Full of Vim and Vigor

While we were off at the beach, our little miss, Tulip, spent the week with McVet-which sounds like a great time to me :) Being spayed and then recovering...okay, not such a great week after all for her. Before we even left my sistah and I were worrying about our little munchkin and praying for her safe and quick recovery. And hoping she wasn't too bitter about the week at McVet's office.


E checked on her every day and she was returned to us last night happy, healthy and full of life!


How I love that funny little face of hers!

Duck, Duck, Duck, BEACH!

duck


duck


duck


BEACH!!!!


My sistah and I just returned from an amazing week at the beach. We made great new friends, caught up with some old ones, and body surfed many a wave.


There were walks on the beach, seashells found [please note the size of the gray one-positively immense :) ]


crabs caught and introduced to UCF [Ultimate Crab Fighting-how long can you stand as a part of the circle of feet when the crab is crawling on YOUR toes?], playoff games contested, sunrises watched, and constellations found.


And hours and hours of hot-tubbing-if only we had a photo of the hot tub crew :) Or I guess a pitcure of Adam's prun-y feet would pretty much sum it all up.


Awesome week with wonderful people in a beautiful place-does it get any better?


Oh, and there was the karaoke...

Commencement 2K9

Commencement this year was even more amazing than last year, which I didn't know was actually possible because E made last year's sooooooo awesome! And Arianna was graduating last year and it was so fun to do everything with her and sit together for the very end of our crazy college years together. Without doubt, the only thing that was missing from Commencement this year was her-everything else was way beyond the imagination.


First of all, my family was here which is always exciting but was especially so important to me since I would not be where I am today without their faith in me, encouragement and endless love and support. You all have shaped me into who I am and I cannot imagine going through life without you.


I am so lucky to have you all.


This was also the first time everyone had seen the new abode AND met the newest member of the fam, Tulip!


Second, E and A were able to sneak away from commencement prep to have dinner with my family on Friday night. It was wonderful to have all of the very most important people in my life at dinner! (Sorry you missed bonding with the VIP speaker for dinner, but I'm so glad you came!)


Dinner was at one of my favorite restaurants, Patois, which is a mere 2 blocks from the casa and totally delish. I wore my graduation bracelet and got a KitchenAid (chrome on chrome, just like I'd always wanted and christened with pink salad!), ice cream and cupcake cookbooks, an awesome book from a distant relative, and my diploma (which came a day early and filled with graduation confetti-does it get much better than that?!?!) among the many generous gifts! But by far the best gift of all was being there with my nearest and dearest.


Because I received my Master's degree this commencement, I was a part of two ceremonies, one on Friday morning; the advanced degree hooding and one on Saturday: the unified commencement. A was in charge of Friday's ceremony and it was a very intimate, inspiring ceremony.


I saw MK in our prep-room before the ceremony, which was very fun!


All of the caps of the Science and Engineering Master's graduates-my cap is the one with the fleur de lis! And the PhD's have green robes, which made me really want to keep going and earn that green robe. But my hood is pretty sassy from the Masters :) E came to the Friday morning ceremony even though he was supposed to be downtown prepping for the Saturday ceremony but it was awesome to have him there; thanks for coming E!


During the unified ceremony I was able to sit next to my XO baby, Charn. Little one, I am so proud of you: what you have overcome and what you have become. You are amazing and I am so glad I was able to share graduation day a little bit with you. You definitely made Ellen's dream of a dynasty come true and I love our huge and expanding family, but always remember, you are my one and only Rho baby. Hoot Hoot!


Last but not least, in case you haven't heard, Tulane's commencement speakers this year were Harry Connick Jr and Ellen Degeneres. And I met them both!


E-I know I say it all the time, but it is always so true: YOU ROCK!!!!


The rest of the weekend was filled with family fun and excitement-and a win by the filly!!!! Of course we had a job jar for our visitors, so everyone gamely pitched in and helped make our house a home. And now that everyone has been here it really does feel like a home!


We also took a trip through jazz history as we visited Preservation Hall and heard the sounds of early jazz in the spaces where it was first created.


We rounded out the weekend with a trip to Cafe du Monde-always a delicious time!


Thank you so much to everyone who was a part of the graduation festivities-you are amazing and have left an indelible mark on my life, I am so glad you were here and I was able to share this achievement with you.


