naturally sweet

2012-01-30T21:28:00.001-07:00

It's funny how sometimes concepts and themes can follow us around. I've heard that we are always surrounded by recurring themes, it's just that once in a while one jumps out at us on one day and then we start to notice it elsewhere. Whatever the cause, the theme that has been prevalent for me lately is introversion.

Turns out I'm a pretty introverted person. I know quite a few people don't think I am. Particularly those I work with have a tendency to think I'm an extrovert because I turn on such energy most of the time while working. What they don't see is the crash that happens most nights. The thing about introversion vs extroversion is that it means our energy comes from within, rather than from the people around us. So an introvert can be social all day, but then probably needs to 'recharge' at night. On the Myers-Briggs I am an INFJ, one of the rarest types. Though not quite as reserved as that article might suggest, I definitely need my recharging time.

One of the ways that I recharge is by reading. Constantly. I fly through books. So one of the things we decided about the new house was that I should have a spot for my reading. We decided on a couple of wingback chairs in the living room, to allow me to be social and near people, but also be my spot. I picked fabric for my chairs tonight, and will definitely post pictures as soon as we get them :)

And then there is this article. They interviewed the author on NPR today and I thought her perspective about needing to leave room for introverts in the workplace was really interesting. She said that a lot of our most creative work happens when we are alone, rather than when working with a group, because we get influenced by the reactions and inactions of the people around us. Fascinating, and if you think about it, totally true.

When was the last time you had a truly productive brainstorming session? How many times do people say 'oh man, another meeting.' or 'ugghh I hate group projects! Meeting with the group is always such a pain!?' Very common. Not that it's bad to want to work with groups, I just think there are a lot of people out there who would rather do some of the work on their own. There's a reason everyone listens to music in their offices - we need to create our own space to do our best thinking.

Anyway. Those are my recent thoughts on introversion. Chris is out of town this week, so I will have plenty of time to spend by my quiet self, doing my quiet things, until my (ok ok maybe not so) quiet husband comes home to keep me company.

_____________________________
2/1 update: I found this interesting article, "An Introvert's Guide to Networking," which pretty much describes my philosophy about how to handle networking. I would add to this that when you bring together a group of people who don't know each other at all, it can be great for the introverts if everyone stands up and says their names and what they do. That way we can seek out the people for whom we might have an actual purpose to converse, rather than having to just start random conversations.

2012-01-22T18:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I talked about two things I learned from Dr. Vincent Harding. Here is the third thing that he said that really made me think:

Dr. Harding had a brief aside about our names. He asked each person who spoke to tell their full name, the name of their mother's mother and where they were from. And he said that so much of the beautiful diversity within this country is represented by the names we carry. Why are we afraid to ask one another how to pronounce our names? In learning how to say someone's name we are actualizing part of their humanity, and sharing part of our own. In shortening or mispronouncing someone's name, we are discrediting part of that person's being.

Given that I go by my initials and I also went through a name change this year, that concept of our names being a reflection of our humanity really struck home. My name is a combination of one that was given and one that I chose. I go by my initials not only because it is what my Mom decided I should be called but also because it is frustrating to hear people mispronounce my full name, and Angelina Jolie jokes can be demeaning. I always had some discomfort with my last name, and the transition to my new last name has been remarkably easy - it has been 6 months and it is already very rare for me to think of myself with my maiden name. My married last name feels more home-like than my maiden name. (Also I have always loved writing cursive capital L's :) ) It made me wonder if I have ever caused distress by not giving someone's name the respect it deserved.

Similar to the reminder about listening, the aside about our names has given me renewed impetus to make sure that my actions honor those around me. I have always followed a combination motto of 'do no harm' and 'make the world a better place' but I think I need to add to that something about respecting the humanity of all I meet.

Dr. Harding did create in me a 'wonderful disturbance' and I am enjoying processing my interactions with him.

2012-01-21T18:45:00.000-07:00

On Thursday I had the honor of meeting Dr. Vincent Harding, a man who was good friends with and a speechwriter for Martin Luther King, Jr. He came to CSM to speak as part of our diversity week events. It was an honor not only because of the company he kept or the incredible things he has done, but just to have the opportunity to be in the presence of someone who so fully radiates peace and who, in just a couple of sentences, gave my brain a lot to chew on.

I spoke to him briefly while pinning on his lavalier mic and in that moment he helped me calm out of what had been a very hectic day. He did nothing remarkable. All he did was listen when I told him how I was doing. Really listen. I think we forget the value of listening to one another. So often conversation is spent thinking of the next thing to say, rather than truly paying attention to one another. That reminder of the value of listening to one another was the first thing I learned from Dr. Harding.

During his talk he touched on two things more that struck me. The first is the concept of "who are you waiting for?" He said that he often gets asked when he thinks we'll get another leader like Martin Luther King, Jr. and he always wants to ask people what is preventing them from becoming that leader. He said we need to free ourselves and realize that every one of us can be the leader to make positive change in this world. He challenged everyone to find the thing we are passionate about and to seek to make change on that issue within our part of the world.

I've realized for me it is not only to act on the things about which I have a passion, but it is also to encourage my students to do the same. Through conversation and modeling I wish to create what Dr. Harding called a "wonderful disturbance" in my students. A wonderful disturbance makes something stir inside of you, making you assess yourself and calling you to action.

This post is long, so soon I will write about the third thing I learned from Dr. Harding. But until then readers please tell me:

What things have caused a wonderful disturbance in you, and how are you acting upon them?

2012-01-12T14:41:00.000-07:00

I am not a big fan of New Year Resolutions. Not because I am a make 'em and break 'em kind of girl, but rather because I find it more helpful to set goals for myself as they seem appropriate. Also because as I've seen a few times, where I am at the beginning of the year could be completely different than where I am in February, much less the end of those 12 months.

Of course I have long-term goals - getting a doctorate, having kids - but those aren't necessarily helped by New Year Resolution kind of thinking. I prefer to make my goals as I encounter natural changes in the flow of life, or as I realize that there is something I want to accomplish. For example, when we moved to CO we decided that we'd do a few things to be more productive and feel more satisfied with our lives. To that end we have been exercising at least a couple times a week (optimally with one or more of those being outdoors), we only have 'basic' cable to help avoid the temptation to channel surf, and we bought a house so we could have our own space that really fits our lifestyle. We also decided to get back into some activities that we each love - juggling, singing, video gaming, hiking, biking.. writing in my blog.

Since I was a small girl I always considered myself 'a writer.' I used to keep extensive diaries and would mark on the front cover for every day that I missed. I kept notebooks filled with poetry and short stories. I was very proud of them, though would probably have been mortified if anyone had read them. In college I started this blog - it actually just turned 10 years old! I put my musings here (many of them much more melodramatic than what I'd post now. and no, you can't see them). But as college got more intense I rather lost track of the creative side of my writing habits and in the last couple years I've realized that I miss the firing of those particular synapses.

In the spirit of making resolutions that will make me more satisfied with how my life is going and in the spirit of helping my friends do the same, yesterday I challenged a friend to a duel. Not a duel in the traditional sense wherein one or both of us ends up dead (hopefully!) but a duel of wits. Of creativity. Of encouraging one other to write creatively EVERY DAY. So starting on Saturday and going through February 14th, we will have our "Blogging for Soup" challenge. One can't be brilliant or interesting every day, so I won't be posting every word here but I am hoping to have an increase in regularity of my posts. Our punishments for missing a day involve a bit of public humiliation, so you might get to see that too.

Here's to resolutions! Whether you make them at the New Year or when you sense a need for change, whether you keep them close to your chest or shout them from the rooftops, I hope you are successful with your endeavors this year.

2012-01-04T21:23:00.000-07:00

Yeah so this is a little late, but better late than never, right? My letter to 2011.

Dear 2011;
HOLY CRAP a lot happened this year! Let's take a couple moments to recap.

To be honest, I don't remember much of January. I know we worked out a fair bit and I know the Spring Hello, Hialeah! happened, but that's about all I've got. We assigned each other resolutions, and the one I was given was to 'get sick less and not take it so hard when a certain mean person was mean to me.' Easier said than done on both counts..

By February I broke the first half of my resolution - in an infamous weekend, me and half the students on a trip got food poisoning (or a simultaneous flu?) and that Sunday my foot mysteriously started to hurt. Chris was in DC and that Friday was the first mention of possibly moving to Boulder.

That pain in my foot turned out to be a somewhat serious thing and led to 2 months of physical therapy starting in March, which is also the month that Chris proposed. So it wasn't so bad that I couldn't do anything active since there was suddenly a LOT to do to get ready for the wedding, which we decided would be in July. March was also the month of the Vagina Monologues. Look at a picture of our beautiful cast!

March turned into April and the insanity of planning for Commencement (and multiple failures at the second half of my resolution. eesh). Between the intensity of work and planning for the wedding, with a couple PT appointments each week there wasn't time for much more!

In May Grandpa Stenger passed away.

In June Chris went to Kansas City for work, which was a great mini-vacation for him. I don't remember much of June, so I guess I was just doing wedding stuff?

July, of course, was the wedding! What with the foot injury, here's a picture of the only day (after February) in 2011 that I wore high heels:

End of July brought a massive fail at the second half of the resolution, followed by our super-amazing and super-needed honeymoon in Belize! Also, the confirmation that Chris got the job in Boulder and that we'd be moving.

August and September were taken up with negotiating the move and preparing to leave our jobs. We had some great times (and tears..) with friends and coworkers as we said goodbye. By the 27th we were packed up and on our way. We drove from FL to CO and took our little bug to places like Georgia and Tennessee, and spent a couple days getting through Kansas.

October brought our arrival in CO, the start of new jobs and a whole lot of house hunting and exploring the area.

And of course in November we moved into the new house! Just before Thanksgiving, which gave us enough time to dig our pots and pans out from the pile and cook a beautiful meal to celebrate how thankful we have been for everything 2011 brought.

We wrapped up the year in a very different place than we started. New state, jobs, marriage, home... December allowed us time to finally breathe. After all the transition and movement, it was sure nice to have a whole month of being in one place!

Thank you, 2011, for the adventure, growth and opportunity. You certainly helped us appreciate the things we have and the family and friends that we love. We will always look back on you as 'that year we did all that crazy stuff' and it was awesome.

Here's to a great, though hopefully a little calmer, 2012!

2011-12-24T10:42:00.000-07:00

I recently put in a proposal to do a presentation about conflict resolution at the upcoming Leadership Summit at CSM. While working on the proposal, I decided that if it got accepted I would learn how to use Prezi - an alternative to Powerpoint (I hate ppt) and use it for my presentation at the end of January.

As a way to practice, I wanted to share a little Christmas "cheer" with everyone.
Click the arrow to go through the presentation.
Merry Christmas everyone. Enjoy the holiday break :)

2011-12-11T19:59:00.001-07:00

One of the neat things about the location of our new house is the easy access to various hiking and biking trails. Since it got up to the mid-forties today (yes, UP to. and yes, that was exciting!) we decided to go for a little walk through the snow. I just got a Camelbak so wanted to try it out, but since it was chilly we didn't want to go too far. So we went to one of the nearby trails and didn't stay out too long. The walk was pleasant - not too noisy, not too many people out. And the mid-forties are a good temp for walking, it turns out. We saw some pretty impressive frozen cow pies and puddles, and a lone cow that seemed to have gotten through one of the cattle gates. As the sun dipped behind the mountains its rays cast across hundreds of tracks in the snow, and we returned home to cozy up near the fireplace.

2011-11-30T20:56:00.001-07:00

Today marked the last event that I had planned for the campus at my old job. It was a position that I dearly loved. While it had its challenges, my time in Hialeah will always hold a very special place in my heart. I am so thankful to have been a part of that community. This is something I've been writing off and on since before I left. Today seemed the right day to finally finish and share it.

How to Love Hialeah

In the first month that I came to work at MDC Hialeah, wehosted author Jeanine Capo-Crucet to read from her book How to Leave Hialeah.It is a compilation of short stories that talk about cultural elements of Miamiand Hialeah, from raucous families to Santeras and how to live out of SouthFlorida while keeping one’s roots in the Agua, Fango, y Factoria. I was giventhe book and playfully told that it would give me a good introduction to theculture in my new community. As I began my Hialeah adventure, the book did helpme understand a bit of what I had gotten myself into, but nothing can compareto the lessons I learned from the students, faculty and other staff members onour mighty little campus. When people asked me, with big eyes, what it was liketo be a white woman working in Hialeah I always told them that I loved it, andhere are a few of my top reasons why:

For whatever reason, people seem to look down on Hialeah as both a city and campus. And unfortunately sometimes that seeps a bit into the culture within the town itself, I think. I heard too many times: "Oh, it's 'just Hialeah,' don't worry about it!" But I have never known such loving, passionate, tenacious people. I took to thinking of this 'diminishment' as a cloaking device that protects the community by keeping out people who don't deserve to see how excellent it is. I am so happy to have accidentally landed in Hialeah, and to have been welcomed so fully into a place that would give me so many great memories.

