Nerdgirl Weekend Fun

I had such a lovely time hanging out with Jill, Amber, and Lindsay this weekend.  We hardly ever get to see each other and it is very rare that we are all together at the same time.  There were lots of fun times had by all and it was wonderful to see them again.

Since I am going to bed at like 7:30 tonight to catch up on sleep, I am just going to post a few pictures from this weekend so you can catch a glimpse of what a Nerdgirl get together looks like.

Here we are eating the four desserts that we ordered along with our two large pizzas.  That’s right, I said four.  We don’t mess around when it comes to dessert (or donuts).  This picture is interesting because it is the second one I took.  In the first picture, I caught Jill adjusting her shirt and it looks like she is checking out her own chest.  That’s why Amber is looking at Jill in this picture and Lindsay is laughing.  Sheila did a great job of holding the same pose for both pictures.  Or, she could have just been actually eating through both pics, I’m not sure 🙂

This is a picture of us after we got home from the wizard rock concert.  We all look incredibly good considering we were tired, some of us had hurting feet, and others had lost their voices.  (I tried to remove the red eyes from the picture….we all seriously looked like evil Twilight vampires……and I got all of them except the one demon glint in my eye.)

Jen

Lots of Sports. And me being a lion car.

Howdy y’all (because I said y’all, you should automatically now know that this is Lindsay.  Because I live in the South.)!

I must first start this post off by commending the Iowa Hawkeyes Wrestling team for winning their 3rd straight NCAA championship.  The tournament is not even over as I write this and already there is no way that any other team can catch us.  I guess that’s what happens when you have a Hawkeye in 5 out of the 10 finals.  Good job guys!  

I don't know what year this is. But they are Champs regardless!

 

Now that I’ve congratulated our guys, I have to say.  Wrestling = the most confusing macho sport ever.  Macho because it’s all about strength and dominating your opponent.  Confusing because…. Well, have you ever watched wrestling?  Think about it.  You’ve got all these guys in these tiny spandex suits that cling to their bodies and show pretty much EVERYTHING.  Then they grab each other all over the place.  I have seen so many butt grabs and inner thigh grabs in the past few days that I can’t help feeling slightly uncomfortable for the guys.  Their junk is getting grabbed on ESPN.  I don’t care WHAT I’m doing, I don’t ever want someone to grab my boob and have it televised.  Even an accidental grab.  Just sayin’.

You can't deny that it makes people feel weird.

 

Besides wrestling, there’s also been a little thing called March Madness that’s been going on.  Perhaps you’ve heard of it?  Unfortunately, the Iowa men’s basketball team is not in the tournament.  Actually, did you know that Iowa fired Coach Lickliter?  Did you know that typing Lickliter makes me giggle?  Because it does.  But back to the tournament.  I filled out a bracket haphazardly a couple of days ago and didn’t pay attention to who I picked for certain games.  Now I am really wanting to know who I picked to win in the Northern Iowa vs. Kansas game.  I hope Northern Iowa, because they totally just won!  I’m pretty sure only Northern Iowa fans must have had them winning that game, because Kansas was the overall Number 1 seed in the ENTIRE tournament.  So good job Panthers!  I will always root for an Iowa team that’s not named Iowa State.  

I found this on the first page of google image searching for Iowa State Sucks.
I don’t understand it, but I like it.

Sticking to March Madness, I am currently watching the Iowa women’s basketball team.  They’re winning by four against Rutgers.  I am actually a little ticked off right now, not because of anything Iowa or Rutgers is doing, but because of ESPN2.  I am pretty blind, so when they shrink the action screen, it is really hard for me to see what’s going on.  About 1/4 the screen is taken up by scores.  Well, actually more than 1/4, but i was talking about the vertical strip where they are broadcasting all the scores from other games (including the men’s tournament).  Can’t they just show the scores on the bottom only?  Along with the scores on the bottom and the scores on the vertical strip, there is also another score board thingy that keeps popping up near the top of the screen.  Why?  Does ESPN2 think that the only reason I’m watching their channel is to see the scores of other games?  Oh, but commercials are given the full screen (minus the bottom score bar that is always there).  I am seriously cheesed off.  

I can't see the score! ESPN2 you better watch out, because I'm a vampire and I am COMING FOR YOU.

