Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Moving, part 2

Well, I'm not leaving the Big City for another 4 weeks, but my bed left today. Since I'm moving into a minimally furnished apartment there in California, I no longer needed my wonderful, spacious queen bed (I'll have a twin there) so I sold it to friends who're moving into a house and needed a guest bed. Waking up in my bed this morning was bittersweet. My bedroom does have a lot more room now that all I have is an air mattress! As you can see, I went from this:


... to this:


It's not the Ritz, but it will do well for the next few weeks before I leave. Plus, now I have an air mattress for anyone who comes to visit me!

I think the reality of the fact that I am actually moving in 4 weeks is starting to sink in. I anticipate that they will pass quickly in a whirlwind of activity, despite all my best efforts to stop and savor every moment. Ready or not, California, here I come!

Monday, July 30, 2007

Pamplona, anyone?

After running my first one yesterday, I've already found my next 5K.

I have to say, I've never had any desire to go to the real one in Spain...


... but this looks like a ton of fun!

Coins into coffee?

At the end of the day, my dad always empties his pockets of coins into a bucket that he keeps in his closet. As a child, I used to love the weekend or summer day when dad would bring out the bucket, dump it out, and let me sort and count it. It somehow always felt like "free" money. One year when I was a little bit older, I talked him into taking all the change down the street to the grocery store where they had a Coinstar machine, not knowing that the machine would take 9% of the change as a service fee.

Fast-forward to today. Like my dad, I empty my pockets (and the bottom of my purse) of change frequently. I don't have a bucket, but I do have two cups that serve this purpose well. Jaded by the Coinstar machine experience of my past, I was surprised to see a billboard recently advertising turning your coins into coffee. Apparently you can now use the Coinstar machines to count your change and turn it into gift cards -- with no fee! I tried it for the first time on Sunday and walked away with $$ in the form of both iTunes and Starbucks gift cards and an appreciation for how much change a Jeff cup really can hold. Coins into coffee -- who knew?

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Oliver Sacks.

"Music can lift us out of depression or move us to tears - it is a remedy, a tonic, orange juice for the ear. But for many of my neurological patients, music is even more - it can provide access, even when no medication can, to movement, to speech, to life. For them, music is not a luxury, but a necessity."

(Oliver Sacks, neurologist and author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, courtesy of my Starbucks cup.)

So true.

I think I might look into the books. The brain is fascinating, and I am always amazed to learn more about it. Like synaesthesia, where you might see, feel, and/or taste colors - how incredible!

Friday, July 27, 2007

Yikes.

I think that I have completely underestimated the amount of stuff that needs to get done before the big move! If only I was just moving my self and my own stuff and didn't have to think about the equipment that needs to be moved or purchased, the supplies to be purchased and the transportation of frozen samples. However, if we didn't think about all of that, it would greatly increase the downtime on the other end. So if a few hectic weeks here result in a semi-smooth, fast set-up there... then I guess it's worth it. My to-do list for the weekend is frighteningly long, though. My goal is to get all of my personal move stuff (cleaning out, selling, giving away, etc) taken care of by the end of July so that I have all of August to work really hard during the day and play really hard at night. Fingers crossed that this weekend is productive!

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Am I crazy?

I like having goals. More than just normal goals, I like having goals that seem so big and unattainable that I feel kind of crazy for even thinking that I could do those things.

The Avon breast cancer walk was one of those things. Walk a marathon? Raise a lot of money? I definitely was crazy. But it was one of the things that I am most proud of doing in my life. With something like 3000 people walking the Chicago walk in 2006, we raised over $8.3 million for breast cancer research and making early prevention screening and cancer care available to those who couldn't otherwise afford it. Think you can't make a difference? You can. Here's a few pictures of us walking:

This is only about a mile after the start -- look at how many people there are behind us!

About 4 miles into the walk, and we're now on the other side of downtown Chicago.

About 3-4 miles from the finish line. Ready to be done!


Then this year, I decided to take up running. I always thought that I hated running, but after the exhileration of the walk and participating in this year's Shamrock Shuffle, I knew that I wanted to start running races. Not for the times, but for the personal experience -- for the chance to do things that I always thought that I couldn't do. So I signed up for a 5k a few months ago, and it's now this upcoming Sunday!

I'm a tiny bit frustrated that I'm not as ready for it as I possibly could be. At the same time, I know that it won't be my last 5k and am excited just to get my first real "race" under my belt. I definitely have plans to do another one this fall once I'm settled in California.