For me, How to Leave Hialeah was with a full heart, appreciating the last couple years at a truly unique place, and looking to the future with a smile.

2011-11-25T22:09:00.001-07:00

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We had quite the lovely day.
We started by going for a bike ride around the Dirty Bismark Loop - took 2.5 fun adrenaline rushing hours! Definitely earned our turkey. We started some bread in the bread machine before biking, so it was ready when we got back, which was awesome. And then we made Thanksgiving dinner.

It seems fitting that our meal to celebrate thankfulness was the first real meal we cooked in our new house. We have so much to be thankful for this year - family, friends, adventure and transition. And so much love. A beautiful meal to celebrate a beautiful year, and hopefully many more to come.

2011-11-22T20:31:00.001-07:00

Welcome to chaos! AKA, our new house! YAY!
After six (crazy busy, quite pleasant, slightly cramped toward the end) weeks living in a hotel in Boulder, we have finally moved into our very own home! One of the crazy things about leaving Miami was that it took them ELEVEN hours to pack up our belongings to get them ready to move. Chris took the day off today to hang with the movers thinking it might take all day again, and it took them just about 3 1/2 hours to unpack everything. And I mean *every*thing!

The way it works is that they take everything out of boxes and just put it all onto whatever flat surface is nearby. Separated, of course, into the correct room. I had to go to work today, so when I got home I was greeted by the sight of ALL of our belongings, all over the house. Made me appreciate the eleven hours it took to pack everything up!

My supervisor told me to go home a little early since she knew I was chomping at the bit to get back here. My new drive takes me past the Coors Brewery, which is served by several train tracks and roads. That place is huge! On the way home tonight I had to pause for a train. I took that as a signal to relax a bit. I'd get there eventually...

So here's a tour of some of the house. With chaos.

Here is our master bedroom, as taken from the door of our closet. Thankfully that pile on the bed is mostly blankets and other large objects. Didn't take too long to unearth it. Through that arched doorway is a neat side-room thing. For now it will be an office, and will eventually likely be used as a nursery.

This is our master bathroom. I looove our sinks! That box on the floor is one I got the summer between my Junior and Senior years of college. It has carried bathroom stuff every move since. Chris says since we'll likely be living here awhile I should probably get rid of it. It's been a very faithful box - a playing of Taps might be in order the day it goes into the recycling bin.

Here is the guest bedroom. The bed is piled up with almost every picture frame we own. Can't wait to get them all hung up :) Out that window is a really neat view of the ridge just to the south of our town. Coming from the other side you'd have no idea there's a whole city over here.

This is .. the other bedroom. We haven't decided what it is for, yet. So for now it's just storage.

Here's the living room, with our excellent gas fireplace! A neat feature: there is a crawlspace underneath the living room, which is good for running cables, and also acts as an amplifier for the sound system. Hellooooo base! Another surprise from the crawlspace - the sellers left us a sledding saucer in there :)

This is the kitchen, currently mostly empty. The dishwasher is super complicated! It's got all these moving, configurable racks. Definitely going to take some learning. Also, my orchid (on the left) started to put off a new shoot a couple days ago. Didn't think it would make the move, and here it is having a growth spurt! Excitement.

And my personal favorite, and the first thing I saw when I got home today... The contents of our kitchen, completely laid out, all over the front room of the house. Oh, Kitchenaid stand mixer, ohhhh bread machine, how I have missed you! Now if only we could find you...

So there you have it, brave reader. Our awesome, if momentarily extremely messy, house! Will be back with more updates as we get things sorted out :)

2011-11-07T08:14:00.001-07:00

Two weeks until we close on the house! Can tell I'm excited because the last two nights I have had dreams about using our appliances. That Kitchenaid stand mixer never looked so good..

2011-11-05T17:50:00.001-06:00

This morning we went to the Boulder Farmer's Market, and got some yummy things! Three different artisan balsamic vinegars - fig, white lavender, and dark chocolate (YUM). My salads will be so happy for these additions! Also, I can't wait to have an oven so I can make chocolate cupcakes with raspberry topping drizzled in that dark chocolate balsamic.

We also got me some new tennis shoes. Had a foot checkup yesterday and the doc said there's not much to do but wear firm shoes with insoles and NO YOGA. Or running. Basically the same I've been doing for months. I guess I'll have to become a gym or pool rat until this thing heals up more. He said hiking is ok, so the plan is to get in as good of shape as I can this winter so I am ready for hiking come spring. Oh, and snowshoeing is ok too! That will definitely happen in the next couple months.

And then for lunch we went to Cuba Cuba. Yup, it was time to try some Cuban food outside of Miami. Here's the outside. Cute, right? The inside was decorated with canisters of Cafe Bustelo and they played Spanish music I recognized.

And here is a picture of my lunch. Pan con bistec, of course, maduros and a Jupina - tastes like Hialeah!

Well.. almost. The maduros were great - they got just the right amount of caramelization on the edges, just how I like it. Jupina, of course, was good. Chris's lechon asada... could have used more mojo. It mostly just tasted like grilled pork. And the pan con bistec... ehhhhh... They desperately needed to marinate it longer. It didn't have that yummy tangy marinated taste I love. And they put a ton of lettuce on it, which diminished the taste further. Also, the bread wasn't right. I think they get a C on the pan con bistec. They tried, and some bites were about right, but it was a far cry from a Subs & Rock sandwich.

I've heard there are a couple other places in town that one can find a pan con bistec. Including one of the more expensive restaurants where it costs about $15! But I will continue my search and at some point might need to try my hand at making my own. We'll see :)

2011-10-30T17:01:00.002-06:00

Another busy week in CO!
Last weekend we spent Saturday in Golden, attending a football game and the annual Chili Cook-off and Beer tasting. And then on Sunday we went for a 'little' hike to help burn off all that chili and beer. YES. Great way to spend a weekend!

Here is our awesome marching band, promoting the Chili Cookoff, at halftime. Yup, their outfits are just a pair of dark jeans and red flannel shirts, with hard hats..

This is me with our mascot - Marvin the Miner :D

This is a view of the crowded Chili event.

Every year students hike up to the M on this mountain, carrying a 10 pound rock. When they arrive, they whitewash the M and leave their rock. When students graduate, they are encouraged to hike back up to the M and take a rock with them. New faculty and staff are encouraged to participate as well, so next fall I will get to make my trek.

On Sunday we went for a hike to the Royal Arch, from Chautauqua Park. This is the view as we started our hike. The park is a 5 minute drive from our hotel. We didn't doctor anything in this picture - it really looked that amazing!

And then a view from up at the Arch, 1,500 feet up from where we started at the car. The first is a view of one of the flatirons, through the Arch, and the second is a view of the University of Colorado from up above.

This week we also had snow, and I flew to IL to stand up in my good friends Ari & CJ's wedding. That will have to be another post. For now it is time for dinner!

2011-10-21T22:11:00.000-06:00

We signed on a house!! What a crazy thing to do. A friend joked to me that my "Adult" card from AARP should be coming in the mail soon. This certainly feels like the year of becoming more grown up (being grown up is expensive!).

We should be in the house one month from now. The Monday before Thanksgiving. On the down side, we'll have to spend the long weekend unpacking. On the up side, we'll have the long weekend to unpack, we'll get to cook our own Thanksgiving meal, and will be able to curl up by our very own fireplace at the end of the holiday. Yup, I'm going to take every bit of romantic, sappy newlywed enjoyment out of that I can. :)

2011-10-16T21:34:00.002-06:00

Busy weekend! Yesterday we looked at our top few houses again, and found out that while we were looking at them all, our probable #1 pick was being signed for by someone else. Lost that one. Oh well. So the house hunt continues this week. We'll go see our #2 again and see if we decide to move on it. Also, I finally got a smart phone this afternoon - welcome to this century, right?

On top of all that, we went for our first CO hike together today! This hike just off my daily commute. During the spring/summer there will be enough light to take this lovely walk after work.

For those who are wondering, my foot is ok with our hike today. It's not super happy with me, but it doesn't seem to be swelling or anything. If it is not too sore tomorrow, this will mean I've made some good progress with healing. Cross your fingers!

2011-10-14T11:01:00.000-06:00

Our days are measured counting from the day we left Miami. As often happens when I move to a new place, each day seems like three or four, and it can be a boggling task to figure out when and where I am.

Last night it took me several minutes to calculate exactly how long it had been since we left, and to do that I had to count milestones - visits on the drive, the days we looked at houses, my first day of work (only five days ago!), the knowledge that the next day should be Friday...

Having the world so full of new places and experiences is like being a kid again. Every day on my drive to work I marvel at the new sunshine gracing the foothills and hope that it will never cease to fuel my imagination.

Here is a video of roughly what we see each morning.

2011-10-06T20:52:00.000-06:00

Hard to believe we've been in town a couple days already! We started our house hunting project today. Will post a recap of that tomorrow or Saturday, once we've had day two of looking at things.

But first, some pictures from our last day of driving and arriving in Boulder!

One of the sights we knew would be on our drive was a huge easel with a giant Van Gogh painting on it. Kansas is the sunflower state, so of course it's a painting of sunflowers. The easel is conveniently located next to Bill's Shootin' Shop and Bubba's Meat Block... So first thing on Tuesday we took our portrait by the easel.

And then continued our drive. It was pretty exciting to finally enter Colorful Colorado. OK I know I'd told people KS wasn't so bad, but man western KS is hard to get through! Probably aided by anticipation about getting into CO. Sorry KS people, but dude.. (I will say that eastern CO isn't much better :P )

All of a sudden, at mile marker 371, we were able to clearly see the mountains! These pictures are from a little later, since the faraway mountains weren't too photogenic.

It has yet to sink in that we actually live in this place; it's gorgeous and SO different than Miami. It kind-of feels like a big vacation. Aided, surely, by staying in a hotel suite. I suppose at some point we will get used to it, but we were saying today that it might not feel real until we move into someplace and have all our 'stuff' back. And so the house-hunting adventure continues!

2011-10-03T20:46:00.004-06:00

Greetings from Kansas!
We've made it to the Mountain time zone, at 3,700 feet. Observations from today: Kansas is not nearly as flat as people would have you believe, a field full of dead sunflowers is one of the saddest things I've ever seen, and giant objects are totally worthy roadside attractions. Chris points out that we saw dust devils twirling through fields and were in Topeka for the tornado siren tests, which was quite eery as 6 or 7 sirens echoed off the hills.

It's picture time!
While driving through IL we heard about a statue of a giant shuttlecock in Kansas City, which is where we stayed last night. So of course we had to go see it!

Entering Kansas..

Partway through our drive we came up on some windmills, which we had some fun with.

Tomorrow we complete our trip! We have been enjoying the time on the road. A much needed vacation, it's been great to spend time together with little to do but chat and watch the scenery, and we've had a lot of fun hanging out with friends at each stop. We're ready to start the next part of the adventure though, so it will be good to get in to CO and see what happens next!

2011-10-02T07:24:00.002-06:00

After a couple months of marveling at how neither of us have gotten sick despite of how crazy-busy we have been, my body finally gave in and I've got a cold. :( I thought it was just a sore throat from all the dust kicked up by packing our belongings, but alas it seems to actually be a cold.

Thankfully we didn't drive yesterday. We spent the day in IL, visiting friends at the U. of Illinois. It was a good day. Chris went for a bike ride/walk (the bike tire popped - sad!) and I went to a tailor, only to find out my next bridesmaid dress didn't need alterations at all. I think that's the first time EVER that I have not needed alterations! Yay. We were also joined at dinner by a friend from summer camp whom I had not seen since 1998 - it was great to see her. Old friends that show up and are still awesome are so.. reassuring. Exciting. Refreshing. Fun :)

Today we continue on our trip. We'll be crossing Missouri and getting into Kansas. Hoping this is more interesting than people have warned us it won't be. Sick + boring driving = inevitable drowsiness..

2011-09-30T07:15:00.004-06:00

We’ve come a long way since my last post! This will be a picture dump post, so get ready.

First, the promised picture of my plant, waiting to leave. This is a well-traveled plant. He was given to me by a student staff member before she left the University of Illinois, and lived in my office there in a small pot for a year. Then I drove him down to FL with me, and eventually transferred him to a large pot where he lived quite happily in our kitchen. That large pot was taken by a friend when we left, and now this little cutting is traveling across country again to a new home in CO. Here’s hoping he survives the adventure!

