Birthday Girl

I've had some good birthdays over the years. The last few in Austin have been especially great. There was the time that Sarah organized a dinner on my behalf and everyone brought me earrings (because I'd just gotten my ears pierced and could take out them out around my birthday). This was after they'd snuck into my office, left a big bag of oreos (my favorite!) and hung up awesome signs, like this one. Most of the signs still hang in my office.

During the summer of the house (oh the house! how we miss it!), Rebecca threw me a great party where we ate Chinese takeout, and just hung out. (I think I even got a few people to play croquet with me.) That was awesomely fun. (I'm such a fan of the low key sometimes.) And Rebecca made an oreo cheesecake. It was amazing!



(I especially like this last picture because it captures so many personalities in one picture -- Neil telling a funny story, me laughing hysterically, Shaleen just giving him a look.)

Rebecca also organized something for me last year. I celebrated by taking off early from school, running 5 miles, buying a new shirt, and eating dinner with many of my favorite people at the Cracker Barrel. (Rebecca named the party "Elizabeth's Comfortable Birthday." I have this thing about the Cracker Barrel, and this billboard ad I once saw that said, "Where comfort meets food;" it was so effective on me!)





This year I'm in Barcelona for my birthday. This is what it looks like this year.

First off, Julia and I took the subway to find the church.

The building was very well hidden; we had to follow some missionaries we saw in order to find it. The entire meeting was in Spanish (obviously), and I understood very little, but it was still great. The best was singing the hymns (which I knew the tunes to) in Spanish.

Then we came home, ate some food, and took a nap. (I am not helping myself get over jet lag!) We then went out and saw some cool buildings. (Barcelona is famous for some of the architecture around.)

This is called Casa Mila (La Pedrera), which was designed by Gaudi. "Works of Gaudi" (many of them are in Barcelona) is on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Palau del Baro de Quadras.

Me with a dragon.

And a gargoyle.

A building that looked like a castle.

And another Gaudi building.

And crazy Spain soccer (I mean, football) fans. (Viva Espana!)

The Palau de la Musica Catalana, another World Heritage Site.

The Catedral. (It's undergoing reconstruction.)

A street performer blowing giant bubbles. Now that's something I can support. I put some change in his cup.

La Sagrada Familia (most famous building in Barcelona -- also by Gaudi).

Eating pizza, wishing the Euro Cup football match was being broadcast on TV and not the radio in that cafe.

Eating lemon gelato. Yum!!

It was a good birthday this year!

On the international road again

Yesterday marked the beginning of the Great European Adventure 2008. My sister Julia flew in to Austin, and Friday morning we flew out; with stops at DFW and JFK, we finally made it BAR-CE-LON-A (*clap* *clap* *clapclapclap*). There were delays in every city, totaling about 2 1/2 hours. This doesn't include having to sit on the plane in JFK for 2 hours before we were able to take off. But it's all good.

Here we are waiting to board in Austin.


Me doing the three things I do best when I travel:

Sudokus...

Sleeping...


And eating...


We arrived in Barcelona unscathed.

Finding the hotel was kind of exciting. We took a taxi, and the cab driver didn't seem very sure as to where the address I gave him was. He had a GPS so it directed him where to go. (Though I think we were at times driving in circles or taking wrong turns.) He'd say something every now and then, even though we'd already established that we didn't speak Spanish (or at least not enough to be effective) and he didn't speak English. (He almost seemed as relieved as we were when we made it!) No worries. We made it. And we got checked in, and ready for first a nap, then exploring!

The Office Shuffle

I've been in the same office space for almost 3 years and really like my little corner. (I have 3 walls, bookshelves above my head and behind me. I'm now what they would call a "senior student," which means I have a lot of seniority to choose another space in the yearly office shuffle if I wanted. I've been asked twice if I want to move, and both times I said no. I don't really want to since, as I said, I like my space. And moving requires a lot of effort; I have a lot of stuff in my office. Even if I have 4 officemates and a two-person office would be quieter . (But (a) my officemates aren't loud, and (b) that's what headphones are for.)

Today I got an email from the grad student in charge of helping with the yearly office shuffle. It was addressed to me and my adviser's other student, Steven. It basically said, "How would you two like to move into a quiet two person office?" and a few other things about how they want to put incoming first years into our space. (My current officemates are all moving out.)

I didn't know what my answer would be (though probably no -- I'd be moving down a floor, which would mean there would be a set of stairs between me and the printers, AND I'd be far away from the other grad students and such), but I decided to go see where the new office was. Imagine my surprise when I find the office (which is already vacant, so the door was closed) and my and Steven's name was already on it! I was really amused by this, and went back to my office and wrote Steven an email that said "Think long and hard about this...our names are already on the doors!"

