erin in wonderland

babies 'r' us

2010-04-25T09:52:00.003-06:00

so i'm spending the weekend with my two oldest and best girlfriends in the world, who now each happen to have a baby. The babies are in fact with us on our girls' weekend. (since they are both boys, i'm wondering if i can still call it a "girls' weekend".)

it's an interesting experience. if i didn't have an adorable niece and nephew that i've spent inordinate amounts of time around, i don't know if i could handle it. don't get me wrong, i LOVE kids, especially babies. the hard part is that it kinda makes me want one because kids are absolutely amazing, but at the same time not want one because i would NEVER want to raise one with just anyone. so for now i get to quite happily live vicariously through them.

my favorite part of this weekend is realizing that no matter what our places in life, these are my girls. even if we have very different experiences, developments, or tracks, we always have each other.

i heart these women. and our mouths are just as dirty as in college.

super-socialize me

2010-03-21T22:04:00.004-06:00

that's it, it's official. i have too many friends. i love each and every one of you dearly, but if you want to reserve some time in my social calendar there is currently a recommended two week advance booking (possibly longer if you would like to request a specific night of the week). so send in your requests now and they will be processed in the order in which they are received. thank you.

dance schmance

2010-03-18T14:05:00.000-06:00

oh boy. i can feel it starting again. the overwhelming desire to go dancing virtually every night. the obsessive thoughts on technique, footwork, balance, following, etc. watching clips on youtube (way better than interlibrary loan vhs like the "old days"). i've got the bug.

an unlikely series of event put this in motion. first, a new friend asked me to teach her to dance. second, an old friend recognized me. third, an old flame sent an email. fourth, a hatchet was buried. without any one of these crucial steps, i wouldn't even consider dancing again.

papers and procrastination

2009-10-06T17:05:00.004-06:00

i once again find myself succumbing to the unbridled procrastination that has controlled my life up to this point. i actually did close to nothing yesterday, despite the fact that i sat in front of the computer for many hours. i must finish this paper within the week. this lollygagging has got to stop.

...and here i am writing in my blog. shocking.

spider watch 2009: conclusion

2009-09-02T15:51:00.003-06:00

spider watch 2009 has officially come to a close. i moved out of the apartment last friday. right now i'm staying with pete & mary and living out of my car until i can move into the awesome house my bro just bought in wash park. i much prefer the spider-free futon and homelessness to the 8-legged infestation.

in total, i found well over 200 spiders over 3.5 weeks. that averages to over 8 spiders a day with a low of 4 and a high 29. ew.

special thanks to mary, paul, and levy for helping me move and refraining from running scared after finding a ridiculous number of arachnids while moving things. picked up the couch to find 3, moved the bed to find a few more, lifted the nightstand to find another - they were everywhere. my friends, you have stomachs of steel and no fear.

100

2009-08-11T10:17:00.003-06:00

it's official, i have found over 100 dead spiders in my apartment. to commemorate the event, i found one in my bedroom for the first time. awesome.

senor exterminator comes in 45 mins. if this round of poison doesn't help the situation, i'm going to start looking for a new place...

up and up

2009-08-08T14:33:00.000-06:00

8/4 18:30 -- 76.
opened the hall closet and found 4 more. moved a box to find another 2.

8/5 11:10 -- 82.
found 1 before i left to go dancing last night, 1 when i came home from dancing, and 3 more when i woke up this morning. another (a different kind, too... crap...) showed up while i was eating breakfast.

i've started collecting samples. i now have 3 in a plastic cup on my kitchen counter.

8/5 23:50 -- 83.
1 sitting by the cats' food bowls when i got home. decided not to look around for more before bed to avoid nightmares...

8/6 11:05 -- 85.
1 at the kitchen entrance when i woke up. he wasn't there last night. watched che kill and eat another a few minutes ago. at least i didn't have to clean that one up?

8/8 14:30 -- 93.
came home after a day and a half at my sister's to 7 dead ones scattered around the house. didn't even look everywhere, didn't want to. 1 live one scampered across the kitchen floor in front of me and my cats. che squished it - it looked intentional this time. he wasn't sad. in fact he looked pretty proud of himself.

more!

