In 2007…

1. Will you be looking for a new job? My TA assignments will change each semester, but the money's coming from the same place.

2. Will you be looking for a new relationship? No.

3. New house? Yes! Right now a townhouse/condo seems to make the most sense.

4. What will you do different in 07? I will be slightly cooler and smarter than in I was in 2006. And hopefully write something publishable.

5. New Years resolution? I definitely wouldn't keep one.

6. What will you not be doing in 07? Competing in the Iditarod.

7. Any trips planned? Research in Maine during the summer, possibly Atlanta for a conference.

8. Wedding plans? Going to Scott and Julie's.

9. Major thing on your calendar? End of March- results of NSF released.

10. What can’t you wait for? See above, and my birthday.

11. What would you like to see happen different? Actually get an NSF this year.

12. What about yourself will you be changing? Maybe my hair, I'm getting bored with it. Blue? Purple?

13. What happened in 06 that you didn’t think would ever happen? I moved to New Jersey.

14. Will you be nicer to the people you care about? I hope to keep in touch with them more.

15. Will you dress differently this year than you did in 06? Yes, I do not plan to wear the same exact clothes that I did in 2006.

16. Will you start or quit drinking? I will start and quit many times, with each bout lasting 1-5 hours.

17. Will you better your relationship with your family? That's a lost cause.

18. Will you do charity work? I have thought about volunteering at Petsmart as a kitty caretaker.

19. Will you go to bars? Most likely I'll go to a few.

20. Will you be nice to people you don’t know? As long as they are polite.

21. Do you expect 07 to be a good year for you? Yes.

22. How much did you change from this time last year till now? A decent amount, with the move, going back to school, and such.

23. Do you plan on having a child? Hellz no.

24. Will you still be friends with the same people you are friends with now? Yes.

25. Major lifestyle changes? No.

26. Will you be moving? If we find a suitable house.

27. What will you make sure doesn’t happen in 07 that happened in 06? Missing Valentine's Day with Ryan because I'm waiting tables.

28. What are your New Years Eve plans? Party at Dan's.

29. Will you have someone to kiss at midnight? I'm thinking Ryan would be better than Dino.

30. One wish for 07? I can't tell you or else it won't come true.

I'm not usually too big on memes, but now that I have time galore, what else am I to do? :) The first sentence of my blog entries from each month of 2006:

Jan. My first day of work back at the station actually hasn't been that bad.
Feb. Money in, money out.
Mar. I am in a very odd mood right now and basically want to capture it before it's gone.
Apr. What's that?
May Another week begins.
June For info on last weekend's trip to Boston, you can read Liz's blog.
July Now that I can't even get comments I have even less motivation to blog, but I will try to put my hands to the keys.
Aug. Fortunately, Unfortunately is closing shop after 3+ years.
Sept. I've wanted to update for so long, but have had absolutely no internet.
Oct. I HATE my car.
Nov. I've still got it.
Dec. Ryan and I had a very nice weekend.

Pretty boring, huh?

I'm done with my first semester of grad school, making me ever-so-slightly closer to my degree. Woohoo!

You're getting something in the mail this week. And it's something that has a kitten on it! Just wait and see. I have a sixth sense about these sorts of things.

Ryan is still pretty busy finishing up his end of semester final projects. Hopefully he'll be done by Saturday (the last isn't due til New Years, but he wants to get it over with). Then he only has one semester left until he's Master Ryan, with a degree from a school that he's never even been to (GA Tech) that has a bee as a mascot. Bzzz.

Ryan has let me open some of my presents already, because remember we're not any good at keeping secrets from each other. He already knows his big present from me (a continuation of his anniversary present). So far I got the hand-held 20 questions games (regular and music versions; I like the regular better because it's harder to stump), a mousepad with kittens on it, and the Sims Pets expansion pack, which is awesome. Ryan says it's so I can simulate having many kittens instead of having our house turn into a crazy cat house. I still want 3 real cats, but it's fun to pretend to have 6. I'll post a screenshot later, but I even customized one of the Sim Cats to look almost exactly like Jibblies!

