Crystal's Page

Vacation recap part 2- Mom, Amy and I headed to Long Beach where we caught the Catalina Express and headed over to the adorable little town of Avalon on Catalina Island. Catalina is about 30 miles off the Southern California coast. It's absolutely gorgeous and there are very few cars so everyone walks around town or takes golf carts everywhere. We ate dessert for dinner one night, rented

I'm back from vacation! I hope you enjoyed the guest bloggers while I was out. I'm still catching up on reading emails and everyone's blogs from the week, but for now, I'll give you a photo essay and vacation recap (part 1): The first part of my vacation was spent in San Diego with my Mom, Sister, Grandma and Aunt Sharon. We had a fabulous time! We stayed at the Inn at Sunset Cliffs in

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Hey everyone! As you know I am out on vacation (probably laying on a beach somewhere) so I asked some guest bloggers to step in and write for you. The first guest blogger is one of my best friends, Heather. We met the first day of college when we were suite-mates as freshman and have been close friends (and lived together several times) ever since. She is a talented writer and fabulous person

What, you ask, is life so good? 1) I got an air conditioner! Out of completely no where my landlord decided to install central air into my apartment! It is still not quite ready to be used (hopefully in a few days) but I couldn't be happier. Seriously. This feels like Christmas. I swear I will never take amenities like a/c for granted ever again. 2) I'm going on vacation! Today through

Is it just me or is this not the most fantastically nerdy thing you have ever seen? It's a bracelet with charms that spell the word "SCIENCE" using amino acids. How cute is that? You can find this bracelet, and several other biologically inspired pieces of jewelry at molecularmuse's etsy shop. While I was browsing in amazement I also found this little number: The creator

The fabulous Amanda, an amazing writer and 9th grade English teacher, had a post last week about the "Where I'm From" poem she taught to a group of boys at a juvenile detention center. She posted the template for the poem and wrote her own as an example. After reading hers I knew I had to write one of my own. Because my parents are divorced and live on opposite sides of the country, I have

Will someone please tell me: Is this plant dead or alive? Boyfriend swears it can be saved if I water it more and stick it in the sun, but to me it looks beyond repair. What happened was, about a year ago right after I moved into my current apartment I came home from work one day to find Boyfriend had gone out and bought me a plant! I was obsessed with it. It was gorgeous. Dark green, shiny

Amanda and I went wine tasting (a.k.a. civilized day boozing) in Temecula with a group of U of R young (and a few no so young) alumni. It was a fabulous day of drinking and eating and talking to random strangers who, after several hours on a bus and a little too much wine, became our new best friends. I've been wine tasting a few other times and every time I learn these amazing facts about the

more Random Bullets Of Updates... Yesterday my mentor told me I had planned an carried out a "clever experiment" while he was out of town. Hurray! Am clever! Umm but then he told me it was kinda of a waste because I didn't do the correct (or any) controls. So, clever, but slightly retarded. I'll take it.Survived the 5.4 earthquake on Tuesday. I was in the shower and ran out naked, trying

I cant wait to get old. seriously- I think being old will be fabulous. I am going to do all of the stuff I always wanted to do but was too young or never had the time/ money for. Here is what I have planned for my golden years so far: 1. brew my own beer. think of a clever, witty name and make it awesome and give away 6 packs of the cute bottles (labels which I will design) for christmas

One of my favorite friends, Kassy, recently declared that she was sick of waiting around for a boy to buy her a pretty ring to wear on one particular left finger. She decided she was getting engaged to herself and buying this to make it official. I LOVED the idea. I mean, I know a gazillion girls in relationships, Kassy included, who are strong, educated, professional, self sufficient,

So, the other day I stumbled upon this post and I realized I felt... what is this...jealousy? Yes! I wanted her 3 letters! And I am overjoyed by this. For the first time in a long time I actually care about getting a PhD. In fact, I can't wait to have those 3 little letters after my name. I know you must think I am crazy. I'm in grad school, here to earn my PhD- so actually wanting it

I had a crazy busy but super fun weekend. Saturday morning I was up at 6am and in the lab by 6:45am to finish setting up an experiment. After about 90 minutes of high-speed science I ran home, shower, cutified myself and Boyfriend and met up with Amanda (the best friend/ college roommate/ heterosexual life partner) and Elliott (her wonderful boyfriend) at 10am to head down to Orange County

So, I was reading this post the other day, when I was reminded of my own, ahem, wardrobe malfunction. I had been rocking this skirt on a regular basis a few summers ago. I loved this thing. I worse it to work, on weekends, I even took it to Austria with me. When I started grad school I semi-retired it because I thought good scientists wore jeans to work, not adorable brown skirts. But one

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We have a few new graduate/ med students joining the lab soon, plus a post-doc or two. Pretty exciting considering that for the last few months there have been a grand total of 3 of us on the lab... a very lonely number indeed. Anyway, someone pointed out to me that I have a certain amount of responsibility to train and guide these new folks because I am the senior grad student in the lab. My

So, I've been cutting back on my drinking. Not that I was at any point an alcoholic (save for one dizzy month in college we affectionately dubbed "Everyday in May"... whew). It's just that in my old age I have become such a damn lightweight that after 1 drink I'm basically non-functional and any more than that and Boyfriend is feeding me Gatorade through a straw in the morning, holding a barf

This weekend we celebrated my best friend, Amanda's 26th birthday. Somehow we always end up doing fabulous things for her birthdays. Like, for her 24th we went wine tasting in Temecula and last year we road tripped it to Arizona to visit our other friend Kassy. So of course, this year we had to go big. She had no idea, but her BF Elliott and I had been planning a special horseback riding

Random Bullets of Updates: I have been drug-free AND relatively anxiety free for 4 days straight! Boyfriend made dinner last night again while I was at the gym, without being asked. He just did it. It included sauteed zucchini, tomatoes, carrots and tofu. Who the hell is this man and how did I get so lucky to fall in love with him? (Side note: I don't know what he put in it, but it was wayyyy