Yet another Illinois adventure

It's only been an evening, but already Illinois is yet again proving to be adventurous for Fragile X lab GRAs!  Our flights were nice and smooth this time (well, except for the massively hard landing at O'hare!), but getting to our hotel was somewhat less smooth.  While driving on a four-lane highway, 3 teenage boys decided to jaywalk across the street.  But they didn't simply cross the street.  They walked out into my lane, and stayed there.  As I approached, they walked toward us and very slowly sidled out of the way (into the other lane).  Even after honking and glaring at them, they didn't seem to think it a bit strange to be meandering among the highway lanes.  A few miles later, things got more frightening.  The highway had filled up since we were approaching the business district, and this meant that cars were frequently making turns into and out of lanes and driveways.  The driver of one particularly large pick-up truck decided that she should be able to turn into our lane even if we were right there.  So she did.  And I swerved into the other lane.  Thankfully there was no one there.  I am beginning to wonder if this rental car is invisible!

Something about the Midwest

What is it about Indiana and Illinois that mean we often have crazy trips??

This time, we managed to remember that the family lives very near the Central/Eastern timezone border.   However, this time we nearly had a repeat of the disastrous Illinois trip from summer 2010.  The problem began when, for some reason, our layover in Atlanta became short.  The flight from KC was on time - despite leaving late - so we thought we had enough time to get from our arrival gate to our departure gate and even have time for a pit stop and a brief break.  We thought wrong.  After making said pit stop, we walk to our gate, only to find that they are no longer 'boarding' - they've 'boarded'.  We were the last two on the plane, and there was still 20 minutes until our scheduled departure time!  Moments after we took our seats, the plane pushed back from the gate.  We then proceeded to sit on the tarmac for about 30 minutes while we waited for clearance to take off.  We arrived in Evansville on time, but quite jostled from flying over the tornado storm system.  I went to get our rental car (which ended up being a brand new 300 with 103 miles!!), while my colleague waited for the suitcase.  And waited.  And waited. Yep, you guessed it.  Delta had made our layover so short that they couldn't get the suitcase from one plane to the other before we left.  Uh oh.  My colleague and I made the necessary arrangements to have the bag brought to our hotel after it arrived on the next available flight.  Well, that flight got delayed 2 hours because of the tornado storm system. Rather than stay up past midnight, we asked the front desk to call us once the bag made it.  When the call finally came at 1:30am, we didn't care what time it was, we were just glad the flight hadn't been canceled!  The next morning, we retrieved the suitcase and the rest of the trip went off without a hitch. 

New Bern, NC

This weekend's trip was ... interesting.  I'm not sure if there's a better word for it or not. 

We traveled to a town on the North Carolina coast named New Bern.  It's the birthplace of Pepsi, and during our time there, we got to visit the location of the original pharmacy where Pepsi was first served.  I got to buy some Mountain Dew swag! =)  In addition to that stop, part of what made this trip neat for me was my current novel.  I've been reading the very popular Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon.  During this trip, I finished the fourth book (Drums of Autumn) and began the fifth book (The Fiery Cross).  In both books, the main characters are living in a relatively uninhabited area of pre-Revolution North Carolina.  The closest minor town is Cross Creek, and the closest major town is New Bern.  The governor of North Carolina is Governor William Tryon, whose palace is a notable historic landmark in modern times.  So cool!!  How often does it happen that you read a historical novel describing a relatively obscure place, then end up visiting that place while you're reading about it without making explicit plans to do so?? 

New Bern, like most of the East Coast, had been hit by hurricane Irene last month, so we'd postponed our trip to allow the family some time to recover.  Thankfully their house wasn't badly damaged.  I won't go into details about the visit itself, but suffice it to say it was exhausting - mentally and physically.  To make a long story short, we were not able to make our originally scheduled return flight, which meant we had to wait for the next one.  Unfortunately, Delta only has 2 flights per day from New Bern to Atlanta.  We were scheduled to take the second one on Sunday.  So, we found ourselves stuck in New Bern for an extra day.  It wasn't as bad as it could've been - the weather was beautiful and we were able to gather all the data we needed from the family.  We just hadn't planned on an extra day away from home.  Thankfully, we were able to make a quick Target run to get some necessities.  We did make it home safely Monday evening, but for me it meant today's slate of classes was much tougher since I'd been up much of Monday night finishing up the homework I'd planned to have all of Monday to complete.

