A few good weeks

It's been a while. Life has gotten in the way of blog updating. But I am back now.

I am trying to recap the past few weeks in my head, it's hard. Let's see, it was only 2 weeks ago to the day that I ran a new PR (personal record, 1:51:51) on a half marathon, namely, the Fitness/More Magazine Half Marathon, which is a women only half in Central Park. It was a perfect day: chilly but ideal for running, not a cloud in the sky, my best friend visiting from home, her first time in NYC, in the US, and the first thing she got to experience was the atmosphere of a running race with 7500 runners and plenty of spectators, on a perfect New York day! Ahhh, I was on a high all day that Sunday, as we spent hours walking around South Manhattan, taking the Staten Island ferry, and by the end of the day, I felt like I could just lie down on the sidewalk and sleep there all night - that sweet feeling of exhaustion from running 21 km's and walking maybe that much in a day. Luckily we made it home :)

Fitness Magazine Half marathon

Szidi in NYC

I don't have a whole lot to say about the days that followed. Let me just say that in the end, I passed my defense, which was not at all pleasant but now is over and I am trying to put it behind. The party that followed was a success and much fun, thanks to my wonderful coworkers and friends. Let me just point out THE CAKE!!! By Janice, naturally. A masterpiece I call "A walk in the park", a 3-tiered cake (green tea and white chocolate) with a path going up around it and landmarks of my life written on little pieces of paper along the way - of course, I got to read them all out loud, not at all embarrassing!! There was of course much champagne and all kinds of presents - most notably, a rather substantial amount of money collected from the floor in the lab put on to an American Airlines gift card, so I can go home! I don't know how I deserved to have such amazing people I get to work with!

They gave me a PhD

Needless to say, the next week or so, I didn't do much work. Szidi and I spent a lot of time touring the city, lots of fun touristy and not so touristy things. I think she got to have a nice overview of the good, the bad, the pretty and the ugly that is all NYC at the same time. We did a lot of fun party-type things and laid-back staying in kind of things. There aren't too many people in this world I can spend 2 weeks with - almost night and day - and not only not want to kill her by the end, but wish that she could stay another 2 weeks at least! We were inseparable as teenagers and then didn't see much of each other for almost 11 years - except for my visits home - and now, after all these years, we just picked up where we left off at 17. Soul-mates, I suppose, are meant to be that way. And here are many pictures we took, which are worth at least a thousand words.