A treat

Ron bestowed this lovely award on me. Which gives me something non-grad school related to post as well as another form of procrastination. [Is it still procrastination if you have no deadline to work towards?]It is the over-the-top award. Not sure if I should be honored to get it. I have been a little over the top with the complaining as of late. Whatev.

The rules:

• Copy and change the answers to suit you and pass it on.
• Answers may be one word only
• Once you have filled it out be sure to pass it on to 6 of your favorite bloggers.
• Alert them that they have been awarded!
• Have fun!

1. Where is your cell phone? Floor
2. Your hair? Reddish-brownish
3. Your mother? Cooky
4. Your father? Reserved
5. Your favorite food? Fattening
6. Your dream last night? Baby (not mine)
7. Your favorite drink? wine (right now)
8. Your dream/goal? Family
9. What room are you in? Living
10. Your hobby? Facebook :-)
11. Your fear? Babyless
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Home
13. Where were you last night? Yoga
14. Something that you aren’t? PhD
15. Muffins? Pumpkin! (just made them)
16. Wish list item? Kayak
17. Where did you grow up? Vermont
18. Last thing you did? Bake
19. What are you wearing? Sweats
20. Your TV? Off
21. Your pets? Warm
22. Friends? Yup
23. Your life? Stressful
24. Your mood? Bored
25. Missing someone? Yes
26. Vehicle? 60,000-miles
27. Something you’re not wearing? Toga
28. Your favorite store? Loft
29. Your favorite color? Brown
30. When was the last time you laughed? Tuesday
31. Last time you cried? Today (almost)
32. Your best friend? Which?
33. One place that I go to over and over? Campus (BLECH)
34. One person who emails me regularly? 'Rents
35. Favorite place to eat? Rudy's!

Ron, note the one-word answers (aside from the explanations)? :-) I am sure you are all thrilled to read the randomness...

Anyone else want to do it? Go right ahead! I won't tell anyone if you steal the award.

For now...

...I feel like I have lots I need to process, and usually that ends up as some sort of word vomit of a post. Like when I tried to lay out my summer because I couldn't believe I had so much going on. If anyone read through this whole post, you should totally get something in return (which I frequently threaten but never follow up on...rewarding readers...hmmm....). I look at it and feel like telling my February 10, 2008-self to give it up already. Actually, there is a funny paragraph in the middle about how maybe it was not going to be so bad being the only single bridesmaid at my friends' wedding. I am going to have to TOTALLY agree with my February 10, 2008-self on that one?!

Anyway. Point being, there is a lot going on right now, I have not really processed it all or made decisions on it all, and/or I do not know what, if any, of it I should really write about here.

CONVENIENTLY, Sparkling Red has bestowed this really freakin' cute award on me so I can distract you while I figure some of this stuff out.
Plus it kinda makes me happy to think that people enjoy reading. :-)

Woohoo!

You know what a great way to end a day is? An award/meme all in one?!?! Maybe I will write about my apartment/lease/moving saga for tomorrow. For now, something happy and fun!

Ron bestowed this BEAUtiful award
[drumroll, please]...

The Arte Y Pico Award

Luckily, the rules have been translated from Portuguese and are as follows:
1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award through creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogger community, no matter of language.
2. Each award should have the name of the author with a link to their blog.
3. Award winners have to post the award with the name and link to the blog of the person who gave them the award.
4. Please include a link to the Arte Y Pico blog so that everyone will know where the award came from.

5 blogs that deserve this award (and have not already received it to be fair):

Danielle: Well, I blame it on her that it even occurred to me to start a blog. Just kidding. It was great working with her a while back and exchanging music and getting advice. I am also known to steal her amazing flower photos as desktop photos.

Ern and Aurora: They are grad students. I am a grad student. It is always good to know there are more of us out there who try to enjoy our lives outside of grad school while also succumbing to the hecticness of it once in a while. Ern knows a lot about birds and Aurora has a great new look over at her blog.

