Emuzines

Happiness is…

…spending a night playing games with Nik and some of our oldest friends, in the birthplace of our relationship (the Rhoades household).

…devouring a meal of some of the best Mexican food LA has to offer (Pachanga), balanced on my lap while cruising down PCH and rocking out to KLOS.

…spending a relaxing day knitting with Martha, chatting with Justine, Dad, Nana, and Nonno.

…spontaneously remembering favorite LA food and drink spots, then going to them right away.

…see above…drinking a Coffee Bean vanilla latte during said games.

…coming home to a happy and sleepy Logan greeting me at the door, and following me within an inch of my body around the house until bed.

…knowing that I get to spend the next week and a half with some of my best friends and my family.

…also knowing that I get to go home to Nik, JoJo, and some incredible people who have quickly become the most wonderful friends a girl could ask for.

My dad, Martha, Mandi, and Justine came up to visit us this weekend. It was a short visit, but we packed it in and it was really nice. It was their first visit up here since we moved–with the exception of Mandi–so it was fun to show them the house and neighborhood. Yesterday we went out to lunch in downtown Davis, then hung around at home, watched some Friends, talked, and relaxed until it was time to go to dinner in Sacramento–Lucca, yummmmm. Last night we stayed up baking pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, watching more Friends (pastey pants!), and talking. JoJo fell in love with Justine and slept with her part of the night–it’s rare that Jo will even leave my side, so that was big–and she face rubbed and cuddled all over her.

This morning Martha made us all a gigantic and delicious breakfast, and we lazied around in our PJs for most of the morning. We had the football game on in the background–a very Sunday type of morning. Then Mandi, Martha, and I ran over to the Pedrick Produce Stand and bought all kinds of snacks–chocolate toffee almonds, chilli pistacios, chocolate peanut brittle, dried apricots, etc. They just took off and it’s lazy and quiet.

Thanks for everything–the company, dinner, breakfast, and the beautiful gifts!!

Last night’s party was a huge success!! About 30-35 people showed up, and I think everybody had a really great time. It was a welcome party for the first year students in my department, traditionally hosted by us second year students. Traditionally there is some sort of scavenger hunt or activity–while we didn’t do it last year as the guests, we developed an elaborate activity this year as the hosts. After the first years completed their activity, they joined the party at our house. We had some really great appetizers, food, desserts, and drinks. The house was perfect for the party, and lots of people complemented our fall decorations and the adorable house. Lots of burning candles, lit fire pit, and smells of fall.

The beginning part of the night was pretty low-key with networking, eating, and chatting–a lot of the guests hadn’t yet met. After the first year students left, though, things got a little more interesting. There was a core group of about 10-12 of us who played all sorts of games late into the night. We’re all exhausted today…but we had such a good time that Nik and I are thinking of instituting a monthly dinner and movie at our house. We’ll cook for everyone–David, Abby, April, Natalie, Maciel, and Kyle (our core friend group)–maybe the first Saturday of each month and hang out, have some drinks, and watch a movie. There was a great response to the idea, so now for the arranging. I’ve found that I love to host. Nik was also great at decorating, cleaning, and hosting. Even JoJo was a good girl and gently and calmly accepted pets from everybody. (She did lick the pumpkin pie and steal a piece of cheese, but that’s all she did that was bad!)

Nik and I hadn’t any plans for today. So this morning after coffee we headed out to Vacaville for some lunch and shopping. Then we came home and I got a good chunk of statistics homework out of the way, and we took Jo for a walk. It is so fall-y here, moreso than it ever seems to be in LA. I’m not used to it and I LOVE IT. The sky is gray and the trees are orange, and it’s windy with leaves billowing all around. There are lots of meerkats and ground-burrowing owls on our trail, hunkered down and adorable. We have gone with the feel of the season and the house shows–pumpkins, mulled cider, etc. We finished the night at Pasta downtown, stuffing ourselves with gnocci and fettucini. Now WE are hunkered down in bed and about to watch some Friends episodes.

Tomorrow, we are hosting a big party at our house. It is the traditional welcome party hosted by the second year students in my program, to welcome the first year students. My friends and I had a party to plan the party, and we did some big planning! We are going to have a ton of food, activities, and…drinks. Today I am working from home, and on my breaks I am baking pumpkin pies and pumpkin cookies for the party. The house smells very pumpkiny!

Nik has also been working on the backyard and we have a new firepit, lights, etc. It looks really nice out there and the firepit is great (we tested it last week…). I think that everyone will have a great time–we’re expecting about 30 people. I can’t wait!

