It has been a long fall. I have emails (personal, not work) in the queue I haven't responded to (sorry, sis), I've run some, I've has some student who I wish were not dealing with what they are dealing with, I'm still dating (maybe more on this word choice later), I have made great friends and close close aquaintences here, I am going to see Dar Williams this weekend (Woohoo!), and I have six weeks with no classes starting very soon (to be clear, this does NOT mean six weeks off). There is still this though:
Bill: When do you want to go see the movie 'the interview'?
Jenski: Don't you mean 'the theory of everything'?
Bill: Double feature!
Jenski: That would be quite the funny date night.
Bill:It'll be an upper and a downer.
Jenski: But if we go to that theater where we go, we can sneak in a bottle of wine!
Bill: I'll wear baggy pants.
Jenski: That's what winter coats are for.
Bill: True. Cold weather is smuggling weather.
Jenski: I wonder why we don't hear more about those Canadians {Sorry, Spark} smuggling drugs, alcohol, people, and exotic pets into the country?
Bill: Because they sail down Lake Michigan which is full of scoundrels.
Jenski: Corrupt Wisconsinites!
Bill: Exactly! They love cheese and crime.
Jenski: We're funny.
Bill: Haha. Yup.
04 December 2014
30 October 2014
Tapped
I was going to title this 'Tapped Out', but I am not quite there yet. In true form I have some work I truly need to finish tonight. I also just had a text conversation with a dear friend about how we need to catch up and said that I was sad over the weekend thinking about how I haven't been able to make time to keep up with friends [waves hi to all those friends out there], but here I am posting something so I can clear my mind and get the work done. You're welcome.
The truth is I do have down time, and it is typically spent hanging out with Bill. I did see a friend and her fiancee over the weekend because she happened to text and Bill and I were going to be walking right by their apartment. I am going on a whirlwind trip to Disney World next weekend and running 13.1 miles in the middle of the trip. Life is not entirely all work and no play.
Work is happening and good and very busy. I find myself talking with a lot of students outside of class, which is great because I think they generally think I am approachable and helpful. My summer research student frequently exclaims how much she loves me and how I always have great advice. I am particularly touched after the college chaplain emailed me with a message from a student I have a good relationship with because that student specifically asked the chaplain to tell me something.
It is a tricky balance when students like interacting with you and you want to know what all of them think and how you can help them but you have classes to prep and research to do. I said to friends at work today that I think I am spending too much time doing that because at the end of the day I have talked with a lot of students and not done much work. I end up at home at 9:00 with a bunch of work to do. I do love the student part of my job, though, and sometimes I think I would be fulfilled by a career in counseling.
Then I get an email from the college chaplain that makes me tear up (the student is/will be fine, but I am just worried), and then I realize counseling and caring about everyone all the time would be too exhausting.
The truth is I do have down time, and it is typically spent hanging out with Bill. I did see a friend and her fiancee over the weekend because she happened to text and Bill and I were going to be walking right by their apartment. I am going on a whirlwind trip to Disney World next weekend and running 13.1 miles in the middle of the trip. Life is not entirely all work and no play.
Work is happening and good and very busy. I find myself talking with a lot of students outside of class, which is great because I think they generally think I am approachable and helpful. My summer research student frequently exclaims how much she loves me and how I always have great advice. I am particularly touched after the college chaplain emailed me with a message from a student I have a good relationship with because that student specifically asked the chaplain to tell me something.
It is a tricky balance when students like interacting with you and you want to know what all of them think and how you can help them but you have classes to prep and research to do. I said to friends at work today that I think I am spending too much time doing that because at the end of the day I have talked with a lot of students and not done much work. I end up at home at 9:00 with a bunch of work to do. I do love the student part of my job, though, and sometimes I think I would be fulfilled by a career in counseling.
Then I get an email from the college chaplain that makes me tear up (the student is/will be fine, but I am just worried), and then I realize counseling and caring about everyone all the time would be too exhausting.
11 October 2014
Holy Moly!
It's been a bit of time since I last posted, and this one is sure to disappoint. By all means, you few readers are welcome to let me know what I should be writing about or what you've wondered I've been up to. I've been busy, and life is good. So I'm here to share with you conversations I still have with the Ex about once a year. This is from yesterday/today.
And I leave you with that to ponder. We've had this 'conversation' before.
Off to spend the day drinking beer with the guy I'm actually dating, to be followed tomorrow morning with my first running race ever (a 5k on campus) so that I can at least have a race experience once before doing 13.1 miles next month. Ack! I need to come up with a running plan for the next few weeks. I've done 10.4 so I'm not too worried, but would like to do at least a 12 or 13 mile run before then.
[**I do have his phone number blocked so he cannot text me. Not sure if he realizes that or not. He doesn't email. Now every so often he'll send a FB message. Why haven't I unfriended him? Because I don't want the email asking, "Why, Jenski, why?" Although now that I write that, an email would be easier to ignore...]
Him: I'll be in your city soon. Want to meet up for dinner??[This is not the first time he has said that...and a mere 12 hours later he follows up, so I'm not sure what his version of 'respecting my decision' means.]
Me: No thanks.
Him: Boo. Really? {insert FB 'sticker' to indicate frustrated emotion} I respect your decision, but wish we could be friends
Him: BTW, why don't you want to hang out? We've both had significant others since we dated. Doesn't that mean we can be friends now?[You're all asking yourselves right about now why I'm engaging in this conversation, right? Me too.**]
Me: I have enough friends and don't need reminders of failed relationships. I've thought about them enough. Why do you keep pushing it every so often over the years when I keep saying no?
Him: Okay. I give up. I "keep pushing it" because I want to reconnect with an old friend and hope you've gotten over it now since it's been almost 10 years and you've had other relationship. {insert FB sticker to indicate confused emotion.}
Me: Sure, I've gotten over it and moved on, which is why I'm happy with the friends I have.
And I leave you with that to ponder. We've had this 'conversation' before.
Off to spend the day drinking beer with the guy I'm actually dating, to be followed tomorrow morning with my first running race ever (a 5k on campus) so that I can at least have a race experience once before doing 13.1 miles next month. Ack! I need to come up with a running plan for the next few weeks. I've done 10.4 so I'm not too worried, but would like to do at least a 12 or 13 mile run before then.
[**I do have his phone number blocked so he cannot text me. Not sure if he realizes that or not. He doesn't email. Now every so often he'll send a FB message. Why haven't I unfriended him? Because I don't want the email asking, "Why, Jenski, why?" Although now that I write that, an email would be easier to ignore...]
06 July 2014
Where did June go?
Time flies when you're super busy! I do not really have time to post right now because I have some emails to write and a grant proposal to work on. I was inspired to share a couple of things though, like text conversations with Bill that make me laugh. He is on the left; I am on the right.
I went to a workshop where there were lupine...
...jellyfish...
...and lots of fun and good connections made. I also got to see friends and family before and after the workshop, which is always a plus!
There are other things I could write about, but maybe when things slow down after my proposal deadline? Famous last words - after that deadline is an undergrad research day with my summer student and after that I have four weeks to plan a seminar course and catch up on all the other teaching ideas I have had. It would be nice to read a book for fun too....
29 May 2014
That's it!
I have a couple of posts in draft form, a grant to write, my sister's birthday to follow up on (it's on my list, Aim!), a long weekend with my parents I could post about, a conference tomorrow.
But I heard this song on the radio on my way home. I teared up and had one of those aha! moments.
This is why I hesitate to risk putting myself out there.
When this song came out, the whole thing made me cry. Then, when I stopped being angry and hurt about my last relationship, I would hear it wish that someone felt (or acted) this way for me; it gave me a sense of longing. Now, apparently, it does what I am sure therapy could have done two years ago and gave me a chance to articulate why I shy away from the possibility of another relationship.
Music is cheaper than therapy.
But I heard this song on the radio on my way home. I teared up and had one of those aha! moments.
This is why I hesitate to risk putting myself out there.
