Yaaaaaaaaaayyyyyy!! Congrats to Bode, Sallie (with an 'ie'), Jared and NihaoMaria!! Also to my sister Mo, who got engaged for the second time to the same guy, the same time of year (twice). Yes, that last one is confusing, but the main point is that I am so happy for everybody (everybode haha) who has found that special someone to spend the rest of their lives with. It is so great to see all my friends and my sister marrying strong Christian people, and I can't wait to meet those of you that I haven't met yet.
Obviously I am in a rambling mode, and I have a crapload of stuff to do for my animal diversity lab tomorrow (ack), but Yaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyy!!!
:)

There was an article in the Collegian (Penn State's campus newspaper) yesterday about a guy who was talking on a cell phone and got his foot run over by a passing car. First of all, how do you get just your foot run over? That would be incredibly hard, even if you and the driver were cooperating--I don't know, I've always imagined getting hit by a car is an all or nothing event. Anyway, this particular running over of the foot resulted in both parties getting mad, fighting, and the driver ended up with his front teeth rammed up in to the roof of his mouth.
I tend to sympathize with the driver, even though pedestrians do have the right of way. I wish there was an acception to this rule, however, that stated "In the event that the pedestrian is injured while talking on a cell phone, no blame can be placed on the driver." Driving in State College terrifies me sometimes, especially downtown. This is not because of the cars or even the bikes. It is the pedestrians who are either drunk, stupid, making out, on their cell phone, or even all of the above, that make me drive down College Avenue (speed limit 25) at a breakneck speed of 10 mph, just so I don't run over these people.
Which reminds me of a story...
About two years ago, Dan and I went over to Bing's house to play cards, and bless his heart, Bing forgot to tell us that we had to park in the guest parking lot. We didn't think to even ask because the lot by Bing's apartment was virtually empty, and it was a Saturday night. However, towing companies here are very passionate and aggressive when it comes to doing their job, and as you can imagine, our little Delta 88 Oldsmobile got towed away. This cost us approximately 1/7 of what we paid for the car to get it back from the tower, so naturally, we weren't too thrilled about that.
This led to us experiencing our first bus ride in State College. It wasn't a football weekend, but it was Saturday at midnight, and thus, drunks abound. A couple got on the bus after us and began to make out (full body contact, and I mean every single body part) in the back of the bus. This is a lot more humorous when Dan adds the tongue choreography, but this will have to suffice for now. A group of even more drunk guys got on, and to our amusement, plopped themselves down in the seats surrounding the couple who were by this point bathing each other like kittens. No bother, though--the couple just kept going at it, while the guys around them giggled, snorted, jeered, and cheered. It got to be quite comical, but I think I would rather have been spared the image, because now, after almost 2 years after the fact, I can still remember seeing the guy's tongue ring and wondering how anyone's tongue could stretch that long.
Now that you've heard my version, be sure to ask Dan (in person) what his take on it was. I guarantee it, you will be amused...or repulsed...still ask him though.

In response to Chris' comment--I hope we can stay and do the youth group for years to come, but if FISH doesn't change from its wishy washy state to something that actually teaches these kids something about God and their relationship with him as Christian teens, it really is not worth my time and energy, in my mind. We will meet with our pastor, who is in charge of FISH, this Wednesday, so hopefully that will go well. We also have a leaders meeting coming up in December, so we're hoping that we can get some feedback then as to how open the other leaders are to changing for the better.

Dan was reading Hamlet with soaring classical music playing? Yup, that's my mand. I guess I'm not too surprised, but it's definitely not commonplace these days. However, in his defense, it could be (and is, with some guys) a lot worse. He cracks me up--I asked him why he never dated anyone in high school or college, because personally, after getting to know him (and marrying him) I can't see why anyone would NOT want to know him better. His answer to that question was that he was incredibly dense, and maybe girls had asked him out, but he didn't know about it. Hmm. I can see that too, I guess, but I must say it is nice being the only girl he thought 'worthy' of dating, or that he wasn't absolutely repulsed by. If any of you were at our wedding, his friend Kyle told some tales about Dan, the woman-hater (as a young boy), as Dan giggled his agreement that yes, he once thought that girls were the enemy, etc. I love it when Doug or Roubos (or anyone else, for that matter) comes to visit, because it is then that I learn even more odd stories about Dan. So come on over, everyone! We have a spare bedroom now, and will actually clean out all the crap if you show up on our doorstep for a visit. The last visitor was Doug, with whom we even went golfing. THAT was fun. :) My personal favorite was watching Doug tee off with his putter.
Anyway, back to my playing with acid and peroxide. Zaijian, y'all.

