year in review
And now for 2007, in snippets. It began and ended in Richland, but in-between we got Ellensburg, Seattle, Claremont, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Vladimir, Suzdal, Santiago, La Serena, Las Campanas Observatory, New York, Washington DC, and probably other places I am forgetting. A year of travel to be sure. Onward!
I simply do not know what the next 5 (technically 4 beginning 1/29) months of my life will bring, and it's a little weird.
anyway, Wenatchee is awesome and I'm here for ALL THIS WEEK!!! may not be the best idea in the world to get used to always having Mike around immediately prior to disappearing for four months in a foreign country...but whatever. :)
I am ridiculously content. It is awesome. It is also weird.
also, it is odd getting 20 bazillion (or maybe only 20) emails every day sent to students-l when I am very much not at Mudd and everyone else is. that is all.
every member of congregation: you're going to russia?!
me: yeah. for a semester abroad. I leave a week from tomorrow.
I also got a haircut. nothing drastic, just got rid of the dead/split ends.
[note: have not gotten a haircut since...and need to!]
point - life is too short to get pissed off at stupid things like credit cards. point taken.
this weekend has been fun, I still have a few pounds to shed from my suitcases, and tomorrow morning begins an adventure of unparalleled magnitude.
well, technically I kind of did poof, only I’ve wound up stuck in new york city until tuesday. kind of like in star trek: generations when the answer to everything is “it’ll be installed next tuesday.” only lacking internet, cell phone, and warp drive.
or some reason most of the US students I came with are what one might call stereotypical US college students - less work is better, cheap alcohol is tasty, drinking every weeknight is fun. *sigh* since when am I so damn sophisticated that I simply don't buy into that?? I feel like there are very few people in the world who take life seriously, yet are clever enough to not *really* take it seriously.
I take a hot shower and remember to not drink the shower water. I eat oatmeal or bread with jam and nutella or yogurt. Eventually I put on my jacket and scarf, grab my hat and gloves, don my boots, and head down 10 floors and out into the winter, through the parking lot, across the street, onto bus number 34.
It's a good life, but it's different, and it's only temporary. It's going to do that thing where right now it feels like forever, but before I know it May will be here and I will wonder where the days went. And you know what I realized the other day, when it comes down to it we're really all just people.
it is EXTREMELY cold today. really. the inside of my nose was frozen. my eyeballs were beginning to get cold. that just doesn't happen.
only way this could be better, the four things above notwithstanding? Mike, fireplace, corn chips, guacamole. in that order. oh well, 'tis a season for everything, I suppose. right now happens to be "winter in Russia." brrrrrr!!!
Culture shock is just a fancy term no one wants to associate with that is really code for "change happens, and it happened to involve a foreign country this time around." There was your random observation for the day.
Time also is strange. It is going quite quickly, which is nice, I suppose, it makes for less waiting, though not percentage-wise. Somehow I have been here for 20 days.
The traffic is always terrible outside my window. It's time to go make some instant noodles.
We're "possibly" moving on Saturday. I haven't packed anything up yet because here "possibly" doesn't stand for much.
Moscow decided today would be a fabulous day to transition from fucking cold and frozen to damn cold and wet!
I had one of those potato-sized deep fried sketchy meat product with yellow oil inside today for lunch, and discovered they are actually growing on me.
if I had a life, being here would be more fun.
HUZZAH Russia, take that you disorganized country, I am where I should have been a month ago, and it is AWESOME! :D
in other news, I have a bad cold, I saw La Traviata today, and I need to do some more russian language homework.
Yesterday I waited an hour for the laundry room to open (the door says it's open from 10.00-22.00 M-F, but that's more of a "potentially open during this window" time frame).
today I was getting ready to go to Thermal Physics when I got a text message from my professor saying "did you know there was a time change, how about we have class at 12.00 (new time) or 11.00 (old time)?" uhhhhh funny how the time change happened SATURDAY NIGHT. oh Russia.
Moscow != Camp Cross. namely, they speak Russian here and it isn't on a lake. among other things.
something about a random group of Americans and Russians with a German and handful of Iranians thrown in the mix, all gathered in an old Soviet apartment in a random corner of Moscow, having a "fiesta" of all things, was just great.
