Dennis & Amy’s Wedding

On Saturday, we ventured up to Napa for a family wedding- Patrick’s brother Dennis and his partner Amy recently decided to make it official. It was a beautiful day, although quite windy, so the drive up there was nice. Around 4 in the afternoon, we located the private lane in the middle of wine country where the festivities were being held. The private residence, owned by a friend of the couples’ was an impressive site- a beautiful contemporary home completely surrounded by private vineyards! We were welcomed inside the home, where most walls were not walls at all, but rather huge windows and open spaces that took advantage of the amazing views. We were eventually ushered out to the patio area where the ceremony was to take place.

With Amy’s two daughters flanked on either side of the couple, the short, simple ceremony began. The couple shared their vows and they performed a wine mixing. Her wine was a kosher selection, while his was from a European monastery. They mixed the wine and the guests toasted the new couple (Eric and I opted for Martinelli’s, of course).



We ate a nice dinner as we sat outdoors, marveling over the lovely backdrop of vineyards and mountains. Then we were invited into the home for cake, which appeared to be carrot at first glance, but I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that it was chocolate cake with raspberry filling. Amy’s daughters Jamie and Lucy offered a few words and we ate. We rounded off the evening by taking some more nice photos and chatting with family before calling it a night and heading back home.

I’m DONE!!! ("conditionally" done, that is)

After two long, treacherous years of reading, writing, studying, teaching (and crying), I’m graduating with my Master’s degree in developmental research psychology!! The program seemed to fly by, even though at times I felt like I was going to completely lose it and pull my hair out (hence the crying). I remember my first semester when I was shocked to learn that we would be conducting our own mini-research projects and writing up 20+ page research papers on a weekly basis. And that wasn’t my only class! I also had a statistics course to keep up with, I was a lab assistant at the time, and I didn’t exactly have the luxury to not work while in school. Definitely not a fun semester. The following semesters were not much of an improvement, but I sure learned how to manage my time! I made some great friends along the way, too.

So now that I’ve accomplished this grand feat, how does my university acknowledge my hard work? By throwing a liberal arts department-wide graduation ceremony that doesn’t even mention their graduate students of course! I was shocked too. Needless to say, I opted not to spend a bunch of money on useless announcements, a cap, gown, tassel and portraits when my name wouldn’t even be mentioned at the ceremony- that’s right- they don’t even mention your name or include your information in the program. LAME!!


However, I did learn that the psychology department individually hosts their own festivities for graduate students in place of or in addition to the university’s ridiculous, impersonal ceremony. Each year, they charter a Hornblower bay cruise for psychology faculty and graduating students. Better than nothing! So instead of a bright purple cap and gown, I went to Macy’s and bought a nice black dress (now that I think about it, an intimate boat cruise seemed more fitting for the occasion anyway).

I had never been on a bay cruise before, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Unfortunately, I was having a difficult day that day and was quite irritated, due to my botched manicure and pedicure earlier that afternoon, hair that just wasn’t cooperating, and shoes that were killing my feet. Plus, other students invited along their whole families, so I felt a little out of place. I did have my lovely husband with me, so at least there was one person there to support me and cheer me on (he’s the one who has been putting up with me and my craziness for these last few years anyway!). Onboard, we mingled with friends and faculty and watched as each of us was called up to the stage and congratulated by the head of our department (they gave us an alumni pin, woo-hoo…). Then we waited in line at the dinner buffet and took some pictures. Overall, it was a decent time. In the end, all I’m really concerned about is that handsomely framed degree that shall be hung right next to my Berkeley degree, on the wall in my office. :)



Now for the catch- I’ve been "conditionally" graduated, meaning that I have to complete the rest of my thesis during the summer, since data collection took so long. But now that my classes and teaching requirements are complete, I can spend the next two months focusing exclusively on analyzing my data and writing my final thesis document. So hold tight for the real graduation party (TBA sometime in August)!

