one sleepy peach

one sleepy peach
Originally uploaded by kellypeach

so, life status update:

as many of you know, i'm in graduate school. last year i had loads of time consuming classes and terrible tests that required weeks of arduous preparation. then i finished my first year.

the summer was glorious. i went home from work and just chilled out. i regained possession of my evenings. i drew. i rode bikes. i watched movies. i took deep breaths. i did yoga. i cut stencils. i sent boatloads of mail. i hula hooped. i juggled. i drank beer. i danced until the wee hours of the night. i read zines. i chilled the fuck out.

unfortunately, my evenings have been stolen out from under me once again. i now spend every evening working on....dun, dun, duuunnn. my second year seminar. it's this miserable rite of passage required for year two. you must prepare and present an hour long seminar on a novel and innovative topic of organic chemistry. the professors are sure to ask terrible, terrifying questions. there are sure to be at least 100 eyes on you while you try and describe the transition state of your compound with the BARF ligand, that's right, the BARF ligand. WHO DOES THAT?!? WHAT TYPE OF SCREWED UP JERK NAMES THEIR LIGAND 'BARF'? HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO SAY BARF IN FRONT OF 50 PEOPLE WITHOUT LOSING IT. I'M SCREWED. anyhow, i've been preparing for this damn talk for a full month. i have one week to go before the big day, and

i am tired.

i am tired of spending every evening falling asleep amidst a scattered pile of science articles. i am tired of waking up at 6:00am on BOTH saturday and sunday to get to work by 8:00am. i am tired of spending over 13 hours a day thinking about asymmetric biaryl synthesis. i am tired of never seeing my boyfriend, or making him miserable by having to be around my grumpy ass. i am tired of powerpoint. i am tired of chemdraw's lack of fucking keyboard shortcuts. WHAT THE HELL CHEMDRAW PROGRAMMERS!?! DO IT FUCKING BETTER. i am tired of never having a spare moment to answer phone calls. i am tired of being so nervous and strung out that i can't sleep. i am tired of ordering small mochas at the coffee shop everyday, so i can legitimately spend 7 hours at my table. i am tired of this miserable routine.

i can't wait for this to be over. for spring break i'm going to breckenridge for a parasitology conference. once i get back from that i'm not going to leave the airport, i'm going to head to a different gate for a WEEK LONG VACATION TO PORTLAND, HELL YA! i can't wait to transform back into a balanced human again.

the tunnel is still very dark, but there is a small pinpoint of white light in the distance. god i hope i have the perseverance to see that pinpoint widen.

one tough papa of a sandwich

one tough papa of a sandwich
Originally uploaded by kellypeach

check out this gnarly sandwich i made for lunch. it has...drumroll please.....corn, shredded beats, shredded carrots, onions, heirloom tomatoes (b/c i'm fancy like that), avocado, freshly fried tofu (fried this morning anyhow), and wasabi mayo slapped between two pieces of sprouted bread.

the beets n' carrots make it sweet. the wasabi mayo is a spicy kick in the pants. the avocado chills out the mayo, and the corn adds that funky bit of texture required for a totally exciting meal.

goddamn it's delicious.

more tutorial photos to follow...in a couple weeks when i resurface from science hell.

Heteronuclear Multiple Bond Correlations

Heteronuclear Multiple Bond Correlation
Originally uploaded by kellypeach

so, i am officially a slave to chemistry. when i'm not making slides for my seminar on biaryl synthesis i'm working up 2D NMR data. for our assignments we are given the structure of some freaky poisonous natural product (this week it's a gnarly rat poisoning!), and have to assign all the peaks and correlations. laura and i almost had a communal mental breakdown, but we used out sudoko focusing power and BUSTED through the barrier. safe to say we didn't finish, but we made some phat progress. PHAT!

here are my notes from my structure elucidation class. i'm so glad i sewed my new pen pouch; i never would have been packing the color diversity required to illustrate these correlations otherwise!

well, it's 6:30pm, since i got here at 7:45am it's about time to leave campus and start working on chemistry somewhere else. man i sure am HAPPY! not one irritated, burnt out, sleep deprived, overwhelmed, fun deprived, or anxious bone in my whole fucking body.

pen pouch in all it's pen-a-licious glory

pen pouch in all it's pen-a-licious glory
Originally uploaded by kellypeach

i made this yesterday to hold all my pens that like to float all willy-nilly about my pannier otherwise. i meant to make it a little longer, but it isn't. so, now only well used, shorter pencils will fit inside. it fits pens of all sizes though. plus a mini-ruler.

isn't this fabric fantastic? reminds me of how excited i am to attend the opening of the seahorse exhibit at the monterey bay aquarium!

circus in santa cruz

lately i've been reinvigorated by my somewhat forget hobby of 'circus arts'. i've broken it into the different genres below

juggling:
i taught mike how to juggle, and now he is always picking up my juggling balls and coaxing/tempting me to pick up juggling again. we've been working on passing and we spend about 30 minutes working on it before we end up on the floor in a tangled-up giggly piles of limbs. it's pretty awesome. i can't wait to get him juggling clubs. i've also been passing a bit with the older men who attend all the juggle nights in town. there are two circus practice nights: sundays at the light house there is a hoop jam followed by a fire jam, and wednesdays at the vet's hall in town there is circus jam. john, a fantastic sweet man, is really amazing, and a fantastic teacher. some of you may have actually run into him before at the juggling tent at the oregon country fair. he is one of the main teachers there. he also owns a share on belly acres, the juggling commune in hawaii. i have met a few other very skilled jugglers through him and they have been good at pushing me to pass more. i tend to be a fairly independent juggler, but i'd like to force myself to play more with others when it comes to juggling.
i've learned new tricks too! i can now do flourishes in both hands, and i can throw doubles on the sides with one club in the middle doing tennis between the columns on either side(343 i think...). i am also learning to throw doubles while passing. pretty fun.

hula hooping:
i started hula hooping on the juggle farm, but when i moved away i was hoopless and remained so until my move to santa cruz. one of my burning man camp buddies is an excellent hooper and since hooping is 'totally hot right now' i bought the tubing and tape and started making my own. my buddy 'vanessa vortex' taught me the trade in pdx, but i actually started taping my hoops in santa cruz. i made a really gorgeous pink n' green hoop for the burn, and i've been rocking it ever since. the hoop jam at the lighthouse is AWESOME. full of fantastic hooper with skillz to share. i learned how to hoop around my chest vertically and how to hoop around my elbow horizontally with my head bowed out of the hoop. explaining circus tricks is silly. but, i am starting to feel like i have a nice arsenal of hoop tricks to play with. the next development on the horizon? FIRE HOOPING!

poi:
oh poi, how i've forgetten you. i rarely spin poi these days. i find that other people who spin poi are snobby and stuck up, unfortunately. this make skill sharing pretty lame. i never feel like people are jazzed about teaching in the poi community. i did, however, get my wall plane anti-spin 4-pointed flower happening the other day, SUPER EXCITING. i hope to work on poi more later, when it's sunny outside and i have EPIC amounts of time. it's funny, the better you get at poi the harder it gets to learn new tricks. antispin is KILLING me right now. way too hard. i feel like i can't break down the anti-spin wall. it's brick and 4 layers thick.

yup. that's the circus update. i am also interested in costuming more these days. i've posted a few fun hats, and i really want to put together some good performance costumes, so i don't just look like a laid back juggling hippy chick playing with different toys. but look more playful and performer-like.

okay, back to biaryl synthesis reading. i am narrowing my topic to innovative biaryl axially chiral cycloisomerization reactions. i know, the title needs work....

no time for editing! i'm sorry.