Update, post-the events of 2011

Hello lovely readers,

I know it's been, quite literally, months since I've actually let you into my life and told you anything of what's been happening up in the Frozen Tundra.  There are a multitude of reasons for that, but I won't go into them or try to excuse my absence.  I have been absent...it happened, and for that I am sorry, but I am going to try to remedy that now.

I'm going to do this in a sort of timeline manner to try to paint a little picture of the close of my summer, the entirety of my fall, and the beginnings of my winter.  (Sorry the actual pictures included are poor quality...yay, iPhone pictures!!)

Here we go:

August

• After returning from my amazing time in Arizona things picked up rather quickly.  
• I am still processing the remainder of my material from AZ...I'm not sure if that will ever actually get done...ok, ok, it will eveeeentually get done, but it's going to be quite the slow and long process.
• We did indeed get all moved into the house, though we are still quite far from being settled.  Just as the moving-in process was beginning, one of my roommates lost their father to a heart attack.  That event kind of set the tone for the remainder of our fall.  We ended up spending a lot of time out in Wisconsin helping Justin and his family with the aftermath of the sudden loss.  We helped them clean up and sort through the items in the house in preparation for an estate sale that took place in October.  We are still working on the house and land, getting it all ready to go on the market in the spring.  But, all that aside, we are no longer homeless and very much enjoy our new digs...I'll try to post some pictures later this week or early next week...emphasis on try.

September

• I finally experienced the Minnesota State Fair...though I failed horribly and didn't take a single picture...that I can recall.  I know...I fail...I'll try to do better next time.  But, it was a pretty ridiculous experience.  I went to the milk station where you can get all the milk you can drink for a buck!  Yup, unlimited milk for $1.  I also got various fried foods on sticks...like bacon...dipped in chocolate!!  Sounds gross, but it was amazing, for serious.  Saw lots of neat things, like lamb-ikins being born and little, just-born piggies nursing away - so stinking cute!  I can't wait to finally grow up so I can have a pig or two again.
• We also welcomed a new cohort of grad students into the department.  I think there were 11 or so new students and we are big fans of them.  Super fun people and all of them are real go-getters.  Win!
• On a similar note I took up the responsibilities of co-secretary of our grad student organization, Frenatae...yes, co-secretary...we have a lot of stuff to do, y'all!  It's been...an experience.  I'd forgotten how much drama can arise from officership.  Ah well...it's still fun.
• September also included a very fun and tasty BBQ hosted by my small group leader and his family.  It was nice to get everyone together again, after the busy summer, for some good food and fellowship.
• Towards the end of the month I played hookie with my sweet lab mate, R, for about a half a day.  We took a little trip downtown so she could get her registration packet for the Twin Cities Marathon, which she survived like a champ, got some free stuff from the vendors and then took a little road trip out to Stillwater.  This was one of the best days ever.  We started out by getting the most outstanding grilled cheese sandwiches you could ever imagine at the co-op and popped next door to Northern Vineyards Winery for a glass of wine to go with our lovely sandwiches.  We ate up on their deck, overlooking the St. Croix River.  It was lovely, to say the least.  We then strolled down Main Street perusing and spending much monies at shops like Tremblay's Sweet Shop (saltwater taffy!!), Stillwater Olive Oil Co. (nearly died in there...soooo much goodness!),  St. Croix Antiquarian Booksellers (so much win!), and a number of other fun spots.  After our adventures in Stillwater we weren't quite done having our girls' day.  We made our way down to Saint Croix Vineyards for a wine tasting and some perusing around the apple orchard and country shop.  The wine tasting was soooo good.  We even got our own little score cards and everything to rate the wines we liked, didn't like, etc...  Such a simple, fun, grownup thing to do  :)  I was a big fan of their summer red and the raspberry infusion dessert wine - so delish.  But!  We were not finished with our day!  An afternoon's worth of good food and spirits in our bellies and jars of heavenly honey butter and a number of other goodies in-hand, we made our way back to the cities to pick up some yummies for our lab sushi night at RH's lovely home.  We have a pretty great advisor...I must say.  Closing the night off with our co-workers and RH's wonderful family made an already outstanding day even better.  It was one for the books, to be sure.

