There are some days when life seems to unfold just the way it was envisioned.  Pieces excitedly falling into place with a beautiful nonchalance.  Again and again.  This is what life is and it will never stop amazing me...

Haven't posted in awhile, here are some thoughts and highlights from sarahville:

-I couldn't help giggling this morning when I was explaining to my students what a dike is.  I wanted to just say 'me!!'.  Instead I talked about magma.
-I hope I get a good spot when we move cubitats soon. 
-I'm happy.  Truly happy.
-Unrelated, there are 26 ears of corn in my fridge.  Loving the CSA and hoping to do a winter one as well. 

-Currently trying to inhabit a tomato state of mind.  Working on art for the Tomato Art Festival.  Sent some of my recent stuff to their juries on a whim and was ecstatic when I was accepted!  I have one piece mostly completed (yarn, paint, and plywood....) and another about halfway done that I'm still trying to decide if it's tomato-inspired or not.  It's my red screen door weaving.  Definitely elements of summer, gardens, etc., but not *specifically* tomatoey.  Thoughs?

-Cheerleaders scare me.
-Decided that I'm definitely going to be moving out of the Benton apartment at some point in the near future where near is a value close to 4 weeks.
-some days, when I think I can't get any dykier, I do.  And I love it.
-Haven't read any new books lately, which is sad.
-A cicada flew into my head yesterday as I was walking to Stevenson.  It left a red mark!
-I've realized I do, in fact, like eggplant. 
-Had a fantastic saturday night that can be summarized as follows: wine, grass, shy, camp chair, lightning, shining, soggy, kisses, puddles, tree falling on a car (not mine), road closed, long drive.  Was also supposed to include Shakespeare, but it's funny how they don't like to run lighting and sound equipment in a metal framed tent in a field in a thunderstorm...
-Not a lot of time to practice, but I'm slowly learning to play the guitar.  My cats don't approve of such noisy nonsense.

-Slightly more seriously, my aunt was diagnosed with cancer this week.  Still waiting to hear more, but it is quite serious and makes me very angry at the unfairness that is the world.

This isn't where I want to be forever, but it's kind of ok for now.  I'm doing what I am supposed to be doing, I made the right decision to move.  I'm happy :-)

Just saw the first few flashes of lightning bugs in my front yard, so exciting!  Maybe it's the past week spent outside or just the novelty of living somewhere again where I can be in contact with nature, but it's making me smile.  The fresh organic veggies I just got delivered help with that too!  Perfect summer night :-)

Inspired by a recent post, I decided to make a list of 50 things I love.  People have been excluded, because there would be too many and they're impossible to rank.   So, here goes nothing...


1.  the beach - this one's obvious, given what I study, but it still is my favorite place to be
2.  Sex - why lie, it's the truth :-)
3.  programming and computer work in general - I usually swear a lot while I do it, but it makes me feel like a badass
4.  sexy high heels
5.  biodiesel
6.  painting
7.  long hippie skirts
8.  short hair
10.  long hair
11. kitties - 2 in particular :-)
12.  thai food
13.  wine - reds are my favorite, but i'm always interested in trying new ones
14.  teaching - sounds smarmy, but it's something I really love to do
15.  cooking - something i love love love and am always trying to improve at.  I want to dethrone Martha one day.
16.  porch swings
17.  that giddy feeling of relief when you turn something in after an all nighter and then pass out
18.  bubble baths in claw-footed bathtubs
19.  New York City - Manhattan in particular
20.  Project Runway and fashion in general
21.  piercings
22.  central park
23.  indian food
24.  rocks, mud, and dirt, and anything else i spend 10 hours a day thinking about
25.  being queer - quite seriously.
26.  the new york times, particularly spending an entire lazy sunday tacking the sunday times
27.  crossword puzzles
28.  kisses
29.  being barefoot
30.  scarves, usually worn on my head
31.  guacamole and beer consumed together
32. old boxy volvos
33. geology, geophysics in particular (see #3)
34. that really sexy noise a guitar makes when changing chords
35. the smell of fresh-cut christmas trees
36. sleeping in
37. getting up early and getting a bunch of work done before 8am
38. falafel.  ahem.
39. peonies in spring
40. my sexy mac - i'm just that shallow
41. road trips
42. moving to new cities - done it 5 times now, who knows where it will end!
43. making art, of any kind
44. thunderstorms, the louder the better
45. rainy days with nothing to do but sit on the couch and read fiction
46. books and reading in general - can't narrow it down any further...
47. building things
48. long bike rides with no destination in mind
49.  gilmore girls.
50.  vintage clothing, particularly stuff from the 40s and 50s

