yup, it's another update on my paper, just friggin deal with it.

9/2 - finalize topic, research question, and adviser
9/12 - submit formal 10pg proposal to adviser
10/17 - complete and submit rough draft of chapters 1, 2, and 3
12/14 - complete and submit rough draft of chapters 4, 5, and 6
12/17 - finish editing per adviser's suggestions/complete second rough draft
12/22 - revise and submit final draft

even though i "officially" have to turn in my SRP today, my professor says it's ok if i turn it in a little late. i'm aiming for tomorrow, but thursday the 22nd is the absolute last day i will work on it. period.

SRP update

SRP "progress"

9/2 - finalize topic, research question, and adviser
9/12 - submit formal 10pg proposal to adviser
10/17 - complete and submit rough draft of chapters 1, 2, and 3
12/14 - complete and submit rough draft of chapters 4, 5, and 6
12/17 - finish editing per adviser's suggestions/complete second rough draft
12/19 - revise and submit final draft

i *officially* have to have my SRP turned in on the 19th, giving me ONE. MORE. WEEK. one a positive note, i just finished a 15 pg final paper that's due on wednesday. hooray...

(anyone notice how i kept pushing back the deadline date for chapters 4, 5, and 6? nope? good.)

dear december,

well, well, well, december, you sure took your time getting here. i have to say, in all my 313 months on this planet, i have never looked forward to a month coming (and going), more than i have you, good old december 2011.

it's not your fault, though. it's just, well, you mark the end of two things whose ends i have been anticipating for quite a while. now really, december, don't be offended. you know you're kind of a middle-of-the-pack month anyway. i mean, your days are cold and short and grey. the only reason you're ahead of july is because you might bring snow and july only brings heat and humidity. now may, there's a month!

where was i? oh, right... december, i want you to be over. plain and simple. when you're over, i will be finished with my MA and granger will be home. besides, i'm going to turks and caicos in january. so, pretty please, hurry up!

thanks
brigit

i did fun things that people might want to read about!!!!! (you're welcome)

so, lucky girl that i am, i got to go visit eric and beth in anchorage. it was a super-awesome birthday(s) gift (thanks again, guys!) that couldn't have happened at a better time.

i arrived on nov 18th, on a balmy, -12 degree F afternoon, and the three of us celebrated my arrival by stuffing ourselves full of yummy mexican food and margaritas. sunday, the most important day of the year (MY BIRTHDAY, duh), i made beth immediately regret asking what i wanted to do on my birthday by dragging her (eric was much more willing) to a bar at 10:00am to watch the redskins play the cowboys. while i won't speak of how the game ended, fun was had by 2/3 of us (although i think all of us would have gladly killed the loud, obnoxious cowboys fan sitting at the table next to ours,). that afternoon a couple of eric and beth's friends came over for dinner and drinks, and i think *everyone* enjoyed that part of the day.

on monday i woke up to eric telling me that bella had been barfing all night, so i should let her out back quickly when she needed to go. i worked on my thesis while eric and beth went to work, and i don't think i've ever traveled 15 feet faster than whenever i noticed bella standing by the back door... everything went fine though, she seemed to have gotten it all out overnight.

on tuesday, despite being set back by a wicked migraine, beth bravely joined me for round 1 of our twilight drinking game. we decided water would be best for movie #1, and after 2 hours of chugging water i don't think i have ever been so well hydrated in my life! eric joined us for movie #2 (even though he's TOTALLY team edward, ugh...), and we switched to beer. the drinking game continued on wednesday morning with mimosas for movie #3, and later in the afternoon eric drove us to movie #4. at that point, the "rules" of the drinking game had mostly devolved into beth and i whisper-yelling "DRINK" at each other...

thursday was, of course, thanksgiving, so much of the day was spent cooking and trying to time everything juuuust right so it's all done at the same time. dinner was around 5, and we were joined by jen, who had also joined us on my bday. i learned the hard way (like i do every year), that just because a plate can fit THAT much food, doesn't mean i should eat that much food, let alone go for seconds. in trying moments like that one, however, i always remember eric's lesson on eating from growing up - "eat fast before your stomach realizes how full it is." such wise words.

post-thanksgiving -food-coma-day (aka friday), eric and i went snowshoeing which is SOMUCHFUN. also hard work, which made me feel ever-so-slightly better about eating and drinking pretty much continuously since the moment i arrived. at one point, i was pretty convinced that we had lost dash-the-dog, but apparently he likes to chase squirrels/rabbits/whatever and so him disappearing is actually quite normal. he eventually bounded out of the woods and totally ignored eric's and my disapproving glares. either way, snowshoeing is fun.

saturday was the exciting sledding adventure which turned out, after all, to be not so exciting. this was actually a welcome change for me, since i was, at the top of the hill, pretty sure that i was going to die from falling off a mountain. i didn't, and that was just fine with me. the hill had tons of bumps on it, the only benefit of which that i could see was a good ab workout from trying to lift your feet over them. all in all, it was fun, if not the death-defying experience that some of us wished it could have been.

