to keep me calm, but i was completely conscious and aware of what was going on the whole time. i made unhappy noises at them when i heard the teeth popping out. i kept hearing i would be completely unaware, and yet i remember it all quite clearly. very odd experience. i think i'm actually happier that i wasn't knocked out completely. i was the most paranoid about that.

so now, i'm not drowsy, just unhappy with how my jaws feel and with having a ton of gauze in my mouth for the rest of the day.

eric wins a prize for being super helpful today. the worst is apparently over, and i'm glad i survived. :P

and that's the update.

the end.

it's wisdom tooth day....

we are NOT excited....
on the upside, in 3 hours, it'll all be over.

update eventually.

it is fun...

...to surprise/confuse students outside of campus.

today, on the way home from church, i stopped at sports authority to buy lights for my bike so that i can ride it after dark if i want. as soon as i walked in the door, i ran into an employee -- one of my smartest students from the calc 3 course i TAed last fall. he was absolutely stunned to see me and to my "hi chris!" responded with "what are you doing out here?". we chatted for 5 minutes before i went to get my bike lights and move on with my day, but it never ceases to amuse me:

students are happy to cross paths on campus outside of class, and seem content to see you there. students are always surprised to run into you "in the real world" as if you don't exist when not within several hundred feet of the math building... and yet we do. :P

i guess i never had this problem since i grew up with my mom being one of my grade school teachers. i knew she had a life away from school, and furthermore, many of my teachers early on were her friends, so i saw them informally a lot. it seems for a lot of the world though, school and away-from-school life are two things that don't occur to them actually mix. this amuses me.

the end.

$$, crashing, and other such fun

other roadtrip inspired post:

when i left TN, the average price of gas was $2.93, in kentucky $3.07, and in southern indiana gas was $3.28. overnight, while i was in indy, gas jumped 30 cents and the lowest i could find for most of tuesday and wednesday was $3.59 for regular grade. luckily prices went down the further i went east, and in NJ i got it for $2.89 today, but this is motivation.

last year, when the prices in NJ briefly spiked above $3 i started taking the bus to campus. now, they're certainly going to go above $3/gallon and for even longer. i love driving, and i'm glad i have my car for getting to church and longer trips, but... i've finally motivated myself to do what leigh did last year: buy a bike. with a front basket, it'll be able to handle most of my local errands, and it should be able to get me to campus and back, unless i need to be super nice looking for a talk or something... the summary is, i wanted to cut down on gas by switching to a bike for as much as is reasonably possible.

so today was bike purchasing day. scott is a bike expert so i brought him with me to look. amazingly enough, the sales interaction went something like this.
store manager: "hi, can i help you?"
me: "yes, i'm just looking for a hybrid to get around highland park... hopefully not more than $300-400."
store manager: "ah! wait! you are a tall woman! i have the perfect bike for you!"
she immediately ran over to a corner and pulled out a 2006 gary fisher tiburon ( see http://www.fisherbikes.com/bikes/bike_detail.asp?series=path&bike=Tiburon and click on the picture for the stepthrough model, then picture it in blue and silver instead of black and silver)
it's a 20" bike, and it's apparently hard to find people tall enough to buy that size of a women's bike, so she was stoked to have me in her store, and i was happy for a good deal: $249!

scott thinks i got a good deal, i'm happy it's blue and comfy, so life is good.

i think i posted months ago about riding leigh's bike and having issues with brakes and not understanding gears... got that out of the way today too. while riding and experimenting, instead of grabbing the brakes i accidentally upped the gear and crashed into a tree (oops). at any rate, yay for a new cheaper way to get around town. really, once i've gone the equivalent of 8 tanks of gas (or even sooner as prices rise) in miles on the bike, it will have earned its money back.

hooray for new bike.

end of ramble. :P

what now???

so, alas, i'm back in jersey. it's been a long but fun week: 3 days in the car, interspersed with a day in indy with tammy and a day in toledo with alliswan, both of which were great visits.

while driving on the indiana toll road on wednesday though, i was listening to the radio, and heard the following:
36 percent of men on online dating websites are looking for a woman who......

(can you guess it?... scroll for answer....)












































...makes more money than he does.

reaction: what the heck?

i can totally understand not wanting to date a gold-digger, or whatever have you, but whether you're the guy or the girl, i find seriously looking for more money than you have as a top dating priority atrocious. it's nice to have means to do things, but... whatever happened to pride in work, and valuing what you've earned? and just because you find someone with more money than you (regardless of gender) doesn't mean it's yours to spend. heck, i'm a grad student, i make close to zero money, so just about everyone makes more than me, but i don't expect anyone to support me but me.

people never cease to amaze me.

am i alone on this? are the statistics people crazy? what's your reaction?

the end.

plans... and reality

oi... what a day.

the plan:
(1) wake up early enough and call scotland during business hours to reserve a room at the same place a friend of mine is staying my last night there in june
(2) lunch with my friend rose
(3) run through city vehicle inspection quickly
(4) work for several hours at the central library (i've been hanging out there all week typing up math)

instead
(1) i got up early and called the hostel my friend cathleen got a reservation at 2 days ago, and they insisted that i was crazy and that they don't have openings then because students are still in school in the dorms... so attempt to secure lodging for 30 pounds for the night (about $60) failed... i'm to the point of not caring and just booking with the holiday inn express that's a 2 minute WALK from the glasgow airport for the one night. it may cost 70 pounds, but i won't have to worry about finding transportation at 3-4am, and they start serving breakfast at 4am too... it's a lot of money, but it may be worth it for a 6am departure on an international flight.

(2) i did have lunch with my friend rose. she's from my church in memphis, and although she's retired, you wouldn't know it with all the things she does... she truly has the gift of organization. plus, she went to high school with elvis (they were in the same graduating class), so she's full of fun stories from the past too. i like going out with her the one or two times a year i'm in town.

(3) i DID go to vehicle inspection too, but it sucks. if you live in the memphis city limits (i still am a TN resident as long as i'm a student), you have to take your car through city inspection to renew your license plate. this isn't like in most states where you go to a certified mechanic. they have a garage with city employees who (a) check that all your headlights/turnsignals/etc work properly, (b) check your emissions levels, and (c) do an emergency brake test. this test consists of putting your car in drive, pulling up the emergency brake, and then hitting the gas... and your car isn't supposed to go anywhere.

i got in line at 1pm, and made it into the garage at 1:45. they started with the emergency brake test, and the lady insisted that my car was smoking whenever i hit the gas, so she instantly failed me.

~~~that's one hour down the drain.~~~

so, irritated, i drove back to my suburb and went to my parents' mechanic... they checked the car out, adjusted the brakes as tight as can be so that there was no way they'd fail, but said that the car inspection woman was crazy because there was absolutely no signs of oil leak or anything else that could cause smoke, and they couldn't recreate the problem. luckily i had my laptop with me, so i got a little work done, but mostly gossiped with the other people in the waiting area.

