Currently holed up on the futon drinking the Walgreens version of LemSip/Neocitran and making cool stuff out of crochet. (Christmas presents, if I can bear to give them away!) Caught some sort of horrible swollen-throat thing, probably from the kiddies at work. Tis that time of year.

Think I am finally over my bout of crazy-brain anxiety, which is good, but bad because there was a lot I should have accomplished. I just felt paralyzed. Very annoying. Thanks for the supportive comments, by the way, which I couldn't read at the time because I was worried about what they would say. Crazy-brain. Anyway, the wedding is sort of on the way to being planned in that we're busy contact registrars, applying for visas etc. Judging by Pinterest most peoples' wedding planning is taken up by much more fun things (then again, apparently envelope liners are a thing - "a skilfully lined envelope hints at the elegant invitation within!" - so maybe not).

I did manage to get one paper submitted thanks to my rock-star buddy at Regina, who spotted me some data and let me do the write-up for the first-author slot. No word yet, but just to have something submitted is huge. No sign of anything out of the postdoc, and in fact feel actively blocked by supervisor everytime I try to do something, so that sucks. I have told him I'm leaving at least, AND got my US visa extended, so two huge stressful things are out of the way. Currently applying for postdoctoral funding (that I don't really want due to location, but you can't NOT apply) and trying frantically to dig something publishable out of the terrible collection of EEG data I've been handed.

Del was over to visit for a few weeks, which went a long way towards dissipating stress. We didn't actually get all that much done but he is a calming influence. Plus, I guess it's harder to be crazy-brain when you're not alone all the time. We had lots of adventures involving transit (it turns out that to go to the outlet mall in Clinton, you can take a train THERE but there are no RETURN trains. There are literally no return trains from Clinton to New Haven. None. It didn't show up on Google Maps but I figured, there's no way there's NO return trains ALL night from an entire town, right? Wrong. Welcome to America. We had to take a train the wrong direction for three stops, get off, wait an hour and then take a train back the right direction. And then Del left his bag/wallet in the pub just as the train pulled up and it all got very exciting for a second) and went to the Pez museum! Bet you didn't know the Pez museum is in Connecticut.

Actually we did quite a lot of stuff. I shall post some photos:

New York, stayed in awesome hotel, ate scary American food at Virgil's BBQ with Del's best friend Kate, who happened to be in town from Edinburgh (!)

(that is some sort of bourbon milkshake on the right, if I remember correctly).
Went to Top of the Rock finally, saw the musical Matilda with Del's friend Delphine, who ALSO happened to be in NYC from Oxford, went out for BBQ yet again... good times.

Then the next weekend we went to Cape Cod/Martha's Vineyard because it seemed a shame to briefly be an East Coast girl and not have gone. Saw Plymouth Rock. Giant rock with date carved on it. Americans very excited anyway. Also saw a big ship and messed around the harbour for a bit. 

Went to Hyannis on Cape Cod. Stayed in the Princess Suite, which was basically a 70s porn director's idea of what a classy motel room should look like. Got to watch a large American dude throw a giant tantrum in the lobby upon check-in: he had wanted to propose to his girlfriend and somehow got the impression from the website that this place was an upscale hotel. Ummm...

Nope.

So yeah, he was horrified and kept screaming, but as far as we could tell there was nothing actually WRONG with the room, it just... wasn't exactly classy/upscale. Funny but cringe-inducing. Saw him (alone) the next morning at breakfast down the street, confiding in the ladies at the next table his tale of woe!

Oh, and Del tried his first Slurpee at the most upscale Sev I've ever seen.

Oh yeah, this one was for Grace.

Always thinking of my dear sister.

Anyway, the next day we headed over to Martha's Vineyard - basically chasing the ferry schedule all over the Cape. With our usual sound planning we missed the one out of Hyannis (well, the cheap one anyway) and headed down the Cape - nope, missed that one too, better go to Woods Hole. In the end we got a way faster, cheaper ferry and a free parking spot, so all worked out quite well.

Twas gorgeous and the ice cream there was INSANE. Basically we just poked around the first town we came to and hung out on the beach - pretty sweet for September.

And since then I have basically been working working to catch up (and then being ill and undoing it all again). Anyway, tomorrow is Yale Day of Service, so going to go plant some trees or something in a community garden...