Indiana/Seattle/HOME
I have now safely survived NINE takeoffs/landings in the past 10 days! Oh yes, I love layovers and all that :)
Well, I visited Court in Indy for President’s Day weekend, which was great. We went to our favorite bars (Harry’s and Jake’s), visited good ol’ Tippecanoe Mall, ate at one of the best BBQ places EVER (I’m going to guess that nobody’s planning on visiting West Lafayette soon, since there is nothing to do there-haha!-but try South Street Smokehouse if you do; you definitely won’t regret it. Oh, and it’s like $5 for a dinner that you can’t finish-it’s that much food!), watched NASCAR at BW’s and killed everyone at trivia…woke up waaay too early on Monday to come back to Baltimore for approximately 24 hours before I caught my flight out to Seattle.
Seattle was incredible. It’s one of the few cities that I’ve been to where I have felt completely comfortable and safe right away. Chicago and Annapolis are the only other two-and coincidentally, they’re the only two places I could ever really see myself permanently living. Anyway, the flights out were fine, but long and I didn’t get into my hotel room until almost midnight. Wednesday was THE BIG DAY: I gave my poster presentation from 11a to 3p. It went flawlessly! So many people were interested in the research, and asked about other research projects I was working on, when I was publishing this stuff, if I have a job or am looking for a new one, etc. And it was also really nice to have my professor, old lab director, and the three other interns I worked with last summer stop by to say congratulations on finishing/presenting the research. I felt so relieved that it all went as well as it did-and I was relieved when it was OVER! (Trust me, four hours of standing on a cement floor in slingback heels, while talking to people non-stop is exhausting.) Audrey, who had the poster space next to mine, invited me to go out to dinner with her and some of her coworkers (they work for the identification lab in Hawaii), so I went back to the Hilton, crashed for two hours, and then met up with them at this restaurant called Tango’s, which was a tapas restaurant. It was great food, and I liked having people to have dinner with! Hey, I was there by myself-up to that point, I was just going to wander down to the market and see what they had there, so this was a nice alternative. Thursday I headed to the scientific sessions in the morning, and volunteered as an AV assistant for the afternoon…I went to the hotel after I was done and KAYE WAS THERE!!! She and her sorority sister Sarah had driven in from Spokane. So, we all dressed up and went out to the Melting Pot, where we proceeded to have a three hour long dinner because we were talking a LOT :) I had to head back to the meetings on Friday for the morning session, and then I was done. The three of us went down to the Pike Place Market- saw the first Starbucks, watched the guys catch fish, watched cheese being made, walked to the Space Needle and went all the way up it and got the most amazing view of Mt. Rainier 75 miles away. For dinner, our concierge Jim hooked us up at his favorite restaurant, Brooklyn’s, which was just awesome. We hit up some of the local bars afterwards, and then made it back home for some sleep. Saturday morning we succumbed to shopping-all along Pike Street, there are flagship stores for Nordstrom’s, JCrew, Macy’s, American Eagle, etc. Sarah and Courtney left around noon, and I spent the rest of the afternoon doing some wandering. I finally went over to the airport around 5-ish, found a place to sit and read my books and kill time until my flight (which, by the way, didn’t start boarding until 10p. Yeah, I had some time to kill!). The flights back weren’t bad, but just so very long: I flew from SEA to DTW, then to MSP, then (FINALLY!) to BWI. It was a twelve hour long journey made okay only because I managed to get free upgrades to first class on each segment ;)
Coming home felt fantastic; I spent the rest of the afternoon eating and chatting with Mom and Dad while playing with the dog. I passed out at 9pm and didn’t wake up until 9a Monday morning-and to be honest, I probably could have gone BACK to sleep! Instead, I dragged myself on over to CP and banged my head against the computer for an hour or two while trying to figure out my RS homework, then had class (where, wonderfully enough, I had a breakthrough on the homework!), did some research in McKeldin afterwards (I'm working on an artifact study of headstones in the Chesapeake region), and then went to HISP where I skipped out early (I pleaded jet-lag).
Today was the first day back at the office! I actually missed that place while I was gone. I’m not even really “in” the office this week, either, because I’m taking some contract officer training, but the training ends earlier in the afternoon which let me catch up on the emails, phone calls, letters, etc. from while I was gone. And it gave me a chance to catch up with Cliff and James! Those two crack me up. Because of them, I’m bringing my poster to work tomorrow and hanging it up in my office. I figure if I paid $85 for it to be printed-I should show it off, damn it!
I filled out one of the forms for graduation today-I am one step (and one week!) closer to graduation. And I turned in that one stupid paper for 712-I turned it in before I left for my trips. LOL-feel free to let me know if you want me to email you a copy. I’m sure you’re all waiting on the edges of your seat for a copy of a paper on population variation in the sacrum! (I'm just happy that I'm DONE with damn thing. Now only if Jackson could fill in my grade...)
Time for bills and some school reading, then bed. Good night!