~~~that's two hours down the drain.~~~

i went back home to get some water, and check how late the inspection station was open before going out again. on my way out of the driveway, i ran into my next door neighbor. he's nearly 90 years old, and i hadn't seen him around the last two times i'd been in town, so we sat at the foot of the driveway for 30 minutes and chatted. this is by no means a waste of time, but it explains how it was nearly 4pm before i got back to the inspection station for more fun...

at 4pm i got in line at the vehicle inspection station. i was 20th in line. i got into the inspection garage at 5:02, and passed the test without a problem. in the lane right next to the lady who failed me before. with absolutely nothing done about the smoke. everyone knows city inspection is a joke. i just hate that it cost me most of an afternoon that could have been profitably spent getting work done!

now?
the office and scrubs season finales are tonight... I CAN'T WAIT!... and tomorrow can't be nearly as annoying as the past 4 hours were. SO GLAD it's freakin over with.

the end.

home is where...

see, i think i've made this post before, and come to a completely different conclusion than i'm about to make.

the dictionary has many definitions for home:
applicable ones being:
1 a : one's place of residence
2 : the social unit formed by a family living together
3 a : a familiar or usual setting : congenial environment; also : the focus of one's domestic attention
4 a : a place of origin home to spawn>; also : one's own country home and abroad>

tennessee used to be all four of those to me. with as much as i traveled back and forth for college, i then said i have two homes.

now, with as much as i travelled in early grad school, for years, i've totally adopted definition 3 as the prominent one: home is anywhere where my friends or family are, so the world is my home.

but now, i think my definition is changing.... this is a first.

yesterday i went to my old grade school to pick up my mom's paycheck (she's gone with her class on their class trip to st. louis, she teaches 8th grade at the school i went to for K-8). i know almost all the faculty and staff, so the office manager, the daycare manager, and the few teachers nearby were all very excited to see me, and all gave me hugs. then one of them asked:
"so, does this still feel like home?"
and without thinking for even a second, i answered the reflex answer of
"no, not really."
to which one of them said
"oh, of course, you're kidding!"
they wouldn't believe me! and i was being honest!

let's look at the definitions one at a time, shall we?

1 a : one's place of residence

really, i live in NJ now. sure, that's temporary until grad school is done, but the bulk of my stuff, the bulk of my people interaction, the largest concentration of my friends in one place is now there.

yes, i have my own room in tennessee still, but it's largely empty, and the family uses it for other things while i'm gone (brother for an escape room, dad for a plant greenhouse, mom for an alternate place to get ready in the morning when dad takes too long in the downstairs shower.) i don't get mail here. i don't have many obligations here. although i'm still a tennessee resident legally speaking as long as i'm a student, let's face it, it's not where i really live.

2 : the social unit formed by a family living together

for many many years, that's where TN was. the thing is, my family DOES live here, and have their social unit. but the longer i'm gone, the less i really am a part of that. they rearrange things and do things differently and i'm at a loss for where to find basic stuff around the house. i don't fit into their schedules. sometimes dad tries to just assume i'm back to being high school me as soon as i walk in the door; show no interest in what i should be up to for work, and try to make me want to go back to doing tons and tons of chores for him, but that's not me. i don't really fit into this paradigm anymore.

furthermore, the friends that were my extended family while in town have largely spread out to new locations too, so even those circles, though familiar and fun, are located elsewhere too.

funny as it is to say, the "family unit" i'm most a part of these days is my grad school circle, not my blood family.

3 a : a familiar or usual setting : congenial environment; also : the focus of one's domestic attention

here's the argument that's kept me saying tennessee is home for the past 8 years since i moved out: "home is where the heart is, so everywhere my friends and family are is my home". tennessee certainly is familiar to me. i know it full well. i know many people around here. people get excited to see me. really, and that's good.

but i'm only around 2-4 weeks out of the year. a lot of people have moved away, a lot of new people have moved in, and even the old ones get married, divorced, have kids, etc. there are some constants, but SOOO many of the people that are now part of the local close-knit community are strangers to me. the people who have been around and know me forever assume i just fit, but really, in context, i feel like an extra puzzle piece. like maybe even a puzzle piece of the same scenery as here, but belonging to a different puzzle. i don't feel unwelcome or like i don't fit. but life has moved on in my many absences, and i don't feel like i just have a natural spot anymore. this is a recent revelation.

4 a : a place of origin home to spawn>; also : one's own country home and abroad>

i guess this is the one definition that tenneessee will always have. it's where i grew up from age 5 on, and for all intensive purposes, it will always be my "place of origin" that shaped me growing up. but that's not a home you feel or don't feel, that's a fact that just is.

so really, if a place used to be home, and now only is "home" in the past, can you really still call it home if it's not "home" in the present tense? i'm starting to think not.

the end.

it's official....

... my wisdom teeth are coming out tuesday, may 29th at 11am.

let the paranoid panicking begin!

walking in memphis, etc.

what a week!

friday and saturday i was in chicago, sunday back in jersey, monday and tuesday driving to TN, and now i'm here for a couple weeks.

highlights
* i had lunch with jenny (one of only a very small handful of HS friends i still keep in touch with regularly) in DC on monday.  i was SO excited it worked out.

* stayed with roommate in durham, NC on monday night.  this included dinner with some of her NC friends, and minigolfing... lots of fun :)

* tuesday, we visited the american museum of science and energy in oak ridge, TN on the way over.  i hadn't been there in like 10 years, but it's still as fun as ever

* eric's with me for the next week just to see memphis, so i'm having fun playing tour guide.  yesterday we actually saw the march of the ducks at the peabody hotel (they keep 5 ducks in a duck-penthouse on the hotel roof, and every morning they play the king cotton march while the ducks ride down the elevator then run across a red carpet and dive into the fountain in the hotel lobby... i'd seen the ducks in the fountain before, but not their grand morning entrance.  it was hilarious).  we met elvis presley's personal tailor at his shop in the same hotel.  we visited the national civil rights musuem (which has expanded to a second building since i was last there.  they now own both the hotel where king was shot, and the building that the shooter was believed to have shot from), and walked the riverwalk on mud island.  it was a quality day.

* dad is already making life interesting.  i'll ignore all the anecdotes from yesterday i could share and just put the most recent one.  last night, mom moved dad's truck to a different spot in the driveway because it was blocking hers.  dad got ready to leave for work this morning, and couldn't figure out how to start it since the steering wheel was turned, which had locked the ignition.  after 10 minutes, he came back inside and glared at me and asked if i could skip showing eric around today to drive him to work and on the errands he needed to run.  i asked if i could try to start the truck instead.  he told me he doubted i could, and he would be really mad if i broke the key, but i took the key out of his hand, went outside, and in 10 seconds had it going just fine.  he was shocked.... and irritated with me for succeeding.  to his "how on earth did you do that?" i replied "dad, i drove an ancient nova for 6 years... i can convince old cars to do lots of things."  he groaned and left.  my dad.  ha.

but now, here's the real connundrum of the day:
i got a call from one of the rutgers graduate school deans yesterday offering me the chance to apply for a more active role in the graduate school.  namely they have a program specifically running pedagogy programs for teaching assistants and one of the 2 graduate student staff people who works on that is graduating this summer, so they want me to apply to be her replacement.  i'm excited about this and it sounds like fun, but....
they want a writing sample to include in my formal application.

