georion23

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! )

a few minor things have happened in the last few weeks. i flew to austin for christi and johnny's wedding and played photographer. i had fun and they got a bunch of pictures they liked, so it all worked out nicely. flew back to tempe. emily came to visit and we drove to moab, utah, where we spent my 25th birthday. when did i get so old? a quarter of a century. craziness.

anyway, the last however-many posts were pictures from that trip. we started out by doing the 8ish-hour drive to moab, stopping along the way to take lots of photos. the next day we headed out to arches national park, where i finally got to see delicate arch. after arches, we attempted going on the la sal loop and then the gold basin trail to get up into the la sal mountains. there were some horses by the road, and the baby horse had a two-toned black and white tail. so cute. anyway, there was so much mud and snow that the trail was pretty much impassable so we didn't even get halfway up the mountain (12,000 ft). however, we did see plenty of snow, mountains, and aspen trees. we came down out of the mountains and took some pictures of moab at night. the next day, we took some pictures around moab and some of the colorado river before heading out of town. the drive back took considerably longer because we stopped at natural bridges national monument and drove the long way through monument valley, catching the sunset. we took a few pictures of the highway, stars, and silhouette of monument valley against the darkening sky before driving the long road back to tempe. 1200 miles in three days. fun stuff.

a couple days later, my parents arrived in tempe for my graduation. i now hold a masters degree in geological sciences from arizona state university. woo. the ceremony was at 8am. whoever decided to hold commencement at that wretched hour needs to be hit over the head with something heavy. ugh. mom, dad, matthew, emily, and zack all got up nice and early with me to attend. they yelled, "YAR!!!" like pirates when i went across the stage. so fun. we went to the botanical gardens after eating at olive garden to take silly pictures. some day those will be posted. that evening, i had a bunch of my friends over and we grilled fajita meat and veggies and had a good old time. the next morning, we got up bright and early and trekked up to the grand canyon. stayed in flagstaff that night and went to meteor crater and painted desert/petrified desert the next day. caught a couple very nice sunsets. irritated my dad by rolling down the window every few minutes to take pictures while he was driving. they'll get put up at some point, too.

parents left the next day and emily left the day after that. i spent the next five days packing. then movers took away most of my stuff to austin, and the next two days were spent finishing packing and cleaning my house (we're getting our full deposit back! woo! though half of it will go towards our final electric bill. ugh...) while sleeping in thijs and beck's graciously-offered guest bedroom with my poor, extremely freaked out cat. they're wonderful people. we swam in their awesome pool and played catch with my underwater torpedo. it was really hard to leave them, especially beck. but, they're going to try to come to houston in the fall. i left at about 11:30pm and drove all night and all day. i stopped to take pictures of some gorgeous texas wildflowers, only to find there were butterflies, too. i'll get those up at some point. got to drive through some crazy hard rain and sit in rush hour traffic. went to dinner (bbq!) with sara and emily before seeing pirates of the caribbean 3 at 10:30. even managed to stay awake somehow. i've spent the last week or so running errands, spending time with friends and family, grilling (hot dogs and corn on memorial day and steaks tonight), and generally enjoying being back in texas, back in "my home country," as kirsten put it. it is nice to be back where things make sense.

emily and i are going to houston this weekend. staying with christi and johnny. looking for apartments for the fall, and christi mentioned some phototreking adventure. should be a good time. i just need to unload the rest of my stuff from my car. and get a new swimsuit that actually fits so we can take advantage of their pool. i'm getting a haircut (finally!) tomorrow. speaking of, i need to get to bed so i'll actually get up for the appointment. goodnight!

oh, one more thing. GO SPURS!!!