When I heard these final lines in the song, I thought that I have felt that way before, and I don't feel like that was reciprocated. Maybe my actions did not exhibit the emotion behind them enough? I do not really know, but I am not sure that someone has felt this way about me, and I teared up. [To be fair, I bet that my high school boyfriend did feel this way, but given our young age, didn't know how to fight for us and get my 19-year-old-self to grow up.]Girl can you tell me
the one thing you'd rather die than lose?
'Cause mine would be you.
Mine would be you.
When this song came out, the whole thing made me cry. Then, when I stopped being angry and hurt about my last relationship, I would hear it wish that someone felt (or acted) this way for me; it gave me a sense of longing. Now, apparently, it does what I am sure therapy could have done two years ago and gave me a chance to articulate why I shy away from the possibility of another relationship.
Music is cheaper than therapy.
01 May 2014
Aging
A couple of weeks ago I entered a new age bracket. I now have to check off "35-44 years old" when I fill out surveys in an attempt to win $1500 for praising the clearance section when filling out the the survey from the bottom of a Target receipt.
I remember coming up with interesting things to post about with regards to another year under my belt. I am getting older, though, and I forget what those interesting things were. Just kidding. Well, not really. I do think I have forgotten, but it has been nearly a month since I posted, so I am sure I can come up with something you all care to read about....
So the big 3-5.
...I got some presents...
...and used them...
...(Not pictured: chocolate, sneakers, wine cork decorative container, handheld vacuum.) Yes, I took a picture of a fried egg.
OH. Speaking of eggs. Here is a good conversation a BFF and I had. (This was totally a stream of consciousness-like post. My brain makes connections that are just this clever.)
After a somewhat lengthy discussion on the topic, it comes down to this: She assumes she will have fertility problems, and given certain situations and family, I do not assume I will. I would love to have children, but given my last relationship, prioritizing my current career given relationship failures, and my age, I have also come to terms with the fact that it may not happen. I used to worry about boogers and puke; now I wonder how I would be able to teach a 3-hour lab starting at 8:30 a.m. if my child is up with the flu all night. I am also completely open to falling in love with a child who was not my biological child if that is what is in the cards. While it was a bit tongue-in-cheek, if my child is already potty trained and sleeps through the night when they become my child, who am I to complain? (Right now) I do not need to mess with my body, inject myself with hormones, and have a bunch of my eggs harvested and frozen to be happy with my life. This is what feels right to me right now, but you never know what life will bring, right?
It is also frustrating to know I am getting older and have people tell me that I am "so" young (because I am the youngest in my department). While I do not feel OLD, I know I am not YOUNG.
Now that I have that off my chest, I will try to post again soon with more interesting things....
FYI, my birthday also entailed going out to a great dinner with Bill (and a future weekend away somewhere TBD), some flowers from a coworker's garden, and lots of "Happy birthdays!" in the form of FB posts and texts from friends and family. It is not so bad getting older. :-)
I remember coming up with interesting things to post about with regards to another year under my belt. I am getting older, though, and I forget what those interesting things were. Just kidding. Well, not really. I do think I have forgotten, but it has been nearly a month since I posted, so I am sure I can come up with something you all care to read about....
So the big 3-5.
...I got some presents...
OH. Speaking of eggs. Here is a good conversation a BFF and I had. (This was totally a stream of consciousness-like post. My brain makes connections that are just this clever.)
Friend: Hey, Jenski, how's life?Actually, I guess relationships and family are the biggest thing I think about when I think about aging. At 35 years old, I do not actually FEEL old, but when I think about life, I think that I am slowly running out of time for certain things. Now that I am on the topic, why don't I turn this post into that?
Jenski: Great. Here's what's new, etc., etc. What's new with you?
Friend: Oh, not much. The boyfriend still hasn't finished grad school. I also called with a weird question. Have you ever thought about freezing your eggs?
Jenski: No. As in, right now I can't imagine feeling like I would ever want to freeze my eggs.
{Insert conversation about aging and fertility.}
After a somewhat lengthy discussion on the topic, it comes down to this: She assumes she will have fertility problems, and given certain situations and family, I do not assume I will. I would love to have children, but given my last relationship, prioritizing my current career given relationship failures, and my age, I have also come to terms with the fact that it may not happen. I used to worry about boogers and puke; now I wonder how I would be able to teach a 3-hour lab starting at 8:30 a.m. if my child is up with the flu all night. I am also completely open to falling in love with a child who was not my biological child if that is what is in the cards. While it was a bit tongue-in-cheek, if my child is already potty trained and sleeps through the night when they become my child, who am I to complain? (Right now) I do not need to mess with my body, inject myself with hormones, and have a bunch of my eggs harvested and frozen to be happy with my life. This is what feels right to me right now, but you never know what life will bring, right?
It is also frustrating to know I am getting older and have people tell me that I am "so" young (because I am the youngest in my department). While I do not feel OLD, I know I am not YOUNG.
Now that I have that off my chest, I will try to post again soon with more interesting things....
FYI, my birthday also entailed going out to a great dinner with Bill (and a future weekend away somewhere TBD), some flowers from a coworker's garden, and lots of "Happy birthdays!" in the form of FB posts and texts from friends and family. It is not so bad getting older. :-)
08 April 2014
Relationships
This is not about the romantic type of relationships, but the friend type.
I have struggled to get stuff done so I could get my research set up this year and head back to my post-doc lab to retrieve some reagents. Plan A was to go back Thanksgiving. Plan B was winter break. Plan C was spring break. I had reached various states of anxiety over this time, thinking I would never get my research going. Each time I would chill out because this is my first year and my teaching is going fine and I will have a summer student and I have been engaged on campus. I am at a small liberal arts college. These are the real expectations. (As a matter of fact, my department chair gave me a heads up that he's supposed to write a progress letter for my file but it wasn't at the top of his list because the department has no concerns about me, but that he would get to it eventually.)
At the beginning of mid-March, I FINALLY finalized dates for a technician come to set up the system I inherited from my post-doc lab that required some plumbing and electric work in my future lab that I had waited a couple of months for facilities to get done. My Plan D trip back to my post-doc lab is now Easter Weekend.
Even though I had touched base with friends over the past 6 months and held my imminent visit (see Plans A through C above) out like a carrot in front of a rabbit, I could actually tell them I was definitely coming! They all got excited and so am I. There have been some snags in getting my lab ready to make it possible to bring stuff back, but even if I can't do it for my research, I have decided that I will still go to see everyone.
I miss my friends there. I was sadder to leave than I would have thought, given the reason for my moving there and the outcome of that relationship. I am so excited to see them (plus a baby that has arrived since I left!) in a couple of weeks. On a related note, I finally unfriended CF on the face book. I was working up to it and frankly wanted to do it before my impending birthday so that he would notice. I am awful. :-)
This has also made me think about various friendships I have made over the years. Friendships that are stronger than others. Once stronger friendships that have faded. Friendships that make for fun times when schedules and travel plans match up. Friendships that make me happy about my life choices, despite any difficult times that coincided. Old friends to whom I am geographically closer now and as a result made new friendships, thanks to my friends having significant others. New friendships where I live now that I would miss if I left my new home (absolutely no plans to do so, though), and surprise that as much as I like to sit at home and drink beer and watch TV, that those friendships developed in 6 months.
Sometimes, and honestly sometimes quite often, I miss things I do not have in my life, nor ever have, that others do. But in reality, I have made choices about my life and the things that I do about which I am happy and make me happy regardless.
I have struggled to get stuff done so I could get my research set up this year and head back to my post-doc lab to retrieve some reagents. Plan A was to go back Thanksgiving. Plan B was winter break. Plan C was spring break. I had reached various states of anxiety over this time, thinking I would never get my research going. Each time I would chill out because this is my first year and my teaching is going fine and I will have a summer student and I have been engaged on campus. I am at a small liberal arts college. These are the real expectations. (As a matter of fact, my department chair gave me a heads up that he's supposed to write a progress letter for my file but it wasn't at the top of his list because the department has no concerns about me, but that he would get to it eventually.)