We’ve decided to use this little toy car to help show our travels as we go. So here it is in North Florida.

We’ll try to catch a picture as we pass into each state. Though we missed the initial welcome sign going into Georgia, Chris did get a picture of the rain!

We stayed the night Wednesday in GA with Grandma. Was good to see her and catch up a bit. She made us her famous full southern breakfast – eggs, grits, bacon, sausage, and from scratch no-recipe biscuits (seriously amazing..). We didn’t need to eat for 8 hours after that! Here is Grandma being shy about having her picture taken :)

Yesterday we said goodbye to Grandma and headed to TN to visit our friends Mark and Heidi. As you go from GA to TN, you pass back and forth between the states a couple times which is entertaining.

We stopped at the rest area just inside TN, which was gorgeous! And, Chris found some Cheerwine, which he was very excited about.

Today we depart our friends in TN and head to IL. Up, up and away!

2011-09-27T13:21:00.002-06:00

I ran some errands yesterday and (almost literally) ran into a car full of my students at the Target in Hialeah. They helped me find lumbar pillows to use for the drive. Good times!

Having movers come pack the house has not been quite the magical experience I was promised. They sent only two poor guys to pack our whole house, and it took them eleven hours. They only took one 5-minute break the entire day.. Didn't even stop to eat.

Anyway, we're almost out. They're taking out the beds now. We're hoping to get on the road within an hour. I have a picture of my little plant, waiting by the window. But this internet is not fast enough to transfer it now. Later :)

2011-09-25T10:21:00.003-06:00

Like a well timed meal, there is little that is more satisfying to me than a series of things coming to completion at the same time. Ding! Everything is in order, all the food hits the table perfectly done and piping hot.

Similarly with a move. I get a little thrill with each box of kleenex finished in the last couple days, each jar of jam, every task completed at just the right time so there isn't a crunch. This move, getting a job offer the day before my last day at MDC exemplified this.

I am willing to put a lot of effort into making these little successes. Last weekend we had a "potluck/take stuff from our pantry" party in an effort to make sure we didn't waste too much food before the move. I planned an entire main dish of chicken just to use up a packet of soup mix. But boy was I pleased to have found a good (and truly delicious!) way to use up that little packet.

I've also been having fun using up some of our more expensive baking ingredients. With all the gluten-free cooking we do, some of the flours are expensive/hard to find so the thought of them mouldering in storage going bad is hard to handle. So this week I baked these little delights:

Gluten-Free Cherry Sour Cream Muffins. Making these muffins used up the last of our sour cream, frozen cherries, sugar, Egg Beaters, muffin cups and *almost* the last of the butter. Plus we were almost out of breakfast cereal so this prevented us from having to purchase more. Ding!

Today is our last big purging/organizing push before the movers come tomorrow. We have a TON of stuff to get through, but I'm hoping that at the end of the day everything will be ready and we'll be able to keep going with minimal stress!

2009-10-16T16:06:00.002-06:00

Ok so I haven't posted in a while. I'll keep it brief:

I GOT A JOB!! :D Hooray.

Almost exactly four months since I had my last day at IL. Weird. Today marks four months since I arrived in Florida, and I'd say things are going very well! Meets and/or exceeds expectations. hah.

So this is where things start to get really busy, I guess. Am looking forward to the excitement. This job promises to challenge me in a lot of ways, and I think it's going to be awesome.

A quick synopsis of other goings-on:
~Canned homemade apple sauce and apple butter.
~A lovely congratulations party, which involved getting plants!
~Helping get the plants situated in the backyard. Hopefully my cilantro doesn't get rained to death.
~Snorkeling! Nurse shark, jelly fish, playing with schools of fish, giant conchs, cleaner fish... No sunburn!
~Finally got my license plate! That saga is enough for a post on its own.
~Making good progress on the house! Got the bathrooms outfitted, and working on a picture project for the bedroom.
~My family is coming to visit in December! For a whole week ^^ I get bouncy every time I think of it.

Ok that's enough. Hooray things are going so well!

2009-08-23T16:05:00.005-06:00

Pictures of the New Place: the Annotated Version

Per requests, we have finally taken pictures of the new place! So I present to you a virtual, annotated tour of our new house. Click on the images to make them bigger.
Starting from the front door...

Ahh the living room:

Garage. Look at all the toys!

Downstairs bathroom. I know you can't tell, but this paint job is *amazing* compared to what it used to be. You can still see the old horrendous orange in some poorly-painted places. Also, I spent an hour in that tiny room scraping various colors of paint off the tiles. In the upstairs bathroom there was even paint in the toilet!

Our gigantic kitchen:

One of the funny things about combining our two kitchens was the ridiculous amount of spices we had. This is from the day I loaded the spice cupboard - not including about 5 huge containers already put away:

And heading upstairs, I present... The hallway (from our bedroom door):

A scene from The Office:

Our bedroom. I think the gold walls are actually starting to grow on me. Can't wait to get dressers though!

Two things you can't see from here - the gigantic walk-in closet off to the right, and the new shower head (that bf is very excited about). Not sure if the walls are green? off-yellow? some days they look like they've got some orange in them...

I hope you have enjoyed your tour! I'll let y'all know when we're ready for overnight guests :)

Not pictured: guest bedroom AKA "I don't know where to put this!" storage room, for now; walk-in closet; guest bathroom; front of house (really not that exciting, I promise).

2009-07-29T09:26:00.002-06:00

we've been movign for the last 4 days - pack, move, unpack, unpack unpack... pack pack move.. with some swearing and laughter and adventures in there too.

will post stories, as soon as i figure out where the pieces are to transfer pics from the camera!

2009-07-19T16:08:00.002-06:00

the problem with snorkeling...

is that i really like it. and when i take my very pale skin and put it by the water in florida, even with sunscreen i have to be careful about burning. but snorkeling is SO fun! i have a tendency to get distracted, and an hour later i look like the lobsters i'd been chasing by the reef (if they were cooked and tossed on your plate). thankfully today it's just my back that got burned. hooray for pennekamp state park and its lovely, engrossing reefs. ^_^

we went down to key largo early and bf bought a new kayak. quite a steal as the place we got it from sells all their merchandise at cost right before the hurricane season (can't get insurance in the keys, may as well sell it so there's less loss if a hurricane washes away your store). so now we have two kayaks! that means quick evening trips and lots of exploration. can't wait.

so, things are going well. our offer on an apartment was accepted, we're just waiting on the homeowners' association to verify that we are of high enough quality to actually move in. our icecream maker came last week and is a ton of fun. we made vanilla with cherries and mini chocolate chips and it is super yummy.

tomorrow's projects: coconut rum icecream and further apartment cleaning. hopefully we'll be moving by the end of the week!

2009-07-06T14:12:00.002-06:00

Happy Not-the-Fourth everyone! so far, based on fb updates, it seems that most people made it without too bad of injuries, which is heartening. i learned today that in south Florida, the blood banks stay open on 4th of July weekend because of 'increased need for blood, due to the holiday'. hopefully people who donate on the 4th have the sense to not go get drunk afterwards. i'm going to give a donation tomorrow, which is exciting as i don't know my blood type. yeah i know, weird, right?

we spent our holiday weekend watching movies/tv from other countries, apartment hunting and hanging out with bf's coworkers. non-american media included: IT Crowd (an absolutely hilarious britcom about the IT department in a company), Slumdog Millionaire, Wii, Mushishi (beautiful Japanese anime), and The Reader (which happens in post-WWII Germany - lovely and impactful).

apartment hunting in Miami is turning out to be quite the experience. on Friday we saw 8 places. definitely liked a couple. the one that would have been perfect had definitely been smoked in, and we were both getting stuffy by the time we were there for 10 minutes. too bad. another apartment that looked amazing in pictures and lovely from the outside was quite the curiosity on the inside. first off, the carpet in the entire apartment looked like it was put in by a first grader. it wasn't stapled down and every edge was ragged. crooked. ugly. and secondly, it hadn't been cleaned. and by not cleaned i mean that there were clothes in the dryer and dishes in the dishwasher! no one was living there, it just hadn't been looked at since they left. totally bizarre. we told the realtor that we might be interested if they fixed it up, and the response was that we'd need to sign a contract in order to get them to do anything. not happening. oh well.

we did find one that is lovely. 1900 square feet, which is WAY more than we need, but a large portion of that is in the kitchen which is pretty cool. small garage, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bath including a roman tub upstairs. and it has a cute little patio off the kitchen. we put in an offer for that one at $200/mo less than they were asking. which they might not accept, but if they do we'll jump on it! it will be nice to have that all taken care of. if for no other reason than that it will give me a big project to work on. :)

the 4th with bf's coworkers was lots of fun. they're a very laid back group and quite geeky, which made me giggle. after the fireworks, we walked the 2 miles back only to find the gate to the community closed. the clicker didn't work to open it, and after some head scratching there was a brief conversation about the science of the gate. bf noted that they work based on magnetics, so if we could find a piece of metal large enough, the gate should open. as soon as he mentioned this, one of his coworkers disappeared and returned with a shopping cart. everyone laughed and there were a couple murmurs of 'no way!', but when he placed it on the sensor pad, it worked! apparently there was enough metal in the mostly-plastic cart to catch the magnets in the cement. tada!

i'm sure there's a joke in there about 'how many government scientists does it take..?'

2009-06-30T10:35:00.012-06:00

"God's boredom is infinite. Surely we humans, even with our etiquette and our institutions and our mothers-in-law, ceased to amuse Him many ages ago. What sustains Him is the satisfaction, far deeper than we can know, of having created a few incomparables - landscapes, waters, birds and beasts. He takes particular pride in the stars, and it pleases Him to breathe havoc upon the oceans. ... And the bear - ah! He used both hands when he made the bear. Imagine a bear proceeding from the hands of God!"
~ from The Ancient Child, by N. Scott Momaday

fitting that i should come across those lines in a book i was reading while on our trip to Great Smoky Mountains National Park last week. many times as we stumbled upon new, gorgeous vistas, and especially when we wandered into garish Gatlinburg (shudder), i thought about the impossible beauty of nature and how man can never hope to create anything so wholly incredible.

and incredible the trip was. some stats:
~ we hiked about 30 miles
~ burned approximately 10,000 calories in the process
~ no showers for 5 1/2 days
~ ate 3 summer sausages, beans 6 days in a row, and drank the equivalent of about 50 bottles of water
~ drove on 3 'unimproved' mountain roads that just about took out the undersides and suspension of bf's car
~ came upon: 3 elk (one male that we almost hit in the road), 5 bears, 7 snakes (all on one hike! more on that later), 3 turkeys, soo many fireflies and butterflies, 4 deer, horses, a cow in the road, salamanders, and a dragon's tail.

there were no partridges, nor pear trees.

here is the much asked-for synopsis in pictures and stories, day by day because that makes the most sense :)

Day One: Saturday - I-95 forever
we drove up from Miami, FL to Wingate, NC - 12 hours, due to a mind-numbing traffic jam as we entered SC. thankfully Prairie Home Companion was on the radio, so we Garrison Keillor kept us company while we sat and sat in traffic. eventually made it to bf's parents' house and talked with them for a bit before crashing.

Day Two: Sunday - Google fail!
the drive from Wingate, NC to the park was almost uneventful. we passed lovely places like 'Bat Cave', 'Graduation' and quaint 'Maggie Valley'. once we were through Maggie Valley, Google had us turn onto 'black camp gap road'. initially this seemed logical enough, until the pavement gave way to a gravel road with the most intense potholes i think i've ever seen. the Mazda 3 handled it like a trooper until we came upon what appeared to be a lake in the middle of the road. at that point we gave it up for a lost cause and consulted a map to find the actual entrance to the park. later research revealed that the road doesn't actually go through, and i find myself wondering if google was playing a joke on us. finally made it to the campground, after dark and almost hitting a 10 point antlered elk in the road, and passed out.

Day Three: Monday -Things Grow on Balds
A hike! we got up in the morning and decided to hike to Andrew's Bald and Clingman's Dome (the highest point in the park) for a total of 5 miles. on the way to the park we drove on a really neat 'unimproved' mountain road, that added an hour to the drive and a whole lot of adventure. absolutely lovely.
Andrew's Bald:

me resting at Andrew's Bald:

the view from Clingman's Dome (there's a reason they call it the smokies):

it rained a bit as we left Andrew's Bald, so i got to use my awesome child sized poncho that my staff gave me. thanks BE ladies!
on the drive back down from Clingman's Dome we saw an adolescent bear climbing up over a rock by the side of the road. very neat :)

Day Four: Tuesday - Flat does not mean easy
sooo tired when we got up Tuesday! sometimes sleeping on thin blowup mattresses takes a little getting used to. so we decided to do a local hike before heading to our next camping area. Flat Creek was a fairly easy 3.2 mile hike - and then i gave us an extra .5 for all the goofy scrambling we did trying to get closer to the waterfalls. up and down by the riverbed. strenuous stuff!

at the top of the hike is a little picnic area that is one of the best places to watch a sunset in the park. unfortunately we were there around 2 in the afternoon, so no sunset, but here we are at the overlook. starting to look a little dirty but not too bad:

look! he caught a butterfly!

we caught one of the last three available camp sites at the next place we chose, made cornbread on the fire and played in the creek a bit, and crashed early.

