12 January 2011
10 January 2011
New Apartment
Life here is good but busy! I started work a week ago, and am loving the new job so far. It is very, very different than my old job, in good ways. My scientific adventures have been thus far limited to safety training, observing the rest of the lab at their set-ups, wandering through the Ivy League's University of Phoenix Online-level bureaucracy, installing stuff and cleaning up my rig and finding creative ways to break electrodes before they make it into my slices. Better luck tomorrow?
So even though I put these on a facebook a while ago, I realized I hadn't posted any pictures here of my new apartment. Which is silly because I LOVE my apartment, even though large parts of it are unfurnished and will continue to be that way for the next few months.
My Bedroom: identical to all of my previous bedrooms. Little but cozy! I love it.
The Office: The last room with unpacked boxes. Wah.
The third bedroom will be a guest room,someday. Currently, it is the cats' room.
Living Room, complete with sunny bay windows! Eventually, I will replace the pile of boxes with a TV, restain the tv stand and endtable, move the ugly chair into the office, paint the walls and buy curtains and real furniture. For now, I spend most of my free time curled up here with a book
Books: arranged by color. naturally. The dning room will also be painted and curtained, and the dining room table (not visible, currently covered in junk) will be refinished or painted.
The kitchen has kindof a stupid layout, with a big empty kitchen proper with a stove, fridge, and rolling dishwasher, and then a little pantry with cabinets and counters and a sink. It's not super efficient but that said I love having all the space and more than 18 square inches of counters. I'll probably get a little island for the kitchen which will give me a place to chop and prep things closer to the stove.
Last by not least, my balcony, currently snow covered...one more thing that makes me look forward to spring.
So even though I put these on a facebook a while ago, I realized I hadn't posted any pictures here of my new apartment. Which is silly because I LOVE my apartment, even though large parts of it are unfurnished and will continue to be that way for the next few months.
My Bedroom: identical to all of my previous bedrooms. Little but cozy! I love it.
The Office: The last room with unpacked boxes. Wah.
The third bedroom will be a guest room,someday. Currently, it is the cats' room.
Living Room, complete with sunny bay windows! Eventually, I will replace the pile of boxes with a TV, restain the tv stand and endtable, move the ugly chair into the office, paint the walls and buy curtains and real furniture. For now, I spend most of my free time curled up here with a book
Books: arranged by color. naturally. The dning room will also be painted and curtained, and the dining room table (not visible, currently covered in junk) will be refinished or painted.
The kitchen has kindof a stupid layout, with a big empty kitchen proper with a stove, fridge, and rolling dishwasher, and then a little pantry with cabinets and counters and a sink. It's not super efficient but that said I love having all the space and more than 18 square inches of counters. I'll probably get a little island for the kitchen which will give me a place to chop and prep things closer to the stove.
Last by not least, my balcony, currently snow covered...one more thing that makes me look forward to spring.
03 January 2011
In Which the P.Sister Book Club compares Ke$ha to Dante
The PSBC is about 1/3 of the way through our Devil and God reading list. We've gotten derailed several times-dissertations, moving, trips to france (Guess which one wasn't me!). But we're back on track and currently reading Dante's Purgatorio. Today's discussion:
Elizabeth: so
am I just not reading closely enough to notice the torture
Elizabeth: or is it just literally like,
you have to climb to redeem yourself.
me: well
to continue your thought
I think it is a sort of metaphysical mind over matter
in that
once you know you are saved and headed towards god
the pain and suffering don't really matter
me: sort of like how an addict will walk through fire for a hit of coke
Elizabeth: I suppose you're right.
Elizabeth: Jesus is your drug?
me: your love is my drug
is a song
about god
Elizabeth: Ke$ha is a prophet
I always said.
me: Ke$ha is the dante of our time
Elizabeth: so
am I just not reading closely enough to notice the torture
Elizabeth: or is it just literally like,
you have to climb to redeem yourself.
me: well
to continue your thought
I think it is a sort of metaphysical mind over matter
in that
once you know you are saved and headed towards god
the pain and suffering don't really matter
me: sort of like how an addict will walk through fire for a hit of coke
Elizabeth: I suppose you're right.
