I will be shamed into this, won’t I

October 3rd, 2009

Real quick. I was poking around on Morgen’s blog and I noticed that her link to mine had changed. Before it was just a link, but now you can see how long it was since I last updated. Oh, the shame. Here’s some things that have happened in the last 6 months:

- Summer went by too fast.
- Friends moved in to the apartment next door
- Ryan started a D&D game (my nerd conversion is now complete)
- We went to a lot of weddings, including one where we met the cool Chicago people
- We saw Moby in concert, a religious experience as always.

If you know me, then you know that I live on twitter and facebook. Feel free to find me there.

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You can hear the crickets around here.

March 20th, 2009

Yeah, sorry about that. I’m really, really terrible about keeping up with writing. Just ask Steph about the journal I gave here. The one I said I’d write entries in occasionally for her. (There’s only a few, the last one being dated before our hike.) Life just gets distracting, you know?

So here I am! I’m sitting in a orthopedic surgery laboratory at Jefferson University, waiting for a time point to roll around on a synthesis I’m poking around with. So yes, I’m doing science now, albeit as a volunteer. It’s all been fun and interesting and challenging. I’m also halfway through a semester of chemistry over at the community college, and I’m getting ready to audit a Jefferson graduate course on bioinformatics in just a few days. Ideally, I’d like to actually enter a grad program here at Jeff, but I just don’t feel I have enough direction yet to kick that. Also, my grades at Millersville weren’t great, and I don’t have anyone I can think of for recommendations.

So we’ll see what happens here. Current plan is to actually get hired on to work here in the lab, and keep taking classes.

In other news, Steph and I moved out of the Falcone’s spare bedroom where we’d been staying until employment was secured. (I’m so lucky to have a wife who’s willing to support me!) We have a nice little place in Roxborough, and are still working to unpack piles and piles of stuff from our storage locker.

And finally, I’ll leave with randomness:
I am totally addicted to this song. I use it as a cover to the din of this city.
Going to Georgia, by the Mountain Goats

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Online window shopping

January 11th, 2009

Guys, I’ve been doing some shopping online this weekend, and there’s SO MANY THINGS that I love. I really feel like I should share. The list is long, however. You have been warned.

From Banana Republic, we have this dress:

Paired with this cardigan:

I just love the colors together.

I am so in love with this necklace from ModCloth:

As well as with both of these pairs of shoes. Unfortunately neither are in my size anymore. Boo.

I’m also loving this cardigan:

Over at Etsy, we have Naomi Cleary ceramics. While I love these bowls, I love all of her work. We were at a ceramics gallery in Philadelphia on a First Friday and her work was showing. I immediately fell in love with it. I love the shapes and the interplay between the white of the pottery, the bold black lines and the bleeding colors. Love love love!
>

These are pretty cute from HydraHeart:

I absolutely adore this vinyl decal from vinylfruit. When Ryan and I move out, I’m thinking about buying this to put over our bed. Also, check out ellynelly’s store for vinyl decals as well:

Great mug from Mullox. It kind of reminds me of peacock feathers:

Speaking of Peacock Feathers, check out this necklace from ModCloth:

And also this interesting paperclip holder:

Also, this Key Hook that I just noticed:

It’s times like this I wish I had more money and more space to put stuff.

Oh yeah! And check out these boots I received yesterday from ebay! Zallez has got to by my favorite seller. He/she sells boots in all sizes and actually tells you the circumference of the calf, and they’re damn cheap, too.

Aaaand thus completes Steph’s online shopping tour! I wish I had more money….

Posted in Consumerism, Day to Day, Geekery, La la la | 3 Comments »

2009: The Year I Resolve to Use My Whole Ass.

January 1st, 2009

I don’t know about you kids, but I had a nice relaxed New Years in York, PA. We hung out with Ryan’s friends from high school and watched South Park and engaged in conversation while we drank some beers (and ate food, OH the food!) The evening culminated in a champagne toast of one champagne that was really sweet, and another that was skunked (or so I hear), and an awesome 80’s movie. (The Bikini Shop, some interesting 80’s dreck. In one throwaway scene, a dude is running and grabbed the top off of a rollerskating woman on the beach. Ha Ha, so funny. If some dude ever did that to me, he’d immediately get punched in the face. Fact. Although, to be fair, it was exactly what we expected.) The evening was awesome and low key and exactly what we moved back to this side of the country for.

