20110331

Vieux Montréal, etc

Super fun day. Lots of thinking about Davis vs. Auburn. Big decision being made in a big, fun city. Enjoy these photos!

Canadian money is Lisa Frank inspired.
Outside our hotel.
It wouldn't be French anything without a protest!
Yours truly at le palais des congrès.
We had lunch with other grad students of friends of my adviser.
It was very fun. Developmentalists are great people.
We're a ridiculously nerdy, hilarious bunch.
Hehehe. Grabbed snacks before I went to a symposium on dating and girls' delinquent behavior in adolescence!
I was curious about raisin flavored Crush until I remembered that raisin is French for grape.
I think I'm going to invent sundried grape soda.
Later Mayra and I went shopping and walking around Montreal...
  


This picture is especially for Ali.
The placement of books in this bookstore was pretty hilarious.
And this one takes the cake. Yep, that belongs in the children's section!
Lovely Mayra on our stroll.
C'est moi.
Creepiest thing I have EVER seen. It looked so haunted!
Bizarre.
Another view of le palais des congrès.
En vieux Montréal.
One of many photographs of vieux Montréal.
POUTINE!
I have to mention that Mayra is so, so, so wonderful to travel with! We're having a blast. We're both very laid back travel types, so that makes it fun and easy. We ended up having dinner at 10 PM in a Polish restaurant in old Montreal. We talked about where I should do my PhD... she's so helpful.

I've got a lot of Mayra love over here!

Tomorrow brings more talks and maybe poster sessions. Definitely some tasty food and hopefully a little schnockering.

Merveilleux!

Bienvenue à Montréal! (#1!)

Bonjour! Just a quick post with photographs. Mayra and I got in about midnight here and to our hotel at about 3 AM. It was a late night but I'm at least 60% bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

Leaving Chicago with our declaration cards.
ROGERS!
The oven in our hotel room gives directions en Francais!
Delicious snacks.
And today, the fun begins!

20110330

20110327

I'm not pure and I'm not pretty...

but I'm staying another night in Salt Lake City!

My flight back to Sacramento was overbooked, so when things were getting pretty intense, I volunteered myself to get an extra 13 hours at home complete with $400 Delta dollars, food vouchers, and a free night at a hotel. Yeaaaaah!

Anyway, so I'm chilling at my kitchen table after having taken a two hour nap on our living room floor (so cozy), blogging before I finish up my poster for the conference. The past few days have been nice and relaxing. My mom and I went clothes shopping for Montreal, you can see the outfit I picked out below, and did a little more shopping after she picked me up at the airport. I might become a dress-wearing gal!

I hung out with two old friends, Aurora and Khrystine, last night over margaritas. It was so nice to catch up and laugh. Khrystine and I spent a considerable amount of time watching everything humorous we could think of on Youtube and then talked and talked and talked. There was a blizzard which meant she stayed well into the morning. So nice. :-)

I've also been hanging out with my sister and her new MacBook Pro (see below) and my other sister and Daphne. Just little bit of conversation and, today, we went through my mom's and our baby clothes. So much fun. Here are some great pictures. We'll start off with the traveling gnome!

Salt Lake Temple.
MacBook Pro sisters!
Sisters! And my outfit for my poster presentation.
Snow in my mom's flower baskets.
Just a beautiful day!
Tomorrow I head back to Davis, and the new quarter begins. I have a bunch of things to do before I head to Montreal on Wednesday. How exciting! The adventures will continue...

20110326

A Map of Love


So... yes, I use OkCupid. "Use" meaning I've never met anyone through it; I have only used it for entertainment and random conversations. They send fun stuff like the map above (and OkTrends is easily one of my favorite blogs). It came right after a conversation with my mom about where to do my PhD. Coincidence? Or conspiracy?

Anyway, things aren't looking so good when it comes to my chances of finding love in the deep south. I think you can... well, infer quite a bit about me if you look at my best match states.

Will this ultimately affect my decision? Stay tuned...