We're driving up to Po-town on Saturday and staying until probably the 27th or so. Ryan goes back to work on the 2nd, and my stuff starts back up on the 8th. I should spend the second week of my break working on that research paper that I'm submitting with people from the field station, which pretty much went on hiatus during my semester.

I'm TAing Animal Behavior next semester, which is awesome. It was one of my favorite CU courses, and it's kinda cool to be TAing a non-intro course as a first-year. Also, it has discussion sections, which are much shorter than labs, so that should be nice. Now if only I could get away with bringing in Jibblies and having the students observe and comment on his erratic behavior.

We had Dan over on Saturday and made more cookies, although we didn't take pictures of them this time. Thanks for the wine, Dan, I had a good time drinking it. Ryan had a couple sips :)

Ryan and I had a very nice weekend. Saturday we went to a tree farm to get a Christmas tree, decorated it, and baked cookies. Sunday we decorated those cookies and went shopping for gifts, including stuffers for Jibblies' stocking. Pics on Flickr. And Dan, if we can ever get ahold of you, we want to invite you over to decorate more cookies!

Last week of classes, and I found out today that my only final is a take-home! I dunno, I feel like my first semester of grad school was actually too easy. Maybe I'm not doing enough intellectual thinking on my own time, but I certainly had no problems keeping up and doing well in my classes. I guess I can blame it on my CU education, which was apparently too rich and sweet to spoil my dinner/grad education.

I'm such a horrendous blog slacker.

The semester is starting to wind down already. I just finished the first draft of my only big term paper, and there's just two weeks of classes left after Thanksgiving. My only sizeable school tasks left, other than normal TAing and readings, are to revise that paper and take one final. Sometimes it seems like Ryan's two distance learning classes take more time than my three classes! But I guess he's working full time rather than TAing, which is only 15-20 hours per week.

We're headed up to Ryan's mom's for Thanksgiving (huge surprise there), leaving tomorrow afternoon and staying until either Friday evening or Saturday morning. Ryan and I are cooking all of the side dishes, while his mom is doing the turkey and desserts. I wasn't at all worried about the cooking until I found out that they're having another family who I don't know at all join us for dinner. It's going to be about 13 people in total, and now I feel the need to impress the newcomers since they aren't already aware of how wonderful and awesome I am.

The kitten's new nickname is "The Sheriff of Naughty Ham" because he's naughty and likes ham. Ryan and I started a puzzle last night and covered most of it with heavy books to protect against Nibblin damage, but he still managed to tear apart the few places that weren't well protected, littering puzzle pieces all over the floor for us to find in the morning. Naughty, naughty!

Crunch time is setting in; most of my work and studying is between now and Thanksgiving. Not much to report. Car insurance is twice as expensive here as in Syracuse :( I'm dragging Ryan to a dinner party at a professor's house tonight in celebration of someone getting their PhD. I'm looking forward to it, but I'm sure he's not.

While I'm doing fine in my classes, they're just okay. Nothing is really grabbing my attention. At least with TAing I can make it somewhat fun for my students. Like this week we were looking at preserved slides of tapeworms, so I told the class how Christ (well, I just said "a friend at undergrad") TA'd for a parasite guy who actually ingested the tapeworms to transport them into the US, then "recovered" them later. They were sufficiently grossed out.

I've still got it. What a relief!

"It" being the ability to be a good student. I was afraid that after two years in the real world I'd go soft and all my smarts would be replaced with mental snapshots of plankton. Fortunately, that seems to not be the case. I got the highest grade in the class on the first exam in the ecology course of death. I also impressed a few people with my NSF research proposal. That whole application is done (provided that my letters of recommendation get sent), so I can breathe easy there.

Nothing too interesting on the horizon, just doing my thing. Looking forward to Thanksgiving, I guess?