In honor of it being the beginning of a new year, let’s look back and move forward on a few topics, shall we?

1. Health and wellness
Despite that 50 day hike in the middle of the year, I’ve ended up almost exactly where I was health/weight wise at the end of 2008 as I was in 2007. Overweight and a little out of breath upon exertion. The idea during and at the end of the hike was to maintain my current state of fitness. A difficult thing when you don’t have your own kitchen and a whole lot of control over what you eat. Also, being unemployed turned me into a hardcore grazer (and maybe even a bit of a food hoarder). Ideally, I’d like to lose about 35 pounds, turn into a hardcore runner and practice yoga about 4 times a week. Unfortunately, these ideals are unrealistic for me. Even though I have a job, I can’t afford weight watchers (you call it an investment, I call it a luxury). I don’t like to run as much outdoors here as I did in Seattle, so I won’t do it. (Most of that has to do with the weather, but a bit of it has to do with the fact that Philly doesn’t have a Greenlake. And dammit, I want that 2.8 mile circle to run around.) Also, I can’t afford a gym membership (again, luxury). As with the previous two things, I can’t exactly afford four classes of yoga a week. So I suppose these are the big goals. Things that I won’t accomplish this year, but eventually. For 2009 I’d settle to lose and maintain a loss of 15 lbs (at least this way I can fit into all of my pants) and do yoga from videos in my living room during week days.

2. Professionally
Hooray! Toward the end of the year I got a job! Whee!! But I also had a lot of time last year to think about what I want to do with myself for the rest of my life. I came up with a couple of criteria for the job that I will eventually have. It will be something where either I have control or will eventually have control over my work and also something where I can make a measurable difference in the world. I have finally stopped hedging and made a commitment to a field and am embarking on a super secret professional journey to get where I need to be. I’d tell you what it is, but I’m keeping things under wraps for a little while since there is a relatively good chance that I will have major setbacks. Conterintuitively, it’s important for me to keep this close to my chest to protect my frail ego and resolve. I’ll keep you updated, but later.

3. Everything Else
I suppose one of the big goals for me for this year will be for Ryan and me to move out of the Falcones’ spare bedroom. Let me stress that the Falcones have been nothing but welcoming and extremely generous to Ryan and me. I should give a public shout-out to their awesomeness: Nick and Mary, YOU ARE SO AWESOME. I can only hope that some day I can be as awesome (and kind and generous) as you. Free cat sitting for life, for realz.

But I miss my stuff and miss having my own space. I miss my bed. Sleeping on the torn blue foam fold out couch has been real and all, but man. My bed. And my sheets! And my knives!! AND MY CHINA AND CRYSTAL!! I miss you all.

Also, this year, I’d like to be more fashionable. I spent a lot of time wearing the same clothes every day last year, thinking about how I would be more chic and fashionable when I was done the hike. So far, that has not come to fruition, due to budgetary constraints. This year, I will wear more skirts! More dresses! I’ll make an effort to look pulled together and presentable whenever I leave the house. It’s something important to me, but something that I never really prioritized. This year I will make it a priority. (Starting with a hair cut on Saturday. For real, I’ve been saying I’d get one since I got off the trail and I STILL HAVEN’T DONE IT).

In conclusion, 2009 will be the year that I don’t do anything half assed: instead, I will use my whole ass. In everything I do I’ll strive to be present and in the moment. I may not do more, but at the very least in what I do, I will be there.

Posted in Adventures, Day to Day, La la la | 4 Comments »

Updates

December 28th, 2008

Things that have happened since the last time I posted:

1. We had Friends’ Thanksgiving and it was a success! There was so much food! I drank too much wine and made an ass out of myself during games in front of friends that will never let me live it down. It’s ok. I love them so. There are pictures, but I don’t know if you all notices, but I’m bad at the internets.

2. I got a job in early December! Who the hell would have thought that responding to the job posting listed ON THANKSGIVING actually would have panned out? I got called in for an interview a couple of days after submitting my resume for a paralegal position in the Commercial Motor Vehicle group. Turns out one of the attorneys in the toxic tort group mentioned that they needed another paralegal in their group. Well guess what my experience is in? Yup. Toxic torts. So I was the only person that interviewed for the job and the next day I got an offer (on a Friday). I started the Monday following. It was damn quick! The job is going really well. The people that I work with are all very nice and my billable goal is totally manageable. Woo!

