The application season has ended

Now, all I have to do is hurry up and wait. I am so glad to be done with the applications. I do have one left with no deadline, but I have to order another transcript. I did have struggles with my applications. One very esteemed university lost all my transcripts. One lost a letter of recommendation, and one can’t decide if it lost a letter of recommendation. The scary next step will be clicking on the links in the emails to find out the decisions (or opening envelopes). I feel good, though, I think that I’ll at least have a choice between 2 places. Hopefully my gut feeling is true.

Now, what will I do with my time? I gave myself a Friday deadline to finish up transcribing the oral history project that I began this summer. It’s kind of pathetic that it went by the wayside. I will have it in rough transcription by then. After that’s smoothed over, I am going to bring my computer in for some assistance. It is having power issues. I also will be writing a few more freelance writing articles and maybe just relaxing a bit and going to the gym more. (I have been doing fairly well in that realm, but I could step it up with a little extra time).

I’m dreaming of warmer weather (today Madison schools were closed because of the cold and wind), grilling, and the farmer’s market.

Friday 5

It’s going to be like summer this weekend!  We’re getting above zero!

1. In honor of the temperature rise, patrons of my Starbucks have been ordering Frappuccinos like crazy. You would think that spring was here.

2. We are playing to visit Prairie du Sac’s eagles this weekend. Very exciting day trip.

3. I have major social plans for NEXT weekend (in Chicago), and I’m really excited to hang out with friends. There will be the 4th annual Superbowl bowling, a visit with a kind of long-lost Smith friend, and a visit with other Chi-town friends and their new, beautiful baby.

4. We have oodles of Gilmore Girls DVDs to go through from the library. We are really enjoying the series.

5. When I did one of those “what candidate do you identify with” online quizzes, Kucinich was my top candidate. Well, too bad for me, because he’s left the race already. Hopefully Edwards will stay in so that I can vote for him again. The democratic nomination is going to be interesting! And the GOP race terrifies me.

Happy weekend!

Madison snow removal rant

I feel like I need to join the choir. We have gotten amazing amounts of snow this winter, so much snow. And cold. We have been quite cold, which means that there are piles of snow and ice under the fresh piles of snow. And, Madison has done a horrible, actually despicable job of taking care of the roads. There are very few roads in the city where I can see that they are made of asphalt. The rest are white and bumpy. On Wednesday, when I went outside at 10 to 6 AM, a plow blew past me on my unplowed street. Not dropping sand or salt, with the plow up. Just going up the street. Why? Why couldn’t it have worked on our slippery street just a little bit?

Moving back to Madison has been educational in a lot of ways, especially about what I’m looking for in a place to live. Being an adult here has taught me that driving can remain dangerous all winter long in Madison. And that the ease with which I got around Chicago in the winter cannot be replicated here. It’s messy, slippery, and you see a lot of flashing lights.

End of rant.

A 5 Things Post

The anti-Friday 5, just because it’s Sunday

1. It’s been in the negative degrees all weekend. So we’ve been holed up. My sister and I have

2. eaten at the West side Tex Tubbs, where Allison discovered that she should have stuck to the tacos and we drank margaritas.

3. Engrossed ourselves in a Gilmore Girls marathon, went to see Juno (loved it!) and made edible cookie dough

4. put our name on a list at the Hubbard Avenue diner, and decided that we needed to eat before the 30-minute wait was up, so trying out 3 sisters instead.

5. making TJ’s pad thai from a box (pretty good) and Grandma’s fruit compote recipe.

We wanted to go watch the bald eagles in Prairie du Sac’s Eagle Days and hit up the Flakeout Festival. But it was just too cold.

The Copps salad bar

I’m not working at the ‘bux today, because not enough people have been drinking coffee lately. People need to go out and buy coffee, especially if you live in Fitchburg, because I need more hours. Anyway, I’m here at home supposedly writing an article and catching up.

“Catching up” means a lot of things, like putting away my laundry, washing dishes, swiffering my room…but my favorite part of “catching up” is running errands. So, after a wonderful catch-up call with a friend, a short interview, some laundry work (not completed) I headed out into the snow. Yes, it is snowing here again, big juicy flakes. And then, we’re going to get super cold.

I stopped at the library to pick up a few books for the weekend, since we’ll be trapped inside and my sister wants to play video games sometimes. Stopped in at a nearby mall to pick up another item on my list. It was around noon-ish when I got to Copps, our local supermarket. I needed bread (2 different loaves for me and my sister), bananas, and instant waffles (my breakfast on my 5-5:30 AM shifts). Copps recently remodeled some of their Madison area stores, expanding the salad bar, adding more pre-made fresh foods, moving their liquor department, and making things look a little more classy. The salad bar is beautiful, and most excitingly, it contains freshly made dolmas! There dolmas are pretty good, and much less greasy than the ones I get in a can. So, I picked picked up some dolmas for lunch ($2!).