Day Five: Wednesday - Straight up, now tell me..
this is the day that makes me question a bit whether we are good influences on one another. we got up in the morning having decided to do the Alum Cave trail - 2.3 miles each way, fairly strenuous elevation change, but rumoured to be really nice. the trip up there was lovely. lots of moments like this as we crossed back and forth across a river on foot bridges:

and when we got to the top someone suggested we go a little further, so we did and came across places like this:

that brought the roundtrip hike to 5 miles. but when we got to the bottom we were still feeling pretty darn good, so we decided to find another hike and keep going! the next closest hike is a 2 miler each way to "the Chimneys". suuuurree we thought.. we can do that! so off we went, not quite realizing that a 1500 ft elevation change would really suck after having already done 5 miles of another strenuous hike. but we did it! we did the whole hike and then climbed the slate rock at the top.

the climb back down was rather harrowing and there were many comments of 'if my mom knew i was doing this she would not be happy...' 8 hours, 9 miles and over 4,000 calories later, our chili mac could not cook fast enough once we got home.

Day 6: Thursday - Hiking bites
Thursday was another moving day. we had decided to stay at three different campsites as we worked our way across the park, so we got up in the morning, packed up and headed to Laurel Falls - a very popular nearby hike. the whole path was paved and there were tons of people, but it's easy to understand why:

on our way we drove through Cades Cove - a grassy valley in the middle of the mountains - and we saw bears!

and then stopped to take a picture by the field, with bees buzzing around our ankles:

our second hike that day was along Abrams Creek. there were lots of notices about bears and we were told by a ranger not to feed or harass them, because people had been and they were getting ornery. turns out bears were the least of our worries. we went off on the 2.5 mile hike and the trail ended at a waterfall:

and on the way back, i decided it was time for more sunscreen. we hiked up a bit off the trail to a nice little rocky bit and i sat down to slick up. i chose a fairly big rock and was enjoying swinging my sandaled feet, looking around at the trees. bf came back from taking a picture and i heard, 'oh! snakes!' and instinctively pulled my feet up. turns out that underneath the rock i was sitting on were at least 3, maybe 4, napping Copperhead (read: poisonous!!) snakes:

my feet were less than 1 foot away from those little cuddlebugs. we saw 3 other, much less threatening, snakes on the course of the trail. bf offered to pick up the docile Ringneck, but i requested that we not do that experiment.

a the trailhead was another short path to an old settlement, so we took that little jaunt, bringing the day's mileage up to 8.6. our drive to the next campsite took us on another unimproved road, so the car got a little workout too!

Day 7: Friday - the Tail of the Dragon
got up in the morning and somewhat sadly packed up our gear to get ready to go. last days of vacation are always a little sad, but we had one more hike and a bit of a drive to go, so we got moving before 10 am.

one of the things the guidebook mentioned in passing was that a nearby stretch of road, US-129, is referred to by locals as the 'tail of the dragon'. what they didn't say is that it's a biker destination because it has 318 curves in 11 miles. that means that every time you come out of a curve, you go right into another one, pretty much in a left, right, left, right motion. hence dragon tail. now, some of you may be aware, and some may not.. but i am prone to motion sickness. so when we got onto the road and realized how curvy it was, i knew i was in for trouble. partway through we noticed that there were people sitting at curves taking pictures of people driving past, and realized that it must be a thing. so i joked that if i made it without tossing my cookies, i'd get a t-shirt if they were available to be had. well, i made it, and did get a t-shirt! unfortunately i don't have a picture, but know that it is sufficiently rad :) here is a picture of us in bf's faithful mazda 3, on the tail of the dragon. if you look you can see that there are at least 3 curves in the picture:

after resting for a while, we decided to do an abbreviated version of the hike we'd planned for the day. motion sickness is exhausting so i didn't have much in me for it, but am rather stubborn and insisted on at least doing something. so we hiked along a trail that cris-crossed a stream and pondered what it would be like to ford horses along it.

after the hike, we spent the rest of Friday driving back to bf's parents' house, where we eventually took delicious showers, ate lots of good food (mmm buckwheat pancakes!) and slept a lot before driving back to FL on Sunday. we stopped in St. Augustine for some BBQ and QT with tara and zach, made it through 4 of 5 discs of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy audio book, and arrived home to crash into bed at about 11pm.

so there you have it. thanks for reading! i hope you enjoyed all the pretty pictures. i promise most of the rest of the posts won't be so long!

2009-06-21T09:12:00.002-06:00

per request and promise, a blog post! we are headed off to the Great Smokies this afternoon and won't be back till next Friday afternoon, so I figured I should write something before disappearing in order to not skip on a promise.

on unemployment...
i am finding that unemployment is an interesting place to be. granted, i've only been here a week, but hang with me. i was expecting a huge slow-down in life once i wasn't working 40 (or 50 or 60....) hours a week, but that hasn't really been the case. the last week has been almost as busy as life during the school year as an RD. it's a different kind of busy to be sure, but life definitely hasn't just been lazing around the pool. i've cleaned the apartment, applied for jobs, read books both for fun and professional development, gotten ready for a camping trip, and lots of other things. this week of camping is going to be my first real mental slow-down since leaving IL.

which is definitely not meant to be complaining. it's just different than i was expecting.

i've thoroughly enjoyed the last week. visiting family and friends, driving through beautiful parts of america, making plans.. it's good, fulfilling busy'ness.

this coming week is that rare combination of busy'ness and calm. hiking during the day and coming back to leisure by the campfire or cookstove. swimming in a creek to clean off (there are no showers anywhere in the park!) and keeping our food away from bears. i'm looking forward to the slow-down in a gorgeous place and will hopefully have some pictures and stories to share when we get back.

2008-12-27T17:45:00.004-07:00

so it's been awhile, once again. figured i'd give a brief update while i'm sitting in the airport. adventures of the last couple of months include standing up in a friend's wedding, visiting hawaii, and the whole holiday shabang. so here you go! enjoy some lovely pictures from my recent travels :)
the bridesmaids and the bride:

on the plane coming in to kauai.. this picture is through my sunglasses. the water had a rainbow sheen to it the whole way in :)

from our hike to waipoo falls. dangerous! the falls were 800 feet high. this is me going closer to the edge so i could see them better:

and finally.. our little christmas card picture. the boys and i.. brave souls went out in shorts! i got to wear my jacket because i was taking some of the pictures!

they're telling me my plane is almost here. time to go line up!

2008-07-21T07:32:00.002-06:00

party in my mouth.. or not..
summary of my chip eating experience this weekend: triangle man, triangle man, triangle man hates person man, they have a fight, triangle wins, triangle man..

and a couple hours later i bit a huge chunk from my lip. it was *awesome*
/story time

2008-06-13T09:13:00.003-06:00

last night i dreampt that i was wearing a glorious scarf.. it was wrapped around my neck and i was cuddling into its warmth. i walked down the street and received many complements on the beauty and practicality of my accessory.. it was a very fulfilling dream.

..when i woke up this morning i found i had the leg of a pair of flannel pajamas wrapped around my shoulders. sometimes we find comfort in the most interesting places.

2008-05-27T22:07:00.002-06:00

well... shit. it's been a long time.
so i survived my first year out of grad school. survived being very intentionally used. ..it's been kindof a rough year. lots of ups and downs. but survived it i have. and come out stronger, i hope. still not sure. i think the strength and the learning might take a little bit to show up. i haven't really had time to think enough to cause fortification. not sure what i should be eating to help with that :P

not really too much to say though.. am kindof waiting for stuff to gel before i can even feel like i can share. hence not posting much. i am spending all of next week off, in miami, with lots of outdoors time and me-time, so hopefully i can figure some stuff out.

sorry to be so vague. such is the way of things.

2008-02-27T21:35:00.000-07:00

sometimes i wonder if you ever turned into a decent human being.

2008-02-14T20:42:00.003-07:00

happy valentine's day.. and stuff.. today is one of those days that throws being in a long distance relationship into sharp relief. we watched a movie 'together' (knocked up, which i don't think either of us particularly enjoyed), but beyond that... i find myself just thinking a lot about how nice last weekend was, and looking forward to next time. *sigh*

anyhow.. also pressing in my thoughts is the NIU shooting. we were just talking yesterday morning about how college shootings are something to keep as a 'back burner fear'.. in order to keep our sanity and not feel terrified at work. NIU is awfully close to here, and i think we're going to be dealing with some after-effects from this. there have already been emails going out about making counseling available to our students, and i think i will be in close contact with my RAs to see if anyone needs anything. it's going to take a little bit of self-talk to keep focused for a while i think. and also, i'm on duty, so if anyone really needs anything, i get to be first response. heh heh..

i find myself wondering how Virginia Tech folks are doing with this. seeing all this stuff in the news.. will it cause flashbacks? are they going to offer extra counseling on campus? every time there is a big college news item, both my academic and empathetic interests are piqued and i find myself with a million questions; not all of which i really even want the answers to.

anyhow.. i was really sick last week, and i'm not healthy yet. so i'm going to go curl up and talk about the stupid movie for a while, and then get some sleep.

2008-02-04T19:30:00.000-07:00

i am.. really.. quite sick. i've been hovering at a 100 degree temp since i woke up this morning (shivering, under a down-filled blanket), with coughs and chills and sore throat.. good fun.

except for the part where it's not.

something about me getting fevers, is that my skin gets really sensitive. and by really sensitive i mean it pretty much hurts to wear clothing. and while i enjoy being naked as much as the next person, not wearing clothes causes some trouble with other temperature regulation things, which really doesn't make things much better. especially when i am supposed to be working. can't really be nekkid in my office - it's so cold in there i'd probably get pneumonia on top of everything else.

anyhow, the adventures with the new car have continued. i went to transfer my old plates/registration, and first of all, i have to give kudos to the DMV guy. he was the coolest DMV guy i've ever had to work with, so that was really helpful. the way the registration thing is supposed to work: i bought my car in WI, so have to pay the difference in tax between WI and IL. well, i got there, and showed him my bill of sale, only to realize that i was never charged WI state vehicle tax. so the difference, instead of being between 5.1% and 6.25%, was 0% to 6.25%. the grand total: $968 to the IL Dept. of Revenue. all. at. once.

thank god i had money in my checking account (yes, mr. klumb, b/c of the $500 from the old car. thanks for at least letting me keep it for a little while ;) ).

anyhow, after i got over my initial shock, i decided to look at this positively - it's a grand they can't charge me interest on in my payments. i revealed this to the DMV guy and he said: 'wow, you are a glass full type of person'.. my response: 'at this point, the glass better be filled with something sparkly and alcoholic' which made the guy laugh, which made me laugh, which took some of the edge off.

i have to start making payments soon. that should be a whooolllllee 'nother adventure!

2008-01-12T16:44:00.001-07:00

happy new years, happy holidays and all that jazz.. wow has a lot been going on!

i completed my first semester working at the U of I, which i am pretty proud of, really. also survived a semester of long distance with my meteorologist, which was both very difficult and very rewarding. toward the end of the semester i got the exciting news that i will be teaching a class this semester! it's a 2 credit class all paraprofessional staff (read: multicultural advocates and resident assistants) are required to take in order to be employed by the department of res. life. the course covers things like group dynamics, TONS of social justice stuff, and making a plan to help create a community on your floor. pretty much it is all stuff that i love thinking and talking about. so that should be super busy, but also super awesome!

after the semester ended i went up to wisco to hang out with the family, including my big bro! it had been over a year since i'd seen him and it was really really good to spend time together. us kids made dinner and cleaned the house for our christmas celebration. it was a lot of fun to see mom's face when she walked in after work to a spotless house and dinner on the table. it's nice to get to do stuff like that for her once in a while.

then it was off to florida for a bit over a week. i got to hang out with my meteorologist and his family on marathon key for 6 days - fishing, snorkeling, kayaking and eating lots of good food. i also got seasick for the first time, so that was an interesting new experience.. his grandfather said he, 'didn't want to get ahead of' himself, but welcomed me into the family - awkward but well meant. while in FL, i found out that the transmission had died on my car. BOOO.. the repairs would have been extremely expensive, so it wasn't worth it to fix it.

and sooooo... i bought a new car! it's a fabulous dark'ish blue nissan versa. for those Heroes fans out there, it's almost the same car as Hiro and Ando drive. so i got the car on jan 2, and then drove down a ways into IL for a retreat, back to WI to sell my old car (i got $500! not bad!) and then finally back to UIUC.

this semester will be.. very interesting.. to say the least. i think there are definitely ways that i am going to be pushed outside my comfort area in the next few months. but i am looking forward to the growth that comes from it. i just hope that i have enough time to recover and process in between each spurt of crazy activity.

and with that, it's time to go cosmic bowling with my staff :)

2007-12-03T18:29:00.001-07:00

well, i do suppose i could post something of substance here.. it's been a bit (sorry to those of you who actually check in with any regularity!). life has just been kindof.. i don't know.. average? i feel like i am constantly working, or if not actually working, thinking about work or accidentally running into someone in the hall who needs something. i've been on duty a *lot* lately, so that probably contributes to it.