i write a lot, but most of it is either (a) informal, such as blogging, writing mass emails, etc., or (b) technical... because, face it, math papers are a very different kind of prose than humanities/social science papers.

so i write, i'm fully capable of writing, but what does a mathematician submit as a writing sample?  i really don't know!  current best thought is that maybe i'll write a short essay about something random (suggestions?) and submit that as well as one of my recent papers. any better ideas?

the end... for now. :P

be parties one and all.

hooray!

me: yo eric!!!
eric: yo!!!
me: i'm excited! guess what!
eric: um, you like talking to me on the phone?
me: yes! but guess what else!
eric: it's sunday?
me: yes! but guess what else!
eric: we're going to tennessee tomorrow?
me: yes! but guess what else!
eric: hmm, i don't know what could be more exciting than that... what?
me: it's sunday, we're going to TN tomorrow, AND we see roommate in north carolina tomorrow night.... AND now we have super exciting lunch plans with memphis jenny in washington DC!!!!
eric: really, she's the one who studies spiders, right?
me: yep! see, aren't YOU excited too?
eric: i AM. yay, tennessee.

what do you think?

i just had an hour long debate with two of my grad school friends about artificial intelligence.

my advisor purports that one day computers will be doing all the math, and will be thinking on a higher level than us, so scott asked me why that doesn't seem to especially bother me. if my advisor's prediction of the future is true, we'll all eventually be out of jobs as mathematicians, and i should be worried.

i responded that i'm not particularly worried because i'm not 100% convinced that artificial intelligence, in the sense of consciously independent machines is guaranteed to happen, and even if it did it would be so off in the future as to be unreal. i'm not arguing that it's impossible, but i'm skeptical about whether it's guaranteed. mostly, because i'm not 100% sure what "creativity" really is. scott or eric would define it to be something algorithmically complex and computationally irreducible, but still realizable out of a sufficiently complex program. whereas i'm not convinced one way or the other that it's something that can be automated.

halfway into the conversation (eric and scott both believe conscious machines will happen, eric puts it a at least a hundred years away though), eric commented "oh! of course! you refuse to believe in AI because you're religious! that would kinda negate your whole idea of soul."

which bothered me but took me 15 minutes to phrase myself. honestly, religion didn't enter my mind in the conversation until he threw out that idea. my response?
i believe that there's a physical world that we interact with daily, and the physical world contains many abstract concepts, a moral code, etc., but that there's a whole other spiritual world as well. what makes humans have a "soul" is that we have a spiritual world analog, whereas i don't think that dogs, insects, etc. have a spiritual world analog. the question of AI doesn't become a religious question to me unless thinking machines somehow have a spiritual world analog, which i don't think they would. so to me, the key question is still: "what is creativity? is it algorithmic, given a complex enough computational environment? or it is independent of computation and can be simulated, but not wholly redeveloped?" i'd need to be convinced that creativity can be an emergent property of an automated system before i believed 100% that conscious machines are possible, and i'm not convinced yet.

what do you think?

(or have i scared you all away from words? :P)

sometimes life is like... the apprentice?

dude.

so today is the last day of classes. my advisor had assigned a program involving q-analogs of an algorithm we'd been learning about all semester, so we assumed that would be our last lecture. alas, no such thing.

instead, he announced "today we will do something more exciting -- software development! everybody will have a little part to do, and you will have lieutenants to report to. if you don't do your work, your lieutenant has to cover for you. i've already picked the leaders. my most senior graduate students are lara and eric."

someone interrupted "but what about aek?!" (aek is currently a 5th year, eric and i are 4th years).

z. got back to his project pitch "oh aek, i'm sorry, but you're too nice, you're not good at bossing people around, and actually, eric you do too much of your work in mathematica instead of maple, so lara is the boss! ok! and aek, eric, and baxter report to her. here's what the rest of your do."

apparently we're writing a program to solve kakuro puzzles.
* aek's team is in charge of writing a program to generate random test puzzles (although when i went around and harassed teams to make sure that their programming data structures were consistent with each other aek was taking a nap while his team did all the work).
* eric's team is in charge of taking a puzzle and translating it into a ridiculously huge system of diophantine equations.
* baxter's team is in charge of writing a program to solve the equations.
* i'm in charge of putting it all together interfacing it and making sure it works nice. it's due monday, and i'm going to be traveling friday and saturday to chicago and not so much online to receive parts of the program or work on fitting it together.

we'll see how this goes...

but apparently, i'm the ideal choice for a "project manager" to network people, interface work, and scare them into meeting deadlines. too bad there's not a competing team to take down. ;)

wish me luck with my week!

the end. :P

another smile :)

what a week! monday and tuesday were cancelled due to rain, but since then i've been running like crazy. today featured attending a luncheon where i was the guest speaker -- to a group of ladies who raise money for women in graduate school, going back to college, etc. etc. when i finally got home tonight, i had the following waiting in my inbox:

~~~~~~~~~~~
Subject: HOORAY FOR TODAY

Hi, Lara---

Were you ever a hit! Everybody loved you (of course) and couldnt stop talking
about how well you speak, how easily you handle being "on", how great your
"presence" is. In short, they really loved you.

Thank you again for coming; you made the day for the whole chapter and we
really look forward to seeing you again next week.

~~~~~~~~~~~

this made me smile! :)

now, after 2 days of working hard on the coolest research slides i've ever made :P, i'm headed to seattle tomorrow for a math conference. soooo excited to see many math friends again who i haven't seen in months/years. it shall be a party!

back here on monday. :P

be parties one and all. :)

:)

Hungarian motorway blocked by escaping rabbits

stuff about teeth?

survey question of the day:
* have you had your wisdom teeth removed?
if so,
* how many days did it knock out of your schedule?
* how painful was it afterwards?

(i currently have 3 of them in, and probably need 2 of them removed... NOT excited... actually, moderately freaked out is a more apt description...)

let's talk about... rain!

so, we all knew a big storm was coming for several days. most of the country has seen it in some form or another. rain is nothing new. campus is along a river, so minor flooding and choosing routes carefully is nothing new. however, in my 4 years of grad school, i've seen night classes delayed, but never day classes cancelled. this wasn't even a blizzard, so i was all prepared to go about my traditionally hectic monday as usual.

instead. drama.

i woke up an hour before my alarm to colleen and leigh talking right outside my door. when i overheard:
colleen: "classes are actually cancelled for once. how exciting is that?"
i jumped out of bed, opened the door, and replied, "you're kidding!"
leigh: "nope! now who wants waffles?"

free waffles and less to do than planned already makes for a happy day. my advisor, who lives half an hour south of campus managed to be in his office by 9:30 and expected that unless roads prevented it that we'd still come have our regular research meetings with him. so i went in to see him, had very late lunch around 4 with eric, and then headed home around 7.

then, too excitable to sit still, i went for a walk to the park at the end of my street (which lies right along the river). check it out:

usually there are several soccer fields there, and the water only comes up to the very far treeline in the back!



