Recap

Haven't blogged in AGES. A lot has happened since August '09. Here is a list:

Katie threw me a Bachelorette party / bridal shower in Chicago. :-)
Dan & I got married!!!
Went to the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico. Saw ruins, beaches, and cenotes. Very cool.
Went to Phil's awesome Halloween party.
Had our first Thanksgiving as a couple in Chicago.
Had our first Christmas as a couple in Anderson.
Had our first New Years at Brad's apartment.
Low key Valentine's Day, painting teapots, and eating Thai food.
Presented a poster in the Foods & Nutrition dept., won a prize.
Hosted a baby shower for Crystal; Jessica & I made a cake out of diapers!
Met Chris & Chrissy's new puppy, Baylee, and had tapas w/ most of the Noland family.
Hosted a dinner for Dr. Olaf Blanke, expert on out of body experiences.
Had 2 birthday dinners, one at Bistro 501 w/ Dan & Chrissy, one at the Hunter's pub w/ the Psych girls.
Said goodbye & good luck to Chrissy as she left our house to fully move into her own home in Anderson, and start her new job in Indianapolis.

Also, I did some science. :-)

This list makes me happy; It is a good reminder that I now have TWO awesome families, a great husband, and an amazing group of friends.

On happiness

Ever know something intellectually, and repeat it over and over again, thinking you totally comprehend it, only to discover you had really only memorized words, neglecting to fully understand the meaning of them?

As a psychology major, former case manager, and "consumer of mental health services" (namely, Buproprion HCl [for depression]), I have heard more times than I can count that the most successful treatment for mental illness is a combination of drugs and therapy. It was almost cliché. Beyond that, it sounded so simple. Of course! If drugs work, and therapy works, the combination of the two treatments would work better!

Alas! I really feel like, after having suffered from depression for 10-15 years, and having all of the training mentioned above, i didn't really get it until just a few minutes ago.

Antidepressants work. I feel much better. I don't have bouts where I feel ready to crash, where I want to do nothing except sink my head into my pillow. What I still DO have are feelings of inadequacy, problems being social, anxiety, and mood swings. What the antidepressants have done is make them less of a problem, which is great, except I feel that (at least at some level) I was a more interesting person before I started taking them.

Mind you, I am not going to quit my medications! But what I am going to TRY to do is work on improving these things. The medications made my negative moods less severe, yes, but they did not particularly increase my positive attitude. In fact, they may have made me appreciate it less, because it wasn't as drastic of a change. I need to show my negativity less: complain less, dwell on bad things less, let fewer problems occupy my thoughts (or at least reduce the time I think about any ONE problem).

I need to focus MORE on how good I feel when things are going right; I need to assume people are not trying to hurt me when things go wrong, and I need to take a more active role in being friendly.

I don't know if I will succeed at this, but I am going to try! If I have weird mantras taped up places, this is why.

Tuition SNAFU

Got this statement from the bursar today:

Current Activity

Description	Code	Date	Amount ($)
Non-resident Tuition	TNG1	20-JUL-2009	8,240.00
General Service Fee	TG02	20-JUL-2009	3,841.40
Repair Rehabilitation Fee	TRR	20-JUL-2009	144.00
Technology Fee	TECH	20-JUL-2009	83.60
Term Balance:			$12,309.00

Even though this is clearly an error (or else a tricky way for Kim to get me to replace RJ as the lab tech), I wonder if my parents got the same icky feeling that I just got every semester that they paid for my college tuition? Sorry, Mom & Dad!

Hello!

Hey! I haven't updated this in ages!

Since the last post, Jill & Evan, and Chrissy & Chris got married (yay!). Jessica gets married sooo soon, then it will be Lehmann, and then my cousin, Emily. Craziness. Just found out Chelsea's sister is getting married soon, too! Exciting!

My wedding is getting so close! We have a lot done, but a lot more TO do. I am envisioning a trip to Chicago in the near future. It is getting more and more real every day that I will soon be Dan's wife. I am so lucky :)

In other news, we recently had a nice 4th of July celebration! On the 3rd, Dan and I joined the rest of his family in watching the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra perform at Connor Prairie. Cannons were involved! I cannot even imagine conducting cannons! The fireworks were also amazing; they were timed with the music, and really beautiful, colorful, and large!!! The only major downside was that parking [especially leaving the event] was an absolute nightmare, but only because the event was so popular. Anyway, we had a great time; it is always good to see the Noland crew.

On the 4th, Mary Ann and Jared hosted a dinner party. Though the weather was not so cooperative, we were very lucky to have some amazing food, most of which was cooked by Jared (although I must say that Lindsey & Chris's strawberry shortcakes, and our berry tart were also good!). During a break in the rain, we went outside and lit sparklers, which is always fun... it was Mary Ann's first experience lighting fireworks, so that was also cute. I can't even remember the first time I lit a sparkler... I must have been 4 or 5, haha.

All day today I felt sick, but I felt well enough to eat some food by dinnertime, and then [slowly] walk around downtown Lafayette for the gallery walk. We saw Chelsea and her friends, which was fun... we are meeting up with them soon to see the new Harry Potter movie. Awesome.