**side rant - sometimes, really smart people do really stupid stuff. and i don't know if it's the whole 'in the real world for the first time' thing, or the stress of school, or what, but COME ON people! just think for a second before you do things! we'd all be a lot happier (and i'd be a lot better rested) for it.**

anyway.. in the last couple weeks we had the whole selection process for our RA staffs, and now are heading into finals. 24 hour quiet hours start on saturday, and then a week later everyone's off for break. it's going to feel really weird not actually leaving right away with everyone else when they go after finals.

whenever i think about break, i imagine the whole building sighing in relief at having lightened its load of all the people, books and stress it regularly bears. when the building is closed, they shut all the drapes and turn off most of the lights, as if to let it rest in preparation for another hectic semester. over fall break i almost felt as though i was intruding on the building's naptime, my ghost haunting the relatively peaceful sleep of a place that generally gets very little rest. i'm hoping that over winter break i can share some of that peacefulness and come back refreshed as well.

..of course the 10 days in florida will probably help with that :)

2007-11-22T07:30:00.000-07:00

happy thanksgiving! this will be my first thanksgiving with the family on the actual day in a couple of years. i'm very excited :)

off to eat lots and play trivial pursuit!

2007-11-11T08:13:00.000-07:00

it's been interesting.. the last few weeks have been fairly up and down and a bit twisty.. but i dont really feel like i have anything to write about. so. i guess. instead i'm gonna do this little quizzy thing. just to have some sort of writing and word creation happening in my brain.

three things...

Three Things You Want To Do Before You Die:
1.) have children
2.) visit europe
3.) figure out what exactly it is i am doing with myself.

Three Names You Go By (remaining anonymous here as much as possible):
1.) ayjay
2.) chicky
3.) f. McTC

Three Screen Names You Have Had:
1.) frodofrog
2.) frodofrogaj
3.) acost007

Three Physical Things You Like About Yourself:
1.) my hair
2.) athleticism
3.) the freckle on my left index finger

Three Parts Of Your Heritage:
1.) scottish
2.) german
3.) wisconsinite

Three Things That Scare You:
1.) possibility of encountering a huge tragedy in my job
2.) nightmares
3.) hate

Three Of Your Everyday Essentials:
1.) love from friends and family
2.) breakfast
3.) physical movement

Three Things You Are Wearing Right Now:
1.) my watch
2.) blue/brown glasses
3.) grey sweats

Three Of Your Favorite Bands/Musical Artists:
1.) guster
2.) zero 7
3.) rachel yamagata

Three Of Your Favorite Songs:
1.) song for the dumped
2.) every ship must sail away
3.) moonshadow

Three Things You Want In A Relationship:
1.) honesty
2.) love
3.) communication

Two Truths And A Lie (in no particular order):
1.) i have no heat in my apartment right now
2.) i have friends in the circus
3.) i have flown on a trapeze

Three Physical Things About The Preferred Sex That Appeal To You:
1.) smile
2.) hair
3.) forearms

Three Of Your Favorite Hobbies:
1.) juggling
2.) outdoorsy stuff
3.) reading

Three Things You Want To Do Really Badly Right Now:
1.) stretch my hamstrings
2.) see chris
3.) get heat in my apartment

Three Careers You're Considering/You've Considered:
1.) teacher
2.) academic advisor
3.) peanut butter maker

Three Places You Want To Go On Vacation:
1.) Europe -- specifically rome and the highlands in scotland
2.) australia
3.) the very bottom tip of south america

Three Kid's Names You Like:
1.) elsie (short for elsabeth)
2.) steven
3.) sofia

Three Ways That You Are Stereotypically A Girl:
1.) i put on lotion every day
2.) i play with my hair a lot
3.) i really only like to wear soft clothing

Three Ways That You Are Stereotypically A Boy:
1.) i don't care about being dirty (when appropriate)
2.) i enjoy drinking a beer and watching a game
3.) i love my badgers football

Three People That I Would Like To See Take This Quiz Now:
1.) GW bush
2.) neil gaiman
3.) my old highschool english teacher

2007-10-23T07:11:00.000-06:00

so i started to write something here this morning. but it turned into something much greater than i had initially anticipated it, and so i have decided to keep working. it's rare for me to really get into writing anything. when i was a kid, i considered myself a 'great writer,' and had aspirations to become the next great american novelist. i think college beat the thought of 'novel' out of me. but sometimes still, once in a while, something comes out of my brain that isn't bad. something that i might actually share with other people. this one has been brewing for a while. but it's not ready for anyone else to see yet. you're gonna have to sit tight.

like me, in yoga this morning. yikes.

namaste.

2007-10-15T17:52:00.000-06:00

"What do you want? You can't want to be happy, because that's too easy and too boring. You can't want only to love, because that's impossible. What do you want? You want to justify your life, to live it as intensely as possible. That is at once a trap and a source of ecstasy. Try to be alert to that danger and experience the joy and the adventure of being that woman who is beyond the image reflected in the mirror." ~ from The Witch of Portobello by Paolo Coelo

2007-10-10T20:38:00.000-06:00

some things:
every one of my plates and bowls and silverware are dirty. it's a sign of how amazing my weekend was.
i find myself more desiring of slipping into tv and movie-watching oblivion.
there are days i love my job.
and days i don't so much.
it's weird to think that is true with most things you could do.
smart, eloquent people make me happy.
sometimes naive ones do too.
i find that i like people less the more they exemplify stereotypes.
exercise is good for my body and soul. but sometimes i just can't get myself to do it.
the thought of trading holidays is exhilarating.
my big brother will be home in 2 months.
today it was cold outside. my office was still about 80 degrees.
i'm scared of some places where feelings and logic meet.
every day i have more in my head and less to write about.

2007-09-12T17:04:00.000-06:00

happy making babies day!!

tonight the dining hall served lobster. and not just like.. lobster soup, or fake lobster in a salad. no. these were entire maine lobsters, cooked fresh in the res hall kitchen. with bibs. and crackers. one of my bosses described it as being 'a bonus to your paycheck' and what a bonus it was! mmmm in the midst of a crazy wednesday, it was a welcome break.

i finally bought my gym membership today. :D so tomorrow starts the early morning yoga/workouts. it's the only time i can go, and my body is begging me for more exercise. also, they take $26 from my paycheck every month, so i have to make it worth it!

oh, and, my aunt has a blog for her bookstore now. so you should go check it out!

2007-09-03T14:00:00.000-06:00

happy labor day everyone! and happy september! and look! it's only been two weeks since my last post! not shabby..

so this weekend.. was amazing. i came down to miami to spend time with my mild mannered meteorologist. got to hang out with glo for a couple hours friday night, and then spent most of the rest of the weekend just hanging out.. we didn't do much. watched movies (perfume: the story of a murderer, and the lives of others - both excellent, in their own ways), ate good food (turkey saturday and salmon sunday), and did lots and lots of cuddling. today we went snorkeling for an hour up by fort lauderdale, before i had to get to the airport. having the airport right near the beach is just very convenient.

saw lots of good stuff while snorkeling! a conch that was bigger than my head, a pretty purple jellyfish, and a nurse shark. also this weird worm thing that we had no idea what it was. yay! all within an hour :) snorkeling is so cool. i got my first jellyfish sting. which i am not disappointed about at all. i feel it's on that list of life experiences to have someday. so hooray for checking off another one of those.

time to board the plane. hooray for fort lauderdale airport having free internet :) baibai!

2007-08-19T10:32:00.001-06:00

wow. we made it. move-in was yesterday, and i made it through the day with only one angry parent yelling from 6 inches in front of my face. he was horrifying. i've never seen someone be so rude to another person, and to know that he did it to my maintenance staff too makes me ill. gonna take some time to shake that off. but i made it. returning students move in today. which is pretty much a day off for me. i was going to try to go for a bike ride, but it is going to be raining all day, so... maybe a movie instead, and a run in the rain in the evening. sounds good to me :)

..i dont really have anything brilliant to say. next week is pretty busy yet, until wednesday when the students start class. my brain isn't really functioning any higher than 'get through this, get through this...' which is why i haven't written in a while. it's neat to have the energy of students coursing through the building, but i think it's going to take me a couple days to funnel that into anything productive for myself. i'll let y'all know. ;)

until then, it's a relaxing, lazy sunday afternoon for me.

2007-07-31T07:54:00.001-06:00

oh goodness, what a horrible blogger i have been! here i went, sending out a link to this goofy thing to a ton of people, and i haven't even put anything up yet.

u of i is fantastic. i have a bunch of coworkers that rock my socks, and a building that is going to be very interesting. i'm excited about all the trees on this campus, as well as the juggling opportunities :) also, my apartment is gorgeous:

so there you go. a post. YAY!
we're heading into RA training next week, so my life will be even more hectic (if you can even imagine that..) but i'll try to be better about this.

oh! and CONGRATULATIONS Freddy and Mai on your marriage!! i so much wish i could have been there, but alas, i dont think my bosses would have let me skip training my RAs to be hauling around japan for a couple of weeks. much love and best wishes to you! ^-^

2007-06-28T09:10:00.000-06:00

so. i got a job!!
i was going to wait and post pictures from Shenandoah and do a nice big pretty post, but i figure....i dont want to yet. heh.
so, here's the deal. i am moving to illinois next week, to work at the U. of Ill. at urbana-champaign. i'll be in an all-women's hall, supervising RA's, etc.. U of I *is* playing the Badgers this year, so if people want a place to crash to go to the game.. let me know!
and now, back to your regularly scheduled work day.

2007-06-15T09:13:00.001-06:00

because i feel that this insanity needs to be shared... this is the story of my travel experiences for my on-campus interview at U of I this week.

on my way to the airport, i got to navigate clumps of sod that had been dropped on the freeway by some goofy truck driver. it was quite entertaining to see all the cars suddenly swerving around on the 836. not a big deal though, no accidents, just amusement. i got to the airport and parked my car, and had no trouble getting to the gate. some guy commented on my bare feet going through the metal detector, but.. that attempt at flirting fell rather flat. which is not to say i have flat feet. my feet, like certain other members of my family's, are perfect.

the first plane, from miami to chicago, had no air conditioning. two and a half hours with no air. the second plane had no functioning bathroom on board. thankfully that was a short flight, but sheesh!

the interview on tuesday went really well, i think.. it was a long day, but i answered some questions exactly how i wanted to, and got a really good vibe from the staff. i also got to have pizza and beer with one of my juggling buddies, so that was enjoyable as well :) i'll be hearing back about the job next week sometime. keep those fingers crossed!

on wednesday, i got up at 7 CST for breakfast, got picked up at 7:45, and was at the airport, by the gate, by 8:10. first flight left at 9:10, right on time, w/o a hitch. it had functioning bathrooms. excellent. however, the gate we pulled in at was on the complete opposite side of the airport from where i was leaving, so i didn't have much time to work my way through the crowds to get to my gate before its scheduled boarding time. turned out that didn't matter, b/c we had to wait 20 minutes for the flight attendants to show up. and then once we got on the plane, it took another 20 minutes to get the baggage loaded and take off (why weren't they loading while the flight attendants were coming??). at this point i'm like.. ok. we're running a little late, but this airplane has air conditioning, and the guy next to me smells pretty good, so it should be a nice flight.

flight was fine. pleasant, even. i read harry potter the whole way :) but after we landed, the jet bridge we were supposed to use to get off the plane was broken. so they started unloading the baggage while we waited for someone to come fix it. they tried, and failed, so we were told we'd have to switch gates. it took 20 minutes to reload the baggage and then get to a new gate, and finally deplane... by this point we'd been sitting on the plane *on the ground* for an hour and fifteen minutes. i got off the plane almost exactly 2 hours after i was supposed to. many people were disgruntled.

but the story, my friends, does not stop there. because of the delays, i now had to drive home in rush hour traffic. but this was no ordinary rush hour traffic! no! this was rush hour traffic in a magnificent thunderstorm, with driving rain and hail! by this point, i was actually glad for the storm. it cracked me up. i called my mild mannered meteorologist to report the hail, and just enjoyed the clear panic in the other drivers' movements. the amusement of that storm made me just tired, as opposed to tired and crabby. by the time i got home, it was 6pm, and i hadn't eaten in 10 hours. i passed out, and didn't really wake up until dinner was done. sometimes it's really nice to live with someone :)

anyhow, that's my story of disgruntled travel.. it was quite the adventure. not really one i want to repeat, but an adventure nonetheless.

today we are starting our journey up to spend a week in VA. i'm excited to see another new part of the country :) camping, canoe'ing, driving... it should be good!