At the beginning of mid-March, I FINALLY finalized dates for a technician come to set up the system I inherited from my post-doc lab that required some plumbing and electric work in my future lab that I had waited a couple of months for facilities to get done. My Plan D trip back to my post-doc lab is now Easter Weekend.
Even though I had touched base with friends over the past 6 months and held my imminent visit (see Plans A through C above) out like a carrot in front of a rabbit, I could actually tell them I was definitely coming! They all got excited and so am I. There have been some snags in getting my lab ready to make it possible to bring stuff back, but even if I can't do it for my research, I have decided that I will still go to see everyone.
I miss my friends there. I was sadder to leave than I would have thought, given the reason for my moving there and the outcome of that relationship. I am so excited to see them (plus a baby that has arrived since I left!) in a couple of weeks. On a related note, I finally unfriended CF on the face book. I was working up to it and frankly wanted to do it before my impending birthday so that he would notice. I am awful. :-)
This has also made me think about various friendships I have made over the years. Friendships that are stronger than others. Once stronger friendships that have faded. Friendships that make for fun times when schedules and travel plans match up. Friendships that make me happy about my life choices, despite any difficult times that coincided. Old friends to whom I am geographically closer now and as a result made new friendships, thanks to my friends having significant others. New friendships where I live now that I would miss if I left my new home (absolutely no plans to do so, though), and surprise that as much as I like to sit at home and drink beer and watch TV, that those friendships developed in 6 months.
Sometimes, and honestly sometimes quite often, I miss things I do not have in my life, nor ever have, that others do. But in reality, I have made choices about my life and the things that I do about which I am happy and make me happy regardless.
22 March 2014
Health stuff
It was spring break for me this past week. I front-loaded the fun and non-work activities, and thus have a fair amount of work to do this weekend. I started lots of these over the past few days, so I just need to finish them and move on to more stuff. Bill and I did some touristy stuff last weekend and spent a day on the couch watching movies. It was a good way to get over the cold I got just. before. break. Then we had snow and I cleaned my apartment from top to bottom. I did some yoga. I was on campus. I went to a cool private museum with co-workers. It has been a somewhat productive (but not quite productive enough) and relaxing break.
I have once again randomly chosen a primary care physician after moving for similar reasons as I have chosen in the past: close to work because I go to the doctor less often for being sick than for maintenance, a woman, friendly looking, and takes my insurance. Great way to pick, right? I have only met one of the nurse practitioners so far, and she is great, so I chose wisely. This is the first time a new doctor actually did a pregnancy test before renewing my birth control. It makes perfect sense for a doctor who has never met me to do this, and it made me surprised that this is not the norm.
She also did a full battery of blood work so it will be done for my physical. The good news is that my cholesterol is great, so I can keep eating cheese. On the other hand, apparently I am slightly hypothyroid. I wonder how long this has been true because she was looking not just at the hormones, but also an enzyme that if it is super low indicated hypothyroid and I have not noticed another doctor comment on this before. For the first time since I had my thyroid out seven years ago, my medication is changing. Let's hope this helps with some of my fatigue. I am mostly incapable of rounding up enough energy to do work after 7 p.m. My Mondays and Tuesdays are LONG days, so by Wednesday I am fried even though I get plenty of sleep.
I had not run in over a week until yesterday. Every time I thought to, I decided I did not feel like bundling up to go running when it was in the high 20s in the middle of March. Yesterday it was both daylight and 50 degrees when I got home, so I had no excuse. My legs are a bit tired this morning. I need to start increasing my mileage at some point here...
I have been taking decent care of myself until I had this for breakfast this morning.
Well, I had one full one and a small piece of all of the others.
I have once again randomly chosen a primary care physician after moving for similar reasons as I have chosen in the past: close to work because I go to the doctor less often for being sick than for maintenance, a woman, friendly looking, and takes my insurance. Great way to pick, right? I have only met one of the nurse practitioners so far, and she is great, so I chose wisely. This is the first time a new doctor actually did a pregnancy test before renewing my birth control. It makes perfect sense for a doctor who has never met me to do this, and it made me surprised that this is not the norm.
She also did a full battery of blood work so it will be done for my physical. The good news is that my cholesterol is great, so I can keep eating cheese. On the other hand, apparently I am slightly hypothyroid. I wonder how long this has been true because she was looking not just at the hormones, but also an enzyme that if it is super low indicated hypothyroid and I have not noticed another doctor comment on this before. For the first time since I had my thyroid out seven years ago, my medication is changing. Let's hope this helps with some of my fatigue. I am mostly incapable of rounding up enough energy to do work after 7 p.m. My Mondays and Tuesdays are LONG days, so by Wednesday I am fried even though I get plenty of sleep.
I had not run in over a week until yesterday. Every time I thought to, I decided I did not feel like bundling up to go running when it was in the high 20s in the middle of March. Yesterday it was both daylight and 50 degrees when I got home, so I had no excuse. My legs are a bit tired this morning. I need to start increasing my mileage at some point here...
I have been taking decent care of myself until I had this for breakfast this morning.
18 March 2014
Multitasking
My friend was recently telling me that she does not want to 'bug' her boyfriend too much about future plans because he is finishing his thesis and he cannot 'multitask'. Prior to this, she felt bad for bringing it up with him because he was working on a big project and also had his thesis and could only work on one thing at a time because he cannot 'multitask'.
I think I had such a visceral reaction to this because she sounds like I did a few years ago when CF refused to respond to any of my attempts at talking about future plans as well. I told her as much and also that she should think about my suggestions in this light. She shares a lot with the boyfriend, as she should, so I pointed out that she should also tell him this about me if she told him what I said. In addition, her boyfriend's inability to discuss a plan, with the acknowledgement that plans are not set in stone but give you a goal, is affecting my friend's well-being. Thinking you may unfairly burden a partner and refraining from a conversation when you yourself then end up unfairly burdened does not make sense to me.
Multitasking has nothing to do with doing two things at once. Sure you can pat your head and rub your stomach at the same time or chew gum and walk, but I am pretty sure that if the things require cognitive input, you can only do one thing at a time. I told my friend that if she gave her boyfriend a heads up that she needed (yes, actually needs) to talk about this would mean that he could be prepared to participate instead of him being unprepared, as he has apparently been during previous attempts. (As an aside, I have done this with exes to no avail.)
I actually do this with myself. I will think about how to approach something for way. too. long. sometimes. Then when I go to actually do it, it takes very little time though. There are some things I absolutely need to get done in a timely fashion that are simmering right now.
Taxes, for example. It is way past when I should have already made an appointment to have someone do those for me.
A grant proposal due in July. It seems like a long way off, but it is a big proposal. This may sound crazy, but as long as my teaching is good, if I got a proposal funded through this mechanism, I might be all set for tenure in 5 years. Seriously.
My lesson plans for next week. It is spring break for me and I took the last three days off from work-work. Bill and I hung out literally all weekend, I cleaned my apartment from top to bottom, and I did all my laundry (plus the extras like my duvet cover). There is no more procrastinating available in my apartment.
Figuring out this Bill thing. There are several things I am trying to get used to again. As with my conversation with my friend about she and her boyfriend, it would make sense for me to share with Bill so he does not think I am ambivalent or boring. One is I getting used to being gone. Bill likes to travel, even for regular weekend things. I do too, I just have not had the resources to do it in recent years. I need to get back into the swing of things. Participating in the summer research program provides me a stipend, but the budget is continually shrinking for the program so who knows what measly amount it will be. Honestly Bill pays for almost everything, but then I feel bad about that (see above sharing idea...). See also this previous post. I have also been unfriending people on Facebook who I only know from my previous relationship life. I have done this in waves, and it was great to do some of this the other day as I was also friending new people I have met in my new life.
