Chompy chomp

Sometimes living with this guy

Is like living with a furry snapping turtle

Ever vigilant, ever watching, ever O the cat.

Day trip in my mind

So it snowed last week. And the week before that. And guess what it's doing this week?

And by snow, I mean mountains of white stuff. I mean that every time we drive by the Jewish high school in our town, which happens to have a great hill in front, there are always kiddies there on saucer sleds.

The snow has led to some great mini-adventures in addition to all the snowboarding - like making a snow angel for the first time in years, having plenty of snowball fights, or shall we call them run-ins?, with S the human-being boyfriend and O the cat, and getting to sit on top of my car. I suppose I could sit on top of my car any given day of the week, but she's an old lady. It only makes sense to sit on top of my car in an attempt to save the old gal from the 4 feet of snow piled on top of her, and otherwise lacking the height or a shovel to remove it any other way, that's what I have to do.

I tell you of all the great mini-adventures I've had in the snow, including eating it, outside, right after it's fallen, and getting the pure, clean, freezing, amazing sensation of thrist quenching that only fresh-fallen snow can bring, because other than these fleeting moments of glee, I am pretty much in favor of an 85 degree heat wave to head up to New England, the sooner the better.

Overall, I've been opting to day dream of summer instead of bagging on winter too much, which got me thinking about a less than recent trip to the land of 70 degrees and clear skies, San Diego, CA, back in good old 2008.

San Diego is the only place I've ever been inside of California, and only for 3 days in fall of '08, but the experience was pretty priceless. So much so, I can't really put it into words, and when I reflect upon it, I pretty much remember feelings more than sights, sounds, or a chronology of events. But for the sake of my currently chilly toes and my pale skin, I will try to record my time in the sun.

I went to San Diego for 3 days in October 2008 to present at a public health conference. I'd been working on the research for the conference pretty much up until the minute, and to me, it was actually pretty exciting, novel stuff. But I stress, I had been working, in the way where I was putting in full-time plus hours at an internship and an assistantship and researching in my free time, when I wasn't spending it revising my thesis.

I was pretty much going full speed since the summer, and I was really ready to move on with my life. I was at the end of my current period of schooling, and I was really trying to close it out well, but nevertheless, to bring it to a close. I wasn't going to go on a long vacation to anywhere exotic anytime soon (I have yet to do this!) and my Baltimore home was sinking into cooler fall weather, soon to be winter. San Diego, California was a great idea. Presenting at a professional conference was an "eh" idea.

So I did what I needed to do. I went to my presentation early the day it was scheduled, I stood there by my poster for hours, I answered a bunch of questions and exchanged email information with those who wanted to learn more. Then I left that beautiful convention center for good. No mixers, no keynotes, no extra-learning, no above-and-beyond stuff involved at all. Not this time.

Instead, I woke up for yoga and water with orange slices. I walked over to the contemporary art museum and to the naval memorial at the harbor. I shopped for halloween costume acessories at Max's Dollar Store. I ate a really massive burritto.

harbor daisies, october leaves, and so much sunshine

The next day I went to the San Diego Zoo before my flight out. It was the first time I had ever gone to a zoo alone, and first thing in the morning. Most of the animals were asleep when I got there! But because I was so early, with that bright, steamy sun already warming up my forehead, there were no lines and no little munchkins in my way to view the great cats, the camels, the porquipine, or the pandas.

And then...I met a man. Not like that - I met and made friends, in an hour's time, with a teeny tiny Chinese man who was elderly and spoke no English. We met because he had the habit of being the only one to be visiting the exact same exhibits that I was, just moments after me. I laughed at the monkeys jumping around in the trees, then he did too. He pointed to the baby gorillas play-fighting, and I nodded in acknowledgement. He and I walked round and round the manatee tank trying to find where those guys had swum off to.

Maybe this little guy made friends easily at the zoo. When I tried to talk with him, to share my name and to express my fondess of the creatures we were looking at, he showed me an ID of his, which happened to be his zoo pass for the year. It was battered and obviously very well used. I bet he made lots of of people's zoo experiences a bit more fun and cheerful, quiet as he was, but kind as he was. But for me, he did more than brighten my day. He made my year, my life, instantly more peaceful. He made it make sense that I study in a field seeking after ways for humans to live healthy, happy lives, connected to one another, but content within themselves.

He and San Diego will now and forever be my sunny day to remember.