Fall break is pretty much over. I spent today working from home, though. And I made an exciting trip to the DMV to get my NJ license and plates.

The trip to Pitt was short but fun. We drove over Sunday morning and back Monday afternoon. It was great to see Jen again. We had a fun time at the science museum on Sunday- we got to ride Segways! Then we went out for dinner. I still can't get over how much fried food Jen eats now, as compared to maybe 3 fries during her whole time at CU! Then we rented The Break-Up, which wasn't nearly as good as I'd hoped (which wasn't a particularly high standard to begin with).

Monday morning Jen had class, so Ryan and I went to a conservatory near her campus. It was pretty, but the best part was the topiary creatures (pics on Flickr). Then we went up the Cathedral of Learning at UP to see the view. We met up with Jen for lunch, then headed home. We'd planned on doing more sightseeing in the afternoon, but it was really cold out and most of the museums there were closed on Monday.

I'm glad it's a short week, although I have a lot to do before Friday. *stress*

I've been feeling a lot of school stress lately. Fortunately next weekend is fall break. Saturday I'm stuck at the department retreat all day, which is like a really really long seminar, but it sounds like there will be a fun dinner/party in the evening. Then Sunday, Ryan and I are driving to Pittsburgh to visit Jen! Yay! I just did the math over the weekend and it's been almost 2 years since I saw her last. Her birthday is tomorrow (happy bday, Jen!), so we'll have a slightly belated celebration next weekend.

I guess most of my school stress is that I'm trying to put together a slam-dunk proposal for the NSF predoctoral fellowship (i.e. big money). I applied last year and from my ratings sheets it seems that my personal essays, grades, test scores, and references are all sufficient, but my proposal really needs to be top-notch. There's a page limit of just 2 pages, but they have to be jam-packed with outstanding ideas and I have to convince the reviewers of the importance of the work. Bottom line is, I'm second-guessing every decision I make, wondering if it's good enough.

The kitten is still cute and Ryan is still the best, so everything is good on that front. Over and out.

I HATE my car. Don't ever buy a Neon! Today it's having $1100 worth of work done. Needs new brakes all around, then in the back the entire brake-related assembly is being replaced. And recall I already had some more minor brake work done in January.

I treat my car nice. I always get the scheduled maintenance and it only has 36,000 miles. It's not fair :(

Comments are nice :)

You know how I used to obsess over money? All that is gone because I've diverted all my energy into a new obsession: reading scientific journal articles. I pretty much have to if I'm to stay afloat. So much reading!

I'm generally at the lab from 8:30 to 5, taking maybe 5-10 minutes for lunch, and then I usually take a couple articles home. And I read on the trains. Just seems like I never stop reading, except to go to class, eat dinner, and sleep. Other than my procrastination at the moment, I've really been quite focused, and I still feel like there's not enough time for everything.

It's that time of the year again! Me and Ryan's three year anniversary.

Well, it's our first three year anniversary, but another anniversary at this time of the year.

The weather has cooled a bit and the humidity is gone, so the air feels like it did when we first got together.

I got him a totally nerdy gift, which he loved: TNG 1-3. And if you know what TNG stands for, then, as is probably no surprise to you, you are a nerd.

I am starting to get my rhythym at school, and I really enjoying being a TA. Well, I actually enjoy the in-lab part of being a TA, not the other responsibilities. It feels good when someone says, as they did yesterday, "I've never understood a lab so in-depth before! You're awesome at explaining things." So I'm pretty friendly with the students, but they still respect me because I know a lot about bio in general. I feel like my background is quite broad, and that's perfect for teaching an intro course.

I've picked a topic for my research project in Maine next year: how nutrient inputs of decomposing seaweeds affect producers and thus possibly also consumers. While it may not sound too flashy, it's actually something that hasn't been looked at in rocky systems. So I'll do the project next summer and either expand upon it for my thesis or decide I hate it and try something else. But for now it's time for literature review.

