Past Due for an Update

Ahhhh!! I'm sad to say I haven't even thought of blogging in a long time. So much has happened in the last few months, I don't know if I have the time or the energy to catch up with everything. But I'll try...
The REUs left at the end of July. This group was absolutely amazing... they made my job almost too easy. I cried at the end of the Symposium, in front of EVERYONE... but it was only because I was sad to see them go. I get so attached, maybe too much so, but I can't help myself. That's probably one of the downsides of me being the REU Coordinator- I doubt my predecessors ever cried when a group left.

After REU was over, August flew in and out so quick I can't remember what went on. I know Beau graduated and he and Caroline moved to Pennsylvania. We made a couple of trips to Charleston that month- once with Chris, Qiang, Dave (one of the REUs that got to stay a few weeks later) to show them the beach, and another time with a big group of Grad students. Both trips were fun- I actually managed to get some sun out of the deal.

Soon, it was September, and we were celebrating Casey's birthday. We had a really fun Scavenger Hunt Pub Crawl in Five Points... we had a list of 10 things each group had to do, and whoever won would get a prize. The groups had a lot of fun, and everyone did a really good job, so it was hard to pick a winner in the end. After the Hunt, we went to Jake's (a bar) and ended up drinking the night away. Casey had a really good time (although not so much the next day...) so it made for a fun celebration. In addition, my parents came to town that weekend, so we got to see them for a few days. It was fun, but it always goes too fast. We went shopping quite a bit, went out to eat a lot, and basically just hung out in Columbia and entertained ourselves.

Before we knew it, Attilio was defending his disertation, and his last days in Columbia were here and gone so quick, we barely had time to say goodbye. It's not the same without him around. We had a lot of fun with him during his last week here, and got to see him quite a bit. He'll be back in December to officially graduate. It sounds like Tochi will finally get to graduate this December as well. It will be great to see both of them. :)

Tabetha also graduated in May, but I didn't get to see her a whole lot before she left. She and Sam are now living up in New Jersey. She's supposed to come back and visit sometime in November. I miss her a lot, too! I hate it when people leave!!

Right now, Casey's at a conference in Asheville; he just left this morning. I'm finishing book 7 of Harry Potter... I'll probably get it done in the next few days, and then I'm not sure what I'm going to do. It's such a great series that I'm really sad to be done with it. :(

Thursday, I'm going home to Chelsea & Jonathan's wedding, which should be fun. I hope to see a lot of people while I'm home. Casey's staying back in Columbia. Looks like I won't see him much this week. Luckily the conference is only a day and a half, so he'll be home tomorrow night. He's super busy at the moment, and trying to defend by December. It's going to be a couple of crazy months, so if I can manage to remember to write in this, I should have quite a bit to write about.

That's all for now... plenty more to come. :)

-Ash