Elizabeth: Jesus is your drug?
me: your love is my drug
is a song
about god
Elizabeth: Ke$ha is a prophet
I always said.
me: Ke$ha is the dante of our time
panda cow!
From my mom comes this: A cow with panda markings! Side note: Mad props to the Washington Post for clarifying that the cow was not, in fact, part panda
My favorite animal mixed with the animal I most feared as a little girl! So many mixed feelings!
My favorite animal mixed with the animal I most feared as a little girl! So many mixed feelings!
31 December 2010
Goodbye 2010
Lots of people seem eager to bid 2010 adieu, but I don't know, it hasn't been the worst year for me. It's been a weird year. I published two papers, wrote a dissertation, got a job, lost a grandparent, graduated, reached a point where I finally felt at home and secure in a routine and group of friends in Birmingham...and then moved 1100 miles away by myself with two cats in a Uhaul. I did a lot of things I've never done before (see: dissertation, uhaul), which makes me feel like 2010 made me braver and stronger. It was maybe a more deeply felt year than most-more sweetly happy times, more intensely sad times, longer stretches of nearly unbearable stress. At any rate: for me, 2010 was one for the books, and soon it will be done. Bring it, 2011.
PS: new year's eve in a new city with no friends or acquaintances or even a TV=drinking a little bottle of champagne by myself (with the cats? does that count as not drinking alone? The cats don't get champagne, though. They have not been good today/ever in their lives and I don't think wine is good for cats anyways), reading The Blind Assassin and going to bed at 11! This somehow makes me nostalgic for my early teen years, when I spent NYE drinking white grape diet rite soda in a champagne glass, watching Dick Clark and trying hard to stay up until midnight while my mom and dad dozed off on the couch.
PS: new year's eve in a new city with no friends or acquaintances or even a TV=drinking a little bottle of champagne by myself (with the cats? does that count as not drinking alone? The cats don't get champagne, though. They have not been good today/ever in their lives and I don't think wine is good for cats anyways), reading The Blind Assassin and going to bed at 11! This somehow makes me nostalgic for my early teen years, when I spent NYE drinking white grape diet rite soda in a champagne glass, watching Dick Clark and trying hard to stay up until midnight while my mom and dad dozed off on the couch.
30 December 2010
Holidays
Back in Providence after a long Christmas with my family in Ohio. There was snow and wine and food and family and friends, a good time was had by all.
In my family, many of our holiday traditions revolve around food. My parents are among the last of a kind of solid midwestern type- a generation away from a factory or family farm, with hobbies that include saving money, sticking to a low-cholesterol diet, and paying their bills on time. Christmas has always been a time to let loose, at least in the solid midwestern sense of the word. For us, that means a parade of indulgent food that we only eat once a year. My mom makes six kinds of cookies (a total of 25 dozen), including sugar cookies which we frost as garishly as possible. The highlight is the angel of death, my dad's annual masterpiece
Christmas Eve is Carolina BBQ Pork, Hush Puppies and Coleslaw, followed by church then basically another dinner.
That's Trail Bologna (a local "delicacy"), cheese, apples, pears, crackers, almond cake with cherry filling, and a new addition, gelled cosmopolitans. We tried to make the cosmos in festive holiday molds, but when that failed we put it in a bowl and cut it into wedges. Because we are classy.
Christmas morning involves getting showered and dressed before anyone touches presents. We have fruit salad, Stollen (a german cake-bread thing) and Peach Fizzy, which is actually a recipe for a Bellini with Ginger Ale instead of Champagne. I was about 24 when I figured this out. This year's stollen was a little less bread-like and more sheetcake-like due to my dear sister forgetting to add 1/2 the flour. oops!
To work off all these extra calories, or at least atone for them, Dad and I went on a little hike at a nearby park. It was lovely, and cold.
Even the taxidermied coyotes got in on the holiday spirit.
All in all, a nice restful break. I'm glad to be back in my new home with a few days to organize my life, and excited to start my new job on monday!
