2010: to do list

things I want to accomplish in the upcoming year:

-decide if I want to say 20-10 or 2010
-buy spinning wheel
-master art of spinning
-finish at least one project on my loom
-set up my etsy webpage
-apply to grad schools
-get accepted to at least 1 grad school
-attend 1 scientific conference
-visit my friend in Peru
-travel to Argentina
-finish the bf's fingerless gloves
-finish promised christmas gifts
-finish my sweater
-start my OWN research project
-apply for jobs actually in the field of marine science
-make sushi

and of course, be a good friend, loving girlfriend, respectful daughter/tenet, and domestic goddess

ohhh, I've been dreaming about you for so long it breaks my heart...

me working with my corals and dreaming up new and exciting research projects

Jess with her host sisters in Peru, she's a peace corps volunteer and I couldn't be more proud of her!

when did I become a hippy?

as I stepped out of my prana yoga pants and into my epsom salt bath and lathered up with my dr. bronner's tea tree soap I asked myself, dear god! when did I become such a hippy? I realized I'm crocheting a sage green top in organic cotton, contemplating a good body detox, and wondering where I can buy a gallon jug of dr. bronner's magic soap (yeah, I have a serious love affair with dr. bronner right now). I am also thinking about rejecting processed junk from my diet (well, I might eat a tasty kake and a cheesestake here and there, I'm a philly girl through and through) and getting a serious grip on my life from the inside out.

Ten years ago I never imagined myself driving a littel fuel efficient car (always wanted a ford truck), listening to folky country music (rock + punk then), going to music festivals (again used to be punk shows in basements around the city), and graduating with a BS in marine biology (art school bound since 5), but suddenly, or maybe slowly, I became different. I grew into this person I am today, and now I need to accept this transformation and go full speed ahead into life.


My plan includes:
healthier food, more green tea and fruits, less gluten
yoga as often as possible, short sun salutations daily, longer sessions once a week
exercise, walks, maybe runs if I feel ambitious
better routine, early to bed early to rise
less stress

now the last one will be hard to accomplish, but I'm going to try. I'm going to start by emailing people about grad school applications this week, I NEED TO! I've been bullshitting too much about this and I need to get this done so I can move on with my life. Next will be moving to CT/RI, I've learned as much as he drives me crazy some days, my boyfriend is my greatest stress reliever ever. He makes me laugh more than anyone (except maybe Linda), I can be myself, he lets me nag him when I get overwhelmed with life, and he loves me more than anyone ever has. Plus he gives half decent back rubs, haha. After I make the move it's time to secure a job, any job so I can feel busy and productive, and then switch health insurance plans, because $700/month is way too expensive for me right now.

This is my plan, now I just have to do it. My biggest block is myself right now, once I can get past my own fears, doubts, and criticisms I know I can succeed, more or less.

So tomorrow when I'm doing yoga in the back yard after my green tea and organic fruit breakfast I can concentrate on elevating myself to new levels professionally, scholastically, emotionally, and spiritually, and maybe be at peace with my apparent hippy lifestyle.

whirl-wind week

Friday I finished my class, sent in applications, did some shopping at target to get travel essentials: quick dry red nail polish, dr. bronner's magic soap - tea tree, plastic travel bottles, bikini top, and a super awesome $40 duffel bag with WHEELS!! Dragging my dive gear around the San Juan airport last year was a little too much for me, so I gave in and bought non-army issued luggage for the first time in my life, haha.Saturday was a long drive up to NJ for Linda's graduation party. We've lived next door to eachother for 3 years, and been best friends since the moment we met. She's been going through a rough time, and for some reason her life is always more drama filled than daytime TV, but she has such a great sense of humor, is extremely raunchy, and has the best, loudest, most infectious laugh you have ever heard in your life. 12 hours of drinking, 1 dip in the pool, 2 tearfilled conversations, 4 meals, and 5000 laughs later I left with a massive headache but a smile on my face.

Sunday I got home late from Linda's and tried studying for my final. It wasn't easy, between small snacks and naps I managed to do my best to get through 8 chapters of biochemistry.

