12.17.2009
done with college!
sorry i have not posted at all recently-- things have been really zany finishing up many papers and projects-- but i am pleased to report that i am now officially done with college! my last exam took place about an hour ago and now i am free as a bird. i promise to post more pictures and updates at some point soon. happy holidays to all!!!
11.01.2009
10.24.2009
autumn update
autumn glory was awesome! well, the festival was...the camping part was pretty miserable at times. the drive went well, with the foliage getting more intense as we drove west. we made it to the state banjo competition and witnessed some very young as well as very old banjo players. the southern garrett county high school gym was packed with mostly senior citizens but also some really entertaining little kids who had fun dancing. camping that night involved four people sleeping in a two-person tent (we brought another but we couldn't set it up), without sleeping mats (we forgot them in baltimore), in the pouring rain, atop gravel. and the temperature was a high of 40 the next day, so needless to say it was very cold as well. the camping was really unpleasant, actually. the next day we got up early and headed straight into small-town america. we got to see the church choir perform a gospel puppet show (not as good as last year's), check out the (fabulously tacky) craft fair, buy ridiculously cheap pumpkins and gourds from some mennonite and amish farmers, eat hand-made donuts (pretty much the only vegetarian option in the entire county) and see an appalachian clogging performance all before witnessing the grand parade. it was just as absurd as it was last year, with lots of obnoxious shriner cars zipping around, lots of cheerleaders and drill teams in uniforms from the early 90s, their accompanying high school marching bands, beauty queens freezing in strapless gowns, historic fire engines, ROTC and other military brigades, and local politicians atop goofy floats. i love that stuff! our final stop before heading back home was to refuel and warm up with some great cheap coffee and vegan cupcakes (we made those and brought them with us) to celebrate timmy's 24th birthday! all in all, it was a really memorable weekend.
other than that i feel like i've been drowning in homework lately, specifically studying for midterm exams and writing reviews of literature. that's what i should be doing now, in fact! i also took time to set up a linked in account for the sake of networking and hopefully finding a job for the spring. we'll see how that works. if anyone hears of any full-time opportunities in the baltimore area from january to july of 2010, please let me know!!!
i get through my homework sessions with hyggeligt candles and oversized cups of coffee/tea/chai/hot chocolate/apple cider:
our harvest-time window display:
10.09.2009
tumblr + autumn glory
quick update: things are going well, busy as usual. school is back in full swing and i'm feeling slightly stressed. i am really really looking forward to a weekend in western maryland at the autumn glory festival! small town americana at its finest, this festival was a total blast last year and i hope it will be the same this time around. maryland truly lives up to its moniker of "america in miniature" (or 'merica, if you prefer)-- there are vibrant urban areas, sprawling suburbs, and your standard conservative rural towns as well. it is refreshing to see the foliage, smell the farms, and experience maryland's more west virginia side. i hope the predicted thunderstorms won't deter us from having a good time and celebrating timmy's 24th birthday!
on another note, this week i fell in love with tumblr, an awesome blogging platform that is very design-oriented. if you click on the link it should take you to my page-- i'm going to post photos and other musings there...
on another note, this week i fell in love with tumblr, an awesome blogging platform that is very design-oriented. if you click on the link it should take you to my page-- i'm going to post photos and other musings there...
9.11.2009
brief pacific nw visit + bed bugs
last weekend i had the good fortune to travel back to seattle and catch up with lots of family and friends. although it was very brief-- thursday night to monday morning-- i'm glad i was able to see everyone and everything that we (timmy came too) did. in addition to seattle/shoreline, we trekked up to vancouver bc for about 24 hours. i hadn't been there in five or so years, and it was more cosmopolitan and international than i remembered it. i loved how many skyscrapers and coffee shops there were. (i am a big fan of late night coffee shops-- one we visited stayed open until 3:00 am on the weekends!-- because they are a good alternative to bars for those of us who want to meet up with friends or go out but not be in a loud, drunken setting.) my mom, being the travel genius that she is, managed to have the four of us stay for free in a really nice hotel downtown. that in itself was a treat!! back at home it was a pleasure to see familiar faces and new ones too (like my new baby cousin, pictured below). besides timmy's severe allergies and cat-induced asthma attack, it all went very smoothly and made for a memorable, interesting and refreshing time.
