By Julie, on May 27th, 2010
Sorry I have been gone for so long! I had all of those exciting events I have eluded to happen, so it’s been an eventful couple of weeks. After finals were over, I had some time off, went to VA Beach (see last blog) and spent some much needed alone time with Ry-Guy. Once the fun was over, we went to the MAAFS conference in State College, PA. It’s a forensics conference. It was really neat – I learned so much and spoke with so many people. I met my internship mentor, met a questioned document examiner for the FBI, and sat through a lecture by George Piro! It was amazing. For those of you who don’t know who George Piro is, he is the FBI agent who was solely responsible for interrogating Saddam Hussein when he was in US custody (all 8 months). He told really incredible stories about the experience and I learned a lot. If you want a peak of what we saw, you can check out his 60 Minutes segment. It was really amazing.
Now I’m officially moved into my bedroom in Pittsburgh, and getting ready to start my internship. I have a lot of work to do for it, and I’m getting most of it done quickly. I have found a lot of articles and am getting a good start on my 10-page (single spaced) proposal. It’s coming right along. While I’ve been in Pittsburgh, I’ve done some crafting and gone to the zoo! I’m thinking one of those will be my Wordless Wednesday post next week. The Zoo and Aquarium here was so pretty. I loved it!
Along with that, I’m changing up what is on my iPod, working on a new layout, and editing my teaching powerpoints for the fall. It’s been busy.
What have you guys been up too now that summer is underway! Do you have any plans for Memorial Day?
By Julie, on May 13th, 2010
I’m so glad to be done with school. I had to proctor today, and it was my last official duty of the school year. I haven’t had any exams since Tuesday, but I didn’t really feel completely done until tonight when the proctoring was over. YAY! Summer is here.  I still have to do school work over the summer for my internship, but I’m at least free from class. Off to get paid to work on questioned documents all day. Dream job? Um, YES!
Ryan and I have decided to take a day trip to Virginia Beach this weekend. I’m really excited. You can look forward to seeing more photos in my Flickr and Facebook pages! I will put everything and it’s mother on Facebook, but only my favorites go on Flickr. I’m no professional, I just love pictures. I love taking them, I love looking at them, everything! Have any of you ever been to VA Beach? Is there something you recommend we do? We’re going to go out and walk the boardwalk (it’s 3 miles full of shops and fun!) then hit the beach, then hit-up the Cape Henry Lighthouse (maybe). It’s going to be exciting, and exhausting. Perfect day.
I added some WordPress themes to the site and re-organized a little. Now credits and bios and such are easier to find. What do you think of the new themes? I’m also going to be making a change from this theme soon… I’m growing tired of it.
I’ve seen the “Wordless Wednesday” catch on in other blogs. I like it. Along with that though, I’ve seen mean comments about the wordless things people are posting around the internet. I’ve seen people say other’s baby pictures were ugly, that they didn’t like the photo, they would have done this, blah blah. What’s with all the haters? If you don’t like it, shut-it! I feel so bad for people when I see that. 
Speaking of trending topics… I’ve decided to start my own little trend in the blogosphere. It’s called “The Thursday Treat”. We all know how much I love cooking, and how much I love sharing food with others. As such, I’ve decided that I need a way to share these treats with you. Instead of boring you day in after day out, I decided to go with 1 day a week for food based non-sense.
This Thursday Treat was found through my favorite website ever, FoodGawker. I’ve shared it before, but it never gets old. I was browsing around and came across the gem for today’s treat. Are you ready? It’s pretty amazing looking…. behold popsicles!
YUM-O, right? Those of you who follow me on Twitter have already been subjected to this awesome delight. I was so taken by it yesterday that I couldn’t control myself and had to share it with the world! Haha. If you click the photo, it takes you to an article about two popsicle places in NYC… aka the first places on my itinerary for my trip back there!
Enjoy kiddos.
By Julie, on May 12th, 2010
By Julie, on May 11th, 2010
… well, sort-of. I have an internship that I start in a couple of weeks, and I have to do all this school work to go along with it. That’s OK though, because I can handle one class worth of work. I’m just soooo glad it’s over. I’ve also made my latest life decision, I’m switching from the biology track to the trace track. That means nothing to you, but it will prepare me for my questioned documents jobs better than bio will. I will still meet the DAB classes, so I can still be a DNA analyst if I want to be. We’ll see what happens!
Now, onto the babble that all of you can understand. I’m done with my 1st year of grad school! That’s complete insanity. I can’t even believe it’s been an entire school year already. WOW, where did this year go? Ryan and I are going to Virginia Beach this weekend to celebrate. It’s only a 1.5 hour drive out, so we’re trying to decide if we’re going to do it in 1 day or get a hotel. We’ll just go with the flow and see what happens I think.
Also, I won Lissy’s contest last week! She sent me a $5 amazon gift card that I plan on using soon. I’m not sure what it will be used for, but I’m certainly thinking of ideas. Speaking of ideas, I have many new pages and such that I plan on bringing to the site. I’m going to add some of my favorite recipes, wordpress themes, and update the free buttons/icons and add some wallpapers. I want the new Photoshop… and if I can get my hands on it, I’m going to start editing my photos more and maybe start offering some retouching services. Who knows. I just love working with graphics. However, I am still going to need some more space to host them. Anyone have room for those files? I will link you, I swear! If I can’t find anyone, I’ll probably just host them on a free server.
