Kaysee

Oh. Right. Duh. I almost forgot. You’re wondering what the hell this countdown timer is for.

Your groomsmen gift, that’s how!

^{Extra gift if one of you gets that reference} – ^{comment below!}

I wanted something for you guys that’s quality. I don’t earn that much, though, and before the wedding I want to make sure I can pay for the celebration stuff.

Soooo! I decided I’d do both: a gift ^{(a little delayed)} and a sappy, nostalgic, personalized webpage.

My closest confidant. No longer.

Kayleen was born somewhere in Southern California, like Kozela. She soon moved to Virginia, where she discovered her love of spelunking, engineering in ice-filled environments, and tactical maneuvering.

Kayleen landed back in California – after several years of illegal, peace-disturbing activity in the People’s Republic of China followed by similar raucous, notorious B.I.G.-like shenanigans in the small, quiet town of Leysin, Switzerland – where she completed a Master’s degree of Marine/Plankton Scatological studies in San Diego.

Kayleen has been credited in several notable studies for Chemical Oceanography, or Marine Chemistry. Her most recent credit was even unknown to her.

Her notable titles include
Amphiphilic Graft Copolymers from End-Functionalized Starches: Synthesis, Characterization, Thin Film Preparation, and Small Molecule Loading
,
Dynamics of Biogenic Silica in a Coastal Upwelling Filament in the California Current
Ecosystem
and,
most recently,
Chiral tridentate bis(oxazol-2-ylimino) isoindoline-based pincer ligands: isolation and characterization via deligation from in situ prepared Cd-ligand complexes

It’s insane, the amount of stuff we’ve been through together. I don’t have as many stories with anyone as I have with you.

Highlights:

Swimming at Grandmarge’s, playing the games we’re too big to use her pool for now. Everything at Grandmarge’s. Building a clubhouse in Warrenton. Gawking at Mcgeehee’s weird rectangular Nokia. Capture the flag at Oakwood. Starting fires in Beijing. Snowboarding in Leysin. That weird, last apartment at the very end of Leysin where you had to make Mac ‘N Cheese.

Sidenote, yo. Your Mac ‘N Cheese is fucking soup.

Waking up to Daryl Hitchcock bursting into my room at 2AM shouting “WHERE IS SHE?” Dude woke me up – with no explanation. Actually, he woke up me AND Steven. Looked in my closet and just left. Left me. Like…WTF just happened.

Looking into that secret space under the gym at LAS and saying “We’ll come back.” We should do that.

OMG. Kaysee! The nicest thing anyone has ever done for me. Right before an exam, YOU BROKE YOUR RULER IN HALF. Spontaneously. Just so I would have a straightedge. THAT. That will stick with me FOREVER.

REDACTED. REDACTED. REDACTED. REDACTED. REDACTED. REDACTED. REDACTED. REDACTED. REDACTED. REDACTED. REDACTED. REDACTED. REDACTED. REDACTED. REDACTED. REDACTED.REDACTED. REDACTED. REDACTED. REDACTED. REDACTED. REDACTED. REDACTED. REDACTED.

We’ve had our disagreements. I feel as though our relationship over the years has grown more complex, but deeper. I think a major turning point was the day we were fighting, turned to one another in the car shortly after and both apologized. Yo. That was the moment we became adult siblings.

I can’t say you’ve always been my favorite sister, but you have most consistently been my favorite, my closest. There are likely still things you know about me that few or no people do, but that will dwindle over time as Eli learns all that and more. Eventually, she will overtake you.

But,

I want you two to be close.

Thank you for always being there for me, Kaysee. For being a badass. An inspiration.

The last picture is something I filled out sometime in 2020 and has been hanging at my desk since then. Don’t get too big for your britches, though.

I like what you said, basically about having a welcoming home. I’ve spoken with Eli and we’re in agreement. We have a spare bedroom, too. It’s open. Whether you ask, impulsively show up, or wind up dazed, confused, and just coming back from the Island but have no idea how you got back to civilization. Our home will always be open, for indefinite stays.