vancouver-- gastown
good times and good food in seattle
unfortunately we seemed to have brought the seattle weather with us back to baltimore because it has been 60 and raining since we got back. i didn't mind today because i didn't have classes-- i worked from 9 to 5 and felt justified sitting at my desk all day because the downpour made any other option sound unappetizing. tonight has been very "hygge" (a danish concept/way of life referring to coziness): i lit some candles, made some butterscotch brownies, had a friend over, read a book, etc. my kind of night. school has indeed started so of course there is homework to be had, but i'll get to that on sunday. i am liking all of my classes so far, although it's only been two weeks, and i think my last semester of my undergraduate career will be challenging (in a good way). this semester definitely feels different knowing i am so close to the end, living off campus and commuting (thank goodness for the free baltimore collegetown shuttle!), working half-time, not spending so many hours doing extracurriculars, hanging out with people already in the real world as opposed to only other students wrapped up in the campus bubble...
speaking of the real world, we had quite a "real world" encounter this week as we discovered we have a bed bug infestation. i had been accumulating a crazy amount of mystery bug bites each night this summer and couldn't figure out if it was from gnats, mosquitoes (we ate all of our meals outside this summer...we don't have a dining room or table) or fleas from our lovely stray cat sven. so, when we returned from seattle to find about a dozen flat brown bugs crawling around upstairs it was kind of a relief to know what the problem was. i think they are fairly common in this area. although they are annoying (those bites itch like mad and are pretty unsightly), they don't carry disease and are therefore not really dangerous. we nonetheless spent a good amount of time this week researching, vacuuming, doing laundry on the hottest possible setting, putting all our possessions in plastic bags, putting together a bed frame, moving furniture, searching for bugs with a flash light, tracking down an exterminator, calling our landlord, etc. timmy has been great at all this, thank goodness, so i could focus on my homework. i hope the problem goes away shortly!!
this weekend is packed with exciting goings-on in my neighborhood, so i will certainly be kept busy with one festival or another. and, i must remind myself, more homework!!
rainy days
vancouver-- gastown
good times and good food in seattle
unfortunately we seemed to have brought the seattle weather with us back to baltimore because it has been 60 and raining since we got back. i didn't mind today because i didn't have classes-- i worked from 9 to 5 and felt justified sitting at my desk all day because the downpour made any other option sound unappetizing. tonight has been very "hygge" (a danish concept/way of life referring to coziness): i lit some candles, made some butterscotch brownies, had a friend over, read a book, etc. my kind of night. school has indeed started so of course there is homework to be had, but i'll get to that on sunday. i am liking all of my classes so far, although it's only been two weeks, and i think my last semester of my undergraduate career will be challenging (in a good way). this semester definitely feels different knowing i am so close to the end, living off campus and commuting (thank goodness for the free baltimore collegetown shuttle!), working half-time, not spending so many hours doing extracurriculars, hanging out with people already in the real world as opposed to only other students wrapped up in the campus bubble...
speaking of the real world, we had quite a "real world" encounter this week as we discovered we have a bed bug infestation. i had been accumulating a crazy amount of mystery bug bites each night this summer and couldn't figure out if it was from gnats, mosquitoes (we ate all of our meals outside this summer...we don't have a dining room or table) or fleas from our lovely stray cat sven. so, when we returned from seattle to find about a dozen flat brown bugs crawling around upstairs it was kind of a relief to know what the problem was. i think they are fairly common in this area. although they are annoying (those bites itch like mad and are pretty unsightly), they don't carry disease and are therefore not really dangerous. we nonetheless spent a good amount of time this week researching, vacuuming, doing laundry on the hottest possible setting, putting all our possessions in plastic bags, putting together a bed frame, moving furniture, searching for bugs with a flash light, tracking down an exterminator, calling our landlord, etc. timmy has been great at all this, thank goodness, so i could focus on my homework. i hope the problem goes away shortly!!
this weekend is packed with exciting goings-on in my neighborhood, so i will certainly be kept busy with one festival or another. and, i must remind myself, more homework!!
rainy days
8.28.2009
transition time
photos of late (you can click on them to enlarge)--
a lovely saturday morning breakfast courtesy of timmy:
my boys playing in the backyard:
and of course, more photoshop projects:
an update since last time: after the governor's internship program ended, the arts council asked that i come back and work for them until school started. what an honor! i was thrilled because it was really my placement there-- seeing what these passionate arts advocates do every day, how they serve as the link between the state and artists and how on earth they go about distributing all of maryland's funds for art-- that made the internship so awesome. so my last three weeks have been doing lots of work on their website redesign (mostly drafting mock pages to see what content would go/stay in the new design) and doing other random projects. it was challenging at times but honestly, such a cool opportunity and a good learning experience. everyone that works there is very devoted to their area of expertise-- whether folk, performing, literary or visual arts-- and made me feel very welcome. on my last day they were sweet enough to give me a bouquet of flowers (which i then carried around on the long-ish bus ride and walk home) and take me out to lunch AND surprise me with an ice cream cake!! what a fabulous day. i'm really going to look back fondly on my time there.