 

In other “news” (I say this with quotation marks around it because it’s not really news) not related to sports, the other day I came to the conclusion that I must seem like a freak to a lot of people in my workplace.  And when I say workplace, I mainly mean people on my floor that are not in my lab.  So those people who see me 5 days a week and have never talked to me, but could probably pick me out of a line up (not a criminal line up, but a crazy line up).  Line up or lineup?  I am not sure.  Wordpress recognizes both as legit (but will not recognize wordpress.  Strange, I know).  

So anyways, the other day I was walking down the hall with one of the graduate students.  We walked past another graduate student from another lab and he said hello to my grad kid (what I like to call the graduate students in my lab).  When I was sure that this other graduate student had made it to the bathroom and closed the door, I remarked to my grad kid how cute the other graduate student was – mainly I really liked his hair.  (*Important note: in no way must you think that I was scoping out this guy.  I am happily married and only pay attention to guys’ hair.  Don’t judge me.  I just really like good hair.  

Several things about this picture are great, but I would marry the hair alone (IF I WERE SINGLE - I wouldn't divorce for hair reasons).

 

My grad kid then said she would introduce me next time we saw him.  Immediately I made her promise that she would not introduce us, or even tell him my name.

Here is where the crazy comes into the story.  I frequently like to skip and spin and twirl down the hallways.  I also tend to get cold in the lab, so I am usually dressed in jeans and a blue coat.  So almost everyday you could describe my outfit as jeans and that blue coat.  Add to this that I’ve inherited my mother’s tendency to make car noises when turning corners, etc.  Seriously, I will be walking down the hall, and randomly I will decide it is a good idea to put my hands on an invisible steering wheel and say vroom vroom!  Also, I will beep at people when I pass them, and make a backup noise when I walk backwards.  I will also make screeching noises when turning corners.  I swear – there is something wrong in my brain.  I also growl for no reason every now and then.  

It makes sense when you consider that I have a lion (Adan) as my daemon.

 

And then there’s my hair.  My bangs are at a weird place right now.  They’ve been in this place since probably January.  I really need to go get them trimmed, but I’m too lazy to go to a hairdresser.  Also, I’m too scared that I will make myself look even more like a huge dork if I try to trim them myself.  So to remedy the problem of having my bangs in my face, I will tie them up in a pony tail or try to bobbypin them back.  And let me tell you.  My bangs will stay out of my face, but they get all pouty and decide that if they can’t hang out with my forehead, they won’t hang out with the rest of my hair either.  So they stick out all weird.  So unless I do my hair in the morning before I go to work, I have bangs sticking up all weird everywhere.  I have to be to work at 9:00 in the morning.  I usually get up at 8:00.  We usually try to leave no later than 8:40 (because we have a 20 minute commute), and I move incredibly slowly.  Ideally I would get up at 6:00 and slowly get ready by 8:30ish.  But this rarely happens and often I am drying my hair in the warm air of the car heater.

So you see my predicament now.  I dress pretty much the same everyday.  And speaking of dressing the same, blue jeans and blue coat – I am pretty much dressed like a blueberry everyday.  My bangs look like I selectively stuck them in an outlet.  I make beep beep, vroom vroom, screeeeeeeeech noises in the hallway as I skip, spin, twirl and walk down the hallway.  And more importantly, in addition to doing all of this in front of the cute graduate student (c.g.s.) from the other lab, I have run into the wall numerous times (in front of c.g.s.), and I have fallen down at least twice (also in front of c.g.s.).  There was a third time I fell down in front of him, but I’m not 100% positive that he saw me, so I will err on the side of not being humiliated and say that he didn’t see it.  I admit though, I am somewhat impressed with my ability to fall down for pretty much no reason.  All the times I have fallen down at work have been because I dropped something, and when I went down to retrieve that thing, my glasses slipped off my face, and I used both my hands to grab them, thereby causing myself to tip forward and not have my hands to catch myself.  I really should file for workman’s comp or something.  Because they should really have someone following me around or something.  

Yay me!

 

So that’s all from Nashville for right now.  I promise that once I take a shower and remember, I’ll take a picture of me with my sonic screwdriver (it’s pretty epic).  Also, I’m moving (again)!  So that should provide for some entertaining stories.  Maybe I will meet my neighbors while moving in, and we will become BFFs and then because one of my neighbors (downstairs) is the American Idol Season Three (or Two…?  I think it’s three though – cause Clay Aiken was two…..right???  Yes, I remember because Kelly Clarkson was One, and Clay was after her) runnner up, we will go meet Paula Abdul, and we will all dance around with cartoon cats (the cats cannot be real, because it turns out I am ALLERGIC to real cats).