sadly, the next day was my last day in anchorage. we watched the redskins game again (at home this time, since they were playing the seahawks it was on local channels). afterwards i took eric and beth out to lunch to say thanks for the awesome trip and sorry for eating/drinking you nearly out of house and home. they dropped me off at the airport for my "direct" flight from anchorage to newark (it stopped in seattle, WTF?!?!). lucky for me, the woman in the window-seat in my row barfed the whole flight. i felt sorry for myself having to listen to her, but i'm still pretty sure that she was MUCH more miserable than me... having gotten about 3 minutes of sleep on the red-eye flight, i decided not to grace my job with my presence on monday, and instead went home and was kinda snippy with anyone who even looked like they were going to talk to me. then i slept 10 hours, and decided that i wouldn't have to kill everyone afterall. positive change, i'd say...

so there you have it. great trip to anchorage! and mom, don't worry, there were *ONLY* two days where i started drinking before 10:30am.

i'm really trying to not let this blog be completely overrun with self-pitying rants about my SRP, but...

ok, so, given the fact that i'd rather be watching football, drinking a beer, and chilling with granger, and instead i'm holed up in the basement (aka, the dungeon) with an IV line pumping coffee directly into my bloodstream, and granger is still really, really, really far away, i guess i just don't have lots of sunshine-and-happiness things to write about.

so instead, you "get" to read about why i'm writing all my posts about how much writing this paper sucks and not writing about other more interesting things.

1. i literally have nothing exciting going on in my life right now, so the only thing that there IS to talk about is this paper. every weekday except thursday, i wake up in the morning, spend 7.5 hours at work, and then i come home and i sit in front of my computer for hours and hours longer trying to finish this darn thing. and on thursday, saturdays, and sundays? on those days i spend the ENTIRE day sitting in front of my computer working on this thing. so, you'll just have to forgive me for talking about how much this paper sucks incessantly until i finish it. have i mentioned that it sucks? because if i haven't, you should know that it sucks. a lot.

2. granger is gone, so i am missing my partner-in-crime. well, ok, partner in awesome-fun-things-happening-whenever-the-@$%^-we-want-them-to. as soon as he's back, and i'm done with this paper (which sucks, if i forgot to say that earlier), i will have my life back, and i will be much more likely to DO interesting things, thereby making me able to WRITE about interesting things.

you know it's bad when the most interesting post on here is about why i'm not posting about interesting things. sigh.

in 2 weeks, though, you might get lucky. i'm going to alaska this friday, which will assuredly be the most exciting thing that has happened to me in a long, long time. (although eric and beth, please, no more mummified creatures or moose on your doorstep, k? thanks,)

happy one month anniversary, sadie!

it's been a month since my mom and i drove to baltimore (well, ok, 30 minutes north of baltimore) to meet/pick up ms. sadie-the-dog. all in all, i love being a dog owner (although picking up poop is not my favorite thing in the world...). what a great feeling to come home to someone who is SOEXCITEDTOSEEYOU that their entire butt wags along with their tail. pretty endearing, if you ask me.

here's sadie and i enjoying a good snuggle:


and i just loved this one. dog's noses are cute!!


welcome to the fam once again, sadie. i'm glad to have you! :)

I'VE MADE PROGRESS!!!!

BOO-YA, list!

1. Finish knitting the scarf for my mom - ok bad start, but whatever...
2. Visit Monica in Charlottesville
3. Visit Eric & Beth in Alaska - NEXT WEEK, BABY
4. Visit Granger in North Carolina
5. Spend a day in Annapolis - probably not going to happen
6. Spend a day in Harper’s Ferry - might possibly happen (we'll see)
7. Travel to a foreign country - canada (CHECK), czech republic (CHECK), and greece (CHECK)
8. Read at least 5 books for pleasure
9. Learn and master a new dish (just ONE!) - i've been all over this one
10. Start learning French - probably not going to happen
11. Take a class in something fun (read: not school related! something like pottery, wine tasting, or cooking) - wine tasting is TOTALLY in that list, and monica and i did that in a big BIG way
12. Be a photographer for a day
13. Go to a cultural event each month
14. Expand my musical horizons
15. Work out 2-3 times per week
16. Lose 10 lbs
17. Finish my MA from American University - december 14th, no later than december 22
18. Get an awesome job that I love
19. Get my own place (where I can have a dog)
20. Get a dog - Sadie, world; world, Sadie

9 down - almost halfway there!

Ok, so yeah, that's not gonna happen by today

so... not going to finish the rough draft of chapters 4, 5, and 6 today. as of right now, i'm about half way done with the rough draft of chapter 4. oops. my excuses are that i had to turn in another paper last wednesday for my class, and then i went to charlottesville for the weekend and i didn't have time to work on it in between all the wine tasting monica and i did... i'm calling it a mental health boosting weekend!

so i am still aiming to have it done next monday (11/7), which was always a possibility (see here), but i am going to REALLY have to work hard at it this week to get it done. chapter 4 is the longest (20-25 pages total), and it's where the bulk of the analysis is, so it's taking way longer than the other chapters... basically, i'm going to need lot of venti lattes this week to make it through my days after working all night.

i am still really, really, REALLY looking forward to being done, not only with this SRP but with my MA. i daydream about having free time, and weekends, and spare money... i applied to graduate last thursday (eek!). now all i have to do is get all this work done, even though I DON'T WANNA!!!!!!!!