fuzzy, but you get the idea



...and how.



ok, so dusk-time pictures don't turn out the best if you so much as breathe while the shutter's open, but, see the light in the middle? it's on top of a park pavilion that's 2/3 full of water!



not that elucidating, but i liked this shot:



a very grainy shot of the water compared to the NJ transit train bridge.



while i was wandering out and about and gawking at the water, i actually made a new friend! i was minding my own business taking pictures when juliana started talking to me, telling me just how much worse the flooding was in 1999 instead. she works for rutgers dining services and asked what i study. when i said math, she commented that she's hungarian and knows there are many famous hungarian mathematicians, then delightedly told me lots of things about hungarian language, history etc., 2/3 of which i knew, some of which was new. :) she has a 21 year old son, so she's basically old enough to be my mother, but she was so delighted to talk to an american who has been to hungary several times before, and loves it. she told me which cafeteria she works in, and said if i stopped by to chat with her sometime she'd set me up with a good meal. :)

so summary:
(1) yay for days that start off with cancelled work and free waffles!
(2) i am in awe of powerful weather.
(3) i seem to attract hungarian friends wherever i go, and that makes me smile. :)

oh, how i laugh...

i've long known about The Mechanical Contrivium -- click the link, and you can plug in any noun you want. the website picks 10 random facts from a large database, and replaces a word in each sentence with a noun you picked.

my best one to date was plugging in my advisor's algorithm and getting:

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Z's algorithm!
1. Z's algorithm is the sacred animal of Thailand.
2. In Chinese, the sound 'z's algorithm' means 'bite the wax tadpole'!
3. The opposite sides of z's algorithm always add up to seven.
4. The international dialling code for z's algorithm is 672.
5. Z's algorithm can drink over 25 gallons of water at a time.
6. On stone temples in southern India, there are more than 30 million carved images of z's algorithm.
7. The only Englishman to become zeilberger's algorithm was Nicholas Breakspear, who was z's algorithm from 1154 to 1159.
8. Most bottles and jars contain at least twenty-five percent recycled z's algorithm.
9. In its entire life, z's algorithm will produce only a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey.
10. If you drop z's algorithm from the top of the Empire State Building, it will be falling fast enough to kill before reaching the ground!

...but i had read that list several months ago. 5 minutes ago, i was plugging in random things, and i now officially have the BEST LIST EVER. by the end of it, i couldn't contain myself, i was laughing so hard. i hope it cracks you up too! enjoy!

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Stupid boys!
1. Stupid boys have 118 ridges around the edge.
2. Never store stupid boys at room temperature.
3. Forty percent of the world's almonds and twenty percent of the world's peanuts are used in the manufacture of stupid boys!
4. Two thirds of the world's eggplant is grown in stupid boys.
5. California is the biggest exporter of stupid boys in the world.
6. The colour of stupid boys is no indication of their spiciness, but size usually is!
7. Antarctica is the only continent without stupid boys.
8. A chimpanzee can learn to recognize itself in a mirror, but stupid boys can not!
9. Humans have 46 chromosomes, peas have 14, and stupid boys have 7.
10. If you kiss stupid boys for one minute you will burn six or seven calories.

happy monday!!!

AAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

excitement, joy, etc.

i just got word that i am one of FOUR people in the whole university to receive a 2007 school of arts and sciences award for distinguished contribution to undergraduate teaching. i had no clue i was nominated.

i get excited when the math department gives me awards for various things, because even though i do the work i do because i enjoy it, it's cool to know that other people recognize i put a lot in. but to be nominated without my knowledge for an larger more competative citation... and receive it. i'm bouncing off the wall. :)

yay for teaching math!!!!!!!!!!!! :P

the end.

10 things...

ok, so maybe not 10. i was brainstorming to myself and thought it would be an interesting exercise to make an actual list of things i believe in and things i don't. i expected to think a bit to list 10 things each, but not to be horribly put out by the exercise. the trouble is, i found one list super easy to do -- i had 11 things i believe in in less than 5 minutes. the other list, 10 things i DON'T believe in, took me on the order of 45 minutes, and i came up with even more things i DO believe in while trying to fill the second one out.

as i was thinking, i asked a friend, who commented that it's easier to be negative so the "list of things i don't believe in" should be easier. he immediately spouted off: "fairies, the loch ness monster, elves, communism, capitalism, gnosticism, donatism, santa claus, easter bunny, and buddhism", but when pressed, 2 minutes later gave a list of things he believes in as "God, creation, gravity, light, single predestination, the Real Presence, efficacy of baptism, reason, family systems theory, and the Chicago Cubs" (if you actually know me and my circle of friends you know who it was by now :P)

it surprised me that for as much as i struggled with one list and not the other,
(a) someone else found the other one harder to do
(b) making both lists took me 45 minutes, and took someone else 5.
i know what i believe in, but have a harder time being firm about things i don't believe in (the first 5 on that list came easily... the last 5 were more contrived after much thought).

anyhow, after much ado, here's my lists:

things that i believe in
(1) God
(2) heaven
(3) mathematics
(4) natural beauty
(5) honesty
(6) the power of laughter
(7) the power of true friendship
(8) the pursuit of knowledge
(9) the joy of travel
(10) scientific method/ logic/ being analytical
(11) hugs
(12) the pittsburgh steelers
(13) doing what you love (see numbers 3, 8, 9, 10 :P)
(14) being independent
(15) myself (usually)

things that i don't believe in
(1) romantic love -- agape (God) love? yes... friendship love? yes... that other people have real true romantic love for one another? yes... that i have the capacity for it? not yet convinced.
(2) ghosts
(3) horoscopes
(4) getting excited about celebrity gossip
(5) reincarnation
(6) being cocky
(7) being reckless
(8) being rich -- yes, i want to be able to pay my bills and be comfortable, but i have no desire to have excessive amounts of money.
(9) being famous -- i think it's just more trouble than it's worth. i highly value minding my own business.
(10) myself (occasionally)

so now, your turn: discussion time:
(1) what do you believe in? what do you not believe in?
(2) which list is easier for you to write?
(3) how much time would it take for you to come up with both lists at least 10 things long?

1,2,3, go!

students are fun. :)

not teaching this semester, but i finally got around to reading my teaching reviews from fall 2006 this afternoon.

most were standard with comments like
"lara actually made me WANT to learn calculus."
"lara made recitation fun, so i never felt the need to sleep in class."
"lara explains things clearly."

however, one in particular stood out this time. i'm fairly sure i recognized the handwriting too, even though it's anonymous. enjoy.

question: "what was the best part of this class?"
student response: "picking up chicks. how about you and me baby integrate all the way to 2*Pi?"

question: "if you were teaching this class what would you do differently?"
student response: "i would teach with flames ALL OVER my body."

question "how has this class encouraged your intellectual growth?"
student response: "take more drugs (you should try it.)"

dude. so apparently, i should light myself on fire before i start class in the future.
student evaluations,... always a learning experience. :)

bonus points for...

* friends who leave random "thinking of you" voicemails when they know my research is going slow.

