Caitlin's Meme Thingy

I'm doing Caitlin's Meme, and here's what google gave me:

Sarah needs a cold shower, self esteem. (Actually, I think I'm fine on both counts, thanks.)
Sarah looks like fuckin Nicole Richie in this picture. (I would consider that an insult).
Sarah says just so you know I didn't die on my walk. (?)
Sarah wants to create a life plan (Meh, I'm good with my yearly goals.)
Sarah does not eat humans. (Again, my comment is a hearty whah?)
Sarah hates you with pictures (Wow, that's creative, to hate someone through a photographic medium...)
Sarah asks about age and productivity.
Sarah likes to smell Colleen's armpits. (I don't think I even know anyone named Colleen anymore).
Sarah eats cake. (Mmmm, yes I do.)
Sarah wears Obama. (I'm not sure what that means.)
Sarah was arrested for cutting buckets of water that would put out the fire. (The website for that one is Atheistparents.org. Random, right?)
Sarah loves Josh, celebrate their love. (Must be a wedding webpage or something).

10 Random Things About You

I stole this post from Whitney. You're supposed to write 10 random things about your personality, goals, hopes, whatever. Here's mine:

1. I've never properly learned how to blow a bubble with gum.

2. Pride and Prejudice is my favorite book, not just because of the witty banter and sarcastic characters. But because it makes me believe that someone's love for you can inspire you to become a better version of yourself.

3. I have never seen an episode of American Idol, and I'm kind of proud of that.

4. When I wear mascara it is really obvious because the tips of my eyelashes are blond, and therefore, usually invisible.

5. I really want to learn to play the violin. Partly because it's the most beautiful, emotion-invoking instrument I've ever heard. And partly so that I can play the screaming violin music from Psycho when one of my friends is in the shower. heheheheheh

6. I'm a listmaker. I make lists of things to accomplish, TV shows to watch, books to read, movies to check out, etc.

7. I was born and raised in Alabama for 22 years but I've never eaten grits.

8. I still remember the fingering for a C major scale on a french horn, even though I haven't played since 7th grade.

9. When I was a kid I wrote a musical in which I was a pirate king and my sister was the Indian princess who fell in love with John Smith (clearly I cribbed from Treasure Island and Pocahontas). I even wrote songs. My song was "Yo Ho Ho."

10. I enjoy making CDs for other people, but very rarely make them for myself, because I love being exposed to new music, and I already know all of my music.

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I keep meaning to update this, and then I just find other stuff to do. Christmas was nice, but kinda lonely. I've never had a Christmas without Mike and Ames, plus usually one of them has a significant other who hangs out. Not this year. Mike went to Detroit to see Kodi's family, and Ames went to Pensacola to visit J.D.'s family. Grant it, I got to see Ames the night of the 23rd/morning of 24th and also on Saturday the 27th, so that was nice. It would have been very weird to have had no Christmas whatsoever with Ames. Still, on Christmas day it was just me and my folks. Weird. Maybe it's because I'm the youngest of 4, but I don't see how only children do it.

On to the new year, and, of course, the year review. 2008 was pretty terrible. Second worst year of my life (kinda hard to beat junior year of college, I hope nothing ever beats that...). I don't think there's any need to rehash 2008, since anybody reading this has probably already heard me bitch about grad school ad nauseum. Therefore, in the effort to stay positive, I did accomplish the three goals I wanted to in 2008: buy a reliable car, finish grad school, get a job. Grant it, I did it the most ass backwards / stressful / what the fuck am I doing way possible. But still. Goals accomplished.

And now for 2009. What to do with myself? New state, new job, new people. Fresh start, which I love. I've been in North Carolina for about 2 months, and I like it, although I haven't explored that much. I"ve mostly been unpacking, shopping or enjoying having cable TV. When you don't have cable for a couple of years, it's really easy to get sucked into CSI or Law and Order marathons. At least, it is for me. Anyways, time for my 2009 goals (I refuse to call these resolutions, as I associate the word "resolution" with "a promise you make on new years eve and then break or conveniently forget about two weeks later") :

1) Incorporate more music in my life - I think one reason I was miserable in RI was that I could never play the piano. I didn't realize what an emotional release that was for me til it wasn't there anymore. Of course, my piano is still in Huntsville, so I'm trying to branch out. I would love to learn the violin. But I think it would be more practical to buy a guitar and teach myself how to play. Or tryout for the Chapel Hill Community Choir on Monday, which I just learned about last night.

2) Learn a new craft - Specifically knitting, since I already know how to sew, cross-stitch and do beadwork. I have a "learn how to knit" kit, I just haven't sat down and played with it. But I like creating things, and I kinda want to make some scarves for my loved ones.

3) Learn to swim - Now, I'm not completely deficient. I can doggy paddle. But that's not so much "swimming" as it is "not drowning." Swimming will be good for my back, plus, eventually I want to get scuba certified, and you have to pass some swimming test first. So, one step at a time.

4) Be more social - Never easy for me. I"m a scientist and we're naturally born without social skills, forced to acquire them as we go through life. Still, I am going to make more of an effort, despite the fact that I live at least 40 minutes away from everyone I know in North Carolina (not counting my roommates of course).

Whew, so that's it folks. I"m curious as to everyone else's resolutions/goals, but then, most people update more often than me. Or at least, Caitlin and Whitney do. :)

Um...whoops

See, this is why I shouldn't have a blog. I write on it for a few weeks then completely forget about it. Hmm..so updates, updates.....Oh, I forgot how I left the last blog. I got home from my first day of work and there was no power in the house. The power company accidentally shut it off and then had to physically drive out to the house to turn it back on. Brilliant.

