grad school

BIG NEWS. i am moving to dallas, was accepted to the UTD audiology program and will start on august 27th. i was on the waitlist for months and told that a spot probably wouldn't open up, however a student had to withdraw unexpectedly and opened up a spot for me. will be returning to austin on july 25th and will have three weeks to move to dallas. kind of nice that it all happened so quickly as it gives me less time to over-think going back to school. it is a very good program, rated third in the country. i hope to find a reasonable house in east dallas/lakewood area and seeing as DFW is a large airport hub i am expecting everyone to come visit.

west coast road trip

at the end of may i was lucky enough to go on an epic road trip with jenny bergen. she was testing cellphone network coverage for pc magazine and she let me tag along! her work paid for the car, gas, lodging, and a food stipend for the drive from LA to seattle. i had a great time! saw a lot of friends along the way, and stayed on in seattle to visit clint and shannon. was even able to pop down to portland for a few days to stay with mali and dave. there are some random pictures on my flickr account, waiting to get a lot more from jenny. i didn't have a camera so had to rely on her digital camera for most of the pictures.

after heading back to coloardo from washington i did some dog sitting for cameron and gwynne while they went on their honeymoon. charlotte is the best day! she was so well behaved and was great company. really interested in getting a dog now. check my flickr for pictures of her. i really enjoyed having an extended amount of time in denver, usually only get up to town for a night or two. spent a lot of time reading and catching up with friends.

updates

well christmas time came and went. i was lucky enough to spend the holidays in colorado springs and idaho falls. i spent nye with jimmy and richard in idaho, a small but exciting holiday. you can see some pictures here. i came back to austin and started working at mom's best friend again, just been filling in random nanny gigs around town. life has been pretty uneventful, still waiting to hear on grad schools. unfortunately i have been wait listed for almost all the programs i applied to. the response deadline is april 15th, which means i will be alerted of my wait list status then. not sure what to do if i don't get in, however i am looking into professional entry level positions for a few companies in the austin area.

some big news: i have decided to move my stuff into storage and do a bit of traveling over the next few months. i will be going to kentucky for a few weeks for a wedding and the derby. next will be a trip to colorado for helen's graduation (can't believe she is old enough to graduate from college!). finally i will be doing a large west coast road trip with my college roommate jenny. we will be staring in LA and drive all the way up to seattle, then i hope to spend a few days hanging with clint, shannon, and oscar. i have a lot of things to look forward to. in all i will probably be away from austin for about two months. then i have to decide if i will move back or try for a new adventure. will try not to go so long without updating the blog! stay tuned for more updates in the near future.

xoxo

christmas time is here again

well fall 2011 is finished, and i did pretty well on finals. i now have a break until august... so far i have been doing a lot of reading and embroidery. i am looking forward to having some down time, but am nervous to hear back from schools. i have to wait until march to hear back from the programs i applied to. i hope to get into UT austin, but i know that it is a competitive program. however, i can honestly say there is nothing i could have done to make my application any stronger.
i am looking forward to going home next week, it will be nice to have some cold weather. after christmas i will be heading to idaho falls to spend new years with richard and jimmy. REALLY looking forward to that.
conor and daralee had a whirl wind trip to austin a few days ago. it was wonderful to see them. i have been a little down lately because so many of my close friends have moved out of austin the last six months. it was great to see some old friends, even if it was only for a short time.
well there is a quick update! thanks for stopping by.

daralee and conor.

joan and conor

 unfinished brain embroidery.

 finished brain embroidery.

unfinished middle ear embroidery. 

finished middle ear embroidery. (thank you gift to my teachers for writing my letters of recommendation).

two year austiniversary

hard to believe i have been in texas for two years now!
really learning to love it here.

texas fires

thanks everyone for the concerned texts/emails, but lucky for me i haven't been involved in the fires. they are, however, a little too close for comfort. here are a few resources if you want to see what is going on down here in the lone star state.

this is a real time map, if you click on the flames it allows you to see how large each fire is and the % contained.

this map shows the smoke range of each fire.

if you want to donate your time or physical/financial donations this is a composite of websites where you can do so.

this video illustrates how quickly the fires can spread.

also here is a google image search for pictures.

summer daze

school is back in session for the fall, and i didn't update my blog once this summer! time has flown! i am excited for this semester, not only am i in classes that seems like they will be very interesting but i only have classes two days a week. i go from 8-5 on tues and thurs, but this means i can work mwf and have the weekends off if i like. trying to decide if i will stay on-call with mom's best friend or if i will attempt waitressing again.

the summer was good, spent about a month in kentucky observing at a few facilities in lexington. i observed at st joseph's east hospital (with wonderful aubrie), cardinal rehabilitation hospital and the commission for children with special needs. it was wonderful to get some hands on experience and spend a little extra time with my family. speaking of family, tommy and amy gave birth to lincoln thomas quisenberry on july 9th! a new baby cousin! they seem to be doing well, only had a little correspondence via texts and emailed pictures.

after leaving kentucky i went to colorado for the 4th of july, you can't beat the wonderful view from cheyenne mountain. it was nice to be in cooler weather for a bit as well. drove back down to austin with my mother and she spent a long weekend with me. we did a lot of running around (even visited the alamo drafthouse twice!).

summer school went well; took statistics and audiology. i enjoyed audiology much more than i thought i would and have decided to switch from a speech pathology masters to audiology doctorate. this means i will have a few more years of school, but hopefully it will offer more job opportunities and a higher salary.

austin is great, but the town is feeling empty. tsouni moved back to london, gwynne and cameron moved to denver, and my friend leigha moved back to boston. seems a lot of people are pursuing options outside of texas. however, i do still have some great friends here, and now i have people to stay with in other cities! with the weather acting the way it has i can't blame them for leaving. we have had 70+ days of over 100 degrees, supposed to be 110 tomorrow. fortunately one can always go swimming at barton springs.

my birthday is tomorrow (can't believe it has been a fully year!). i am going thrift shopping with jenn in the morning, having a massage in the afternoon and finishing up the day at a breast cancer benefit. should be a great day!