October

• October got off to a decent start with Frenatae Pig's Eyes and scarf dying and shrunken head (made out of apples...not people...don't freak out) making as we started gearing up for the honey sale in December and the annual Ento Department Halloween Party, of course.
• Unfortunately, while the beginning of October was full of fun, it also brought much sadness and loss.  On October 5th, my Grandpa Jack left this world on earth and went to be with the Father in perfection.  
• This was very unexpected for all of us and has thus been extremely difficult to process...even today.  I think having lost Grandma just a year and half or so before made Grandpa's death all the more difficult - they are both gone.  And I miss them tremendously.  It isn't uncommon for me to find myself bursting into tears of loss and pain, even today, 3 months later.  I miss them both terribly, and while I can rejoice and have comfort in knowing that they are with the Father, my human nature wants them here with me.  Somehow the world is more empty to me.  It's quite strange.  I want them to be there when I get my next degree...when I get married...when I have children...  I want to share my life with them, but that isn't an option anymore.  I struggle continuously with curbing my bitterness towards this loss.  I so often find myself saying, "This isn't fair!!  Why did they have to be taken so early?!  Wasn't one enough??  Why both??"  And then I think of my father...while I have lost my beloved grandparents, he has lost his parents...I can't even imagine that loss.  It breaks my heart to think of it and to think of the pain and emptiness he must experience with this.  We didn't talk about Grandma and Grandpa all that much at Christmas, but I think it was evident to all of us that they were on our minds the whole time.  You are incredibly loved and painfully missed, Grandpa.

• With mourning comes the comfort of family, though.  Grandpa's funeral was held in Sacramento on the 22nd and with that we were able to see a lot of family and old friends from California we had not seen in a long time.  How interesting it is that we can find joy even in such sad reunions.
• Immediately following the funeral I made my first museum trip.  I hopped down to LA to work in the L.A. County Museum of Natural History for a few days to look at the material they have there that pertains to my research.  It was a fast few days and I wished I had more time to spend there, but I was able to get everything done, though I was working down to the wire.  And, it was an incredible learning experience.
• As soon as I got back to the Tundra from CA I went and saw The PhD Movie with R and another grad student friend of ours - oh that movie was so sad and yet so true!!  It was a dorky, fun evening of free movie-ing and popcorn-ing.  
• A day later was the Halloween Party, which was also fun, though I must admit that I wasn't exactly in the mood for a party, given the events of the month...but I was glad I went and it was fun to see everyone again after having been away in CA.
• There were a number of parties being hosted that weekend by friends of mine that I had initially resigned to not attend...as was tired and still very much in mourning, and just didn't want to be around a lot of hoopla and hollering that comes along with high energy parties that include costumes...  But, of course, as I am often a sucker for the pleas of my friends I agreed at the last minute to attend.  My costume?  A black t-shirt that painted the words, "Go Ceiling!!" on...complete with crepe paper pom-poms.  What was I?  A Ceiling Fan.  Yup, you read that correctly.  And, I actually have a picture for you!  

             And that closed out October.

November

• Was another busy, busy month as we were all preparing our presentations and posters for the Annual Meeting of the Entomological Society of America held in Reno, NV.
• But!  Before the month got too far underway, R and I had a baking, "knitting", music, movie night.  I say "knitting" because we never actually got around to that part of our evening...we did go to the craft store and get supplies...we just got a little too caught up in our bacon biscuits and movie watching and music listening...  It was a fabulous evening of goodness, though.  R takes such good care of me - whatever am I going to do without her for the next 9mo?!  She got a fellowship to go work on her research at the Smithsonian for 9mo and heads out east in just a few days...I'm going to miss her something fierce!
• The next week, R and myself, and a few other of our fellow grad students made our way down to St. Olaf's in Northfield to talk to a class of undergrads about our research and life as grad students.  It was pretty spectacular.  I love working with students and seeing them excited about new things to learn about and options for their futures, etc.  I actually had a girl contact me later about potential advisors down at A&M!  Gig'em, Ags!
• That weekend a slew of us headed off to Reno for the ESA meeting.  What a week that was.  I took my fancy poster and notebooks and notes, etc... and was ready to network and learn me some stuffs.  Well...while both of those things happend...the meeting was kind of lame this year.  That was mostly the case because I was somewhat ill the entire time I was in Reno.  If you've ever been to Reno and enjoy it there...I'm sorry, I do not share that sentiment.  From the moment I set foot in that town I didn't feel well at all.  I think it had much to do with the fact that every inch of that town is completely saturated with cigarette smoke.  Normally smoke doesn't bother me so much, but when it saturates everything and the air is stale with it...it's awful.  It's also incredibly dry there and my nose was bleeding pretty regularly by the end of the meeting...lamez!  Other than that, the meeting was pretty successful.  Made lots of contacts, reconnected with old friends, like Wharton and a number of other awesomes from A&M and other places.  It was good.
• As soon as the meeting was over, my sweet sister-in-law, Shyla drove 3hrs from Chico to collect me and take me across those lovely mountains to the California side for some much needed R&R and Big Brother and Big Sister time.  I don't know that I would have survived last semester without that short respite.  We did lots of lounging and good eating, lots of Game of Thrones watching (epic!) and YouTubing, saw some good musics, tromped around their fabulous farmers market and got me some of my favorite soap ever, and, of course, did some trekking around that beautiful CA landscape.  We took an awesome day hike on Table Mountain and found some waterfalls, and pretty trees, and cows, and lichens, and, and, and...awesome.  The visit was, as always, all too short, but wonderful, nonetheless.