Last week I made cinnamon rolls from scratch for one of my finals. They were so yummy. I love cooking. This summer might be rough because I will be out of my element in someone else’s kitchen. I’m sure I will still whip up some goodies for them though. It’ll be weird not cooking all my own meals. I haven’t had anyone cook for me since high school… and that was 5 years ago!
Ryan and I got some good news the other day. Turns out, he’s graduating early! He’s going to graduate in December of this year instead of May of ’11. He will save on a semester of tuition, so that will be nice down the road. It’s 10K we don’t have to worry about repaying. More good news – he’s getting his tuition for the rest of the time he’s here paid for! His department finally granted him tuition for the summer and fall, along with a stipend. They talked about it previously, but didn’t go through with it. They’ve finally made good on their promise (at least we hope), so it’ll be nice to have more money coming in. Also in the fall, I will be the lead teacher for the labs I teach. I don’t get a raise, but I will have the opportunity to teach more sections and therefore make more money. So, double my income basically. I’m excited. :)
Speaking of teaching, now that my semester is over, I have to finish grading my students stuff and post it on eServices for them. Guess I’d better get to it.
By Julie, on May 2nd, 2010
I needed a little study break! I’ve been studying all day. Gross. This past week was full of crazy stressful stuff, and my finals creeping up are starting to freak me out! I’ve got study days planned for the rest of the week with the people in the program, so hopefully I will pick up some of their knowledge and kick major butt on my finals. Here’s hoping!
So, tomorrow I order Ryan’s cake and make the reservations at Dave and Busters. I’ve already got the Iron Man 2 tickets, and he’s soooo excited to see that. He doesn’t know that a bunch of the program people are coming along and he knows nothing about D & B, so Friday night’s going to be fun. If you’re my friend on facebook then you will certainly see pictures.
The school year is ending on Tuesday! I can’t believe the last day of class is in 2 days. I’m almost done with my 1st year of graduate school! That’s insane. Now I just have to get through finals and it’s home free to summer! Summer is going to be really busy, because I start out with the MAAFS conference, then move to the ‘Burgh for my internship. It’s going to be an insane summer. I’m hoping to be home long enough to actually get my driver’s license (I haven’t been home long enough to attempt it since the accident in January). I’m hoping to go home after the MAAFS thing and before I move to Pittsburgh, because then I could be home and spend a couple days with Ryan before I head to the ‘Burgh. We’ll see how it goes. Ryan has to pick up a whole bunch of furniture from home from his Grandma’s estate, so he will have to get that at some point before we move. I don’t know if it will all fit if we do it after MAAFS, because the car will be full of all my stuff I need for this summer. I’m moving into a furnished bedroom in my old roommates parent’s house, so hopefully I won’t need that much and can plan accordingly.
Speaking of moving, I have a huge list of stuff from Ikea that I want to purchase for our apartment. I’m so excited. I will surely share pictures and stories along the way. I can’t wait to move and set up our cute new townhouse. I will certainly show all of you what it looks like when it’s all put together. I can’t wait!
Is it getting hot where you guys live?? It was beautiful here…. now it’s going to be 90 and humid all week, and we don’t have an a/c. YUCK! The hot weather also brings out the bugs. They have these creepy house centipedes down here. They have a hundred legs and move soooo fast. They creep me the heck out.
Ok… it’s time to get ready for bed! ‘Night all!
PS – I am looking for a place to host more content (mainly images and zip files) for Closet Space. I want to expand the graphics that I offer and don’t have room to host them on here. Do you guys know of anywhere that I can upload these files and link to them for free?? I will link them on each page that contains a file linked to them. Thanks!
By Julie, on April 26th, 2010
Hey guys. I just wanted to jump on here long enough to say that I might not be around for a while. I have finals and presentations and all that happy crap that comes with the end of your first year of grad school. Gross!
I promise I will tell all of you about it when it’s all said and done and I’m packing for the conference at PSU then headed off to Pittsburgh for my internship.
I will try to update, I promise. I’m done around the 14th of May (totally, but I should be free before then) so don’t think I’m not still alive! I am, I swear!
By Julie, on April 22nd, 2010
Today I was cleaning my apartment (trust me, it needed it!) and I was going one room at a time, like I always do. I eventually got to the kitchen (the bane of my cleaning existence) and before I finished up in there, I remembered I had to take the recycling outside. So I gathered up all the mountain dew, beer and etc. cans and went out onto the patio.
While on the patio, I noticed a lot of debris in front of the door. There were a ton of twigs and all this weird metal stuff. They looked like pieces of those things you put round your tomatoes to hold them up. Well, at that point I was thinking one of two things: a) our neighbors had a party and random shiznit ended up out there or b) there was a decoration that the people before put above the door and it’s broken. Thinking the second hypothesis was more likely, I looked up.