Still, doing Moscow with Mike was FANTASTIC. I finally got to eat at some places I wanted to eat at, see some sights I wanted to see, get Mike's insights (sometimes serious, sometimes amusing, sometimes both) on random aspects of Moscow. Life is so much more FUN with a like-minded person to share it with!
Summer plans are either falling into place or exploding in my face. Either way, it rhymes.
I have only one month left here, and that's a little strange. I think this will be enough Russia for me for now, though. I'm not saying it's going on the "been there, done that" list, it'll just be enough for now.
people need to chill out and stop doing stupid things. twas ever thus.
I'm not completely sick of Russia but a growing part of me wants to get back home and have a new set of adventures with the perspective of having been in Russia behind me.
Meantime while I'm pondering all this and sorting out things like classes and housing and logistics in general with people back in the States, I'm still in...Russia.
Politology was cancelled on Friday, then today and tomorrow are the *actual* weekend, then Tuesday (May 1) is a holiday so clearly Monday is a pre-holiday. There you have it, a 5-day weekend.
I also asked what I should wear [to the orchestra concert], and they kind of shrugged and said "whatever," so I was like..."black?" and they said "oh, not necessary" but a minute later I was being told that the guys usually wear mostly black and the girls might wear something black, and I'm just like dangit Russia would you make up your mind!
they won't let you in unless you show a student ID, or in the case of my residence sector, my dorm ID. sometimes they barely look, sometimes they recognize me and wave me through, sometimes they grab it from me and examine it with a scowl and thrust it back at me, nodding curtly. if you have qualms about Mudd's cardswipes, you really shouldn't.
but here's the thing. if you're carrying flowers, it's like an unwritten law that you have to carry them upside-down. I think this just helps the petals stay un-droopy, but it's kind of creepy for some reason.
I really enjoy traveling and seeing new places, but again I reiterate that it's the people who make it what it is.
Trust me, this [train] bathroom made airplane bathrooms seem luxurious, though thankfully it was a bit larger than most airplane bathrooms. Let's just say, apparently it's not illegal to flush straight onto the tracks in Russia. There's even a small hole in the middle of the floor serving as a drain through which you can see the ground fly by.
Just as I begin to wonder "where did the semester go?" I reflect on February and March and how many days I had to venture out into the Russian winter just to get to class or buy water.
[from a meme:] 10. Is your bathroom clean?
I don't think that concept parses in Russian.
there are so many little parts of everyday life that we don't give more than a passing thought to.
one more time just for kicks: WTF Moscow??!!
it's been pretty nuts lately. had a fantastic week plus at "home," and now I'm on a roadtrip with Dad in the van down to Mudd.
oh life!! always full of adventures, but I'm not complaining.
this summer I have a south window that faces north pointing east, so it's really hot in the morning when the sun shines in.
my enter key is being a bit wonky, it called Mike on Skype all by itself last night - twice.
Honest-to-God, I lay awake at night in February [2000] wondering what to do about the prospect of only one week at camp that coming July.
It's been a fantastic weekend!! It began on Friday night, as weekends are known to do.
It's too bad people have to get married in order to justify such a fun gathering of friends and family, because really that sort of thing should happen more often for no particular reason.
There [were], by my standards, a reasonable and normal number of cars on the road for any non-rush hour period of the day. Unfortunately this was at midnight.
So I may not have *seen* a shuttle launch or landing, but gosh darnit I've heard one!!
guess what?? chicken butt! oh, and camp cross in TWO WEEKS holy crap I hope I don't EXPLODE!!!
tonight is okay, because I certainly don't feel lame spending a Friday night alone, not after Russia and not when I just want some time to be.
time is just doing funny things...somehow this is week 5 of 9! silly me, I thought I just got back from Russia or something.
in other news, Karen and I fail at making popcorn.
That [the young adult weekend at Camp Cross] went until Sunday after lunch, and was perfect.
The game [“Shadows Over Camelot”] should be called "knights of the round table go do random quests with complicated rules," but I guess that would be too long.