I guess our trips had been going too smoothly lately.  Here's to hoping my next two trips go better than this one did!

The End of Summer

I started my 3rd year of grad school this week.  Added to the stress of classes this fall is the pressure of finishing my Master's thesis.  So far things are going well, and hopefully it will continue that way.

It was awesome to have a 10-day get-away vacation right before I had to get back to the grind.  My brother and I drove to Grand Teton, Yellowstone, and Glacier National Parks.  It was AMAZING!!  I'd never been to the states of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho, much less those three parks.  We camped and hiked in some absolutely beautiful country.  Here are a few of the hundreds of pictures we took:

Moonrise at Jenny Lake campground, Grand Teton Nat'l Park

Old Faithful

New Jersey

I love it when I can combine a work trip with some fun.  Especially when that fun involves seeing one of my best friends from college!  Last weekend I went to New Jersey and spent two days on vacation and two days seeing families.  I got to sail on and swim in the Delaware River a few miles from where George Washington crossed it, despite an adventure involving a rope wrapped around the boat's propeller just before low tide.  The next day, my friend showed me Princeton University, including historic Nassau Hall as well as some of the buildings filmed in Transformers 2 and the opening scenes of House.  Later, my colleague and I got to enjoy the Jersey beach and swim in the Atlantic Ocean.  The water was chilly but totally worth it!  Both of our family visits went well, so I deemed the extended weekend a success!!

On the Delaware River

Our view of the Atlantic Ocean at lunch

Now, I've gotta get all the presenters lined up for this fall's Proseminar and make a dent in writing my master's thesis before I go on my next adventure!

Newest GRA's first visit

My Halloween weekend consisted of going on a trip with our newest GRA.  It was her first real assessment and she'd never flown before!!  I was very glad there were no surprises in terms of travel.  The assessment itself went very smoothly.  We got to see a cute kid with a wonderful family and beautiful house in the suburbs of Chicago.

Thankfully we were only going to Chicago so it wasn't an especially long or bumpy flight.  Turns out she loves flying!  She also enjoyed staying an extra day to see her family.  She hadn't been home since she moved to Lawrence, so she was very excited to see her family and dog and house and such.  I could relate - I remember feeling that way about the same time last year.

On Saturday we finished in plenty of time for me to make my flight, so after I dropped her off with her family I went shopping at the Woodfield mall.  I needed some dressy clothes for my next adventure: my first conference!  It was nice to have a couple hours to wander around such a huge mall, especially knowing I could buy something if I liked it!  It helped, too, that I knew I could put anything I bought in the lab's suitcase to get it back home, so space wasn't an issue at all.

All in all, it was one of the better trips I've had lately.

Aspen, CO

Wow. I sure can't complain about having a business trip to Steamboat Springs, CO!!  We flew into Aspen and drove up to Steamboat Springs.  I drove through Glenwood Canyon and up highway 131 at about midnight.  I will never do that again.  We saw about 10 deer, 2 raccoons, and 1 skunk (incidentally the skunk was the only one just sauntering down the middle of the road like he owned the place).  I did manage to stay on the road and to not hit anything, but it was definitely one of the more scary nights of my life.  I was very thankful when we finally reached out hotel in Steamboat.

After completing our visit with the family on Saturday, we drove over to Dillon, CO, so that my colleague could visit her friend.  We drove from Steamboat to Dillon via US highway 40.  It was a gorgeous drive full of rugged landscape.  We crossed the continental divide at least twice!  I had rented an SUV so that we would have 4 wheel drive (since I knew we'd be traipsing all over northern Colorado), and we ended up with a soft-top '09 Jeep Wrangler.  On our drive to Dillon, we took off the back window panels and drove with our windows down!  That was pretty awesome.  I was glad, though, that we hadn't taken the top down because it ended up raining on us a couple times during our 2-hour drive.

Once I dropped my colleague off in Dillon, I headed toward my hotel for the night in Glenwood Springs, CO.  I drove on I-70, but you wouldn't have known you were on a federal highway if you looked at the scenery.  It felt like a scenic state highway.  I drove through Vail, CO, which was stunning even without snow.  Toward the end of the drive, I gave myself a scare because I passed what ended up being the last available gas station for 20+ miles immediately after my gas light came on.  Needless to say, my daylight drive through Glenwood Canyon was a little bit stressful.  Thankfully, I did make it and I did manage to enjoy the canyon walls towering over me as I drove.  In Glenwood Springs, I checked in, ordered pizza for supper, cross-stitched & watched soccer for a bit, and then collapsed into bed. 