unfortunately, about 200 state employees lost their jobs last week-- one of them being my pseudo-supervisor. she is a whirlwind/ powerhouse/ superwoman/ folklorist extraordinare and it is such a devastating blow to the community that she will be leaving. of course it just means another organization will be lucky to have her, but all this shifting around that the state is doing can really be nerve-wracking and sometimes, i feel, misguided. i have been told that many people chose to work for the state in part because of the job security. now, however, that has been shattered. tough times all around, i suppose.
besides getting acquainted with the working world, drafting web page mock-ups, and the politics of state government, i have been doing more of the same relaxing and hanging out this summer: seeing friends, eating ice cream, avoiding and/or scratching my never-ending bug bites, photoshopping, going on an augusten borroughs spree (i read five of his memoirs in the past few weeks...charming writer, very disturbing life), trying to get involved in the community association, navigating and ultimately giving up on the search for a third roommate, staying hydrated in the notorious mid-atlantic humidity and trying to check every item off of my "fun" to do list before school starts.
i am feeling relatively good about transitioning back into school mode next week (!). i'm guessing i will face some of the same tentative feelings about school that i had last fall, but this semester will just be so different than all others it is hard to compare. i'm living off campus and i am very aware that i only have one semester left, so i think it will be a sort of mad dash to the end that won't include my usual cornucopia of extracurriculars but instead tasks like doing the dishes and going grocery shopping. in addition, the fact that i was abroad last semester (and many of my classmates were gone either in the spring, last fall, or the whole year) means that many classmates' faces will be only vaguely familiar. i feel guilty about this, but i am not really looking forward to the countless polite but rather forced "hi! how are you? where were you last year?" conversations that will inevitably take place next week. i genuinely care about a few of these, but it gets so old to have this conversation again and again. i should stop being a grump about it. on the positive side of things, goucher's brand-new library/student center ("the athenaeum") just opened and it is really something. (some photos below) sure, construction for the past two years has been a pain, but it definitely paid off. the building is HUGE and really cutting-edge. it is a far cry from our former, comfy-as-a-living room library and doesn't really feel familiar at goucher yet, but i think it will become well-loved by students.
one final note: it seems like all my summer blog posts have been in this order-- talk about work at length, then have a big run-on sentence describing free time and discuss the upcoming future a little bit. is that how life goes for most adults?
a lovely saturday morning breakfast courtesy of timmy:
my boys playing in the backyard:
and of course, more photoshop projects:
an update since last time: after the governor's internship program ended, the arts council asked that i come back and work for them until school started. what an honor! i was thrilled because it was really my placement there-- seeing what these passionate arts advocates do every day, how they serve as the link between the state and artists and how on earth they go about distributing all of maryland's funds for art-- that made the internship so awesome. so my last three weeks have been doing lots of work on their website redesign (mostly drafting mock pages to see what content would go/stay in the new design) and doing other random projects. it was challenging at times but honestly, such a cool opportunity and a good learning experience. everyone that works there is very devoted to their area of expertise-- whether folk, performing, literary or visual arts-- and made me feel very welcome. on my last day they were sweet enough to give me a bouquet of flowers (which i then carried around on the long-ish bus ride and walk home) and take me out to lunch AND surprise me with an ice cream cake!! what a fabulous day. i'm really going to look back fondly on my time there.
unfortunately, about 200 state employees lost their jobs last week-- one of them being my pseudo-supervisor. she is a whirlwind/ powerhouse/ superwoman/ folklorist extraordinare and it is such a devastating blow to the community that she will be leaving. of course it just means another organization will be lucky to have her, but all this shifting around that the state is doing can really be nerve-wracking and sometimes, i feel, misguided. i have been told that many people chose to work for the state in part because of the job security. now, however, that has been shattered. tough times all around, i suppose.
besides getting acquainted with the working world, drafting web page mock-ups, and the politics of state government, i have been doing more of the same relaxing and hanging out this summer: seeing friends, eating ice cream, avoiding and/or scratching my never-ending bug bites, photoshopping, going on an augusten borroughs spree (i read five of his memoirs in the past few weeks...charming writer, very disturbing life), trying to get involved in the community association, navigating and ultimately giving up on the search for a third roommate, staying hydrated in the notorious mid-atlantic humidity and trying to check every item off of my "fun" to do list before school starts.