But don't worry, the sign on the door is not stone. I can still make my decision, though I got a follow up email from the grad rep and he said that another grad student (a now-third year) will be moving in. Steven and I could probably play the seniority card if we really wanted to, but I'm guessing both of us don't care enough to. It would be nice to be in the same office as Steven, but considering how we keep fairly opposite schedules, it would be more like having my own office. Hmmm....that may not be so bad either. If only I didn't have so many books. And those three walls.

Congratulations Will and Kami!

On Friday my good friend Kami got married to my good friend (and roommate's brother) Will. Michelle was the maid of honor, and I was a bridesmaid, along with our other good friend Shaleen. The official festivities began Thursday with a dinner in San Antonio at a Mexican restaurant on the Riverwalk. We spent the night in San Antonio, as they were married the next day in the San Antonio temple with the reception in Austin. Here's some pictures from the dinner.

Shaleen, me, and Michelle:

Kami and Will. Aw...

Michelle, Shaleen, and I with the bride-to-be.

We stayed that night at a hotel very near the temple. We spent a good chunk of the evening getting ready for the next day, doing nails and hair, and what not. Both Michelle and Shaleen were going to rag their hair (i.e., make it curly by tying it up in rags). We couldn't remember exactly how to do it (and the internet in our room wasn't working...pfft!), and based on Shaleen's memory, I came up with something involving twisting the hair in the rag around a pen, tying it, then pulling the pen out. I was then on ragging duty, tying up both Shaleen and Michelle's hair. My hands were covered with ink from the pen by the end!

I also came up with a pretty hairdo for Shannon, Michelle's sister (another bridesmaid). She seemed pretty happy with it. This is the back of her head the next day:


I also braided Michelle's hair to pull the sides back.

We had a "hair train" going on that morning, Michelle doing her sister Laura's hair, and me doing Michelle's hair.

The morning of the wedding we got up about 6:30 and had breakfast. The waffles in the hotel were in the shape of Texas.

Here's Kami emerging from her hotel room, all done up for the day! And here's Will behind her, carrying the suitcases. But he sure looks happy doing it!

Shaleen looking hot as we arrived at the temple.

And Shaleen taking over the job of making sure all the pictures listed in the notebook were taken.

We first took pictures at the temple, then had lunch at the Saltgrass. Don't mess with a woman and her meat.

Michelle even made a speech.

I liked my shoes...

...but was glad to take them off when I could.

Me, Michelle, and Shaleen.

The wedding party.

Exiting the temple after the wedding. They look pretty happy to be married now.

Kami was so happy, she smashed cake in Will's face at the reception. At least he was wearing that apron.

It was a busy weekend, but a good time. Congratulations Will and Kami!

In Memory of the Clock Tower

I love the movie Back to the Future. Love it. It easily ranks in my top 5 favorite movies, definitely in the top 3. In fact, I may go as far as saying (even though I try not to actually rank things, but rather use the "top 5," etc. method) it is my favorite movie. With good reason, aside from being a child of the 80s. Nearly every line, every scene is gold. It's brilliant and it's hilarious. I love, love, love it.

About two weeks ago there was a fire at Universal Studios. This fire destroyed and damaged sets on their back lot, including (but not limited to) the courthouse set from Back to the Future, including the actual clock tower. I was sad to hear the news about one of the iconic sets from my favorite movie.

But it gave me an idea. What better way to to mourn the passing of the set and celebrate the movie than by actually watching the movie? But, I didn't want to just watch it by myself. I wanted people to come over and watch it with me, and maybe eat food and just have a good time. The plan is now formulated in my head and ready to begin execution.

I set the day for Friday the 13th. (About 10 days away from when I actually had the idea.) I started on the invite that I sent out to everyone via Facebook. By the time I'd finished it, I was so excited about it, I couldn't help but send it a week and a half before the actual party. The invite read as follows:

In Memory of the Clock Tower
Come mourn the passing of a Hollywood icon...
Host: Elizabeth!
Type: Other - Ceremony
Date: Friday, June 13, 2008 Time: 7:00pm - 11:55pm
Location: Elizabeth and Michelle's humble abode

Description
Great Scott! A recent fire in southern California
has destroyed the famous Back to the Future clock
tower, and I am mourning the loss. Please help
ease the pain and join me in watching my favorite
movie of all time. (That's Back to the Future,
part 1*, to avoid any confusion.) Let's find out
what the odds are of being struck by lighting while
driving a Delorean at 88 mph on Friday the 13th.
It's your density to be there. If you don't come,
Darth Vader will come down from the planet Vulcan
and melt your brain....I'm just sayin'.

