Currently in Aspen, at a super informal, but enlightening space physics conference. More about that in a minute.

In life, not much going on. I was back from NC a few weeks ago. Summer is nice because work just consists of research, no classes, no bullshit. Also, I just recently got this undergrad (Liam) that I will be supervising this summer who is super smart and does everything on his own (which is great, no babysitting) and he's also good to talk with and reads good books. So basically the perfect person to work with. Sarah is gone for the summer (old officemate) so that's sad. But at least we're hanging out here in Aspen.

Heather, my friend from Brooklyn, came up to NH for a couple days and we went hiking (which will be blogged about soon, with pictures). And there's a new roommate at Farmhouse Galactica aka The Bat Cave, who is really super cool. Plus, there's an awesome puppy at work that I go visit quite often and spend many minutes petting and playing with.

Aspen is fun so far. I had a little altitude sickness I think the first couple days, but I got my stride back soon enough. I've been to a few talk sessions, but mostly it's been hanging out with other grad students and getting drunk. Last night was quite fun, starting with a student party (lots of liquor & beer) and evolving into a select few of us migrating to the outdoor hot tub with a bottle of champagne. The champagne didn't last long so we headed back to the party, each of us avoiding certain people for various reasons and trying to talk to certain other people for various reasons. Today was a sleeping in kind of day, but then science took over and I heard some good auroral talks and cheered on my colleagues when they gave their presentations. Tonight is my poster presentation then a BBQ at someone's condo. Who says being a scientist is all about sitting in a lab and being nerdy?

last night -> gin, bluegrass, making fun of white people and their bad dancing.

today -> planting raspberries, herbs, daisies & viney things, trying to tame the jungle that is my front lawn with a weed wacker, tearing the chicken wire off the deck (finally), movie with roommate, bed.

leave for NH today... sad.

not enough settlers, not enough time to hang out with some people, not enough time in Winston.

argggg, stuck in NY on the way to greensboro. my plane had all these mechanical errors, but at least they put me up in a hotel for the night. its kinda shitty though. plus, i haven't eaten barely anything all day since i didn't want my ulcer to be killing me on the plane. all i brought was a head of cabbage (yes, that prompted more than one comment when going through security) since it actually soothes my stomach. weird, but true, home remedy for ulcers. it's so gross though. and that's all i ate until i arrived at the hotel to find their kitchen was closed so i bought some old crackers from behind the front desk. if they pain my stomach, so what. i'll be asleep momentarily anyway. ug, i look like death warmed over and have lost 5 pounds in 5 days from this stupid stomach ulcer. oh well, wish me better airline luck for tomorrow!

the plan for the next few days:

tomorrow is exam in the morning, finishing the term paper, rushing home to pack and then off to portland airport with sarah driving (thank you!!) - oh, and i have to post the picture of monkey shirt guy, or sarah will kill me.

tomorrow night i get home to greensboro! where a decent entourage of people should be waiting to pick me up. then it's back to the house where i'll play a game of settlers or two and put the finishing touches on my batwoman mask.

wednesday is more boogie planning, hanging out with tons of people i miss so much (zac, jess, marijke, jeanne...) then working on the batwoman costume some more, dinner with parents and picking jessica up from the airport late at night.

thursday is boogie!!! the absolute best time of year, can't wait, so fucking excited, just wonderful...

i forgot to talk about the awesomeness of last weekend! first, sarah and i headed off to lexington, ma where we saw a high school play produced by amanda palmer and based on the songs of neutral milk hotel. it was amazing to me. it was also a narrative through the eyes of anne frank and so therefore pretty damn depressing. but the musical interludes were excellent, lots of singing of jeff mangum's songs by the high schoolers and dancing around and just being beautiful. it was very moving and something i'm glad i didn't miss. but amanda only sang one little piece of a song at the end... :(

then afterwards, we headed back to campus and took a guy drinking. this guy is actually a new incoming grad student who will be attending UNH this fall. he was visiting campus and we promised we'd take him out after getting back from boston. so we headed to a bar in durham and soon realized why we never go drinking near campus.... sarah and i were each approached by a student we TA'd in the past. and even worse for sarah since she was his TA like 5 years ago! but he was super drunk and wearing a neon blue shirt with eighties graphics all over it and a monkey wearing 3-d glasses (picture to follow). regardless, we had fun, sang a few songs and then bid the grad student adieu whereupon i'm assuming he headed to the hotel to sleep before his morning flight.


