Lake report: Algae patch.

Bike Commute: Lake Report - Week 1

I started biking to work for my commute, and what's great is that I see the lake every day. Here are my daily lake observations.

Day one: too concerned about getting there. Don't know.
Day two: gray and smoky.
Day three: glassy.
Day four: lots of duck butts. (When ducks dip their heads down to feed. Hee.)

I don't know what to tell you. I got a new job and an apartment and I'm moving to Madison in a week. It's surreal and exciting to get a job in my field and I'm also a little sad to leave Chicago. I've been seeing lots of family and trying to do some fun activities like reading and going to the beach and seeing some music.

It's weird to say that your friends did good, speaking at a memorial service for another friend. But they did so good, in that they stood tall for all of us that attended and spoke for us through their own grief. They talked about our friend Steph's beauty and grace and her kindness and nurturing actions. They talked about the despair and discomfort and weight of her suicide. They talked about how love could try to lift her spirit, and lift our spirits in our grief. It was beautiful and powerful and, of course, very very sad.

Library Scramble

So I'm back in Chicago. It's almost like North Carolina never happened. Almost.

I'm finding the adjustment difficult. I feel like going from a lively, busy life with a lot of friends that I saw very often to a life where I'm trying desperately to structure some vitality into my day is a challenge. I've had some bad days so far - feelings of depression and uncertainty, and sometimes a physical feeling of illness. My friend J* spouted some of Tony Robbins sage advice to me recently. We talked about setting some goals for all this free time, and for trying to get out of the apartment and into "public." Mr. D and I went to a yoga class today, which was wonderful. But even afterwards, I felt the daily blackholeness start to sink in. As susceptible as I am now, J* had suggested reading some Charles Dickens books, kind of off the cuff. I'm here at the library now, with "Oliver Twist" and "The Pickwick Papers" in hand. Having more time to read is certainly appealing, and I applied for one job successfully today. I'm open to any suggestions about ways to spend all this free time - places to volunteer, good books, new hobbies? Let me know.

Peacock & Zebra-themed Birthday

Mr. D came back with me to North Carolina after spring break. He and my friends threw me a terrific birthday party. My friends developed a peacock and zebra theme - the decor was mostly peacock and a lot of people wore zebra-themed outfits. My friend *DAR invented a dessert for the occasion - a zebra-themed white cake with brownies in the middle layer. Yes! We went dancing afterward at a Bollywood themed dance party with a live Sikh drummer. It was an incredible 30th!

Spring Break in NOLA

Mr. D and I met in New Orleans. What a grand and relaxing spring break! I erased my tension chest pains and eye twitches developed from the stress of finishing up my last semester of grad school. Lots of beautiful sites, amazing weather (ahhh, 81!), great meals, and some quality time with Mr. D. Some of my friends from grad school and some of Mr. D and my friends visited NOLA at the same time so that was lovely and fun. We even went running through the French Quarter a few mornings!

Happy V Love

I received some beautiful flowers from Mr. D yesterday! They are gorgeous and smell amazing. He's a good man and a good boyfriend.

I also received another Valentine from one of my aunts, AJ. She sent me a book, "Cold Sassy Tree." I've been on a Southern fiction kick so I'm looking forward to reading it. It was such a thoughtful gift and I loved getting it in the mail!

Currently, I'm reading, "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter." I can say at the half-way point that I'm enjoying it. I like the characters alright, and I like the setting with mill workers and the carnival and the local restaurant. I try to read a little before bed and I've been waking up for a time in the middle of the night where sometimes I read a few pages.

In other blessings, I've had a couple late-blooming friendships in graduate school this semester. I finally found a running buddy! My friend A* is a perfect running friend because she pushes my pace and I push her endurance. We have great conversations on our runs and I think she is very positive about health and I'm enjoying having her help as a motivator in that area of my life. She showed me a local park with a beautiful river running through it - an energizing run no doubt. I also have another newish friend who is someone to share foodie stuff with (rare in these parts). She's introduced me to Trader Joe's pizza crusts and a great raw kale salad. This friend has really delighted me so far - she's interesting AND nice and I've really had fun spending time with her!

As Promised/Promise of a New Day

So here's what's new. There are some lil' yellow daffodils in my side yard. I will take a picture and post it for you all in climates where the daffodils haven't started growing yet. The spring time weather here is totally gorgeous, and is lifting my spirits. I've been working hard at my Master's thesis, two part-time jobs, slugging through a few classes, worrying about the job search. I'm trying to find my sense of humor, which seems to be disturbingly absent right about now. Any jokes? Please post.