I imagine it will look pretty much exactly like this, but with more cats and less
stairs.

 

<3, ngtlindsay

Pattinson Music

I must admit — and I know I will probably be banished to the ends of the earth for this — Robert Pattinson never really did it for me in Twilight. Don’t get me wrong. Yes, he’s certainly attractive, um, hello scene when he steps out of his car wearing those sunglasses, and yes, he’s British, so obviously the accent helps immensely, but I don’t know, usually he’s just too scruffy for me or something.  Plus I think I may have a secret thing for Emmett, which might have begun when I dressed as Rosalie for ICPL’s teen Twilight viewing.

HOWEVER

Oh. My. Gosh. How much do I freaking love Robert Pattinson’s songs “Never Think” and “Let Me Sign” from the Twilight soundtrack? Answer: SO, SO, SO MUCH!  And since I am a big music nerdgirl & a huge sucker for a boy with a guitar, the amazingness of these two songs alone make me love him. “Never Think” is my current favorite of the two because it’s so simple and beautiful with just the acoustic guitar and his voice. Of course, it’s kind of hard to understand what he’s saying, but whatever, he’s totally forgiven. And “Let Me Sign” is completely haunting and incredible.  Hands down the best haunting song I’ve heard since “Hide and Seek” by Imogen Heap.

So basically, I’m a Robert Pattinson convert thanks to these two songs. I need more!

*Gasp* I just remembered that Robert Pattinson plays “Bella’s Lullaby” in the movie, and according to what I read online, it’s actually him playing the piano!  Guitar AND piano?  Wow!

– jill

Welcome to the party, Jasper.

um so yeah, totally agree with everything Jen had to say about Twilight so I won’t repeat all the I LOVED IT I LOVED IT I LAUGHED I LOVED IT stuff, but you can see the review I wrote after the midnight showing for the ICPL teen blog here.

so the purpose of this post is to expand on Jen’s number 2 and gush about how awesome Jasper is! Yes, I liked him before the movie, and I did always feel like I had more in common with Alice than Bella (Cassi made my day by turning to me right before the movie started and saying “you totally remind me of Alice.” seriously, could you think of a better compliment???)– so obviously Jasper would be my Steve in the saga. But I had no idea that Jasper would look so adorably frightened while thirsting for Bella’s blood and so undeniably BADASS while playing baseball and so so so swoon-worthy when his serious face finally breaks into a smile (he still has nothing on Steve though of course).

Jasper and Alice--crazy vampire hair, rowr!

hahahaha, his hair just makes me giggle!!!! reminds me sorta of Justin Timberlake ala Bye Bye Bye years…

oooh, that baseball cap can barely contain that hair!

I can’t wait until this movie comes out on DVD so I can watch the baseball bat tricks over and over and over again.

Jasper fangirls unite!

amberj.

Rooney might have made eye contact with me…

Don’t you just love it when all your favorites things turn out to be connected to your other favorite things?! It always makes me feel like I am doing something right with my life–like I am on the trail to the bestest most favoritest thing ever.

Last weekend was Iowa’s Homecoming (and I hear that I am lucky to be such a nerd and to have chosen to do homework over watching the game. Cmon Hawkeyes! make Nate Kaeding proud!) and to celebrate there is always a concert after the parade—this year was Rooney!!!!! (and Chuck Berry, also very cool) AHHHH, MICHAEL MOSCOVITZ IN IOWA CITY!!!! I saw the Princess Diaries movie before reading any of the books, so Robert Schwartzman will always be Michael to me. Whether he likes it or not. sly smile.

anyway, so I got out of work and walked downtown to wait for my friends before watching the parade. Wait, what do I hear?? is that a heavenly angel doing a soundcheck? NO IT WAS MICHAEL MOSCOVITZ! (omigosh I hope Robert doesn’t google himself and read this…) The stage for the Homecoming show is just out in front of the Old Capitol Building, so the Rooney boys were essentially just doing their preshow stuff outside–meaning that I could literally just walk right up to the stage and watch. Don’t worry, I tried to look cool. I leaned against a rock and took out a newspaper while slightly shaking my head along to the music. OMG! there were literally only like five other people there watching with me–so chances are good that maybe the guys in the band made eye contact with me??!! I was trying really hard to have a quirky-Midwestern-girl-I-am-enjoying-your-music-very-much-but-I-am-not-throwing-myself-at-you smile, which is really hard to do. Especially when you are panicked that you are giving a I-may-look-23-but-if-I-come-face-to-face-with-you-i’m-going-to-scream-and-steal-some-of-your-hair-for-a-scrapbook smile. here is a representation of the situation:

A re-creation of me trying to act cool while standing front-row while Rooney soundchecks.

except imagine my hair shorter, and Robert looking less like Michael Moscovitz.

oh, and just to make a connection between Rooney and another teen-girl book sensation. Their video for “Are You Afraid of Me” is all about vampires. Yes.

oh and this is one of the songs they played while I was watching soundcheck and my eyes glazed over. Totally reminds me of Phantom Planet’s “Hey Now Girl”–as in I love it.

amberj.

We are totally turning this into a Twilight blog.

I am obsessed. I cannot help it. I’m going to have to go get the audio books from the library and put them on my computer so I can do to them what I do to Harry Potter. Have you seen pictures of the cast for the movie? Here’s one of Edward.

And one of Edward and Bella.

Let me just say that every day I become more pleased with the choices for Edward and Bella.  Robert Patterson looks perfect for Edward….I totally want to be all over him (HWSNBNITB, I hope you are not reading this, and if you are, don’t worry, I would not be all over him, it is just because of my over active imagination that has been fueled by Stephenie Meyer).  I’m also really pleased with Kristen Stewart as Bella.  She’s pretty but not so pretty that you look at her and get super jealous because of her looks ( I will get super jealous because 1- she is playing Bella, 2-she gets to be all over Robert Patterson aka Edward Cullen).  Sighs.

Well, I’m really going to have to start doing stuff – I was just informed that on top of my lab reports, I now have a new baby boy, William, to visit!

<3, lindsayd.

Twilight has left me frazzled

So me being a future librarian and Lindsay being a crazy fast reader means that I’m constantly urging her to read this or that–basically using her as a test case for how good my reader advisory skills are. Well, everyone I know (well everyone I know who reads YA fiction) has been telling us to read Twilight for the past year or so–Jenn and Sarah being the most vocal. I was eager to get to it and put it at the top of my list–which only means that I picked up up every time I went to the bookstore and felt immense tempt to purchase it, but knowing that it would sit on my bookshelf for a looooong time because there are ALOT of books at the top of my list. I was always baffled though why Lindsay had not read the series yet–she is the fastest reader I know, and being an engineering student with lots lots and lots of homework but little reading, meant that most of her reading was fun reading. She just never seemed interested–readers can be very fickle. I know, I am. Or maybe it just wasn’t time yet–it seems like books can sense when it is their time to be loved. Well, for Lindsay, the Twilight time has come. for sure. Which I’m sure all our faithful readers could tell from her last several posts. And that means I and Lindsay are going to go crazy for awhile. Why? because although Lindsay is already on her re-reads of the series, I just finished Twilight last night (at around 1am) and will probably not get to the rest of the series until summer.

I can hear several of you gasping–“Omg, how can she wait that long to read the next one????!!!!” well for two reasons:

1. being a library student means I have a lot of reading to do already and am lucky to get one free-reading book in per month (I’m very very slow. and I like TV. and the internet.)

and this second reason pains me

2. I don’t really feel the urge to. there, I said it. I’m soooo not obsessed with Twilight after reading it. I loved it–absolutely, positively loved it. I couldn’t put it down–my heart panged and stung and beat really really hard. I was scared out of my mind to take my eyes off the last hundred pages because I was sure to see the vampire James sitting calmly across the room from me (it was very very late at night). But…sigh, I felt very little emotion when I finished–

All of my favorite books I ever read have haunted me afterwards–have left me feeling like I was not the same–like I had experienced something. Basically, I’m immediately a little shaken and crazy for a bit which subsides but then a little part of me always holds on to that feeling. My gosh, after reading the seventh Harry Potter I was an emotional wreck for weeks. I’m still so shaken by that book that I have yet to feel ready yet to reopen it. After reading “The Golden Compass” I swear I can feel a little fox daemon wrapped cozily around my heart. “I Capture the Castle”–my favoritest book ever– makes my heart race just thinking about it. I knew who I was after reading that book.