UPDATED CHECKLIST (again):

9/2 - finalize topic, research question, and adviser
9/12 - submit formal 10pg proposal to adviser
10/17 - complete and submit rough draft of chapters 1, 2, and 3
11/7 - complete and submit rough draft of chapters 4, 5, and 6
11/28 - finish editing per adviser's suggestions/complete second rough draft
12/5 - revise and submit final draft

SRP update

so, this past monday i submitted the rough draft of chapters 1, 2, and 3 (right on time!). woohoo!!! it feels great to be able to check that off my list, especially because i don't have to worry about editing it until i get my professor's comments on it. so now i am able to completely focus on chapters 4, 5, and 6, which will inevitably be the tougher, more tedious chapters to write. chapter 4 alone is likely to end up being around 20 pages or so...

UPDATED CHECKLIST:

9/2 - finalize topic, research question, and adviser
9/12 - submit formal 10pg proposal to adviser
10/17 - complete and submit rough draft of chapters 1, 2, and 3
10/31 - complete and submit rough draft of chapters 4, 5, and 6 (might actually happen on 11/7 because i have a paper for another class due on 10/26)
11/14 - complete and submit second rough draft
12/5 - revise and resubmit final draft

keep those fingers crossed for me!

PUPPY!!!!!!

so, I GOT A PUPPY!!!!!!!!!! well, i guess she's not technically a puppy anymore (she's 4 years old), but i think of every dog as puppy.... her name is Sadie, and she's a sweetheart and a total love-bug. she's an american staffordshire terrier, which apparently falls under the pit bull umbrella, but she's pretty small so i'm thinking she's a mutt. she is already pretty comfortable in the house (i only got her on monday, october 10th) and she is also already very comfortable with me. she's trained too, which is a HUGE bonus!!! i'm working with her to improve her walking skills (she pulls on the leash a bit), but otherwise she seems great! she was great with jack and elise, she's been mostly uninterested in other dogs and people who walk by, and she doesn't bark too much. and with the exception of one "accident" in the kitchen, she's been perfect so far in that regard.

here are some picture of Sadie. the first one is just a few minutes after she got to her new home:



this one is her first night, she was a little anxious:


bedtime:


this is where she spent the day yesterday as i worked on my SRP (how cute!):


needless to say, i'm SUPER excited to have a dog!!! i just don't want to mess her up, so i'm going to have to do my homework (and watch Dog Whisperer all the time).

super awesome things i'm looking forward to

1. i am possibly, maybe, hopefully getting a dog today. A DOG! as in, the thing that i have wanted for soooo long but for a plethora of reasons hasn't actually happened yet. well, it's HAPPENING *crosses fingers*

2. visiting monica in charlottesville in a few weeks. i can't wait to see her, eat some of her delicious cooking, and go wine tasting!

3. visiting eric and beth in anchorage in november. i'll be there for my birthday, thanksgiving, and the opening of the new Twilight movie. how can 3 awesome things be fit into just one week, you ask? i don't know either, but i'm rolling with it!

4. finishing this semester, and with it my MA, by december 7th. 'nuff said.

5. probably don't need to mention it, but i'm kinda, sorta, maybe looking forward to granger getting home. no dates yet (and i probably won't post them here, anyway), but it's lookin like it's gonna be december. ummm, yeah, that's prettyfrigginawesome!!!!!

UPDATE: 20 things to do before 2012

there are three months left before 2012, so, here goes... an update on my list of 20 things to do before 2012:

1. Finish knitting the scarf for my mom - ugh, still no
2. Visit Monica in Charlottesville - will be completed (october 29-30)
3. Visit Eric & Beth in Alaska - will be completed (november 18-28)
4. Visit Granger in North Carolina - completed as of june
5. Spend a day in Annapolis - no...
6. Spend a day in Harper’s Ferry - again, not yet
7. Travel to a foreign country - done! canada, czech republic, and greece
8. Read at least 5 books for pleasure - completed as of june
9. Learn and master a new dish (just ONE!) - completed as of june (and still practicing the salmon dish!)
10. Start learning French - todavia no (yes, i know that's spanish... i haven't started learning french, remember???)
11. Take a class in something fun (read: not school related! something like pottery, wine tasting, or cooking) - not yet, but i'll definitely be doing some wine "tasting" in both charlottesville and anchorage...
12. Be a photographer for a day - done, in prague and greece
13. Go to a cultural event each month - this one is not going to happen, unless i make it to 10 events in the next 3 months...
14. Expand my musical horizons - i'm giving myself this one. i bought the cd of mumford and sons in august
15. Work out 2-3 times per week - hahahahahahaha (still laughing...)
16. Lose 10 lbs - ok, i picked a start weight, and i'm 5 lbs down so far
17. Finish my MA from American University - will be completed, one way or another, by december 22
18. Get an awesome job that I love - pending...
19. Get my own place (where I can have a dog) - july or august 2012 are the prime candidates for this
20. Get a dog - either january (see #17) or july/august (see #19)

looks like i've got some work to do...

dear october

please, let's just be nice to each other. i know you're going to be a tough month, but i'm hoping we can work through it and remain friends... or at least remain civil.

if it makes you feel any better, september hasn't been all that awesome, and with only one exception november won't be too great either.

so, are we good?

love,
brigit

two months...

