13 - my birthday this year was good! i turned 30! which is a milestone, for sure, but was right in the thick of final dissertation writing so it's kind of a blur. I had originally planned to defend in april, but that came up fast after the whirlwind spring semester (campus pretty much shut down for two weeks after the mass shooting so while that should not have actually affected my timeline, i still ended up feeling like i was exactly two weeks behind 😂). i had hoped to defend just before my 30th birthday (april 29!) just so I could say i did, but i finally acquiesced sometime in march, I think, to admit my original date was too aggressive 😂 then my advisor had a month long trip abroad, which meant instead of delaying the couple weeks I needed, i pushed back about 6 weeks and had a weirdly stressful but also leisurely (?!) finish. we had a big party celebrating both dissertation and birthdays (and also kind of engagement, since we never had an engagement party) after my defense! basically everyone came up post-defense and my friends were like "you've been too busy to let us celebrate you! we're doing it all" which was very sweet and appreciated.

18 - a memorable meal this year, hm. I suppose thanksgiving this year was quite memorable! fiancé and i hosted our parents for the first time! we've been in apartments for the last few years but are renting a whole ass Adult home since moving for my postdoc. It was really nice to be able to have both his mom and my parents stay with us, have plenty of space to sleep everyone, and then be the ones making the meal. mitch cooked a fantastic turkey and we had a lovely time.

22 - favorite place i visited this year! I didn't travel much this year, but went to atlanta, athens and charlotte this summer! the charlotte trip was with my best girl friends from college and was a lot of fun. it was a goal of mine to re-prioritize and spend more time with friends and family after I finished grad school, so these trips were all part of that effort! charlotte was really fun (even though we had quite the airbnb fiasco!). we spent a bit of time at an olympic training facility nearby which was cool, too!

thanks for asking!

fiancé just called while out running errands to confirm my mom's favorite type of candy/ small treats

he wants to add them to her stocking after she puts the stockings out this year at christmas because he knows she usually makes her own stocking 😭😭

i am ✨unreasonably✨tired for someone who has spent the last six days in bed

listen, i finally found a primary care physician accepting new patients and now my insurance isn't working???

i called my insurance and i have not one but two (2!) active plans! the surprise plan is from grad school and apparently goes through aug 2024! both plans are valid and active and they said there's no reason i can't use either or both of them, but

the doctor's office still can't find either! they're not showing up to bill! they are functionally useless!

and i should not have a second plan??? i got a letter last year indicating my health care ended when i "became unemployed" last january (aka received a fellowship!) and i paid nearly $1500 out of pocket for gap coverage until i started my post doc??

so, with all due respect, what the fuck !!

hello from my little corner of the internet 👋🏼

I wish this trash fire of a site was in better shape, because i really do miss posting little updates & then looking back on them later. the interface seems to be getting worse every time i come back, but i'm overdue for an update and currently quarantined at home, so... here we are.

listen, when I say “I hate men” what I mean is I hate listening to helicopters circle over and over looking for a missing two year old after a man stabs her mother and disappears with her.

It’s always the men.

me, the Saturday after defending:

wakes up at 7 am thinking about a side project I could possibly revive & finish in the next three weeks

I’m done, passed with no revisions 🥲🎓

will take a minute to sink in but WOW oh WOW

just did a practice run through of my dissertation defense presentation at lab meeting and am honestly SHOCKED at how well it went because i could not force myself to go through it well this weekend

like i last went through it this morning and it took me 1 h 20 min and was so painful

but then just smoothly sailed through in a perfectly timed 45 😂

obviously, being the way that we are, advisor & i are now making a bunch of high level edits to really emphasize the main data and the take-home message so it will change form again a bit yet today but WE ARE SO CLOSE

cue listening to "one more time with feeling" on repeat

me: ugh I feel guilty applying for programs meant for under represented identities in science when I am just a ✨woman✨& have a lot of other privilege! I don’t count!

also me: has documentation of university violating my title IX rights after being literally raped