Fall break is pretty much over. I spent today working from home, though. And I made an exciting trip to the DMV to get my NJ license and plates.

The trip to Pitt was short but fun. We drove over Sunday morning and back Monday afternoon. It was great to see Jen again. We had a fun time at the science museum on Sunday- we got to ride Segways! Then we went out for dinner. I still can't get over how much fried food Jen eats now, as compared to maybe 3 fries during her whole time at CU! Then we rented The Break-Up, which wasn't nearly as good as I'd hoped (which wasn't a particularly high standard to begin with).

Monday morning Jen had class, so Ryan and I went to a conservatory near her campus. It was pretty, but the best part was the topiary creatures (pics on Flickr). Then we went up the Cathedral of Learning at UP to see the view. We met up with Jen for lunch, then headed home. We'd planned on doing more sightseeing in the afternoon, but it was really cold out and most of the museums there were closed on Monday.

I'm glad it's a short week, although I have a lot to do before Friday. *stress*

I've been feeling a lot of school stress lately. Fortunately next weekend is fall break. Saturday I'm stuck at the department retreat all day, which is like a really really long seminar, but it sounds like there will be a fun dinner/party in the evening. Then Sunday, Ryan and I are driving to Pittsburgh to visit Jen! Yay! I just did the math over the weekend and it's been almost 2 years since I saw her last. Her birthday is tomorrow (happy bday, Jen!), so we'll have a slightly belated celebration next weekend.

I guess most of my school stress is that I'm trying to put together a slam-dunk proposal for the NSF predoctoral fellowship (i.e. big money). I applied last year and from my ratings sheets it seems that my personal essays, grades, test scores, and references are all sufficient, but my proposal really needs to be top-notch. There's a page limit of just 2 pages, but they have to be jam-packed with outstanding ideas and I have to convince the reviewers of the importance of the work. Bottom line is, I'm second-guessing every decision I make, wondering if it's good enough.

The kitten is still cute and Ryan is still the best, so everything is good on that front. Over and out.

I HATE my car. Don't ever buy a Neon! Today it's having $1100 worth of work done. Needs new brakes all around, then in the back the entire brake-related assembly is being replaced. And recall I already had some more minor brake work done in January.

I treat my car nice. I always get the scheduled maintenance and it only has 36,000 miles. It's not fair :(