2013 in Review

Wow! Cannot believe we are in the final countdown for this year. What a crazy year this has been. No really, even crazier than the other years I claimed were crazy. Looking forward to a productive, and hopefully calmer 2014. Big changes happened, and even more changes are on their way for the very first days of 2014. I think this is the earliest I've started writing the year-review. For a look at the last few years, see here and here and here. 
[I originally wrote this post the 24-25 of Dec. Then when I tried to publish it, I noticed that copying and pasting it somehow ended up with weird formatting. It's now Dec 28th and it just took me several hours to sort it out. And this is one of the reasons why I dont blog. How does text get formatted as black and small when it was never those things in the first place? I just dont get it.]

1. What did you do in 2013 that you'd never done before? 
Successfully worked from home, taught myself to use Adobe Illustrator and InDesign from tutorials on the internet, wrote and published a Book, carved linoleum and made prints, hosted a masquerade party, opened my own business (on Etsy).

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year? 
Well it appears as though I didnt really have resolutions last year, but I did accomplish everything that I set out to. So that was a win. 

For next year I want to get serious again about exercising (like I used to in the States 4-6 days a week). I also want to work on the 3 R's: reduce, reuse, recycle. Try to buy less; buy secondhand when possible, or buy handmade to support small artisans. Create less rubbish. Decrease our footprint.  

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? 
My friend Cat from Boston had a baby boy and my cousin had a baby girl.

4. Did anyone close to you die? 
This year was a surprisingly death-free year in terms of family. However, a collaborator of our group in Haarlem who was a very close friend to my professor was diagnosed with kidney cancer and it turned out to be inoperable due to having already metastisized. He died pretty quickly. Also both of Jamie's parents were diagnosed with cancer this year (I Know, Both! ugh) and were unable to make it to my promotion (defense/graduation) which was really sad. But they are doing well now so that is good.

5. What cities/countries did you visit?
No new countries for us this year :(        But we did take my parents to Amsterdam, drove to Brussels, drove to Disneyland Paris in Marne-la-vallee, France and then drove back to Paris. 

6. What would you like to have in 2014 that you lacked in 2013? 
Better health. Still not doing very well with the insomnia and migraines.

7. What dates from 2013 will remain etched in your memory, and why? 
October 29 - the day I defended my thesis and was awarded my PhD.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I had 3 major achievements that all tie together: finished writing my PhD thesis, turned it into a book in a short amount of time, and defended my thesis which all led to the bestowment of the PhD degree. I'm a doctor!

9. What was your biggest failure? 
Hmmm, I had a pretty good year this year so I would have to say all the typos, mistakes, and forgotten sentences in my book. I was so sleep deprived by the time I turned it in I suppose it's a wonder I managed to spell the title and my name properly.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? 
Somewhere in the spring I had an insane bought of some horrible stomach virus, but other than that I did pretty well this year. My bad ankle has been hurting a lot though in the rainy weather. It's probably arthritis (ugh).

11. What was the best thing you bought? 
My Olympus Pen E-P3 camera! Loving the mirorless! Now I just need to learn how to use it optimally.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? 
My paranymphs for helping with the promotion and making an awesome video, and all the people near and far who participated in the video. 

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? 
My siblings for never saying any sort of congrats to me for my PhD (only the biggest and most important accomplishment of my life). Esp my sister who is apparently not speaking to me and wont tell me why she's mad. She is however behaving like a petty child and complaining to my parents that I'm a horrible person for not mentioning her in my thesis. What the what??

Also the estate agents in Birmingham were pretty much jerks and made me cry. 

14. Where did most of your money go? 
Publishing my book, the reception after my promotion, the dinner for my promotion, the party for my promotion, flights for interviews, my visa to the UK, moving costs. 

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? 
Becoming a Dr; getting interviews; getting a post-doctoral position; going to Disneyland! 

