A New Trojan

I haven't shared this with too many people... I didn't want my hopes to get too high and then unceremoniously dashed for the world to see, but a few months ago I applied for graduate school. After graduating from BYU almost two years ago, I was more than content to be done with my academic career. Initially it felt weird to not be in school, but I'm sure that most recent graduates have similar feelings. But then the feeling didn't go away. For the past year I've had the awesome opportunity to work in a biology research lab as a lab manager. I've been able to work on several different projects and interact with grad students and post docs and it's been a challenge to try and keep up with them intellectually, but I've certainly tried! It seems like the more I learn, the more I want to know. So... long story short, last November I applied for the Molecular Biology PhD program at USC. I took the GRE, had some letters of recommendation written, had an interview and all the other fun application things, and last Monday I found out that I had been accepted! One of the really great things about the whole thing is that my tuition will be paid for and I get a stipend on top of it. I start in the fall... I'm both excited and nervous... but mostly excited!

The Old Man in the Big City

Last weekend my dad came to visit. He arrived on his birthday, and I'll spill the beans, he's 48! I made his favorite cake- German Chocolate. And yes, we polished off the entire cake by the time he went home. Don't judge.


We spent the days taking a walking tour of downtown, hiking Mount Hollywood, checking out Griffith Observatory, eating way too much at Korean BBQ, touring the Wild Animal Park, eating in Old Town San Diego, walking on the beach, and going to Madame Tussauds wax museum. Needless to say, we had a blast and it was sooooo hard to go back to work. Here are some picture highlights.









This one's for Erin- the world's biggest Buffy fan... "I'm your biggest fang!" (Also for Erin.)