...until my birthday! more importantly, in less than two months, i'll be out in anchorage chillin with eric and beth!!!!! woot woot!!!!

the scary part is how much work i have to get done between now and then. i guess i should stop writing blog posts and start writing my SRP...??? naahhhhhhh

PS - we have now passed the halfway mark of Granger's deployment, and just recently passed the "3 months to go" mark. WOOOHOOO!!!!!!

substantial research project

this semester, i'm writing my substantial research project (or SRP). it's like a mini thesis, and it's meant for MA students who are not intending to go on to get a PhD, which describes me PERFECTLY. an SRP has to be somewhere between 50-70 pages (not including footnotes/endnotes), and it has to incorporate original research.

i've decided to write my SRP on the Kimberly Process, the international diamond certification scheme that was started to combat the sale of so-called blood diamonds. more specifically, i am interested in if/how it could be replicated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where different resources NOT covered by the Kimberly Process are contributing to the conflict. having an good idea of what i want to write is great, the main obstacle now is just sitting down (for hours and hours and hours every day for a month, for example) and writing the darn thing. well, ok, researching, then analyzing, then writing, then editing, then editing some more. here's my timeline to get it done:

9/2 - finalize topic, research question, and adviser
9/12 - submit formal 10pg proposal to adviser
10/10 - finish research & analysis
10/17 - complete and submit rough draft of chapters 1, 2, and 3
10/31 - complete and submit rough draft of chapters 4, 5, and 6
11/14 - complete and submit second rough draft
12/5 - revise and resubmit final draft

now, cross your fingers for me and WISH ME LUCK!!!

earthquake nonsense

so, as i'm sure you all know, there was an earthquake on the east coast yesterday. it was a 5.8, which is strong enough to warrant concern but not strong enough to warrant panic. it's the second earthquake that DC has gotten in the last year or so, and i think i need to retune my earthquake radar because it's also the second earthquake that i HAVEN'T FELT. for the first one, granger woke me up really early one morning and told me that he thought we'd just had an earthquake. i told him that it was just a dream, that DC didn't get earthquakes. because, obviously, we just don't. well, i woke up that morning to learn that granger hadn't actually been dreaming. and yesterday? yesterday i was walking from safeway back to my office when the earthquake struck, and i didn't feel anything. like, nothing. i got back to my office and everyone was outside going "did you FEEL that???" - "uhhh, feel what?" i felt like the uncool kid in class, everyone was talking about something that i had been left out of. i was secretly hoping for an aftershock to hit*** so that i could be cool again, but alas, no such luck.

so yeah, i still can't cross "earthquake" off my list of things i want to experience. even though i technically have, it would feel like cheating.

also, here's a picture of the post-earthquake devastation.

***not really, especially after being informed that there were nuclear reactors near the epicenter.

burning out...

i have a paper to write. 10 pages. not too difficult of a topic. i even know, generally, what i want to write and how i want to structure it. the problem? i am completely unable to make myself work on it. i have zero motivation. actually, i can think of nothing that i want to do less right now. and the worst part? i told myself i was going to have it turned in yesterday. as in, the day before today that has already ended. hmmm... whoops. granted, it was a self-imposed deadline that is somewhat flexible (which might be part of the motivation problem), but i don't think i've ever missed a deadline that i could have made, if i had worked hard on it. sure, i've asked for extensions before when i really NEEDED them. this one? didn't need it. i totally could have finished my paper yesterday. i just didn't. and i'm even having trouble caring that i didn't.

this is bad. i have a 50-75 page thesis to write this fall. i need to find this motivation, and fast! i can't burn out this close to the end!

88 days

granger has been gone for 88 days. that's equal to 2,112 hours, 126,720 minutes, or 7,603,200 seconds.

as of today, there are "only" about 150 days remaining until he comes home. that's 3,600 hours, 216,000 minutes, or 12,960,000 seconds.

in other words, i'm almost halfway there...

meeting the President of Serbia

so while i was working in Prague this summer, i got the chance to meet the President of Serbia, Boris Tadic. Here's a picture of me meeting him, followed by a group picture with him (to the left of me) and my colleagues.



pretty cool, huh? sure, it's no granger meeting obama 3 TIMES, but still...

jury duty

so, i had jury duty this morning... it was for some special trial, and the only information that given about the trial was that it could last 3-4 weeks. honestly, i was kind of excited about it, and i was hoping that my number would be called so i could see what being a juror was like. sadly, no such luck. it seemed like everyone's number BUT mine was called, and i was excused by 11:15am so i could go to work - JOY! it's ironic that probably the one person who wanted to serve was not called, especially considering that more than half the people there were called. sigh.... next time!!!

art, also known as a wasted sunday

below are two drawings that i did in paintbrush (the mac version of paint). i just started doodling with the first one, and then i liked how it looked so i kept going (it took a while to cover the whole page!!!). the second one was originally much lighter, and had all sorts of purple hues in it, but when i saved it, all the colors got very dark somehow. so now it sort of looks like the emo sibling of the first one...

europe.

so, on july 1st, i flew to prague to work at two summer programs that my organization runs. i spent three and a half weeks there working, and now i am in greece (chania, crete, to be exact) on vacation. not too shabby!

i meant to provide more updates throughout my time here, but i have (obviously) failed miserably at that. i've been so busy working that i just didn't find the time, so it will have to wait until i get back to the states. speaking of which, i leave crete tomorrow night, spend what will surely be a long night in the athens airport, and then fly (through london) back home on tuesday morning.

honestly, i can't wait to be home!

