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.

I thought I took other photos along the way, and maybe they are on my camera, but I wanted to make the book stand more fun. I painted the outside sides red, and the front side white. Then I cut out a bunch of images from an old intro biology text book. Here is my cat after she made the final decision about what images I should use. She is always super helpful.

I did a layout to see what would fit on the book stand.

Then I decoupaged it all on there. Let me tell you, decoupaging textbook images is not a good idea. The paper is SUPER SUPER thing and becomes easy to tear and gets wrinkly. You can see the wrinkles in this image I think.

Yesterday, I finally put a clear coat on it so I could bring it in to work. It's super science dorky and great for my office!

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.

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.

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!

The dating scene

We got some winter weather here in the mid-Atlantic, and while I am still crossing my fingers for a snow day tomorrow, I was just informed that it is not that bad outside. This means that I really, really need to finish putting together some sort of powerpoint for my last lecture of my first semester as a professor (holy crap?!).

You know what weekends are good for though? Distractions. I have generally been doing non-work related social things on weekends, and this weekend was no different. This is becoming a weekly installment of getting my distractions out there so I can do work. Earlier today I thought about posting, and probably should have so that I could do work now, but am back to struggling with how much I want to post here for a couple of reasons -  I have tried really hard in recent years to not over analyze life, and posting about my personal life seems to counteract those efforts. Plus I always think about how much I should post about other people and who reads this who may know who I am but I do not realize they read it and privacy and if I care if the subject of a post ended up reading that post someday and....

Anyway, my Friday and Saturday evening were both spend with men. Friday was a second date with one guy and Saturday was the gazillionth time I have hung out with another. In between has been texting with both of them. Shall we discuss chronologically?

Friday was an, oh, 6 hour second date. I think I have mentioned before that if I am not terribly interested in someone, I find myself to be a pretty good conversationalist because I feel no pressure to impress that person. (Although because I am comfortable in my being single and am okay with the idea of remaining so, I think that makes me more at ease and a better conversationalist in these dating situations too.) Also, a dating situation earlier in the fall made me admit to myself that if I do not find a guy attractive enough that I think further interactions will increase his attractiveness to me, then it is not worth more than a first date. I would say this guy is somewhere in between. The problem is that a couple of times I compared him (in my head) to an ex-ex: he is somewhat entrepreneurial (started his own company), is an engineer, and has a couple of sporty cars. So am I looking for things to be wrong with someone? Are these even things that bother me? I think it is more that these things do not impress me, but they do not unimpress me. He definitely is interested in me, so I guess we will see where this all leads.

Saturday, after catching up with college friends at one of their holiday open houses, BIL guy came over to watch Christmas movies. I think he needs a new nickname. At this point I likely know him better than my BIL does. :-) So, Friend Guy? Friendish Guy? What-the-hell-is-going-on Guy? Take your pick, but he changed some of his plans to come over, drink wine, and watch Christmas movies with me (Love Actually, Emmet Otter, and the original Grinch cartoon...followed by UTube randomness). And we just did what we always do. Drink and talk for hours. That's it. So, um, we have had two completely platonic-ish sleep overs now necessitated by the fact that we live far enough apart that in order to go home, one of us would have to not drink to be able to drive or else take what would not be a cheap cab ride home (not exactly the way I would chose to spend my limited disposable income).

Here is where the not over-analyzing comes into play because as I was reflecting on last night, I found myself projecting on his behavior, as in, if I had done certain things he did, it would be because I am a certain way; but I have no way of knowing if that is an explanation for his behavior. Case in point: After telling me about how long it takes him to fall asleep, and me telling him what a good sleeper I am, he totally fell asleep before me when we stopped talking. If that was me, it would be because I was super comfortable in the situation (in a good way, not in a non-caring way). Anyway. After last night, I was thinking that I will just let it be and leave it up to him to suggest the next hang out, and then I was disappointed about that thought. He has since initiated a couple of txt conversations today, and there is one weekend left before he heads home for Christmas, soo.....

So, it should be an interesting end to my 2013. Boys, holidays, What-the-hell-is-going-on Guy's birthday. Oh, and work...Back to that lecture....

