Summer?

Good news!
I made it through my first year of grad school with flying colors :)
It has been the most rewarding year of my life, but I am welcoming summer with open arms.
I am not allowed to post pictures of the kids I worked with for obvious reasons, but I will brag about their cuteness by showing you the beautiful flowers they gave me on my last day. There is also no rule about sharing the cards they made me. The one I posted above is probably one of the highlights of my life.

Here's a list of silly things I'd like to get done today:
1. Treat myself to a manicure
2. Start doing some writing/outlining for my summer job.
3. Transfer summer clothes into my closet (yay!!)
4. Make this lavender crunch hummus. And then I am going to make one of these sandwiches.
5. Enjoy my last day before summer classes start.

I really wish this rain would go away. I am pretty much as pasty white as I was in January.
PS. I will be spending the entire summer in these TOMS.

a few things on tumblr this week that made me smile

How could you not love cupcakes in a cup? (via prettyfoods)

I knew they were real! (via thedailywhat)

The most perfect thing about summer. (via booklover)

So simple and so true. (via papertissue)

Click on the pictures for more. But of course, you can always just visit my tumblr :)

Hot Cocoa

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that hot chocolate can fix anything.
What it can't do, however, is write my final exams for me. Guess I'll have to do that on my own.
Oh well. Maybe someday.
What I really want to know is when we'll get some swiss miss in this house that isn't diet or sugar free... Mom?

(booklover.tumblr.com)

What It's About

The last couple weeks have been crazy. Lots of ups and downs, lots of firsts, lots of new things, and lots of old things resurfacing. I must remember, though, this is what I signed up for. And if I thought that I was going to just cruise my way through this and have everything come naturally, then there would be no point to all of this. But I actually am really really happy with things for the first time in a long time. And even if things happen and I can't be perfect at them, I still feel like I'm doing what I should be. So that's good. That's great.

I've come to conclusion that I put a lot of pressure on myself. Way too much. And I freak out leading up to everything, and then after it happens I think, "now why did I make such a big deal out of that?" Because in the grand scheme of things, this is what life is about. The bumps in the road. When I'm old, and my memory is even worse than it is now, I won't remember the days that ran smoothly. I'll be more likely to remember the big picture. So right now I'm in the process of learning to chill out and laugh a lot of things off. In this life I am planning for myself that is going to be a very important thing to be able to do. I know I am going into this field because I want to help others, but as they keep telling us, you must be able to take care of yourself, too! If you don't, then you are in no position to help anyone else. So, I'm working on that. Being less hard on myself.

Learning to Relax

The journey to relaxation is a difficult one. I have come to learn that I am not good at relaxing. This can actually be a blessing in disguise. But once in a while, when I have a little too much time, when I have a short list of obligations, I actually start to go a little crazy. Sometimes I daydream about living on an island somewhere, or in the mountains, just spending days left to my own devices- spending time creating, reading, cooking, relaxing. I think how nice that would be.

But then I realize that I would quickly go insane. I need assignments, I need obligations, I need to be needed. I need to have chores, errands, homework, conflicts. Or else I can get cranky. Sure, I can spend a few days just reading what I want to read, sleeping in, being lazy, doing inconsequential things. But as I'm doing these things, there's always a little part of me that's worried about what I am going to do next. God forbid I run out of things to do!

At this point in the summer I'm in limbo. I've had a great summer and I've kept myself relatively busy most of the time with fun things and some work. But now I'm only a couple of weeks away from school and I'm anticipating a time that I am going to be so busy, and life is going to change as I know it now. I'm looking forward to it. But at the same time, I'm looking forward to it, and in the meantime I am a little panicked about the lack of activity in my life at present. It's just a tiny lull, but my mind is humming with activity, a little nervousness, and a lot of excitement. This combination can be a little bit crappy.

It's okay though. I am coming to grips with the fact that I will have tons to do in a few weeks, but there's not much I can really do about it right now. In the meantime, I am doing what I can to burn off my excess energy- working out, and reading A LOT, and generally keeping busy in the silly little ways that I can. I am trying to enjoy it, because I know I'll be missing it soon enough.