2009-08-04T14:58:00.001-06:00

holy crap, I just found another 7 by simply looking up. they're in my light fixtures. add on the one i watched my cat kill this afternoon, and the tally is up to 70.

spider watch 2009

2009-08-04T10:27:00.003-06:00

this morning's dead spider count is already up to 9, and it's not even noon yet. i even stepped on one while i was stumbling around half-awake at 6:45 this morning getting ready for my run. it gives me chills just thinking about it...

that brings the total since last tuesday to 62.

i think if i hit 100 i will seriously consider finding a new place to live.

why i'm waiting until then, i'm not sure. i guess i want to give my landlord a chance to make it right. he's failing at the moment, thru no fault of his own. he's got an exterminator coming every 2 weeks and is getting the infested tree removed. which is why i can't live here if even *that* doesn't work...

week one, day one

2009-08-03T14:09:00.002-06:00

today begins my training regimen for the moab other half on october 18th. i love how the first day doesn't even start with a run - it's a "strength/stretch" day. so mary and i went to a nia class this morning and then i'm going to spinning tonight.

nia was pretty darn fun, i have to admit. think aerobics/jazzercise with the "dance" parts being more akin to Isadora Duncan-esque pretend-like-you-are-child-let-your-body-move-like-a-flower-in-the-wind mixed with earthy feel-the-groove tribal rhythms. kind of a world-ish version of jazzercise. upside: i sweat like north carolina for a solid hour. downside: not quite sure if it did anything? i left with a fair bit of energy still, but maybe that was the point? dunno...

sleep, or something like it

2009-08-02T15:25:00.002-06:00

i slept well over 12 hours last night, after a week of no more than 6 per night. anyone who knows me knows that i'm a sleeper. it's what i do best, honestly. i start to feel, well, bitchy if i can't get my required z's.

this morning i woke up refreshed, alert, and (dare i say it) happy. happy enough to actually open matlab and do some research. what is this world coming to???

runnin'

2009-07-27T21:29:00.004-06:00

running is one of the things that has kept me sane at this workshop, and kept me busy. i've run 24 miles in the last week (a new record for me?) and i've enjoyed every minute of it. it brings my july total to a whopping... 32.6 miles. i apparently didn't run much in the first 3 weeks.

one thing i learned: it's very important to keep yourself hydrated, even when it's 115% humidity outside. i came back from a couple runs i did outside without a stitch of dry clothing on me. don't get too excited, i was fully clothed. just utterly drenched. and no, it didn't rain. pure sweat, baby. mmm.

reflection on a week

2009-07-27T21:20:00.003-06:00

after many days at nc state working on a statistics project i've come to realize several things.

first, statistics is a mystery to me. i mean, i can compute anything you want me to, and even understand what that computation is attempting to explain, but the interpretation is akin to palm-reading. sorry if i offend any of you statisticians out there, but it's true. i can read just about anything i want into the results. any pre-conceived notions you have in your head can be rationalized via one calculation or another. oh, that one didn't line up with what you wanted? no problem, we can explain it away with 12 others...

also, and i don't mean to sound cocky, but i've realized i'm pretty gifted intellectually. at least when put in comparison to many of the people that are supposedly my "colleagues" and at the same level i am. maybe it's just the situation, but my mediocre work outshines some people's best... wow, i feel like an ass for saying that.

lastly, i don't think i can work in industry again. well, i *can* work in industry, i just don't think i want to. not that i never will (i've learned not to write anything off completely), it'll just be my last resort. we'll see what happens when i graduate.

procrastination techniques

2009-07-14T15:01:00.005-06:00

my to-do list has grown marvelously long over the last few days. since i'm leaving for nc state on sunday, all of it has to be done before then. fun. of course i naturally find ways to procrastinate. i will list a few examples:

1) why is watching the tour de france so awesome? every morning, i wake up, make coffee, flip on the tour, and watch that day's stage play out on the tellie. phil liggett has to be the best commentator ever - somehow he makes a multi-hour bike ride incredibly interesting.

2) wii fit is a great way to start or end every day. getting 30 minutes of banked time takes a good hour, tho. i have also acquired rockband2 for the wii, which can suck time like no other. but i've found there's nothing quite like wailing on the drums to release a little tension!

3) i just finished reading "the way of the peaceful warrior" by dan millman. totally enjoyed that book - a challenging book, but in a feel-good way. that combo is a rarity to me.

4) facebook gets more time than i would like to admit. when one truly wishes to procrastinate, it is the go-to site fer sure. maybe i should de-activate my account until sunday.

