our apartment is currently so full of stuff i have to step aside to let eric pass me if we're trying to move about. we have two extra beds from when we moved not to mention tons of boxes from shipping of wedding presents. we haven't had time to go through everything yet given how we have basically been out of town since the wedding. a friend of ours told us today that it never gets better and we looked at him and at each other and said with certainty that it will get better. we both value space and there is currently anything but.
i have been following minimalist blogs on and off for awhile now. every couple months i seem to go through a phase where i need to declutter. i take books i have read and don't plan to read again to half-price books. i get rid of clothes that don't fit or that i just don't wear. other than my bikes, i just don't like having tons of stuff around, and i am starting to question the need to have three bikes in texas. i think i could probably do with one less? one of the blogs i follow is called miss minimalist. her most recent post was about ways to simplify your life. i think part of the reason some of this appeals to me so much is that i frequently find myself feeling like i don't have enough time lately...and so by paring down my schedule and the number of "things" i have to look after, i have generally found i have a little more free time and piece of mind. i feel like i have more time to try new recipes and read books and write in my journal...its just, well, nice.
i also deactivated my facebook account yesterday. i felt like i was spending to much time on it, so i just quit. i am preparing to not know what's going on every moment of people's lives. i am hoping that in doing this i will have more time to work and to actually interact with people in person. the latter in particular maybe a bit of a whimsical idea, but i figure its worth a shot. with my new found free time i may also post a few photos of the apartment and all the amazing food i got to enjoy when i was back east last week!
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
wedding, cruising and now a conference
a lot has happened in the last few weeks. first and foremost, eric and i are married now! our photographer has posted a sneak peek of our wedding photos here.
we are both very grateful to our friend bridgid, who pointed out midway through our reception that we were not legally married...it took my friend a little longer than expected to do my hair and instead of arriving at the ceremony site two hours early, i arrived approximately 10 minutes early. this meant that we didn't sign all the necessary paperwork before the ceremony. bishop stebbing had to come back to the reception later to sign the paperwork...
which brings us to the reason bishop had left us in the first place. an elderly friend of ours suffered a massive heart attack at the reception. it was good that he was there though and not at home because my mom's a nurse, my second mom is a cardiac nurse, a friend is trained as an emt and many others were certified in cpr. our elderly friend's cardiologist said if cpr hadn't been started immediately, he probably wouldn't be with us now. he's still recovering in the hospital, but is making progress. and his spirits still seem to be okay as he was definitely able to laugh at my expense when i went to visit him yesterday.
we went on a cruise to the mexican riviera for our honeymoon. it was nice to get away from cellphones, facebook and email for a week and get to spend time together not talking about things that needed to be done for the wedding. i really enjoyed puerto vallarta, but in i think in part that's because the mountains reminded me so much of hawaii.
i have been enjoying the celebrating, but i'm excited to have life be a bit more "normal" for a bit and to have the opportunity to actually get some things done in lab. i'm on track to graduate in may, but there's still a lot that needs to happen (and be written!) between now and then.
we are both very grateful to our friend bridgid, who pointed out midway through our reception that we were not legally married...it took my friend a little longer than expected to do my hair and instead of arriving at the ceremony site two hours early, i arrived approximately 10 minutes early. this meant that we didn't sign all the necessary paperwork before the ceremony. bishop stebbing had to come back to the reception later to sign the paperwork...
which brings us to the reason bishop had left us in the first place. an elderly friend of ours suffered a massive heart attack at the reception. it was good that he was there though and not at home because my mom's a nurse, my second mom is a cardiac nurse, a friend is trained as an emt and many others were certified in cpr. our elderly friend's cardiologist said if cpr hadn't been started immediately, he probably wouldn't be with us now. he's still recovering in the hospital, but is making progress. and his spirits still seem to be okay as he was definitely able to laugh at my expense when i went to visit him yesterday.
we went on a cruise to the mexican riviera for our honeymoon. it was nice to get away from cellphones, facebook and email for a week and get to spend time together not talking about things that needed to be done for the wedding. i really enjoyed puerto vallarta, but in i think in part that's because the mountains reminded me so much of hawaii.