3. My sleep study ended! And we got paid. Woot woot! And since I have a job now, we can use that money to send Ryan back to school to take a couple of classes so that he can get a job as well. Woot!

4. Christmas! Not really much to report here. We hung out with friends and family. Good times were had by all.

Posted in Day to Day, Holidays, It's not an adventure it's just fun, La la la, Stuff we do | 4 Comments »

Sad

November 6th, 2008

When I lived in Seattle, I really enjoyed going to the Opera. McCaw Hall was close to where I lived, so Ryan and I would walk arm in arm down the hill to enjoy the show. Sometimes we would stop by our favorite bar (where everyone knew our name), sometimes we would just go straight there. We never had to worry about being stuck in traffic or rush around. In fact, McCaw Hall was close enough that I would walk past it every evening on my way to work.

Throughout the fall, winter and early spring (not especially the driest or warmest time to be in Seattle), as soon as I would get close to McCaw Hall I would hear a fellow playing the melody of whatever was going to be played that night on a Tuba.

I come to find out today that Tuba Man was, in essence, murdered. Jumped by a bunch of asshole kids about four blocks from where I used to live. A place where I walked past every night on my way home. Ed McMichael was sent to the hospital for head wounds, and died at home later that night.

I’m shocked and appalled that this happened in Seattle, in my former neighborhood. But mostly I’m just sad that Tuba Man won’t be there anymore, playing his Tuba around Seattle Center. The city of Seattle is very much diminished from that loss.

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November 5th, 2008

As I walked into my polling place today, there were two gentleman outside handing out stickers. One for Obama, the other for McCain. They were having a pleasant enough conversation that when I first walked past them I didn’t realize that they were not both for the same presidential nominee. I mean, it wouldn’t be unheard of for McCain supporters to not even make an effort in Philadelphia, right?

But as I left the polling place after I cast my ballot, I realized that they were having a friendly conversation about presidential politics that offered no derision of either candidate. They were just being neighborly. I dunno. I guess witnessing this made me feel like either way, we’ll be fine.

So to Senator John McCain, I know you won’t read this but my congratulations on a battle well fought. Your concession speech tonight showed that you are a patriot and a true class act.

And to Mr. President-Elect Barack Obama and all the people that helped shape this election. Congratulations. You’ve earned it. Now take that vacation you deserve.
Courtesy Barack Obama's flickr.

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Disappointment

October 29th, 2008

I just got an e-mail from an attorney I interviewed with in early September (!!!) asking for an update on the status of the paralegal position I interviewed for. I felt like I interviewed strongly for this position, but the one thing that hurt me was my lack of writing experience. I played it off pretty well. Acted as though I had extreme confidence in my writing abilities (which I do) and spoke as though the fact that I didn’t do much writing in my last job wouldn’t hinder me much (which I didn’t think it would).

I guess he thought otherwise and extended an offer to someone else. Apparently HR hasn’t gotten the chance to get back to me yet, which leaves me wondering how long ago he extended the offer. Oh well, it doesn’t really matter now, I suppose. At least now I won’t have to go to Wayne every day for work. (Trust me, it’s far. At least two buses from Manayunk)

:o (

In other (happier) news, I was in New York last weekend! Yay! Maggi was in town for a work conference so we hung out all weekend. It was good times. On Saturday, we brunched, were off to the Met and a yarn store (which neither of us were very impressed by) (the yarn store, not the Met. The Met was very impressive) and then some delicious vegetarian appetizers, and then back to the hotel. We were planning on going out to a Batali restaurant at 10, since we were way full and it was raining. Instead we huddled in our room, watched SNL and ordered pizza at around 1 in the morning. It was pretty awesome.

Sunday we were off to another yarn store (this one was much more impressive), ate lunch at the Blue Ribbon Bakery (Serrano ham and brie sandwich on a baguette? Yes please), hightailed it to the hotel where Maggi’s conference was, and went to yet ANOTHER yarn store (also impressive). We topped off the evening with burgers at 67 burger. They were delicious.

It was great to hang out with Maggi and take a vacation from being poor. It’s back to regular life now, but it was really good to see my Seattle peep and hang out for awhile.