5) arsenal!!! i never get sick of reading the latest gossip on my gunners. (and soon, so very soon, i will be once again blessed with live games every weekend...)

academia

2009-07-07T12:34:00.004-06:00

i gave my first academic talk yesterday at the SIAM annual meeting, and it was quite scary. fortunately no one tried to make me look stupid. i think i made myself look stupid enough just by standing up there. does it get easier???

now i have two weeks until nc state, 10 days of hard work there, then i start writing the paper on the work i presented yesterday. hopefully it'll be done by the end of september and i'll be one step closer to my phd...

in other news, i got cable and internet set up yesterday. fsc, heck yeah! 5 1/2 weeks til opening weekend of the premier league, when arsenal takes on everton aug 15th. 1st pre-season friendly is july 18th. hopefully we'll pick up the rockin' little brazilian midfielder melo from fiorentina. apparently they demanded eboue in exchange - take him. seriously. i'd be quite happy if i never saw his pouting on the pitch again.

if anyone would like to watch games at my place, you're more than welcome. just call. i'll be up early every weekend. i'm kinda looking forward to it. is that wrong?

r.i.p. lemma :(

2009-06-29T17:22:00.002-06:00

i came home this evening and found my beautiful ivy, "lemma", dug out of her pot and all her roots chewed and eaten; she was murdered by my two cats. i'd had her for 5 1/2 years. she'll be missed.

busy little bee

2009-06-25T14:03:00.003-06:00

yesterday i found out i need to be out of my apartment by next wednesday. i hadn't packed a box and i don't get a key to my new place until sunday morning.

not two hours earlier, my advisor told me he needed the first draft of my upcoming SIAM presentation by next wednesday. did i mention i haven't even finished the research for said presentation? the code still has some sizable numerical errors that are screwing with my results.

anyone know how long i can go without sleep and be semi-functional? right now i'm thinking the only way to push thru this week is to make sleep optional.

coffee incident

2009-06-24T15:40:00.003-06:00

today i ordered a drip coffee from the coffee cart in the engineering center. i got my change and went to put it in the tip jar. i put it in my freshly-poured coffee instead. nice shootin', tex.

long long time

2009-06-24T15:26:00.002-06:00

almost two years later, i've decided to return to blogging. nothing terribly exciting, just a little update/love every once in a while.

i will continue to comment on my boys in red this next season - only 3.5 weeks til the first pre-season game v barnet! we just made a nice little signing, getting the 23yo young belgian center back thomas vermaelen from ajax. should be a nice addition since our defense has been shaky the last couple years...

i'm back at school finishing the phd after adventures in running a tutoring company and then teaching high school in inner city denver. if you ever want to hear some horror stories about our public education system, i've got enough to last me two lifetimes after teaching for a whopping 10 weeks.

research

2007-08-08T19:01:00.000-06:00

the strangest thing has happened to me recently. it has left an oddly unsettling feeling in my stomach, one that i'm not quite familiar with in the given context. i'm actually enjoying my research.

i never thought it would happen. i almost gave up this whole phd thing a year ago, but i must admit now i'm glad i didn't. and my new advisor gunnar is awesome - easy to talk to, down to earth, wicked smart. and he's had at least one stamp on the back of his hand from whatever bar(s) he patronized the previous night at each of our meetings. go gunnar. oh, and his frickin' name is "gunnar" - how cool is that?? we get along really well and actually work well together - dave swears gunnar and i are related somehow in the swedish part of my heritage. apparently gunnar's sister resembles me and gunnar resembles my little bro. i'm not sure how much credit i'm willing to give that theory.

dave and i hiked up to arapaho pass monday morning - you can check out the pics here. it was absolutely gorgeous, even if it was totally overcast. there was one part right towards the end where it looked like we were walking into a cloud. oh wait, that's because we were.

5 days til i leave for central america!!!

last day of class

2007-07-27T12:38:00.002-06:00

i gave my kiddies their final at 9:15 this morning to kick off the final day of class for the summer. believe it or not, i'm going to miss them - i had a good bunch of kids this time around. actually, i don't think i've had a bad bunch of kids since i started teaching. damn i'm lucky!

just for fun i gave the kids a pop quiz yesterday in class. exactly zero of the questions were math related in any way, but a few of them did have numbers as answers - for instance, the ones asking "on average, how many minutes late was erin to lecture every day?" or "how many recitations did dave miss?" i got some pretty funny answers for both, like "4 minutes, or 11 minutes before i was gonna leave" and "as many as i would have liked to". well met - they get bonus points for that. the quiz put them in a good mood for studying for the final, too, which was kinda the point. i also tried to ease their pain this morning by baking cinnamon roll bread for them - hopefully it made the test a little more palatable...