Getting my research set up. I have a summer student lined up and not my research. I had plans of doing this in January. Then this week during spring break. It involves a trip back to my post-doc lab to pick stuff up. First some plumbing was not getting done. Then there are snow days that bring everything to a screeching halt at my small liberal arts college. Now there is a water shut down in my building to do outside water main work (which is surely delayed thanks to a snow storm yesterday). Not surprisingly, I JUST got an email that water will be off through Thursday (one-day delay), with no hot water until Friday. FML. Time to get dressed, head to campus, and plan my bathroom breaks so I can go to the building next door to use their bathrooms.
I think I had such a visceral reaction to this because she sounds like I did a few years ago when CF refused to respond to any of my attempts at talking about future plans as well. I told her as much and also that she should think about my suggestions in this light. She shares a lot with the boyfriend, as she should, so I pointed out that she should also tell him this about me if she told him what I said. In addition, her boyfriend's inability to discuss a plan, with the acknowledgement that plans are not set in stone but give you a goal, is affecting my friend's well-being. Thinking you may unfairly burden a partner and refraining from a conversation when you yourself then end up unfairly burdened does not make sense to me.
Multitasking has nothing to do with doing two things at once. Sure you can pat your head and rub your stomach at the same time or chew gum and walk, but I am pretty sure that if the things require cognitive input, you can only do one thing at a time. I told my friend that if she gave her boyfriend a heads up that she needed (yes, actually needs) to talk about this would mean that he could be prepared to participate instead of him being unprepared, as he has apparently been during previous attempts. (As an aside, I have done this with exes to no avail.)
I actually do this with myself. I will think about how to approach something for way. too. long. sometimes. Then when I go to actually do it, it takes very little time though. There are some things I absolutely need to get done in a timely fashion that are simmering right now.
Taxes, for example. It is way past when I should have already made an appointment to have someone do those for me.
A grant proposal due in July. It seems like a long way off, but it is a big proposal. This may sound crazy, but as long as my teaching is good, if I got a proposal funded through this mechanism, I might be all set for tenure in 5 years. Seriously.
My lesson plans for next week. It is spring break for me and I took the last three days off from work-work. Bill and I hung out literally all weekend, I cleaned my apartment from top to bottom, and I did all my laundry (plus the extras like my duvet cover). There is no more procrastinating available in my apartment.
Figuring out this Bill thing. There are several things I am trying to get used to again. As with my conversation with my friend about she and her boyfriend, it would make sense for me to share with Bill so he does not think I am ambivalent or boring. One is I getting used to being gone. Bill likes to travel, even for regular weekend things. I do too, I just have not had the resources to do it in recent years. I need to get back into the swing of things. Participating in the summer research program provides me a stipend, but the budget is continually shrinking for the program so who knows what measly amount it will be. Honestly Bill pays for almost everything, but then I feel bad about that (see above sharing idea...). See also this previous post. I have also been unfriending people on Facebook who I only know from my previous relationship life. I have done this in waves, and it was great to do some of this the other day as I was also friending new people I have met in my new life.
Getting my research set up. I have a summer student lined up and not my research. I had plans of doing this in January. Then this week during spring break. It involves a trip back to my post-doc lab to pick stuff up. First some plumbing was not getting done. Then there are snow days that bring everything to a screeching halt at my small liberal arts college. Now there is a water shut down in my building to do outside water main work (which is surely delayed thanks to a snow storm yesterday). Not surprisingly, I JUST got an email that water will be off through Thursday (one-day delay), with no hot water until Friday. FML. Time to get dressed, head to campus, and plan my bathroom breaks so I can go to the building next door to use their bathrooms.
03 March 2014
A little dinner, a little breakfast
Today was a snow day, so I made some pumpkin oatmeal muffins (and also snacked incessantly throughout the day - see above problem with snacking). It would not be a cooking post if I did not change the recipe, right? For these I used up coconut milk I had opened to make a chicken coconut lime mushroom peanut curry last week (that is pretty much the ingredient list from the curry - it was delicious). I also added some walnuts and mini chocolate chips to empty some stuff out. They were also delicious. As was the curry I made last week. Oh, and the pumpkin was left over from some pumpkin spice muffins I made for my early class last week. They see me early almost every day and are usually all on time, so I
Undoing relationships
**This post is brought to you by my ability to procrastinate on lecture prep and an early announcement that I have a snow day tomorrow.**
A couple of weekends ago, BIL guy, who I have now decided to just call Bill, came to my parents' house for the weekend with me. I had not invited him in order for him to "meet the parents", and he's already met my sister and her family before (obviously, being 'brother-in-law guy'). I was perfectly comfortable having him come with me, and he was perfectly happy to come. We did not hit a single minute of traffic on the NJ Turnpike, so the drive only took 6 hours in each direction. It is like it was meant to be.
Then at the new faculty happy hour that week, one of them asked how the weekend was. I think I forgot I had told her about him.
Then he came to dinner for my college friend's birthday. (She, her boyfriend, and Bill and I have had dinner together before.)
This weekend he came to a gathering on campus that was made up of new faculty and others who are friends of one of the new faculty members. Bill thanked me for introducing him to my friends, but honestly, it makes my life easier. On top of that, I want my people to know and (hopefully) like each other. Why would I try to keep different parts of my life separate? I cannot find any reference to this "idea" I had in high school. Idea is in quotes because I am probably not the only person who truly wished to just have all the people I care about live in one town, Jennytown.
Bill also had a friend come into town to see their mutual friend in a show, so there was hanging out with some of his people. We also got to go backstage after the show. It is cool to see how all the stage stuff is organized behind the scene; my favorite part was the penis basket. No, that is not a typo and if you know Book of Mormon the musical at all, you'll know when the basket is used. The fun part of hanging out with his people is hearing stories he has told them about us. I commented that the bar where we were getting a beer was where Bill first impressed me with his trivia prowess (he's seriously amazing at trivia), and apparently he had already conveyed that story to the friend. That trivia night was the first night we hung out. We rehashed, with his friend, how we hung out frequently for what I call 'non-dates'. Apparently in the fall, Bill was not really sure what was going on, but I always said yes to hanging out so he thought that was good and kept asking.
We are to the point in our dating where if we stopped dating, I would have to undo another relationship. I slowly unfriended people I knew through exes over time, and ended up asking family and friends to unfriend CF over the summer, and it is always sad. Having become happy in where I am with moving back to the East Coast, my job, being close to family and friends and seeing them so much more often, now I have to convince myself that it is worth it, again, being open to another relationship regardless of where it may lead, sharing anything I can (including my family and friends), laying it out there what I want and where (at least right now) I am not willing to compromise given previous relationships. That seems like a bad way to think about a new relationship, but right now I still feel pretty protective of my life, career, and, honestly, heart. We keep talking about plans for months away from now, so for now we are clearly good. :-)
Also. Bill punched me in the eye last weekend. Apparently he was dreaming about playing basketball, and some kid was handing him a potato chip as he was going to take a shot. He reached out in real life to grab the potato chip in his dream...and hit me in right in the eye.
A couple of weekends ago, BIL guy, who I have now decided to just call Bill, came to my parents' house for the weekend with me. I had not invited him in order for him to "meet the parents", and he's already met my sister and her family before (obviously, being 'brother-in-law guy'). I was perfectly comfortable having him come with me, and he was perfectly happy to come. We did not hit a single minute of traffic on the NJ Turnpike, so the drive only took 6 hours in each direction. It is like it was meant to be.
Then at the new faculty happy hour that week, one of them asked how the weekend was. I think I forgot I had told her about him.
Then he came to dinner for my college friend's birthday. (She, her boyfriend, and Bill and I have had dinner together before.)
This weekend he came to a gathering on campus that was made up of new faculty and others who are friends of one of the new faculty members. Bill thanked me for introducing him to my friends, but honestly, it makes my life easier. On top of that, I want my people to know and (hopefully) like each other. Why would I try to keep different parts of my life separate? I cannot find any reference to this "idea" I had in high school. Idea is in quotes because I am probably not the only person who truly wished to just have all the people I care about live in one town, Jennytown.
