Actual interesting things happened!
Well I think so anyway.
Let's see, in list form:
Plans for the future:
And now, randomly, the story of my Sims:
Ylsa Bosch moved to Pleasantview as a young adult. She was artistic, and wanted to be a professional writer. She got started on this ambition by writing everyday. But she was also flirty and wanted to have a good time! In between writing sessions she would go out on the town and make new friends. Frequently she would bring these new friends home with her and woo-hoo till morning. Occasionally she would invite a hook-up over again, but she liked meeting new people and there wasn't much time in the day (especially since you can't be polyamorous in the Sims)! Then, she met Anne Song. They hit it off, and Ylsa started down her normal route. But something was different about Anne. She was ambitious and liked money and status. Ylsa had never met anyone like her before (seriously, all her other romatic interests were lazy slobs). She asked Anne to move in, and Anne said yes.
Anne got a job in business and would go to work everyday. She quickly climed the corporate ladder and expanded and refurbished the house. Anne was happy in her life, for fun she would play guitar and paint, quickly becoming quite proficient in both. What she didn't know was that Ylsa was keeping up with her old habits while Anne was at work. Only now, Ylsa asked her "guests" to leave when the Woo-hooing was over, before Anne got home. Eventually she met Michael Bachelor, and went back to his place. On impulse they did not use protection. While gardening the next day, Ylsa realized she was pregnant. She told Anne, who was thrilled (even knowing she wasn't the baby-mama) and immediately proposed! They had a lovely ceremony at home with many friends attending.
Once she was married and baby Beatrice was born, Ylsa settled down and gave up her philandering ways. She focused her attention on the baby and writing, and finally found contentment in her life.
Anne had some unmet needs however. While she loved Beatrice, something was still missing from her life. She wanted a baby of her own. Realizing that Ylsa couldn't impregnate her (and having no idea how to go about adoption), she resorted to desperate measures. She went trolling for men, and tried to get them to knock her up. All of her efforts failed, some men even thought her efforts were creepy. Dejected, she gave up her dreams of biological motherhood. Instead she focuses on painting, and when she gets lonely plays guitar in the park for tips (which is hilarious because she is at the top of the business career and goes around in a suit and a limo).
Anne and Ylsa are about to become elders. I may kill one of them in a dramatic fashion :D Beatrice is going to inherit the house and probably marry her high school boyfriend. She wants to be a forensic analyst when she grows up.
I have clearly spent way too much time on this.
Let's see, in list form:
- Took methods qualifying exam (QE). An exam for which we had 6 hours. I finished in 3, just beat out by my friend for 1st to finish (no it's not a race, but it could be!). You choose 2 out of 3 questions and they give you all of the general topics beforehand to study for. Question 1 was a complete bitch. Some of my friends started to do it, and after an hour said screw this and switched to the other questions. Several people didn't study for the 3rd question because it was on a more clinically relevant topic, but it was also way easier.
- Passed QE! (notification 6 weeks later) I got a 95 on question 2, and an 86 on question 3. Yippie skippy for me!
- TAing basic epi course for non-epi people online. It is a lot of work! More for the students than for me, but somewhat for me. My students seem to be really good for the most part. It's definitly a hard course to do, especially with 9-5 jobs and families which most of them have. I am enjoying myself so far. I liked giving the review lecture and being able to answer people's questions.
- Went to annual Society for Epidemiologic Research (SER) conference. It was in Anaheim, CA about a mile from Disneyland. This is an odd place to have a conference, as there was nothing else to do around the conference hotel. Most of the restuarants were not exactly high quality (across from my hotel? a Jack in the Box), and you had to rent a car to actually go anywhere. One person said he had never been to so many of the conference sessions. Other than that it was a good time.
- My poster won the student prize for session 3, yay! This may be because it was on the last night and morning of the conference, and many took their posters down before judging and so were disqualified. Thanks potentially better poster authors! I won a $100 gift certificate to Oxford University Press. I found a book I want for $50, any suggestions as to the other half?
- I went to Disneyland! It was fun, lines were long, Space Mountain was super awesome!
- Charles and I have started looking for places to move into in September. We found a couple of nice places already.
- My parents retired.
- I got Sims 3. I blame you SFers. If not for your funny stories, I could have resisted.
Plans for the future:
- Go to NY to visit family in 3 weeks. The plan is to drive to Philly, see friends. Drive to Albany, see parents, sister, and future brother-in-law. Drive to Rochester, stopping in Lyons along the way, see grandparents and introduce them to Charles, see Rachacha friends. Drive back to Albany. Go to parents' lake house for a couple of days. Drive to NJ, see brother, sis-in-law, and kids. Drive to DC, see mentor. Drive to Durham, sleep. Get oil change.
- Start dissertation project (scary!)
- Have fun in general. Think I'll be ok here.
And now, randomly, the story of my Sims:
Ylsa Bosch moved to Pleasantview as a young adult. She was artistic, and wanted to be a professional writer. She got started on this ambition by writing everyday. But she was also flirty and wanted to have a good time! In between writing sessions she would go out on the town and make new friends. Frequently she would bring these new friends home with her and woo-hoo till morning. Occasionally she would invite a hook-up over again, but she liked meeting new people and there wasn't much time in the day (especially since you can't be polyamorous in the Sims)! Then, she met Anne Song. They hit it off, and Ylsa started down her normal route. But something was different about Anne. She was ambitious and liked money and status. Ylsa had never met anyone like her before (seriously, all her other romatic interests were lazy slobs). She asked Anne to move in, and Anne said yes.
Anne got a job in business and would go to work everyday. She quickly climed the corporate ladder and expanded and refurbished the house. Anne was happy in her life, for fun she would play guitar and paint, quickly becoming quite proficient in both. What she didn't know was that Ylsa was keeping up with her old habits while Anne was at work. Only now, Ylsa asked her "guests" to leave when the Woo-hooing was over, before Anne got home. Eventually she met Michael Bachelor, and went back to his place. On impulse they did not use protection. While gardening the next day, Ylsa realized she was pregnant. She told Anne, who was thrilled (even knowing she wasn't the baby-mama) and immediately proposed! They had a lovely ceremony at home with many friends attending.
Once she was married and baby Beatrice was born, Ylsa settled down and gave up her philandering ways. She focused her attention on the baby and writing, and finally found contentment in her life.
Anne had some unmet needs however. While she loved Beatrice, something was still missing from her life. She wanted a baby of her own. Realizing that Ylsa couldn't impregnate her (and having no idea how to go about adoption), she resorted to desperate measures. She went trolling for men, and tried to get them to knock her up. All of her efforts failed, some men even thought her efforts were creepy. Dejected, she gave up her dreams of biological motherhood. Instead she focuses on painting, and when she gets lonely plays guitar in the park for tips (which is hilarious because she is at the top of the business career and goes around in a suit and a limo).
Anne and Ylsa are about to become elders. I may kill one of them in a dramatic fashion :D Beatrice is going to inherit the house and probably marry her high school boyfriend. She wants to be a forensic analyst when she grows up.
I have clearly spent way too much time on this.