16. What song(s) will always remind you of 2013? 
It's a small world. hahahaha sad but true

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer? 
Happier, fatter, way way poorer. (How can I be fatter every year and not be all that huge? Well, every winter I manage to gain lots of weight, and it seems to be a bit more every year. Then in spring/summer I lose some weight. Ugh vicious cycle). 

18. What do you wish you'd done more of? 
Exercise and sleep.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of? 
Lose sleep over stress.

20. How did you spend Christmas? 
In Utrecht with the cat packing boxes. First time ever I will be alone and not amongst either my family or Jamie's for Christmas. Kind of sad but I'm also super stressed over the move. 

21. Did you fall in love? 
I stayed in love.  

22. no question? 
23. What was your favorite TV program? 
Well we still love the same ones we loved last year. As for a new favorite, it would have to be Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? 
Hate is a strong word. I might consider removing this question in the coming years. 

25. What was the best book you read? 
I'm not sure if I read a book or not this year (edit - I completely forgot that I read the entire Dark Tower Series this summer! Book 3 was the best). I was too busy writing and doing the layout for my own book. Ohh but I did read part of a book for my review article (that was published by the Lancet Respiratory Medicine woohoo!) and my PhD supervisors managed to find a copy to gift to me when I promoted. The book is: Pneumonia: With special reference to pneumococcus lobar pneumonia by Roderick Heffron, MD. Originally published in 1939, but the copy that I have is the Harvard Commonwealth second printing in 1979. 

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I'm pretty sure I didn't discover anything musically this year. 

27. What did you want and get?
A first author publication (2 acceptances this year!), a PhD, a post-doctoral position in England. 

28. What did you want and not get? 
A post-doctoral position in a coastal city; the university to cover my visa application fees; a smooth and easy move to England; a sale on Etsy. 

29.  What was your favorite film of this year? 
Umm the only movie I can remember watching this year was Despicable Me 2. And we didnt even see it in the theatre.

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? 
I was 31 and invited friends over for a BBQ. It was cold, windy, and rainy, but gosh darnit I BBQ'd. Even did some smoking of meat which was tasty. And made my own BBQ sauce. --With blackstrap molasses, of course.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? 
Less migraines. Kind and supportive siblings. Definitely knowing that we are approved to rent the house we applied to rent in Birmingham. 

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2013?
Damask patterns! It was everywhere this year. So I bought a couple things.

33. What kept you sane? 
Knowing that the PhD had a very definite end in October.

34. Which public figure did you admire the most?
Well it was the 100 yrs anniversary of the death of Alfred Russel Wallace, so I suppose I learned about a person I should have known about.

 35. What political issue stirred you the most? 
No surprises here: Immigration rights and environmentalism. 

36. Who did you miss? 
My grandparents. And Jamie's parents. I wish they could have all been at my promotion. 

37. Who was the best new person you met? Why? 
My new boss! Because he hired me, of course.

38. Biggest discoveries for 2013 (vague on purpose) 
That I really enjoy printmaking. That I love wearing hand-knitted socks, but hate knitting them. That homemade pickles are delicious (esp from home grown cukes!). That spring onions are surprisingly easy to grow in small containers.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2014. 
Well I knew this one already but was painfully reminded of it: You don't get to choose your family. Or how they behave.

40. A quote or song lyric that sums up your year.          
I really like all the quotes I used in my book. I'll re-post them here:

"Though my soul may set in darkness, 
   it will rise in perfect light.
I have loved the stars too fondly
  to be fearful of the night."
       ~Sarah Williams

"Nature composes some of her loveliest poems for the microscope and telescope"
     ~Theodore Roszak

"And to our health we drank a thousand times, it's time, to ramble on"
   ~Led Zeppelin

Leaving Utrecht

I arrived with 2 suitcases and 2 backpacks, and I will leave with a whole truck full of stuff and a cat and a boyfriend. Hard to believe my time in Utrecht is almost over. Hard to believe that I have a PhD (more on that in a later post if i ever get around to it). There are some things about Utrecht and the Netherlands in general that I will be sad to leave, but on the whole, I'm glad to be leaving. I will miss my friends here the most, and second I'll miss the fried snacks and speculaas. But I wont miss being confused on a daily basis about communicating and conversing with people in general (since I never managed to grasp the Dutch language). Scared (because who isnt at least a little scared to move to a new country), but mostly excited.

