Moving Update

I feel really bad that I haven't posted in over a week!  We've been incredibly busy preparing for the move back to Canada.  I've also been busy training my replacement in the lab I work at.  So far we've managed to pack up the living room and we've been making a dent in the kitchen and closets.  We're very fortunate that my boyfriend's parents will be coming down to help us out with the remainder of the packing, so we can spend this week focusing on tying up loose ends.

We've also started selling things on Craigslist.  So far we've gotten rid of the couch, two bookcases, my boyfriend's bicycle, my exercise bike, and two lamps.  I haven't used the exercise bike in over a year since I took up running instead, so I'm very glad that it found a good home.

Goodbye exercise bike, we had a good run.

For a last hurrah in the Bay Area, we're planning a final trip to Napa and Vacaville.  We're also planning to go to the San Francisco Gay Pride Parade, because it was quite the experience last year.  Unfortunately I don't think we'll have time to do anything else, but you never know.

I'm also going to try and find these wonderful Tory Burch Reva ballet flats.  I've been wanting them for months.  They were out of my size at Holt Renfrew in Montreal, and I finally have enough money saved to buy them.  Hopefully a store in San Francisco will have a size 8 in stock.  Fingers crossed!

I've also been on a Lululemon ban of sorts.  I haven't gotten anything from there since my parents came to visit in the middle of May.  In all honesty, I haven't been tempted by anything either.  I'm probably not going to buy anything new until I'm settled in Canada (and can go to the Lululemon Lab).

On a related note, I was disappointed to hear that Lululemon is raising the price of the Scuba hoodies.  I think $108 is about the maximum amount I will spend on a hoodie, so increasing the price to $148 for the "special edition" styles is bordering on excessive.  The price will definitely stop me from purchasing another Scuba hoodie.  I'll never stop buying Lululemon clothing outright (the quality of the workout clothes is excellent) but I hope the price doesn't increase on other items in the store.

Fitting Room Review: Whirligig Dress

I went to San Francisco yesterday to go see X-Men: First Class with my boyfriend, and decided to take a look at Anthropologie.  I was still hunting for a dress to wear to my boyfriend's sister's wedding (which I wrote about in May) and decided to go through the store stock from top to bottom.

I finally found a dress that matched all of my criteria in the Whirligig Dress:

The store I was at also had this dress in a light purple color. 

The size XS fit perfectly.  The one thing I really like about this dress is that you can wear a bra underneath it and not have to worry about the straps showing.  I also like the below the knee length, especially for a wedding. The skirt is very easy to move around in, which will be great for dancing.  It can also be paired with a cardigan.

As for the cons, the dress would be a bit heavy in hot sticky weather, so I wouldn't recommend it for a hot summer day.  I read the product reviews on the dress and agree that you have to be a bit busty to wear this.  I'm a 34C and I found the coverage to be great, but if I was a smaller cup size I could see where the dress could overwhelm your chest. 

I happily bought this dress, and look forward to wearing it next month at the wedding.

Conference Outfits - Montreal

I only managed to take photos of three of my conference outfits.  I really did not like the skirt I wore on the last day so I am not posting it, and I forgot to take a picture of the outfit I wore on Monday.

Saturday Shopping Outfit:

 

Shirt: Dynamite
Skirt: Apothecary Skirt from Anthropologie
Shoes: J.Crew black ballet flats

The great thing about the Apothecary skirt is that you can wear it high waisted, or fold the waist band down to make it sit more comfortably on the hips.  This outfit was perfect for a warm sunny day.


Tuesday Conference Outfit:

Blazer: JCPenny
Tank Top: Talula line at Aritzia
Skirt: Smart Set
Shoes: J.Crew black ballet flats

Wednesday Conference Outfit:

Cardigan: Hollister
Tank Top: American Eagle
Skirt: Talula line at Aritzia
Shoes: J.Crew black ballet flats
Purse: Coach Signature Stripe Tote

I'll honestly admit that this outfit was just thrown together.  The humidity in Montreal was ridiculous, and I needed an outfit that looked presentable but was breathable.  I got the Coach purse from an outlet store, and it was able to comfortably hold my iPad, conference program, and all of my purse essentials.