We went to the King of Prussia mall last Saturday and the Jersey shore (Cape May and Wildwood) on Sunday. I guess next on our list is probably Fairmont Park and the art museum.

I've wanted to update for so long, but have had absolutely no internet. At home, the connection died and hasn't been repaired yet because they need to run new wiring throughout the entire building. At the lab, you need to register to even plug into the wall, much less use the wireless, and that process has been long and unnecessarily complicated. So I'm at the library until my bio building network application goes through.

Classes started last Wednesday, and although I'm finally on a routine, I haven't been doing it long enough for it to feel routine. I'm looking forward to settling into it more so that I have a real feel for how I should be managing my time. The commute feels routine by now and takes about 50 minutes each way. I drive or bike to the train station, ride one train, switch to another, then walk 15 minutes on the Penn side. I've been able to get a little reading done on the train, but it's quite interrupted.

I TA'd my first lab yesterday. I really enjoy TAing. It makes me feel smart, and the smartness is being put to use. The only thing is the time committment. Between 2 labs, prep meetings, prep on my own, 3 lectures, writing test questions, and doing the readings that the students do, it takes about 20 hours/week. In all, I expect all of my responsibilities and studying to add up to the neighborhood of 60 hours/week. I have two classes, ecology and seminar, plus an independent study. It's too early to know how much the classes are going to stress me out, but despite being challenging, I know I can handle them.

Ryan's mom and brothers came to visit 2 weekends ago. We went on a big shopping trip to IKEA, which is ginormous, and got a big wall hanging and nice rug for the living room. We also went downtown to the National Academy of Sciences, the Franklin Institute (aka science museum), and Penns Landing (waterfront).

Last weekend Ryan's dad and stepmom came down for Saturday for his birthday dinner. On Sunday the two of us went to Longwood Gardens, a famous botanical garden with a stunning conservatory, and the Mushroom Festival in Kennett Square, PA, which MM/MM (magical mushrooms, mischievous molds) people will remember as the birthplace of mushroom cultivation. We even went on a tour of a mushroom farm. It was interesting for about 5 minutes, but the guy giving the tour, despite growing button mushrooms for his entire life, had never even heard of a chanterelle when someone asked.

There are lots more opportunities for day trips down here. I'm looking forward to a trip to the ocean, Fairmount Park and the art museum, King of Prussia mall, more sightseeing and exploring Center City, and a theme park or two (Hershey? Great Adventure?). There still isn't a whole lot to do in the evenings over in Jersey, but now we have cable so we can at least watch TV.

I promise more frequent updates when the internet is repaired at home; I'm trying not to waste too much time at the lab doing non-acadmic stuff.

Whew! What a crazy last few days. We finally got internet up and running this morning, so now you get to hear about it. As always, you know the drill: pictures on Flickr.

Thursday and Friday morning was a flurry of packing and cleaning. We got a mushroom UHaul :P Ryan's old property manager was impressed with how clean the place was- I guess most people are lazy and forefeit their security deposits because they don't want to clean thoroughly. We drove south and stopped at Ryan's mom's to pick up a couch and end tables, and also introduced Jibblies to Ryan's childhood cat, Mozart. Mozart hissed like the grouchy old bastard that he is, but Jibblies just backed away slowly and didn't freak out or run away.

Then we continued our drive to Po-Town. Jibblies had been going crazy for the first half hour of driving, but mellowed out after a while and actually spent most of the trip curled up on my lap. It was very cute, but also a bit uncomfortable because I couldn't fidget normally. After getting to Ryan's dad's house, we loaded up a dresser and bookcase, then went out to dinner. Then we introduced Jibblies to the poodle, Crystal. Crystal wanted to play, but Jibblies wasn't interested. He backed away slowly, just like with Mozart. I was impressed with how maturely Jibblies handled the unfamiliar creatures he encountered during his voyage.