A little stressed that we still have no idea how our stuff is going to make it from point A to B (Utrecht to Birmingham). I like to have everything taken care of in advance, and we thought we did, but then life threw us a curveball. Ugh. If I had had more time or more money I suppose we could have hired professional movers but at this point we are low on funds and time. So crossing my fingers that something works out. That at least one of the people we have asked for help can help us.

Also I hate moving b/c it involves a long list of doing things that I don't like to do. It's so, Adult.

Anyway here is a random assortment of Utrecht pictures.

The Shop Blog

Well this may seem a bit laughable considering how often I manage to post in this blog, but I have started a separate blog for the shop. I wanted to keep that separate from my personal blog. That way customers aren't reading about all the weird details of my personal life.

So if you want to read about shop announcements, or how it is that I make the art, or the science related to the art, and sometimes just cool science stuff, head over to Microbes and Art.

You can also find us (mostly Jamie since I totally do not understand the twitter) at @LoveBacteriaArt.

Because I finish what I start: December 2012 in pictures

Last one - you'd think I could have gotten around to it before now. But... See the post from 2 days ago...

We went with some friends to Maastricht to the Christmas Market which ended up being very small and not very awesome. But I did get some local honey so win to that. Also, there is/was a bookstore in a cathedral which was pretty cool to see.

At some point in December Islay started doing this:
She looks really cute, but dont be fooled, she only accepts 2-4 belly rubs before she kills you.

We made our yearly pilgrimage to the OBER Christmas Beer Festival in Essen, Belgium. Sadly, we could not go this year (2013) because of the chaos in moving to another country, but we hope to be back in 2014.

 I knit a super cool dino hat for my nephew Jake.

Islay inspected the Christmas gifts I made. -- Vanilla extract.

Islay attempted to sneak into the suitcase and go with us to Stevenage for Christmas and Boxing Day. Sadly, we had to leave her behind.

We said our goodbyes to dear Poppy, whose kidneys started to fail at the age of 18. Shortly after we left she peacefully passed away on the lap of Jamie's mom.

And Islay loved her Christmas presents!

Finally! I have wrapped up 2012. And before 2014 even. Goodness sakes, I am not a dedicated writer at all.

So much!

Wow, I haven't posted since APRIL. So much has happened since then.

Quick rundown:
Wrote papers (of the scientific variety)
submitted some papers
wrote thesis
submitted thesis to committee
sent emails to profs asking if they had any post-doc positions
got revisions on some papers
interviewed for a post-doc position
some papers published (hooray!)
thesis accepted by committee
learned InDesign and turned my thesis into a printed book
books arrived
handed out books
Thesis Defense!
PhD graduation!
"Holiday" with my parents and Jamie
Offered post-doctoral research fellow position in Birmingham
Return from holiday, open Etsy shop ( https://www.etsy.com/shop/LoveBacteriaArt )
applied for UK visa
UK visa successful and received
visit Birmingham and find a place to live
fill out forms and pay fees on rental house in birmingham

And still so much left to do this year! I start my new job January 13, 2014.
We hopefully move the first week of Jan.
I have realized since writing my thesis that I really do not like writing and that's why I hardly ever blog. Even though I have so much to say. I am going to try to remedy this. I want to like to write. I want to be a better writer.