I'm getting a bit tired of the one hour commute, eight hour workday, one hour commute thing.
I really really enjoy astronomy, but it's annoying at times because I like other things a lot too! and if I'm saying that now...haha...
[re. HP7:] You'd think that the morality and lessons underlying the books would teach people a thing or two about values. Those who insist on spreading copies of the book before its release are little better than Death Eaters. Unfortunately, the Muggle world lacks Obliviator squads.
let me just say, that was INTENSE. seriously intense. best book ever. most amazing series ever. I want to relive it again and again. you have no idea. it's like going to camp for a week, you just don't want to go back to everyday life after experiencing something that fantastic. only in book form. WHOA. J.K. Rowling is my hero. INTENSE. the end.
I'm ready for a bit of actual summer - the kind where I don't have to get up at 6am and deal with traffic and freeways and computer screens. life's so much better with a bit of nature, rest, and bona fide community thrown in.
My small group was amazing and camp is always, ALWAYS what I need when it happens.
Everyone at church wanted to know how long I'd be in town, and what I'd been up to, and why their kids who are my age don't go to church. Um. My response: I'm heading out this afternoon, I've been to Russia and California and Camp Cross and am heading to Ellensburg/Seattle and Chile before going back to California, and...no idea, but it would be great to see the people in question.
Mike and I picked up a small U-haul truck in what we thought was Kennewick but turned out to be Pasco (long story) and headed back to my "old" house. At this point, Dad thought it would be a great idea to use the truck and Mike's ability to lift heavy things to his advantage, and moved all his power tools to Lynne's place. There went the afternoon.
[Chile has] American plugs but mystery meat, bottled water but clean air. I keep comparing things to my time in Russia, and keep thinking I should speak to people in Russian.
if you are EVER in the Dallas/Ft Worth airport, go to terminal A and find a way to take a shower in the Admiral's Lounge, I am NOT EVEN KIDDING
My favorite part is how American and Alaska [airlines] claim to be partners but you definitely can't just have one frequent flyer number or transfer miles between them. My second favorite part is how Aeroflot now has a bonus miles program but I can't get credit unless I send copies of my paper tickets and original boarding passes...via snail mail to Moscow. right.
I do believe things are beginning to happen, as they often do.
I already have more work for tomorrow than a typical weekend should contain, and that's after tackling a fair amount of it already.
turns out they aren't joking about a 3:15 boarding time for a 4:15 international flight [at LAX] because not only do you have to trek through the airport to get to the gate, once you walk outside you just board a big ass bus (BAB) which drives for some 5-10 minutes across expanses of tarmac before literally going in circles and dumping you - get this - not at a plane, but at another terminal type place with a never-ending ramp that THEN leads you onto the freaking plane. whew. then the plane doesn't take off for a good 20 minutes after departing this "gate" because I swear the tarmac expanse is as huge, illogical, and congested as the rest of the paved things in LA.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, each semester somehow manages to be nuttier than the last, and this one is no exception.
still, in the scheme of things, life is fantastic. I enjoy everything I'm doing. nothing vaguely shitty is going on in my life.
my sleep schedule, on the other hand, was completely out of whack for quite some time, and transitioning back to pacific time + diurnal (versus eastern time + nocturnal) was odd. the 24ish hours of travel in the midst of things didn't help, though I sat next to a guy from Santiago to Dallas who was then flying to Tokyo and that made me realize my life didn't suck as much as I thought it might.
[my cat and computer are both dead.] But *I* am still kicking, so that's got to count for something, right??
the title for my thesis (at least for now) is "Ups and Downs in the Life of a Cataclysmic Variable: The Long-Term Behavior of CM Phoenicis." Prof. Hoard came up with it, and it makes me happy. now if only I could spend enough time on it to get some results.
we were going to go to Six Flags but it is lame and closed. yet it's 90 degrees outside and on fire. that is the weather, seriously, California is on fire. we were going to go to the beach, but it's on fire. we were going to go wine tasting in Temecula, but places nearby are on fire (and I dislike I-15). the air is orange because everything is on fire.
over at east, I had quite a number of unsuspecting easties get super excited about my [star trek Halloween] outfit, which made me smile. I guess no one expects the non-eastie non-ridiculously-geeky me to be a star trek fan, much less a fan with a complete uniform at hand.
it's frustrating to put so much into, I don't know, everything, and not be guaranteed the opportunity to further my education and pursue my passion. is that just how life goes? I suppose all I can do is my best, so for now I'll just keep on keeping on.
did you know it is November already? Claremont never made it out of September.