Life has gotten relatively tame for the time being. I'm reading books about statistics. My downstairs neighbors moved out (first the sex-having neighbors, then the baby-having neighbors) and now there is a construction crew on the premises every day except Sunday. Drag! It's sort of nice that things are quiet at night though. My roommate from last semester also moved out, so I have been able to spread out my things, reclaim a more spacious office space, and take naps on the futon.

It's sort of unbelievable that I only have one more semester of grad school left. I am nervous about entering the job market again, and I would say many of my peers feel the same way. People are coping with this in different ways, most people are withdrawing into tiny, messy cubicles and putting their noses to the grindstone. There's like the yoga contingent. And then the hulu-watching contingent. But at this point everyone has been relatively sane. Here's to 2009...

Grande Dame of 2009

Happy New Year. I know it's been an eternity since I've posted and - for shame! It's terrible I know. I was busy kicking ass on my last semester's classes and otherwise vegging and watching old episodes of Joan of Arcadia (no there are no new ones but the ones from 2005-2006 are terrific).

I did lots of fun things over the break (like hang out a ton with Mr. D!). I also went to a few museums, one of which was the Chicago Historical Society. There was a couture Chicago exhibit featuring "grande dame so-and-so's" famous dress for "such-and-such" occasion. It was actually more fun than I thought it would be. But it also made me think: what does it take in our times to be a grande dame? Why don't I know one? When can I be one?

Reading and Fitness Make the Time Fly By

I haven't been posting much this month. Mainly just hanging on and doing a lot of reading. I joined/formed a Southern Literature Reading Group. Our first book was "House Behind the Cedars" a book published in 1900 by an African-American writer named Charles W. Chesnutt. The book takes place in North and South Carolina and is all about racial issues and star-crossed lovers. The discussion was really interesting and fun, and Miz M got to think up the questions. Our next book is "The Last Gentleman" by Walker Percy. I'm also trying to catch up on my New Yorkers, and I bring extra magazines to work on Fridays to catch up on back issues. I'm super-attached to them for some reason, and I can't bare to throw them away without reading every last drop. It's a worthwhile quirk though, as I recently read an interesting article about medical marijuana in CA from April or something - oh, informal/illegal markets do tweak my student economist side.

I'm also increasingly focused on fitness. It's becoming an obsession/priority lately. Joining an intermural soccer team at school has provided me with two good options per week to run around and kick a ball with other people. With another friend, I do aerobic dance and pilates on different days of the week. I'm trying to also keep up some jogging, but it's not as fun as these group activities. I had my dietitian cousin look over my food journal, and help me with some suggestions. One great one is to track my progress on the FitDay website, which I must say is amazing. It adds up all your calories for you and calculates your exercise. And! You can make reports about these things. Pretty cool, indeed. I'm fixing to get healthy and I feel really happy about that.

Miz M Supports Obama

Check out my friend's blog: http://densiinhazleton.blogspot.com/

She's volunteering for the next month for the Obama campaign in PA. I think that is an awesome thing.

The Unfortunate Lugie Incident

So I experienced an odd dream sensation a few nights ago: I hocked a lugie in my sleep. I was dreaming that I had something in my throat like some phlegm or something. I woke myself up and I was sort of like, "uh, did I actually just spit on my pillow?" So I felt around and, yep. Maybe I swallowed a bug? I think this is less gross than peeing the bed, but not by much. I informed Mr. D of this unfortunate lugie incident, and he said he'd bring his goggles next time he visits. Hee. Gotta love that one.

In other news, I have a new pseudo-nemesis. Her nickname is Hairy/Mary. She has extremely hairy eyebrows and she is in my class about the labor market and workers etc etc. She always makes seriously outrageous stereotypical lefty comments, "the capitalists want to just make money and down with the man etc etc," without actually tying the comments to the reading or anything else like a newspaper article or case study or whatever. Then, instead of listening to her peers' response to her ridiculous comments, she checks her bets on the football scores on her computer while they are talking. I know because I was sitting next to her in class. It's sort of dumb to judge what crap people are doing on their computers besides taking notes, but I go ahead and judge within the following hierarchy of appropriateness:
1. Actually taking notes
2. Doing the reading for the class during the class
3. Doing the reading for a different class
4. Checking email (might be actually important)
5. News website or other possibly interesting website or blog
6. Perez Hilton (come on, he's posting some hilarious stuff about Sarah Palin. Sort of relates to #5)
7. Sports (see Hairy/Mary? Not very appropriate!)
8. Porn (never appropriate)

Happy Labor Day!