* professors who email me and tell me i do stuff well.

* people who learn random hungarian phrases just to entertain me.

that's all. :)

random news update:

haven't done this in awhile, but some headlines are just BEGGING to be shared.

here's what started it off:
* Michael Jackson wants Vegas robot -- indeed, a robot is a cool thing. a 50 foot one in anyone's image, a little scary... one that shoots laser lights and roams around a city? dude. i'm glad i've been to vegas PRE-giant robot, because i don't know that i want to meet such a thing!

moving onward:
* German man chainsaws house in two in divorce split -- that's one "creative" way to get what you want... i can't believe he completed the job before someone caught on and stopped him!

...and because Germans apparently do lots of strange things lately, we have:
* Police rescue 91-year-old man glued to roof

this just makes me smile:
* Swords into plowshares, mortars into Frappuccinos -- three cheers for ethiopia.

and finally, as always, science is just plain cool:
* Pressure of Light Can Move Liquid

the end.

my brother, on plants:

(background: my dad is a horticulturist. i wouldn't be a good kid if i didn't try to manage a few well-behaving houseplants. there are currently 3 survivors that i haven't managed to kill off since moving to NJ. 2 of them are a big leafy kind of plant that seem to be able to survive everything, which is great for me. the third is a gasteria... which is an aloe-looking plant that much prefers being dry. most of the time i ignore it when i'm taking care of the others so that it can continue to pretend it's a desert plant. it's still green and happy looking so i figured i was doing alright by it...

then, this morning i woke up and noticed 3 giant stems sticking out of its pot... ok,
strange, maybe seeds from something else fell into the pot, and should be pulled out? upon closer inspection, the stems were coming from the plant itself, sticking out from between its leaves and looking rather incongruous. soooooooooo, i called my brother, who is excellent at explaining things. here's the gist of our dialouge:)

brother: what's up? you called?

me: got a question!

brother: what's that?

me: either my plant is possessed or it's doing something new that i don't know if i should worry about.

brother: which one? what's it doing?

me: the not-a-pothos that looks like an aloe... what is that?

brother: the gasteria?

me: yes! that one. it looked normal yesterday. now there's 3 footlong stalks coming out from the between the leaves. is it possessed? what is it doing?

brother: what you've got there is probably aerial roots.

me: ew, what does that mean?

brother: it means that even though we told you not to water it much because it likes to be dry, the plant is thinking "hmmm, i think i'm mostly happy, but i could use a little more water", so it springs those things out to drink a little more water from the air than you're giving it directly. you can cut them out of the plant if you want and it'll be fine

me: but i thought i watered it often enough, is that all it could be?

brother: well they look like roots sticking up in the air, don't they?

me: no. they look like little heads of broccoli with very long stems.

brother: ooooh, is your plant reddish brown, or is it still green?

me: still green.

brother: ok, well then it's getting ready to bloom which is cool since dad's gasterias have never bloomed. they do it rarely and sporadically.

me: then what's making MY gasteria bloom when i'm not as good as dad with plants.

brother: plants bloom for two reasons.
(1) they get depressed and think they're gonna die. and since they don't sit there and talk to the other plants they think they're the last one left and need to plant some baby plants before they shrivel up and go extinct.
(2) plants get happy and horny and decide they want to make new plants for fun.
it sounds like you have a happy, horny plant.

me: fantastic. will it get depressed when it finds out that it's sitting on a shelf made out of a chalkboard in a window in NJ and that there's nowhere to plant its spawn?

brother: is the plant red or green?

me: green

brother: then it should stay happy. a green plant is a happy plant!

me: and a sprouting plant is a horny plant... fantastic.

brother: yep, pretty much.

(& etc.)

conclusions to draw from this post:
(1) i do NOT have a green thumb or a fundamental understanding of plants.
(2) my brother is freakin hilarious and the best explainer of things ever.
(3) i have a horny plant in my dining room.

happy friday all!

AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

new personal best EVER!!!!!!!!:

it's gone!!!!

dude, apparently i'm subconsciously in a self-makeover phase this week.

last week, i got a much-needed new pair of glasses. i like myself better with contacts, but it's probably better if i don't have headaches all the time when i'm reading/working at the computer for hours, so alas, i'm back to glasses for at least half the time.

today, i went in to see my hair stylist for the first time since december. for the past 2 years i've just been getting it trimmed... but today, on impulse, i let kelly have fun and take quite a bit more than a trim off. compare me in canada last week:









to me as of an hour ago:






... and react?

o canada, o canada....

...how lovely are my spring break pictures!

and if pictures aren't enough... highlight quotes of the trip include:

me: sometimes i just can't deal with large people in groups
scott: try again, that is NOT what you meant to say.
me: oh, permute that.

o canada, o canada, how lovely are your branches. ~me (frequently, to the tune of o christmas tree)

o canada, o canada, o canada, o canada ~scott (equally frequently, and also to the tune of o christmas tree)

me: dude, did you just use the women's restroom?
scott: god, i hope so.

scott (laughing): dude, lara p., you are drunk
(i don't think anyone else has ever gotten to say that... 2 beers after eating not much else all day makes me entertaining?)

scott: so you're a caustic yet determined non-sequitur?

U.S. customs agent: whose car is this?
me: mine
U.S. customs agent: tennessee? what on earth are you doing in the great white north?
me: it's spring break. canada is fun.

the end. enjoy the pictures.

one word survey.

Can.
Only.
Type.
One.
Word.

Not as easy as you might think.


1. Where is your cell phone?
desk

2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend?
nonexistent

3. Your hair?
long

4. Your mother?
kind

5. Your father?
tense

6. Your favorite thing?
travel

7. Your dream last night?
none

8. Your favorite drink?
water

9. Your dream car?
fast

10. The room you're in?
bed

11. Your ex?
nonexistant

12. Your fears?
blindness

13. Where do you want to be in 10 years?
professor

14. Who did you hang out with last night?
scott!

15. What you're not?
partier

16. Muffins?
scones

17. One of your wish list items.
motorcycle

18. Hometown?
memphis

19. The last thing you did?
airport

20. What are you wearing?
comfy

21. Your TV?
background

22. Your pet?
plants

23. Your computer?
full

24. Your life?
intense

25. Your mood?
content

26. Missing?
sleep

27. What are you thinking about right now?
canada!

28. Your car?
reliable

29. Your work?
fun

30. Your summer?
europe!

31. Like someone?
nah

32. Your favorite color?
blue

33. When is the last time you laughed?
today

34. Last time you cried?
weeks

35. School?
forever

what the world needs is...

we're back... and canada was AWESOME! more pictures/stories later in the week. :)

be parties one and all!

spring break can only mean...

in 2004...

we brought you "a day in delaware"

which, instead of ending with lunch in dover, brought us to maryland,

virginia, and beyond... crossing the chesapeake bay bridge at sunset

running around D.C. in the rain at 11pm

and driving home in a blizzard

until something like 5am. :-P

in 2006...