That being said (and getting back to the crazy goals that I like to make for myself), I decided today that I want to do this next year. Not the full marathon -- only the half! But I'm really excited about it. The course is fairly rough, especially considering all the hills of downtown SF! It will take a decent amount of training for me to build up to running 13.1 miles, but I think living somewhere that has great outdoor running weather probably 360 days of the year will help.

Anyone want to join me?

I also think I want to get involved and help out with Girls on the Run after I'm settled. It seems like an amazing way to spend some free time.

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Moving, part 1

I moved every single year of college. And sometimes more than once if you count moving into a storage unit at the beginning of a summer and out of it at the end of the summer. While moving that much was definitely never fun, it gave me several chances to go through all of my stuff and decide what was worth keeping.

I've lived in the same apartment here in the Big City for the last three years. By myself. Which means a). I've accumulated a lot of crap; and b). there's been no impetus of having a roommate to make me want to keep things cleaned out for their sake. Thus you can begin to imagine the mounds of stuff through which I find myself sorting.

The biggest, scariest job of all (that I've been putting off) has been my big closet. And when I say big, I mean BIG -- 6 feet deep and 3.5-4 feet wide. I remember looking into that closet when I was looking at apartments to rent and thinking "Wow, that's really messy! I can't believe someone could let their closet get that disorganized. It looks like they just opened the door, threw stuff in, and then shut the door. If I end up in this apartment, I'll always keep that closet clean and neat."

Those were my famous last words. The closet has been a disaster for the last three years.

Until today. I finally decided to tackle it, and several hours later, here it is:


If only I had actually thought to take a "before" picture. But, as you can see, the closet is clean! I'm not quite sure that I'm going to need all of my scarves in California, but I couldn't bear to get rid of any of them just yet.

Next steps re: moving? More cleaning. While I have always loved this apartment for its abundant closet space, I'm cursing it now. Oh well. I have 2 down and 2 left to go, but after surviving the monster, I think I can handle anything!

One hundred.

Well, this whole "100 things about me" blog-version of an email forward (MLR I agree with you about that) has been floating around for a while. Since I've enjoyed reading everyone else's, I decided to join in if I could get to 100. I did. Here's the list, for your enjoyment:


1. My name is Jennifer.
2. Not Jenny.
3. If you call me Jenny, I might never talk to you again.
4. I probably still will. But it will bother me that much.
5. I am probably 95% excited to move cross-country and only 5% scared/nervous.
6. I am leaving friends behind that I will miss dreadfully.
7. I way over-highlight textbooks.
8. I read every book assigned in high school.
9. I miss reading high-school-english-class type books.
10. I have bought at least 10 of those type books in the last 5 years.
11. I have yet to finish one of them.
12. I've actually only started one of them.
13. I've never read or seen Pride & Prejudice.
14. I've also never seen Star Wars, episode 6 (Return of the Jedi).
15. I finished Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows in one day.
16. I love to read.
17. I've wanted a KitchenAid stand mixer for at least the last 4 years. As soon as I live somewhere with enough counterspace, I'm buying one for myself!
18. I love to bake.
19. I love math.
20. And science (but not as much as math).
21. My mom was right when she told me I should be an engineer.
22. Thankfully, I stopped fighting that (ah, stubbornness) and realized that she was right.
23. Going to a college where I knew practically no one (only 2 out of 12,000!) was perfect for me.
24. I make friends easily.
25. I am the happiest when I have some sort of craft project going on.
26. Having something crafty to focus on outside of science for at least an hour or so a week keeps me sane.
27. Seriously.
28. My crafts thus far in my life have been: jewelry making, scrapbooking, black/white photography and developing, glass/tile mosaics, knitting, crocheting, and card making. I'm sure I'm forgetting something, though.
29. Being surrounded by books makes me happy.
30. I have seen a sheep under anesthesia.
31. I own all 10 seasons of Friends on DVD.
32. The Chronicles of Narnia is possibly my favorite book ever.
33. I have been whale-watching off the coast of Victoria, BC. Twice.
34. I studied abroad at Oxford University in England.
35. I had my first alcohol there.
36. My first alcohol was wine that had to be strained with a paper towel because we dropped cork bits into it while trying to get the cork out.
37. Every time that story is re-told by the person who was supposed to un-cork the wine bottle, I laugh harder and harder.
38. I love to travel.
39. I will travel any where, any time. (Assuming I can get off work!)
40. I am an only child.
41. I love my parents. A lot.
42. I will 99% not settle down in the place where I grew up.
43. I feel like a nomad sometimes because of that, because I don't have a "home" (city/area of the country) to which I am longing to move back to.
44. I think my parents have realized this about me and are ok with it.
45. I'm ok with the fact that I've been transitory like that up until now in my life.
46. I'm jealous of the people who do know where "home" is to them.
47. I love to play cards.
48. Especially Nerts.
49. One of my favorite Nerts memories was at Bob's with at least 8 people playing around one big, square table. The games went so fast!
50. I have walked into a glass sliding door before. Thankfully I was walking slowly!
51. I love almost all kinds of tea.
52. I am learning to like "normal" coffee. ("Normal" means coffee, not an espresso drink).
53. There is no Starbucks better than the one in my college town. Hands down, that is the coolest one there is.
54. I doubt I will ever stop craving the sandwiches from my college town.
55. Music is very important to me.
56. I don't understand people to whom music is not important.
57. I can't keep plants alive.
58. My apartment is filled with fake plants for that very reason.
59. I'm making my own Christmas cards this year.
60. I still owe ice cream to 7 of you.
61. Writing in my journal is a relaxing part of the day.
62. I could eat pizza or tacos/burritos every day.
63. Rainier cherries are amazingly delicious.
64. I also could eat a pint of blueberries every day.
65. I am a crazier driver since living in the Big City.
66. My car is named "peanut."
67. Fountain sprite is my comfort thing when I am sick with a cold or a sore throat.
68. I rode horses when I was younger.
69. The only time I've been unconscious was when I got thrown from a horse when I was 12 or 13 (I had on a helmet, don't worry).
70. I didn't know I'd been knocked out until my mom told me a year later.
71. I want a digital SLR.
72. Even though I own all the Harry Potter books, I kind of still want to buy all the British version ones as well.
73. I've been 20 feet away from Bono at a U2 concert.
74. If I'm making a mix CD, you know I'm procrastinating from something very important.
75. I don't like Halloween.
76. I once went out with a guy from South Dakota.
77. I'm looking forward to the topography in California.
78. It's weird to me that I'm going to be living somewhere that has palm trees as native plants.
79. I love SkeeBall.
80. I'm not a very good bike rider. I have a tendency to run in to stationary objects.
81. I had a beta fish until this past week when he died.
82. His name was Tony.
83. I hate packing.
84. I'm allergic to papaya in large doses.
85. Fireworks are one of my favorite things.
86. I got to see them twice this year, both on the 3rd and the 4th of July. (Thanks!)
87. My old friends become more precious and dear to me each time I meet a new friend.
88. I don't remember what I did before they put a Starbucks in the student center here.
89. Going on a hot-air balloon ride is one of my life goals.
90. I am going to miss my family's lake house when my parents sell it.
91. I think I saw my first shooting stars there.
92. I learned to water-ski there. And to get up on only 1 ski.
93. Going kayaking right before college graduation was one of the most fun things I've done.
94. I like doing things like that (kayaking) that I always thought that I couldn't do.
95. I'm currently trying to learn to like running.
96. I've decided that I actually might like running.
97. The stress-relief that I get from running is somewhat unparalleled.
98. If I had to go back and major in something completely different, I think I'd become a nurse.
99. Maybe a doctor, but probably a nurse.
100. I wish I was in Hawaii right now...

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Oh so good.


Is anyone else done with book 7 yet? I thought it was fantastic. It also made me want to go back and re-read the whole series slowly...

Friday, July 20, 2007

Incredible.

This is B. Fountain in downtown of my Big City, all lit up. What you can't tell from the picture is that the lights were changing with the music that was playing over the loudspeakers. I'm not sure if they do that every night in the summer or if it was just because it was the Taste, but it was definitely a sight to see before moving!

Adventures in mosaics, part 2.

My first mosaic adventure started last fall when I took a glass-on-glass mosaic glass from the [insert big city name] Mosaic School and made the window that you can see on the right side of this blog. It was one of the most fun things that I had done in a while, and I learned that stopping and taking time to be crafty in the midst of all the science is somewhat critical to my sanity! I'd been wanting to take another class from the school, and since I was leaving town soon, I decided to do it. Eight weeks later, here is my masterpiece:

It's significantly smaller than the window (it's a mirror on the inside), but I had just as much fun doing it! I don't know yet how I'm going to continue this hobby when I get to California, but I'm hoping that I will. If only small shards of tile (or glass) didn't fly everywhere when being cut, I might try to do this in my apartment....

Maybe I should just stick to cards.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

New!

With a new life adventure ahead, it seemed time to start a new blog. Welcome!