Grumpy

I just got back from a fabulous weekend on Long Beach Island, but I can't help but be a little grumpy for the following reasons:
1. ear infection relapse
2. spilling water all over my phone this morning and breaking it.
3. it's 105 degrees outside right now and I'm wearing a scarf and wool sweater at work.

I never even got the chance to tell you the story of my ear, and there certainly is a story to it. But I guess that's a good thing because apparently the story isn't even over...
(Long story short: In Italy I got a TERRIBLE ear infection which resulted in a ruptured ear drum and a visit from an Italian doctor in Positano.)

I really want to be in a good mood, I really do, but its been over a month and my ear is still not back to normal. I know I was born with messed up ears and am prone to ear infections, but this is ridiculous. I want to be able to swim, and shower without covering my ears like a normal person does. It's been over a month, already! I'm going to the doctor after work today, and getting new phone tomorrow hopefully. And then we'll see where I'm at.
But for now I'm just going to try and think happy thoughts...

Love that Dirty Water

An unexplainable crack has caused a "catastophic leak" in Boston's major water supply pipe. Because of this, if we drink the water, we risk serious illness.

The pipe is pumping 8 million gallons of water into the Charles River per HOUR.

SWEEEEEEEEEEET. http://www.mwra.com/01news/2010/boilwaterorder1.htm

Everyone's out buying bottled water, but its running out pretty damn fast. I hope I don't get too thirsty :(

Perhaps this is a hoax created by the water bottle companies. They must be suffering from this whole "going green" trend. Hopefully that's all it is.

nice.

Lazy?

I could say that I'm lazy right now.

That's how I feel.
But I think maybe this is how people feel when they don't have homework to do and nowhere to go, and it's a Wednesday night.
I showed up to yoga class this evening, but no one else did!
So my attempt at being active backfired, and I will perhaps have to resort to doing yoga in my room.
I hate feeling bored, because it's so preventable. But I'm tired, man.
And I had a large Indian dinner.

(This cute picture is from mukul.soman's photostream)

A Little Pick-Me-Up

These clouds seem to be making everyone kinda sleepy and sluggish today.

Here's a little pick-me-up to brighten your cloudy day :)

I love Woody Allen, don't you?

(photo found on palahniukandchocolate.tumblr.com)

Judgements

So, I'm thinking a lot about judgements today.

And how easy they are to make.

We make judgements all the time, on everything.

People make judgements about me all the time, apparently.

Inaccurate ones at that.

And I'm trying to come to terms with the fact that there are people out there who think that they know me well enough to make a condescending judgement about me.

It's really bothering me and I wish it wouldn't.

And though I am not a woman of few words, I will try to keep this lesson short:

People are going to judge you in such a way that it fits their needs. They need you to fit a certain mold in their own world to better enhance their own self-worth. These kinds of people, well, you shouldn't bother trying to change their minds. These are the kinds of people that you don't need to have in your life. These are not the type of people worth sticking with.

And though it's hard to keep quiet, the best thing to do is to just let it go.

The people that matter the most are the ones that allow you to expand out of their original perceptions of you. They allow themselves to really get to know you, to a point where you're not just a person that exists to fit their purposes. I have plenty of these people in my life, so I'm not going to worry about one person who thinks that I'm somehow below them.

(photo via weheartit)

Homer the Llama Returns Into Safe Hands

The newspaper we get at my home in North Jersey is the Bergen Record, which you may have heard of.
Aside from the obvious publications such as the New York Times, The Bergen Record is a pretty well-known paper.
I've been reading it since I was a little kid. They had fun things for me then, and now I appreciate it because they do an excellent job of putting the real news up front.

If you turn the pages, though, you can find some real gems.
I found this article about Homer the Llama and his trek through the mountains. It's a happy, lighthearted story, and llamas happen to be amongst my favorite animals. I love that they named him Homer, because of his odyssey. When I found this article, I clipped it out, and it's now hanging on my refrigerator.

It reminds me that even though there's a lot of bad in the world, good things still happen sometimes.
I appreciate that the Record takes the time to bring a little light into our morning reading.

My first chicken coop experience

I got to pick up the first egg of the coop!
iPhone photos:





AND it was absolutely gorgeous outside today.