we brought you "lara and scott's great maine adventure"

which included lots of water

lots of rocks

a life-size chocolate moose

and last but not least, a ben and jerry's factory tour

spring break 2007 is at hand...

and "lara's and scott's amazing 4 day CANADA trek" begins in 12 hours. details thursday! i know you'll wait in eager anticipation. :)

be parties one and all!

can you teach diversity with calculus?

that's the $50 question of the day.

i go to these monthly teaching meetings. there's 7 grad students and a bunch of faculty/dean types. we talk about teaching workshops we've run recently, and then spend an hour talking about teaching issues. last meeting was about why students cheat, today was about the purpose of an undergraduate education.

it's a really cool group of people and i enjoy the discussions, but sometimes i feel like i'm an outsider. the other grad students are english, ecology (2 of them), sociology, french, and italian students, and the other faculty have backgrounds in education and in social sciences. there are occasional comments on how they don't understand engineers, and things like that. on the other hand, i much more relate to the engineers than to the social sciences, so there are points where i have no idea what to say even when asked directly.

case in point: today while discussing the purpose of an undergraduate education the following comments were made:

* "we teaching critical thinking, etc.,etc., with the goal of eventually getting students to do some sort of integrative research. i don't know that you can do this in engineering or math where they deal with the literature, but..."
(i interrupted and said on the surface it looks different but there are analogs of all these concepts in math too)

* "the engineering department says one of its objective to to teach students interpersonal interaction skills"
(the room responded with laughter, i was quiet)

or... on my mind most of all...
* "it's important for students to learn skills to deal with the real world. issues like diversity and time management should enter the classroom. but how do you do that in math, lara?"
to which i commented, "math doesn't open itself up the same way to a discussion of diversity, but then the skills like time management and study skills become even more important."
the sociology grad student said "i disagree. i've commented while running teaching workshops that it could be hard to make your examples come to life in the hard sciences, but my participants who teach physics interrupt and tell how they make concepts into stories of when such-and-such a bridge was built, or whatever. you CAN bring diversity into the classroom with your story problems."
i temporarily shut my mouth and let it lie because i hadn't quite formulated my thoughts at that point, but now, 2 hours later, i've been thinking:

the point of many disciplines is to teach critical thinking about that area. formulate your own opinion and support it. math and engineering are definitely NOT about formulate your own opinion and support it. they're about things that ARE black and white, and understanding where the black and white comes from. while i think it's important to build realistic examples in calculus class, even concrete ones that you can physically play with, i don't think a word problem should open up a discussion of diversity implicitly or explicitly. the point of math is that it is true or false and NOT up to cultural interpretation. i was a little bit shocked that someone from another discpline thought that those issues do belong in the math classroom.

i actually suggested the fundamental differences between math/engineering/hard sciences and the rest of the academic world as our next meeting's discussion topic. we'll see if it happens.

but really, what is the answer? am i closed minded about what the purpose of math class is? are the social scientists too broad in their idea of where social analysis should happen? i don't know.

i just know that i'm constantly amazed both by the insight other people bring to these discussion meetings, but also by the seeming lack of understanding between some disciplines. we shall see...

reactions?

my eyeballs are going to explode...

... seriously.

well, not quite but almost.

90 some percent of the time, i enjoy being a grad student. however a LARGE part of my research is working on the computer and programming. this does not do wonders for my vision. my eyes are dry a lot, especially when i work with my contacts in.... actually, for the past week, i've had a perpetual dull headache, centered around my eyes, and exacerbated by time spent doing the computer programming i need to get done.

so alas, this morning, i went in for my yearly eye exam. i wanted new glasses (my current ones are 7 years old and i rarely wear them because they're out of date and so scratched up). i expected the eye doctor to comment as usual on how dry my eyes are anymore, but other than talking about which of the over-the-counter eye drops are the most useful, that wasn't the big exciting result of this visit.

whenever you go for an eye checkup, they check the pressure in your eye with the air puff machine. the fluid pressure inside a normal eye is 10-21 whatever-they-measure-it-ins. my eye fluid pressure has always been on the high end of the spectrum... occasionally 22 or 23, but today i set a record: 26! (ocular hypertension... woohoo...). the eye doctor ran the test 3 times to be sure, then decided to do it the old school way (put neon orange dye in my eyes and then poke at them with a different machine) to confirm. presently this means nothing except that i'm high risk for other eye issues down the way (e.g. glaucoma), which would totally suck.

for now though, i just get to enjoy a perpetual dull ache that only gets worse when i do what i'm supposed to. if my eyes would actually explode, perhaps it would hurt less!

the end.

debate of the day

so here's what math grad students argue about on lazy thursday afternoons:

do you say oogle, ogle, or oggle? (rhyming with google, sounds like the o in ogre, or rhymes with boggle respectively)

i (from TN) used the one i consider correct and common at lunch today and baxter (from PA) disagreed and insisted on a second one. when we got to the office to look it up, john (from CT) disagreed firmly with both of us.

regardless of the dictionary, which one do YOU use?

happiness is...

...discovering that one of your current favorite authors is really a psudonym, and that she has a dozen more books written under her real name!

well, yay :)

i got an email this morning from the dean of the rutgers graduate school in response to a teaching workshop i primarily prepared tuesday and gave yesterday. presumably the audience liked what i had to say as she wrote:

Dear Lara,
I saw your evaluations. WOW. Thanks so much for doing an outstanding job. The attendance also exceeded the registration. Thank you for your enormous contribution to... (etc. with comments about the teaching groups I'm involved in this semester)

not bad, eh?

teaching for my advisor in 1.5 hours and i'm still in PJs.. it's just one of those weeks :P

happy thursday!

happy valentine's day!

valentine's day seriously amuses me. every year, people i know who are actually in romantic relationships stress out about getting the perfect gift, etc. to tell that "someone" how they feel. but even more intriguing: the people i know who are NOT romantically involved get frustrated about the holiday, and each year many seem to bemoan the fact that they don't have anyone more and more loudly than before. whichever side of the coin you're on, it seems that just the date of february 14 makes emotion run high, either with joy or with angst.

today, as a girl celebrating my 26th straight valentine's day of being single, i can honestly say i'm perfectly content. actually the past month or so, i've been the most content i've been in awhile. (note: content doesn't mean completely stressfree,... just overall happy with my life and what i have in it right now :P) i can't speak for others, but i know when valentine's day angst has worked its way into my system in years past, it's usually because of a voice in my head saying "look at all the people you know who are in relationships, they have it, you want it, why can't you have it too?" or some variation thereof. and actually, when i think about it, it's a very selfish voice... as if a meaningful relationship is just something you can buy, and i should have one too just because many of my friends do. this year, i refuse to buy into the small selfish voice. don't get me wrong; i'm not anti-love/relationships/etc. if the right person comes along, i'm all about seeing what happens. but it's not something i NEED to make me a complete and happy person.

one of these years (God-willing), i'll be all excited about valentine's day because of romantic love, but for now, i'm resolved to working on patience and being content with where i'm at. and in lieu of all the flowery love notes and whatever you see around today, here's two of my all time favorite love notes that go for you too:

"Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken." (Isaiah 54:10)

"'I have called you by name, you are mine', says the Lord" (Isaiah 43:1)

done rambling: happy valentine's day to all y'all. no matter what side of the coin you're on today, make sure to also revel in the fact that "God loves you!". really. :)

i signed in to write about...

