Rules to Live By

If you have had a bad day, find yourself some chocolate milk.

If you have had a rough week or two, add a strawberry doughnut.

If said milk and doughnut are the last of each kind available in the store, breathe easy, because clearly the universe is looking out for you.

Cozy Quiet

It snowed all day yesterday, and as I had nowhere in particular to be, I considered myself snowed in and busied myself about the apartment. Usually if I don't leave home all day I am left feeling restless and a little crazy by the end of the day, but yesterday was nice. Partially because I felt like the world was saying, "Shhh...slow down, just rest." Blankets of snow are very peaceful that way (so long as you don't have to contend with them in your vehicle or with your feet.) So I did. I worked some, but I also cleaned up and did laundry and just generally tidied up my life.

And all day, since it was snowing, I had plans to make myself some hot chocolate. I finally got around to it around 6 pm. I had my cocoa, and my blanket, and was on the couch ready to watch the snow when bam! I remembered I needed to make a phone call and I better do it because the work day was about to end. So I took care of that and I settled back into my hot chocolate-drinking but lo and behold, the snow had stopped.

It didn't matter. I just drank my cocoa, and I looked outside at the trees and the apartment building across the way, and it was so quiet. All I could hear was the din of the heater and the clicking that comes from one wall in our kitchen (it confuses me too). So I sat, and did nothing but drink cocoa until my mug was empty.

I felt so much better. After the week I'd had, with my mind with thoughts and to-do lists and exhaustion, 15 minutes of nothing but snow and chocolate was just what the doctor ordered.

I'm going to try to just sit and do nothing for a few minutes--really and truly nothing, not "surf the internet pointlessly" nothing--every day.

Apocalypse

The following thought just passed through my conscience:

"I need a break....hmmm, I guess I'll go do the dishes."

Clearly a sign the world is ending.

Adrift

So here I am. In my apartment where I live by myself, now that Eric has moved to Texas. When I first found out he got the job, I was beyond thrilled, with a reasonable amount of sadness mixed in that he would leave here 4 months before me. Now, with him officially moved, I am having trouble accessing that thrilled feeling I felt a few weeks ago. I know, in my brain, that moving to the Austin is our dream and we are making that happen, which is amazing and a cause for celebration. But my insides just feel sad and crumpled. It doesn't help that the last week of school/work has been a perfect storm of work and responsibility and stress and sleep deprivation.

I feel strange about how totally discombobulated I feel in his absence. Like everything got tipped upside down and now I have to navigate this life that looks just like the one I had last semester but that feels completely unfamiliar.

I did not expect this. I need to get it together.

Ends and Beginnings

Well, the 2000s just came to a close. I feel grateful to have been born in 1987, because it has made the changing of decades coincide quite neatly with those big shifts in actual life. In the nineties, I was a child. Preschool, elementary school, early middle school. In 2000, I turned 13 and as we turn the page to 2011, I am on the verge of graduating with a masters degree, getting married, and (fingers crossed) getting my first real-deal job. Apparently, a lot can happen in ten years.

It just feels nice to have the world turning a page while my life does the same. Here's to looking back on an equally eventful decade come 2020.

Happy new year to all of you.

Finals

Hello there!

I just thought it had been a bit too long since I posted. What's new with you guys? Me, I'm working on finals. I have 2 classes out of the way but somehow that still means I have 5 different projects left to complete:

-2 5 page papers
- 1 15-20 page paper
-1 evaluation plan
-1 final
-1 stakeholder report

Wait, that's six things! For the record, 4 of those things are for one. class. That's right folks. 100% of our assignments for the semester are due on the last day of class. Smart! Luckily, 3/6 of these things are group projects so it's not quite as overwhelming.

What else is new? It's really cold. I can't wait to go to Tucson in less than a week where it is anything but cold. I love being from a warm climate! And I can't wait to live in one again! I don't have the constitution to withstand long stretches of 20 degree weather.

Yesterday we had two friends over for dinner and I made turkey burgers and oven fries. The trick to oven fries is to add a tablespoon of sugar to the spices you toss them in. Makes 'em all crispy! Thanks to Allrecipes for teaching me that.

So far today I have written almost 2 pages. Could be worse. Also I found some cheap blackboards to buy in bulk online to use as cute and easy signs at the reception. So productive! I think I'll reward myself with an episode of Top Chef All Stars.

Thanksgiving Wrap-Up: 5 Pies

This Thanksgiving we hosted dinner in our little apartment in our little town. I looked around the table, and I was so thankful for the people sitting around it. I have spent the last three Thanksgivings away from my family of origin--the last two years I spent with Eric's family and the year before that I was eating turkey with my American brethren in San Jose, Costa Rica. So it was extra special to have them all there. Plus, as time goes by, the distance I have put between myself and Arizona becomes more palpable. I didn't just go away to college. I really moved away. I actually live far from home. Somewhere in my subconscious I knew that this is what was happening in late August 2005, as I cried and cried after my going away party. I knew that I was really leaving then, but in college you go home plenty, and everyone is far from home, and its just normal and it just seems like a phase and the truth of it fades. But the truth of it is clearer to me now. The realities of distance are clearer to me. And I know now what it means to gather your loved ones from far away into one place.

So, the people around the table: We had my brother there, who had just successfully completed his Basic training at Ft. Knox, and who found it generally easy and enjoyable, unlike everyone else ever. We had his girlfriend, who had made it through 4 months separation on nothing but letters, a few phone calls, and a few days in October. I truly don't know how she did it. My dad and my mom, who I appreciate more and more as I grow up. My friend Natalya was there too, who is from Kazakhstan and was very patient with us as we explained American Thanksgiving to her, even though I'm sure she heard the same schpiel last year. And next to me was Eric, my co-host who will sit next to me for many Thanksgivings to come.

We ate dinner. And then we ate pie. I made three pies: pumpkin (recipe from the Stokely's can), maple bourbon pecan pie (courtesy of Martha Stewart, and also my mom who took the reigns on this one), and cranberry apple.

Ta-da!



Now, the title of this post says 5 pies, because last Sunday I made another cran-apple pie for Friend Thanksgiving, and also because my mom and I can't count. I knew I had to make 3 pies, so naturally I made enough for 6 crusts. But this neglected the fact that there is no top crust for pecan or pumpkin pie. So we had 2 extra crusts. So we threw together the fruit we had--frozen berries and leftover apple/cranberry filling and made a 4th pie on Black Friday. The guests are now gone, but hey--I have berry-cran-apple pie! That should help get me through the next 3 weeks of school insanity.