Chick: She is honest and shares herself and manages to crack you up with any story, sad or hilarious in itself.

Victoria Winters: Any time I need a good dose of ridiculously cute, I head over there for pictures. And stories of food. Yum.

The meme part is that you have to post 5 little known fact about yourself. I find this meme part rather suspicious, as it is not mentioned on the original award page, but what the heck. I will also go with little known by those of you who don't know me in real life facts.

1. My nose is pierced. I swear I am just adjusting the nose ring and not picking my nose. Really.

2. I LOVE to sing. I have stopped pretending I do not and have taken the show out of the car and onto the road. My iPod's on when I am focusing in lab? I sing. I am working at the lab computer and it is quiet? I put in some good singable music and sing. I walk around the apartment to do something random? I hum. I sit here and do this meme? I sing along to the CD player.

3. I am addicted to Facebook games. My sister recently went on vacation and that broke me of the habit a bit. I have work to do so I can finish grad school after all!

4. I know how to play the flute and piano. I still pick up my flute a few times a year. Pianos are harder to pick up. ;-)

5. I like putting fancy bows on presents. I still give few enough presents at the holidays, not having kids of my own and all, to put bows on everything. Some day I figure I will not make the time anymore.

Alright. Time to do some work. For real.

SCORE!

I just found my new favorite shoe store. I may be a bit biased because the woman said they just got a new shipment in. They had lots of navy dress sandals -- just what I needed for my friends' wedding!

So, I bought my first pair of shoes that comes with its own storage bag. They were only $60 retail, then the reduced price of the store. I feel all fancy though. I keep looking for a photo online, but to no avail. I could take a picture, but I am feeling lazy. You will have to trust me that they are great.

I also scored at Tar-jay. My brother sent me a gift card from the other coast for my birthday. I had been wanting a glass iced tea dispenser thing in which I could make sun tea and then use the little spigot in the fridge to pour. Tar-jay only has plastic ones. SO, I bought this AMAZING container for transporting cookies and brownies and stuff.Amazing, huh? I also got a cute new umbrella. My old one has been to Australia and China with me but has a big bleach spot and doesn't open all the way on its own. My new one is a little smaller and black with small different colored polka dots.

I also bought a sweater shaver, something I have wanted for a while.

In other scoring news, not too long ago, Spark gave me this:I kept not posting about it and not posting about it until I NEEDED something to post about. But, if you do not realize already, I am full of "it" and always manage to write something. So thanks, Spark! Hope you did not think I missed it. My Mom always told me to say thanks. :-)

I am still on my shopping high. Lots of deals; lots of stuff I had been wanting. Here are some other great things from the weekend.

My friend and I at our friend's wedding.Contra dancing in the room where the ceremony had been earlier.
That is the groom in the white tunic untucked and dark jeans. Did I mention it was a fairly casual wedding? People had changed into their jeans at this point, but it was still pretty low-key. I hesitate to put a bunch of people-pictures up, so this is what you will get. :-)

See, I can not stop smiling!!!

UPDATE (in case you managed to read the post in the 20 minutes before I updated it). SCORE! number three. I love this new post over at Sarcastic Mom. This is not a SCORE! in an exciting, I-just-found-a-deal kind of way. It is more of a this-is-so-poetic-and-beautiful kind of way.

The nose piercing should count for something!

Sometimes I like to think I am more bad ass than I am. I can be slightly bitchy sometimes. I mean well, generally stick up for myself, expect a LOT from my friends and myself, and am slowly learning how to be more assertive without being offensive. (My advisor provides ample opportunities to hone that last skill.) Anyway, I feel adequately self-assured to accept this award from Spark. Do you?

A shout out to Carolyn, with whom I remained friends despite the nose piercing senior year in college. I sometimes forget that I even have it now. I think it makes me seem a little more crazy (in a risky way, not psycho way) than I really am.