...and i'm back!

i have a lot of blog catching up to do.

mbatE2008 was indeed the most bitchingly awesome trip EVER 2008. much to tell. hannah and i spent two weeks cramming in as much as we could of syria, jordan and israel (and palestine). loved syria best. but loved things about everywhere we went. photo highlights and themed anecdotes coming soon, i promise. here's a photo to whet your appetite (chosen completely at random so i make no promises about the representational quality of the photo):

eastern orthodox church in jerusalem from the amazing vantage point offered at the byu jerusalem center. that's all i'll say about that for now. i have like 600 photos and tons of stories and still need to swap photos with hannah so once i get things in order, i'll share more.


other photos...

here are some photos from my thesis defense that i didn't have a chance to post before leaving town:

one of the flyers posted around the biology building announcing my defense.

chatting with my committee after my presentation. ed, john and kathy had just signed off on my defense. i was feeling very relieved at this point.

my sweet friends who were in attendance (and had to hear me say "Cameraria sempervirensella" about 300 times) and were patiently waiting for me to finish chatting with my committee so that we could go get food.

post-defense at park chow where we celebrated both thesis completion and mackenzie's birthday. we ate lots of dessert and it was wonderful.

and then...
tuesday i celebrated my 30th birthday. the big 3-0! i took the day off work. went for a run around my favorite running loop. stopped by my favorite bakery. packed a picnic with my favorite lunch (veggie deli sandwich with salt and vinegar chips (to stick inside the sandwich)) and a favorite book and spent the afternoon lounging in the grass at tilden park. as inspired by amanda palmer, i just tried to enjoy everything good about the day.

and THEN that night, i celebrated my birthday the best way i knew how: with a trip to dorsey's locker. dorsey's locker: an establishment of legendary status in my mind. an enigma. a place of community and soul food, intrigue and intimidation, music and festivity. i've been working up the courage to go in there and order myself a soda since i first moved to oakland. my 30th birthday was as legitimate a reason as any to finally venture in. so i ventured. we all ventured. we braved the threshold of the dorsey's locker and found it to be everything i hoped it would be and more. it was magical.

the white, mostly soda-drinking, mostly mormon crowd that came to celebrate with me. we were a sight. a sight highly amusing to the regulars.

marquee proof of being at dorsey's locker. tuesday night was poetry slam night which was awesome.

me and leslie. (leslie and me? i can never remember.)

liz, tall chris and cameron.

vicky and mark.

with ashley, hannah and bigntall.

i think this was while everyone was singing happy birthday-just before someone shouted "remix" and the crowd broke it down. AWESOME!!!


laughing during the remix.

with ashley and the super nice bartender who got us our drinks just as if they were real drinks and invited us back for karaoke. sigh. i heart dorsey's locker. and so far, 30 rocks!