i have been enjoying the celebrating, but i'm excited to have life be a bit more "normal" for a bit and to have the opportunity to actually get some things done in lab. i'm on track to graduate in may, but there's still a lot that needs to happen (and be written!) between now and then.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
this week doesn't count
last weekend eric told me that this week does not count as a week because it was going to go by too fast. now, late thursday afternoon, i am finding myself agreeing with him. its hard to believe our friends and family start arriving next wednesday.
i'm currently (taking a break from) finishing up a poster that i have to present at a conference a few days after our cruise. i have most of the editing i need to get done for my manuscript minus a new figure that i need to make. it turns out that i'm going to be ta-ing for a new biomechanics class that is being developed this fall so i also will be meeting with the professor i'll be working for before i leave. i am currently also standing amazed at the knowledge that i am about to start my fourth (and presumably final, unless something goes horribly wrong) year at ut.
two more friends got engaged earlier this week and i am super excited for them. i'm heading to san antonio this saturday for the wedding of some other friends. i guess august is "the season" this year. i know three other couples who are getting married in the three weeks following our wedding.
eric and i finished our harry potter movie marathon last night. we watched all 6 of the movies in 8 days. i think that was more time movie watching than we had spent the better part of this year so far combined. i am excited to be on a movie fast now for a bit. that said i thoroughly enjoy both the books and movies from that series.
and now i am finished breaking from my poster and ready to immerse myself in it again. until next time!
i'm currently (taking a break from) finishing up a poster that i have to present at a conference a few days after our cruise. i have most of the editing i need to get done for my manuscript minus a new figure that i need to make. it turns out that i'm going to be ta-ing for a new biomechanics class that is being developed this fall so i also will be meeting with the professor i'll be working for before i leave. i am currently also standing amazed at the knowledge that i am about to start my fourth (and presumably final, unless something goes horribly wrong) year at ut.
two more friends got engaged earlier this week and i am super excited for them. i'm heading to san antonio this saturday for the wedding of some other friends. i guess august is "the season" this year. i know three other couples who are getting married in the three weeks following our wedding.
eric and i finished our harry potter movie marathon last night. we watched all 6 of the movies in 8 days. i think that was more time movie watching than we had spent the better part of this year so far combined. i am excited to be on a movie fast now for a bit. that said i thoroughly enjoy both the books and movies from that series.
and now i am finished breaking from my poster and ready to immerse myself in it again. until next time!
Monday, July 26, 2010
29 years
yesterday was my 29th birthday. eric and i went out saturday night to try a new restaurant of my choosing to celebrate. i found a couple of raw and vegan restaurants that i wanted to try so we went to one of them...we went to the one that had not received the review saying that it was similar to cafe gratitude, my favorite restaurant located in berkeley, ca. i ordered a salad that sounded delicious but arrived at our table containing 3 of the original ingredients listed on the menu, one of which was spirulina. there are very few foods i have tried where a mere bite has made me want to put my fork down, but spirulina, it turns out, is one of them. our pee smelled like spirulina for hours afterward. all we could do was laugh. i am fortunate that eric is so willing to humor and try new places that are a bit too hippie for him.
on sunday, my actual birthday, i made dinner and we busted out my grandmother's china! i don't like seeing china not be used, so i'm going to start coming up with reasons to use it. for dessert, eric wanted to make mangoes with sticky rice, one of my favorites. we spent the rest of the evening playing scrabble, which eric gave me for my birthday. he said it was difficult to make sure i didn't just go out and by it myself because every time he mentions playing boggle i say it would be fun and then immediately comment about how we need to have scrabble in our game collection too.
headlands 50 miler went well last weekend (july 17). the course was tough and hilly. i felt undertrained going into it, but i think i did okay. i think where i went wrong however was thinking that it would be okay to ride my bike to work last week. i only live about 9 miles from work, so its not that far and the route i take is flat...however, when your legs are already trashed from running 50 miles of large hills, apparently it doesn't matter how flat it is. the end of last week found my quads cramping on and off if i sat in one position for too long. i've upped my banana consumption and it seems to have gone away. i went out for an easy 3 mile run this morning. my legs feel like lead, but at least i'm running a wee bit again. i think i will be staying off the bike for a few more days.