I need to tell the world why I'm so fantastic and motivated at astronomy and should be selected as one of the lucky few to pursue a graduate degree in the field, and I need to do it in thirteen variations. Like some sadistic symphony with the same damn theme recurring again and again so you spend the next two weeks of your life with a fragment of music stuck in your head, not knowing why.
yay Alaska Airlines? (except for the part where they tried to get me to shove my carry-on into the size-wise bin and when it didn't fit I assured them it was okay and proceeded).
yay [Thanksgiving] break, I wish all my work would go away, that would be amazing. oh well, for now, it does not exist! poof?
random: Karen decided that when they make whatever comes after the nintendo wii, it should be called woo. we all laughed.
At any rate, today was marvelous. Partly cloudy, slightly breezy, clean air, a crisp (nearly autumnal!) chill. Overdue rainy days are second only to day-after-a-rainy-day days in California.
And now back to your regularly scheduled "Meredith works her face off."
I am so tired of writing serious stuff that matters, and I am nowhere near done.
hahahaha, David just walked in and pronounced, "I'm going to raid your alcohol." this is a good summary of how the end of the semester has been and continues to be. oi. :)
today it is Christmas! and in seeing bunches of people, I have overwhelmingly been presented with two questions: (1) where's Mike? (2) what are you doing after you graduate?
sigh. he's in SEATTLE with his FAMILY. he has one, you know. and I'm applying to scads of grad schools. of course, I can't get away with the second response, I have to explain that I'm applying to astronomy programs, how I can major in physics and pursue astronomy, why I'm applying to so many schools when "clearly you're brilliant and can go anywhere you want," etc., etc.
***
the end! you may have points if you made it this far :) :)
I simply do not know what the next 5 (technically 4 beginning 1/29) months of my life will bring, and it's a little weird.
anyway, Wenatchee is awesome and I'm here for ALL THIS WEEK!!! may not be the best idea in the world to get used to always having Mike around immediately prior to disappearing for four months in a foreign country...but whatever. :)
I am ridiculously content. It is awesome. It is also weird.
also, it is odd getting 20 bazillion (or maybe only 20) emails every day sent to students-l when I am very much not at Mudd and everyone else is. that is all.
every member of congregation: you're going to russia?!
me: yeah. for a semester abroad. I leave a week from tomorrow.
I also got a haircut. nothing drastic, just got rid of the dead/split ends.
[note: have not gotten a haircut since...and need to!]
point - life is too short to get pissed off at stupid things like credit cards. point taken.
this weekend has been fun, I still have a few pounds to shed from my suitcases, and tomorrow morning begins an adventure of unparalleled magnitude.
well, technically I kind of did poof, only I’ve wound up stuck in new york city until tuesday. kind of like in star trek: generations when the answer to everything is “it’ll be installed next tuesday.” only lacking internet, cell phone, and warp drive.
or some reason most of the US students I came with are what one might call stereotypical US college students - less work is better, cheap alcohol is tasty, drinking every weeknight is fun. *sigh* since when am I so damn sophisticated that I simply don't buy into that?? I feel like there are very few people in the world who take life seriously, yet are clever enough to not *really* take it seriously.
I take a hot shower and remember to not drink the shower water. I eat oatmeal or bread with jam and nutella or yogurt. Eventually I put on my jacket and scarf, grab my hat and gloves, don my boots, and head down 10 floors and out into the winter, through the parking lot, across the street, onto bus number 34.