In my family, many of our holiday traditions revolve around food. My parents are among the last of a kind of solid midwestern type- a generation away from a factory or family farm, with hobbies that include saving money, sticking to a low-cholesterol diet, and paying their bills on time. Christmas has always been a time to let loose, at least in the solid midwestern sense of the word. For us, that means a parade of indulgent food that we only eat once a year. My mom makes six kinds of cookies (a total of 25 dozen), including sugar cookies which we frost as garishly as possible. The highlight is the angel of death, my dad's annual masterpiece
Christmas Eve is Carolina BBQ Pork, Hush Puppies and Coleslaw, followed by church then basically another dinner.
Christmas morning involves getting showered and dressed before anyone touches presents. We have fruit salad, Stollen (a german cake-bread thing) and Peach Fizzy, which is actually a recipe for a Bellini with Ginger Ale instead of Champagne. I was about 24 when I figured this out. This year's stollen was a little less bread-like and more sheetcake-like due to my dear sister forgetting to add 1/2 the flour. oops!
Even the taxidermied coyotes got in on the holiday spirit.
All in all, a nice restful break. I'm glad to be back in my new home with a few days to organize my life, and excited to start my new job on monday!
16 December 2010
Providence
SO. I moved to Rhode Island! After 5 and a half years in Alabama, I am now calling chilly New England my home.
The trip was...what to say about the trip. It was long. It is 1,100 miles from Birmingham AL to Providence RI. Because I am slightly insane and melt down a little when I don't have control over situations, I made this journey in a Uhaul, towing my car. On the shorter, inland route that had fewer major cities but way more mountains. By myself. Well, not by myself entirely, because I had with me as companions my two cats. Knowing that the going would be slow and that I ( and the cats) could only take so much in a single day (and again, see earlier re:insane and needing control), I broke the trip up into three 375ish mile segments and one 90 mile segment. Then I went to get my truck, and surprise, instead of 10 feet+honda civic, it was 17 feet+honda civic. Fun!
As far as four day, 1100 mile journeys across the Appalachians in a Uhaul towing a car with two cats go, it was pretty much ideal. Driving the truck was actually not difficult. I got slightly stuck the first time I got gas, but thanks to some super-helpful truckers (I am guessing they had not so much as seen a lady in several weeks), I not only got out of my jam but also got a lesson on maneuvering a longer vehicle. I could even back it up semi-competently by the end of the trip. The cats were ok. One cat (the simple one) took about 45 minutes to forget she had ever lived anywhere other than a small crate inside a Uhaul and did fantastic the rest of the trip. The other cat (ie helper cat) did not quite thrive. Howling and Wailing, usually calming down only at about the fourth hour of driving. I covered the crate with a blanket and told her it was nighttime which helped a little, if only in muffling the crying.
The drive was pretty-Tennessee and Southern Virginia were all sparkling rivers and snow covered hillsides. Even the less picturesque regions of Appalachia had something lovely about their bleakness. The rolling farmland of Maryland and Pennsylvania reminded me of where I grew up, even though the farms were never quite so pastoral in my little section of Ohio and are long gone anyways. And Oh, once I hit New England...there is something in me that feels so at home in northern rocky woods. The streams and ponds, bare misty trees, dark rocks, winding roads that come around a curve to reveal a cold stony shore. It's so beautiful to me, way more so than a tropical beach.
And now I am here. The movers brought in my things, i'm slowly unpacking. I've been to several grocery stores, found the nearest Wal-mart, Target, and mall, gotten a library card, tried and failed to get a drivers license, made vegetable stock and 3 kinds of soup. My apartment is great although sort of empty at the moment while I save for some real furniture. My two fears-that no one would be nice and that everything would cost an arm and a leg-appear to be unfounded. Everyone I've met has been kind and welcoming-not necessarily the surface friendliness of the south (which I frankly always found kind of fake) or the earnest openness of the midwest, but nice nonetheless. And while gas and rent are more expensive here, produce (my big grocery expense)is cheaper than in B'ham, even without taking the 10% sales tax on groceries in Alabama. The cold is cold, but bearable. The only bad thing so far is the drivers! I swear I have a near-death experience everytime I go out on the road!
All in all, I think I'm going to like it here.
