Author: iampotassium

I love soccer

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My friend A and I were talking this last weekend about activities that feel “natural” to us. Like an activity that feels so natural to you that you don’t really have to think about what you are doing. You kind of just go. That is how soccer feels to me. As soon as I can feel my cleats digging into the grass as I sprint towards the soccer ball, I am home. Isn’t that a relaxing feeling? I am so in the game that I am not concentrating on what I look like, what I have been worrying about lately, or even how much I suck at breathing when I am running. I am just going. For my friend A, it is horseback riding. What is it for you? Did you guys do anything amazing this weekend?

Thanks to Cobalt for taking pictures of my soccer game yesterday! Look at this awesome shot he got of me trying to score a goal!

Mountain towns are fun…

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Oh the joys of living in a mountain town… This morning, as I cruised along my new (mostly downhill) route to lab, I noticed these signs on cones in the middle of the bike path reading “MOUNTAIN LION PRESENCE IN THIS AREA CONFIRMED. BE ALERT!”

…

Be alert?! That’s it?! If I see a mountain lion on my way home, should I just nod and be like “Hey Mountain lion! Please don’t eat me but I’m aware of your presence!”? Hrmmmm… maybe I should take the long way home….

In other non big scary cat related news, I repotted my baby lemon cucumber and tomato plants last night! They are growing so happily. I hope they weren’t too traumatized by the move to bigger pots. They will thank me when they realize their roots have so much extra dirt to crawl through… Pictures hopefully next week…

In OTHER non plant or cat news, my sister’s birthday was this week! This message is as belated as my present to her is (hopefully you get it today, wee!) so I hope both find her well. Happy belated birthday! :D Here is a picture of me, Gustav, and my sister in CA last time we were both home…

Transparency

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Last week, Karyl tagged me in a blog post. Basically, each person tagged had to answer a specific question. Mine was: “What do you look forward to in your marriage?”

I thought about this all week last week. Not that I’m not looking forward to anything… more like I was trying to figure out what will be different about being married. I know that things will be different but Cobalt and I have been together for so long now that it’s hard to nail down exactly what. So I thought a lot about what changes when you get married: the breaking off from your families and forming a new unit, coming up with new traditions, etc.

Then Cobalt and I met with our premarital counselor/pastor last weekend and he talked to us about this idea of being transparent to each other. We were talking about learning how to better communicate our feelings to each other and our pastor told us that we are becoming the safest person in the whole world for the other person. That it’s okay for me to open up to Cobalt and that it’s okay for him to open up to me. That we can be totally transparent about our feelings and our beliefs and that it’s okay. It’s safe. Cobalt won’t stop loving me when I am feeling fragile or angry and I won’t stop loving him when he is feeling frustrated or hurt. And I think that is what I am most looking forward to in marriage, learning how to be transparent to Cobalt. Makes me feel all warm and bubbly inside. Makes me feel safe to know that he’s the one I get to finally open up to…

In other wedding news, we have officially paid off the photographer! Kudos to her for making us a contract where everything is due BEFORE a month before the wedding so we can get her checked off before we have to start paying everything else off in July…
Also, the invitations are almost done. Cobalt and I had to decide on some fonts for T, which we did this weekend. Hopefully we can get those printed off soon.
ALSO – we are starting to get registry gifts! I am excited to try out Natalie’s Gift/thank you note excel file and excited that Cobalt and I already purchased our Thank You notes.

Picture: Cobalt and me at 14,000 feet above sea level on Pike’s Peak – the easiest 14’er to get up around here (you drive).

Reflections on a busy week

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WOW! It’s been a while since I wrote. Thanks grad school for making my life insane for a bit there. It’s funny. I am done with all my qualifying exams and my classes so all I have left to graduate is “just” research. That’s right. Do enough research to be able to publish two scientific papers on new findings and then I can graduate! If only it were that easy… Sometimes the “just research” part of grad school is awesome. You go in, get your work done, you go home, no sweat. Life is great. Sometimes the “just research” part is insane… so insane it makes you wish you still had classes left because at least classes have a finite length and obvious expectations (write this paper? DONE. Study for and take this test? DONE… vs… I looked at bacteria under a microscope for HOURS and I took HUNDREDS OF PICTURES and I still have NO idea what anything means… Whyyyyyyyyyyyy?). Anyway, you get it. Plus we packed up our whole lab and moved it a mile away into a new building. There was some moving drama in there last week too.