The Farm (www.thefarm.org) - I've been lusting after their website for quite awhile and there's an amazing looking Natural Building Workshop coming up that I'm trying to figure out how/if I can attend
New York - just returned a plane ticket and am afraid it's going to be a long ass time before I get up there again
San Francisco - One of the cities I can't believe I haven't visited yet, and I don't want to wait until AGU to go
South Africa - geology, wine, amazing music, what else do you need?
Tibet - perhaps not the wisest place to vacation at the moment, but someday...
Thailand, India, Norway, the list goes on...
a beach, anywhere, seriously, anywhere where I can be warm and sit in the surf and daydream

Instead, I'm in a basement in Nashvegas....this needs to change.

Georgiana Edna Holsinger: Mrs. Holsinger, age 95 years, died March 13, 2008 at Bay Medical Care Facility. She was born in Bear Lake, MI on May 28, 1912
to the late Edwin Oliver and Georgiana (Gauthier) Thompson. She married Vasa C. Holsinger on August 30, 1930 and he preceded her in death on November 23, 1988. She was a member of First Congregational Church and was a life member of Benzie Chapter No. 405, O.E.S.
Surviving are 2 sons, Edwin (Louise) Holsinger and Donald (Marjorie) Holsinger; 11 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by a daughter, Georgiana Enid Holsinger; a grandson, Edwin B. Holsinger and 7 brothers and sisters.
Funeral and committal service will be Monday at 11 a.m. at Penzien-Steele Funeral Home.

I feel bad I couldn't make it home to MI for this, and even worse that I hadn't seen her in years. 

On an unrelated note, nothing is quite so awkward is the long walk in from the parking garage with Calvin at 6:45 am.  Normally we're both a bit of the shy, quiet type, but exponentially more so that early when I'm not quite awake.  I was never so glad to get out of the elevator.

Unrelated note #2: http://theveggiecafe.com/
Intriguing. 

20.	moose	1 thumb up
	verb. Grabbing a woman's breasts. The term is in contrast to grabbing her rear end, which would be 'goosing'. Usually accompanied by a loud shout of "Moose!" She wasn't paying attention, so I moosed her. tags goose boob grab grab greeting silly by Sarah Krentz Nashvegas, TN Feb 6, 2008 email it

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=moose&page=3

Although the University is technically on its spring break, this does not mean bikinis and beer start Friday at 5pm for everyone.  Some people, namely graduate students, still have lots of work to do.  This work, shockingly, requires the use of our facilities such as our offices, labs, giant printers and the elevators to get to them.  Locking all doors of the building and denying already panicked graduate students access to these things is not nice and is unnecessary.  Since I'm the only other one I've seen on campus so far today, I doubt anyone is going to come in and steal anything from my locked office...

That is all.

I've been painting again this semester, partially to add some color and decoration to my bare walls of my apartment, partly because i've been going through an artsy streak after reading too many science journals, and partly because I've watched a lot of biopics on artists lately... 

At any rate, I've uploaded some photos and want to try to keep a visual record of artistic endeavors :-)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/feralfalafel/

Today I ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner in my cube (or as I'm now supposed to call it, my 'habitat' because cube is too close to pube). 