in other news, we tied our outdoor soccer game last night. that may not sound like much, but considering we only had 8 players, they had around 20, and we were playing full-field 35 minute halves, i'd say it's damn impressive we managed to tie. i actually think we played a ton better being pressured like that because we were forced to play smarter. and i played defense for the first time in my life and didn't totally suck. dave kicked total ass up front, even sprinting at the end of the game when the rest of us were hard-pressed to do anything over a light jog. he paid for it later tho when he started cramping up on the drive home... poor dave...

i heart julio baptista

2007-07-15T16:43:00.000-06:00

in the final of the copa america today, he scored a brilliant goal in the fourth minute to help brazil to a 3-nil win over argentina. perhaps arsenal *will* be better off without thierry if it means this boy gets more playing time...

4 weeks and counting

2007-07-15T11:53:00.000-06:00

it's been a decent weekend overall. i mean, aside from tweaking my knee at our indoor soccer game friday and therefore missing my tri this morning (no worries, this one was kind of a "practice tri"), things went pretty well. i scored twice in the indoor game, which shocked the hell out of me. i over-indulged in sleep, getting a whopping 21 hours over two days. i even made it to the farmer's market saturday, only to be disappointed that all the fruit had sold out. but that's what happens when you don't show up til 1.

it's been a bit since my last arsenal rant, so here's an update on my boys in red:
arsenal won their first friendly of the pre-season, tho it was only 2-nil and the opposing side Barnet were pretty hopeless (they even had a 40-something guy pay 10,000 pounds to be named as a substitute, sit the bench, then be put in with a minute or two remaining). vp is back from injury, but the brazilian wunderkid denilson had to be stretchered off during the match, tho they're now saying the injury isn't serious. thank god, cuz we're going to need him this year. sir alex has said arsenal will be better off without henry, and i must say i agree - the boys tended to rely on him too much this last season and it became pretty apparent that thierry was starting to give under the weight of his team. 4 weeks to the opening game v. fulham! anyone who wants to come watch it at my place had better bring java porter - it's the only way we'll stay awake after the 5am kickoff...

santa monica

2007-07-05T18:22:00.000-06:00

i found a place to live this fall! yay!

it's a studio guesthouse in santa monica at euclid and hill. 13 blocks from the beach, 6 blocks from my advisor's place, and biking distance to anything I could possibly want - suh-weet. now i just need to get a commuter bike so i don't worry about my nice one being stolen.

a year and a half later

2007-07-03T11:05:00.000-06:00

after 18 months of i-want-that-no-you-can't-have-it-but-you-cheated-on-me-ok-fine-it's-yours between my parents, they are now officially divorced. my mom informed me of it yesterday afternoon, followed by the comment that she and her boyfriend were going to go out and celebrate/get drunk last night. yippee.

you would think that by the time you reach the ripe old age of 28, haven't lived under your parents' roof for the better part of a decade, and only come home once a year, that it wouldn't bother you if your parents split. but it does. i'm very conflicted about the whole thing - simultaneously angry, relieved, and let down.

angry: my parents had been married for 33 years when they called it quits. maybe "called it quits" isn't the right phrase. my dad cheated on my mom on national tv. no, not jerry springer style - he was shown with his girlfriend on tv during the world series in 2005 and naturally my mom heard about it. i definitely have a different opinion of my dad now instead of the hero i always thought him to be while growing up. i didn't talk to him for 6 months after that, and even now i keep the conversation at a superficial level. deep down i know i haven't forgiven him yet, but i'm trying.

relieved: i've thought my parents should get divorced since i was in middle school, so a part of me is very happy to see it finally happen. i know in the long run they will both be happier people apart than they were together. to be honest, if i didn't have this feeling, i'd be much worse off emotionally than i currently am about the whole thing.

let down: so yeah, it was middle school when i first realized they should split. of course, it wasn't until much later that i understood why. put this on the list of things you never wanted to know about your parents: at the time they split, they hadn't even kissed, let alone had sex, in over 14 years. i don't know which is worse to think about, your parents having sex or your parents never having sex. how do two people live like that?? did they even try to do something about the problem? was there anything that could even be done? is this something that happens to a lot of marriages?