In the morning we took off heading south. There was a lapse in communication between Ryan and his dad such that they doctored together two sets of Mapquest directions and the end result was nonsensical. Well, they got us there, but required us driving through the Bronx and over the George Washington Bridge (hello, traffic), when the smart thing to do would've been to drive straight down through New Jersey. Anyway, the 3.5 hour trip took more like 5 hours.

When we got the new apartment, the property manager realized that our apartment hadn't been fully cleaned yet. She recruited her friend to help while we went out for pizza. It still wasn't great when we got back, but we were eager to just get the move over with. It was miserable with the high humidity and lugging everything up a flight of stairs. Moving the stuff probably took 3-4 hours, then we returned the UHaul and went out for dinner before Ryan's mom and stepmom left. We were exhausted, so assembled the couches, bed, and went to sleep.

Sunday we unpacked, cleaned, and went out shopping for essentials. The Wegmans down here is off the hook! It was twice as crowded as the Ithaca store, but had even more amenitites. I had lunch from the Wokery, as usual, but there were three times as many dishes. Yay!

Monday Ryan started work while I finished (well, almost finished) unpacking and cleaning. We went for a walk in the riverfront park that's right near the apartment complex in the evening. And today I'm catching up on my internet business and may go get a haircut later. I'm starting to finally feel settled in, but orientation starts tomorrow! Eeek!

Tuesday and Wednesday proceeded according to plan. It was exceedingly busy at RL, so I earned a tidy wad of cash. That will be what I miss most about waiting tables- the instant gratification of cold, hard cash. I did get hit on by a sleazy drunk guy, which I will not miss but it was kind of funny:

Me: "Would anyone like some coffee or dessert?"
Guy: "No, too full, no dessert. Well. . . I would like some dessert, but no dessert."
Guy sitting next to drunk guy: *elbow's drunk guy's ribcage*

Sometime when I'm not exhausted, I'll leave a summary of life lessons learned from my RL experience. But for now I need to get some sleep before the barrage of cleaning and UHaul-loading tomorrow.

The Plan:
Tuesday: work lunch at RL, have a low-key night at the apartment.
Wednesday: pack and clean during the day, work my last-ever shift waiting tables at night.
Thursday: pack and clean like a mofo, load most of the UHaul, meet RL coworkers for drinks in the evening.
Friday: last-minute cleaning and packing. Ryan's dad takes a train up and drives the UHaul down while Ryan and I drive our cars to PoTown (I get kitty in mine!). Get more furniture in both Cortland and PoTown. Spend night in PoTown.
Saturday: Drive from PoTown to C-Wood (Collingswood, NJ, our new town). Unload everything, return UHaul, start unpacking.
Sunday-Tuesday: unpack, settle in, learn to navigate new area.
Wednesday: Begin orientation at Penn!

Whenever I'm on the compy trying to get something done and the cat gets up on the desk, I feel like this.

I put some random pics on Flickr tonight, because I can.

Ryan skipped out of work a little early yesterday and we went on another bike ride. I could still feel Saturday's ride a bit, but was still vastly improved. The hill that kicked my butt on Saturday was no problem. We went 21 miles in all. I am looking forward to improving enough that I don't feel like I'm holding Ryan back. It's nice to be included in his hobby.

I did work on the manuscript for a couple hours yesterday and today. It will get done, just at a snail's pace.

RL continues to be "riteous," so to speak. Tonight was slow, but I had a couple generous parties so it was still worth my while. One more week there. I will miss it a little- the other servers are fun to hang out with, and it's always nice to have an influx of cash into the wallet.

It was a good weekend. I worked Friday and Sunday nights, and did pretty well each time. On Saturday Ryan and I went on a 28.7 mile bike ride. It was a great improvement over last week, for although I still whined about the hilly parts, I only needed two breaks as opposed to three during last week's 21 mile jaunt. I think that a couples bike ride should become a fair-weather weekend tradition for us. Saturday night we grilled dinner then saw The Ant Bully and Talladega Nights at the drive-in. The Ant Bully wasn't that great, but at the drive-in it's a flat rate no matter how many movies you see. T.N. was worth seeing. And today we went for a walk in the park.