It's a good life, but it's different, and it's only temporary. It's going to do that thing where right now it feels like forever, but before I know it May will be here and I will wonder where the days went. And you know what I realized the other day, when it comes down to it we're really all just people.
it is EXTREMELY cold today. really. the inside of my nose was frozen. my eyeballs were beginning to get cold. that just doesn't happen.
only way this could be better, the four things above notwithstanding? Mike, fireplace, corn chips, guacamole. in that order. oh well, 'tis a season for everything, I suppose. right now happens to be "winter in Russia." brrrrrr!!!
Culture shock is just a fancy term no one wants to associate with that is really code for "change happens, and it happened to involve a foreign country this time around." There was your random observation for the day.
Time also is strange. It is going quite quickly, which is nice, I suppose, it makes for less waiting, though not percentage-wise. Somehow I have been here for 20 days.
The traffic is always terrible outside my window. It's time to go make some instant noodles.
We're "possibly" moving on Saturday. I haven't packed anything up yet because here "possibly" doesn't stand for much.
Moscow decided today would be a fabulous day to transition from fucking cold and frozen to damn cold and wet!
I had one of those potato-sized deep fried sketchy meat product with yellow oil inside today for lunch, and discovered they are actually growing on me.
if I had a life, being here would be more fun.
HUZZAH Russia, take that you disorganized country, I am where I should have been a month ago, and it is AWESOME! :D
in other news, I have a bad cold, I saw La Traviata today, and I need to do some more russian language homework.
Yesterday I waited an hour for the laundry room to open (the door says it's open from 10.00-22.00 M-F, but that's more of a "potentially open during this window" time frame).
today I was getting ready to go to Thermal Physics when I got a text message from my professor saying "did you know there was a time change, how about we have class at 12.00 (new time) or 11.00 (old time)?" uhhhhh funny how the time change happened SATURDAY NIGHT. oh Russia.
Moscow != Camp Cross. namely, they speak Russian here and it isn't on a lake. among other things.
something about a random group of Americans and Russians with a German and handful of Iranians thrown in the mix, all gathered in an old Soviet apartment in a random corner of Moscow, having a "fiesta" of all things, was just great.
Still, doing Moscow with Mike was FANTASTIC. I finally got to eat at some places I wanted to eat at, see some sights I wanted to see, get Mike's insights (sometimes serious, sometimes amusing, sometimes both) on random aspects of Moscow. Life is so much more FUN with a like-minded person to share it with!
Summer plans are either falling into place or exploding in my face. Either way, it rhymes.
I have only one month left here, and that's a little strange. I think this will be enough Russia for me for now, though. I'm not saying it's going on the "been there, done that" list, it'll just be enough for now.
people need to chill out and stop doing stupid things. twas ever thus.
I'm not completely sick of Russia but a growing part of me wants to get back home and have a new set of adventures with the perspective of having been in Russia behind me.
Meantime while I'm pondering all this and sorting out things like classes and housing and logistics in general with people back in the States, I'm still in...Russia.
Politology was cancelled on Friday, then today and tomorrow are the *actual* weekend, then Tuesday (May 1) is a holiday so clearly Monday is a pre-holiday. There you have it, a 5-day weekend.
I also asked what I should wear [to the orchestra concert], and they kind of shrugged and said "whatever," so I was like..."black?" and they said "oh, not necessary" but a minute later I was being told that the guys usually wear mostly black and the girls might wear something black, and I'm just like dangit Russia would you make up your mind!
they won't let you in unless you show a student ID, or in the case of my residence sector, my dorm ID. sometimes they barely look, sometimes they recognize me and wave me through, sometimes they grab it from me and examine it with a scowl and thrust it back at me, nodding curtly. if you have qualms about Mudd's cardswipes, you really shouldn't.
but here's the thing. if you're carrying flowers, it's like an unwritten law that you have to carry them upside-down. I think this just helps the petals stay un-droopy, but it's kind of creepy for some reason.
I really enjoy traveling and seeing new places, but again I reiterate that it's the people who make it what it is.
Trust me, this [train] bathroom made airplane bathrooms seem luxurious, though thankfully it was a bit larger than most airplane bathrooms. Let's just say, apparently it's not illegal to flush straight onto the tracks in Russia. There's even a small hole in the middle of the floor serving as a drain through which you can see the ground fly by.