* how i am going to be tight pressed to cover 6 sections of the precalculus textbook in 45 minutes when i teach leigh's students later today

* major philosophical differences that i recently discovered between maple and mathematica (two math computer programming languages)

* how EXCITED i am to buy my own bowling ball finally later this afternoon

* how AWESOME my church's first annual women's retreat was this past weekend.

but then i read a bulletin from an old grade school friend. her mom died less than 10 months ago from cancer. then, her husband of 1.5 years was killed in an accident yesterday morning. she's 24.

i only met her husband once briefly, but i read that and my heart just ached for her. when things are going good, it's the little things that make life entertaining and fun. when something major like this goes down, all those little things pale in comparison to how transient life really is.

so instead of all those lots of things, here's the short version: pray for peace for sarah as she goes throughout this week and beyond, and make sure to hug the people you love today.

the end.

two quotes

"positive thought of the day" from a local radio station earlier in the week:
triumph is just oomph added to try. :)

advisor quote of the day:
before class today, i was talking to a friend about how i substitute taught precalc on tuesday while sounding like a frog from my cold. my advisor overheard and quickly chimed in:
"but lara, having you sounding like a frog is much preferable to most people sounding like princesses."
(i.e. to be translated as: he'd rather hear my teaching style even with a bad voice, than plenty of other people who are not as dedicated teachers even if their voice is fine. :P)

it made me smile.

happy thursday! :P

one of these days, i will learn....

...how to relax.

one would think that relaxing is not hard to do, but for me... oi.

i have this amazing knack for getting involved in way more things than most sane people would tackle at once.

this is easy to do since i don't have what one would call a "typical" job. i am a grad student. what's more, i'm a 4th year graduate student, and i've finished ALL my class requirements. all that's left between me and my degree is writing a thesis. so i don't work 9-5, or have anything remotely close to a "normal" schedule. my life is more or less a giant to do list, and i can work whenever and whereever i want as long as i meet periodic deadlines and don't miss lunch meetings i'm expected to be at.

sooo, besides my research (which is already more or less a full time job), the past week (for example), has included:

(1) a two hour lunch meeting with two dozen other grad students and faculty who have the same bonus fellowship i do this year to discuss why students cheat and what to do about it
(2) lunch at a fancy women's club in princeton to meet with people from an organization that gave me another grant this year
(3) reading and reviewing 50 of the nearly 200 REU applications we have for the summer research program i help run
(4) telemarketing on behalf of my undergraduate university
(5) substitute teaching for my housemate leigh (who is at a conference in france for the MONTH of february) all day yesterday, and THEN spending 3 hours grading quizzes from all 100 of her students

i'm generally very good at being busy and keeping people in all 50 million aspects of my professional life happy. then there comes weeks like this one. where, on top of the list above, i
(1) end up fighting a cold and going through 3 boxes of tissues in 4 days and dealing with intense sinus pressure
(2) lose my voice and keep up with my usual schedule and more anyways (i seriously taught leigh's 3 classes worth of precalculus yesterday while sounding like a very quiet frog because that's the only noise i could get out of my throat)

when i woke up today (my 5th consecutive day of being sick) with a headache, i physically needed a dead day to not do anything. what's more, the whole "my life is a giant to do list without a concrete timeline" gig, gives me the freedom to totally not do anything all day if i don't want to. there's no one to call in sick to and no one wonders what's up. it's totally just me being accountable to myself.

and that's totally what i did (a lot of sitting around and a bit of typing on my laptop while curled up in a recliner), but nonetheless, i felt incredibly lazy about it, and feeling lazy makes me mad. it was a huge mental battle most of the day to convince myself that i was doing a good thing by not physically pushing myself to the limit for another day in a row. i felt like i should be somewhere doing something productive.

one would think that most people are totally happy for the freedom to veg out for a day. not me. don't get me wrong. like the month of may, where i PLAN to relax, i'm fantastic for taking a break from work, and reading lots of fiction and doing a bit of travelling. but that's scheduled relax time. taking time to chill out because i physically need it when i still have lots on my immediate to do list. soooo hard.

end of essay..... does anyone else have this problem? or have i officially classified myself as a workaholic? 1,2,3,...react. :P

last night...

new personal all time highest bowling score!!!
(and my first 4-bagger!!! = 4 strikes in a row)

say hey, it's a good day!

* i've run into several of my favorite students from past semesters this week who all wanted to chat with me about life, the universe, and everything. that makes me happy.

* i earned a nickel in my advisor's class today. that makes me laugh...

furthermore,...
in response to my post full of complaints from last week:

(1) the telemarketing for valpo deal is going well. 3/5 kids talked to. 2/5 houses never give me anything but answering machines... i'll try once more, then email the kids.

(2) after brainstorming with lots of people, i have a decent idea of what to do for an hour in the workshop i have to teach next month, and having an outline figured out, i feel much better about it.

(3) last but not least: i just met with my research advisor. i told him that i think i proved that the plan of attack we've been using to count restricted multiset permutations has been milked for all it's worth and i can prove that the remaining cases are impossible using our plan of attack. that made him a little sad.

then, i told him i've been working on a new plan of attack. he said that an improvement is good, so have at it. i explained what i'd done so far and when i finished... he got SUPER excited. he said it was more brilliant than he had hoped before i described it and he was really impressed with my creativity. we're really hopeful that it works well in other cases too besides my one example.... research really IS a rollercoaster... i guess i just need to really enjoy the highs when they come around. :)

summary: it's a happy day.

the end.

another laugh...

book quote:

" Do you like... films?" I ask at last.

"Some," replies Jess, frowning thoughtfully. "I like films that say something. That have some sort of message."

"Me too," I agree fervently. "Every film should definitely have a message."

Which is true. I mean... take the Lord of the Rings movies -- they've got loads of messages. Like "Don't lose your ring."

~ Shopaholic & Sister (by sophie kinsella)

they say every cloud has a silver lining...