ANYWAY – I have been really sad that I haven’t been able to write recently. So much stuff has been going on AND I got tagged by Karyl to write a post on marriage and I am worried that she thinks I forgot about it. Don’t worry Karyl, I’ve been thinking about it all week and I hopefully will be able to finally publish my thoughts tomorrow or Thursday this week! Yay! So, I talked about grad school being dumb and moving being time consuming… What have else I been up to, you ask?

Well, besides apparently freaking out small children at church on Sunday, here are a few things I did since the last time I wrote.

1) Had really good barbecue in Longmont, CO. Seriously. Amazing. Best BBQ I’ve had so far in the state. Go check them out. Obviously skip this recommendation if you are a vegetarian.

2) Moved the lab – already talked about this but here are some pictures:

Old Lab – see that big thing of pink bubble wrap? It was probably 3 times as big when we got it and then we used it and another whole roll up moving all our fragile stuff… intense… There is nothing worse than trying to get lab tape off of bubble wrap for your information…


New Lab – my new bench bubble wrap free! In other new lab news, I learned today that it is about a 2 mile bike ride to the new building and it is almost alllll downhill on the way there. Fun times coming home this summer… :-/

3) Saw President Obama speak at my school. Regardless of your politics, how cool is it to get to see a president speak in person? Obama pictures in a minute. I just want to emphasize on here that part of the awesomeness of all of this was actually all the waiting in line to get into the events center.


We had to wait for the bus…


In the line, we had a race across a random patch of grass/compared our weird feet/did other silly things. If you look closely in the top left hand corner, you can see the line behind us…


We were all distracted by this helicopter that we thought Obama was in but then he drove right past us…


Obama on the jumbo screen of the events center. I’d say that’s a typical Obama face…


Live Obama and jumbo screen Obama in the same shot! Because our lab move day was the same day as Obama’s speech and because that was the same day my boss decided to tell me how much data analysis she needed me to do in the next few days, we didn’t get to get in line until later in the afternoon so we didn’t get the most amazing of seats. But you can still see Obama!

4) Took a road trip with Cobalt to see his family

On the road again… Cobalt and I enjoyed rocking out to crazy mashups (courtesy of Milkman) as we drove along…

Anything exciting going on in your lives? Do you obsessively photograph everything like I do? Discuss!

On the docket for tomorrow (hopefully… or Thursday… sorrrrrrrry) – What do I look forward to in my marriage? Stay tuned. It should be exciting… I have been thinking about what to say for a week now…

Soccer and Breathing

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So I play midfield in soccer. It’s basically a position where you are always running. Midfielders are responsible for being extra defenders when the ball in in our half of the field and also being extra forwards while we’re trying to score a goal. A basic rule for how to play this position is to follow the ball – if it’s up by our goal, you should be by our goal, if it’s down by their goal, that’s where you should be. As you can probably guess, there is a lot of sprinting involved because the ball changes position rather quickly and, like I just said, you go with the ball.

I like sprinting though so it’s okay. I love the feeling of my cleats digging into the grass as I fly down the field. I love the feeling of all my limbs and muscles pushing myself as fast as possible towards the ball. In fact, I love it so much and I am so concentrated on trying to get to the ball that I forget to breathe. So it’s kind of awkward since I kind of need to sprint to get to the ball but I also kind of need to breathe to be able to sprint. Typically, this means that after a few sprints up and down the field, I am winded and I need to go sit out. At yesterday’s game, I tried reminding myself to breathe as I was lunging toward the ball but I wouldn’t remember to breathe until I was already halfway through my sprint. So my question for you guys is how do I learn to breathe better? I breathe fine when I am just normally running but there is something about throwing my body into a full out sprint that makes me forget to breathe… Thoughts?