Bill also had a friend come into town to see their mutual friend in a show, so there was hanging out with some of his people. We also got to go backstage after the show. It is cool to see how all the stage stuff is organized behind the scene; my favorite part was the penis basket. No, that is not a typo and if you know Book of Mormon the musical at all, you'll know when the basket is used. The fun part of hanging out with his people is hearing stories he has told them about us. I commented that the bar where we were getting a beer was where Bill first impressed me with his trivia prowess (he's seriously amazing at trivia), and apparently he had already conveyed that story to the friend. That trivia night was the first night we hung out. We rehashed, with his friend, how we hung out frequently for what I call 'non-dates'. Apparently in the fall, Bill was not really sure what was going on, but I always said yes to hanging out so he thought that was good and kept asking.
We are to the point in our dating where if we stopped dating, I would have to undo another relationship. I slowly unfriended people I knew through exes over time, and ended up asking family and friends to unfriend CF over the summer, and it is always sad. Having become happy in where I am with moving back to the East Coast, my job, being close to family and friends and seeing them so much more often, now I have to convince myself that it is worth it, again, being open to another relationship regardless of where it may lead, sharing anything I can (including my family and friends), laying it out there what I want and where (at least right now) I am not willing to compromise given previous relationships. That seems like a bad way to think about a new relationship, but right now I still feel pretty protective of my life, career, and, honestly, heart. We keep talking about plans for months away from now, so for now we are clearly good. :-)
Also. Bill punched me in the eye last weekend. Apparently he was dreaming about playing basketball, and some kid was handing him a potato chip as he was going to take a shot. He reached out in real life to grab the potato chip in his dream...and hit me in right in the eye.
10 February 2014
How serious ARE you?
Three things indicating various levels of seriousness for you to judge. It is always nice to be told you are expected to be judgmental, right?
1. I really do love when I feel fully prepared for class or when I finish writing up an assignment. I am enjoying meeting students at all levels - teaching an upper level course with a lab and an intro lab section. I just confirmed with a student that she will do summer research with me. For the most part, I think I am on the right track. But when the weather channel sent out a storm watch alert for later this week and I heard other faculty complaining about the winter weather, MY first thought was, "let's go snow day or delay!"
I never really thought I would be that person (I mean we are only 2 weeks into the semester!), but it is nice being on the instructor side of a snow day. Plus I honestly do not mind the winter weather, I am sure in part because I do not have to shovel or clear trees that fell down in the recent ice storm.
2. Rapunzel had this idea that we would use Nike+ to motivate each other to stay active, although she seems quite good at it herself. We both said, at least in the beginning that knowing someone else could see when we ran made us more likely to run, and we kept trying to just get ahead of the other person (although I was just trying to keep up...). She finished the 30 miles in 30 days a few days early and set up a new 32 miles in 30 days challenge. And she just finished after 11.5 days. I have not kept up, but I did run 30.06 miles in January and already 17.17 miles this month. Not too shabby, but not quite as serious as Rapunzel.
3. BIL guy is coming with me to my parents for a big bonfire and drinking this weekend. On one hand, I suppose it is some-adjective-I-can't-quite-put-my-finger-on that technically we have only been [clearly] out of the friend zone since Jan 1 and he is hanging out with my family. On the other hand, he knew my BIL way back and has met my sister and the kids, and we have been hanging out for so long, that it does not feel weird at all. He also has been happy to come from the first time I mentioned it, including when I gave him another out over the weekend. That is mostly all I have to say about that.
1. I really do love when I feel fully prepared for class or when I finish writing up an assignment. I am enjoying meeting students at all levels - teaching an upper level course with a lab and an intro lab section. I just confirmed with a student that she will do summer research with me. For the most part, I think I am on the right track. But when the weather channel sent out a storm watch alert for later this week and I heard other faculty complaining about the winter weather, MY first thought was, "let's go snow day or delay!"
I never really thought I would be that person (I mean we are only 2 weeks into the semester!), but it is nice being on the instructor side of a snow day. Plus I honestly do not mind the winter weather, I am sure in part because I do not have to shovel or clear trees that fell down in the recent ice storm.
2. Rapunzel had this idea that we would use Nike+ to motivate each other to stay active, although she seems quite good at it herself. We both said, at least in the beginning that knowing someone else could see when we ran made us more likely to run, and we kept trying to just get ahead of the other person (although I was just trying to keep up...). She finished the 30 miles in 30 days a few days early and set up a new 32 miles in 30 days challenge. And she just finished after 11.5 days. I have not kept up, but I did run 30.06 miles in January and already 17.17 miles this month. Not too shabby, but not quite as serious as Rapunzel.
3. BIL guy is coming with me to my parents for a big bonfire and drinking this weekend. On one hand, I suppose it is some-adjective-I-can't-quite-put-my-finger-on that technically we have only been [clearly] out of the friend zone since Jan 1 and he is hanging out with my family. On the other hand, he knew my BIL way back and has met my sister and the kids, and we have been hanging out for so long, that it does not feel weird at all. He also has been happy to come from the first time I mentioned it, including when I gave him another out over the weekend. That is mostly all I have to say about that.
31 January 2014
Phew!
**It has been almost 3 years since I added to my '100 things' list! If you have an idea for a topic for the last 10 things, let me know. Sadly I have already done a 'random things' list.**
Week one of the semester:
Day 1: Can't log onto the computer before my 9 a.m. class. Restart it. Can't log in. Call help desk. Start teaching. Help desk comes and the computer isn't connected to the internet anyway. Finish class without slides. Computer works fine when I check back in the afternoon. Stay up too late after making dinner, doing laundry, watching a couple hours of TV, and deciding I should do work.
Day 2: Would have started by finding a massive water leak in my teaching lab just before my 8:30 a.m. class, but luckily a colleague found the ceiling dripping at the end of Day 1. Stay up too late because I wanted to go over my lecture again and I clearly suck at going to bed early.
Day 3: Headache all day in spite of the 2 Aleve, 2 cups of coffee, and stretching my neck and upper back throughout the day. Headache wains and I run 3 miles in the 20 degree windy weather. Headache comes back. Make dinner. Do some laundry. In bed by 11:00.
Day 4: Start the day with more Aleve, just in case. I think the rest of the day went okay. I don't remember. I still felt off and like any second that headache would come back. Happy hour with other new faculty at the end of the day. Made it to bed at a reasonable hour after texting with BIL guy about how it takes him forever to fall asleep unless I am around and how I just fall asleep because I am that lucky. I barely remember closing my eyes.
Day 5: Feel more normal than I have all week! Probably the best lecture of the week, although I am amazed at how little material I get through. I have a hard time telling if the students are keeping up, bored, and/or lost. 9 a.m. is not that early for a class, but it is if you are college students (and this group sees me at 9 a.m. 3 days a week and 8:30 another day). One of said college students missed class because her grandfather had a bad fall. Go to local meeting of those working with a similar research system. Have awkward conversation with speaker about my post-doc advisor and the speaker's collaborator with whom my post-doc advisor does not speak (long story that is not mine to tell). Feeling exhausted again. Put away all the laundry I have done in the past week, empty the dishwasher, make dinner, decide to watch the pilot episode of West Wing, write a blog post, go to bed super early.
Saturday plan: Get up. Run. Go wine tasting.
Week one of the semester:
Day 1: Can't log onto the computer before my 9 a.m. class. Restart it. Can't log in. Call help desk. Start teaching. Help desk comes and the computer isn't connected to the internet anyway. Finish class without slides. Computer works fine when I check back in the afternoon. Stay up too late after making dinner, doing laundry, watching a couple hours of TV, and deciding I should do work.
Day 2: Would have started by finding a massive water leak in my teaching lab just before my 8:30 a.m. class, but luckily a colleague found the ceiling dripping at the end of Day 1. Stay up too late because I wanted to go over my lecture again and I clearly suck at going to bed early.
Day 3: Headache all day in spite of the 2 Aleve, 2 cups of coffee, and stretching my neck and upper back throughout the day. Headache wains and I run 3 miles in the 20 degree windy weather. Headache comes back. Make dinner. Do some laundry. In bed by 11:00.