Elaine’s Birthday & Sausalito

To celebrate Elaine's big 28th this week, we went out for a nice day of shopping in and around downtown Walnut Creek. Then, on the night of her actual birthday, we went out to The Olde San Francisco Creamery, an old-fashioned ice-cream parlor that has fantasic homemade ice-cream. It was lovely, as usual. :)

As a surprise for my sister’s birthday, her husband tried to plan a ferry trip to Sausalito. He intended the event to be a surprise, so Eric and I took the bart, walked to the SF ferry building, bought our tickets, and hopped on the boat ahead of time before Elaine was supposed to arrive. Well, the plan didn’t quite work out as we would have hoped… Andrew told us the wrong time to meet up and failed to mention that there are two different piers in SF where the ferries dock (of course we went to the wrong one and of course Andrew doesn’t have a cell phone). So, we tried to make the best of our day, despite the fact that we never did meet up with Elaine.

The weather was unusually nice that day, with temperatures hovering around 80-85 degrees or so. I have always wanted Eric to take me on a ferry ride, which turned out to be beautiful! I took some pictures of the bay since it was so clear out that day. Luckily I had sunscreen on, but as luck would have it, I ended up getting a sunburn anyway.

When we embarked at Sausalito, we took a stroll up and down the main street, in hopes of finding Elaine along the way. No such luck. I had stuffed a Hello Kitty Build-a-Bear for Elaine the day before and was planning to give it to her there, but Eric ended up toting it around all day instead. Starving at this point, we eventually stopped by a small bakery and split a sandwich before heading back to the ferry. Overall, it was a good time, but it would have been better if I could have shared it with my sister for her birthday! Since we had dinner plans with friends that night, we didn’t have much time to hang around Sausalito, so we ended up leaving the bear on Elaine’s doorstep later that night before we headed out to dinner. At least she enjoyed her Hello Kitty bear :)

This is Why I get Nothing Done!!

It’s May already and there are only 2 weeks of classes left before the semester is over! The statistics courses that I teach have surely kept me on my toes. Each week, I have a lesson to plan, anywhere between 60 to 120 assignments to grade, and miscellaneous emails to keep on top of. And every single week, I seem to procrastinate until the very last minute to get everything done. It’s been a massive time commitment on top of everything else I have to do, so needless to say, I’ll be glad when it’s over!

To top it off, today I taught a statistics lecture course consisting of about 200 undergraduates, since their professor was out of town for a guest lecture. I wasn’t nervous at all, which is unusual for me, and the lecture went great! I planned some examples using data from the asthma clinic at Children’s Hospital and I even managed to have enough time to conduct an entire ANOVA test from start to finish. At the end, a few students came to me and complimented me, recommending that I press on to be a teacher, which was very flattering to say the least- it’s always heartwarming to learn that my efforts are appreciated and acknowledged.

Finally!!

In preparation for our trip to Texas in July, I’ve been shopping around for a new swimming suit. I have never been a fan of the typical swimming suit and usually go to great lengths to avoid them. Personally, I just don’t think that women (and young girls!) should be floating about in super tight panties and barely-there tops. This isn’t to say that I don’t own a suit of this kind, I just refrain from wearing it if I’m hanging out in the sun or around other people. So, to protect my pasty-white skin that burns in a matter of 2 minutes and to maintain some level of modesty, I typically opt for the one-piece variety. But the selection is always quite slim and boring. So, for this search, I turned to the web and actually found a great alternative to the blah one-piece suits- A swimdress! Eric heard that I had ordered a swimdress and immediately pictured his plump grandma’s swimdress with the horrendous, bright floral print and the flouncy skirt. But I managed to find one that is actually modern and cute (and even comes in smaller sizes)!


Now I don’t have to worry so much about burning all over, nor do I have to wear a towel to cover up my skimpy old suits! (go to newport-news.com and check out their selection of cute swimdresses at great prices).