Before & After 25

Is it seriously October 20th already?  I’m incredibly sorry for the unintended absence of blogging but my life has been a little crazy these days, and I’m now getting around to writing something. 

A lot has happened since the last post… Most of the chaos was generated from trying to meet too many deadlines and then my adventure in Austin for 5 days, followed by a massive school’s homecoming picnic.  It’s almost correct of me to say that I had been a walking zombie for a while, but I’m recovering to be a normal human again. 

If you didn’t know already, I was in Austin for quite a while due to couple reasons. The original purpose of the trip was to attend a conference in which I was co-presenting, but it also happened to be on my birthday. So why not take advantage?  Even though the conference started on Sunday afternoon, I drove down on Friday.  There, I met up with Z and we celebrated my quarter life birthday all weekend (did I tell you I am now 25?).  It was really sweet of him to do that, and though his friends tagged along the trip, we spent most of the weekend together.  It was fantastic.

But before the awesome Austin trip, I had to endure the torturous packing in which lasted till 2am the day I left.  I was struggling to choose outfits for social occasions and conference setting.  Especially for professional wardrobe, I wanted to something I can handle for more than 8 hours a day without killing myself. I opted to wear dress.

The following collage sort of described my weekend before conference.  It involved lots of delicious food from both food trucks and local restaurants, spending late nights on 6th street (that’s where all the bars and dance clubs are located), shopping, and snapping lots of cheesy pictures with Z.  He was very compliant to my picture-taking.  

{This is one of Austin’s famous graffiti on Congress Avenue}

 

 

<—Z also bought me earrings that I personally chose as my birthday gift. This time it was an Asian artist I supported, and we had a very insightful conversation about speaking in mother language even growing up in the U.S. 

 

 

 

 

Z was with me until Monday morning, the day I turned 25, sang happy birthday to me, and headed down to Galveston for school.  By then, my serious/professional mode was back on, and  my mind was all about making sure no stupid mistakes were to made during the presentations. Yes, my presentation was on the day of my birthday. You tend to forget that you just got one year older when you got more important agenda going on.

 

 

With the support from my academic program advisor and Yolanda, who rushed in to the room to see me, my presentation went successfully. I felt pretty confident during my short presentation. As a grad student, it was certainly an experience I enjoyed from preparation to presentation.  I learned a lot from attending education sessions, especially the keynote speakers, and gave me some critical perspective to consider as I develop in the profession.

{Yolanda was so nice to take a picture of me presenting!}

We enjoyed our lodging by Lake Austin during the conference. A nice presidential reception was held on the rooftop with live entertainment and drinks.  Though the strong wind, the weather that weekend was absolutely perfect.

 

That night, I had a birthday dinner with my boss, colleagues, and friends at Austin’s famous Tex-Mex restaurant, Trudy’s.  I enjoyed a plate called Stuffed Avocado.  My mouth was in heaven. And my stomach, too. Before leaving Austin, Yolanda and I enjoyed a lunch bento box. Yum!

And then, there was today.  By a complete surprise, I blew candles and a delicious birthday cake presented to me by my boss.  Being the baker, and a firm believer of having a cake on one’s birthday, she made one for me. We had a belated celebration with our student assistants and other engineering students. 

Life is almost back to normal now.  Looking forward to a restful weekend and getting ready for another busy week followed by a special weekend for me and Z! 

P.S. – No, I have not had a quarter-life crisis yet.