Day 4: Start the day with more Aleve, just in case. I think the rest of the day went okay. I don't remember. I still felt off and like any second that headache would come back. Happy hour with other new faculty at the end of the day. Made it to bed at a reasonable hour after texting with BIL guy about how it takes him forever to fall asleep unless I am around and how I just fall asleep because I am that lucky. I barely remember closing my eyes.
Day 5: Feel more normal than I have all week! Probably the best lecture of the week, although I am amazed at how little material I get through. I have a hard time telling if the students are keeping up, bored, and/or lost. 9 a.m. is not that early for a class, but it is if you are college students (and this group sees me at 9 a.m. 3 days a week and 8:30 another day). One of said college students missed class because her grandfather had a bad fall. Go to local meeting of those working with a similar research system. Have awkward conversation with speaker about my post-doc advisor and the speaker's collaborator with whom my post-doc advisor does not speak (long story that is not mine to tell). Feeling exhausted again. Put away all the laundry I have done in the past week, empty the dishwasher, make dinner, decide to watch the pilot episode of West Wing, write a blog post, go to bed super early.
Saturday plan: Get up. Run. Go wine tasting.
27 January 2014
Marquee bumper
If my car's bumper were a marquee sign, these are some of the things I might type (with some hands-free device of course) when I was out driving. Not all are negative either!
- Nice blinker.
- I can only go as fast as the car in front of me. Please get off my ass.
- Just because you have a weighted-down truck with 4WD does not mean it is safe to drive fast in a snow/ice storm. (See: flipped SUVs along the road.)
- Thank you/your family member for your service to our country.
- The public safety employee ones: Driving a police car should not give you the right to weave in and out of traffic. Driving a police car should not give you the right to speed. Driving a police car should not give you right to roll through a stop sign. Driving a police car should not give you the right to hold your cell phone in a hands-free state.
- GET OFF THE PHONE and/or MOVE OVER.
- Learn to merge
- Learn to drive in a roundabout/rotary/traffic circle.
What would you add to the list?
Playlist
I have mentioned plenty now that I have been running. I only ran twice last week, but when I did I ran 4.85 and 4.5 miles, and when I have a decent run, I average 11 minute miles. The half marathon I am slowly training for must be completed in under 3 1/2 hours, which I could probably do if I was walking my fast speed. My goal is to to do it in less than 3, and if I can train to run it at 11 minute miles, I should break 2 1/2 hours. When I put it that way, I actually think I can do it. I ran for almost an hour the other day and felt like I could have pushed myself to keep going, but felt like stopping and going home. (I run on campus at work when it is night time.)
Title Artist
I have slowly been building an eclectic playlist to which I can run. It even includes Jim Croce. I had last thought I needed to try running without music because a couple of my runs were terrible, but I think I have realized it is not the music, but running first thing in the morning that is currently terrible for me. Here is the current line-up, clocking in at 3 hours and 4 minutes of music. A couple are better for fast walking (like Tik Tok), but I just count those as built in breaks when they come on my ipod.
Title Artist
| Smooth Criminal | Alien Ant Farm |
| Little Plastic Castle | Ani DiFranco |
| Long Way | Antje Duvekot |
| Show Me How To Live | Audioslave |
| What You Are | Audioslave |
| Like A Stone | Audioslave |
| Roam | The B-52's |
| You Lie | The Band Perry |
| Walk away | Ben Harper |
| Crazy | Britney Spears |
| The Distance | Cake |
| Last Name | Carrie Underwood |
| Before He Cheats | Carrie Underwood |
| Moonshadow | Cat Stevens |
| Come on Over | Christina Aguilera |
| A Thousand Years | Christina Perri |
| The Scientist | Coldplay |
| I'll back you up | Dave Matthews |
| You & Me | Dave Matthews Band |
| Independent Women Part 1 | Destiny's Child |
| Survivor | Destiny's Child |
| Hunter | Dido |
| Passerby | Dispatch |
| My Immortal | Evanescence |
| Low (feat. T-Pain) | Flo Rida |
| Got You (Where I Want You) | The Flys |
| Name | Goo Goo Dolls |
| Acoustic #3 | Goo Goo Dolls |
| Boulevard Of Broken Dreams | Green Day |
| I Won't Give Up | Jason Mraz |
| Time In a Bottle | Jim Croce |
| Sky | Joshua Radin |
| What Goes Around.../...Comes Around Interlude | Justin Timberlake |
| Tik Tok | Ke$ha |
| Sweet Thing | Keith Urban |
| I Try | Macy Gray |
| Girl Like That | Matchbox Twenty |
| Its gonna be me | N Sync |
| Nightingale | Norah Jones |
| Throw Your Arms Around me | Pearl Jam |
| Every Rose Has Its Thorn | Poison |
| Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of | U2 |
| Leave the Pieces (Album Version) | The Wreckers |
| Mary | Zac Brown Band |
| Highway 20 Ride | Zac Brown Band |
26 January 2014
Snippets
BIL guy and I have some funny conversations. He is in white; I am in blue. This was the night before we headed out of town together for a couple of days.
I think the most memorable conversation of that weekend was (again) talking about the months and months we hung out as friends. He asked if I thought he was gay, and I told him that while I had joked about it with my aunts, I was pretty sure he was not. Later when he referred to a situation, I pointed out that it was back when he was gay and we had a good laugh.
This was after we spent the weekend together out of town.
BIL guy loves mac and cheese, and apparently is a big fan of boxed mac and cheese. We recently discussed my and my friend's use of plain Greek yogurt in Annie's mac and cheese. If you have not tried it, you must. (While he was skeptical about this combination at first, he ended up thinking it was delicious.)
BIL guy then spent the week deciding what, besides my mac and cheese, would go with the pulled pork. He thought maybe corn on the cob, but apparently I have told him about how I am a corn on the cob snob (as in I only like it fresh). Dude remembers way too much?! I asked him what else I had been snotty about, and he at least pretended not to remember anything else. (Sometimes I think I am like a stererotypical guy, because I am pretty sure I do not remember as much of our conversations. I felt better when we went to brunch and I remembered we had been there before for drinks and he did not.)
Anyway. This was his reason for cooking something that would take all day.
And he meant it. Classes start tomorrow, and he said he couldn't wait to hear how it went.
This was after we spent the weekend together out of town.
BIL guy then spent the week deciding what, besides my mac and cheese, would go with the pulled pork. He thought maybe corn on the cob, but apparently I have told him about how I am a corn on the cob snob (as in I only like it fresh). Dude remembers way too much?! I asked him what else I had been snotty about, and he at least pretended not to remember anything else. (Sometimes I think I am like a stererotypical guy, because I am pretty sure I do not remember as much of our conversations. I felt better when we went to brunch and I remembered we had been there before for drinks and he did not.)
Anyway. This was his reason for cooking something that would take all day.
25 January 2014
History (of science)
As I was continuing to (inefficiently) get ready this past week for the start of classes on Monday, I was adding some historical perspective to the developmental biology course I am teaching. The textbook mentions scientist names and the general time in which they made discoveries or proposed ideas about how biological systems work. I started looking up more specific information about these scientists though, and started thinking about how crazy it is that so many discoveries we/I take for granted were made relatively recently. At least it seemed that way to me when I started thinking about how the lives of my great-grandparents (who I knew), my grandparents, and my parents (sorry) overlapped with so many incredible advances. Of course I also thought about how in 30 years students will take for granted exciting discoveries that have been made in the past 10 years, and wonder how there was a time we did not know these things.
[As an aside, I think this is one of the struggles with teaching science. We know SO. MUCH. MORE. now than we did when I was in school in the 80s and 90s. We expect the students to learn these new things, but then we still need to teach them the basics and how to think. There actually are not enough hours in the day. A lot of our teaching, at least where I am, does emphasize the critical thinking and communication/writing skills, but in reality the students are not retaining even a lot of the basics as a result. And they need to at least know the basics and where to look up the more detailed information.]