Distracted with work to do

This weekend was wonderful and awful. I am thankful, grateful, sad, tired, and wondering how to get all the work done that I need to get done. I had grand plans for the weekend, but did not manage to go running (too freakin' cold at my parents' house) or do any commenting/grading on lab reports I have (I forgot I had them...) or work on comments from reviewers on a paper. So, in true Jenski form, I will just spill some randomness to get it out there, so I can focus better.

I am practicing not discussing anything of substance when surrounded by my family. I think that many of you have already discovered the wisdom of this practice. Over the past couple of years I have realized that while people care that you have an opinion, they do not necessarily care what that opinion is and would rather not have you challenge theirs. Your family you are stuck with, so it is best to practice this skill with them. While you choose your friends, it is as if by choosing them you decide it is okay if you have different opinions and therefore it is safe to discuss them.

I do not think I know when my mother things she is being sarcastic or funny. She always sounds judgmental and angry when she comments on things, and then when I try to talk her down she gets actually angry at me. Or maybe she is just judgmental and angry, but she frequently acts exasperated when I comment, so I think she is trying to be funny. I may never know.

My grandmother is quickly going down hill with her late onset Alzheimers. This week my Dad and Uncle are taking her to the home they had all checked out when her mind was working (slightly) better to have lunch and leave her there (and with dementia/Alzheimers patients they do not want you to visit for a few weeks so the person adjusts to their new home). My Dad and I talked quite a bit about the situation, and he knows that this is all more difficult for him (and his brothers) than it is for her, but he is dreading the idea of Christmas. How my Grandmother adapts to living in the home will determine whether the medical staff thinks it is okay to take her out for Christmas. (If she is not adjusting well, they will recommend against it.) Every time I am home, the older generation comments that I will be surprised at how bad my grandmother is, but really I am not. I am prepared to not be able to have a real conversation with her and for her to not remember anything and be confused. I wonder if they are surprised that I am not more upset by it?

Family friends stopped over Friday with their kids, all six of whom they adopted from the foster care system and three of whom I babysat. We usually see them at Christmas, but the dad had been fairly persistent that they stop by while all of us were there. My brother and his wife were in town, and I guess they hadn't met my SIL before. Then the dad died. That night. In the car while his wife was driving. While this was very much sudden and very much completely unexpected, there have been many strange coincidences over the past few weeks leading up to his death. I went in to the hospital with my parents, then we helped get the family and their cars home and waited while the grandmother, two aunts, and nephew drove the four hours in the middle of the night. It was a long night for me, but it will be a very tough holiday season for the Mom and kids. He asked me how life was, I talked with the Mom about teaching, and as they were leaving, he made sure to check in to see if I had a Man in my life. He always asked about that, hence the capital 'M'. When I did have one, he asked about the status of the relationship. In the car, I guess he told his wife I never change (I am pretty sure in a good way!). I am glad they stopped, that I got to say good bye to him, and spend some time with the family. I am hoping and praying the family sticks together and gets through this; a couple of the kids have had rougher lives than others and will not have an easy time dealing with this loss.

Last weekend I got to catch up with some friends from Boston who are atheists. Much of my family no longer practices any religion and no longer has any particular belief and/or also identifies as an atheist. I, to this day, do not know what I believe but in recent years have found and participated in Christian churches with beliefs in various civil rights and investment in public service that I place value in. These values and practices are in secular lives as well, and I think that whether a person is religious or non-religious does not determine their investment in these issues and practices. Both religious and non-religious people are judgmental about the other, which is fairly obvious if you ever are exposed to an ounce of news coverage. See above for my current approach to these topics when with my family. Interestingly, I did not bring up my church attendance with my friends last weekend, mainly because of the meeting they were attending and the people we were surrounded with. Although I did talk about church with the one friend when it was just she and I hanging out, so it may follow my argument above comparing conversations with family and friends.

Boys are boys. My SIL (and my sister who actually reads this) will be disappointed to learn that BIL guy and I just. hung. out. again tonight. And decorated my tree together, because that's what platonic friends do, right? And also I am not willing to put myself out on a limb if there is any possibility of rejection, and I'm okay with that (see previous relationships chronicled on this very blog).

Occasionally I will wonder about the title of my blog, but tonight is one of those times I realize just how fitting it is. Where to start?