2007-06-07T14:17:00.000-06:00

update on the job stuff: i have an on-campus interview with u of illinois next monday - tuesday! it sounds like it's going to be incredible. so.. further crossing of fingers is requested for those days :)

2007-06-05T13:49:00.001-06:00

i haven't posted in a long time, again. you should be getting used to that ;)

i have a phone interview for a job in about 10 minutes. while researching their site, i found this. i like it:

“What is it, “Kokoro”?
It is the sound of the pine breeze there in the painting.”

Above is the poem by the priest Ikkyu, one of the greatest Japanese Zen monks in the 15th century. “Kokoro” is the Japanese word inclusive of heart, mind and spirit, which is like the sound of the pine breeze in the painting. Thus, we cannot see nor hold it, but if it is executed well, we can hear it.
~Kimiko Gunji
Director of Japan House, University of Illinois at Champagne-Urbana

wish me luck!

2007-05-12T16:59:00.000-06:00

it was a fairly big van, with 'watch for children' in paste-on red letters on the back. the van.. was what you could refer to as a 'rapist van' - you couldn't see through the windows. the sliding door was open, and visible was the only thing that told you it was an icecream truck. just inside the door (as in, you'd have to lean into the van to get to it..) was a cardboard stand with the types and prices of available icecream. they were driving around with the sliding door open, no music, just.. on the prowl. i shuddered and turned the corner, once again vowing to never raise children in miami.

2007-05-08T11:52:00.000-06:00

it's been almost a month! sorry 'bout that.. been lots going on, i guess. umm. let's see.. i graduated! YAY! you may now all call me 'master' ;) my mom and lil bros came down for graduation weekend.. it was amazing to spend time with them. i haven't been back to WI at all this semester, so i definitely cherished the opportunity to have some family time.

had to be moved out by the day after graduation. i'm now living with my mild-mannered meteorologist, until i move away from miami.

..unfortunately i dont know where that 'away' is, yet. don't have a job, yet. which is a little frustrating, but i'm not freaking out about it at this point. i've got a couple feelers out.. am just waiting to hear back so i can figure out what is up.

am still working at FIU for another month or so, so i can get stuff set up for the woman who is taking my position next year. gotta clean this place up a bit so she can make sense of it.

that's all i've got for now.

2007-04-16T20:49:00.000-06:00

i know i've been bad about posting. and there are a couple people who have expressed curiosity about what i've been up to. but. the whole virginia tech thing. holy crap. i feel that it pales in comparison to any news i could write on here about myself. my partner's little sister goes to VT and one of her favorite teachers is thought to be dead. she wasn't near the area where it all happened. i think my heart skipped a couple beats when i realized the shooting was at her school. thankfully she's ok.

it's interesting the different reactions people have to the whole thing. given that i study higher education, some classmates and colleagues have started talking about the effect this event will have on colleges and universities around the country. higher security in residence halls? more cameras in classrooms? more police on campus? but then how can you possibly react when something happens so incredibly quickly? i have an interview with a school on monday. i had been planning on asking about their plan of action for crisis situations, in light of what happened at bluffton university.. but now with this having happened, it makes it even more relevant. the two events are traumatic in different ways, but students will certainly have some similar needs to help them cope. anyhow. to get off the geek pedestal and reflect on another reaction.

some people have asked why no one did anything to stop the guy. someone i knew in high school posted the following in a myspace bulletin:

"Ok, the Virginia tech thing. First of all, very sad, really.
But GIMME A BREAK, that fucker managed to shoot 50 FUCKING PEOPLE and no one tried to take him down? It would be wrong of me to say that it is their own fault, but I will tell you right now, in IL the guy would have been lucky to even raise his gun before someone was taking him down. I find it strange that absolutely NO ONE acted the hero, at least trying to stop the gunman. The worst shooting incident in US History? Well, maybe next time someone will react when they see 30 of their classmates die and try to put a stop to it. I am sorry, and I am sure I will get flak for this statement. But it wouldn't have been the worse shooting in history if people acted with the survival instinct they are supposed to, aka ATTACK.
And for those who think I am hypocritical and would run away just like all those other people, I learned a long time ago that I can't run fast and I can't hide behind things. All that leaves is offense, so there."

i still dont know what to make of that. ..i think it's going to take me a while to process it all. ..i think it will take a lot of people a while to process.

2007-03-29T09:12:00.000-06:00

i had some time to sit and think for a while yesterday.. and this is what came out of my head:

"at some point, i stopped writing just to write. when i was younger, i would spend time every day just writing whatever came to my head. no worries about sentence structure or coherence.. no focus on whether what i was writing made sense. i wrote just to write. my head was filled with all these words that just needed to come out. things that refused to stay in. and every day i took a little while to let it all out. as i have progressed through my years (although i am yet not very old..) i have found myself having a harder time writing just for the joy of creation. as i have been taught in school, all writing must serve a purpose. it must express an idea, an emotion. prove a point. make sense. why is that?

through especially the last two years, i have seen so many things that don't make sense. things that made me throw up my hands in frustration or disbelief, 'i just don't get it!' so why then is it in my head that the things i write about must make sense? if i am to express what is really going on in my head and my surroundings, how can i be expected to write sentences that make meaning out of something i can't even wrap my head around? how much of what is in our heads could make beautiful writing if we could get past this training that says 'everything in your world can be made sense of'?

even as i write this i am keenly aware of the contradiction in what i am doing. these words came out to express my distaste for everything having to have a purpose. is that not itself a purpose? i sat down to write about the things in my head, and ended up writing about my inability to do so. instead of actually writing about the thoughts, describing them and setting them free, i have merely written about their existance, not giving them the due of full expression."

...and then i got interrupted.

but i wanted to share.

back to the insanity! i have interviews with 6 schools (from literally coast to coast) this weekend. cross your fingers that at least one or two go well :)

2007-03-17T08:17:00.000-06:00

i am sitting in fort lauderdale airport, on my way to bowling green state university for the week. they overbooked my flight so i got bumped to a different one.. which unfortunately leaves 9 hours after the one i was supposed to be on. thankfully, though, there is free wireless here! yay. it will at least help alleviate the airport-induced pain a bit..

i'm stealing this from gloria, becuse it seems like something interesting to do.

No More Silence: 15 things I should have said - to 15 different people, anonymously.

1. stop pitying yourself.

2. it wasn't your place to take that from me.

3. you are one of the most beautiful people i have ever known.

4. i sometimes wonder if i was old enough to make that decision.

5. your hugs are one of the things that got me through last spring.

6. i had a HUGE crush on you.

7. the way you interact with people is one of the most disrespectful things i've ever seen.

8. your kindness outshines that of almost anyone i know.

9. watching you raise children is going to amuse me immensely.

10. thank you for everything you have given me.

11. i have never felt so sexy as when...

12. you taught me how things can be better.

13. you kindof scare me. and i like it.

14. please learn to stand up for yourself.

15. i'm more scared of the time commitment than the loss.

2007-03-15T17:17:00.001-06:00

this week has been.. one full of reflection for me. with spring break (and other insanity such as interviewing for jobs) coming up, it has been easy to mark time, essential even. keeping track of things, knowing where i am, what i am doing, who i must contact.. who i am. needing to be able to articulate who i am, what i am good at, what i struggle with. i've spent a lot of time thinking about graduate school and my own development during it. a lot has happened in the last year and a half. heck, broken down, a lot has happened in the last year, the last six months, the last month..

something that has been sticking in my head for a couple days is the difference in my position from last march. a year ago i was in the midst of a maelstrom. a year ago i was home, staying with mike and his family, no idea of what was yet to come. no thought to brace myself. i thought things were going to get easier again. they did get easier, but not until i was halfway across the globe. things got a lot worse, first.

this year, i am once again in the midst of a swirl of confusion. but this time, it's mostly positive confusion. it's the confusion of moving on and up. of graduating, finding a job, balancing school and a nearby SO, really *living* in miami. i feel much more balanced and ready to handle the craziness of what april will bring. this time i actually know what the craziness is! which makes it still a bit scary, but much easier to handle, i think. i've got more people and tools to help me keep an even keel.

anyhow. here's hoping. the next 6 or 8 weeks are going to be nuts for me. i might not be around much. i might not make phone calls, or send emails, or post to my blog. but i am here. i am keeping afloat.

and i am exactly where i want to be.

2007-03-05T20:49:00.000-07:00

so i took this ridiculous thing.. and i have to say i disagree with some of the results. lol they call me an old geezer!! have no idea what that's about. i do, however, have to agree with the hotness rating ;)
but whatever.. the test itself was interesting. i suggest it if you have 20 minutes to spare:

The Everything Test

There are many different types of tests on the internet today. Personality tests, purity tests, stereotype tests, political tests. But now, there is one test to rule them all.

Traditionally, online tests would ask certain questions about your musical tastes or clothing for a stereotype, your experiences for a purity test, or deep questions for a personality test.We're turning that upside down - all the questions affect all the results, and we've got some innovative results too! Enjoy :-)

Personality

You are more logical than emotional, more concerned about self than concerned about others, more atheist than religious, more loner than dependent, more lazy than workaholic, more traditional than rebel, more artistic mind than engineering mind, more cynical than idealist, more leader than follower, and more extroverted than introverted.

As for specific personality traits, you are intellectual (87%), romantic (86%), horny (58%), greedy (55%).

Stereotypes
Old Geezer	100%
Prep	92%
Hippie	74%

Life Experience
Sex	42%
Substances	22%
Travel	26%

Politics
Your political views would best be described as Liberal, whom you agree with around 50% of the time.

Socioeconomic
Your attitude toward life best associates you with Upper Middle Class. You make more than 0% of those who have taken this test, and 65% less than the U.S. average.

If your life was a movie, it would be rated PG-13.
By the way, your hottness rank is 71%, hotter than 96% of other test takers.

TAKE THE TEST
brought to you by thatsurveysite

2007-03-04T20:43:00.000-07:00

was greeted this morning by the announcer on NPR saying, "today is the only day of the year where the date tells us what to do. it's march fourth..."

i love humor intended for smart people :)

2007-02-28T21:58:00.000-07:00

wow. two things. one: that last post was number 700.

two: this is something from one of my favoritest authors, neil gaiman. ask a question.. you are sure to receive an answer (and please let us all know what your question and answer were, as they are sure to be an amusing combination!)

2007-02-22T21:38:00.000-07:00

yayy thanks to all who made my birthday awesome :D

i had an awesome day.. lots of good friends and good food and sweets.

it's sleepy time because tomorrow is the roundup!!

2007-02-21T15:53:00.000-07:00

wow. and wow. good stuff:
george takei
and
jimmy kimmel's three musketeers commercial spoof

i almost cried laughing.

2007-02-21T05:34:00.000-07:00

i like how sometimes on those myspace/LJ/blogger surveys they capitalize the first letter in every word of the question.. it makes things look so important or ominous. For example: What was The Last Thing You Purchased? ..doesn't it sound like it should be some big important thing? sometimes i feel silly entering my answer of "a Bottle of Water". almost monty python'esque. "first you must take out the Holy Pin".. similar to "first you must take off the Red Cap".

yeah. anyhow. good day then.

2007-02-18T18:16:00.000-07:00

it is happily survived...

for the last two weeks, my friends and i have been working on a case study competition. this involved researching five areas of technology that are of interest to people who work in higher education. we chose blogs, institutional spam, WebCT type programs, university portals, and cell phones. the project was to make a powerpoint file under 1.5MB that discussed benefits, issues, concerns, etc about those issues. the last couple of days, we've been eating, (not) sleeping, and breathing case study. we finished an hour and a half ago.

i'm glad it's done. i'm glad we did it, but i'm glad it's done.

life slows down a smidge for this week, and then picks up again. got some birthday thing going on this week.. we'll see what happens with that. not so sure what that will entail this year. i had decided i wanted to wear a dress all day for my bday, just to make things a little more special, but then i realized that my work day is kindof crazy with presentations and stuff, so that might not be the best idea. *shrug* best laid plans..

anyhow. i need to stop typing. have done too much of that in the last few days. tata.