Let me tell you…. I saw a BIRD that was staring me down. Apparently, a little lady built a nest above our kitchen door and the left-overs she tossed onto the patio. Needless to say, we don’t go in or out of that door anymore. We try to leave her alone so she can have a relaxing egg hatch. When I was showing Ryan (from inside the kitchen, of course!) she flew away and we were able to see that she had two eggs in her nest. I can’t wait to see the babies!!! Anyone know when they are supposed to hatch?
Ironic that it’s Earth Day, huh?
By Julie, on April 21st, 2010
I saw a post by Caity today that I absolutely loved and want to take up. It’s “Wordless Wednesdays”. So, from now on on Wednesdays (including the end of this post) I am going to post a photo or video or anything other than words. Feel free to comment on it with questions about it if you’d like. I just think it’d be really cool to do that and it takes less time, so I would be able to just jump on really fast and upload a photo.
I crossed a few more things off my list. To summarize, I am doing something nice for Ryan by throwing him a kick ass birthday party. I got him another season of Scrubs, too. AND the most adventurous part… I tried mushrooms! Let me tell you, I still don’t like them. Haha.
One last thing before it starts… new layout! I love it. I worked hard on it, so I hope you enjoy it. I also redid the site a little. I just re-organized and updated some things. I also took out links from the blog-roll because some people are just rude and never return comments! *Humph*
Ok… from here on out, no words on Wednesdays! Thanks for the idea, Caity!
By Julie, on April 20th, 2010
Hello loves. Sorry I haven’t been around much lately. I have been really busy with school (imagine college work but 5 times more of it!!) and teaching. I turned a big project in yesterday and had a stressful day today, so I’m taking time off and blogging and watching Glee.
I’ve recently made my life pretty complicated. I am in one track here in school, but I’m thinking about wanting to do something else. I know that grad school is not the best time to change your mind, but I seriously suck at making decisions. I usually wait until the last minute and make a rash decision because I end up talking myself in and out of everything. I’m better at making decisions on the fly… so who knows. I e-mailed by adviser about it… hopefully she will help in the matter. I would explain exactly what is going on, but it would take too long and let’s be honest, it’s not that interesting.
I have too many interests to narrow down one. It comes from my Mom. She’s had every job under the sun. I want to do that, just do job after job until I find one that I like. However, that’s not how society works and I just need to pick something. I like law, teaching and science. We’ll see where that takes me. I feel like a good life choice would be to go to law school after this if I still don’t know… but that’s a lot of money that I’m not sure I’m willing to spend for something I might like. I will most likely just apply for a bunch of jobs and see what one I get… if any. I’ll apply to be a substitute teacher for next year if I don’t get anything else. I should be able to hack that. I will have 2 years of teaching under my belt.
I hate being so indecisive about the big things in life. Ask me what color I’m going to wear tomorrow and I can tell you… but what I want to do with the rest of my life, the biggest decision ever… I’ve got nothing.
By Julie, on April 13th, 2010
I don’t know how often I’m going to be able to blog again because of school. It’s going to pick up a lot because it’s the end of the semester, so hopefully I can get on here randomly.
Until then, there is something I want to get off my chest. Do you ever have one of those friends who is a continuous disappointment? This person is one of my very best friend, but sometimes they do things that drive me crazy. They do things that are very selfish and ask a lot of me sometimes. One example is a concert we went to a while ago. My boyfriend was able to get tickets because he went to the college where the band was playing. Well, we thought it would be fun to take them and their significant other, since we were all such good friends. Then… they asked us to get another ticket so they could bring someone along. It was annoying, but I did it anyways. Then, Ryan invited them to come to Richmond and join in the birthday party he was throwing me.
This is where I have to throw in a disclaimer that this person is “sick”, so it might not be fair of me to judge them for this. But I’m still disappointed none the less. The “sickness” doesn’t make this person incapable of doing anything, so they just sit at home all the time. But there is a valid reason, I guess.
Anyways, I know it’s not fair to judge this person for these next couple mis-steps, but I need to vent. And who better to vent to than neutral parties that can never confront this person?
Back to the story. This person didn’t come to the party. There was some excuse, I don’t know, I’m unaware of it. But I was sad, nonetheless. Now onto the next part. I plan on throwing Ryan a big party for his birthday, and I invited this person to come down. They not only can’t come down, but are going on a road trip with someone who 1) treated them like SHIT when they were dating (like this person got sick and had to go to the ER and this significant other couldn’t even be bothered to wake up and take my friend to the ER… and they were dating) and 2) broke up with my friend over the phone while they were out hanging out with their friend. AKA NOT the very first person (in my opinion) this person should grant the privilege of seeing since they’ve been sick.
I just think me (being the best friend and there through freaking everything with this whole ordeal) should be the first person you hang out with. I’m the kind of friend that will bend over backwards and do ANYTHING for my friends. ANYTHING. I am learning that expecting the same from other people is something I can’t count on.
Sorry for the nasty, mean sounding post. I don’t want to sound shallow or anything but I really needed to let that go.
Thanks for listening!
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