Just as I begin to wonder "where did the semester go?" I reflect on February and March and how many days I had to venture out into the Russian winter just to get to class or buy water.
[from a meme:] 10. Is your bathroom clean?
I don't think that concept parses in Russian.
there are so many little parts of everyday life that we don't give more than a passing thought to.
one more time just for kicks: WTF Moscow??!!
it's been pretty nuts lately. had a fantastic week plus at "home," and now I'm on a roadtrip with Dad in the van down to Mudd.
oh life!! always full of adventures, but I'm not complaining.
this summer I have a south window that faces north pointing east, so it's really hot in the morning when the sun shines in.
my enter key is being a bit wonky, it called Mike on Skype all by itself last night - twice.
Honest-to-God, I lay awake at night in February [2000] wondering what to do about the prospect of only one week at camp that coming July.
It's been a fantastic weekend!! It began on Friday night, as weekends are known to do.
It's too bad people have to get married in order to justify such a fun gathering of friends and family, because really that sort of thing should happen more often for no particular reason.
There [were], by my standards, a reasonable and normal number of cars on the road for any non-rush hour period of the day. Unfortunately this was at midnight.
So I may not have *seen* a shuttle launch or landing, but gosh darnit I've heard one!!
guess what?? chicken butt! oh, and camp cross in TWO WEEKS holy crap I hope I don't EXPLODE!!!
tonight is okay, because I certainly don't feel lame spending a Friday night alone, not after Russia and not when I just want some time to be.
time is just doing funny things...somehow this is week 5 of 9! silly me, I thought I just got back from Russia or something.
in other news, Karen and I fail at making popcorn.
That [the young adult weekend at Camp Cross] went until Sunday after lunch, and was perfect.
The game [“Shadows Over Camelot”] should be called "knights of the round table go do random quests with complicated rules," but I guess that would be too long.
I'm getting a bit tired of the one hour commute, eight hour workday, one hour commute thing.
I really really enjoy astronomy, but it's annoying at times because I like other things a lot too! and if I'm saying that now...haha...
[re. HP7:] You'd think that the morality and lessons underlying the books would teach people a thing or two about values. Those who insist on spreading copies of the book before its release are little better than Death Eaters. Unfortunately, the Muggle world lacks Obliviator squads.
let me just say, that was INTENSE. seriously intense. best book ever. most amazing series ever. I want to relive it again and again. you have no idea. it's like going to camp for a week, you just don't want to go back to everyday life after experiencing something that fantastic. only in book form. WHOA. J.K. Rowling is my hero. INTENSE. the end.
I'm ready for a bit of actual summer - the kind where I don't have to get up at 6am and deal with traffic and freeways and computer screens. life's so much better with a bit of nature, rest, and bona fide community thrown in.
My small group was amazing and camp is always, ALWAYS what I need when it happens.
Everyone at church wanted to know how long I'd be in town, and what I'd been up to, and why their kids who are my age don't go to church. Um. My response: I'm heading out this afternoon, I've been to Russia and California and Camp Cross and am heading to Ellensburg/Seattle and Chile before going back to California, and...no idea, but it would be great to see the people in question.
Mike and I picked up a small U-haul truck in what we thought was Kennewick but turned out to be Pasco (long story) and headed back to my "old" house. At this point, Dad thought it would be a great idea to use the truck and Mike's ability to lift heavy things to his advantage, and moved all his power tools to Lynne's place. There went the afternoon.
[Chile has] American plugs but mystery meat, bottled water but clean air. I keep comparing things to my time in Russia, and keep thinking I should speak to people in Russian.
if you are EVER in the Dallas/Ft Worth airport, go to terminal A and find a way to take a shower in the Admiral's Lounge, I am NOT EVEN KIDDING
My favorite part is how American and Alaska [airlines] claim to be partners but you definitely can't just have one frequent flyer number or transfer miles between them. My second favorite part is how Aeroflot now has a bonus miles program but I can't get credit unless I send copies of my paper tickets and original boarding passes...via snail mail to Moscow. right.