2007-02-14T23:45:00.000-07:00

happy couple hours after valentine's day! all in all, it's been a pretty good day. had some interesting interactions with a couple people, but ya know. whatever. it's valentine's day. it's supposed to be a little weird. i got to give lots of people some yummy cookies i baked, and got to spend some time with people who are dear to me. hooray.

am currently staying up all night (or however long i make it) with my girls, working on a case study competition. we're hoping to get tons of stuff done so we dont have to work on it much this weekend. we'll see. i'm really not good at staying up all night, so.. ya know.

as a friend said, 'happy chocolate is on sale day!'

2007-02-12T11:23:00.000-07:00

twice within the last year (last march, and then again today) i have been told that because someone did not intend to hurt me i have no reason to actually be hurt. i do not understand how this works. it seems to me that the actual effect of an action is what matters in the end, not the intention of it. seems to me as though even if you don't intend to hurt someone, if you do you are still responsible for owning up to it and then *apologizing* and perhaps clarifying things so that the same mistake does not happen again. am i wrong on this?

i am so tired of manipulative people who are on power trips.

kindof want to go crawl into a cave. or sit in the rain and watch the thunderstorms. mrrrrr

2007-02-05T09:28:00.000-07:00

i had a fantastic weekend. lots of sleep, got to go kayaking on the ocean (at night! with a full moon!), hung out with some buddies last night, and spent time with my girls (YAY!).

today is not starting out quite so well. i will not be able to get my braces off before my big interviews at the end of march. BOOO :(

also, i am supposed to be at a meeting in one minute, and i am still in my bedroom. bleh.

2007-02-03T12:24:00.000-07:00

credit goes to elise! for joyful site of the day...
my favorites include the flesh eating virus and the algae

2007-01-29T07:28:00.000-07:00

i flew on a trapeze yesterday!

it was simultaneously the coolest and the scariest thing i have ever done. one of those experiences where time slows and all you say in your head is "ohmygodohmygodohmygod" ..i did it twice. both times for only about 20 to 30 seconds.. but boy did it feel longer than that. the concentration and adrenaline.. wow. what an incredible high afterwards! after about an hour and a half i crashed *hard* and i can still feel that my body is tired, today. actually more than tired. i'm really sore. not sore in the way you'd be if you'd been beat up. but rather sore in the way that i feel like i used absolutely every muscle in my body in a very intense way. it's so good.

i'm going to go back in a couple of weeks. does anyone want to come??

2007-01-28T08:26:00.000-07:00

so. this semester.. it's going to kick my butt. really, there has been a lot of butt-kicking in the last three weeks already and i see it only getting more intense from here.
it started out with the enjoyable madness of having two visitors for a week (this is the picture that resulted in my phone landing in the ocean):

followed by flying back to WI with them for the juggling festival. this sign is in the fieldhouse where we juggled all weekend:

then three days of 'down' time in miami before these hooligans came to visit for a weekend..

add in there the craziness of working, trying to get my car fixed, trying to switch cell phone companies, starting a new semester of classes, and a couple difficult conversations with some people and you've got my first three weeks of school. thankfully i have time to get in to work for a couple hours this weekend to get caught up, my car should be getting fixed today, the cell phone should switch tomorrow, class isn't too much work yet, and i'm mostly at peace with the results of the conversations. but those are all recent developments. i am really hoping for the ability to maintain sanity this semester.. something about spring semesters seeming to always be challenging. this semester will be challenging in totally different ways than last spring (thank god.. i dont think i could do that again) but it will definitely be interesting in its own ways.

off to print off my resume and have lunch at south beach with my mentora! (did i mention job searching? yeah no i didn't. prolly b/c i was trying not to think about it. that's a huge thing looming this spring as well. eek!)

2007-01-24T09:17:00.000-07:00

so, this is a really poorly written article, but here it is..
my friends got shot at last friday while on their way back from the round-up. thankfully the bullet went into the texan's car door, but had it been a couple inches to one side it would have gotten her in the leg. the bullet came from, of all things, an AK47. umm. that's a big gun. kindof scary. no one was hurt, and it wasn't an intentional thing (who could possibly dislike my friends??) so who knows what will happen.

in completely unrelated news, i finally am getting my phone switched to cingular. i am in the midst of the process.. so my phone might be shut off for a couple days. but my number will be the same once i get it all set.

in other unrelated news, i accidentally closed my thumb in my t-shirt drawer this morning, and expect to have a nice bruise. gotta love the morning clutziness.

2007-01-12T16:11:00.000-07:00

this weekend is the madfest juggling festival! yayy!
this means two things: one, i am in town. two, you should come see the juggling show on saturday night.

Madison Area Jugglers present:
the 47th annual Juggling Extravaganza!
Saturday, January 13th
7pm
Memorial Union Theater
$10

no, you don't have to be a juggler to attend. yes, i promise you will think it's freaking cool. it's not just juggling. it's comedy, it's unicycles, it's music, it's pogo sticks and yoyos, it's a really good way to spend your saturday night.

same price as a movie and popcorn. way cooler.
see you there!

2007-01-01T23:18:00.000-07:00

happy new year! and also, happy 5th birthday to this blog! yup, that's right.. i've been putting my random thoughts on the intarweb for 5 whole years (as of the 1st). for those of you who have been reading that long, congratulations, thank you, and my apologies for some of the drivel you've read. also thanks for the support through random life events, and analysis of some of my writing things.. ya know. those things that happen when you write a blog and people give you feedback on it ;) anyhow. i thought it would be fun to go back to some of my posts.. random things. it was too long to pull long quotes, so you'll have to click on the links. here we go!

"pretty sure the dog has a nicotine addiction" 01.06.2002

geekiness 02.20.2002

"you have to trust someone to love them.." 03.05.2002

weaver bit the postman! 08-09-2002

erat hora 05.21.2003

"i learn. i watch. i grow" 05.17.2003

tooth extraction trauma! 02.09.2004

"on any other day, i'd be your average white female college student. non-descript. 'normal'" - on day of silence 04.23.2004

"I want to pour on drop you on the end of my language" 09.15.2004

"are they real?" 11.28.2005

"heidi stole my left boob" 02.11.2006

happy five years, blog... it's now past 1am on the day after its birthday, b/c i spent wayyy too much time reading old posts trying to find good things. oh well. goodnight internet world.

2006-12-30T09:55:00.000-07:00

i keep saying.. 'i should post something. it's really about time that i wrote something on my blog.. it's been a whole week' ..but ya know what? i've got nothing brilliant to say. just newsy stuff, but i guess that's something, eh? yeah, christmas came and went.. as mentioned in my thanksgiving post, i'm not a super huge fan of the holiday season.

so let's say the excitement of christmas was in getting a pretty shiny new watch (which i've needed for ages) and in telling my bros that they are coming to miami for the weekend in a couple of weeks. managed to not go to church this year, which was ok with me. mom and her bf went to holy hill's midnight mass again this year. i opted out b/c my back really hurt, and i didn't really want to go sit somewhere where i'd spend the entire time thinking about mike's mom. i'm not one for knowingly walking into emotional traps, and that seemed like a good enough reason for mom to not get vexed at my lack of participation in a church-related thing. *phew*

went to jess's annual boxing day celebration, which was followed by a wonderful overnight with jess and elise. there was lots of laughter, and lots of wine:

yes, jess, i put this picture in here :)

i've spent most of the rest of my time in WI sleeping, getting over my annual christmas cold. finally going out to madison to see wonderful people, today. should be fun, and i can finally give becky her birthday present from a couple months ago.

that's all i've got. new years post should be a bit more interesting..

2006-12-22T15:44:00.000-07:00

i've always had a fear of falling. physically, falling into debt, falling behind at school and work, falling in love, falling into someone's bad graces.. anything that represents not standing on solid ground. including being picked up. so i'm a control freak. yup. that's part of it! i don't like the feeling of having anything out of control, and if something isn't in my control i need to know it's in someone else's.

but lately i seem to have a rash of things going poorly or getting out of control due to things others have done, and i'm left figuring out how to 'clean up the mess'. this has required a certain bit of tact in some situations, complete bluntness in others (ohh crazy spirituality lady! once i am not at FIU anymore i will tell your story to the internet world..) and picking battles with yet other situations. i think one of the things i'm learning is when to let go. when to say 'ok. whatever.. we're not communicating' or 'you're not worth the time/energy/emotional investment' and leave it be. this hasn't been easy for me. especially when i care very much about something or someone, i have a tendency to dive full force into the situation. which really leaves me pretty exposed to being hurt or, sometimes worse, having my energy sucked completely out of me. i've been burned a couple of times because of that. putting myself out there so fully, trying to salvage things, but being taken advantage of. used up, often with the situation still unresolved.

like i said. i've done a lot of learning with this. i think i still have a long way to go though..

annnd now i have to go help make dinner. it's good to be home.

2006-12-17T11:50:00.000-07:00

well, the new york city adventures have begun.. i spent last night hanging out with libbidy, a friend from undergrad. was proud because i took the train by myself - a new experience for me in the states. the way down there was totally fine. not many people, relative quiet, no bumps.. on the way home, however, the train in front of mine broke down. so what should have been a one hour ride ended up being just over two hours, and i didn't get back to the house until 4am. coupled with the .. um.. 5? hours of sleep i had gotten the night before, and the strange guy who talked to me the whole time, that train ride was reallly interesting. random guy told me that wearing two thumb rings means i'm a serial killer. that statement was later retracted when he saw that my socks had flowers on them. because serial killers can't have flowers on their socks? sure. anyhow.. definitely a good night, but definitely a weird night.

going to see avenue Q tonight! super exciting.

2006-12-14T10:30:00.000-07:00

my friend sue had this in her away message today, and it thoroughly amused me. gotta love the holidays!

"Our cookies are being stored in the cold on our front porch. A squirrel broke in through our mail slot. He/she/it tore through & ate a tupperwear full of chocolate kiss pretzels. A little part of me hopes he has a great holiday. A bigger part of me hopes the little bastard dies."

well said, sue.

2006-12-09T12:28:00.000-07:00

so, i made it through the week. happily with no more black spots. a little grey, but no great black pits of despair about school, etc. got to stay up most of the night (till 7am) with a bunch of my students at the queer-in overnight. which was very much fun.. i don't really do the whole staying up all night thing, especially when i'm already sleep deprived, but i decided there should be some staff there just in case, so i stayed. we played through my whole box of apples to apples. yay.

i've decided my weekend will consist mostly of doing things that don't require my brain. it needs a rest. as does my body. i am going to sleep, and watch movies, bake tasty things, and look forward to going to NY and home. appreciated and a little bit necessary? definitely. indulgent? heck yeah. def. excited for this. :)

2006-12-05T19:24:00.000-07:00

this pretty much is me the last few days:

extremely frustrated with school stuff. with professors who don't seem to care, with projects that seem pointless and unstimulating.. my mood was pretty black for a couple of days.
things are looking up a bit. but this is me saying that at 9:30 as i'm just starting to write a paper that is due tomorrow. the black may return. am hoping not, as it's absolutely my least favorite feeling.. but cross your fingers. we'll see.

2006-12-02T11:40:00.000-07:00

congratulations, oh mysterious madison mac user.. you have visited my site 600 times.

i have a site counter on NS. you might not have noticed it. it's a nice little box in the very bottom right corner of the page. isn't it cute? now, i initially did this just to see numbers, because sometimes it's nice to have my ego stroked a little. ya know. 'aww! yay! today, 14 people satisfied some morbid fascination with knowing about what goes through my brain!' the counter also does some neat things like tell me what words people searched with to find my site, as well as telling me their OS, browser and IP number. yes, dear friends, i could figure out a lot about you if i wanted to. lucky for you i am neither vengeful nor do i have any sort of computer expertise that would allow me to do something like that.

anyhow. for the last.. long time, lots of months.. there has been a mac user in madison, whom i refer to as MMM (myterious madison mac user), that has checked my site almost every day. funny thing is that none of the people who regularly let me know they are reading (by, say, posting comments ;) or talking to me about things i write) are mac users. this has led to lots of speculation on my part as to who this person might be. is it a bot who has become fascinated with my natural sweetness? or someone i know who just doesn't post? or perhaps just some random person who stumbled upon the site and maybe i'm in their daily blog checklist? not sure. all i know is that the MMM has hit 600 visits, and i feel this is commendable. so, congratulations MMM. i only hope it has been worth it.

2006-11-30T08:13:00.000-07:00

yes, my (not so secret) superpower is cuddles. samurai dan made me do it.