Montreal Trip

I am finally back in California after a wonderful trip to Montreal.  Montreal is a great city.  It was actually recommended as a summer vacation place in Cosmopolitan magazine a few months ago.  It has a distinct European feel (french is the dominant language) and the architecture is absolutely gorgeous.  I spent a lot of the trip at the chemistry conference at the Palais des Congres des Montreal, which is on plenty of top 10 things to see in Montreal lists.

You can't tell by the picture, but it was incredibly humid outside.

My boyfriend and I got to explore a lot of Montreal and experience a lot of great food (and beer).  We definitely went to Schwartz's for smoked meat sandwiches, and I will admit it was the best smoked meat I've ever had.  We also went to Le Saint Bock and Les 3 Brasseurs which were both excellent breweries.  We also found excellent fondue at Juliette et Chocolat.

Two types of chocolate and tons of fresh fruit for under $15 = awesome deal.

 We also found this butane molecule statue at the Montreal Science Centre.

As a chemist, I must inform you that the bond angles for this butane molecule are completely wrong.

Although the trip was awesome, it was a bit tiring.  Montreal is 3 hours ahead of California, and since my boyfriend had a presentation at 8:40am on Monday morning (we arrived on Friday night) I pretty much survived that day of the conference thanks to Red Bull, and the rest of the conference thanks to Diet Coke.  The conference was great and I got to meet a lot of chemists and see a lot of presentations.

The only huge downside was the trip back to San Francisco on Thursday evening, and showcases why I hate flying.  We left for the airport at 2:35pm for our flight at 5:00pm, and it took over an hour to get there via cab (google maps predicted 32 min with traffic, but the traffic was absolutely ridiculous).  Once we got there we found that the line for Air Canada for baggage drop-off was incredibly long.  After that line, we found the line for security was even longer.  My boyfriend and I opted into the ion hand testing to get into the shorter security line, but even then we didn't get through security until 4:25pm.  I was still in my conference clothes, and didn't even have time to change into jeans from my skirt.  Our plane was delayed to Toronto, but not long enough to justify changing.

By the time we got to Toronto, it was already 6:40pm and our flight to San Francisco was leaving at 7:55pm.  It took 25 min to get our bags at the US connections baggage claim, then we had to wait in a 20 min line to talk to a customs agent, then a 10 min line for security.  At this point, we ran to our gate where we noticed that boarding was just starting, so I ran to the bathroom to change out of the stupid skirt (I'm not even posting it in my conference outfit post, I really dislike it).  I changed as quickly as I could, and when I got out of the bathroom almost everybody had loaded so we were one of the last people to get onto the plane.

We were warned about storms over Illinois but that we would "take a wide berth" around them.  Well, we did not.  The plane was undergoing extreme turbulence, and lightning could be seen right outside of the plane.  We flew into a cloud, and all of a sudden we could hear the plane engines powering down while the cabin lighting turned off.  I was certain that we were going down.  Thankfully the pilot got us out of it, but I couldn't relax for the rest of the flight, especially since there was lots of turbulence until we were flying over the Utah/Nevada area.  I have never been so happy to be on the ground in my life, and I really wanted to give the pilot a hug.

Although, it could have been worse.  If we flew back to San Francisco on the direct flight from Montreal Friday morning, we would have had a broken windshield and an unexpected stopover to contend with.

I Have Exciting News!

My life has been a whirlwind of exciting news at the moment.  First, my boyfriend has found a great job in Vancouver!  Second, it starts at the beginning of July, so that means we will be moving back to Canada at the end of the month, which is much sooner than we thought.  This has made the past few days a whirlwind of giving 30 days notice to everyone, planning the move, and looking for places in Vancouver.  I have also requested an early start for my master's. 

Coupled with all of this excitement, I am leaving for Montreal tomorrow morning for the Canadian Society for Chemistry conference.  I will be sure to document my conference outfits throughout the week, since that is my most popular blog post by far.  I'm really looking forward to meeting up with friends and old colleagues, and visiting a city (and province) I've never been to before.

I also got my hair cut today for the first time in six months.  I've been keeping my hair long for at least 2 years, and I decided to get it cut shorter because my hair is abnormally thick and takes forever to dry.  It also gets that annoying curl near the bottom that I'm not a fan of.

Hair length before.

New haircut!

I'm really happy with the result.  It's too short to wear in a ponytail right now, but I'm going to be rocking headbands and flat ironed hair anyways for the next week, so it's really not a big deal.

Hopefully I'll get back to blogging regularly after this trip!