I am back at playing with acid and hydrogen peroxide today--don't try this outside of your fume hood. :)
Last Saturday was the first Saturday of this semester that I didn't have to go in to work. AND, since it was the last football weekend, Dan and I celebrated by NOT going into work, and snickering with glee at the 11000 Penn State football fans who had to watch their favorite pastime in misting rain (too bad it wasn't a little colder...). I'm sorry, I just don't get very excited about football weekends, since traffic gets tied up, you have to plan your day around when the game is on, and even parking for church the next morning is tricky, since our church is downtown. Buwaaaaa...
C-Bass (Chris, whatever I should call you), thanks for your comments on FISH--Dan forwarded them to me. It's good to hear what other youth groups are doing--maybe ours needs to step out of its incestuous comfort zone and do a little research. We will get together with the main leader (the associate pastor of our church) this Wednesday, so hopefully that will go well. He is a great guy, and I think he agrees with us for the most part in terms of theologies, etc. However, I don't want him to think that we are just full of criticisms for this program that he's been in charge of for 10 years now. Hopefully no feelings will be hurt and we can all be open-minded and kind about what we say.
On a completely different note, I had a funny (i.e. interesting) conversation with someone a few weeks ago. My boss went to China and met another scientist there who was doing some really interesting research with integrated agriculture (where the farm grows or has everything it needs without having to import or export anything--the traditional farming approach, I guess...). Apparently, this guy speaks a little Japanese, having spent 2 years of his Ph.D. in Japan. So my boss suggested that I call him up in China and see if we can get some kind of collaboration going. Well, I did, and the conversation started off in Chinese. Although I can order my favorite dishes at a restaurant, bargain at the underground market, and even carry on low-level conversations with my broken Chinese, I am anything but fluent right now, ESPECIALLY in scientific Chinese. So you can imagine how quickly I let him know that Japanese was ALSO a common language that we shared. The rest of the conversation (very short) consisted of him trying to make me hang in there with my Chinese, while I answered him in Japanese. At one point he tried to figure out what nationality I was in the first place, but that just made matters worse, I think. Anyway, I am fairly excited and hopeful about setting up a collaboration (possibly a summer internship) with him. I would love to go back to China, and it would be a great excuse to visit Japan again, this time with Dan. :) (ironically--and this will get old, I'm sure--the word for 'husband' in Japanese is "Danna", so I will introduce my "Danna" as "Dan" hahaha).
Anyway, enough for now. I think my acid and peroxide mixture has sufficiently chewed up and digested my roots. These are the last of 90 or so plants that I have been digesting for what seems like forever. Yee ha.
Have a great Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the rest of the year!
Zaijian, y'all...