2006-11-29T21:13:00.000-07:00

yay for playing with iPhoto.. oh how i heart procrastination. christmas ornaments v.2:

2006-11-25T16:24:00.000-07:00

all the lovely people i had thanksgiving with.. yummy food + yummy people = yay

this is what the holiday season looks like in miami. yes, there are already massive christmas trees up. crazy.

2006-11-23T12:46:00.000-07:00

happy thanksgiving, internet world..

we've entered into the 'holiday season' which.. to be perfectly honest, is not one of my favorites. feel free to bah humbug me. it's just the way it is.

however, thanksgiving is one of the better of the 'holy days' in the next month and a half, so far as i'm concerned, so i figured i would talk a little about some of the things i'm thankful for:

~ my absolutely amazing friends and family who have been there for me through thick and thin (especially during this last, rather difficult, year).
~ forgiveness and friendship that lasts despite mistakes.
~ my brain. it serves me well (and other people sometimes too).
~ my body. cuz it does so many cool things and is functional for the most part.
~ korea. i don't know if i'd be as sane today if not for the amazingness of that place.
~ my siblings.. for the little ones who are finally getting cool ;) and the big one who has always taken care of me.
~ my boss who keeps me grounded and focused even when things and people try to thwart my efforts.
~ the ROUNDUP. mecca. whatever you want to call it.
~ new friends who serve as excellent distractions :)
~ mail! because it often brings good things.
~ learning from mistakes and difficult interactions..
~ annnnd.. well. i dont know what else. lots of things.

there you go. i'm off to eat turkey. what are you thankful for?

2006-11-14T20:53:00.000-07:00

happy birthday to my most favoritest texan!!

in celebration, i baked a *homemade* red velvet chocolate cake. pretty tasty. have a couple things i'll change next time to make it even better, but not bad for a first attempt at a fairly difficult cake.

ALSO, as a lovely windfall.. i won tickets to the lonestar concert at FAU for friday night! yayy! my first time ever winning tickets for something! perfect timing for the texan's bday and very nice considering my somewhat barren checking account. i won it by having a local dj as my buddy on myspace.. i suppose that ridiculous site is good for something. :)

i'm so proud of squat.. she stood up to some obnoxious miami men who were staring at her and the texan at dinner tonight. there's a thing about people in miami that is kindof hard for us foreigners to handle. this concept that it is ok to leer at other people, and that it doesn't matter if you make them uncomfortable.

outside of miami, i have only experienced this phenomenon in korea. it makes more sense for people there to stare. as a tall, white girl, i stuck out like a sore thumb. in miami, not so much. so what gives with the staring? i know my friends are gorgeous, but they should be allowed to eat a meal in peace. it's not like they were dressed in any inappropriate way. and even then i would argue that it is within their right to be able to wear whatever they'd have wanted without fear of unruly gawking. there is no reason that anyone should feel it is ok to stare, and continue staring (even after being told very bluntly to stop) to the point that my friends are so uncomfortable that they leave the restaurant.

anyhow, squat stood up for herself and the texan, and did so quite wittily it seems. hopefully those men think a little bit before the next time they are so rude to people. kudos to her. sometimes, you just get frustrated and have to say something. extra bonus points for the witty retorts and excellent dealing with the situation, squat!

incessant staring will be added to the list of things i won't miss about miami when i leave. i have been thinking about making a physical list of things i will and will not miss, just to keep track for myself and have something to remind me of later. add to the list of things to do. pretty sad when the list of things to do includes other lists..

2006-11-09T22:49:00.000-07:00

so, i have to say.. WI, i am disappointed in you. not that anyone reading this voted in favor of the gay marriage ban, but i just had to put it out there. one step further from civil rights...

in similar news, here is an interesting report from npr on some events that have been happening in israel. i'm glad that the muslims and jews were able to find something to agree on, but i really wish it wasn't yet another discriminatory thing. they're already awful enough to each other.. there's no reason to single out another group to be hateful towards.

i get to house sit for one of my mentors at school, this weekend.. it means a weekend in a gated community, playing with a puppy, and running in the evening b/c it will actually be safe to do so. also, she doesn't really have internet, so i will have lots of time to concentrate on all the homework i should be doing. and she wanted to pay me for taking care of the house/dog... silly bean lady! i'm just excited to have such a quiet weekend of studying and relaxing ahead of me :) plus i just got an ipod, so i will be playing with that lots, too. yayyy!

2006-11-05T10:28:00.000-07:00

hehehehe... this amuses me greatly.
marriedtothesea.com

as soon as i get pictures from jess, i will post stuff of our adventures while she was here. yay!

2006-10-30T22:32:00.000-07:00

happy halloween!! mwahahaha..

not that it's really something i super get into, but jess and i made bat sugar cookies this evening for me to take to work tomorrow. they're not the prettiest cookies i've ever seen, but we sure did have a lot of fun making them :D will try to remember to take a picture of the bat blobs tomorrow.. sleepy time now.

2006-10-25T19:43:00.000-06:00

these pictures are absolutely incredible. i encourage you to spend some time poking through there.

2006-10-22T21:18:00.000-06:00

it's amazing the variety of things i get done while trying to avoid homework. this weekend i have accomplished a long list of tasks that have kept me blissfully away from the paper i have due tomorrow. however, it is now after 11 and all i have is a basic outline and a major urge to go to bed. i think it may be more productive to go to sleep and try to get up early. as painful as that sounds.

my forearms look longer than normal today. it may be a combination of the angle they are bisecting lines on my desk, or that i have lost muscle on them due to not juggling as much, or it might just be that i am tired. regardless, they look a little odd to me.

my big bro told my little bros that if they learn the korean alphabet and some korean phrases, he will pay for them to fly over there to visit. discussing that with curly brother made me realize that it would be a *ton* of fun to go over there with all us kids (and maybe mom too). so curly bro and i have decided that we will try to make it possible for all of us to go for a 2 week or so trip to korea after i graduate in may. sounds like a good graduation present to me. :) though, too.. some friends and i have discussed taking a trip over to europe or a cruise as a graduation thing as well. mayhaps it will be a very travelling'ish summer? this of course all also depends on what i am doing after gradumation. so many cool things, so many things to consider...

so very little desire to do the homework it will take to get to the graduation part.

2006-10-21T14:03:00.000-06:00

my tummy is upset. which sucks, b/c i have a lot of work to do. but look! pictures!

this is the project runway dresses i saw in NY. definitely a highlight of that weekend. :D

gloria and i on coming out day. the squares behind us are for the coming out quilt, an ongoing project for the year. people were invited to write coming out stories or inspirational/supportive quotes or comments on a square. in honor of FIU's coming out year of finally having LGBTQ programming.

annnd the lovely committee for the women's center sisterhood retreat. succulent women, all.

2006-10-18T19:04:00.000-06:00

good news is.... my car problem was just that i needed a new battery. hooray!

now the only thing is that it's still got a little squeak that i have no idea what it means.. will have to get my car-minded friend to listen to it. but. it's functional, and that's a Very Good Thing.

2006-10-16T18:46:00.000-06:00

holy wow.. it's been a pretty crazy few days! after coming out day, which was amazing, i went on a sisterhood retreat through the women's center. also, i FINALLY have internet in my apartment. i was going to post pictures but my computer and blogger are arguing :(

also, when arianna and i went to go to the grocery store tonight, my car didn't start! *big sad face* i have a friend coming over now who is going to look at my car to see if it's a big problem or something he can perhaps fix. cross your fingers. my budget can't handle major car repairs right now. heh.. or ever, really.. but really not now.

i feel like i've had a serious lack of actual thought lately. like.. i've just been running around so much doing things that i haven't really stopped to process much. i spent some quiet time staring at the water on the retreat after talking to tim before he left (he went back to korea this weekend) but that's the most actual thought i've done lately. am hoping that since things are getting a little more calm here i will be able to spend some time in my head. we'll see.

ok. here. a link of drool-worthy goodness. check out these glow-clubs! http://www.k8malabares.com.ar/flash_en/home.php

i'm off to see if the car will work. cross your fingers.

2006-10-12T21:51:00.000-06:00

OoOOOoooOhh... that last post was number 666.. almost seems appropriate since tomorrow is a friday the 13th.. OoOooOooOoOoOOOohhhh..

hah. enough of that. today was our coming out day celebration. YAYYY!!! technically, yesterday was national coming out day, but we had to celebrate it today b/c hispanic heritage had taken over the union (as if that's not the case every day.. but i suppose that's a whole 'nother train of thought).
anyhow, today was absolutely *fabulous*. we had tables set up, got 50 people to make quilt squares, and had an amazing drag show. and by amazing, i mean fabulous in the way that only drag kings and queens can do it. i still have no internet in my apartment, so i dont have pictures yet (BIG SAD FACE) but there will eventually be some.

tomorrow we are going on a retreat with the women's center for the weekend. have i mentioned lately that i love my life?

2006-10-07T10:08:00.000-06:00

hey look!
i have internet and am not running around like a chicken with my head cut off! (it should be noted that i initially wrote 'woman with my head cut off' before realizing that wasn't quite right. though sometimes it might be just about accurate)

and why, you may ask, do i have internet, and how it is possible that a mere 5 days before coming out day that i am not running around madly? i am in new york city (more specifically, currently on long island..) visiting my friend matthew. this trip is special for several reasons: i have never been to the NE states before. not ever. it has been over a year since matthew and i got to hang out just the two of us, and longer since we got to really spend significant time, and matthew and his roommate are both clowns. as is his roommate's girlfriend. that means that my company for the weekend is a group of hilariously funny people. not that my friends are home aren't funny.. because wow they really are.. but these people do it for a living. they're so funny they can make money for it. it's really very enjoyable.

i have lots of pictures from our wanderings yesterday and i'm sure there will be more from today.. as soon as i get back i will try to get some up here. theoretically, when i get home i will have internet in my apartment. they had actually started working on it right before i left (picture me packing for my trip with three maintenance guys standing in my room. yeah. a little awkward!) we'll see if they finally followed through!

there's a badger's game today. gonna go see if i can catch it. :)

2006-09-27T07:49:00.000-06:00

so.. i *still* don't have internet at my apartment. which, really is the cause for the lack of posts lately. i feel bad sitting and writing a blog post while i'm at work.. and, really, don't have much time when i'm here. everything lately has been meetings, class and homework, with some hardcore hanging out on the weekends. but this morning before work i went in and put in a formal complaint about the fact that they still haven't fixed my internet, so hopefully soon they'll get it done. b/c dude.. it's been almost 6 weeks since i moved in. this is ridiculous!

my month of october is looking to be pretty excitingly full of cool stuff happening.. i'm visiting new york the first weekend, then there's coming out day and the sisterhood retreat, and the last weekend jess is coming to visit! hooray! so hopefully i should be able to start posting fun pictures and stories again soon. cross your fingers. :)

2006-09-10T08:09:00.000-06:00

so. the music in the union is very.. band-stand'y. really, they're playing god bless america right now, and i think i heard teddy bears on parade earlier.

so my one story.. is that my box of souvenirs from this summer is currently headed back to korea. that's right. they sent it back. arianna and her dad weren't able to get to the post office soon enough, so the post office stamped it with a nice big 'return to sender' and it's headed back. SO, i am going to have to contact my boss in korea (whom it's headed to..) and ask her very nicely to pretty pretty please put it back in the mail again so it can come back this direction. hopefully i'll be able to give people souvenirs by christmas time. i don't even remember what is in the box at this point, so it will pretty much be a present to me as well :D arianna and her dad felt really bad about the whole thing. but honestly, i think it's kindof funny. not vexed at all. the whole summer was an adventure.. this is just one more way of extending it.

i still don't have internet in my room. the internet jack was ripped out of the wall and pretty much mutilated by the previous inhabitants of my room, so it's been nonfunctional. the IT guys came on friday to check it out, and when one of them walked in and saw it he said '..fuck.. er! sorry! shouldn't swear!' it was excellent. so supposedly someone else will be coming to fix it on monday, and then maybe i'll have more regular access? we'll see. until then, i get to listen to bandstand music and michael jackson in the union.

2006-09-03T20:55:00.000-06:00

so friday night we had our roundup reunion. for those of you who are fairly new to my blog (hello!) ..the roundup is my friends' and my *favorite* de-stressing mechanism. our core four good friends went almost every week last year. i believe it has been referred to as mecca on more than one occasion. so yeah. friday, we went back with all four of us for the first time since april. and it was good. here is a picture from the evening.. a demonstration of just how sexy and crazy we all were that night. i don't think the roundup knew what hit it.

here's to the men we love, here's to the men who love us. here's to the men who don't love us.. f*** the men, let's drink to us! <3