...but sometimes i wonder if it's the other way around. lately it feels like things that seem on the whole to be very good have extra thorns that can be hard to get past.
(long brain dump follows, consider yourself forewarned)

random rundown of life lately:

* my past: memphis.... my old church in memphis got like the *perfect* pastor a year ago after being in an interim period for a year and a half. his skills and the congregation's needs were the PERFECT fit. unfortunately between the housing market in florida (where he comes from) and his family's desires, he moved up to memphis and they stayed put all year in florida citing various reasons. finally, after weighing things for a long time, a week ago he decided to resign and go back to florida to be with his family. his last sunday is next week. he loved the congregation and the congregation loved him. his personality helped motivate a lot of good and exciting things. but very quickly he's gone and they're in another interim period. in the end they'll grow and find a new pastor. he'll settle things with where his family needs to be, etc. but right now i'm a little sad for my old church.... it's a rough not-as-fun spot to be in for a bit.
good: my church grew a lot with a fantastic pastor for the past year... thorn: now they're in an interim period again

* my past: valpo... i've very proud of my undergraduate school and the things i got out of it. i was a science major and a member of the humanities honors college. back in september i was asked to help contact high school seniors who want to be science majors, and are qualified for the honors college, but haven't applied for it yet. this weekend the packet of what i should do came in. i was a telemarketer for the university for a year and a half while i was a student there, but i hate making phone calls and have gotten more and more hesitant to make them since. in the next 3 weeks it's my job to call 5 such students and try to get them excited about applying to the honors college. i planned to do it today, but basically fretted about it for 4 hours instead, without dialing a single number. my extreme dislike for making phone calls to strangers is a major thorn right now, but i'm sure, once i get going it'll be fine and i'll be happy to have done it.
good: i love my college and want other people to know about the cool things they have to offer... thorn: i hate initiating phone calls

* present: research... i'm all about getting paid to study things i enjoy... it's like the perfect job. especially since i'm on fellowship this semester. my life is like a giant to do list without much structure. after a productive time of catching up on fairly straightforward aspects of my research last week, i was feeling pretty good. but now i'm up to the next big roadblock and it's giving me a headache.
good: i love doing my math... thorn: when that's almost *ALL* that's on my schedule for a few days and i feel like my progress has hit a brick wall, it's a little frustrating

* present: teaching... i love teaching when i'm in the classroom. i also am not capable of doing something only half way, so i've made a lot of noise about improving teaching in the past couple semesters too. as a result i have an extra teaching fellowship from the university this year. for the most part the benefits of this are great. i get monthly lunch meetings with half a dozen other graduate fellows and a dozen faculty all of whom are very interested in discussing teaching issues, and i'm really excited about that. however, one of my duties is to present a teaching workshop in a month. i feel completely competant to talk to a room of math teaching assistants. but i get the sense that the math academic world operates a bit differently from other departments, so i'm a little hesitant about being deemed the "expert" in a room of TAs from different areas.
good: my time and effort for teaching are being honored... thorn: i'm a little nervous about seemingly being put in a place with a little more authority than i give myself...

* present: grants... i also have an extra grant this year from a fantastic organization that raises money for women in graduate school. as part of the grant i'm strongly encouraged to accept invitations of organization members to talk, attend various events, etc. i'm attending a philanthropy fair they're holding in late february as a representative recipient of their scholar award program. that's already kinda entertaining because i have no idea what to expect. the lady who invited me wrote me an email last night saying she'd like to meet me and take me out to lunch before the event. that's an innocent and pleasant invitation, and i gladly accepted the offer and suggested a few possible dates. she wrote me back that she'd like us to eat next week at a club she's a member of.
good: lunch at a fancy by-invitation-only club is exciting and an honor... thorn: i'm more of a jeans-and-sweatshirt-every-day-i-can-get-away-with-it kind of girl, so eating at a club is slightly stress inducing, as i'll periodically obsess about dress code and ettiquette for the next week and a half until i get there.

summary: life is pretty good, and i'm involved in lots of exciting things right now, but phone conversations, research roadblocks, and stepping out of my usual people-and-places circles of comfort make me nervous. in the end, i suppose "all of this too shall pass", and in the end, make me even stronger in dealing with the world (i do have a lot of paranoias to work on after all... ;) )

your job? keep my memphis church in prayer... and cross your fingers that i learn how to chill out in the near future instead of mentally working myself up into being really tense about interacting with the non-math graduate student world ;)

the end.

a laugh

winter break pictures

enjoy!

oh, new orleans...

dude, what a week.

friday through monday, eric and i were at the national joint mathematics meetings in new orleans. 10 hours a day of math talks and schmoozing for 4 straight days is a lot of work. driving all day for both days on either end takes time too.

on the way south, eric and i drove to mobile, AL first and toured the USS alabama, which was super cool, until i got a migraine later in the day and had him drive from AL to LA. driving into new orleans from the east is kinda surreal. there are whole neighborhoods with dark house, and lit up trailer in the front yard for as far as the eye can see...

once there, we were kind of sheltered. the sheraton and the marriot are across the street from each other and for 4 days 5000 mathematicians attended talks and exhibits back and forth between the two hotels. they're on the west end of the french quarter which survived the hurricanes really well, so especially for people who just flew in, everything they actually saw was basically fine. eric and i walked the 2 miles to the garden district monday afternoon and saw a little bit of a different story along the way... sad thing is, so much of the city still has a lot to do to rebuild, and the part that's fine isn't really my cup of tea, (at least at night when most things are open,... i mean seriously, picture me on bourbon street? it's fun, but it's not me)...

even if we were sheltered in our exposure to the city, we definitely weren't in who we ran into at the conference. i crossed paths with my REU advisor from 5 years ago in texas, several of my past rutgers REU students, many of my undergraduate professors, many rutgers people past and present, and many people i've met at smaller more subject-specific conferences in the past year. it's really cool to feel like a valued part of a much larger community. practically every time i turned around there was someone new i knew from somewhere in the past who was happy to see me, so that was cool.

i introduced gillman (my undergraduate research advisor) to dr. z. (my phd thesis advisor) one afternoon. z's response? "nice to meet you! thank you for making lara!" i laughed SO hard...

anyhow, a VERY math-filled week is done. i'm being lazy in memphis for 24 hours before being on the road again. memphis to pittsburgh tomorrow, and pittsburgh to NJ on friday. tons of exciting fun, right?

be parties one and all!

winter roadtrip, round 3 (of 4)

so i really don't ever stay put.

in the past 7 days i've slept in 4 different places... moving around is what i do best.

the northern leg of my roadtrip was fun.
* i enjoyed hanging out with grandma even if we live in totally different worlds. she makes me laugh and we generally have a good time.
* heather m's wedding was beautiful. she and chris are so perfect for each other and it was a beautiful thing to watch them so happy together as well as to catch up with good college friends. aubrey taught me how to waltz between the wedding and the reception which for me is huge. :P
* roommate and i had a fabulous time hanging out with tammy and marcus for new years. we went cosmic bowling in a middle-of-nowhere, indiana town and had a blast.
* driving a rooster for dad from indy to memphis wasn't quite as noisy as expected. i'm glad it's over with.

2 days in memphis, and now i'm off again. yesterday i hung out with mom, then later went bowling with brother and got my highest score ever -- a 167!!! i'm getting there. :) today was random errands, and eric flew into town this afternoon so i have math company the whole rest of my time until i'm back in jersey. the next several days look like this:

* leave memphis super early tomorrow and head for mobile, alabama just to be there and get a good view of the gulf coast... will probably visit the USS alabama. eric's never been in the south at all before, so we'll knock out TN, MS, AL, and LA all in one day. after mobile, we're off to new orleans for the night.
* friday-monday national joint math meetings in downtown new orleans. lots of socializing with lots of math people. it will be a party.
* tuesday, new orleans back to memphis, then one day of "downtime" before the final leg of my crazy winter break travels.

i can barely keep up with myself lately, how about you? :-P