Saturday was a wedding between Hyun ju and Taylor, 2 of my fellow physics friends. it was a pretty swanky wedding, very adorable at times and actually quite a bit of fun. i kind of dreaded going just because weddings are usually rife with awkwardness, but there was little to no tension in the room all night, despite the obvious class/cultural differences between the Korean families, the New England upper class, and Taylor's weirdo college/grad school/Magic friends. thankfully, Taylor made the seating arrangements for the whole dinner portion and he sat me at a table filled with people i never met before. it was awesome. i didn't have to see any of the same asshole faces i see every day at work, and instead got to meet some really cool people and had some great conversations. i think we ended up dubbing ourselves "the drunk, rowdy table." totally the loudest table in the room, but we had a blast. hyun ju and taylor were so goddamn cute --- *squeak*. i wish them a long, happy life together and judging from what i've seen when they're together they are just perfect for one another. blah blah blah. (can't get too squishy, it will ruin my image...)

is star trek in my future for this weekend? maybe. i hope so. but i also have all this schoolwork, making the boogie costume, preparing for leaving for home, and then george's bbq on friday, jing's wedding saturday, sean's going away party saturday and the lab party with my boss and colleagues on sunday. which i'm honestly not looking forward to, but sarah will kill me if i don't show up. ugh. going by sarah's account of the last lab party where there was almost no eating, no drinking, awkward silences and a naked baby flying around, i'm pretty much dreading this one. i don't want to see all the people who will be there (if they show up), paul's wife won't even be coming (the most interesting person that would have been there) and i can think of 5 million other things i'd rather be doing than drinking gross beer and watching the undergrads kiss marc's ass.

the upside to all this? i'm busy, happy (despite the fact that i may in fact have a tapeworm or an alien chest burster growing in my stomach) and will be in NC so very soon!

today i was hanging out by my apple trees enjoying the smell and the gentle humming of bees when something larger than a bee shot by my head and i realized that most of the buzzing in the trees was coming from hummingbirds, not bees!!! there were quite a few, all darting around eating nectar. they are amazing birds!

today's experience is even better when combined with the unnerving event of last night where we got to hear barred owls having sex in the woods behind my house. it's a bird's paradise here apparently.

*2 weddings
*2 BBQ's
*2 projects
*1 term paper
*3 finals
*1 batwoman costume

my last 2 weeks before boogie!!! i will really really need a break after that...

going to see amanda palmer's play tomorrow by the kids of Lexington high school in Lexington, MA. i'm so excited, so excited. the play is based around a neutral milk hotel song, which makes it so incredibly more awesome. ..... i can't fucking wait.

I kayaked Sunday and swam in the indoor pool today, so I'm beat. And today is a perfect rainy day for an evening nap. But before nap.... rant!

When you're dating someone, their friends are nice to you (unless you're a *complete* asshole). It's just a common courtesy people do for others. Even if they don't like you all that much, they are friendly to you. Same applies to me and my friends. However, when the inevitable breakup comes, those people are not automatically your friends just because you dated me. And trying desperately to be friends with them after the relationship is over is a little pathetic. It's creepy to them, and then I have to be the one to explain why you're acting that way. Just get your own friends. If you don't have any, make some. It's a crappy situation, I know. But just suck it up and be a man. Damn.