Happenings

Hi all!!! A lot has been happening since I last blogged. I finished cutting all of my brains! I also finished my hormonal assays! The Blackhawks won the Western Conference Semifinals!

I forgot to mention that I went to Chicago in mid-April for Jill's wedding shower and bachelorette party!!! It was lots of fun! We went to Cafe Ba Ba Ree Ba for delicious tapas and sangria. I can't believe Jill will be married in less than 2 weeks!!! That is CRAZY (and awesome!). Yay for Jill and Evan!

Chrissy is also getting married soon (one week after Jill). Her bachelorette party is this weekend, and I am psyched (although I am feeling kinda sick, so I hope that goes away). We'll be hanging out in downtown Indy, livin' it up. I am excited to be Chrissy, April and Robin's sistah!

Speaking of weddings, ours is 150 days away today. That is approx. 5 months! I have kindof reached a point where I am unsure of what exactly to do. I almost wish it were closer to the deadline so that I could feel like I'm doing more (but I'm sure that I will kick myself 3 months from now for saying that).

Work-wise, I have been doing a lot, but it has been more enjoyable lately. Brain cutting is mind-numbingly boring; right now I am sampling blood from rats, and learning how to do ELISAs (enzyme linked immuno sorbent assays). Even though hormonal assays are repetitive, I sort-of enjoy them; stuff changes color (that ALWAYS makes me happy), you get the results immediately, and other than pipetting issues, there isn't a whole lot of room for error. Much better than things like in situ hybridization (which I am going to do with the brains), where ANYTHING can go wrong, and you won't know it 'til the very end!

On Thursday, Dan, Brad, Liz and I went to see the Blackhawks annihilate the Canucks in game 4 of the semifinals. I guess annihilate is not the right word, since it was scoreless during the 1st, then the Canucks had the lead for over a period, only to have the Hawks score in the last few minutes of the game, and take it into OT. THEN the Hawks quickly won in sudden death. Despite the low score, it was exciting! They also won on Saturday and Monday to secure playing for the conference title.

On Saturday, Liz and I ran in a the Jay Cooperidge Memorial 5k, which supports mental illness. I was dumb and ate cereal with a bit of milk a bit too close to the race, and I was feeling sick to my stomach for most of it. My time was not so good (30:50ish), but I finished, and that is what really matters.

I guess that is all to report for now. Ta ta!

Sleep?!?

Without Dan around, I have already gotten myself on a weird schedule. I am working extra hard (doing the mindless, tedious stuff, mostly), trying to get as much done as possible, but still somehow falling short of my expectations...

I still have 19 brains left to do, and it is going to be the death of me. 2 SOLID days of nothing but brain cutting, and I have not even quite cut my total in half (at least, not my weekly total). Tomorrow I will most likely not get many done, since I have other stuff going on. That leaves a lot of time on Thursday (but not all day, since I am helping RJ out with some stuff), and most of the day on Friday, but I still will prob. have a few left. Maybe the weekend? Who knows. I will just be happy when it is done. Maybe I can talk Kim into giving me a break after it's all done, instead of making me work just as hard on something else? Unlikely, lol. I think that is the nature of Academia... you have to do what you are told to do, and then figure out some *extra* time to do the stuff that will actually advance you. Extra time. haha.

Anyway, I guess my life is pretty lame, since this (work) is ALL i have been blogging about. This must be why people used to be so sad during the times before labor laws were enacted, etc. At least I like my job... on some level... it must have really REALLY sucked to spend 15h/day at some FACTORY doing manual labor or something.

But anyway, here is a question for all y'all: WHAT do people talk about when they aren't doing anything interesting? It would be helpful for these times! I don't want to get [any more] boring!

Happy birthday, Dan!

Oh, and I almost forgot! This weekend was Dan's 30th birthday!!! <3

We had a fantastic time together! On Saturday we had a nice lunch at Jane's Cafe, and then went to see Much Ado About Nothing, performed by the actors at Purdue. It was really good, AND some guy proposed to his girlfriend at the end of it (she said yes!). After that, we wandered around, and then had a picnic in the park. It was a beautiful day! After the picnic, we walked around, and enjoyed the weather, and then went home and relaxed.

On Sunday (Dan's real birthday), we had lunch at Panera, and then Dan worked in the garden (he planted his tomatoes and peppers. Very exciting!) while I went for a long run (5.5 mi!). It was super hot, and the run was not that fun, but fortunately there were many water fountains over by the park on Salisbury to drink from, as well as the occasional wind gust. Still, when I got home, I was super overheated, and I kept sweating for like 2 hours!!! Today I am sore, but I am sure it was good for me. Anyway, after Dan and I got cleaned up from our respective activities, we drove to Indianapolis and ate dinner at Maggiano's with Dan's family. It was really nice; lots of food, good company, etc. They gave Dan (and April, b/c her birthday was Friday!) these gigantic dessert platters [Maggiano's doesn't do anything small] that had cookies, cream puffs, ice cream, cakes, bananas (that had been caramelized), strawberries, and probably a whole bunch of other things on it. YUM.

I hope that Dan (and April) had fun. I also hope that Dan learns a lot at his secret conference in Our Nation's Capitol!