"Who's Ryan?"
Last Tuesday, Ryan came to live in our basement. He will stay with us for a month.
Ryan is one of Daddy's grad students. Ryan is special to us because we knew him during our time in Seattle. Ryan was an undergrad while Daddy was a grad student. Ryan became Daddy's field assistant because he is both book- and field-smart, and is also able to keep up with our mountain-goat Daddy while hiking up piles of gravel. Almost all the pictures I have of Ryan are of him high up on a mountain trail, usually far from where the camera is. Like Daddy, he has these secret hidden leg muscles that propel him up slopes as though he was walking downhill. I blame their shared Irish heritage. We have awesome pictures of Ryan peeling bandages off his foot while he sits atop an enormous piles of glacially-deposited rocks. Here he is on Mt. Baker looking cold.
When he and Daddy met, they were both "older" students. Daddy held a job at the Indiana State Survey before going for his PhD; when Daddy started he was 31, while many others in his program were only 22 and fresh off their bachelor's degree. Ryan is four years younger than Daddy, and transferred over to the UW from community college to earn his bachelor's. He was "late" because he spent his younger years on world tours as a drummer for a successful hardcore punk band. So not only does Ryan have about a billion stories to tell, he is also nearly covered in original, creative tattoos. This is my favorite one - "Zombie Lenin":
Ryan and Daddy got on so well that, when Ryan was looking to gain a Master's, he interviewed here because he wanted to work with Daddy. They are currently working on the most fantastic project I've ever heard of, one that Ryan thought up all by himself. It is so Science-worthy that I get chills when they talk about it.
Being a grad student, Ryan is naturally broke as a joke and has a standing invitation to live with us when his apartment leases run out at the end of semesters. He is the best house guest you could ever imagine. He is quiet and keeps to himself, but also interacts with the babies when they run around his ankles. He has endeared himself to me many times over because he will eat ANYthing I cook and tell me it is delicious, unlike every other member of my household.
To say the babies love him is a gross understatement. When Ryan comes to live with us, they speak his name in the same breath as Daddy's. When Daddy came home last night, Jacob asked him, "Where's your Ryan?" Isaac tells anyone who'll listen that Ryan lives in our basement, and that he is Daddy's friend, which brings up all kinds of interesting looks from strangers.
I'm a little sad because Ryan will graduate shortly before Christmas this year, which means this will probably be the last time he'll stay with us. How will we live life without our Ryan? What will I tell the babies? I just don't know.
Ryan is one of Daddy's grad students. Ryan is special to us because we knew him during our time in Seattle. Ryan was an undergrad while Daddy was a grad student. Ryan became Daddy's field assistant because he is both book- and field-smart, and is also able to keep up with our mountain-goat Daddy while hiking up piles of gravel. Almost all the pictures I have of Ryan are of him high up on a mountain trail, usually far from where the camera is. Like Daddy, he has these secret hidden leg muscles that propel him up slopes as though he was walking downhill. I blame their shared Irish heritage. We have awesome pictures of Ryan peeling bandages off his foot while he sits atop an enormous piles of glacially-deposited rocks. Here he is on Mt. Baker looking cold.
When he and Daddy met, they were both "older" students. Daddy held a job at the Indiana State Survey before going for his PhD; when Daddy started he was 31, while many others in his program were only 22 and fresh off their bachelor's degree. Ryan is four years younger than Daddy, and transferred over to the UW from community college to earn his bachelor's. He was "late" because he spent his younger years on world tours as a drummer for a successful hardcore punk band. So not only does Ryan have about a billion stories to tell, he is also nearly covered in original, creative tattoos. This is my favorite one - "Zombie Lenin":
Ryan and Daddy got on so well that, when Ryan was looking to gain a Master's, he interviewed here because he wanted to work with Daddy. They are currently working on the most fantastic project I've ever heard of, one that Ryan thought up all by himself. It is so Science-worthy that I get chills when they talk about it.
Being a grad student, Ryan is naturally broke as a joke and has a standing invitation to live with us when his apartment leases run out at the end of semesters. He is the best house guest you could ever imagine. He is quiet and keeps to himself, but also interacts with the babies when they run around his ankles. He has endeared himself to me many times over because he will eat ANYthing I cook and tell me it is delicious, unlike every other member of my household.
To say the babies love him is a gross understatement. When Ryan comes to live with us, they speak his name in the same breath as Daddy's. When Daddy came home last night, Jacob asked him, "Where's your Ryan?" Isaac tells anyone who'll listen that Ryan lives in our basement, and that he is Daddy's friend, which brings up all kinds of interesting looks from strangers.
I'm a little sad because Ryan will graduate shortly before Christmas this year, which means this will probably be the last time he'll stay with us. How will we live life without our Ryan? What will I tell the babies? I just don't know.
posted by Claire at 11:42 PM
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