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kayaking today with friends! i'm quite excited. i've been spending a gazillion hours outdoors lately, maybe at the expense of schoolwork but whatever. i'm *just* smart enough to slack off for a couple weeks if i want to and pull it all together at the end for some A's and B's. this is the prime time of summer though! not a lot of bugs are out yet and all the animals are coming out of hiding and the leaves are growing... (yesterday i saw a young quail run across my driveway!!)

my accomplishments this week so far: went swimming with sarah twice, we did about 12 laps each time. bought a dress for the wedding i have next week. registered for the motorcycle rider training class. started seeds for vegetables indoors. and managed to do tons of homework and long talks with my boss on top of that.

kayaks!

so satisfyingly tired from a day of yard work with undying gratitude to sarah, ben, amanda, dana and tavi who helped me with all of it! i love those guys, and my yard looks spectacular.

today is absolutely gorgeous! it's 75 degrees, all the windows and doors are open and my yard is getting greener every day, with a few daffodils popping up here and there! this means gardening weather, motorcycle weather, ice cream weather... tomorrow i have a bunch of friends coming over to help me do yard work and then we'll use all the downed branches to make a bonfire and have snacks. later this month marc and i are taking the motorcycle rider training class from the DMV so i can get my motorcycle license! and then of course, the end of may means one thing: BOOGIE!!! I haven't even begun to make my costume yet (Batwoman) and there's so much to plan and figure out, but it's the best time of year for me so I can't wait.

As for the rest of summer, I'll just be working every day at the lab and gardening in the mornings or when I get home, hanging out with the dogs and cats, and training for the triathlon. my parents are coming to visit at some point, as well as my sister and my friend Heather. And I'm heading to Snowmass, CO for a week (near Aspen) for a physics conference with my colleagues Hyomin and Sarah. Colorado Road Trip '09!!!

and yes, yes, i know... pictures. i have them all ready, just need to load on to facebook. coming soon, i promise.

finally, spring has come to the lands up north. for the most part. but i feel totally useless because my stupid toe precludes me from doing any yard work or planting or setting up of gardens. also, i want to do this triathlon in july - it better be healed soon so i can train!

i went to Dartmouth College last night with my friend sarah to meet a bunch of women scientists there and get free mexican food! it was just okay, but i got to meet some dartmouth physicists that i'd been hearing about, plus see Kristina (PI for the rocket mission in Alaska) some more, if only briefly. we stayed the night in Vermont with our friend & fellow rocket science grad student Meghan. she lives in a cute, converted barn and we played board games, chatted and watched her make cheesecakes. this morning we had breakfast at an awesome little country cafe in Vermont (actually the same town where my boss Marc used to live, when he worked at Dartmouth) and then headed home to (barely) miss making it in time for my morning class. damn. but Dartmouth is awesome, i totally wouldn't mind working there someday.

yesterday was a pretty excellent day, which makes me even more certain in my conviction that a string of bad days are okay since it typically means great ones are just around the corner. and then they seem that much better in comparison with what has just passed.

I went to the new planetarium in Concord all day because I was invited to be a speaker at a solar physics STEREO/SOHO conference. I gave my talk after lunch and everyone really liked it, got lots of compliments at the end of the day. Mostly I think because it wasn't more boring solar data talks, instead it was an account of my time in Kaktovik (with lots of cool pictures) and an explanation of how much we rocket people love the solar satellite people, because their data really helps us predict the aurora. They were all very happy with that analysis.

then I had awesome food, saw a planetarium show, messed around with all the exhibits and had more praise from the lady who invited me. she also let it slip at the end of the night that I had won the Space Grant Fellowship that I had applied for a month ago. I just got the official letter today! that means a nice distinction on my resume and a little more money for the year, plus my boss will be psyched since he won't have to pay my salary this year.

finally at the end of the night, I got asked by the planetarium director to come give a talk some Friday night this summer for 100 bucks. altogether a pretty stellar evening.

so please forgive me.

the past two days have consisted of one unfortunate circumstance upon another. i can't wait until this bad streak runs out. it started when UNH decided to cancel buses yesterday due to a major accident at precisely the moment i want to catch one to get back to my car. i waited for 20 mins until a girl got a call from her friend saying all buses were canceled. i walked the mile plus from my building to my car on the goddamn toe, it took me 3 times as long as normal and my foot was killing me by the end. i raced to my doctor's appointment, but i was too late and they wouldn't see me, so i drove home defeated and frustrated. later that evening, a surprise sinkhole decided to form in the middle of the driveway and of course i drove right into it at the perfect time. my car fell in halfway up the hubcaps with no hope of escape. my roommates and i fooled around in the mud with shovels, bricks and headlamps all night but it got me nowhere.