last week we also commenced a harry potter movie marathon. eric had never seen the movies or read the books and i decided that needed to change...although i didn't think it needed to warp into a marathon necessarily. we began wednesday night with year one. by saturday night we were through year four. we took sunday off (too much movie watching). we are planning to watch years five and six this week...then eric will be caught up so we can go to see the movie that's coming out in november (yes, november, this is why i mentioned not intending for the movie watching to be a marathon).
our wedding is one week from friday. lots of little things still to do but everything seems to be moving along nicely in general!
on sunday, my actual birthday, i made dinner and we busted out my grandmother's china! i don't like seeing china not be used, so i'm going to start coming up with reasons to use it. for dessert, eric wanted to make mangoes with sticky rice, one of my favorites. we spent the rest of the evening playing scrabble, which eric gave me for my birthday. he said it was difficult to make sure i didn't just go out and by it myself because every time he mentions playing boggle i say it would be fun and then immediately comment about how we need to have scrabble in our game collection too.
headlands 50 miler went well last weekend (july 17). the course was tough and hilly. i felt undertrained going into it, but i think i did okay. i think where i went wrong however was thinking that it would be okay to ride my bike to work last week. i only live about 9 miles from work, so its not that far and the route i take is flat...however, when your legs are already trashed from running 50 miles of large hills, apparently it doesn't matter how flat it is. the end of last week found my quads cramping on and off if i sat in one position for too long. i've upped my banana consumption and it seems to have gone away. i went out for an easy 3 mile run this morning. my legs feel like lead, but at least i'm running a wee bit again. i think i will be staying off the bike for a few more days.
last week we also commenced a harry potter movie marathon. eric had never seen the movies or read the books and i decided that needed to change...although i didn't think it needed to warp into a marathon necessarily. we began wednesday night with year one. by saturday night we were through year four. we took sunday off (too much movie watching). we are planning to watch years five and six this week...then eric will be caught up so we can go to see the movie that's coming out in november (yes, november, this is why i mentioned not intending for the movie watching to be a marathon).
our wedding is one week from friday. lots of little things still to do but everything seems to be moving along nicely in general!
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
enroute to sf
i'm currently waiting for my second delayed flight of the day. this time however i'm in colorado, one of my favorite places to be stuck. apparently this is in part due to cloudy weather in sf, but it also seems to be due to a delayed flight that's currently occupying our gate.
i'm a little nervous for this weekend. i generally go into races feeling prepared. this time i feel prepared to finish but not to kick butt and take numbers if that makes any sense at all. in packing yesterday i was pulling out everything i could possibly need...windbreaker, rain gear, headlamp, papaya pills, salt tabs, extra bladders for my hydration packs, water bottles in case i end up not wanting to wear my hydration back (its only 3.9-4.6 miles between aid stations). i have extra shoes, extra socks, extra clothes. hopefully i won't use most of this stuff, but it never hurts to be prepared. the lady at checkin this morning accused me of having a rather large bag for only going for a weekend. while on some level i agreed, i also wondered if she'd ever seen an athlete pack...i have twice as much stuff as most people for any given trip simply due to the need to pack running clothes as well as normal clothes and i don't even pack excessive amounts of running clothing unless i need to for whatever reason.
i am currently working my way through 'desert solitaire' by edward abbey. so far its great. moab is one of eric's favorite places and i've only driven through. as its not somewhere i have current plans to travel to, i figure i can at least learn more by reading...that and i just like nature writing. the book is based mostly off of abbey's journals while he was working as a park ranger at arches national monument before it became touristy. the colors for our wedding are plum and sage green. eric suggested having purple sage in some of the floral arrangements. abbey mentions it early on in the book saying "purple sage: crush the leaves between thumb and finger and you release that characteristic odor, pungent and bittersweet, which means canyon country, high lonesome mesaland, the winds that blow from far away." so, although we will be getting married in texas, a bit of moab and the canyonlands will be present at our celebration. not to worry, orchids, or a little bit of hawaii and the tropics, will be present as well!