We'll also be eating food -- pizza and milk
(...chocolate!), a flux cakepacitor, and whatever
else you want to bring. Though it's too late to
"save the clock tower!" donations will gladly be
accepted that night to help me pay for the food**.

P.S. You may have gotten this invite, even if you
don't live in Austin because I like you and want
to encourage similar parties wherever you may be.

P.P.S. Everyone is welcomed, even if I don't have
you on Facebook.

* Just part 1 for tonight. If anyone is up for
watching parts 2 and 3, I'm up for it, even if we
can't that night. :)
** Please let me know if you're coming so I know
how much pizza to get. And really, please make
a donation if you eat pizza. Remember, I'm a
grad student. :)

So I sent it out. People started RSVP'ing, and I think I confused some people who thought it might have been this weekend, not next weekend. I straightened that out best I could.

Originally the party was going to be at Michelle's and my apartment. This was a fine idea until people started RSVP'ing and pretty soon it was apparent that we were going to max out pretty soon. (Our apartment isn't that big.) Revision was necessary. We tossed around the idea of moving the party, but then got the great idea of watching the movie outside.

Turns out our apartment complex has a really great outdoor amphitheater. I didn't even know it existed until we were talking about where to possibly move the party. Michelle and I walked over there immediately (at like 10:30pm) and decided it would be absolutely perfect. The next day I stopped by the office to see what using the amphitheater entailed. They said you could just show up and use it, no reservation necessary. They then asked what I wanted to do, and I told them, and they said, "Hmm, well, you better talk with the manager, just to make sure." I was more worried she'd have problems with the legality of watching a movie like this than anything. Anyway, the manager wasn't in at the moment, but would be in later, so I called later. She was with someone and therefore not available. I left a very detailed message so they could pass along the info and she could call me back. She never called me back. I called one more time that day, still nothing. The next day I called at least 4 or 5 more times, and finally my call was returned, though not by the manager, but by another girl in the office, on instructions from the manager, because she was worried I would think she was avoiding me. (Why would I think that? Hmm...) Anyway, long story short, we got the permission to do it, but with several catches: (1) It's $75 to rent along with a $150 refundable deposit; (2) a maximum of 20-25 people can attend; (3) we must be cleaned up and out by 10:00. There are lots of reasons why each one of those constraints was unrealistic. We decided to look into having it somewhere else.

Our friend Shaleen lives in a house, so I gave her a call to see if we could have it in her backyard. After about a day she managed to get a hold of her roommate/owner of the house with the okay. So we were back on! Yay! And tried to get word out best we could about the location change. (Technology is an amazing thing -- Facebook messages, status messages on Facebook and Google Talk, text messages...yes, amazing indeed!)

The night before the party I was chatting online with someone who pointed out that my party was still starting at 7:00, and the sun didn't set until 8:30. He was thorough enough to point out that I would have to entertain people for an hour and a half before we could realistically start the movie. I probably should have changed the time once we changed the location, but I didn't. I knew we were going to eat (I bought 13 pizzas!), and people are good about entertaining themselves, but I knew I needed something else.

I had a few ideas formulating in my head of what I could do, but Friday morning the idea came to fruition. I wanted to do some kind of trivia game, and knew what I was going to do....make a Power Point slide show trivia game that could play while people were eating and we were waiting for it to get more dark. I wish I would have thought of this about a week before because then I could have made it really awesome, but it turned out really well. (For the 2-3 hour effort I put into it.) I hope to post it soon if you're interested in seeing it, and maybe playing. Don't just look at the slides, play the show (even if you don't wait for the transitions), it's more fun that way. The game was a smashing hit! It was a blast, and people loved it.

Finally it was dark enough around 8:30 to start the movie. We tried to herd everyone outside to get set up so we could start. Watching the movie outside with everyone was so, so so much fun. Everyone had a great time. There were probably 40-45 people there at that point. Kind of crazy and fun that so many people showed up to my party! But I was really happy about it! :) The screen only blew over once (but only 10 minutes in, and we secured it with twine, so that didn't happen again).

After the movie was over, we ate the flux cakepacitor. Here is my finished product:


The bottom leg is strawberry, the top right is white, the top left is chocolate. Mmm! We served it with ice cream.

I wish I had more pictures from the party, but I was so busy running around and making sure everything was set up and functioning that I didn't have time. Next time I'll assign someone the job of taking my camera and getting pictures for me.

So the party was a complete success and it was so much fun! Yay!