so early this morning i called the stupid tow truck and they hooked their winch to a tree and pulled me out, leaving the spot where i had been a huge muddy mess of ruts. my driveway is officially fucked. the cherry on the shit sundae was when i drove off this morning to school, and realized my suspension is completely warped. there's a wicked shimmy in the steering wheel and my car is sitting at the mechanics waiting until monday when they charge me an arm and a leg for a busted control arm or whatever.

i want to crawl into a hole.

had a long conversation with Matt today that felt pretty good, it's the first time we've talked since we broke up. did anyone know we broke up? i'm sure you scoped it out on facebook by now... anyway, it turned out to be a good conversation, at least from my point of view. i'd been feeling kinda guilty honestly about the whole thing. but it seems he is doing okay and not too broken apart, and that made me happy.

at home, things are great. everyone is getting along really well and despite small differences, we are not always tense and mad at each other like in my last house in rollinsford. that place was a nightmare comparatively. i'd never lived with more than one other person, so i thought that was normal, but that situation was far from normal i now realize.

so housemates are great, weezy the dog is awesome and i'm soon getting a pup of my own! life is pretty nice right now.

the past few days has been full of mostly domestic projects. tom and i cooked a lot of food including his super awesome best ever applesauce bran muffins, sweet potato fries, madras lentils, delicious red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, some eggplant & sweet potato & onion thing and more applesauce muffins. i worked on the house a lot, tom and i cleaned, and last night i made my first pomander but it hasn't dried completely yet.

my two roommates who were in china came home saturday night. tom and i stayed up to welcome them - they even brought presents! jess got me a chinese dress which looks amazing on me, and chopsticks. marc got me some excellent oolong and green tea in neat tins. then we all made plans for an upcoming cookout with our sweet propane grill that will be single people only, since we're all single (most of us freshly single). that's right, you heard it here first, the horse farm, farmhouse galactica, whatever you want to call it, is hosting a singles night. details to follow.

this week is my spring break, and it's flying by. last weekend, i went up to laconia, nh with some friends to go snow tubing and hang out. we made some lovely dinners, went swimming in the indoor pool, played board games and watched a movie. we made it home monday afternoon and decided that the adventures weren't over yet, so we headed to portsmouth and went thrift store shopping, drank coffee & tea and then retired to Ben & Amanda's house to eat more yummy food and play Cities and Knights (a variation of Settlers of Catan).

The next day was St. Patrick's day, so i spent a quiet day at home getting cleaning done, and then headed out to stand in line at an irish pub. finally got inside, and had a pretty decent time, despite the impossibility of getting drinks and the really adamant dumb guy that shamelessly hit on me until my friends made him walk away. becky pretended i was her girlfriend, and it worked pretty well to get him to leave me alone. then the physics department secretary showed up, with her daughter and friends who did some traditional irish dancing, and dedicated one dance to unh physics department (at which point all 5 of us cheered). i got a little drunk and had much fun after all.

today was the recuperation period, so i just lay around pretty much all day until the afternoon when i realized that spring is really finally here and that is was goddamn gorgeous outside. so we all headed outdoors (me, the four cats and the dog) to do some chores... changing light bulbs, tending to the barn, sweeping the deck and cleaning out coolers. i also started to take off the hideous chicken wire stapled to the deck railing (i think it was to deter the previous owners' children from tottering off the edge). i'll post before and after pictures once i get it done, but i really think it will improve the look of the house from the outside.

two roommates are gone to china for the week and the one other is always at work, so it's lots of much-needed alone time for me. there's a few things on my mind, mostly just the desire for everyone i care about to be happy and secure in their choices in life.

watch facebook for tubing pictures coming soon!