Biking to school in the morning is not as fun as it used to be (when it was still decently unfrigid). Since daylight savings kicked in a few weeks ago, the sun has been a plus in my morning rides to school, either to attend the Introductory Biology class I am TAing, or to teach my 8:00am lab. That has been quite the adventure this semester. Overall, it has been a good learning experience, but kind of frustrating at the same time. I don't remember being as irresponsible or whiny of a freshman as my students are here. Maybe I am babying them too much, but due to their lack of ability to 'follow directions', a lot of them are getting zeroes or losing points they really really could use. Oh well. It could be worse. I could be in their shoes, having to do college all over again. :) Some of them are kind of funny, and crack me up. Like the kid who, knowing that I work with plants, told me (and the class) "Having to do a Plant Diversity lab is like the lowest point you can get in a semester." hahahaha, wait 'til you hit taxonomy, kid. I don't know--it just gets tiring fighting with kids for every point and a half. As a typical "B" student, if I got a bad grade, I usually assumed it was because I hadn't studied enough (which was usually the case). I have a lot of pre-med students who tell me "I can't get a C--I'm pre-med!" I'm not quite sure how the logic works there, but I respond with a blank stare, trying to convey the message, "Oh, but look on your paper--what letter is that?"
Anyway, enough about students. Research has come to a halt since, oh wait, I still have no 'data' to speak of. I have been writing a grant proposal for the last few months, and though the proposal itself is only supposed to be 2 pages, including references, my proposal has been ever-evolving, and I swear, I have gone through about 7-8 versions of the same thing. It started out as a proposal to try to culture my fungi (something that hasn't been done yet), and now I am attempting to examine why arbuscules are ephemeral, how defenses are suppressed during AMF colonization, and why mycorrhizal plants are more resistant to other pathogens. It's kind of like that game you play where one message is whispered to one person after another, and by the end of the line, you have something completely different. Anyway, as of this past Wednesday, my advisor and I had us a good ol' fashioned 'sit down', and got things hammered out, once and for all. Yay. :) This made me very happy, as I only have about a week left before it is due.
Besides TAing and grant proposals, my choir and FISH (our youth group) have been keeping us busy. My choir has grown from about 5-8 last year, to an average of 10 this year, and I'm hoping for 20 by the end of next semester. Directing is a blast, especially because I have the power (and the will) to get Dan to sing solos. Which he did, by the way, last Sunday, in a smashing rendition of "Every Time I feel the Spirit". It was awesome. So he kicks my butt in debating--he has to obey me if I tell him to sing. :) Anyway, he kicked butt in that too, as far as I'm concerned.
One thing that has been at the center of our conversations (since the election, of course) has been FISH. It's kind of weird--since this is already a really long blog, I'm going to make it even longer. Well, FISH is a massive group (60-70) of high school kids who are led by 10 or so leaders (including Dan and myself, as of this year), and we meet every Wednesday evening, from 6-9. This time starts off with dinner prepared by the deacons or some kind group in the church (our deacons rock), followed by a time of singing and announcements, then we break into small groups and discuss topics such as pop culture, the media, how to see eye to eye when you don't agree with someone, etc. All of these topics are very good ones to bring up, and for the most part, the kids get into them one way or another. Here's the thing, though--this group is by far THE MOST accepting and loving group of kids and adults I have ever been part of, it's almost like a cult. In their testimonials at the end of the year, seniors often share that "FISH has brought me so much joy and I have felt so much love in FISH, and it's very comforting to know that I will always have that FISH feeling with me." Take out the word FISH, insert the word "God", and you will have your run-of-the-mill Christian testimony. Judging from that outcome--namely, that the kids are not making the connection between this nice feeling, welcoming atmosphere, unconditional love with GOD--it seems that maybe that correlation is not being made enough in the way we do things at FISH. It's great to be accepting and loving, and that is something a lot of us Christians can be such hypocrites about. However, with redemption comes the responsibility of obedience and sacrifice, and those things are not as easily taught to a group of high school kids without offending someone. It seems like some of the leaders would rather just let the kids take the conversation into their comfort zones, rather than challenging them with questions like "As Christians, what kind of responsibility do we have here?" or even questions like "Is this right?" I don't believe that exempts us from teaching it, though. In fact, if they aren't taught those kind of fundamental truths and morals now, they are not going to hear them in college, where peer pressure is rampant to have sex soon into a relationship, living together, the "If you're OK with it, then maybe it's OK for you" ideology, you know the rest. Dan and I have only been on board for a few months now, so rocking the boat trying to change the way we do things is not something we want to do quite yet. We have decided to give it a year to see if our views change any on how FISH operates and whether it is worth our time and energy every week. If God wants us here, then yes, I'm all for it, but it's hard to see what my role is here when "God" and "Christianity" are almost taboo subjects (just in the sense that if you mention them, you might offend some people).
Anyway, thanks for reading. If you have any suggestions, etc. I would be happy to read them. This is just something we have been struggling with the past few months. Hopefully we can be patient and creative in our efforts to reach the kids, but right now, I'm not quite sure how to do that.
Have a great weekend. Remember, God is good all the time, and all the time God is good. :)