I can't decide if it makes me badass and dedicated, or just pathetic...

This arrived in my inbox today, I thought I'd share :-)

Dear Sarah,

Hello! How are you? I have missed you while you have been away. I have grown a lot. I am almost three feet tall, and as you can tell, I have learned to type. I don't put all my leaves on the right keys, but I have learned to find the letters one at a time.

I liked the walk to the train yesterday. It was very cold but there were lots of people and I was taller than they were because Sarah was carrying me. The train was fun but it was noisy and I like Sarah's apartment because she plays me showtunes.

Please come visit me soon, I will be sitting near Sarah's window watching the people outside.

Love (and guacamole!),

Al

Sometimes I have these moments where it really hits me that I spent the last few hours thinking about how tiny particles move around in water.  Today I had about 5 of those moments.....

After so many hours of staring at squiggly lines trying to see thousands of years of history, the brain needs a break.  I've also been intermittently doing origami while waiting patiently for my data to load.  Something about folding tiny pieces of paper that is relaxing rather than as infuriating as it sounds.  The book of origami flowers that I had been searching for for quite some time has finally been procured.  I expected the house to be filled with them quite soon.  I really want to experiment with scale, too.  I've already played around a bit with using alternative paper (magazines, old homework assignments, graph paper), but I'm curious to see if it's possible to use collaged paper, or even just really large pieces.  Magazine has been my favorite so far, particular with modular origami.  It's so easy to find a tiny bit of interesting form and then to put 10 or 20 of them together usually turns good results.  Is it art if you're using other people's art?  Hmm.  I've also hauled out the couple blank canvasses I had stashed in the back of my closet to try to see if inspiration strikes.  I'm thinking about possibly incorporating the two projects, something 3-d with my 'found' origami and paint.  I find that if I let it steep for awhile, something usually comes of it.  However, the canvasses have been around for a couple years now, mostly frustrated by my inability to put on canvas what I can see in my head.  Perhaps lack of practice or lack of the fine motor control, my own creations never live up to my imagination. 

I don't know why, but my posting has tapered off in the last several months.  Not for a lack of eventfulness or ideas, mostly just lack of commitment to commit them to paper.  Or screen, I suppose.  I like the word lack.  The poster deadline is looming, though.  I'm presenting at a conference in March and still don't feel anywhere near close enough.  Thankfully a large part of it is a recap of the work we've been doing over the last few years.  And hopefully (!) we will have enough to resubmit to Science at the end of this semester.  The reviews last time were good, it just wasn't quite there in terms of results.  A lot of it is, or could be in my hands, I think I'm almost afraid to push forward.  I can be such a pansy sometimes. 

Non-sequitor.  Sarah came to visit this past weekend, she had a couple days off from school for some holiday that no one can figure out.  Did some early birthday celebrating, had a couple dinner parties with friends, and in general drank a healthy amount of wine.  All in all, one of the better weekends I've had lately.  The catopotamus and his sister agree, they adore Sarah nearly as much as I do.  Plus, it was nice that she finally got to meet a lot of the people I go to school with.  To her surprise (and my amusement), no one flinches at the dykes in the room here :-)  I think she expected a lot more discomfort south of the mason-dixon line. 

At any rate, things are good, but the squiggles are calling (can you hear them?  I can...) 

Quarter life crisis, or just good logic?  *sigh*

Doing work at my favorite local coffee shop (full of trendy mac users like myself) and I've found myself very distracted and eavesdropping on the couple next to me who are clearly on a first date.  The bubbly conversation, nervous leaning in and fiddling with their respective coffees and teas, legs crossing and uncrossing, it's adorable and I wish them well.  Reminds me of a very lovely first date I had once on 66th street ;-)   There's also a guy who looks *exactly* like a young Bill Gates sitting a few tables over.  People watching is so much mre interesting than my work right now...


Aand, back to the grind!