So I was very disappointed when, after finishing “Twilight,” I made an easy return to reality. Yes, I was very shaken and my heart felt frazzled and I tossed and turned before going to bed–but I felt like the book stirred me up and then left, just left! leaving my heart very confused on what was going on. So confused that I felt an intense need to read “I Capture the Castle” (and not “New Moon” the sequel to “Twilight” weird) in order to get my heart all confused and tortured and thrilled for the good long time it was expecting.

soooo boooo! I wanted to be all obsessed with Edward and Bella, too–like the rest of the world. And although I am very interested, I feel like I’m interested in the way I’m interested in Kate Hudson and Owen Wilson’s relationship. . . Maybe I’m just too distracted right now. Maybe it just wasn’t my time. I’m sure the obsession will come, right? golly.

amberj.

Howdy from Nashville, y’all!

Howdy folks,

This is lindsayd. tuning in from the country music capital of the world, Nashville, TN.  It’s strange to thing that in ~2 months I’ll be living here!  Crazy huh?  I’m just bumming out here on Andrew’s (or as I will start referring to him from here on out, HWSNBNITB) couch while he’s at class.  I just finished New Moon by Stephenie Meyer.  Why did I not pick this series up earlier????????????  Good gravy, I have been using just about every ounce of will power I can muster not to sit like a zombie (hehehehe) reading!  I read the first book in the saga, Twilight almost completely on my way down to TN, and then I bought New Moon the next day, but had to interrupt my reading for silly things like eating and sleeping, and then some not so silly things like spending quality time with HWSNBNITB and adding things to our registry at Bed Bath and Beyond.  Speaking of shopping – there are so many malls down here!  I’ll never be able to complain about a scanty selection while I live here.  But back to Twilight.  So then I of course had to look at the cast list for the movie they’re shooting right now.  Robert Patterson (mmmm Cedric Diggory!) is playing Edward.  Soooooo dreamy!  I’m a little bit scared though that the movie isn’t going to live up to my expectations.  But, I think it’ll be ok because by the time the movie comes out, I’ll have forgotten all the little details, so as long as they get the outline right, I think I’ll be ok.  But seriously, have you read these books???  I need to go buy Eclipse today – there’s a Border’s less than a mile from HWSNBNITB’s apartment.  I think I might take a walk there and then go on to the Vandy campus to find HWSNBTITB.  I am so glad that I have finally gotten into this series – I also need to read the 3rd book in the Libba Bray series, A Great and Terrible Beauty – also very good books.  I have to admit thought – Twilight has sucked (hahahahhahahahahahahahaha) me in to the story way more than A Great and Terrible Beauty.  Oooooh Edward and Bella.  I seriously want to name my first daughter Bella right now – I probably would if like 50,000 other girls weren’t thinking the same exact thing right now.  I’ll stick with Eloise.  Speaking of children – I got to have a web chat with my future niece, Emma and future brother in law, Tony.  Emma was adorable!  She’s 2 and a half and kept putting her hand over Tony’s mouth so that she would be the only one who got to talk.  And they’re about to get a new addition to the family – so exciting!  I can’t believe it – the baby was supposed to be born in late April, but they keep moving the due date up – they’re fully expecting a baby to be born within a few days most likely.  I can’t wait!  HWSNBNITB and I are going to get some pretty cute baby stuff as soon as we know if the baby’s a boy or girl.

That’s all from Nashville – y’all come back y’hear?  Read Twilight if you haven’t!  (And then thank Jen because she’s the one who’s been touting it from the start)

Toodles!

lindsayd.

Short Essay on Steve/Sven’s Awesomeness.

Mr. Steve. What can I say, he’s one heck of a guy. I’m really glad he’s dating my bestest friend, because she’s awesome and he’s awesome and so they can be awesome together. One thing I really like about him is that instead of saying Hello, he says Shut up (not in a mean way, but in a funny way). Also he drew me a funny cartoon guy that was saying Shut up. Another thing I like about this guy is that his nickname is Sven. Seriously, who can get away with this? Not many can. The only nicknames I’ve ever had are silly like Lindsers or not appropriate for this blog (like the full version of BP). I saw some videos of him on the North Scott High School news (the opening theme song was the one for Full House, doubly awesome). He was even credited as Sven. I particularly remember watching him interview a girl, and slowly sticking things in her face like a wooden spoon. And she put up with it. Because you can’t get ticked off when Sven does that – you have to feel honored that he even thought to try to put a wooden spoon in your mouth. Also, he wore a Christmas sweater. Not many guys have the cahones to do that. But he can pull it off just because it’s him. In conclusion, Steve/Sven is an awesome guy, and one day we will all know his name whether he gets famous from his music or he is running the country.

Bravo Sven. Bravo.

<3, lindsayd.