The trip was...what to say about the trip. It was long. It is 1,100 miles from Birmingham AL to Providence RI. Because I am slightly insane and melt down a little when I don't have control over situations, I made this journey in a Uhaul, towing my car. On the shorter, inland route that had fewer major cities but way more mountains. By myself. Well, not by myself entirely, because I had with me as companions my two cats. Knowing that the going would be slow and that I ( and the cats) could only take so much in a single day (and again, see earlier re:insane and needing control), I broke the trip up into three 375ish mile segments and one 90 mile segment. Then I went to get my truck, and surprise, instead of 10 feet+honda civic, it was 17 feet+honda civic. Fun!
As far as four day, 1100 mile journeys across the Appalachians in a Uhaul towing a car with two cats go, it was pretty much ideal. Driving the truck was actually not difficult. I got slightly stuck the first time I got gas, but thanks to some super-helpful truckers (I am guessing they had not so much as seen a lady in several weeks), I not only got out of my jam but also got a lesson on maneuvering a longer vehicle. I could even back it up semi-competently by the end of the trip. The cats were ok. One cat (the simple one) took about 45 minutes to forget she had ever lived anywhere other than a small crate inside a Uhaul and did fantastic the rest of the trip. The other cat (ie helper cat) did not quite thrive. Howling and Wailing, usually calming down only at about the fourth hour of driving. I covered the crate with a blanket and told her it was nighttime which helped a little, if only in muffling the crying.
The drive was pretty-Tennessee and Southern Virginia were all sparkling rivers and snow covered hillsides. Even the less picturesque regions of Appalachia had something lovely about their bleakness. The rolling farmland of Maryland and Pennsylvania reminded me of where I grew up, even though the farms were never quite so pastoral in my little section of Ohio and are long gone anyways. And Oh, once I hit New England...there is something in me that feels so at home in northern rocky woods. The streams and ponds, bare misty trees, dark rocks, winding roads that come around a curve to reveal a cold stony shore. It's so beautiful to me, way more so than a tropical beach.
And now I am here. The movers brought in my things, i'm slowly unpacking. I've been to several grocery stores, found the nearest Wal-mart, Target, and mall, gotten a library card, tried and failed to get a drivers license, made vegetable stock and 3 kinds of soup. My apartment is great although sort of empty at the moment while I save for some real furniture. My two fears-that no one would be nice and that everything would cost an arm and a leg-appear to be unfounded. Everyone I've met has been kind and welcoming-not necessarily the surface friendliness of the south (which I frankly always found kind of fake) or the earnest openness of the midwest, but nice nonetheless. And while gas and rent are more expensive here, produce (my big grocery expense)is cheaper than in B'ham, even without taking the 10% sales tax on groceries in Alabama. The cold is cold, but bearable. The only bad thing so far is the drivers! I swear I have a near-death experience everytime I go out on the road!
All in all, I think I'm going to like it here.
20 November 2010
Ben Fold's Genius
I've loved Ben from way back when. This song is one more. Making Levi Johnston's myspace profile into a lovely song takes true talent.
09 November 2010
Dr. Busy Bee
In the 30 days since my last update I have:
1. Finished and turned in my (250 page!) dissertation to my committee
2. Made a powerpoint condensing five and half years of work into 50 minutes
3. Successfully defended my dissertation!
4. Went on a whirlwind weekend with my parents-we went hiking at Guntersville State Park, explored huntsville, and got in time for Barbecue on their last-ever trip to Alabama.
5. Made a poster for the upcoming SFN meeting
6. Edited and finalized my (251 page!) dissertation
In the next 6 or so weeks I have to:
1. Go to San Diego for six days for a conference
2. Teach first year students about something science related (next friday? i should figure this out)
3. Run a few last experiments and finalize two manuscripts for submission
4. Go to Providence and find an apartment
5. Pack all my stuff
6. Drive to Rhode Island. With my cats. not looking forward to that.
Not to mention trying to squeeze in as much time as possible with my favorites here in birmingham! It's going to be a crazy few months.
In honor of this, a cat busy bee. Watch the whole thing, the end makes up for the early annoying cat-talk.