i am feeling relatively good about transitioning back into school mode next week (!). i'm guessing i will face some of the same tentative feelings about school that i had last fall, but this semester will just be so different than all others it is hard to compare. i'm living off campus and i am very aware that i only have one semester left, so i think it will be a sort of mad dash to the end that won't include my usual cornucopia of extracurriculars but instead tasks like doing the dishes and going grocery shopping. in addition, the fact that i was abroad last semester (and many of my classmates were gone either in the spring, last fall, or the whole year) means that many classmates' faces will be only vaguely familiar. i feel guilty about this, but i am not really looking forward to the countless polite but rather forced "hi! how are you? where were you last year?" conversations that will inevitably take place next week. i genuinely care about a few of these, but it gets so old to have this conversation again and again. i should stop being a grump about it. on the positive side of things, goucher's brand-new library/student center ("the athenaeum") just opened and it is really something. (some photos below) sure, construction for the past two years has been a pain, but it definitely paid off. the building is HUGE and really cutting-edge. it is a far cry from our former, comfy-as-a-living room library and doesn't really feel familiar at goucher yet, but i think it will become well-loved by students.
one final note: it seems like all my summer blog posts have been in this order-- talk about work at length, then have a big run-on sentence describing free time and discuss the upcoming future a little bit. is that how life goes for most adults?
8.11.2009
summer winding down
maryland's state flower-- the black-eyed susan-- in timmy's garden in our backyard:
delicious summer treats (i love cool whip more than anything!)
one of the many thunderstorms we've received recently. no photoshopping, just intense natural light!
so, things are winding down for the summer. the exciting news is that i wrapped up my internship last week + yesterday. the past few weeks i have felt pretty bogged down preparing for the policy presentation-- not my favorite part of the internship program, but a valuable learning experience-- on august 7. we decided to run our ideas about alternative structures for land preservation programs by the dept. of natural resources about a week before the presentation, for practice. we decided to present the final product to them instead of ask them for help along the way. well, we got into some trouble as they strongly disagreed with our proposal to shift funds from their programs to the dept. of agriculture's (for cost-effectiveness-- ag easements are 60% the cost of buying parkland). this led to a lot of tense discussion, one of my group members withdrawing from the internship program and the rest of us scrambling to revise our proposal in a more gentle way. to my surprise, when we got up to present it to the governor, he knew of us as the kids who "ruffled some feathers" at DNR. yikes! i'm not sure if that's good or bad that our reputation preceded us, but at least it got some attention for the issue. i am much better at behind the scenes work than presenting or answering questions on the spot, so i felt rather uneasy when in front of the governor. all in all i think it went pretty well, though. the internship was a really realistic, eye-opening introduction to state government, and i loved pretty much every moment at the arts council. this summer worked out just swimmingly!
photos from the presentation to governor o'malley:
other than that, i've just been doing more baltimore-exploring, going to baseball games, braving summer storms, baking, taking too many pictures, trying to think about the GREs, and getting annoyed with my hundreds of bug bites. i am looking forward to the next few weeks of volunteering, working, and getting everything in order for school to begin!
delicious summer treats (i love cool whip more than anything!)
one of the many thunderstorms we've received recently. no photoshopping, just intense natural light!
so, things are winding down for the summer. the exciting news is that i wrapped up my internship last week + yesterday. the past few weeks i have felt pretty bogged down preparing for the policy presentation-- not my favorite part of the internship program, but a valuable learning experience-- on august 7. we decided to run our ideas about alternative structures for land preservation programs by the dept. of natural resources about a week before the presentation, for practice. we decided to present the final product to them instead of ask them for help along the way. well, we got into some trouble as they strongly disagreed with our proposal to shift funds from their programs to the dept. of agriculture's (for cost-effectiveness-- ag easements are 60% the cost of buying parkland). this led to a lot of tense discussion, one of my group members withdrawing from the internship program and the rest of us scrambling to revise our proposal in a more gentle way. to my surprise, when we got up to present it to the governor, he knew of us as the kids who "ruffled some feathers" at DNR. yikes! i'm not sure if that's good or bad that our reputation preceded us, but at least it got some attention for the issue. i am much better at behind the scenes work than presenting or answering questions on the spot, so i felt rather uneasy when in front of the governor. all in all i think it went pretty well, though. the internship was a really realistic, eye-opening introduction to state government, and i loved pretty much every moment at the arts council. this summer worked out just swimmingly!
photos from the presentation to governor o'malley:
other than that, i've just been doing more baltimore-exploring, going to baseball games, braving summer storms, baking, taking too many pictures, trying to think about the GREs, and getting annoyed with my hundreds of bug bites. i am looking forward to the next few weeks of volunteering, working, and getting everything in order for school to begin!
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