Home, Sweet Home

Today was a nice, relaxing day hanging out with my sisters and mom (and brother-in-law for a bit). We tied a really cute quilt for Daphne's crib, chit chatted, ate delicious things, and watched some Glee. But! Here's the quilt and us ladies!:

Quilt!

Whackadoodling.
And I ended the day with one of my most favorite activities of all. Bunny cuddle time:

Sir Ben and I.
Tomorrow brings a little bit of work, some shopping, and social engagements. My last full day in Salt Lake! Gotta make it great!

20110325

Just an old sweet song...

Keeps Georgia on my mind.

Hello from Salt Lake City! I'm extraordinarily exhausted and I've still got some work to do on my poster for Montreal. Eep. Anyway, last night I went out to dinner with a few of the grad students at Auburn. I had a lot of fun. I feel like I have two great options on the table. I don't think I can really go wrong. More thoughts in a few...

Then today, I woke up early with the plan to check out Atlanta a bit. In particular, The World of Coca-Cola. I got up around 8 and the charming (and incredibly, ridiculously attractive) nephew of the B&B owner made me grits, along with super salty ham which is a staple around here, and good old kartoffels. The grits were interesting. They were fine, I'd eat them again, but I don't know that I'd request them. Just a weird texture. Especially in the morning.

After breakfast, I headed to Atlanta and...

I went here.

Tried about 32 foreign Coke products. All of the above were tasty! There was one from Italy that was... yikes. It was the worst by far.

Then I headed to the airport and bought myself a well-deserved margarita. HUGE. Mmm.

The flight over Utah was quite lovely!

Drama!
Now I'm at home! My favorite place to be. I had a nice time thinking about Auburn vs. UC Davis on the plane and I think I've made my decision. Going to let it sit overnight, maybe even longer, of course, as decisions are best when aged. I think it's going to be awesome.

Side note: Do you ever check out Google Lab's stuff for Gmail? Well, there's this neat option to undo a sent email. It's a button that lasts for about ten seconds, just giving you the opportunity to change your mind. Anyway, last night I sent an email. And those ten seconds were the slowest of my life. And when it disappeared... relief. I'm the happiest I've been in 2011. :-)

20110323

The Land of Cotton

A surprise for Daphne!
Top of the mornin'! At least to my Californian peeps.

I woke up with really awesome curly hair, ate a delicious breakfast, and headed out to do some shopping. I went to a nice art gallery, the bookstore, and to a boutique where I got Daphne Kate a fun little something. I got myself a shot glass covered in tiger prints. Meow.

Now I have settled back in my suite until my meeting with the associate dean of the college of human science. Exciting!

So yesterday was a lot of fun. I met with three faculty members I'd love to work with. All of them are interested in me, and one told me he was blown away by my application! These professors know my professors at UC Davis and/or the U. To give you an idea of what I'd be doing here... If I worked with A, I could look at romantic relationships and sexual behavior during adolescence cross-culturally. He has data from Switzerland, the Republic of Georgia, a couple of other countries and, of course, in the US. Lots of his grad students use data from the Ad Health study (a really cool, famous, huge longitudinal study).

G has done some things with life course theory, which is why I originally decided to meet with him. However, he's doing some really exciting things looking at psychological adjustment and a few other things by type of dating behavior. We talked about my thesis, where I decided to make three groups of teens -- not dating at all, casually dating, or involved in a serious relationship. Most of the research I've read on body dissatisfaction has only had two types of dating. Well, in his longitudinal study (CDP, FYI), for one paper they made six or seven groups of daters based on number and length of their dating relationships. So we talked about that for a while and he inquired about my knowledge of methods. It seems like I'd be able to work with him right off the bat. He has told me he'd be able to support me as a research assistant! Cool beans. Also, he's doing a symposium in Montreal with a prof I'm close to at Davis. I will be attending that!

