It's been a busy few weeks for me and that's much of the reason why I haven't written lately. Last Friday (22nd) Avi and I drove up to Orlando as, yes, we were going to Disneyland. It took us about 4 hours to get there as we got caught up in the traffic leaving Miami for the weekend. We got to our rental place just on 11 pm and it was amazing, 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, full garage, laundry, pool and kitchen for less than $90 a night. Sadly a lot of people had pulled out who had originally said yes and so it was just the two of us.
The next day we drove to the EPCOT center and that was very cool. Since I was very little my dentist had a wall mural of the EPCOT center on his ceiling, but I never dreamed I'd actually be inside the giant silver ball itself! We met up with Ray from gaming and his wife Marilyn and we walked around the park taking lots of photos and having a nice time. We rode on the "Test-Track" and toured the "World Village". It was rather cool that day and we went home just before sunset. We slept for about 3 hours and then Avi wanted to show me Church Street which is the big party center of Orlando. We drove and got lost but eventually after quite a drive made it there, but the weather was so cold that not a lot of people were out, although I imagine in summer it is extremely busy. We got home about 1:30 am and fell straight asleep.
The next day was Sunday and so we got up at 7:30 am and packed our bags. We bought tickets to "Universal Studios - Islands of Adventure" and got in about 9:30 am, the day was warmer and there were more people. There was a giant green roller-coaster called "The Hulk" and so we decided to go on that first while the lines were short. I'd never been on a rollercoaster before so by the time we got to the front my stomach was feeling very queasy, we got strapped in and away we went. After the first 30 seconds I was too scared to scream and after another 30 seconds it was over. When I got off it took quite a while to get my balance back as I was quite disorientated. Still after a few minutes I felt alright enough to get my face painted. It looked really cool and I felt very individual. :)
We then went on the "Spiderman Ride" which was also very cool and wandered around the Marvel Comic area, then past the Jurassic Park water rides to the "Dueling Dragons", another rollercoaster. We stood in the relatively short line, but just as we got to the front the ride shut down due to "technical difficulties" which was disappointing. We did a whole bunch of other rides and shows and then had lunch inside a very cool restaurant before heading back to "Dueling Dragons". Alas that was the mistake of the weekend since we stood in line for 90 minutes for what turned out to be a rather short and uninteresting ride. The next and final show made up for it somewhat, the "8th Voyage of Sinbad" live action-show. Lots of action, stunts and bad jokes and so forth.
By this time it was 4 pm and so we had to start the drive home. I had the task of keeping Avi awake on the trip home as it had been a weekend with lots of walking and not a lot of sleep. Still, we made it to Anthony and Jill's house in Fort Lauderdale by 8 pm where we got some hot food and good company. I helped set up Anthony's Mac laptop with internet connection, so I was happy to be able to pay them back somewhat for their hospitality. We were there for a few hours, and Avi dropped me off home about midnight.
The next few days were fairly hectic as it was my last official week. I had to synthesize the last few complexes, finish my notebook, back up my data, tidy my part of the lab and so forth. In all honesty I was a little bored since it's always easier to start new things then to finish old stuff. Nevertheless I go to work and got most things out of the way. Because it was only a three day week this made things all the much more hectic.
Wednesday afternoon was my last full day and so I was getting things together in the afternoon for my last meeting. I gave some crystals to one of the guys to look at and amazingly they diffracted cleanly and strongly! Talk about a relief, one of the things holding the paper up was a lack of a second crystal structure and now we had it! The timing couldn't have been more perfect, just before meeting with my boss. :)
Yesterday was Thanksgiving over here in the US, so I slept in for a while before heading over to the lab about 10:30 am. Most everybody from our group was in as they are mostly international students. I worked till about 2 pm cleaning up and then came home. Ben had kindly invited me to his house for dinner that evening and so I called Raul to ask for a lift. He was going to pick me up about 5 pm, but after showering and blow-drying my hair I was wandering about my apartment in a state of undress when he knocked on my door at 4:15 pm, Grrrrr. So I got ready in record time and I was dressed up quite nicely as I didn't know how formal or casual Thanksgiving dinner would be. It turned out I was quite overdressed, but that was much preferable to be being underdressed like at the Theatre a few weeks ago.
We arrived around 5 pm and there were Ben's parents and his sisters family there. It was very nice and homely and the food was really good. In the true American tradition we were all stuffed and so we didn't make it to dessert until several hours after. Deb is now 6 months pregnant which she is happy about and I had a nice time talking to Ben's sister. We came home about 11 pm, I though about going to a movie but decided to crash instead.
The Friday after Thanksgiving is knows as "Black Friday", because it is the biggest shopping day of the year and is traditionally when many stores move from the red into the black. I didn't wake until about 9 am, but was curious to see the shopping frenzy for myself. I caught the Metrorail down to the small mall near my house about 10:30 am and the crowd in Target wasn't too bad. They had lots of cashiers on and when I bought a few bras I had no trouble getting through. The story in Best Buy (a big electronics chain) was much different, especially as the day progressed with lots of crowds and lines. I had seen a few interesting deals, mostly on computers, but I decided I didn't need to spend the cash and there was little point getting bulky things immediately before I move. I have seen this computer deal which I am thinking about.
I finally caught the train back to the University around midday and went to the lab. My boss wasn't in, so I couldn't hand over my lab books, so I checked my email and then came home.
I called up Illara to see how she was doing and the answer was unexpectedly and happily quite well. :) It seems she met a girl last week and they've been inseparable since. I was very happy for her and let her get back into bed. I called up Ally and as usual we talked for about 2 hours. She'd had an alright Thanksgiving and was hoping to get out later in the day. I regaled her with my news and she me with hers. The rest of the evening for me has been fairly quiet, I had intended to go and see "Die Another Day" but decided to pass until at least next week.
The next three weeks are going to be hectic. I fly out of Miami on the 19th December. As much as it pains me, I know that driving along an unfamiliar icy highway in a moving van is a bad idea. This means I will need to have my things stored and shipped to Montana separately which blows out my idea of driving there from Miami. It might be that I drive up to Seattle/Vancouver from LA and then drive across through Idaho.