Mr. D visited this weekend and we had a great time. We did a mix of hanging out, eating good food, and visiting some local outdoors sites. We went to the local swimming hole and the highest point between my town and the coast. Mr. D finally got to try a local favorite Locopop. His choice was Mexican chocolate with creme, cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove. Mmm. With only 7 months left of school, I've found I want to take advantage of the local amenities while I'm here. And Mr. D should too! What kind of girlfriend would I be if I didn't take him to the best BBQ place and some local nature sites? Not the kind of girlfriend I'd want to be anyway! Even though it's hard not to see each other very frequently, we've gotten used to trying to make the most of it when we are together.

My new German roommate made herself scarce this weekend. She is quite independent and does much on her own. She made some friends that took her camping in the mountains, and stays out late chatting with folks and finding cool places to watch the Democratic National Convention. She is great, and it inspires me to get out and do stuff as I've been meaning so often to do.

Vrrooooooom! Vrooooooom!

Still making an effort to expand my Southern cultural experiences, I went to a NASCAR race in Bristol, TN last weekend with some friends from North Carolina. I enjoyed the pimped out campers (TVs and karaoke machines) and even a retrofitted short bus with a foldable commode, shower, and bed. In fact, my friends and I showered in the "short bus" and I must say that the shower was quite roomy and enjoyable. And hell, it was in a bus!

The evening festivities involved lots of 'Merican beer drinking, and lots of drunken southern boys trying to get their game on. It was not much different than Northern drunk boys, except they maybe call you "honey pie" and stuff more. Most wouldn't harm a fly but of course there were the usual creeps too. I tried to pass off a creep by saying, "Well, Southern guys only like Southern girls so you wouldn't like me..." When that didn't work, I told two Southern guys to like each other, then ran away. I'm clever like that. Hee.

The race itself was (1) fast, (2) LOUD, and (3) full of fires & fumes. The fumes made me a little groggy actually, and I feared for a second that I might be getting carbon monoxide poisoning. But then I realized that CO is odorless and that maybe I was just getting tired.

Probably my favorite part of the weekend was stopping at my friend's grandmother's house for her amazing Southern cooking. She made ham and biscuits and green beans and candied carrots and boiled custard and fresh tomatoes. I was pleased beyond all about this delicious food, the NASCAR Southern soul food, and it kept me happy and satisfied for hours.

The death of the best dance party in town.

I went out dancing with a friend last weekend, to this place that USED TO be the best dance party in town. This bar had a warm fuzzy hipster vibe that made everyone feel comfortable to dance. Unfortunately, the owners sold it. The man that now owns it has painted the walls all black and installed flatscreens that play running text messages like "hey polka dot banana u r hot" and "bartenders here are the best" (which was posted by the bartender semi-anonymously.) There was also a fog machine and several "up in yo' face" disco lights. It was a little bit much, so I went over to the bartender and said:

Miz M: "can you chill on the fog machine?"
Dude: "the effect is psycho-somatic. i spent $2500 to make sure it was just shooting water. it's probably the smoke that is bothering you."
Miz M: "well, i guess i don't really like fog machines"
Dude: "well, we're a club so... (shrug). i'll be getting some smoke de-ionizers next month to help with the smoke. it bothers me too, and i'm a smoker"
Miz M: "okay, thanks."

Following the fog machine exchange, another semi-anonymous message appeared: "what this place needs is a fog machine". Hmm, that sounds kind of passive aggressive for someone trying to get a club on its feet. But maybe he's aiming for a different clientèle. An ass-holey, chauvinist clientèle, perhaps? Maybe that's harsh but I miss the old place and will probably grieve that my next year in this town will be sans a truly groovy dance party.

Intern Woes

I've been working at my summer internship for a few weeks now. How strange that June 1 marks one month of summer already. The climate in the Southeast has definitely messed with my biological clock - in Chicago, it's barely in the 70s yet - yet here is climbing steadily towards the 90s.

My summer office does interesting stuff and it's a great working environment to be in. However, there are a few glitches from time to time that have taken some getting used to. In my first week, I didn't really understand their paper recycling system. And this place is REALLY into recycling. So there were a few times where my supervisor said to me, "um, you know you can print double-sided here." And "um, we recycle paper. We use the paper that is printed on one side and print it on the other side and then we recycle it."

Got it.

Despite this lay-down of the office law, I couldn't really figure out where to recycle the paper or how to actually use the paper that is printed on one side because of all the three printers, I had never seen the double-sided feature used. So, because I couldn't figure out how to print double-sided, recycle the paper, or throw any paper away where someone wouldn't see it in the garbage, I just started taking scrap paper home and throwing it away in my own garbage. It sounds crazy, I know, but sometimes one's gotta make some tough choices to get along.

I have since figured out the recycling thing though, and thus spend several minutes a day moving one-sided paper around to the recycle printer tray and then to the two-sided paper recycle bin. Success! Added bonus: they allow you to order the pens you like (unlike my previous workplace where you had to BYO pen).