PS-That was some champion strawberry scraping ;)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

It's my Daddy's special day! Happy Happy Birthday to the best Dad ever!

Imitation...

Charles Caleb Colton said "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery"

I am trying really hard to think of it as flattery and not stalking...

Eerie Feeling...

Have you ever been somewhere that doesn't freak you, personally, out, but many people have told you it's a scary place? So it is with the Anatomy lab. I personally find lab to be not at all intimidating and am perfectly fine to be there alone, however, ever since I was an anatomy student people have discussed the lengths they go to in order to avoid being in the lab alone. Again, being in the lab alone is not an issue for me and I am often there alone before/after sections meet. Today dawned a gray, humid, and ominous morn; post-drop off of my sistah and pre-visit to the gym I needed to drop off the final lab exams to the lab. Conveniently, lab is located in the bottom of the gym (a fact few know, and I'm sure all the gym patrons would love to learn :) ), so dropping said exams off would be no problem. As I unlocked the many doors/locks between the general public and the cadavers the thought "it's so weird that nobody else besides the professors, not even my TA's will come in here alone," crossed my mind. Now, this thought runs through my head pretty much every time I go into the lab alone because it really does astound me. Anyways, I put the exams away and notice that there is a general state of dishelvement in my office and, in a shocking twist to no one, begin tidying it up. Then it occurs to me that I should check the cadaver lab and make sure everything is neat and tidy. There is very little that annoys me more than a messy cadaver lab. Except an unorganized tool drawer in the cadaver lab. Sigh. So I go into the lab, and indeed, it is in a state of slight disarray-nothing terribly out of place, just some buckets still laid out to dry, clipboards and exam coversheets on various stations. I set to work and after a few minutes, the hair on the back of my neck starts to tingle. I shrug this off; I know I locked the outer door behind me so should anyone be in there they either have a key (and are therefore not scary because only the professors and I have keys) or they had to get through the ventilation system (and while Las Vegas may be one of my favorite shows, I am pretty positive that nobody is climbing through ventilation systems to get me). Mere milliseconds after I tell myself to get a grip I hear it. A chirping/sing-songy noise. It can only be one thing: a cell phone ringtone. I may have gasped out loud. I try to rationalize this new development to myself (a student left it, it's one of the professors, my phone is having a seizure) and have nearly succeeded when the noise stops. Before the tune was over. CREEPY! So I may have been in a state of semi-panic, but I tell myself I am being completely ridiculous and need to get a grip. I return to organizing the tool drawer and am thinking over this situation in my mind and realize that all of the reasons I generated for the noise are completely impossible: if a student left their phone in lab I CERTAINLY would have heard about it within the hour, not 10+ days after the last lab exam, both of the professors have keys and would have come and gotten their phone if they had left it and it was not either professors ringtone, and while my phone and I have some moments, it was in the office, two locked doors away from me in the lab, so even if it was seizuring, I wouldn't have heard it. Which didn't really comfort me seeing as I was approaching the "call someone to come and rescue me" state, but my phone was fairly far away. I have barely finished process this information, and had just placed the last tool in the drawer when...

The noise. It goes off again! I am genuinely freaked and start to move towards the door. However, when I get halfway across the room I notice something, the sound isn't as loud. All that I have passed are the bathrooms and 3 cadaver tables. Hmm. I return to the back of the lab to see where the noise is coming from. It seems centered around one of the cadaver tables. Well, I tell myself, either the cadavers have come back alive AND have pretty snazzy technology, or someone left their phone in the table during the exam. I flip open the latches and pull open a side of the cover, the cound increases in volume, I drop the table lid which bangs into my shin (of course this had to involve the table with the heaviest lid!). Cadaver is definitely not alive, check. No phone visible, check. Noise still beeping/singing away at me. Hmmm. I get gloves and investigate, thinking to myself, dude, if this was my phone I wouldn't want it back after it has lived in a cadaver table for 10 days. No phone anywhere. The noise stops and I am genuinely stumped. I am closing the table when something cool and metal touches my hand. I nearly scream, but look down.


It was the cadaver's pacemaker, and it was blinking and started chirpping away at me again. It needs new batteries.