This morning, I was able to sleep in and eat a leisurely breakfast.  After packing up my belongings, I headed to the Jeep for one last drive down to the airport in Aspen, CO.  The airport, like most things in Colorado, is styled after a lodge or ranch house.  It's very small, and all the planes that come in are very small as well.  I flew in on a turboprop and I'll be leaving on one as well.  There are no jetbridges, and you board the plane and deplane by walking across the tarmac.  I know for some folks that's just how airports work, but for me it's a new experience!  It seems fitting to do that here in the middle of mountains that stretch thousands of feet high above us. 

Once I'm home, I plan to add some of the pictures I've taken.

I'll be very glad to get home this evening since I've only got about 36 hours until I head out to Fresno, California.  We'll only be seeing one family, but getting to and from California makes that trip exceptionally long regardless. 

Semester 2, Week 1

Whew! I've made it through a full week of classes (though one hasn't met yet, so technically I'm not out of the woods yet).  So far I like them, but it will be a much busier semester than Fall '09.  However, I'm all for that.  I didn't really feel challenged and fully engaged last semester, but I know I will this time.  I've got some great professors and at least three major projects.  Of course they all want me to do 'something relevant or practical' with the project.  I agree, but I don't know if I can come up with 3 separate parts of a potential Masters thesis that fast!  I guess we'll see how it goes.

In other news, I'm excited to have two consecutive weekends in which I do not have to traipse across the country.  I enjoy the trips - both the flying and the visiting - but it is also very nice to have my weekends to myself.  I never really realized how much I look forward to them!  I think this will be my last respite for a while, however, because we've got quite a few families to see over the coming months.  During the school year, we usually can only see the kids on the weekends, because we and they have class during the week.  Thankfully we try to make sure we balance the trips such that no one travels more than 3 weekends in a row.  Still, those three weekends can be exhausting!  And usually there's only one weekend 'off' before jumping back in.

20 days till I'm 23

Advent. Possibly one of my favorite times of the Christian calendar, musically-speaking.  (the other is Easter, I think).  Though I've had 4 years of not being around my family for most of the Advent season, this year is a little different.  I'll be with them only for the Christmas Eve services.  I really liked being at Mama's church last week for the first Sunday of Advent. 

I haven't yet decorated my apartment, but it's definitely on my list.  I do wish I had an Advent wreath and calendar to celebrate.  I'm hoping to get a Christmas tree, but I just realized this afternoon that I don't have any ornaments for it.  I'm sure I'll gain more than enough in the years to come, but right now I'll have to buy something to get started.  I may even go for some form of tinsel!

Only one week left of classes - for me that's only 5 class sessions.  And one of those is the final meeting of ProSem, which should be somewhat fun.  I'm excited for the end of the week because I'll be going to the SLPH & CLP GSO Christmas party Thursday evening, and then on Saturday I'll see Straight No Chaser in concert.  I love those guys!  I saw them several times at DePauw, but this time I actually had to pay to get in!  I know they'll be more than worth it, though!

Finals week should be fairly un-stressful for me. I've got 2 papers due (one is a group assignment) and only 1 test. I will be taking a trip for the lab on the 17th-19th to Sacramento.  I'm excited because I get to see my Dad's sister and her husband.  I've never seen them in the month of December, much less this close to Christmas!  I'll fly back to KC and then drive to Nashville.  Sugar's gonna come with me, which I think he'll like once the driving part is finished.  I know he's sick of me leaving him!

Chicago, again

I'm currently on my third visit of the month.  This time we're in Chicago to work with a family tomorrow.  On the flight tonight the sun had already set (grr early winter sunsets), so we flew in the dark.  It was neat to fly above the clouds and see the stars against the black sky.  Then, as we were descending, we passed through the cloud cover.  It looked like an ocean of fluff and we seemed to float gently on the surface.  The white-gray of the clouds was especially beautiful against the dark sky.  And as usual Chicago was lit up nicely.  It's such a pretty city at night!  Who knew a routine flight to Chicago could be so inspiring!?!