Graduation!

Jun. 6th, 2010 06:02 pm
georion23: (Default)
Warning: this will be very picture-heavy.

Graduation started with my parents coming into town and meeting me up at work so they could take a look around LPI and meet everyone. Then we got some lunch and headed up to my department's graduation reception at Rice. I got to see Janne and Francis before they headed back to France and one of my favorite students, Jordan.

Francis, me, and Janne (Mom's camera)


Janne and me (iPhone)


Jordan and me (Mom's camera)


It started pouring down rain as we were leaving Rice. In the case of rain during graduation the next morning, it would have been moved from the lawn inside, and only two people per student would be allowed to attend. This was a problem as I had my parents, my brother, my aunt, uncle, and cousin Erin. And since I would have been up most of the night preparing for the party at my apartment and then had to have gotten up at 5am to be up at Rice in time (not to mention my parents have seen me graduate three times prior to this one), we decided to skip the ceremony and get some breakfast and just hang out at my place. It was a hard decision for me, since it will most likely be my last graduation, and I solicited opinions from Em, Sara, Mom, Dad, Grandma, Steph... pretty much anyone who would talk to me. I think it ended up being the right decision, though. We actually ended up getting to spend more time together than if we had gone to the ceremony.

The actual party was lovely. Mom and Andy helped me quite a bit with the food. Dad even ironed my shirt because I was too busy cooking to do it. And Matthew got the plates and silverware out and lit candles around the apartment and didn't burn down the place. Erin came in and helped make spinach artichoke dip, Steph and Christi helped set up the drinks, and Justin corralled the cats into the guest room. Once all that insanity settled down, it was fantastic. We had enough food to feed a small army: puff pastry breadsticks (sesame seed and parmesan cheese), asparagus spears wrapped in puff pastry strips and baked, cantaloupe balls wrapped in prosciutto, cherry tomato-marinated mozzarella ball-basil skewers, chocolate-covered walnut cream (semi-sweet, milk, and white chocolate varieties), the aforementioned spinach artichoke dip with pita chips, an assortment of olives, some grapes, wine, soda, and beer. Most of the recipes were from a cookbook Steph lent me, and she helped me come up with some good wine choices. Juliane and Justin brought over several desserts, including a sea turtle cake (awesome!!). It was quite the successful event. Pictures are below.

some of the food










Justin and Juliane


more! )
georion23: (Default)
the last few weeks have been insane. steph had a birthday. i got her an awesome present. andy had a birthday. i made him dinner. i had a birthday. we had a little party at work, which was fabulous. i had a graduation, complete with party with family from out of town and madness all around (and really good food - more on that later). em's brother graduated today, so she's in boston, coming back tomorrow evening. i have pictures of many of these events, which will be posted at some point, but maybe not until june. we got a new person at work, with whom i am currently not impressed. we shall see how long she ends up staying. tuesday steph and i leave for dc for a conference that we are running and have spent the last several months putting together, which is terrifying. especially since new person at work severely screwed up on friday and had to start over, making what should have been a half-day job now go into day three. i'm anticipating tomorrow being a 14-16 hour day at work.

the weekend after next we'll be in nacogdoches getting em scuba certified, and my friend juliane is going to be taking a refresher course. i'll get to relax some then, and get a little diving in, which will be fabulous. it's been entirely too long. my tooth cracked (while i was minding my own business drying my freaking hair) on friday. and i'll need another cortisone shot into my spine for my herniated disc because it's apparently such a large bulge that the doc didn't really expect that it would be fixed with just one. super. those things will have to wait until after the 23rd when i'm back from dc, and maybe into june. oy. so, i'm still alive, but have a million fires to put out, and my firehose isn't nearly big enough. things should settle down significantly in june, which will be nice because i have a ton and a half of pictures i'd like to get online. including pics from my trip to the northeast over christmas. i repeat: oy. i'll elaborate on most of the things i mentioned at a later date. and just because i feel right now as if i'm incapable of posting without a picture, here is an iphone photo of the gorgeous tulips steph got for my birthday:



and now, i'm going to pass out for a few hours so i can start the madness that will be this week. night, all.

andy

Jan. 17th, 2010 12:30 am
georion23: (Default)
i have a new friend! :) his name is andy and he's in my office at work. we went out tonight. had a nice leisurely two-hour steak dinner and then went to his place and talked and watched dogma. it was lovely. we have very similar senses of humor and share the exact same taste in movies. and he lives all of ten minutes away. and he gives great hugs. all good stuff :)

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July 2010

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