IHE Ladies' Night with Origami

Now that I have my own place, I can finally entertain! Woohoo. I love entertaining! So, I invited all of the ladies in my PhD program to dinner and origami. The main reason for the gathering was to celebrate Stephanie & JayneFrances passing their final exams (yahoo!) But, I gotta say that the combined energy of strong PhD women in one room made for a loquacious evening of exchanging valuable information and connection. All of us women in the program are close to 30-something in years, hence many of us have sacrificed a great deal to be here. We commiserated on the normal "break-downs" and also the "break-throughs" that are a normal occurrence of pursuing a PhD. Everyone brought salad toppings to create a healthy dinner of champions with red wine on the side. The girl scout cookies, thin mints and samoas, chaperoned the origami making. Despite, many pieces of origami paper in the recycling bin, the ladies went home with jumping frogs, flowers, cranes, ghosts, and smiles on the face.

My New Home...in Athens, Georgia

It's funny to say that this is the first time I have lived alone. But, it is true. My entire life, until now, I have always lived with other people: from my family, to roommates, to boyfriends, to my sister, and even undergraduate UGA students (in Oxford). After about a month of living by myself I have come to LOVE it. I do not need to clean for anyone or clean up after anyone and I can do yoga in my living room at all hours of the day. Plus, I really love the apartment with bright orange paint and funky IKEA closet units. I am living in a residence hall , or as some people call it a "dorm", on campus. This is a special arrangement, as I have a 2-bedroom apartment that is surrounded by 160 undergraduates. I am used to the noise and late night techno music because I experienced this while living in Oxford. However, the additional noise from the steam pipes (screaming and banging at night) has been something I have had to adjust to. But otherwise all is good, especially the location; the on-campus location allows me to walk pretty much everywhere (woohoo!), even to the yoga studio. In exchange for living here, I do have additional responsibilities such as hosting a weekly cookie night and teaching a class which offers opportunities to mix with the students. So, yes...all is good with the living situation!

Chocolate & Wine!

Valentine's day was lovely! I surprised Charlie with a chocolate and wine tasting...and we ended up buying half a case of wine and about one pound of chocolate. Nice! Some people say that chocolate and wine cannot be paired. I tend to disagree with this philosophy. But, then again these are two of my favorite things in the world...so, how could they not go together? There is a local wine shop here in Athens, named Shiraz, and they host fun wine tastings. Of course this one was scheduled close to Valentine's day. We tasted 9 different wines, including white, sparkling, red, and espresso. Each wine was thoughtfully paired with a Dolphin Belgian chocolate. Imagine eating a chocolate with orange peel or earl gray and then drinking a fine red wine. Delicious! Here is a photo of some of the wine/chocolate that we bought.

Valentine's weekend was rather heavenly...this time Charlie surprised me! We went to Atlanta for a delicious dinner at an authentic Italian restaurant, Baraonda, and he surprised me with tickets to Mama Mia at the swanky Fox Theater.

The Day After...Beautiful!

UGA to close at 3:30

Yep, another snowstorm in Athens, Georgia. How I love thee... The ground was not even wet when the email hit my inbox, "The University of Georgia will close at 3:30 p.m. today, February 12, 2010". For many of us this is simply bizarre, but considering the lack of snowplows, shovels, and even gloves in the area it is understandable that any amount of snow shuts down the city. Let it snow...

Surprise Birthday Party...for Three Friends.

Somehow we managed to pull off a surprise birthday party for not just one person, not even two, but three people. Charlie, Sarah, and Adam, all PhD students in IHE, gained momentum in the aging game this past weekend, so we decided to celebrate accordingly. It is a small miracle that they were all surprised and no one spilled the beans. After the guests of honor walked through the door and we all jumped up and down while screaming, "surprise", we ate from the smorgasbord of potluck goodness and enjoyed authentic tres leches cake. Happy Birthday kids!!