99 things meme

I saw this over at Ern's and what better way to get a post in and learn random stuff. Bold's are done. (notes/clarifications at the bottom)

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

#4 - does marching band count?
#14 - does decoupage count?
#23 - how do you think I was able to spend a long weekend with CF??
#27 - KHC, now you have to do the meme.
#47 - does a chalk portrait when I was a child count?

Poignant-ish

I've fallen many times in love and every time it's been with the wrong man.

This is sorta cheating, because I posted more of this song previously. What can I say, I like it.

Right now, much like election night ;-), I am cautiously optimistic about my situation with, ummm...I am actually having a hard time deciding between KHC's and Molly's suggestions, the boy. I miss him. He left for his Thanksgiving weekend today, and I am heading to my parents tomorrow. He is going to be somewhere in Wisconsin, and I will be in the middle of no where on a mountain with limited cell phone reception. I think I am going to miss the amount of contact we have throughout the day online, and certainly talking to him...I suppose I could give him my parents' house number. That would be shmart. ANYWAY.

The countdown has begun. Have I told you how he started counting down when I went out there? As it got closer, he even broke it down for me by hours and minutes. How freakin' cute is that? Right now, it is nine days until he gets here.

Oh, yeah, so the lyrics. I keep coming back to that idea because I have been in love before and am obviously single. I am trying not to be too closed off while not feeling too vulnerable with the boy. That is my problem in relationships. I am really good at not talking about the relationship or how I feel. I blame circumstance. The boy in college was into blond athletic chicks...not my M.O. There was the relationship in China, and we did not share any languages in which we were both fluent...kinda limits the conversation. Then there is the ex, and, well, that was just what it was. Then this quote from One Tree Hill the other night made me think of the guys in between all that stuff (we will count Poop in that too), the gist of which was:

Guy: Do girls always fall in love the with rebound guy?
Girl: Yes. Your head tricks you into the love so you can escape the crushing pain of the break-up.

All this means is that I do not really want to do all that in between stuff again. It is tiring. Dating is tiring. Meeting new people and trying to be interesting and interested is tiring. I much prefer the friendship-turned-into-something-more thing. SO much easier. And although that is not necessarily how Cheerios Farmer (CF???) may view it, I feel like that is how we started. I am so much better at the sharing when I am already comfortable with the person.

Danielle mentioned something about swooning if CF had taken me dancing. That was not his intent when I visited, but when we went to a bar he frequents, the last song was Kenny Chesney's 'You Save Me' and he took me out there to dance to it. Now, he and I both listen to it frequently. I am concerned that if this works out, 'our song' will be a country song. Not cool. What else...Um, he has a habit of writing 'I <3>----. Typed flowers? Grad students do what they can afford. ;-) He constantly subtly probes to see if there are other boys in my periphery and I assure him there are not. He all but directly asked if I would want to go to where he is for my post-doc by having a friend show me around the friend's lab and later asking me if I would want to switch to that lab's study system after I am done.

So to sum up all this rambling: I (we will stick with) like and miss CF a lot and am afraid to feel too vulnerable but have resolved myself to do just that when he gets here in 9 days and counting.

(And yes, I watched half of One Tree Hill the other night. Sue me.)

Better than nothing

I finally had to get my winter coat out this week. I reached in the pocket and found a large pack of gum with only one piece gone. I suppose I would have preferred any denomination of money, but gum will do.

Puppies!

Okay, so I am "writing" right now and had to share this with you. A great site to visit if you like puppies and need a break.

(There was something wrong with the code they had to embed the video and I don't do html...at least not that well.)

Dry hands season

I have put hand lotion on about 4 times today and it is not even lunch time. Working in a lab - washing my hands a lot, and wearing gloves throughout the day - definitely make my hands and nails worse off. This always made it difficult before I had my thyroid out when my doctor would try to determine if I had any symptoms of hypothyroidism because my nails were so crappy, but I worked in a lab full time. When I was studying for my qualifying exam and only in lab maybe part time for several weeks, my nails were amazing. I have my favorite lotions for different times.

When I am not working in lab and washing my hands, I love L'Occitane's dry skin hand cream.

When I am in lab, Gloves in a Bottle works great because it absorbs so quickly and does not get all slimy when you wash your hands.