My great-grandmother was born in 1898, and I think my great-grandfather was born earlier that decade. My grandparents were born in the mid-1920s. So, here are some cool things to think about.
The man, August Weismann, who proposed that we inherit characteristics from germ cells (eggs and sperm) died when my great grandmother was 16 years old.
The images of DNA taken by Rosalind Franklin, that were then used by her and Watson and Crick to determine the structure of DNA, were taken in the early 1950s when my great grand-parents were in their 60s, my grand-parents in their late 20s, and my parents were born?! As an aside, Franklin also studied the polio virus.
The 4 postulates for determining if an illness is due to a disease or a microorganism (like bacteria) were developed around 1890, and have since been revised in light of more modern techniques of studying disease. Koch and Loeffler, who developed these ideas, lived until 1910 and 1915, respectively, when my great-grandmother was a teenager.
I would look up a few more, but you get the idea. Everyone hears about the big exciting things like landing on the moon, but these ideas are just as ground breaking, even if they seem less flashy in this day and age.
[As an aside, I think this is one of the struggles with teaching science. We know SO. MUCH. MORE. now than we did when I was in school in the 80s and 90s. We expect the students to learn these new things, but then we still need to teach them the basics and how to think. There actually are not enough hours in the day. A lot of our teaching, at least where I am, does emphasize the critical thinking and communication/writing skills, but in reality the students are not retaining even a lot of the basics as a result. And they need to at least know the basics and where to look up the more detailed information.]
My great-grandmother was born in 1898, and I think my great-grandfather was born earlier that decade. My grandparents were born in the mid-1920s. So, here are some cool things to think about.
The man, August Weismann, who proposed that we inherit characteristics from germ cells (eggs and sperm) died when my great grandmother was 16 years old.
The images of DNA taken by Rosalind Franklin, that were then used by her and Watson and Crick to determine the structure of DNA, were taken in the early 1950s when my great grand-parents were in their 60s, my grand-parents in their late 20s, and my parents were born?! As an aside, Franklin also studied the polio virus.
The 4 postulates for determining if an illness is due to a disease or a microorganism (like bacteria) were developed around 1890, and have since been revised in light of more modern techniques of studying disease. Koch and Loeffler, who developed these ideas, lived until 1910 and 1915, respectively, when my great-grandmother was a teenager.
I would look up a few more, but you get the idea. Everyone hears about the big exciting things like landing on the moon, but these ideas are just as ground breaking, even if they seem less flashy in this day and age.
21 January 2014
Snow day!
There is not a flake of snow in the sky or on the ground, but any minute now it's supposed to start and deliver 5 to 8 inches. There is a giant spot of blue snow heading this way on the weather map, and classes have not started yet, so my college shut down. I am under the impression that having classes in session would not have stopped the college from closing, which is a little crazy because it is not a commuter college, but whatever. When we last talked about snow days at work, I asked if I could choose to hold class even if the campus is closed because I am fine with driving carefully to work. I did not get a straight answer, except that once for intro they had an optional lab on a Sunday afternoon to try to keep students caught up with the material. Not all students showed up, but those who did benefited (obviously). I may re-ask this question if the winter continues to provide me with regular snow storms.
So far this morning I have gotten "dressed" (it is always great to work in sweats and fluffy socks), cleaned the cat pan, given the cat extra attention, taken out the trash and recycling, had some coffee, set up work space on my dining table, checked FB obsessively, and now wrote a random blog post. Now to motivate to do some work. My reward is a walk to Dunkin' Donuts later if I get a lecture done.
Speaking of cats. It is amazing how starving mine seems to be when I am home for a day. The incessant meowing and begging.
UPDATE: It started snowing right on time at ~9:00. Who's excited??????
So far this morning I have gotten "dressed" (it is always great to work in sweats and fluffy socks), cleaned the cat pan, given the cat extra attention, taken out the trash and recycling, had some coffee, set up work space on my dining table, checked FB obsessively, and now wrote a random blog post. Now to motivate to do some work. My reward is a walk to Dunkin' Donuts later if I get a lecture done.
Speaking of cats. It is amazing how starving mine seems to be when I am home for a day. The incessant meowing and begging.
UPDATE: It started snowing right on time at ~9:00. Who's excited??????
19 January 2014
The count-down
I am lucky. I still have another week before classes start. I have been relatively productive during break, but could have done more planning and prep before now if I had cared to. At the same time, I am definitely not going into the semester exhausted, which is a good thing.
I am not sure if I have mentioned it, but I am teaching a lecture/lab course plus one intro lab this semester. In the sciences we figure out staffing by contact hours, so I will be in the classroom teaching for 9 hours a week. The intro lab is no big deal - there is a person who preps the labs - but I will also be sitting in on the lecture so I know what the students are learning and also sitting in on a lab before mine so I know what to teach - that will add another 6 hours to my in-class time each week. The other class I am teaching I have decided to do from scratch even though I have my predecessor's materials, so it will be fairly time consuming to generate the course material. My knowledge is different from my predecessors, so it was either learn what she had taught and teach it, or draw on what I know and make up new labs. So I went with the latter.
Unfortunately I will not have my research set up before the start of classes, so I am not sure if I will be able to use my research in my teaching lab this year, but will down the road!
I realized last week that I actually have to be putting together lectures for the semester. Tomorrow, I start my one-lecture-prep-a-day plan. Over the course of the week, I need to outline the first few labs too. I am excited about the course, as it is upper level, and am trying to hold the self-doubt at bay. I know I can do it, I just need to do it.
In other news, I painted this. It will be fired and ready to pick up this week. I picked it as a pet dish, but we will see if she gets to use it or not. I painted the flower on the inside figuring it could be a water dish, and then I could still see my handy work. A few of us went for a ladies' night at one of those paint-your-own studios, and we all did completely different designs. It will be fun to see how they look after being glazed and fired!
In other-other news, I spent a fun couple of days in Philadelphia this weekend.
I have also managed to run 3- 4 times per week, thanks to some friendly motivation. For some reason I don't feel like I am getting any faster or that it is getting any easier. I think I need to try running without music, as boring as that sounds, to figure out what my natural pace is. It is on my To Do list for tomorrow.
My motivation to keep on top of my work this semester is going to be more short trips like this. 7 days to the new semester and counting...
I am not sure if I have mentioned it, but I am teaching a lecture/lab course plus one intro lab this semester. In the sciences we figure out staffing by contact hours, so I will be in the classroom teaching for 9 hours a week. The intro lab is no big deal - there is a person who preps the labs - but I will also be sitting in on the lecture so I know what the students are learning and also sitting in on a lab before mine so I know what to teach - that will add another 6 hours to my in-class time each week. The other class I am teaching I have decided to do from scratch even though I have my predecessor's materials, so it will be fairly time consuming to generate the course material. My knowledge is different from my predecessors, so it was either learn what she had taught and teach it, or draw on what I know and make up new labs. So I went with the latter.
Unfortunately I will not have my research set up before the start of classes, so I am not sure if I will be able to use my research in my teaching lab this year, but will down the road!
I realized last week that I actually have to be putting together lectures for the semester. Tomorrow, I start my one-lecture-prep-a-day plan. Over the course of the week, I need to outline the first few labs too. I am excited about the course, as it is upper level, and am trying to hold the self-doubt at bay. I know I can do it, I just need to do it.
In other news, I painted this. It will be fired and ready to pick up this week. I picked it as a pet dish, but we will see if she gets to use it or not. I painted the flower on the inside figuring it could be a water dish, and then I could still see my handy work. A few of us went for a ladies' night at one of those paint-your-own studios, and we all did completely different designs. It will be fun to see how they look after being glazed and fired!
The stairs Rocky runs on.
The Liberty Bell, which I learned was cracked from day 1.
Independence hall.
The room in which the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were signed. George Washington sat in the chair in the front!
Random alley...
My motivation to keep on top of my work this semester is going to be more short trips like this. 7 days to the new semester and counting...
