Saturday, September 29, 2012

Fall travel craziness!

On the Road... near Big Bend National Park, Texas, Copyright (c) 2007 Wendee Nicole


I can't believe it's been more than a month since I've blogged. It's been busy around here - and that's a good thing! A couple weeks ago, I finished my big feature on the Elwha dam removal project and that should be coming out next month in Environmental Health Perspectives. I had a few days of downtime, during which I actually went out on the town! Big news for me - I'm kind of a homebody sometimes. I went to lunch at Ruggles Green with my very first high school boyfriend, Sean, who I recently reconnected with on Facebook, then I got together for a fun dinner at Sparrow (celebrity chef Monica Pope's new restaurant) with Texas A&M buds Kim and Rob, and then had like the worst date of my life. Dude was so ridiculously egoic, it was almost funny, if his behavior wasn't so horrifying! One of these days I will write a humorous essay about all my crappy dates, but suffice it to say dude had one thing on his mind and apparently thought I did to, but noooo sir ee bob. Then he kind of freaked out and got all angry. Ah, dating is so much fun! (not). At any rate after my few days of downtime, I got another short turnaround assignment, due Monday, and that's what has me occupied for the last few days. Still working on it...

Rob, me, and Kim at Sparrow. Kim has her PhD in psychology and does something like... pediatric neuropsychology I think?! I'm so proud of her - I met her when she was a 17-year old freshman and she lived in my dorm! She's now married with a cute lil un. I havent met her husband, but they just moved to Houston, and I found her online. We went to lunch a few weeks back too! In college, she became friends with Rob and we all used to hang out a lot. I hadn't seen him in like 20 years! He is a PhD in Economics and is now a consultant. 


But I have some other exciting news to share... First... drum roll please... ... I have changed my name to Wendee Nicole. I decided it was time to move on from my "old" life, that is my ex-husband's last name, and time to move on from that and embrace my 'rebirth' with a new name. I registered wendeenicole.com and it's now live! I am in the process of updating some of the links, and other things around the web, but check it out!

And next... upcoming adventures!! Next week I'm headed to the SXSW-Eco conference in Austin - woohoo! There are several colleagues and friends I will meet for the first time and/or reconnect with there. I love networking! I was all set to go last year but then Costa Rica called... (and hey I'm probably going back there in November and I'm totally stoked about that.)

After that, I am headed to Washington DC because I was accepted into the NIH Medicine in the Media Course. I am headed there a day early and staying with an editor friend. and then...

The National Association of Science Writers conference in Research Triangle, North Carolina! This will be my first NASW conference and my first time to NC. I have been to almost every state in the U.S. except a handful on the east coast. One of these days I'll have to calculate the number left... and make a trip to them! But I digress. While there I get to stay with my old bud Lisa Sullivan, who lived near me in the apartment I lived in when I first separated from my exhusband. We did bible study together, carved pumpkins together, and she moved to NC a few years ago and I havent seen her since!

With all this travel, I'll be back a week in between just about every trip so it's gonna be a busy/crazy fall but I really love traveling. Tomorrow Sam is having his 16th birthday party, and I'll have a houseful of loud boys - all the while I'm trying to write my article on a crazy complicated research paper... sigh. I will be very glad when my article is done!

A silly pic of Savannah and I... pretty much sums things up.