Monday I took my final, hopped on the train for the last time, got home, packed and headed to our camper in the Poconos to meet with the bf, and had a phone interview for a job out in CA. Last time we saw each other was mid-June for a few days, and before that mid-May, and this time just one night, one day, and one morning, that's all we had, not much time but its better than nothing. Lunch on the pond followed by a tearful goodbye and a 3 hour drive I'm back home.

Now it's all about packing for my month long research trip to the BVI. !!!SUPER EXCITED!!!

one last class!!

I have my last class of my biochemistry course tomorrow!!!!!! Officially the last class of my undergraduate career. Final exam on Monday and then done done done. Needless to say I'm excited. Even better than finishing the class, I finally get to visit my best friend in NJ for her graduation party on Saturday. Monday I'm jumping in the car as soon as I finish the test to visit the bf for a few days, and I leave for the British Virgin Islands on the 1st. Ahhh, it's like I can finally relax/work and do what I love, I'm stoked!!

Craftwise I've been working on some buttons, hair sticks, and shawl pins. My parents had to trim up some of the rhododendrens in the back yard so I cut down and sanded the branches into new wonderful things. I've already made a bunch of beautiful buttons for a sweater I made in May/June, and they add just the perfect touch of nature.

I've also added a bunch of pictures to my flickr of past projects that I will be adding to my etsy site, here's a few for you to chew on.

-click to zoom-

out of the hole

Found something to get me busy and overwhelmed: intense biochemistry class at Villanova. I have to catch the 7:12 train to get to my 8:30 class on time, and most days I can't get home until 12:30, and then I drive to work. The class is 2 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 1 month. We do between 5-7 chapters a week, and have an exam every Friday. It's kicking my ass.

-villanova train-station-

So with new found energy I have actually taken the time to look for job and I am completing applications right now, yay! I'm applying for some crazy stuff: internship on Catalina island at a boy scout camp working in the marine science center/ lab, salmon research and public education projects in Washington, Save the Bay job in Rhode Island, and teaching at Seacamp in the Florida keys.

I just need to keep myself going full steam ahead before I leave for the islands, then I can relax, sort of.

-this is the beach I will be on every day of my research trip-

digging

some days I am just tired of life, irrevocably tired of the everyday

I want something new and exciting, but sometimes I feel so bogged down that I just don't want to try. I've been "cleaning" my room for weeks now, still sleeping with piles of clothes on my bed, or at least trying to sleep. When I try to sleep my brain is spinning, whirling mad off in 100 different directions leading nowhere. I normally think about all the things I need to do tomorrow, the things I haven't gotten done today, all the things that I will forget to do, the things I don't want to do, and the things that I will try to ignore despite their utter importance in the continuation of my attempt at a "successful life." Sometimes the hole seems just a little bit too deep to pull myself out, but not so deep that I forgot what the surface looks like. Maybe that's why I keep sitting there, I'm not panicked to get out, I'm not at rock bottom, I know I'll get out eventually, someway or another. probably.

Boredom breeds sloth and bad habits with me, and I can feel them coming on, and I just don't care enough to fight it right now.

I need to find something to do and throw myself into with a slightly unhealthy mania, then I'll be in superwoman mode and I will somehow make everything fall into place and work like nothing ever skipped a beat.

My to do lists are long, and I have several, and I actually write them out. I have the things to do today, the things that I need to actually do today, the things I plan to skip even though I should have done them yesterday, the things to do tomorrow, and then the big picture list. Now the big picture list is the most important, and as a result the least worked upon. Things like confirm graduation, get all credits transferred, get money for plane tickets to Guana, fill out my dive log to maintain my certification I need to even dive on Guana, fill out job applications, submit job applications, look for jobs, and get the balls to just email professors about grad school.

Any time now that rope will be lowered, I'll crawl out, work my ass off, and get started on a new hole.

plain weave scarf

this is my rigid heddle loom at home, given to me by my botany professor, his wife had it sitting around and never used it, I adopted it and it now lives in wonderful home and it is used often.

this is the scarf I'm making, not sure what the fiber is, the blue seems synthetic, the white and the green might be cotton.

I think I like the spaced out blue bits contrasted with the tighter beat on the white stripes. I need to work on it more, I'd like to get it done before the end of school, so I've got a few more weeks.

Took pictures of my weaving samplers yesterday and put them on flickr, they'll be making an appearance soon, as soon as I figure out how to format pictures and text a little bit better.