Road Trippin It

Where did we go? Who came along? Well, I'll tell y'all. Kiley, Anna, Drew, Zac, Joe and I left at the crack of dawn to drive back to my place in Raleigh! Naturally we hit Chicago rush-hour, a blizzard, more traffic jams, incompetent drivers, unexpectedly unplowed lanes, windshield wash fluid line froze, an interstate shut down, mountains, Raleigh rush hour traffic. But hey, we made it.

So that lovely blizzard that hammered the northeast...yeah, we were driving through that the entire first day. The drive wasn't bad at all except for the people going like 25 on salted, plowed highways. That got a little irritating to say the least. Oh yeah, and then in Kentucky they decided to shut down the interstate. Yes, they SHUT DOWN AN INTERSTATE!!! For what? A freaking inch of snow. So we took a detour for 4 miles that lasted over an hour. Are you kidding me? Anyways, we stayed the night on the KY/WV border. The next day we left early in the morning again, ate lunch at Applebee's and then I took over the wheel to carry us home sweet home. I've missed the South!

The South, The place where: 1-Tea is sweet & accents are sweeter 2-Summer starts in April 3-Mac'n'Cheese  is a vegetable 4- Front porches are wide and words are long 5-Pecan pie is a staple 6-Y'all is the only proper noun 7-Chicken is fried and biscuits come with gravy 8-Everything is darlin' 9-Someone's heart is always bein blessed

Oh, that day when it was -55F with the windchill back in Wisconsin. Yeah, it was a sunny 45F in Raleigh (psst! That's 100F warmer than y'all!) My friends got to experience a typical winter of 50s and a nice day of 60 as well! I took them to my 2 favorite bars - Flying Saucer and Raleigh Times Bar, toured the capitol (Madison's is a million times more stunning that Raleigh's), went to a few museums, showed them my lab, had a few drinks, cooked a dinner or two, relaxed, walked around Cary, and then had to say goodbye. 

View from Raleigh Times Bar

Downtown Cary, NC

Then as they left for Washington D.C., I took a shower to get ready for class. How lovely. Saying goodbye is the worst! I want my 5 roommates back!! Y'all can clutter my room as much as y'all want! I won't even complain about stepping on chargers and stubbing toes on suitcases and being woke up in the middle of the night!! Just please come back!! And what's even worse...today Anna flies back to London :'(  If I could shrink the ocean, I totally would! As much as I love my international friends, I hate them for having to live so far away!! As long as we keep in touch and visit each other when we actually have a savings account...I can't imagine anything more worthwhile than that! No lie.

Look at the globe :( So far away!!

Anyways, I need to get back to analyzing toxin data! I need to crank out an extension paper sometime in the near future. I should work on that...

When Anna Came to Visit...

As most of y'all know, Anna came back to the States!! So naturally, that was one of the biggest highlights of my winter break. I got some awesome gifts, visited my Wisco friends, spent some quality time with the pup-dog, trekked from family event to family event, ate too much food, and froze. I know I know! The suspense is killing you! I guess I'll tell y'all.

Y'all know how much fun it is to go from moms' to dad's to stepfamily and dad's to mom's and blah blah yak. Moral of the story, I believe I saw every single family member I have. Luckily, I was able to visit Great-Grandpa Koenig before he passed away. To be over 21 and celebrate a holiday with a great-grandparent is something most people can't do, so I'm glad I did. 

Here comes the best part. Make sure you're sitting down with feet flat on the floor. Take a few deep breaths. This. Will. Blow. Your. Mind.

On 28 December 2013, at 11:48am on a bright, cold, Wisconsin winter day, Megan was picked up by her friend Joe to go to Milwaukee. Meeting them in Milwaukee was Mr. Casebeer. After throwing her suitcases and other travelling bags into the bed of Casebeer's truck, Megan squeezed into the back seat as Joe claimed shot gun. They took of towards Chicago O'hare. After paying a few tolls, they managed to find a parking spot in the airport. They searched for food in all the terminals but had to settle for Mickey D in the international terminal. When the flight was about to land, they kept a close eye on the arrival board. Eventually Megan got sick of looking at the board and told the boys she was going to go check the baggage claim for the incoming Dublin flight. As she neared the entrance, she stood on tiptoe to get a better view. From across the room, their eyes met and she knew she found the one she was looking for. They ran - well, actually pressed through the crowd - towards each other. Then at the very last moment, Megan opened her arms and embraced the one and only Anna. And that, folks, is how we were reunited after a long 9 months apart.   ** Remind me to never write a book haha **

Naturally, Chicago traffic needed to be jammed up the wazoo and more tolls seemed to pop up out of nowhere. We managed to keep Anna awake and fed her goldfish courtesy of Kiley. I don't really remember what we did that night besides catch up on each other's lives and manage to not fall asleep until after 10pm (4a London time). Saturday morning, Zac made a yummy breakfast for us, went to the grocery store, did a little shopping, then went to the Old Fashioned for supper. DISCLAIMER: After not having real Wisconsin cheese after 6 months makes you want to have cheese curds for every single meal for a week at the very least. Spotted Cow goes perfectly with cheese curds.

