Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Whoa. Summer. Not blogging season apparently. Here's a random list of updates:

1. Camping was wonderful. Good friends, long hikes, quiet nights with my family (including Pilot) in a tiny tent. First dibs on all the best climbs on Pilot Mountain. It was great.


2. A blur of evenings at Weaver St, random Tuesday night dance parties and getting dressed up in our fanciest clothes to watch the season finale of The Hills after drinking pink champagne. I have a pretty awesome group of friends.


3. Committee meeting this Thursday. Intense vacillations between being super stressed and totally proud of myself. Hopefully I land on the latter when it is time to present. Epic two hour meeting yesterday with my first draft of all the figures for the paper. Still a couple gaps to fill but it was very satisfying to see my work coming together in a story.

4. T and I saw Inception. Mind <---- Blown. In a good way. I really enjoyed it. Kind of quantum mechanic-y. 5. We had a wonderful dinner at Piedmont before. Hooray for date night. I had a most delicious seafood stew (I am my mother's daughter) and a lovely date with my hubby.

6. Then he left. For Portugal. Crazy kid. Sporatic updates since but it sounds like he is having a fantastic time and has gotten about 3 hours of sleep. He was invited to watch the cork harvest because of his writing gig at Re-Nest and Apartment Therapy. Hard to be jealous, since he works hard and totally deserves it. But a little jealous.

7. Fortunately we have a very spooning friendly dog. 'Nuf said. And he'll go on walks at midnight with me. I am very much in love with this dog.

8. It is blazing hot. Again. Annoyingly hot. But the nights are fairly delicious. Looking forward to a rowdy evening out Thursday to celebrate my committee meeting being done and both undergrads I am working with turning 21 in the past two weeks.

9. I rode T's bike to work today. I like having a "quiver" of bikes to decide from. Though the 29" single speed was a rough choice. Especially since the seat was about 8" too high.

10. Riding the too big bike brought back an incredibly detailed memory of sneaking my sister's purple and pink "big kid bike" out for a clandestine ride. Which went great until I realized I had no idea how to use hand brakes and crashed into our neighbor's palm tree. Karma.

11. Yes, I know how to adjust a bike seat. The seat post clamp bolt is stripped. Bummer. I've taken a couple weeks off from the bike shop (most laid back job ever) to get through this committee meeting and start writing the paper. I kind of miss it, I really loved chatting with crazy Carrboro-ians.

12. I still think OAR is one of my favorite bands ever. Thanks Pandora for reminding me. Just found out they are coming to Raleigh later this summer... hmm, tempting.

13. My first J.Jill order arrives today. I knew this day would come (c'mon, I am so J.Jill) I just didn't expect it to happen so soon. Maybe I am growing up.

14. Wait, no. Still wearing yellow corduroy shorts. Whew. Maybe it will be a gradual transition.

15. Long talks with dear friends are a much better solution to loneliness than eating jars of kalamata olives. I tested this hypothesis carefully Saturday. Always a scientists.

16. Construction of a new building is occurring about 20 feet outside my giant floor to ceiling window. Usually I am not at my desk this much (usually off doing crazy science!) but it has been fascinating to watch the construction. And makes me feel about 62% terrible for being inside the nice air conditioned building watching them build while it is ridiculously hot outside. But I am pretty sure they make way more money than I do. Awesome.

17. Pilot graduated from puppy class! Hooray. Thinking about taking the second session in the fall. We'll see. He got to finally play like crazy with his brother. Cute.


18. We went waterskiing. If you can call it that. Mostly I call it being dragged in a tumble of arms and legs behind a very fast boat. But it was a lovely day spent with good friends. And now I am determined to be good at this skill.


19. Apparently I have a very funny "determined" face. I first heard of this when we played sand volleyball several times a week and every time I served, everyone turned around to watch my expression. It reappeared with my intense determination to stand up behind the boat. Which is why I got to try about 30 times. Apparently it was funny enough to warrant the boredom.

20. I now credit many of my athletic accomplishments to this face. What if I just made all the other people laugh? I'll take it.

21. I've maintained a consistent two watermelon per week consumption rate. As it should be.

22. I am thrilled about an upcoming trip to New Hampshire and Cape Cod. East coast summer vacation!! And I get to see my lovely parents and most favorite Norma. Pretty sweet.

Alright, now we are sort of caught up. Wish me luck on Thursday and perhaps I will be more consistent blogging soon!

Friday, July 02, 2010

We're off


Heading up to Pigsah National Park tomorrow morning. A group of friends organized the trip and I am thrilled to spend some time in the mountains camping, hiking, relaxing. And Pilot gets to come! His first overnight trip away from home!! And we just got our camera working again, so expect lots of pictures.

Happy 4th of July to you all. It is one of my favorite holidays, so many wonderful memories growing up in SLO and family boat trips to Morro Bay for bonfires and fireworks. So sad I won't be home this weekend to celebrate with everyone!

Thursday, July 01, 2010

Good Reminder...


In case you didn't know, you couldn't tell, or you haven't heard, if you're reading this right now on a computer, you're rich. If you have somewhere to go today, you're connected. And if there is anyone, anywhere, who for any reason knows where you are in this moment, you are loved.

-quote from my awesome yoga teacher Lori