I also have Burt's Bees nail/cuticle cream.

A long time ago, my hands were REALLY bad (you know, when you are a teenager and just starting to realize that you have to do things like put hand cream on). You should definitely go for bag balm in those cases. I mean, if it works for chapped cow udders, it should totally work for chapped hands.

Gosh I'm shmart*

[The boy needs a nickname. Those of you who hear more stories than I write here have any ideas????]

Recent conversations between the boy and I:

Boy: I really should be more dedicated to my research!!!!!!!!!!!! I just can't get motivated! So I'm drinking wine now

Jenski: It's easier to drink wine and work on the class we went to in MT, than it is to drink wine and think about research. Do you think philosophers are just drunk all the time?

Boy: Or stoned?

Jenski: And we are getting doctorates of philosophy - doesn't that mean we are supposed to be philosophers? Which means we should be able to be drunk (or stoned) all the time? Sometimes I like the way I think.

Boy: That's a great philosophy!!

Jenski: Well, I need to get my butt in gear with the research too

* The boy always tells me I am "shmart".

Her 'tudes

I guess I should be glad Lexi does not go after plants. She would not even eat cat grass I grew. This is her what-is-this-crap-next-to-my-food sniffing."Stop typing on your computer, you're supposed to pet me."
"Seriously. Why aren't you petting me?? I'm on your lap and that computer is not.""FINALLY.""Fine. If you aren't going to keep petting me, I'm going to sit over here and pretend not to care."

I should go more often!

A couple of weeks ago, my friend wanted to go to the farmer's market near campus to stock up on squash. I do not know why I do not go more often. I try to limit what I buy so it does not go to waste. It is hard though because this stuff is soooooo good.

We'll start with the boy stories...

Okay, right now, {knock on wood}, things are going well and I do not think that by writing anything about the boy I will jinx it. He came to visit a while back. I just went to visit this past weekend. We talk almost every day, definitely on line and usually right before bed. We live a 2 hour plane flight, 18 hour train ride, or 13 hour drive apart. He is smart, funny, attractive, and a good person. I would say it sounds too good to be true, but there is that whole distance thing that puts a wrench in it. We are both grad students, after all, and travel is expensive.

I learned a lot about cows when I visited. We went to two dairy farms, one where he does his work and the other a commercial one where he talked to the owner and we wandered around. He "saved" a calf while I was there...it had managed to get its head caught, and he found another guy to help him get the calf unstuck.

His office mates are mostly women, two of whom have been harassing him incessantly about me. He kept telling them a guy friend was coming to visit, and when they finally found out who I was, one of them added me on Facebook to check me out. I knew that was why she had added me and that is fine, but he was really paranoid about it asking me how I knew her and stuff. While I was visiting him, I went in to his office one day and saw the white boards the two women had written on. One just had "Hi Jenny" over and over again among funny quotes. The other was a suggested itinerary of things to do with me while I was there. There were also rules. NO NASCAR was written alllllll over this second board. My other favorites (or really just the ones I remember) were NO GETTING WASTED, and OPEN HER CAR DOOR FIRST. For all of the hassle they gave him, including texts while I was there, they were awfully quiet that day. We had gone out to dinner one night and he made a point of telling me the place had been HIS idea, not theirs. He pointed out the mums he had bought to put on the table, lit candles when we had dinner, and bought me ice cream...twice.

I really do not know what else to say. We are sorta dancing around the fact that I am, in theory, finishing in the not-to-distant future. At some point we will probably have to have a more explicit discussion of this...I figure that is a good reason for him to come visit again as soon as possible. :-)

Where to start - on politics.

This election has people talking. I was just over at Kelly's reading and started writing more than should be in a comment. So, I guess I am posting about politics. Here we go.

I am a strong believer that people should vote for who they believe is the best candidate for whatever public position for which they are voting. Many of my voting decisions have been based on a candidate's stance on social issues. If you are reading, you better have voted this week. If you did not, go away. :-)

While my more, um, Republican family members are far from happy with the election results, I think they misunderstand my optimism. I, in no way, believe that Obama is going to "fix" things in his term. I think it is impossible. I am sure he will make mistakes, and there will be times he says or does things I do not agree with. I truly believe he will always do what he can to better this country. Aside from agreeing with his stance on most issues, I love that he is young and fresh. I think it will be great to have his family in the White House with their puppy. He is smart and articulate.