16 January 2014
Expensive tastes
One of the stories my Mom has told goes something like this: at an early age, my parents opened a nice bottle of wine. This was before they regularly drank decent wine like they do now. I was probably 10 or so. I took a sip and said, "Oh, that's good." My mom jokes about how I had expensive tastes as a kid.
Recently, BIL guy invited me to tag along for some wine tasting with his friends for a restaurant/selling wine to make money deal with the sales guy. All the wines tasted completely different, but there was one in particular that I loved and was popular across the group. If I remember correctly it was a Cabernet. Not too dry. Had a caramel taste. Smooth. I wanted a brownie to eat with it.
It was the most expensive one there.
BUT, if they bought 10 cases they would get an AMAZING deal on it. BIL guy said he would buy one of the cases, then looked at me and asked if that was okay.
Um. Yeah.
Recently, BIL guy invited me to tag along for some wine tasting with his friends for a restaurant/selling wine to make money deal with the sales guy. All the wines tasted completely different, but there was one in particular that I loved and was popular across the group. If I remember correctly it was a Cabernet. Not too dry. Had a caramel taste. Smooth. I wanted a brownie to eat with it.
It was the most expensive one there.
BUT, if they bought 10 cases they would get an AMAZING deal on it. BIL guy said he would buy one of the cases, then looked at me and asked if that was okay.
Um. Yeah.
15 January 2014
Sciency office decor
I wanted a book stand for my office, but the only one I could find was this dark one at Target. The front tab used to be taller, but I had my dad trim it down.
10 January 2014
Busted
As I was catching a friend up this evening on my romantic life, I was recounting conversations between BIL guy and I. Over the past, well, since NYE, we have talked about how this all came to be with he and I. Admittedly, I mentioned something in a drunken state about how I had wondered what was going on because we were doing date-like things, but I could not tell if it was dating. He commented that we were more dating at that point than we had been the day before. Funny.
Fast forward a week, and he is telling me that "there was one time when we were on a date...I mean when we were hanging out...when I knew I should've made my move and I thought I had screwed it up and lost my chance."
Busted.
He could not remember when this non-date was, but clearly had hadn't lost his chance.
Fast forward a week, and he is telling me that "there was one time when we were on a date...I mean when we were hanging out...when I knew I should've made my move and I thought I had screwed it up and lost my chance."
Busted.
He could not remember when this non-date was, but clearly had hadn't lost his chance.
05 January 2014
Lesson learned
The lesson: I know I should not put off the desire to write a post thinking I will get my work done first. What ends up happening is that I waste my day procrastinating, then write a post, then get way less work done than I intended. And I have a syllabus to try to finish, so I MUST post first so I have no excuses.
Not that you needed an explanation of that, but whatever.
Now on to the post...
One, I love Yogi tea. Particularly when the tea saying feels applicable to me. And "Happiness comes from contentment" feels true in my current life. I have been pretty content since September in work life and personal life. I ventured into the online dating thing around then just to get back into it, and just let a guy down who I had seen several times and shut down my account. I also started hanging out with someone with whom I have become friends thanks to my brother-in-law. I may eventually come up with another nickname for him, but until then he is BIL guy. It is strange to call him BIL guy, particularly because having known my BIL and sister is apparently what was keeping us in the friend zone. Past tense. It was one of the reasons I thought possible that hanging out was staying platonic, so it was good to have confirmation that it was not one of the other possibilities.
On NYE, I met the friends with whom he hangs out regularly and also briefly interacted with other friends at the restaurant where he and I had dinner. Apparently his friends like me and think I am nice. Duh. :-) He and I cooked an amazing venison tenderloin courtesy of said friends last night (with some roasted potatoes, mushrooms, and a port wine reduction). Thanks to said friends, he is in on a wine buying deal (the friends own a restaurant) that means we had some pretty darn good wine with dinner too. I am tagging along to the next tasting where other owners in the restaurant will be...apparently including one of the N F L* players here who is from the friends' same hometown. He has also been thinking of going to Philadelphia for a night for something to do, so that will probably be happening. Cooking, laughs, hanging out, good wine, flirting, someone to warm up my hands and feet, and whatever else may come from leaving the friend zone? I'm in.
In the meantime, I will try to ignore this distraction when I need to be getting work. Speaking of distractions, I FINALLY figured out how to transfer my iToons* library and keep the play counts and ratings. I spent way too much time with this, and in the end it was simpler than I thought it was, but the help posts for iThings was not that easy to find. Anyhoo...back to work now that it is is 3:00 in the afternoon. Oiy.
* Yes they are typed funny on purpose.
Not that you needed an explanation of that, but whatever.
Now on to the post...
On NYE, I met the friends with whom he hangs out regularly and also briefly interacted with other friends at the restaurant where he and I had dinner. Apparently his friends like me and think I am nice. Duh. :-) He and I cooked an amazing venison tenderloin courtesy of said friends last night (with some roasted potatoes, mushrooms, and a port wine reduction). Thanks to said friends, he is in on a wine buying deal (the friends own a restaurant) that means we had some pretty darn good wine with dinner too. I am tagging along to the next tasting where other owners in the restaurant will be...apparently including one of the N F L* players here who is from the friends' same hometown. He has also been thinking of going to Philadelphia for a night for something to do, so that will probably be happening. Cooking, laughs, hanging out, good wine, flirting, someone to warm up my hands and feet, and whatever else may come from leaving the friend zone? I'm in.
In the meantime, I will try to ignore this distraction when I need to be getting work. Speaking of distractions, I FINALLY figured out how to transfer my iToons* library and keep the play counts and ratings. I spent way too much time with this, and in the end it was simpler than I thought it was, but the help posts for iThings was not that easy to find. Anyhoo...back to work now that it is is 3:00 in the afternoon. Oiy.
* Yes they are typed funny on purpose.
02 January 2014
Let's do this
I cleaned out my email inbox at work.
I have a course syllabus to write. And a grant.
I am psyching myself up for my second semester. At the end of last semester, I jokingly wrote on the FB, "1 semester down. Approximately 59 to go," and I joked about it at work today. Two members of my parents' generation could not believe that I would count down. I guess they took it literally! Luckily I love my job and I am NOT actually counting down to retirement, I just thought it was funny to think about. I think maybe that generation is stressed out being in their late 50s to mid 60s in the current economic climate that they find it inappropriate that I might hope to retire some day, too. Hope my parents thank me for paying my taxes and supporting their fixed income post-retirement.
My student evaluations suggest that students either thought the course and my teaching were great...or not. . The large majority think there is too much material and that lectures move too quickly. They said my grading in lab was harsh, but honestly their lab reports were not great. And they certainly picked up on the fact that as the semester progressed, I was more comfortable in class. They are so unprepared for the amount of material they need to learn though. This spring I am sitting in on the intro course, so hopefully we can improve the students' appreciation of and performance in the course and not dumb it down. It is reassuring to know the woman with whom I team taught gave me feedback throughout that was positive and/or constructive. Only up to go from here!
I ran again for the first time in a couple of weeks with new running sneakers and just as it was starting to snow. Everything about it was great except the running part. (I did it, I just refuse to like it.) I have 11 months to be able to run a half marathon and MONTHS of hot and humid weather in the middle. I will have to get my butt up early this summer to keep up the running.
I have one boy to let down and one who, I am pretty sure, is not let down.
I have some gifts to sew, including a T-shirt quilt for my mom with her red and yellow t-shirts!
I have food in my freezer I need to eat up - I started with tomatoes and spinach in a delicious bacon, black bean, and veggie soup tonight (secret ingredient = ~1/2 c of beer).
I caught up on Downton Abbey and Parenthood. I am ready for the new seasons.
2014, here I come!
I have food in my freezer I need to eat up - I started with tomatoes and spinach in a delicious bacon, black bean, and veggie soup tonight (secret ingredient = ~1/2 c of beer).
I caught up on Downton Abbey and Parenthood. I am ready for the new seasons.
2014, here I come!
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