Soooo good. Wisconsin should really sell legit cheese curds in Raleigh, NC.

We watched a few episodes of Game of Thrones, Archer, some other stuff I wasn't fully conscious for and card games. Then Kiley finally arrived and the real party began. We went to Lena's to celebrate New Year. We ended up on the roof, why? I'm not sure but it was fun! The next day was one of recovering from hangovers and eating lots of food, and napping on the couch. Then, we went to bed early and woke up even earlier to start an adventure...

Where did we go? What did we do? Who was along? Why did it take so long to get to our destination? When did we get to paradise? Stay tuned for the next installment of "Life as a PlantPath Girl: Adventures with Anna"

Frozen Tundra

Bags packed. Arrive at airport. Pass through security. Board plane 1. Taxi to the runway. Take off. Land in Cleveland. Run up and down stair for some exercise. Find next terminal. Board plane 2. Wait in line at runway. Make small talk with chatty business man. Grab book and ipod. Take off. Land in Milwaukee. Find baggage pickup. Call Jason and Dad. Direct them to pick up area. Stand outside. FREEZE. Go back inside and wait. Get a call from Jason. Go back outside. Wave them down. Run into road. Shove my bags in car. Take off for Dad's House. Winter jacket and heat on high. Pull in garage. Let Annie out of her kennel. Jason hold onto Annie. I come out of car. Annie goes crazy. Annie tackle Megan. Welcome back to the frozen tundra.

The one absolutely unselfish friend that woman can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts her, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is her dog. A woman's dog stands by her in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. She will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only she may be near her master's side. She will kiss the hand that has no food to offer; she will lick the wounds and sores that come in encounter with the roughness of the world. She guards the sleep of her pauper master is if she where a princess. When all other friends desert, she remains. When riches take wings and reputation falls to pieces, she is as constant in her love as the sun in its journey through the heavens. -Senator George Vest (1870)

Dogs are our link to paradise. -Milan Kudera

 Gma has made me breakfast twice already :)  I'm pretty sure I could have her breakfast every single morning but I'd have to run and climb like there's no tomorrow. But hey, it's worth it. The Monday after I came back, I went to Madison to visit those peeps and relieve them from studying too hard for finals. I went climbing with Aaron at Boulder's Climbing Gym, went out for dinner at a really good Thai place, watched a movie or two, drank some Spotted Cow (yum yum), got made pancakes for breakfast and then got out of everyone's hair so they could go back to the harsh reality of finals week. Then Wednesday, I made cookies and bread with Gma, ran a few errands for mother, and went to see Catching Fire. Friday, I went to work with mother to help purge files and archived old paperwork. Just for that, I got free lunch at Funky Bean :)

I miss my southern friends sooooooo much!! It's just not the same without Megan and Emma and all my climbing friends :/  Also, when we got that nice winter storm of 7 inches, Raleigh was in the high 70s. WHY?!

If at all there is any conversion, 
it should be from misery to happiness, 
from defilement to purity, 
from bondage to liberation, 
from ignorance to enlightenment. 

~ S. N. Goenka ~

By the way, Anna will be here in 

5 and 6 hours!!!

Wisconsin Here I Come!

Well do you do folks? This chica is now 1/4 of the way done with her graduate career!! That is, for this degree anyways :)  Can't really complain - exams were easy peasy, classes a joke, and research messing up my sleep schedule! Haha, just kidding - I love my research so I will gladly wake up at odd hours to drive Highway 64 for 116 miles!!  BEST NEWS EVER!! I finally finished collecting this year's data. After running 172 aflatoxin and fumonisin toxin assays, running a few more because of my fabulous human error, and making more dilutions than I wanted...I have a beautiful excel spread sheet.

Tomorrow at 2:30 I will no longer be in NC. I will be on my way to Wisconsin. Dad and Kiddo will be at Milwaukee to pick me up! As I already told Kiddo - you better have my real winter jacket and the truck like a sauna because we all know it's not bitterly cold in Raleigh! Oh, and they better bring Annie along because I miss my dog more than anything. So now comes the fun part, figuring out what I need to bring with me to Wisconsin...yay!

Tonight I'm going climbing again and by climbing I mean doing one or two climbs and then belaying because my hands are torn to bits. I went climbing for the past three days, have been working on some cool traverse bouldering problems, a few overhangs, and that darn 5.11 I'm still projecting!!  Tonight, my dear ones, is the night I send that 5.11 and put that one behind me!

So yup, that's that. I'm going to go into research and make sure everything looks how it should before I start the fabulous chore of packing!! Bye for now.

Well That Went Well

Hey hey y'all! I survived my first semester as a graduate student - well mostly. Two finals and this PlantPath Girl is one semester closer to graduation! So yeah, there's that. What else? QuickTox is the best invention ever because I can run like 100 samples in a day! I only have 60 more plots to QuickTox and then comes the fun part: analyzing data.

Take a seat. Relax your feet. Just watch the Sun. A job well done.