UPDATE: 20 things to do before 2012

since it's the end of june, it seems fitting to see how i'm doing on my list of 20 things to do before 2012:

1. Finish knitting the scarf for my mom - crap
2. Visit Monica in Charlottesville - not yet (we're off to a bit of a slow start here)
3. Visit Eric & Beth in Alaska - no (BUT potential visiting plans are in the works)
4. Visit Granger in North Carolina - YUP! finally, one down!!!
5. Spend a day in Annapolis - no...
6. Spend a day in Harper’s Ferry - again, not yet
7. Travel to a foreign country - canada totally counts, and I'll be in both the czech republic and greece in july too!
8. Read at least 5 books for pleasure - done, thanks to the twilight series :)
9. Learn and master a new dish (just ONE!) - i made this awesome new salmon recipe, so screw it i'm giving myself this one
10. Start learning French - non (that's french for "no")
11. Take a class in something fun (read: not school related! something like pottery, wine tasting, or cooking) - nope, but i think i can actually accomplish this one this year
12. Be a photographer for a day - this, i will do in prague or greece
13. Go to a cultural event each month - ummm, no, unless i reeeally stretch the definition of "cultural"
14. Expand my musical horizons - ha! what does this one even mean? i've heard some new songs...
15. Work out 2-3 times per week - hahahahahahaha
16. Lose 10 lbs - i should have written down what weight i was when i wrote that, because now i have no way to know if i accomplished that
17. Finish my MA from American University - pending
18. Get an awesome job that I love - we'll see
19. Get my own place (where I can have a dog) - looking like this one's not going to happen until 2012 at the earliest
20. Get a dog - fingers are still crossed

ok, so it appears that i still have a ways to go on this list... but 4 down is a start! 16 to go, although there are some that just aren't likely to happen this year (see #19).

the last few months...

the last few months of my life have been a whirlwind of activity - some awesome, some majorly sucky. in the latter category, granger's deployment to afghanistan. in the former category, eric and beth's wedding, which followed close on the heels of a very relaxing week at the beach.

let's start with the sucky... granger left for afghanistan in may... SIGH! in the time that he's been gone, i've realized several things about loving someone who's in the military, about myself, about granger and i, and perhaps even about life in general:

1. i don't care what anyone says, there is not one redeeming quality about deployments. they suck, and you just have to suck it up day by day to make it through them;
2. at the outset, 7 months doesn't seem like that long (especially when compared to army deployments), but at the moment i don't think any other chunk of time has ever moved more slowly;
3. i have an incredible ability to control what i worry about. for example... granger is at war. this, obviously, is dangerous. however, i have somehow managed (for the most part, anyway) to convince myself that no matter how much i worry, none of my worrying will do any good for him while he's over there. actually, me worrying may do him harm, since he will then have to worry how i'm faring at home. because of this, the best thing i can do is continue on with life-as-normal, be positive and happy on the phone with him when he calls, and find little ways to keep him included in my every day life. there's no room for worry in there;
4. despite being able to block my worries, i can do absolutely nothing about missing him incredibly. no matter what you do, you just can't turn that off. this makes it even more important to try to include him in what i do everyday. for example, i wear one of his necklaces all the time. it's not a memorial or a tribute to him, it's just a way that i can tell myself that he's still around all the time, even when he's really far away.
5. granger has been my rock through some hard and stressful times, but now that he's not here, i am relearning that i can be my own rock. also, i'm reminded that my friends are some of the most incredible people in the world! so maybe i was wrong about #1, maybe there is a teeny-tiny redeeming quality about deployments???
6. deployments require trust. a lot of it. i have to trust in his abilities and his training, and he has to trust that even though he is out of sight, he is not out of mind. if you don't have that trust, you don't have anything. if that trust is there, the relationship can only get better as the trust gets stronger and stronger.

ok, on to the happy... first and foremost, eric and beth's wedding! i've got to say, my brother made a fantastic choice for a wife! beth is one of the coolest people i've met, and every time i get to hang out with her i end up laughing a lot, which is a good way to determine the awesome-itude of people. hopefully *fingers crossed* i will be able to visit her and eric up in anchorage sometime this fall!!!