Picture: I have played soccer since I was old enough to play soccer – so more or less since I was 4 years old. This is a picture of me playing soccer in high school. I am a typical teenager in this picture in that I was embarrassed/annoyed about my mom taking pictures of me. >_<

Shark Photographs

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So yeah…. I know I usually post a wedding Wednesday post today or actually on Wednesday but this week you are getting shark photos instead. Yeah… I know… not as cool… But I have been so busy helping pack/clean our lab for our big lab move next week that I haven’t even had time to think about a wedding Wednesday post or even think about our wedding. Craziness… All I know is that I have spent waaaaay too much time packing boxes of stuff/cleaning items in the lab with 10% bleach so the movers won’t be afraid to touch them (we have to decontaminate all our instruments and put a green sticker on them to prove their cleanliness before the movers will move things)… but at least the packing is going well. I think we’re ahead of schedule!
In slight wedding news, our invitations are coming along nicely. Our friend T has been making progress and the invitations look awesome so far!!! :D

Anyway, without further ado, sharks! I took these pictures with my new iPhone! First is Gustav and second is Scrarmpl:

Which is your favorite picture? I think Scrarmpl looks annoyed about being second… What is your favorite app for the iPhone if you have one? What is something that takes up all your time so you feel like you can’t focus on the stuff that you want to get done (*coughs* for me it’s cleaning/packing/lab in general getting in the way of wedding planning/sleeping/lurking *coughs*)

One year and a letter

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Dear Cobalt,
As you know, a year ago today (April 16, 2011), you proposed to me! I can’t believe it’s been a year. It seems like it was just yesterday we were standing on that mesa in New Mexico, me thinking about lunch (>_<) and you nervous about the proposal. Then you started to talk and I was so clueless about what was going on until halfway through and then so !!!! about what was going on after that that I don't remember what you said! You told me later that you don't really remember what you said either so I guess it's up to the winds of New Mexico to remember that part…
Anyway, you proposed and I said yes and then we sat there on the edge of that mesa feeling nervous but also excited as we planned our future together looking out as far as the eye can see at red New Mexico…
I just want you to know, despite how stressful planning this wedding has been and despite how crazy our jobs are making us, how much I love you and how excited I am for August 4th. I am so excited for us to be together forever and for all the fun adventures we will have in the coming years. :)
Love,
Potassium

Picture by Holly Carlyle Photography.

First dance

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So some of you may know that my favorite part of a wedding is watching the couple do their first dance. It always just makes me so happy to see them waltzing across the floor whispering and giggling to each other as they go. I just love the mystery of it all – they’re giggling about something important to each other and we get to share in that moment.

Anyway, so obviously since this is an important part of weddings for us, Cobalt and I have been discussing the perfect first dance song. Nothing too overdone but something that shows our love for each other and will give us our own private joke moment. I can’t tell you what it is because that would ruin the surprise for all our guests (some of whom read this blog! Hi guys!) but I can guarantee you that it is perfect. Now we just need dancing lessons so we don’t trip over each other while we’re doing all that cutesy giggling and whispering….

What about you guys? What is your favorite part of the wedding? What song did/will you dance to for your first dance? If you’re not married and not getting married yet what song do you think would make the most amazing first dance song? :D

Picture: Cobalt and me being crazy at a wedding we went to in 2010!

Easter Balloons

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For Easter Sunday this year, we were invited to my friend J’s family’s house. We had a really nice time. The best part was of course seen J’s adorable niece A. When we got there, A and her daddy were blowing up balloons. Daddy was working on A’s shyness by having her give each one of us a balloon (shown here: instructions on who to give the next balloon to). It was fairly dry so we all ended up looking a bit like this with our balloons (shown here: my friend M!):

Hahaha… It was kind of fun. Anyway, below is my favorite picture of A playing in her sandbox after dinner:

It was sooooo fun taking pictures of A! I felt like I really got back into my photography groove. What’s something that you enjoy doing to relax? Do you like doing things that challenge you? Or do you like being lazy? Or both?

Seeing Stephen Hawking

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Seeing Stephen Hawking on last week’s Big Bang Theory episode reminded me that it’s been five years since I had the privilege of seeing Stephen Hawking speak in person. Craziness how much time flies… Here’s my picture documenting the incident. I was pretty much in awe the whole time; Stephen Hawking is kind of like a rock star to me… Sadly, unlike Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory, I didn’t get to talk to Stephen Hawking about my theories on the Higgs Boson particle… ;)

I hope you all had awesome weekends. Did anyone do anything awesome for Easter? Who is one of your personal ‘rock stars’ (or real rock stars)? Have you met him/her?