So y'all know that I went to Gaffney, South Carolina with my dear friend Megan Sexton for Thanksgiving. Her family is just the sweetest. Her daddy is a good cook too :)  Have no fear, there was plenty of vegetarian options available for me. Her momma took great care of me, I loved playing with all the pooches, and even read the first Hunger Games book! We did some Christmas shopping with her momma and decorated their home. Then we went to her sister Lauren's house and watched the terrible Badger game and the Clemson vs Carolina game (big rivalry) with Lauren and her husband. We had dinner at Red Bowl - loved the veggie and fried rice so much I devoured the whole thing. Megan's dog, Drake, was even a sweet little guy and slept on my lap for part of the way home. So precious!

Breathe in. Breathe out. Beauty in. Badness out.

Oh by the way, I saw the world's biggest butt. Have a picture.

Just kidding! It's a peach watertower in Gaffney, SC.

Let's see...nothing else really cracking over here. Just waiting to get lunch at Jasmin and then probably finish reading the Hunger Games trilogy. Besides that I've just been climbing away. My flight home is in 9 days and Anna will be here in 24 more days. Excitement all around!!

"Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy." -Thich Nhat Hanh

End of Semester

Guess who's done grinding all 172 plots of corn?! Hint - it's the girl writing the blog. Now just perform QuickTox on the remaining plots for aflatoxin and fumonisin and this girl is on the road to writing a paper! Oh the joys of being a graduate student.

“I tell you, deep inside you is a fountain of bliss, a fountain of joy. Deep inside your center core is truth, light, love, there is no guilt there, there is no fear there. Psychologists have never looked deep enough.” -Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

This is what makes driving 4 hours a day for research worth it all...even if it means I'm stuck in traffic for miles on end.

So let's see. I go climbing 4 or 5 days a week at TRC, go to the excruciatingly boring lectures, and quantify levels of toxin production! I'm noticing a huge improvement in my climbing abilities :)  I was at a plateau for a few weeks and it was getting really frustrating to have burning and aching muscles but not getting any better!! 5.9 and easier 5.10 are comfortable and a "feel-good" climb. There is a 5.11 I've been working on and I'm so close to getting it clean. I've discovered that I enjoy overhangs - which is a great ab workout in case if you were wondering. The 5.11 I'm working on has quite the overhang. I'll post a picture so y'all can see what I'm talking about.  I've also been working on bouldering and learning different climbing techniques. You know, it's not like I'm addicted or anything.

Follow the yellow holds and that's the 5.11 I need to conquer!

By the way, I have 7 more days of class. No big deal - ending Dec 5 and only 2 finals - neither are cumulative. But guess what's even better!? Since I couldn't afford to fly home for Thanksgiving, my dearest friend Megan invited me to her family's Thanksgiving so I wasn't spending my break alone in Raleigh. So next Wednesday I'll be on my way to Gaffney, South Carolina! I'm so excited!!

Farmers feed you three times a day. When is the last time you thanked a farmer for keeping you alive?

Open your eyes to see the beauty. Beauty is more than meets the eye you say. Then you aren't truly opening your eyes.

Now that I think about it, I've done a lot of traveling this year. I had two big vacations and three mini ones. First Guatemala - miss you guys soooo much!! Then a hop and a skip to see Anna (and Zac) in England!! Then my mini recruitment weekend in North Cackalacky! Then actually moving to Carolina de Norte - and spending a few days in the Outer Banks with the fam. How could y'all forget about my awesome climbing trip with Aaron to The Red?! Finally, heading even further south to South Cackalacky with Megan. Should I count my trip back to Wisconsin later this winter?

Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Best news is yet to come. I fly back to Wisco in 20 days. But the best of the best news: 

ANNA WILL BE HERE IN ONLY 35 DAYS!!!!!!!

#climbingproblems

"Refilled chalk. Room now looks like I'm a crack dealer." -Dane Everitt #climbingproblems

\

After showing off my beautifully callused hands: "You're going to need to marry a mountain man." -Megan Sexton  #climbingproblems

"Well I used to have pretty hands!" -some girl at the wall  #climbingproblems

"Just stand up and grab the jug. Oh wait, you can't reach it." -Tall Man  #shortgirlclimbingproblems

 
Me: "Where did you put your hands?" Aaron: "I did a hand jam in that crack on the right side." "Yeah, the crack is too big for my hand."  #climbingproblems

Finding out the climb you just fell a million times on was a 5.7 not the 5.11 you made it out to be in your head.  #climbingproblems

After a long night at the climbing wall: "Hey Megan, can you staple this for me?" Why? Because my forearms are still on fire?  #climbingproblems

 
As I'm climbing a chimney, I fall and scrape off some elbow and knee skin. I start climbing again only to drop my chalk bag. Really?  #climbingproblems

 
"Dane, how does that crack look to your left?" "It looks like nothing." "It looks good from down here!"  #climbingproblems

 
"Tyler, can you show me how to do this climb?" "Yeah sure!" *does the climb* "Umm...can you do it again but use your feet this time?"  #climbingproblems

Must Climb: Acadia National Park

Being addicted to rock climbing and having too much schoolwork and research to actually go rock climbing...  #climbingproblems