I met with the head of the department who knows the prof who wrote me a letter from Utah and one of my letter writers from UC Davis. I mostly got a feel for the economic issues at Auburn (it's not as bad as the UCs) as well as general things about the department. I also got some bad news... I will probably have to repeat a good amount of my coursework. So that's a pretty huge downside, as I am ready to start focusing on research. I'm tired of classes. Anyway.

I then met with the prof, J, who will definitely be supporting me my first year. She's fantastic. If I worked with her I'd first be working on evaluating relationship curriculum in high schools and junior high. Then I could continue working on that or start working on a project looking at attachment and identity in young engaged and newlywed couples. They're thinking about adding some bio instruments (cortisol from spit, heart rate monitors, etc). SO cool. :-D

So here's how things are shaking out so far. Auburn has more researchers doing things that are exactly what I want to do. At UC Davis, I'd have to be a little more creative about doing what I want to do. BUT! there are several projects that will work for me at Davis. So, on that note, Auburn wins. Location is an issue. I'll have to buy a car if I come here and the flight from Salt Lake to Atlanta is long. To get home will take me a day. From Davis, it only takes a few hours. Auburn the town is very nice and very similar to Davis, which is good news (I was afraid there would be more... rednecks). But the location isn't great.

Another downside to coming here is having to move across the country. We're talking a long distance. Over 2000 miles. And getting a new apartment, furnishing said apartment, finding the milk in the grocery store. Buying a car. Blah. I don't care for automobiles. And then there's just a fact that I live in the best place in the United States. I'm pleasantly surprised by Auburn but... damn, I love Northern California.

I have until April 15 to make my decision. I think I know which way I'm going, but I'm definitely going to take a few weeks to think though everything. It's exciting stuff! But nerve wracking to think that this decision is going to really, really affect my life. Every silver lining has a cloud, right?

20110322

Sweet Home Alabama

Fun, exhausting day today! Met with several faculty members and got a tour of campus from one of the grad students. Everyone is very friendly and Auburn is a cute town with a charming school! It's starting to feel like it might be a good fit.

Outside of the B&B! That front bay window is mine.
Charming downtown.

One of the oak trees that was poisoned by an Alabama fan.

The other oak tree. :-(
Gnome!
Self portrait!
Samford Hall.

Talked a passerby into snapping a photo of yours truly.
All about Auburn.
My would be home on campus!
Football is big here. And talking to a grad student, I think I could get into it!
I'm pretty tired, so I'm going to leave this blog post as is.

Happy Tuesday from the Land of Cotton!

20110321

Heart of Dixie

Hello from Auburn, Alabama! So far, I've had a lot of fun. Everyone is incredibly friendly. The flight from Sacramento to Atlanta was long but, hey, I got an entire can of Bloody Mary Mix AND an entire can of Diet Coke... they even threw in tiny bags of peanuts! :-) Hahaha. The drive from Atlanta to Auburn was easy and went by quick.

The best thing yet? The kind gent here at the B&B upgraded me from the cheapest room to a very luxurious suite. The B&B is awesome. Oodles of pictures to follow...

Let's start at the beginning!

Gnome in Atlanta! Picked up my car on Georgia State's campus.
Warm! Such lovely weather. Blossoms, tulips, daffodils abound.
Not too humid... at least at 8 pm.
Awful picture of downtown as proof I was in Atlanta!
Lots of cool buildings...
I saw as I was trying to turn around to get on the 85.
How us Celiacs do road trips!
Home of Auburn University!
Difficult self-portrait situation, haha.
My suite at the B&B! Everything I'd imagined!
I love old fireplaces.
Half the reason why I want to live in the Winchester Mansion.
Love the molding, bay windows, and the high ceilings!
Close-up of the fireplace.
Quaint.
My bedroom.
Hello gnome!
Other fireplace.
Being all serious in my rocking chair.
Claw foot tub!!
Happy about this plumbing!
And they completely anticipated my needs upon arrival. :-D
Tomorrow brings lots of meetings with faculty and a little grad student hang out. Expect pictures and news on the morrow!

Now I'm going to go jump in that claw foot tub...