So it's been quite pleasant these last few days. Now if only I made some progress on the manuscript. . . Well, it's best not to be perfect or there'd be nowhere to go but down.

Catsumer Reports. Thought I'd give out some props/referrals to companies/products that I use and think are great. Word-of-mouth advertising is the most informative kind, I think, but it isn't as prevalent in the post-television/post-internet age.

HSBC Direct online savings: kick-ass yield for a savings account. Since it's all online, they save money on personnel and pass the extra on to you. The current rate is 5.05% APY. If you have any appreciable amount of money sitting in a normal savings account at 1% or so, you're actually losing wealth because inflation is around 3%. I only recently persuaded Ryan to get an account, but I just know he'll be thanking me as soon as he gets his first interest payment.

American Express Blue Cash: There are plenty of rewards credit cards out there, and I haven't tested them all, but have been all smiles with my AmEx. After Ryan's exasperation with the poor customer support at Chase, I persuaded him to get a Blue Cash in 2004. No problems after the switch, and his reward last year was $170. It pays to have a money-grubbing girlfriend.

Geico: I haven't had to submit a claim, so I can't speak for that, but their rates are excellent. No complaints here. And pretty much everything can be done online. Avoiding human interaction is a plus for me. And of course I referred Ryan to Geico as well and he's been satisfied, too.

Nikon Coolpix Digital Camera: I love my camera. It's very easy to use, I just wish the kitten would hold still long enough to get more cute shots.

Ryan Dickerson: Ryan is very dependable and I rarely have problems with him. He has been known to cheer me up, endure long stretches of irrational moods, and value my input concerning decisions such as cell phone use, car purchase, bank accounts, credit cards, car insurance, and kitten purchase. He also gave me the above camera and the laptop I'm on right now for Christmas. I remain a loyal customer.

Softpaws: They're little rubber nail caps that you glue onto the kitten's claws. They last about 6-8 weeks, and we only put them on the front paws so he can still scratch himself with the hind ones. They've greatly reduced the damage he does to the carpet and our skin.

Future installment: things to avoid (ahem, Dodge Neon).

I am feeling better today. Went to the "gym" at the apartment complex and burned a ton of calories, and may or may not have grooved to the sounds of "Ryan's iPod." :) Scheduled utility hookup for the new apartment, which makes it seem more believable that we're moving. And of course played with the crazy Nibblin/Jibblin/Jibblies.

The weather was perfect today- the heat and humidity broke somewhat, so it was about 75 degrees and 50% humidity with a nice breeze. It almost felt like fall. I think that in the Northeast, fall is my favorite season weather-wise. The summer is too oppressively humid, spring is too rainy, and I won't even go into winter. Fall here is most similar to summer in Washington, but maybe a tad cooler. Unfortunately summers will be even more hot and humid in Philly, but oh wait, I'll be in Maine most of the time!

Wrapped up the day with a dinner shift at the Lobster. It was a really slow night, but oh well. I also put in my notice. I heard from another server that they really cut back on your hours during your last scheduled week. Eh, would just mean more time for me to pack and clean.

I'm brooding again. Perhaps it's a mix of boredom and anxiety about moving and starting school, but I keep feeling dissatisfied with my life in general, for absolutely no reason in particular. I hope the feeling goes away once I get down there and get busy with school, but for now it's "there has to be more to life than this."

Growing up and knowing that my family was not "normal" in the sense of family cohesion and activities, I guess I always identified television and movies as normal. But television and movies are full of action, drama, romance, comedy, horror, and occasionally foreign. College life lined up a little bit with the depiction of college in movies. . . of course I was doing more academically than socially, but that was my choice. Now that I'm in real life, though, the monotony is killing me. The most interesting thing that happened today is that the power was out at the grocery store and they were on backup power.