i'm a little nervous for this weekend. i generally go into races feeling prepared. this time i feel prepared to finish but not to kick butt and take numbers if that makes any sense at all. in packing yesterday i was pulling out everything i could possibly need...windbreaker, rain gear, headlamp, papaya pills, salt tabs, extra bladders for my hydration packs, water bottles in case i end up not wanting to wear my hydration back (its only 3.9-4.6 miles between aid stations). i have extra shoes, extra socks, extra clothes. hopefully i won't use most of this stuff, but it never hurts to be prepared. the lady at checkin this morning accused me of having a rather large bag for only going for a weekend. while on some level i agreed, i also wondered if she'd ever seen an athlete pack...i have twice as much stuff as most people for any given trip simply due to the need to pack running clothes as well as normal clothes and i don't even pack excessive amounts of running clothing unless i need to for whatever reason.
i am currently working my way through 'desert solitaire' by edward abbey. so far its great. moab is one of eric's favorite places and i've only driven through. as its not somewhere i have current plans to travel to, i figure i can at least learn more by reading...that and i just like nature writing. the book is based mostly off of abbey's journals while he was working as a park ranger at arches national monument before it became touristy. the colors for our wedding are plum and sage green. eric suggested having purple sage in some of the floral arrangements. abbey mentions it early on in the book saying "purple sage: crush the leaves between thumb and finger and you release that characteristic odor, pungent and bittersweet, which means canyon country, high lonesome mesaland, the winds that blow from far away." so, although we will be getting married in texas, a bit of moab and the canyonlands will be present at our celebration. not to worry, orchids, or a little bit of hawaii and the tropics, will be present as well!
Thursday, July 8, 2010
engagement photos
less than one month to go before our wedding. our photographer just put a few of our pictures up on her blog and the rest are in the mail to me. i am looking forward to seeing them!
in the meantime work is like a whirlwind, in a good way. the committee that was supposed to review the big fellowship i submitted was supposed to meet yesterday so percentiles and scores should be up any day now. in the meantime, my dissertation research seems to be flying along...and yielding interesting results, which is always nice!
i've been able to ride my bike to campus more frequently lately and i'm enjoying it. its funny though because it makes me like driving even less...and its bringing back that wonderful feeling of freedom i experienced en route to alaska two summers ago. go figure.
in the meantime work is like a whirlwind, in a good way. the committee that was supposed to review the big fellowship i submitted was supposed to meet yesterday so percentiles and scores should be up any day now. in the meantime, my dissertation research seems to be flying along...and yielding interesting results, which is always nice!
i've been able to ride my bike to campus more frequently lately and i'm enjoying it. its funny though because it makes me like driving even less...and its bringing back that wonderful feeling of freedom i experienced en route to alaska two summers ago. go figure.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
outfit apartment: check!
my friends donna and dave fell in love with leadville when we were racing there last summer. so they bought a place there and moved. they didn't have enough space for all their stuff from austin in colorado so they decided to sell some of it. the result? eric and i just got a new bedroom set (queen bed with basically new mattress, dresser and nightstand) from pier 1 imports.
i had previously acquired some other furniture off of a childhood friend who finished up his master's at ut this semester and was moving back to the dc area. he was going to sell me a couch and then through in an another couch, a desk, a desk chair, a book case, a couple coffee tables, a bunch of kitchen stuff and a tv.
someone who used to live with eric's roommate gave us a kitchen table, a microwave and a stand for the microwave.
i have now outfitted our apartment with furniture for $650...total. as i had no furniture previously because i'd been living in the coop for the last few years, i thought it was going to cost a small fortune to outfit a new place. we have some incredibly generous friends.
my next task is decorating, or at least hanging a picture or two!
on a different note, i think my conference last week was exactly what i needed to get my rear end back in writing mode. i got back on wednesday evening and by late yesterday (saturday) afternoon, i had the first draft of my manuscript done. now i just have to finish the figures and get the paper out to my co-authors to start looking over. hopefully i will have this manuscript submitted to a journal in the next couple months and i should have another one following it not too long after! it feels nice to be productive!
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