Be

The PULL of simplicity

is a gentle tuG

or a modest tendency.


It never gets in the way of complication's wild array

or AGENCY.


The air of SILENCE

rings PURITY or signals

U N I T Y

or otherwise

underperforms

mindless cacophony.


The BEAT of SUFFICIENY

is a steady humming

UnConfused with the DRuMMinG

of the urges and purges and regurges of Consumption.


There is enough. It is enough. It is.

10-4-2010. dmv

Presents in the Past

I have been a horrible blogger this year so far. I get home from work, and I am either desperately trying to do something active after a day of sitting at the office, or I am desperately trying to not use my brain at all, which leads to no blogging.

At any rate, this post is overdue.

One of the fun things about the holiday season is that, in addition to Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years, S' birthday is on January 6. That meant for him lots of fun things in a row, like visits with my family, visits with his family, and a gaggle of food, more food, and presents.

For his big day we did something similar to his 21st, when we went to, hands down, the fanciest Chinese Restaurant we have ever been to, Mr. K's in New York City. This time around, we stayed pretty local but went into Boston to eat at Morton's Steak House. S got the New York strip steak and pretty needless to say, I got the vegetable plate, which came with some of the largest pieces of broccolli I have ever seen, much less eaten.

We then proceeded to take a nice long walk around the Prudential Center, admiring what was left of the holiday lights and trying to stay warm in the "smix," or what I have been getting quite used to in New England as snowy mix of freeeezing rain, sleet and snow, which always seems to form in puddles right in front of the place where I am about to walk. I end up with soaking feet every time, I sware. Despite the chill, it was a fun time reminicent of S's earlier birthdays.

Decked Out for Dinner

Birthday dinner that weekend for S was preceeded by a more traditional celebration during the week on his actual day of birth. We had a little cake, for which I found the best candles ever - the kind where the flame emitted takes on the color of the candle itself - so purple candles burn purple flame and so forth. My scientist boyfriend, before he knew the were special candles, got freaked out and shouted, "How hot is that candle?!" when I at first lit the white candle in the pack and it emitted a light blue-ish flame. Observant to the core, he is.

Birthday Cake with the "Shrek" S

Family Photo during the Party

Earlier, and by that I mean LAST YEAR, I meant to post pictures of S opening some Christmas gifts from my family, because they didn't get to see the pure joy in his eyes in person when he opened his "Man-poo" and other Axe male hygiene products, or his coveted Cat-A-Day calendar and all the other great goodies he got. We really did have a wonderful holiday season, filled with plenty of downtime, great food and entertainment, and best of all, family and quality time to spend together. It's made it a struggle to get back to days of report writing and editing, planning meetings, and the constant delegation of work and crazy that life tends to bring after the start to a new year.

The good news is, I think I am on the rebound from my earliy 2011 funk. The bad news - until we get back to mountain, that is, is that it's snowing...again. Get ready for the smix!

band wagon

So after much procrastination, I'm writing my first post of 2011.

I didn't know exactly what to say about the new year for awhile, and now that I have a sense of it, I still don't feel fully prepared.

I feel like my life has shifted, perhaps imperceptibly, this past year.

At home, I was living alone with one cat, and now I am living with someone and with another cat!

At work, I was working with a good friend, and now I am once again the sole person fully devoted to my department.

I was just beginning to do yoga, and now I am struggling to get back into it.

I am much more settled in this life than last year's, and I bit more forward thinking, in the sense that I have a foundation to built upon and am living less day-to-day in a skeleton of an emerging life. I know mostly how I want to live this year and what I would like to do. It's exciting, but at the same time, not exciting in the same way that last year was, when I was sprinting and stopping, sprinting and stopping. Now it's a steady race.

I hope everyone has a wonderfully reflective and celebratory beginning of the new year. Don't feel like you need to be anywhere than where you are right now. You are meant to be there. And don't worry so much about what you'll accomplish this year as who you will become. Being is the important thing.

Love, D

Day One

We had a great time out on the bunny hill today! I was telling S in the car ride back home that I didn't expect snowboarding to be so fun unless it was easier - which it really, really was not. We spent a lot of time falling, but with falling came laughter and getting tips from other people on the mountain, who were all really nice. Even though we'll have aches, bumps and bruises, we want to go back really soon to get better and better. S wants to be able to do jumps, and I just want to stay upright. :) More reports to come, but until then, stay warm, snow bunnies!

Next up on the slopes...

Carol Jean!