Posted in Adventures, Day to Day, La la la, Stuff we do, We're on vaca-a-tion, Weekend Recap, Yarns, it's just fun. | No Comments »

Updates

October 23rd, 2008

Ah, I love it when my adoring public asks for more. Samantha, don’t you just love being considered my public? My adoring public no less.

Sorry to leave you guys hanging for so long, but it doesn’t really feel like there’s that much to write about over here. Ryan’s and my day to day consists of waking up early in preparation for a sleep study we’ve joined (although I suppose that’s pretty interesting). Playing World of Warcraft (although I do have some ruminations about that) and maybe going out on a job interview every once in awhile (that could be pretty interesting). Also, I’m pretty lazy if you haven’t noticed. Although I’m sure you have.

So Ryan and I joined a sleep study. For the past nine days we’ve had to maintain “normal” sleeping hours. Meaning we need to get to bed no later then midnight and get up no later then 9. While you would think that this adjustment might be difficult for two out of work people such as ourselves, it really hasn’t been. I mean, waking up is still hard, and I’m looking forward to sleeping in again but it’s kind of nice being awake in the morning instead of only getting up at 11. The study is about the affect of light on melatonin levels, so we once we qualify, we have to go downtown once every two weeks at midnight and they put these weird drops in our eyes and we wear a blindfold for two hours. Then they draw a small vial of blood, sit us in front of a light for another 90 minutes and draw more blood. It’s kind of going to be hell, but the price is right. To qualify we have to wear these weird devices on our wrists that look like the most eighties chunkiest watch ever, or our very own house arrest bracelet, take your pick. These devices measure our movements, I guess so they can pick up our circadian rhythms? When we go to bed at night we have to call and tell people when we go to bed and when we wake up and on top of all that, we have to keep a log. On Friday we have to go get eye appointments to see if we qualify. But yeah, that should be pretty interesting

Warcraft is a pretty fun distraction from the whole not having a job/not having and money thing. If Ryan and I didn’t do this, we’d probably be climbing the walls about now. There’s no cable here, and the internet can only provide so much distraction in one day, so it’s nice to have that go-to thing. It reminds me of being in college and everyone would be playing Age of Empires. I really wanted to play, but I knew I couldn’t because I would just play ALL THE TIME. So I would make fun of it a little to dissaude my self from wanting to play. Well, now, until I get a job, I have all the time I could ever want, so wasting time isn’t that big a deal. Also, it’s something Ryan and I can do together, so we’re not just ignoring one another all day or poking at one another all day. Although I really need to get some knitting done. I have a couple of Christmas projects in the works.

Guys. I could really use a job. Warcraft is fun and all, but my bank account has taken a bit of a battering. We’ve both been out of work for way longer then we expected (stupid economy). I don’t know about Ryan, but I could use a little more purpose to my days. Warcraft is a great distraction, but it’s still a distraction from my lack of employment. I met with a couple of recruiters. I went in to one of them and she spoke at me for 10 minutes and then dismissed me. So I got the purple-hair check. I mean, this woman didn’t care about me or my experience at all. The next one I went to I was kind of leery about after getting, basically, the brushoff by the first. But she ended up being really great. We talked for at least a half hour and she was extremely straightforward with me about the obstacles I needed to overcome and the firm that I had originally sent my resume in for. It was quite refreshing.

So consider yourselves updated! Don’t be surprised if I don’t write again till either A. I have a job, or B. after my first overnight at the light study. Because before then I have my doubts that things will change very much and the mundanities of my life just aren’t very interesting. Or at least, I’m not very good at making them appear so. (I might write, just don’t be surprised if I don’t…)

-Steph

Posted in Day to Day, Geekery, La la la, Stuff we do | 4 Comments »

I’m too old for this shit.

October 2nd, 2008

So, Ryan and I have been spending a lot of time in the house lately playing WoW. I think yesterday or the day before we went out on the deck and I realized that I hadn’t seen daylight in about four days.

Fast forward to today. I needed to register to vote and Ryan needed to send a package so we both walked up to the Post Office on Ridge. Everything was fine; we were enjoying the walk and the lovely weather. It was nice to get out of the house for awhile.

Then on the walk home BAM. Faceplant.

I lightly skinned both of the heels of my hands and got a huge gaping HORRIFYING wound on my knee. Seriously, form a circle with your forefinger and thumb and this is the size of this wound. It’s TERRIFYING.

This experience has taught me that I should just not leave the house again. Ever.

-Steph

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