Need a pick-me-up?

Happy hump day!

Need a pick-me-up to get you to Friday?

You should meet Claude, the master of Hula:



If you haven't, you're truly missing out. He is fantastically awesome. He is here visiting us through Sunday. :)

Groovin' Old Man

The highlight of this weekend was coming up on an old man groovin' to some drumming in Central Park. He did this for at least an hour, and then we walked past the same spot a few hours later to see him still there! He starts off with some intense shaking, then some body rolls, followed by crazy spinning!



I never know why iphone videos show up funny. If you make it full screen you can see it better.
I love this old man!!! All of this dancing is probably the reason why this old man is so skinny. Exercise!

We also walked along The High Line park on Saturday. Its an old freight railroad that sits above most buildings in the city, and they made it into a public park! It was pretty impressive and I was happy to see something so eco-friendly in the city.



















The north end of the High Line ended up in some crazy inflatable park. All you could do was hit/push/hug(?) these giant inflatable things. They also played this weird carnival music that reminded me of the creepy guy in the jumpsuit from the movie "Hanna."




Then we ended the day watching people sail remote control boats in Central Park and talked about how badly we want to go on a vacation somewhere.





By the way there are fireflies in NYC. I didn't know that! Awesome.

Someone has a case of the Mondays (seen that movie?). By someone, I mean me. Even though I passed my thesis proposal last week, I just got an email from my PI saying that she wants to have a personal meeting with me on Friday. That pretty much means that I'm going to be berated for an hour or so (It happens regularly). She always tells me I'm moving too slow and that I'm not in lab enough and that I don't care enough about my project. That amazes me because I don't do anything else BUT my project and I'm moving as fast as a new masters student can!! Mind you, I'm not a phD student! Plus I stay there longer than most other people in the lab. ugggh. I think she just wants me to sign my soul over to science. Too late lady---I already did! What else do you want from me?

Uggh. I hate Yell-At-Lacey-Days.

Children, don't go into a science research-based career. And If you do anyway, make sure to pick your lab carefully. Verrrrryyyyy carefully.

HI HI HI HI HIIII!!!!!

Its official!! I am now a 2nd year graduate student!!

Waaahoooooo!

Seriously, this last year WAS SO HARD. Grad school in science research is so different than undergrad studies, and I really felt like school/my research almost made me completely lose my sanity. BUT... I made it! And I've never been happier to be done with something in all of my life! I've learned a ton, but boy, am I glad summer is here! I just finished up my thesis proposal research presentation yesterday, which the final assignment of the first year. I get pretty nervous when it comes to speaking anyway, so the combination of talking about my research in front of a ton of people who are a billion times smarter than me almost made me lose it completely! There was ~10 min for questioning and that was the scary part! I practiced my presentation a billion and a half times, so I could have probably recited it without my slides, but the questioning part was the hard part, and probably took up the majority of the grading besides research content. My committee judges were the immunology MTA directors and they really grilled me on my methods and results, but I think I ended up answering their questions well and I'm glad its over. SO GLAD its over. And I'm so glad to have friends in my program that helped me out with all of my projects!

Anyway, SO much has gone on in our lives. Seth turned 27 in May, and I turned 24 in June. We're old! I actually found 3 gray hairs on my head this morning to justify that. Seth finished his semester like in May and started summer term, which he is still in, and is taking classes on International security studies (anti terrorism stuff). I am still doing my research in lab, and will be up until the fall semester. We're hoping to get out of here sometime for some sort of vacation---which needs to happen so I don't spend my summer in front of my lab bench! Another interesting thing is that I'm starting my 200hr yoga teacher training this fall! I'm so excited and I can't wait to get started. I've come so far with my yoga practice, and it will be so awesome to be able to go farther.

Anyway, every once in a while, we've been able to venture out into the city. I have so many pictures from the last few months, so I'll just throw a few up on here for you---if anyone still reads this!

I'm so excited to be back in the blogging world again!

Yankees vs. Red Sox game at Yankee Stadium:

Knicks vs Celtics playoff game for Seth's birthday at Madison Square Garden:





BTW I just thought that I would mention that every home NY game we've gone to, NY has lost. Bad luck maybe?


Coney island/NY Aquarium for my birthday:

Birthday cupcakes with friends!:





My 2nd home. I only took this picture because I was running 8 protein gel transfers that day, and that was quite a nerd feat.




Other fun days:

Soho:


Central Park:

View of Manhattan from Brooklyn:

Checking in...

I'm alive! I promise!

I finish up my multidisciplinary training area studies this Thursday, and then I'm on the home stretch towards finishing my first year of grad school by giving a research presentation at the end of June. After this week I have sooooo much to post! Check back soon!

World Trade Center after 5.1.11

As promised, here are the photos I took in the crowds at the WTC site today:

You can see one of the memorial buildings being built in the background of this shot. The fences that lined the construction site of the memorial were lined with different things people had posted since the death of Osama bin laden.

Clippings of the news of his death:

Flowers and notes dedicated to loved ones who passed on 9/11:

This one says: "They got him T.J. I miss you and I love you."

Notes of thanks to President Obama and all of those that were involved in helping with the aftermath of 9/11:

And of course there were lots of patriotic people there!

The streets were blocked off due to the enormous amount of news coverage in the area--there were giant satellites, lights, news anchors, the works!

I am like 95% sure I was on some sort of news channel tonight. I stood behind these guys and took pictures for like 10 minutes. :)

I wasn't there too long--crowds get me anxious! But it was awesome to go down and see this, as I think its a pretty big moment in American history. The feeling here was a lot different that what you see on the news going on in times square and in other places where people are just screaming and running around going crazy celebrating Osama's death. This place had a lot more reverence and emotion, and was more about the memory of people who had passed away on 9/11/01. It was very respectful. It had a really somber feeling of remembrance and of patriotism. I'm so glad that I went. :)