and the wedding... well, i should say the wedding week! my parents and i got there on june 14th (the wedding was june 18th), so we got some extra time to hang out with eric, beth, and beth's family. we were up in kincardine, ontario, a super cute town on the shore of lake huron. we did a little wedding-erranding, but mostly we just hung out and drank good wine/beer! as for the wedding itself, they couldn't have chosen a better day for the ceremony!!! i would guess that it was upper 60s/lower 70s on the 18th, with a clear blue sky. the ceremony was lovely, except for the fact that i had to listen to linsay blubbering behind me the whole time! luckily, faucet-face (as my dad calls her) carried some kleenex in her dress... there was also some excitement when a large bee landed in the maid-of-honor's bouquet. fortunately, the moh handled the situation gracefully, and no one (other than us bridesmaids) noticed anything.

after the ceremony, the newlyweds, the wedding party, and family members took pictures, some on the porch of the wilson house, others on the beach, and still others at the local golf house. after pictures, the reception! the reception was held in a large pavilion in downtown kincardine right on lake huron. there was plenty of food and drinks, and much merriment ensued!

ok, well i think this post has rambled long enough... eric and beth, i had a wonderful time at your wedding, and everything was just perfect. and granger, i love you and i miss you incredibly every single day!

desperate times call for desperate measures...

this is how bored i am... i drew a picture of my childhood home. perfect, right? RIGHT???

i'm DONE

well, with this semester anyway. soon, once my brain recovers from the trauma of those two papers, i will start to do interesting things with my life again. this means, lucky readers, that instead of being bombarded with posts about papers and stress and exhaustion, you'll soon get exciting stories of grand adventures. or something close to that, anyway. like today, for example, i plan on making banana bread. BANANA BREAD! woah.

motivation

i need it. price negotiable.

slightly overwhelmed

in the next 8 days, i have two assignments due:
3/26 - global political economy final paper (18-20 pages)
3/27 - culture, peace, and conflict resolution final paper (15 pages)

as i look at the list above, it doesn't seem like much. BUT, when you consider the fact that i got surgery a week and a half ago, i think it seems a bit more impressive...

regardless, i can't wait to be done. with this semester, and with this whole MA program. i feel like i am burning out and that i just have too much on my plate right now. i'm glad that i'm in grad school, but going to school while working has been seriously draining. sometimes i have been so stressed out that it's really a wonder than granger still wants to date me. hopefully, in the end, when i see how much less i owe in school loans, i will realize it was all worth it. still, when i think about all the other stress in my life, i have no idea how i'm going to get through it all.

sheesh, just writing about this is stressing me out. well, if getting all this out isn't helping, i guess i should just stop procrastinating on the papers by complaining and just get back to them. UGGHHHH

WARNING: post-surgery knee pictures

i thought that perhaps my doctor was going to be able to go in through my old scars, but instead, i have three new X-shaped scars just below my kneecap (you're just going to have to trust me on that, since my kneecap is mostly MIA in the first picture...) and another small hole above the kneecap on the left (waaaay on the right side of this picture).

also note the arrow pointing to the correct knee. my doctor did that just before i was taken to the OR. personally, i would have been fine if he'd drawn 50 arrows pointing to that knee!!!!

this picture is from yesterday (April 9):


poor knee!! it looks like it's bent, but only because it's so swollen. it was actually pretty straight when i took this picture.

this one's from today (April 10):


look! the kneecap reappears!!! the swelling has gone down, and you can see the arrow more clearly in this picture. oh, and i've got bandaids over the wounds, so you don't have to look at those again... you're welcome.

knee surgery, part 2

so yesterday i had knee surgery... the deal was that my doctor was going to try to repair a tear in my meniscus. unfortunately, however, he was not able to repair it, so he just had to remove the torn part. according to what he told my dad post-surgery, i have about 60% of my left meniscus remaining. apparently this enough to do most things that i enjoy doing, like hiking for example, and other things that i should do, like running or exercising in general. playing sports that require cutting and quick changes of direction, like soccer, are out.

i'm bummed that this is how the surgery turned out. i have every confidence that my doctor, who is the same one who did the ACL reconstruction in 2003, did everything he could to try to repair the meniscus. it was simply irreparable. the good news is that the recovery time is shorter now. repairing the meniscus would have meant that i was on crutches for a month and a half to protect it as it healed. by just removing the torn part, i could be walking as soon as a few days from now. i plan to take it easy, though... there's no rush, and i don't want to do too much too soon and hurt myself again.

another silver lining in this whole deal is that my doctor says that the ACL that he put in in 2003 looks really good. yay!

knee surgery

tomorrow. 9:30am. torn meniscus, to be repaired or removed.

fortunately, several of my coworkers brought movies for me to watch as i recover, so i now have 16 different movie options... hopefully these movies, the discovery channel, and netflix instant can keep me entertained. lindsay also gave me the first book in the twilight series to read, so if i get desperate, i might finally cave and read it! we'll see...

i don't want to write this paper...

it's stupid. economics is stupid. i don't care what you say, nothing good has ever come from me studying economics...

grumblegrumblegrumble

2011 is going to be a hard year for me, so here is a list of all the awesome things that i have to look forward to until the year is over