So now I sit, happily full after a lunch of dolmas and chicken, sipping the lemonade I made to remind myself that summer will come again, watching the flakes fall.

Friday 5

1. We have snow again, just a few inches, but it looks and feels like winter (not extreme cold winter, just winter).

2. I’m over half way done with my applications now. One more will be done (most likely) after a discussion with a professor on Monday. Just a note: I’ve spent over $400 on application fees, money to ETS, transcript requests, and postage. Isn’t that awful?

3. I’ve never been to the UW’s art museum, so we’re going to go tomorrow. It’s free, which is, of course, a bonus.

4. Sunday, I will begin my second semester teaching religious school. I’m looking forward to a semester with units on ecology and tikkun olam.

5. Things are looking up. For the moment.

Even though

Even though global warming freaks me out, especially after seeing the bleaching that has occurred in the Caribbean Sea near St. Thomas, sunshine and temperatures over 32 make me happy. The intense cold makes living hard. I don’t mind the cold, but you certainly don’t feel like going outside for long periods of time. I always want to just huddle under blankets. The fog isn’t that fun either. And, thunderstorms and tornadoes in winter are just weird. I think that I do want normal winter weather again. I’ll just relish today’s sun.

Random note: Yesterday, I had one of my 5 AM shifts and I didn’t have a lot of time for a nap (which I usually need to get myself all the way through the evening). So, I skipped the nap and hoped for the best. I didn’t crash at all! I made it all the way past 10 PM! I wonder if I can credit that to exercise. It could be true.

baby steps

I don’t usually do the New Year’s resolution thing, because I feel more strongly about making those sorts of evaluations/resolutions in the fall around Rosh Hashanah and the beginning of the academic year. But, because or in spite of that fact, I am trying to make things better for myself in a few ways.

To compliment the fun of badminton, I joined the YMCA to combat the weight gain that this year has gifted me (because of stress, melancholy, and change in lifestyle). The Y is the cheapest gym option out there for me, and I had to request financial assistance (I only received a $20 discount). The paperwork finally went through at the end of the year, so I became a member upon my return to Madison. I went for the first time on Sunday. I plan to visit the Y four times a week. I’m excited about the opportunity to go swimming indoors, along with the usual cardio workouts. I may have to mark my progress here, to make myself more accountable.

I’m also planning my curriculum for Sunday School ahead of time. It was hard first semester, because I didn’t know my class and the curriculum well. And, I frequently looked during the week at the lesson plan on the CD and made changes accordingly. It worked fairly well, but this semester is different. So, I’m already looking ahead to fill in the days appropriately and choose shorter lesson plans for service days.

I’m also looking forward to finishing the application process, which will be done within the month. Then, I’ll have to wait and be nervous, of course.

Friday 5

1. Although soaking in all that sunshine and vitamin D was nice, being back home is even better. Nothing beats your own bed/space.

2. I desperately needed the break from Starbucks and the daily routine here in Madison. Now, although it’s so cold outside, I appreciate it again. The snow was getting to be a bit of a drag.

3. I dreaded going back to work, but I did miss my co-workers and customers. It was nice getting into the swing of things today.

4. On Wednesday, V and I drove down 151 towards Dodgeville, stopping in New Glarus, Paoli, and Mt. Horeb. I thought that the Mustard Museum was open 365 days a year! But, it was sadly closed on January 1. I just checked the website. I visited last year on Christmas, but apparently they decided to close this year. Strangely enough, they’ve also decided to close on Easter. And the owner of the museum is Jewish!

4. Our ultimate goal was Governor Dodge State Park, a favorite of mine. We entered (buying our 2008 sticker on the first day of January!) and began driving down the hill towards the lake while discussing what it feels like to drive on snow covered roads. I was driving a little closer to the center than comfortable with a car going the opposite direction, so when I saw a big SUV speeding towards me, I swerved towards the right. And did a 180, driving up onto a snow bank. Luckily, 3 cars of ice-fisherman were behind me and stopped to help push me out. My car is fine, the snow is soft, and V had a winter adventure!

5. Before the middle of the month, I have to finish my 4 grad school applications and an article. I’m already nervous but will work hard on Sunday to get a leg up on next week.

Back

Well, it’s back to real life. It’s now 2008 and I turned 26. I had my 10-ish days in the “tropics”, which began with a crazy bus trip to the airport at 2 AM, because our flight from Madison to O’hare was canceled.

The trip had both ups and downs. The ports of call were all really interesting. I don’t want to talk about it now. I’ll write about it later.

After the trip, I had a few lovely days with my friend V from San Francisco, who braved the freezing cold winter weather to spend time with me.  She’s happy to back to CA.

My sister took tons of pics from the cruise. Check them out here.