I had a soft moment for my ex the other day. (Bear with me people.) His Facebook status said something to the effect of, "Ex is glad with the election outcome and accepts that he will pay more in taxes." He was a card carrying Republican when I met him. We talked about our gay friends and their right to get married. We talked about a woman's right to make decisions for her own body. We talked about how I could not get a particular government fellowship because there was not enough money that year (or since) for the number of grants they had awarded in past years. He realized there are more important things than keeping a few thousand dollars more per year when he files his taxes because all of these other things are at stake. He turned in his card.

Some of these issues I have brought up with my family. It is easy for me to through tax reform issues out the window when I vote. I am the poor grad student in the family who has crappy healthcare options, no mortgage to worry about right now, will rely on the government to fund my research if I stay in academia, and no one but my cat at home to discuss these things so they get to hear me vent. I deleted most emails, and replied to others with snide comments. More recently I tried replied to emails with my opinion and clarification when the facts in the email were not checked. For something as important as this presidential election, I think it is wrong to keep passing on inaccurate or blatantly untrue quotes of either candidate and said as much. I posted both candidates official sites here the other day. I also was very open (in my daily life at least) that I hoped Obama would win.

I could babble on about this forever, I am sure. But really, what I keep thinking about is that I went to bed Tuesday optimistic, but ready for a let-down and the ensuing dismay just like the past two presidential elections in which I have been able to vote. I woke up happy, optimistic, and excited about the next four years.

To blog or not to blog

Oh, do not worry. I am not going to stop blogging. This is more a reflection on pre- and post-trip this August.

I signed up for this whole Blog365 thing last January with the best of intentions. I have not been checking the official site or anything, but figured it would be motivating. It was! I was doing great before I headed out of town. I even planned ahead for a conference I went to in order to show you how crazy-overgrown my backyard was (and it only got worse!). I would think all day about what I would blog. Some was complete and utter randomness; other stuff was thinking "outloud" on my blog. Lots of it was about silly online dating. (Although, I guess that was mainly pre-Blog365.)

Anyway. I went away. I came back. Had no internet. Moved. (Although my living room is much more set up now.) Still had no internet.

Then I got internet! So why haven't I started posting, like, every day again??? I don't know. I guess I broke the habit.

I walk around during the day thinking in blog posts though! I think about good titles and a few witty lines (well, I find them witty), and then never end up posting them. I think part of it is that I want to post these deep things or super funny things and then I get caught up in Facebook. :-)

Seriously though, there are a lot of things that I do not want, nor should I really, be posting about.

The do-not-want is the boy.

The should-not is my advisor and whatever the heck happened this summer that is still not resolved, but I have a VERY good idea about what it is.

And I do not want to post about Lexi all the time. Although, I must admit it is tempting. She has an attitude, let me tell you. She is not a fan of the computer taking over my lap! I try to move her and she warning-bites at me, makes a noise and just gets down. All I want her to do is lay next to me!

And to make this post as random as possible, I am really excited about the president-elect. I really hope Obama takes this presidency and runs with because there is so much he could do! I am less happy about all of the various ballot questions around the country that will limit civil rights and impede childrens welfare. Why are people allowed to vote on civil rights? If 51 out of 100 vote against a human right, does that mean their opinions are morally/ethically fair/correct? Crazy.

Public service announcement

I should have posted earlier today so all you absentee voters had time to overnight post your votes, but alas. All you who are voting tomorrow, DO NOT FORGET TO VOTE.

Obviously I would love for you to vote for who I will vote for, but really, it is just important than you vote period. So I will not influence you with my well thought out rationale about how I picked my candidate (more of a gut feeling, really, but whatever), but I will leave you with the two main presidential candidate websites. As I have learned, people send out email forwards indiscriminately with statements the candidates have allegedly made. It is not too late - if there is a particular issue about which you are passionate, just double check the the official stance of the candidates to make sure you know where EACH one stands on the issue for real.

www.johnmccain.com
www.barackobama.com