UPDATE
=========already happened=========
January: Detroit for wedding dress shopping :)
February: Jacksonville, NC to visit Granger and Shenandoah National Park, VA with the Jeffs family
March: Jacksonville, NC again to visit Granger
=========still to come=========
May: Denver, CO for partying with Eric and Beth
June: annual trip to Kitty Hawk, NC with Emily et. al. at the beginning of the month, then Kincardine, Ontario for ERIC AND BETH'S WEDDING!!!
July: Outer Banks, NC with the fam, unless my work trip to Prague gets in the way... either way, later in the month, Prague!!!
September: Las Vegas, NV with Emily for her 27th birthday
November: my 26th birthday (does that count????)
December: graduate from AU and, most importantly, THE END OF 2011

the art of nomad-ry

i have moved all of my things from one place to a different place 3 times already this year, and i am not done yet!

i've moved:
1. from one room to another room on s st.
2. from s st. to lindsay and rich's new house
3. from lindsay and rich's new house to mom and dad's basement

i'm currently holding at #3, although come march 25th/26th (not that i'm counting, lindsay! oh who am i kidding... 16 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!), i will progress to #4:

4. moving from mom and dad's basement to an actual bedroom at mom and dad's house

oh, to have my very own room again! to have a room, with a door (that can be CLOSED!!), and a bathroom nearby where i can SHOWER (rather than only take a bath) without leaving bruises on my elbows...

Jacksonville, NC

this past weekend i drove to jacksonville, nc (a nice 7 hour, 350 mile drive) to visit granger while he is stationed at camp lejeune. now, granger and i have been dating for 2+ years, so i've heard all about the glory and splendor of this quaint little town before. but nothing can really prepare you for a visit to this place, which granger sometimes fondly refers to as j-vegas. i have never before seen a more beautiful array of parking lots, drive thrus, fast food restaurants, walmarts, targets, military surplus stores, and did i mention fast food restaurants?

the first night i was there, we went to a bar with granger's friend and granger's friend's girlfriend. we went to this place that was right across the street from the hotel that was a total dive. at 1am or so, we tried to order food only to be told that the cook had just been fired. um, what? ten minutes later the waitress came back and said they'd gotten a new cook. yeah, no thanks...

the next day granger and i relaxed and took a drive to topsail island to check it out. topsail island is where monica's family ALWAYS goes to the beach, so it was nice to finally get to see it. it was really beautiful, and granger and i drove down the streets looking at the rental houses and saying "ohhh, let's stay here!" and "oh look at that one!" over and ever again. we walked on the beach a little and, of course took some obviously requisite quick-take-a-picture-of-me-as-i-jump pictures:

attempt #1: COMPLETE FAIL


attempt #2: better, but still not good enough


attempt #3: clearly as good as it's going to get



that night we went to a country bar called Gus'. it was my first time at a country bar (!), and i had a hard time just accepting it rather than trying to understand everything that was going on around me. all i saw were pickup trucks that has been raised way off the ground, cowboy hats and cowboy boots, men wearing TIGHT jeans, men chewing tabacco, and people yelling heeeyyyyyyy ya'llllllllll across the bar to each other. it was like a foreign country. the anthropologist in me came raging to the surface!

actually, that reminds me, i saw this white girl talking to an asian woman. the white girl asked where the asian woman was from, and the asian woman responded "tokyo." the white girl replied, "oh coooooool, where's that?"

run.

anyway, Gus' was pretty fun. i even learned a country dance called the two-step which, inevitably, has three steps. i'm choosing to believe that the irony was intentional. there was only one fight that night, and it happened just as the bar closed. all i saw was one guy knock another guy to the floor, cowboy hats went a-flyin, and then security was all over it. dang!

the next day was sunday which was, sadly, my last day. granger and i really didn't do much (probably because there's not much TO DO). we drove to another beautiful beach called emerald isle, which i actually think i liked better than topsail island. either one would do, though. that night granger and i feasted at taco bell (aka toxic hell). taco bell is delicious riiiiiight until you finish your meal, and then all you can think is 'whhhhhhhhhhyyyyyyyyyyyyy??????????' it sorta reminds me of Jim Gaffigan's sketch about I-HOP... as he says, "i don't know why they call it I-HOP. after i eat there i never feel like hopping! they should call it I-NAP..."

the next morning was monday, and granger had to be up at 4am to get to work in time. i slept in a little bit, got packed up, drove to camp lejeune to hug granger goodbye quickly, and then i was on the road back home to dc shortly thereafter... all in all, the place is more than forgettable, but the company was excellent!

nothing's official yet, but...