Honey Run Covered Bridge - 1894

 Cows!  Or giant beasties as Sean would say...

How gorgeous is all of this?! 

              That's definitely a waterfall!  :)

 Sean & Shyla on our trek back from the waterfall

• As soon as I got back to MN I went into overdrive on my mater's thesis proposal seminar.  What on earth is that, you might ask??  That is the equivalent of 45min of me standing in front of my entire department, presenting a lecture on my research topic and what I have done/found so far, along with 15 or so min of them all asking me whatever question(s) they want...oh, not to mention the fact that each and every one of them has a grading sheet in front of them and they score me as they see fit....  A couple months ago I would have said, "Shoot me." to that description, but now that it's all done and over and I passed with flying colors, and I can say with a shrug, "Meh...it's not so bad."  Once I got going it was actually kind of fun...crazy, I know.  But, here's the thing: it was me teaching a room full of scientists who have (I should now say had) no idea what I'm talking about and actually want to learn about what I have to say, even though the majority of them were dreading my talk because they find taxonomy and systematics to be boring and useless (they are so wrong...and have since been educated otherwise, whoop!).  It was awesome.  And, having those people, professors included, who were dreading sitting in that lecture room for an hour listening to me talk about taxonomy and systematics come up to me afterwards or comment at the opener of their question that they actually really enjoyed my talk and were fascinated to learn about how I do what it is that I do is one of the best feelings in the world.  Like, woah - speechless.
• Following my proposal seminar was the honey filling party - in prep for our annual honey sale - it was a nice close to a hectic day, followed by a couple rounds and the watching the World Series at Grumpy's.

December

• The weekend following my seminar I was a judge at the annual Insect Fair, put on by Monarchs in the Classroom each year.  This is, essentially, a giant science fair dedicated to...bugs!!  So awesome.  It was an exhausting but wonderful experience.  I love talking with kids about science and getting them to think critically about their projects and what could account for their results or if there are more questions they can ask to learn even more about what their project focused on, etc.  Yay, science!  I also got to see my sweet friend, Christine, that weekend, as she was back in town for a few days.  Love her!
• After the Insect Fair it was Honey Sale prep ALL THE WAY.  Not to mention getting ready for my trip to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History...wait...what?!  Yeah...I'll get to that  :)  The Honey Sale went pretty well (honey shortage and all!), with only a few minor hiccups along the way - now we know some things to account for with our new items (insect dyed scarves, etc...) in preparation for next year's sale.  Done and done.  Whew!
• Now, on to the Smithsonian.  Remember how I went to the LA County Museum of Natural History for a few days to work in the collection and do research??  Well, my dear ones, I got to do the same thing at the Smithsonian!!  Yeah, I got my own security access badge/key and EVRYthing!  It. Was. Awesome.  It was like Christmas everyday in there.  I was continuously finding little gems and things in the collection and working with the curators there, Don Harvey especially, was incredible.  I would have lost without Don.  By the end of my week there he and I hardly to speak to one another in order to communicate - we would look around for something and the other would hand that misplaced or overlooked item to the other...kind of awesome.  Being able to look at the type specimens in the collection was incredible, too, and so so helpful for my research.  Type specimens are the original specimens that a species or genus is described from - the very specimens that the author looked at when he/she described the organism!!  Pinch me!  What amazing pieces of history that I was afforded the opportunity to look at, handle, and admire.  It was a blitz of a trip, but such an incredible learning experience.
• Upon my return from DC I just enough time to get a few errands taken care of, make one last trip out to help Justin in Menominee before the holidays and take a little trip to the lovely Betty Ann's nursery to collect some very special violets for my Mamma - Betty Ann was such a delight and I've already promised her that I'll be back in the spring to see her gardens all in bloom.  Can't wait!  After all of that it was time to head home to my Texas...finally.
• I made it down to Arlington the day before my Pop's birthday, which also happened to be C-fizzle's Eagle Scout Court of Honor.  That's right, my littles bro is a baller...it's fine, you can be jealous.  Look at this good lookin' kid!