there are some positives that have happened lately to help reduce how jaded i have become about relationships. my sister recently got engaged to a wonderful guy who truly loves her and her daughter. it's been good for me to be around a solid relationship and watch them work thru real problems. i also seem to have outgrown the pattern of first-dates and hook-ups that helped me get over calling off my engagement. i'm not particularly proud of what i've done, but it served its purpose and i'm ready to move on. believe it or not, i think it's helped me learn more about myself than i would have otherwise (then again, difficulty tends to do that). i'm glad it's over, primarily because it means i'm ready for a real relationship.

wow, this turned into quite a rant. i congratulate anyone who actually made it this far! ok, time to get back to the real world - as you were, soldier...

disaster!

2007-06-25T11:08:00.000-06:00

i got home last night from a fun and relaxing weekend visiting mikey in seattle to the following email from my friend rob:

"Erin what happened to Henry? I can't believe he signed with Barcelona, he and Ronaldinho are going to be unstoppable. You must be pretty pissed about it I would guess... "
pissed doesn't even *begin* to describe my reaction. i hadn't been online or checked sky sports news all weekend so i was completely blind-sided by this information. at first i thought he was just playing a cruel joke on me, and seeing as how it's rob, i wouldn't put it past him. so i checked sky sports - sure enough, there was the headline. but there's always been speculation about henry moving and this could be more of said speculation. so i go to arsenal.com to see if they agree, because they'd be the first to deny any wayward rumors. here was the first article:

Thierry Henry transfer to Barcelona agreed

nothing could possibly describe the sinking feeling in my heart any better than agony - pure agony.

then agony turned to anger. thierry, how could you?? where's the loyalty? arsenal made you the player you are today, gave you the best years of your career, and you abandon them? for *barcelona*?? bastard.

for those of you that don't understand how this makes me feel, try this exercise:
- think of your favorite sports team
- think of your favorite player of all time for that team
- think of a team you truly despise
- imagine that player transferring to that team

yep, that's about how i feel right now. way to ruin a perfectly good weekend, thierry. i forevermore vow to root against any team you play for.

happy solstice!

2007-06-21T16:25:00.000-06:00

happy june 21, the summer solstice! longest day of the year, so as dave put it today, it's all downhill from here...

john mayer and naked people

2007-06-17T19:48:00.000-06:00

friday night, red rocks, john mayer. best concert i'd attended in a long, long time. fuckin' amazing. that man is so incredibly talented. wow, i mean, damn. that's really all i can say.

saturday night the weirdest thing happened. i was leaving my apartment when about 30 naked people on bikes rode by me. apparently the now defunct boulder "happy thursday"s turned into "naked saturday"s...

it's official

2007-06-15T12:00:00.000-06:00

well, i did it - i booked my trip for august. using the best decision-making tool available (the trusty coin toss), i decided on the costa rica/panama excursion. i fly into san jose on august 14 and fly home from panama city on august 29. in between those dates i will be snorkeling, hiking, whitewater rafting, and many other things that will make you all jealous. yes! i will return tan and tired after 15 days under the latin sun - doesn't it sound wonderful?

more on travel

2007-06-11T13:24:00.000-06:00

taking james's comment to heart (and the realization i need to pack up my apartment before moving to LA), i've been looking into the central/south america option. there are many reasons - shorter trip, no jet lag, etc. the bike tour of india patrick suggested is a definitely possibility for *next* year...

a joint costa rica/panama trip is looking pretty good at the moment, but so is guatemala/belize/honduras since i'm kind of obsessed with mayan culture. i'll have to brush up on my spanish, but having a reason to is always a good motivator!

august travel

2007-06-06T13:58:00.000-06:00

thanks to ucla being on the quarter system, i have about 6 weeks from late july to early september with which to do as i please. so naturally i want to travel.

i am now soliciting recommendations for good places to go. already on the list of contenders is india and southeast asia (thailand, laos, malaysia, etc). additional locations as well as comments on these will be much appreciated. also let me know if and where you'll be traveling - maybe we could meet up.

(yes, yes, i know it's august. half the world will be on holiday and places like the ones mentioned will be ridiculously hot. how about limiting comments to things i *don't* know?)

new blog locale

2007-06-05T14:02:00.000-06:00

so i've thoroughly gotten sick of the blogging afforded by myspace, hence the change of location. stay tuned for updates, at least for those of you that care in the slightest what i babble about...