Adventures in Hooterville

Summer '07 - Heck yes!

Having recently visited Seattle and some of the lovely people I dearly miss, it reminded me that I should probably make a better effort to keep in touch. Like so. I'd like to make updating here part of my weekly ritual, but before I can do that, I feel I need to bring this silly little blog up to date on what is going on in my life after The Summer of '07.

During this summer I have:


- Begun volunteering on weekends with Hands On Atlanta. I was part of a group of my friends that worked together through their Teamworks program. Basically every Saturday or so, we would go to a different type of volunteering project. The idea is to get an idea for what opportunities are out there. I was able to entertain some disabled kids, repackage medical supplies to be sent overseas, and build a mudhouse in a community garden.


- Chosen a lab to do my thesis in. My advisor is Dr. Astrid Prinz, and she works in computational neuroscience at Emory. I'm still trying to bring together my second-year project, but I'm looking into building a more detailed neuronal model, specifically incorporating Ca2+ signalling cascades.


- Met an adorable boy named Nick, who I subsequently started seeing. He's great!


- Started hiking and backpacking. Nick is really outdoorsy, so he's been helping me with getting the gear and such I need. So far we've been on a few overnight trips together but I just bought a new backpack (that actually fits!) so I'm excited to try that out. So is Kaisa, she's loving this turn of events!


- Gone to a couple music festivals, including Sasquatch and Bonaroo. Both involved camping and being dirty/tired but I was really impressed with the music in both cases. If you ever get a chance to see Ghostland Observatory, DO it. It was such a happy dancey show. Good times.


- Seen my mom get married. Nick came with me to Seattle for this, and we had a great time overall. It was really fun to see everyone.


- Dyed my hair pink (highlights only, and they've faded to blonde).


- Watched my friend Lauren shave her head, and her boyfriend Stephen get a mullet (the mullet is now gone, and her hair is almost a half inch)


- Been diagnosed with interstitial cystitis. This has been really hard for me to accept, but I'm coming to it. Though I'm still going through a few more tests, my history and symptoms match up pretty well to this diagnosis (at the very least). There's no "cure", and the causes etc aren't very well known, but there are various treatments to try. I'll probably write a few "TMI" entries in the coming months, just FYI. I have a feeling that there will be times I am more frustrated, but right now things are going well and I'm optimistic, so I won't go into too much detail.


I think that about sums it up. Classes have started again, so even though it's still 90 degrees outside summer is pretty much over. Tonight I'm hanging out with a bunch of my girl friends. We're celebrating our feminity by eating lots of spaghetti, drinking lots of boxed wine (hello, Franzia!) and having a sleepover to get up early and hit all the Labor Day sales. Hahahaha, I love my friends!

posted by Amber @ 4:44 PM