So–a nice day. I had class this morning. David, Abby, Kyle and I enjoy ourselves quite a bit for statistics at 8 am. Then I met one of the first year students, Caitlyn, for coffee downtown. I am her peer mentor, but she didn’t need me to mentor much! Just to chat as friends! I’ve also gotten a lot of work done on my own research project. The coding scheme should be ready for action within the next couple of weeks. Off I go to finalize this draft of it, and check on those pies…

Mandi came to visit this weekend, and we had a BLAST as usual. Our weekend was full of our seeking out adventures.

She was in later than expected on Friday, so we went out to have some tapas in downtown Davis. We came home and got snuggly in PJs and watched Friends episodes of our choosing until we fell asleep on the couch (”I want to see the one where Ross says, ‘It tastes like feet!’”)

On Saturday we headed out to the outlets in Vacaville, and did some Banana Republic, Fossil, Coach, etc. shopping and browsing. We both determined we don’t like most sweaters, but we ended up coming away with some good stuff. We justified short sleeves very well. Not surprising given we had given ourselves an out in  our rule (”Don’t let me buy any short sleeves UNLESS it’s a need”). On the way back, we stopped at a produce stand we had seen advertising pumpkin ice cream. We ended up with tons of snacks, including that ice cream. It has flecks of pumpkin in it. It’s delicious. Also on Saturday, we embarked upon our autumn meal extravaganza. We made corn chowder with buttermilk mashed potatoes (served in the same bowl with the chowder), bacon, and scallops. It was yummy. Then we took JoJo on a walk around the neighborhood and it rained on us a little. Again, into PJs and more Friends episodes until we fell asleep on the couch.

On Sunday we had a San Francisco adventure. Several, actually. We started off with brunch at Lime. Lime has a very nightclub atmosphere for 10:30 am, and the place was hopping. It serves unlimited mimosas which made for a very, very fun brunch. I ate a BAKED pancake with blueberries and powdered sugar, and Mandi had steak and eggs. They served the best biscuits in the world. And the best mimosas in the world–did I mention that?

After that, Mandi drove us to Union Square for some shopping. I came away with much more than I expected, sweaters included. Mandi bought some things, too, including a necklace from the street vendors. We then decided to check out Lombard Street, the crookedest street in the world. At the last minute I decided to drive it, rather than just look at it, and I turned onto it. It was fun and Mandi was a good photographer. After pulling over at the bottom for more pictures, we were pretty much out of time. We had to fight 49s traffic to get Mandi all the way to the Sacramento airport.

It was a fantastic weekend!

So…the house has closed, we have keys, and we’ve been busy working on it!  I don’t feel like going through all the steps to upload pictures, but here is a link to some: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2018743&id=1262058331&l=699a7  Maybe Nik will feel like adding them officially onto here, but it’s kind of a complicated process and soon I am going out with my friends, hence short time…

We are going to be painting all the bedrooms, and redoing the floors.  Today we got quite a bit done, more than I thought we could.  All the nail/tack/pin holes are patched, and we cleaned the walls of the office, and put up three paint testers.  There was only one small injury wherein I scrubbed the wall too ferociously, and the sponge flew across the room and my hand smacked the wall.  But it’s been a lot of fun and is going well.  I thought Nik was right behind me, coming home just now…but he’s been gone an extra hour or so–not sure what he’s up to.

The quarter is almost over (one more class) and tonight my friends and I are going out to celebrate.  Better go get ready…

Tonight was the faculty-student recruitment dinner for incoming recruits to my program.  I am not too into the social things, the small talk…but my friends would be there and I decided to go with David.  We had a pretty good time, a little awkward, and I was way overdressed…but I’m still glad I went.  Tomorrow is the student only recruitment “dinner” (aka party)…but I have to work very far away, pretty late…so I may not make it.  Fridays always wipe me out, and the past week has wiped me out too…so I can’t imagine I’ll be energetic enough to come home and get ready to go out. 

I am almost done with all of my school stuff.  My two presentations this week went well, and I’m nearly done with my papers.  Nik and my mom keep telling me breaks are ok, so I am currently in my pjs, cuddling with Jo on the couch with my heart blanket (thanks Memere), and watching TV.  And earlier today I took a nap–unheard of!  I still feel guilty taking breaks and relaxing…how annoying. 

So looking forward to Vegas in a couple of weeks.  I get to see my Mom, Memere, Pepere, Aunt Debbie…eat a lot, go to a show, the spa, relax (nonguiltily), eat some more…

I spent last weekend in L.A.  Technically Logan-sitting, I fit a ton of fun in with some of my favorite people.  Unfortunately, Mandi and my mom were in Amesbury, so I didn’t get to see them…but I had an activity-filled weekend, anyway.

