In an effort to save time, I post my e-mails to Alice because it's pretty much all the things I want to say, minus the stuff I don't

Life is C-R-A-Z-Y!!!!

It was a grand holiday break, spent sleeping and eating and hanging out
with the family. Because mom doesn't like me driving 12 hours all by
myself back to Madison, she let me take my younger sister Liz (16yrs)
with me. Oh Alice, she used to be this short, loud, sensitive little
girl and now she's this tall, blonde & tan & blue-eyed talent vehicle
with more boyfriends than I ever had and alot more poise and wisdom than
I could have EVER anticipated. It was scary and great, even if it meant
I felt shorter, pudgier, and less glamorous by far. It was cool, and
I'm so proud of her. She's thinking of going into musical
theatre/theory--her passion is music and she has a tremendous singing
voice. Lots of raw talent, and now she's taking voice lessons, music
theory classes, tap-dancing. . . and buying cute boots for her auditions.

On my work front: the boss proposed an absolutely fantastic project
right before break. He had been discussing it with a former lab member,
and then told me about it, and then wasn't able to phone
that lab member and further discuss the possibility of me taking up the
project. So, when I e-mailed her to ask what she thought, it resulted
in a "hey, that's MY project" e-mail. Which was a fair response. So I resigned myself to the idea that I wouldn't get to work on the super cool project. Then I got back into lab today, told Ned about it, and he remembered he should call her,
and so it all worked out and now I have the cool project!!! EGADS. If
it works, I will have an awesome project on my hands, and something I'd
be excited to work on a prelim for. God, I hope it works.