1. Finished and turned in my (250 page!) dissertation to my committee
2. Made a powerpoint condensing five and half years of work into 50 minutes
3. Successfully defended my dissertation!
4. Went on a whirlwind weekend with my parents-we went hiking at Guntersville State Park, explored huntsville, and got in time for Barbecue on their last-ever trip to Alabama.
5. Made a poster for the upcoming SFN meeting
6. Edited and finalized my (251 page!) dissertation
In the next 6 or so weeks I have to:
1. Go to San Diego for six days for a conference
2. Teach first year students about something science related (next friday? i should figure this out)
3. Run a few last experiments and finalize two manuscripts for submission
4. Go to Providence and find an apartment
5. Pack all my stuff
6. Drive to Rhode Island. With my cats. not looking forward to that.
Not to mention trying to squeeze in as much time as possible with my favorites here in birmingham! It's going to be a crazy few months.
In honor of this, a cat busy bee. Watch the whole thing, the end makes up for the early annoying cat-talk.
09 October 2010
Breaktime
So. I have to turn in my dissertation on thursday. A little less than a week. I'm almost done with the writing-just a little bit more of the conclusions, an abstract, and some serious editing to go. 220 pages so far, more than 50,000 words. It feel like a lot, and then I remember that this is five and a half years of my life and it feels like a little less.
I am endlessly tired. You have to understand, I am a girl who considers making it all the way through the daily show staying up "late". And I'm in the Central Time Zone, so that's in bed by 10:30, pretty much every night. And yet, the last three weeks I don't think I've gone to bed before midnight once. I'm adjusting, slowly, with the help of excessive amounts of caffeine. But I forgot how draining losing a half hour or hour or two hours of sleep is, especially when it happens every day for a month. Plus, writing full time plus is not exciting. I mean, if it were just normal hours, or if I got to do other things intermixed throughout the day, it would be fine and I would even like it,, I think. But right now I spend 12 hours a day sitting in my little chair. Maybe I mix it up and spend six hours in the chair and six in a coffee shop. But it's the same, all day, and it is mind-numbingly dull. Add that to a bipolar diet of crappy "writing food" (yes I think I will eat this bag of doritos for today) mixed with anxious and distracted lack of significant meals it makes for a jittery distracted tired weepy girl.
I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel though. For better or worse, this will be out of my hands by Thursday. I will have done my part. I will of course need to defend, but I'm a pretty good speaker, I know my field well, and I'm excellent at thinking on my feet/BS. I'm not terribly worried about that part. And the nice thing is, that once done I will never, ever have to do this again. I will be done with getting a PhD, forever.
Still, I have about a week to go, and I have to give it my all the whole time. It's twelve thirty, and I have one last section to finish before bed.
I am endlessly tired. You have to understand, I am a girl who considers making it all the way through the daily show staying up "late". And I'm in the Central Time Zone, so that's in bed by 10:30, pretty much every night. And yet, the last three weeks I don't think I've gone to bed before midnight once. I'm adjusting, slowly, with the help of excessive amounts of caffeine. But I forgot how draining losing a half hour or hour or two hours of sleep is, especially when it happens every day for a month. Plus, writing full time plus is not exciting. I mean, if it were just normal hours, or if I got to do other things intermixed throughout the day, it would be fine and I would even like it,, I think. But right now I spend 12 hours a day sitting in my little chair. Maybe I mix it up and spend six hours in the chair and six in a coffee shop. But it's the same, all day, and it is mind-numbingly dull. Add that to a bipolar diet of crappy "writing food" (yes I think I will eat this bag of doritos for today) mixed with anxious and distracted lack of significant meals it makes for a jittery distracted tired weepy girl.
I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel though. For better or worse, this will be out of my hands by Thursday. I will have done my part. I will of course need to defend, but I'm a pretty good speaker, I know my field well, and I'm excellent at thinking on my feet/BS. I'm not terribly worried about that part. And the nice thing is, that once done I will never, ever have to do this again. I will be done with getting a PhD, forever.
Still, I have about a week to go, and I have to give it my all the whole time. It's twelve thirty, and I have one last section to finish before bed.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)