November 2012 in pictures

November was another busy month for us. We traveled outside of he Netherlands, again. We really did make the most of autumn 2012, having not been able to travel much in the summer due to a kitty that couldn't stay healthy. I was a bit nervous to leave Islay during her recovery from surgery, but she seemed fine when we left and only starved for company when we got back. We went to Stockholm to visit a friend of mine, it was dreary, cold, and dark quickly, but the company was superb. I miss my friends "from Boston," but even if I moved back, it would never be the same. Being a scientist, most of my "Boston friends" weren't even from the USA let alone Boston, and many of them are not there anymore. The food was great, the coffee was great, and the yarn stores were cute, cozy, and reasonably priced. Stockholm is not as expensive as people would have you believe, but then Utrecht is  also extremely expensive IMO.

 We arrived in Stockholm just after Halloween and the Mexican embassy was hosting a party. So we went. Another Swede scientist friend from Boston also joined us so it was quite the little reunion. We ended up leaving around 1, being old fuddy-duddies, before the Mexican band even started playing.

Andreas and his partner live in the district Sodertorn, which is technically a suburb (but is literally right across the water from Sodermalm), and so the fastest way to get anywhere is via one of the many free ferries. This is looking out of the back of one.

We took a walk up a huge hill to a scenic look-out across Stockholm and from there could see the amusement park, closed for winter. I don't know why but i love pictures of empty amusement parks.

No trip to Stockholm is complete without a trip to the Vasa Museum. Incredible really. I highly encourage everyone to visit Stockholm just to see this.

After we returned home from Stockholm, Islay's life changed forever. We let her outside! She was a bit hesitant at first, but then was in total bliss smelling All the things.

She also decided she was a shoe. And therefore belonged in the shoe cubby that hangs from the ceiling.

October 2012 in pictures

Only 3 more months to go in my 2012 picture round-up. Actually, kinda glad. I'd like to touch on other things also, but feel I should finish one thing before starting the next. October as I remember it was a mixed bag of things. Autumn in general is like that. Islay continued to grow and amuse us, and was generally healthy this month (after several scares last month we were quite happy with that).

 Here is Islay annoyed at the flash but happy to explore my bag after we got back from the wedding in England.

 Book kitty was quite proud of herself for finally reaching the bookshelf from the radiator.

Fall colors begin to arrive along the canals of Utrecht.

 Islay finally started using the box we set up for her to sleep in. Now it's her favorite place.

 Poor kitty. She was spayed and wouldn't leave the stitches alone so we had to put a cone on her for her own good. She became quite depressed that week. Sadly she is also now terrified of the vets.

 I finished knitting a hat for the new baby girl of my cousin. I also finished a shrug but didnt get any good pictures of it. Too much grey blah.

September 2012 in Pcitures

September was a pretty busy month for us. We don't usually travel much, or even leave Utrecht that much. But this month we left the country twice and traveled to Scheveningen for a groupon dinner with friends. (Dutch test: can you correctly say Scheveningen?)

Caipirinhas! Yum

 Here we are at Rodezio Brazillian Restaurant in Scheveningen enjoying lovely cachaca cocktails. We went with our Brazilian friends. The food was very tasty, not as good as when you are in Brazil, but close enough for Europe.

After many months of trying, Islay finally made it to the top of our screens. And once she got there, she didnt know how to get back down again....

We went to Cologne, Germany for Jamie's birthday. I don't know why we hadn't gone earlier. We both love Cologne. I found a really awesome hotel to stay in called Antik Bristol Hotel. Every room has antique furniture from a different period. I told them it was Jamie's birthday and they gave us the honeymoon suite! It was amazing.

 This is a church with a room full of bone decorations in Cologne.
 Creep-tastic.

Islay tried to climb inside our packing cubes while we were packing to go to England. I think she wanted to join on the adventure.







We went to England at the end of the month for Jamie's older brother's wedding. They had a small ceremony at the registrar's office and then a reception. It was a chilly and windy day but also super sunny and bright - a bit strange for England in autumn.

So bright! Too much sun!