Happy Birthday, Gayle!
Today Gayle celebrates the 11th anniversary of her 21st birthday. Happy Birthday, Gayle!
Gayle is pictured here with the adorable Christopher Terrence, her 3 month old son.
Gayle is one of my BFFs and favorite people ever. We met during my first year of grad school during a class on comparative education. Gayle is brilliant and an excellent speaker. She also knows Way Too Much about almost Everything - politics, current events, and international affairs in particular (she doesn't know much about music but her hubby Terrence picks up the slack there). When I heard her comments in class, I made it a goal to befriend her, just so I could bask in the glow of her intellect!
Gayle and I became fast friends, bonding over the struggles of graduate school. Not only was she a pillar of support for me academically, but I have always looked up to her ability to get things done (she is still my role model)! This girl would get up every morning, go running, work all day on her three RAships and her dissertation, cook and host dinner parties for her friends at night, fly all over the place visiting her long-distance boyfriend (Terrence) and attending international conferences, and still managed to finish her PhD in two years. If she weren't such a lovely person, we would all have just hated her for making the rest of us look incompetent!
Gayle is one of the most supportive people I have ever met. Despite all of her crazy obligations, she always manages to find time to call or IM me, to see how I'm doing. She's helped me get through the two biggest challenges in my life so far: my divorce and my dissertation. I stayed with Gayle at her apartment several times a week when I was in the throes of both, and can't thank her enough for all of her emotional support.
Thanks for being such an awesome friend, Gayle!
Here are a few of my favorite memories of Gayle (most involve eating, of course):
Gayle is pictured here with the adorable Christopher Terrence, her 3 month old son.Gayle is one of my BFFs and favorite people ever. We met during my first year of grad school during a class on comparative education. Gayle is brilliant and an excellent speaker. She also knows Way Too Much about almost Everything - politics, current events, and international affairs in particular (she doesn't know much about music but her hubby Terrence picks up the slack there). When I heard her comments in class, I made it a goal to befriend her, just so I could bask in the glow of her intellect!
Gayle and I became fast friends, bonding over the struggles of graduate school. Not only was she a pillar of support for me academically, but I have always looked up to her ability to get things done (she is still my role model)! This girl would get up every morning, go running, work all day on her three RAships and her dissertation, cook and host dinner parties for her friends at night, fly all over the place visiting her long-distance boyfriend (Terrence) and attending international conferences, and still managed to finish her PhD in two years. If she weren't such a lovely person, we would all have just hated her for making the rest of us look incompetent!
Gayle is one of the most supportive people I have ever met. Despite all of her crazy obligations, she always manages to find time to call or IM me, to see how I'm doing. She's helped me get through the two biggest challenges in my life so far: my divorce and my dissertation. I stayed with Gayle at her apartment several times a week when I was in the throes of both, and can't thank her enough for all of her emotional support.
Thanks for being such an awesome friend, Gayle!
Here are a few of my favorite memories of Gayle (most involve eating, of course):
- Preparing a conference presentation the day before - while drinking praline martinis.
- Eating amazing food in New Orleans (Bacco was such a treat!)
- Co-founding the student guild at the School of Education
- Fine dining and long walks in D.C.
- Gayle and Terrence's wedding in Montana
- Gayle doing a reading at our wedding
- Introducing Gayle to Qali (Gayle and Erin, you know who I'm talking about!)
- Countless meals at Gayle's place with recipes from Cooking Light
- Gayle falling asleep at her own birthday party (the woman is incapable of staying up past 10:30 p.m.)
- Having babies at about the same time (the babies are affectionately referred to as Dissertation #2 because of the amount of work involved)
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