For a while I've been blaming it on Syracuse and its lack of things to do. Working a ton always sapped my energy, too, so I never had the pep to do anything interesting. But now I have time and nowhere to go. Ryan is busy with work during the days. There should be more to do in Philly, but I'm still brooding for now. I guess my life is in a rut, and should be shook up vigorously in two weeks, but I'm already going nuts. Whine, whine, bitch, bitch.

On the positive side of things, how about the flickr badge thingy off to the right? I think it kicks ass.

Three days in a row! Am I turning over a new leaf?

Ryan and I went for a bike ride today. After me not having biked more than five miles at a time this year, we did 20 miles total. Saw one Delorien for sale and got one cat call, which is permissible because I am a cat.

Now we're going to try a new recipe for dinner, Pork & Apricot Salad. It looks like it should actually be called Rice and Apricot Salad with Pork Medallions. Whatever it is, I bet my life that the kitten will be on the table sticking his nose and tail in it.

I'll follow up Jen's comment with a post. I'm in NY until August 25, at which point we move to NJ. If you want to map our future town, it's Collingswood, NJ. There's a train station there where I'll catch the train into center city Philly, then switch trains to take me to West Philly, where the university is located. I estimate the commute will take about 50 minutes, so hopefully I can get a little reading done on the trains.

While the apartment we have lined up is okay, the rental market is very tight down there and rather than throw out a big rent each month to an apartment that we only like a little, we could pay a mortgage on a decent house in a good neighborhood for the same price. So unless the housing market tanks, we'd come out way ahead financially, not to mention it'd be nice to have more room for Jibblies and future kitties to run around. And I'd have free reign to do domestic things like paint, garden, and whatnot.

And for more on Maine, it's not a research station of any kind where I'll be working. It's an island where my advisor has a vacation house and permission to go onto people's beaches. The only "lab" is my advisor's garage. The ferry to the island departs about 15 minutes away from Bar Harbor, though.

I was feeling rich yesterday so I bought Ryan an iPod Nano (in black, of course). It's so small! I will probably borrow it occasionally. I got a car adapter, too, so it'll be good for road trips.

Here I am. In the grand tradition of my blogs, in this first post I will explain the title. "Chapter Three" regards the third stage of my blogging life. Chapter one was undergrad, chapter two was the technician years, and now chapter three is grad school. Chapter three is estimated to take at least five years, so here's hoping that I enjoy it!

I am a little conflicted over the candidness level here. I don't want to hamper my future professional life, but I don't want it so sterile or sugarcoated that it's not interesting. I will walk the fence and try not to fall either way. I also feel like the last blog degenerated into life updates without any reflection or insights. I'm in an especially introspective mood tonight.

This morning I packed up the last of my things and moved them all to Ryan's apartment, so we are officially shacked up. He's asleep because he has to work in the morning, but I've been getting into the habit of staying up late and sleeping in again. It helps for working dinner shifts at Red Lobster. And you know, you stay up late by yourself and get thinking. I am going to have a lot more time to think these next few weeks. What do I think?

I think life moves too slowly for me. I was cruising people's myspace pages and at a glance, everyone's life looks so interesting. But played out, everything just takes so long. I get bored so easily. Aside from the personality mismatches and lack of recognition for work well done at the field station, the work itself was just too fantastically boring. I know it was supposed to be my "time off" between undergrad and grad, but I guess that I just can't handle having an idle mind. I need competition and challenges in order to be happy.

I also think that my new roommate (ha) Ryan is extremely patient, and that quality contributes to my opinion that he is the best. I was looking back at a calendar of the last year and it's astonishing how much couple time was lost to Red Lobster. I'm rationalizing that it will put us in a much better position to buy a house next year, but it's still time that can't be recaptured. And now even that we're living together, I'll still be working four or five nights a week until the move, so we're not really seeing each other any more than when I was working two jobs. But he remains patient, and I love him for it.