In other news, I enjoy my job, now that I actually have work to do. There are still some slow days, but for the most part I really like what I do. Which is refreshing. Nothing horrible or even mildly bad has happened since I left Rhode Island. But I still find myself mentally holding my breath and waiting for everything to fall apart. I've also noticed that everyone here thinks I'm really easygoing. I mean, I'm easygoing to a point, but I'm also a little worried that grad school beat any expectations out of me. I'm so used to the worst thing happening that I no longer expect anything good to happen. And that's kinda crappy. So I'm hoping that with some more time I'll recover some optimism or something.

But to end this post on a happy note, Thanksgiving with my fam in Coop was fantastic. It was too short of course. I didn't get in til Wednesday night at 10:30, plus a 1.5 hour drive back to the house. And then of course we were all awake because everyone was asking me questions about NC, so we all ended up talking til like 2 AM. Considering I got up at 6 on Wednesday and worked a full day before rushing to the airport for my flight, Wednesday was a very long day. Thursday we went over to my aunt's for all the cooking and had lots of quality family time with cheesy stories, Taboo, craft name markers and too much food. Seriously, nobody ate any dessert on Thursday, because we were all too full.

Friday flew by and then everyone but me, Mike and Kodi left on Saturday. Like I said, way too fast. Oh, the three of us saw Bolt on Saturday. The hamster was definately the best part of the movie. And we rented Wall*E, because I was the only one who had seen it. Such a great movie. Geez, I can't believe Christmas is in like 2 weeks. I really need to start buying Christmas presents. It'll be sad this year with no brothers for Christmas, but at least I"ll get to see the folks and Ames.

North Carolina

Wow, I kept meaning to update this thing, and then putting it off.... so here goes.

My three weeks in Cooperstown were lazy and fantastic. I did absolutely nothing. Seriously. I drank in the sunshine and the cable TV. I walked around downtown and watched hours and hours of cable, and then more hours of TV on my computer. It was my break from life, and I really needed it.

Last Thursday I drove back to RI and crashed with Michele for the weekend so I could supervise the movers packing and loading all my stuff from storage. Again, I got to be lazy and watch lots of TV, and see my group of girls one last time before packing up and leaving for North Carolina on Monday. I was worried that I would be bored and/or tired on the drive down, but it actually went quickly (well....as quickly as an 11.5 hour trip can go). I only stopped twice for gas (I love my car!!!), and I just kept feeding CDs into my CD player. I felt fine until I got to the house and sat down and just stopped...then my head started pounding and all the tiredness hit me. "Oh well," I thought to myself. "At least I have tomorrow off, I can sleep in."

After a night of un-restful sleep, I was awakened at 8 AM by the movers, calling to tell me (in a very heavy Jamaican accent. I understood maybe 15% of our conversation) that they would be at the house with my stuff by midmorning. I was exhausted, but unloaded my car so that I wouldn't fall back asleep before the movers arrival. I shouldn't have worried. Apparently "midmorning" means 1:30 PM. By the time I ate lunch and they finished unloading my crap, it was time for me to go grocery shopping, eat dinner, figure out how to get to work on Wednesday, and then crash, as I was still exhausted from a crappy night's sleep.

Whoops, gotta go, I'm having dinner with my housemates, Amber and Julian. I'll update later about my actual job and the surprise I got Wednesday night when I came home from my first day of work.

Employed!!!

I'm employed!! It's a miracle!

I got the job with the USDA in Raleigh, North Carolina! And I start next month! Wow, amazing that I'll actually have an income that's above the poverty level. Of course, now I have to find a place to live and move everything down there, but still! An actual job! I know some of my friends wanted me to get a job in San Francisco so they could visit me there (ahem...Spencer), but they'll have to make due with Raleigh. :)

Pumpkinfest!

So last week, after defending and doing all my revisions, I took off for Cooperstown with my friend Michele. Plus Dave and Sara came down from NYC. It was a great weekend. We got to eat at some old favorites (Doubleday Cafe, Sal's) and a place I hadn't eaten before (Hoffman's Bistro). And, of course, the actual Pumpkinfest stuff was lots of fun. We saw part of the weigh-ins on Saturday. A four year old went to the front, and his pumpkin weighed more than he did. :) It was pretty cute. By the way, the winning pumpkin weighed 1, 248 pounds. How is that even possible?!

The Pumpkin Regatta was on Sunday. The actual pumpkin race was fun to watch, but it started an hour late, so we were pretty sick of standing still by the time it started. Still, very entertaining. The only bad part about the weekend was the weather. It poured on Friday and rained off and on Saturday, always with grey or white skies. We also did some non-pumpkin related stuff. We swung by the Cider Mill to get lots of free samples, checked out the Fenimore Art Museum (although they wouldn't let me use my free pass. Jerks!) and drank a lot on Saturday night. Seriously, we had some Puerto Rican rum, some local beer and some hard cider. And everybody still got up Sunday morning to meet my aunt for breakfast and watch the pumpkin races.

Today I hauled most of my stuff to the storage unit. I'm borrowing a friend's pick up truck tomorrow to move the big stuff, since no one could help me today. Al's housewarming party is on Saturday, Sunday I'll be cleaning all day long, and Monday I move out of my apartment. Whew. Still haven't heard back about the North Carolina job yet. But I keep my phone on me at all times, just waiting for the phone call.