I do believe things are beginning to happen, as they often do.
I already have more work for tomorrow than a typical weekend should contain, and that's after tackling a fair amount of it already.
turns out they aren't joking about a 3:15 boarding time for a 4:15 international flight [at LAX] because not only do you have to trek through the airport to get to the gate, once you walk outside you just board a big ass bus (BAB) which drives for some 5-10 minutes across expanses of tarmac before literally going in circles and dumping you - get this - not at a plane, but at another terminal type place with a never-ending ramp that THEN leads you onto the freaking plane. whew. then the plane doesn't take off for a good 20 minutes after departing this "gate" because I swear the tarmac expanse is as huge, illogical, and congested as the rest of the paved things in LA.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, each semester somehow manages to be nuttier than the last, and this one is no exception.
still, in the scheme of things, life is fantastic. I enjoy everything I'm doing. nothing vaguely shitty is going on in my life.
my sleep schedule, on the other hand, was completely out of whack for quite some time, and transitioning back to pacific time + diurnal (versus eastern time + nocturnal) was odd. the 24ish hours of travel in the midst of things didn't help, though I sat next to a guy from Santiago to Dallas who was then flying to Tokyo and that made me realize my life didn't suck as much as I thought it might.
[my cat and computer are both dead.] But *I* am still kicking, so that's got to count for something, right??
the title for my thesis (at least for now) is "Ups and Downs in the Life of a Cataclysmic Variable: The Long-Term Behavior of CM Phoenicis." Prof. Hoard came up with it, and it makes me happy. now if only I could spend enough time on it to get some results.
we were going to go to Six Flags but it is lame and closed. yet it's 90 degrees outside and on fire. that is the weather, seriously, California is on fire. we were going to go to the beach, but it's on fire. we were going to go wine tasting in Temecula, but places nearby are on fire (and I dislike I-15). the air is orange because everything is on fire.
over at east, I had quite a number of unsuspecting easties get super excited about my [star trek Halloween] outfit, which made me smile. I guess no one expects the non-eastie non-ridiculously-geeky me to be a star trek fan, much less a fan with a complete uniform at hand.
it's frustrating to put so much into, I don't know, everything, and not be guaranteed the opportunity to further my education and pursue my passion. is that just how life goes? I suppose all I can do is my best, so for now I'll just keep on keeping on.
did you know it is November already? Claremont never made it out of September.
I need to tell the world why I'm so fantastic and motivated at astronomy and should be selected as one of the lucky few to pursue a graduate degree in the field, and I need to do it in thirteen variations. Like some sadistic symphony with the same damn theme recurring again and again so you spend the next two weeks of your life with a fragment of music stuck in your head, not knowing why.
yay Alaska Airlines? (except for the part where they tried to get me to shove my carry-on into the size-wise bin and when it didn't fit I assured them it was okay and proceeded).
yay [Thanksgiving] break, I wish all my work would go away, that would be amazing. oh well, for now, it does not exist! poof?
random: Karen decided that when they make whatever comes after the nintendo wii, it should be called woo. we all laughed.
At any rate, today was marvelous. Partly cloudy, slightly breezy, clean air, a crisp (nearly autumnal!) chill. Overdue rainy days are second only to day-after-a-rainy-day days in California.
And now back to your regularly scheduled "Meredith works her face off."
I am so tired of writing serious stuff that matters, and I am nowhere near done.
hahahaha, David just walked in and pronounced, "I'm going to raid your alcohol." this is a good summary of how the end of the semester has been and continues to be. oi. :)
today it is Christmas! and in seeing bunches of people, I have overwhelmingly been presented with two questions: (1) where's Mike? (2) what are you doing after you graduate?
sigh. he's in SEATTLE with his FAMILY. he has one, you know. and I'm applying to scads of grad schools. of course, I can't get away with the second response, I have to explain that I'm applying to astronomy programs, how I can major in physics and pursue astronomy, why I'm applying to so many schools when "clearly you're brilliant and can go anywhere you want," etc., etc.
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the end! you may have points if you made it this far :) :)