I got in very late Friday night, after a horrible Super Shuttle experience which kept me driving around LAX for an hour after midnight.  On Saturday, I got my nails done (I only try to fit in the very important things), and then had some relaxation time with Logan.  When Noah was up from his nap, I met up with him and Mark at Polliwog park.  We fed some ducks and gigantic fish, and played with Noah on the playground.  We ran a lot and tired everybody out.  Seeking some quiet, more conversation-allowing sit-down time, we headed to Mama D’s for dinner #1.  After that, it was dinner #2 with Gabriela…unphotographed, but great as always.  I had my beloved Caprese salad at Lazy Dog, and we laughed and laughed and laughed. 

Sunday saw breakfast #1 with Melissa at Le Quotidian (the best coffee in the world…), with a surprise additional goodbye visit by Mark.  Breakfast #2 took place at Eat at Joe’s with my dad, Martha, and Justine, and the remainder of the afternoon was spent cuddling some more with Logan.

The weekend was over quickly, but wonderful.  It left me utterly exhausted but somehow refreshed, and thankful for the great people in my life (including my mom, who wasn’t there, but left me roses and all sorts of preferred foods and sweets and drinks, and a toy to give to Logs!).  Another weekend in paradise.

I have been so exhausted for about a week!  I thought that I was “crashing” from my stressful midterm that I studied for for many, many, many hours.  It was immediately after that that I became a zombie!  I was nearly useless for a whole week.  Making myself get off of my butt helped a bit, but still I felt exhausted.

Then, I went to Ciocolat with my friend, Maciel.  This is a chocolate/pastry/brunch/coffee/tea shop in downtown Davis.  Since I was sick a few weeks ago and missed a get-together wherein my friends ate CAKE without me, Maciel wanted to take me out for dessert.  What a perfect plan.  I had a gigantic slice of carrot cake and a vanilla latte, and Maciel had a gigantic slice of lemon poppyseed cake and a Mexican hot chocolate.  They were all delicious, and the trip snapped me out of my funk.  I came home with plenty of energy, and have been great today (even despite being woken up very early this morning by construction noises…can’t wait to move…).  Thank goodness for friends and dessert!

Hi!  Lately, I have been more buried than usual in work and school stuff.  I have a genetics midterm on Monday, which I decided to devote all weekend to getting ready for, so I’ve had to do a lot of work for my other class ahead of time, to clear out the weekend (for fun and excitement, like MAOA, tetO, housekeeping genes, and stuff like that).  Well, this was designed as a post to talk about exciting things, and that was quite sarcastic (although I admit I really do enjoy the genetics of autism), so here are some things I’m excited about:

Nik found this for me: http://www.scrapncube.com/  I doubt I’ll go with that company for a scrapbook area, as it’s really expensive, but I thought it was so sweet that he found it for me!  Once we get a house, my scrapbook stuff will have a home besides shoved into closets and on high shelves out of reach.

CHICAGO!  I wanted to go to IMFAR, an autism conference, but I also really wanted to spend Mother’s Day weekend with…well…my mom!  It happened to fall on that weekend, so I invited my mom along.  We’re extended it into a nice little trip and we already have lots of really, really exciting plans.  We’re going to see Mary Poppins, eat at great restaurants, go to Navy Pier, and go on a dinner cruise.  I am beyond excited.  And I keep forgetting about IMFAR, which is also something that really makes me happy.  Sally says I’ll be presenting there next year, so I better get ready!

LAS VEGAS!  This is coming up really, really soon.  I am going to meet my mom, Aunt Debbie, Memere, and Pepere there, like we have been doing every year for…3 years now?  Nik isn’t going this year, so it’ll be a girl + Pepere week.  Great food, a show, the spa, and Vegasy stuff.  As you can tell, food and good company make me very happy.

HOME!  I am going home in 2 weeks!  It’ll be a very, very short trip, but I’m happy about it.  Mark and I are going to take Noah to the park to feed ducks, I’m going to go out to dinner and a hopefully girly movie/illegal sweets with Gaby, and have breakfast with Melissa.  Should be a nice, quick trip.

VALENTINE’S DAY!  Nik and I cooked in last year, so we’re going out this year.  We wanted to try something new (although, most things are new up here for us, still).  We have reservations at Ruth’s Chris.

DENVER!  This is happening in April.  The primary reason for the trip is another conference, but I’m going with David, Abby, and April.  We’re going to have a lot of fun together!!  I am more than lucky in meeting these friends.

Finally…relaxation…I’m giving myself the night off.  So off I go to eat lasagne and watch a movie!