• Sean and Shyla's flight got uuuber delayed so they weren't able to make in time for the court of honor, but they made it a little afterwards.  It was so wonderful to have everyone together this Christmas, especially after the trials the summer and fall had brought for all of us.

• Christmas was wonderfully low-key and full of much family time and laughter and simply enjoying one another's company.  Who could have asked for more??  We were also able to get the whole of my mom's side of the family ALL together for the first time ever.  It was an awesome time with aunts and uncles and cousins we haven't seen in ages...and one little new one most of us had yet to meet.
• I was also able to catch up with a number of lovely friends while I was home for the holidays and my sweet Miss Susie, oh how I love her...It has come to my attention that she and I never take pictures when we go for our now traditional Chuy's lunches...hmmm...next time, Miss Susie!!!

My sweet high school loves - how I love our reunions.

My precious Buntes made a stop in A-Town!!

January (Plus the last couple days of December...)

• New Year's held a trip to the wonderful Austin to stay with my sweet Ponders and see even more lovelies from college.  Whoop!  I also got to visit with my wonderful cousins and Aunt June again, which was so wonderful.  I got my bridesmaid dress all ordered for precious Kristen's wedding and got to have a woooonderful lunch at Kerbey Lane with all of my Austin gals + Kristen (she's still in our sweet, sweet Aggieland...lucky duck!).  New Year's eve was a nice low-key get together at the Ponder's, complete with Apples to Apples and The Nelson Game - college favorites.  After all of the "old people" turned in for the night JP and B and I closed out our shenanigans with some Mario Kart and Call of Duty (the latter I simply watched...it's much more enjoyable for everyone that way).  I got start off 2012 with a lovely time of worship with the Ponders and B, followed by some tasty Texas BBQ and time with precious friends before I made the trip back to the Metroplex.

My sweet bestie Elaine and Josh - it wouldn't be a reunion without a 

goofy picture of the 3 of us like this one

My all too precious Tara               B...nuff said         .

             Darling Alyssa         Wonderful, wonderful Kristen

• Before I left my Texas-land I got to visit more with Catia and her Elaine - which was a wonderful time of chatting, munching, and Spinal Tapping it up.  I also got to see Mission Impossible with the Mamma!!!  Yup - it's tradition that she and I see these amaaaazing films in the theaters and we managed to squeeze it in the day that I left!  Whew!  That was a close one!
• I was quite sad to leave Texas, but must admit that I was looking forward to going...home...where my life is now.  Although, I was only afforded a day in the Tundra before I had to pick up and hit the road again...story of my life!!!  I am now in FL, at the McGuire Center in Gainesville...doing, you guessed it, research!  This is my last museum trip for a while, though.  The next one is a bit of a secret and you won't get to find out where I'm going until this summer...sorry kids,  I just can't tell you yet!  I get to go home tomorrow, though!  I canNOT wait.  I miss my bed...I miss my Tundra peeps...I miss my critters!!!!

Well, I hope you have all enjoyed the run-down...sorry it's taken so long to get this update out.  And, no, I have not forgotten that I still owe you pictures from AZ...working on it...

Hope you all had a wonderfully blessed holiday season.

Shalom & Blessings,

~MW

P.S. - My Big Bro just started up a new blogitty for this year.  Check it!