I MAY BE GOING TO PRAGUE THIS SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

for work.

awesome!!!!!!!!!!!

how many little fails equal ONE. BIG. FAIL?

i woke up this morning on the "wrong side of the bed," as it were. it didn't help that before 8:30 this morning, i managed to slam my elbow on the soap holder in the tub, forget my workout clothes for my afternoon trip to the gym, get some red, sticky substance all over my purse at CVS, be shoulder-checked by an angry looking woman in dupont circle, and spill my coffee all over my desk.

the first incident was met with loud profanities, as is frequently the case when i injure myself (pain = RRRRRAAAAAGGGGGEEEE). by the time i got the red sticky stuff on my purse, i had been actively trying to convince myself to get over my bad mood for some time. unfortunately, after the red sticky stuff incident, that effort went out the window... then, almost immediately after that, i notice a woman who is walking towards me on MY SIDE OF THE SIDEWALK (like a game of chicken, we were careening recklessly towards each other). i decided to be polite and just move over to the other side of the sidewalk, but as we got closer to each other, she apparently had the inescapable urge to move to the other side of the sidewalk, directly in my path again. now, perhaps if i had been in a better mood, this wouldn't have annoyed me and i would have simply moved over again. as it was, however, this was an unforgivable offense, so i only moved over slightly father to the left, giving her most of the sidewalk to pass by me, but she still ran into me! well, ok, "ran into me" is an exaggeration; we barely grazed each other, but STILL... she had the whole friggin sidewalk!!!

and then, after i finally got to my office, i made coffee, poured myself a cup, and proceeded to spill it all over my desk... needless to say, i spent the next few hours curled up in the fetal position under my desk, incapable of doing anything but snivel and moan about my unfortunate circumstances. and by that, of course, i mean that i cleaned up the coffee, got *more* coffee, cursed the Monday-morning gods, and started to work. ok, fine, i started to "work."

and so it begins...

classes started this morning... SIGH

the good news, though, is that i'm only taking 2 classes this semester (as opposed to 3), and none of them are from 8:10pm - 10:40pm. one of my classes is from 8:30am - 11:00am, although there's even a positive side to that! that class is on a tuesday morning, and the all-staff meetings at work are also on tuesday mornings so i get to miss every single one of them for ANOTHER semester. aaaaaaaamazing!

still, i really just want to be done with school so i can get an awesome, high-paying job, get my own apartment, force granger to leave the marine corps and live with me, and get a puppy. is that *really* too much to ask?????

super awesome surprise trip to detroit

so on sunday this week, i was making plans with friends for the coming weekend. on monday evening, my dad called and asked if i wanted to go to detroit with them this weekend to hang out with eric and beth and meet the whole wilson gang. half way through a bottle of champagne and totally overwhelmed by the thought of having to figure out flights and work last minute, i declined. on tuesday, however, beth IMed me and convinced me that not only was it feasible, it wouldn't be that hard to plan at all! also, with my newly improved, post champagne thinking abilities, i realized how long it'd been since i'd seen the two of them and how awesome a weekend with family would be. an added bonus was that i'd get to be there as beth tried on wedding dresses. sweet!!! so i confirmed with my boss that i could miss some work, confirmed with my mom their flight info, and bought my tickets! and then on wednesday i canceled my previously-made weekend plans (my friends all forgave me!). today, i get to look forward to an awesome weekend!!! woohoo!!!

intervention

so i don't know how many of you have seen the A&E show called 'intervention.' it's one of my favorites, and all 7 seasons are available to watch instantly on netflix which frequently results in me watching it for hours on end. it's sort of addicting (ironic, right?).

anyway, even if you haven't seen it, you can probably guess the plot: a person who is addicted to something (drugs, alcohol, eating disorders, etc.) has agreed to be in a documentary about their addiction and then, after learning about their life/addiction, their family holds an intervention and asks them to get help (usually 90 days of rehab). the last few minutes of the show are about whether rehab was successful, whether they relapsed, how they're doing now, etc.

i can't really explain why i love the show so much, since so much of it totally grosses me out. i hate episodes where people take intravenous drugs (AHHH NEEDLES!!! GROSS!!!), the episodes about eating disorders (OMG, SERIOUSLY, JUST EAT SOMETHING!!!!), and episodes where vomiting occurs (AHHH VOMIT!!! GROSS!!!). i have to cover my eyes for parts of pretty much every episode, or mute it if someone's puking... *shudders* near the end of every episode i try to guess whether or not the person is going to be successful in their recovery, and i almost always guess that the person's going to do just fine. granger makes fun of me because i'm so optimistic, although he ALWAYS assumes that everyone is going to relapse, which is a little too pessimistic in my opinion... anyway, reality lies somewhere in the middle. sometimes people make amazing recoveries; sometimes it's like they didn't go to rehab at all.

sometime, the show drops a bombshell on you. you spend 45 minutes learning about this person's life, hearing what they and their family has to say about their addiction, starting to care about whether they make it or not, and then BAM, in the last 10 seconds of the show you find out they died. and the way they tell you? black screen, white text saying "oh yeah, by the way, stephanie is dead. oh what's that lying on the floor there? your heart? sorry about that." roll credits. wtf, intervention?!?! why do you make me care about the people on your show and then surprise me with such depressing news right at the end of your show??? sheesh.

but i do enjoy the show, and it also makes me extremely grateful that i and everyone i love have been lucky enough to avoid these sorts of problems. i mean, my brother and sister do have diabetes, which is so totally LAME, but fortunately they are incredibly dedicated to taking good care of themselves and have mostly been able to live normal lives doing what they love to do! if they, or anyone i love for that matter, had to deal with a drug addiction, i'm not sure i could take it.

if you haven't seen intervention, i recommend it. just don't blame me if A&E rips your heart out as you watch it...