As per usual

I am leaving for AGU (in SF) tomorrow ... and as per usual, rather than spending the day cleaning and packing, I chose to go Christmas shopping and get coffee with a friend.  So now that it is 10pm I have a whole lot of things to get done before I leave in the morning, but rather than actually accomplish anything productive I am watching Law and Order SVU and drinking a beer (Winter Warlock Oatmeal Stout from Colorado Springs ... thanks Chris)!!!  All of my clothes are currently spread out on the floor of my living room, and I know that everything will not fit in my suit case ... but to be honest I am just not in the mood to care.  I should be excited about this meeting and about going home for the holidays, but I am feeling lazy and tired and bored (yes all at the same time).  I have yet to actually figure out which sessions I plan on attending at AGU and all I can really think about is going to the Monks Kettle on Thursday with a friend from High School.  Why am I such a mess all the time???

Lately I've been having trouble motivating myself.  Maybe I am still burnt out from working so hard this summer?? Maybe not.  I think that I am pretty much just sick and tired of my research and I need to move onto a different topic ... It has been hard for me to get myself excited about anything lately.  Skiing last weekend was fun, but when I got tired I thought it was more fun to drink beer than actually ski.  I did have a really good time going to see the Sounds with Matt ... but I didn't really want to leave my house that night and if I hadn't already bought my ticket I know that I would have just put on  my PJ's and watched a sappy movie.  

I keep telling myself that next year will be different and that I will be more productive, and settle on a a decent (normal 9-5) schedule.  

On a completely different  note, a friend of mine brought to my attention today that I probably have trouble getting dates here in FC, because I put absolutely no effort into looking good or putting myself out there.  She also mentioned that maybe I should stop complaining about being single, and actually do something about it.  I guess that I have become super lazy lately ... I mean I go to work wearing jeans and a workout t-shirt every day, I almost never brush my hair, and makeup is well ... something I have kinda just forgotten about.  I think maybe my New Years resolution this year will be to actively try and make myself look a little better and try to be a little more confident about myself.  Its about time.

Anyway, I am going to finish packing and try to figure out what I am going to do at AGU.  This might be the only time I go to such a huge meeting (unless by some miracle I am invited to give a talk in the future)

Help!

Does anyone out there in blog world want to help me figure out how to make my blog page cooler/fancier looking?  I deal with computers everyday, and I can code all sorts of crazy physics stuff up ... but when it comes to dealing with software and learning how to use it ... I kinda just freak out and give up easily.  I also have no idea how to attach pictures to my page ... I realize that this should be fairly easy ... like a monkey could probably do it, but I am lazy.  

My phobia of electronic things is also why I don't know how to do anything cool with my phone, or chat with people on skype without accidentally calling them first.  Why am I such a dork??

Oh and by blog world, I probably mean Anna or Laura ... the only people who actually read my blog :) (hint hint)

Totally Random

So I was walking to the gym this afternoon and I passed a guy who was wearing one of those home arrest ankle bracelet things ... I don't know how they work exactly ... maybe he can go to and from school?  But all and all I thought it was pretty funny thing to see and I thought I would share

Book Chain letter thing

So Laura tagged me in this blog chain letter thing.  I normally think these things are lame, but this one sounded fun, so I am passing it along.  

Go to your nearest bookshelf.  On the top shelf (or highest shelf with books) what book is fifth from the right and why did you love it?  Now go to the bottom shelf (or lowest shelf with books).  Tell us about the fifth book from the left.  Then tag five of your blog buddies - link please! - do the same.  Be sure to link the person who tagged you too.

Top shelf fifth from the Right - 

This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

So I read this book when I was 13 and volunteering at the library during the summer and I remember really liking it. This was the start of my "I wish I was a prep school boy" phase and I was reading a lot of 1920s/30s literature (Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Elliot ...) and fantasizing about getting up early and rowing crew on a lake in New England, wearing preppy sweaters and dicking around.  I realize that it is probably a little strange for a girl to dream about being a prep school boy ... but its not that I ever wanted to actually be a boy.  I just wanted to live the carefree life of wealthily playboy in the 1920s.  Of course if I had actually paid any attention to the the books I was reading I would have realized that life was not really what I wanted at all ... oh well. What can I say, I was a little too obsessed with the Dead Poet Society.  I should probably re-read This Side of Paradise again and see what I think about it now!  

Bottom shelf, fifth from the left - (this one is funny)

The Dieter's Guide to Weight Loss During Sex  by Richard Smith.

So before you start getting any crazy ideas in your head ... my roommate in college my freshmen year gave me this book for my birthday.  It was a pretty hilarious gift ... unfortunately for me this book is not really all that useful right now, given my current state of spinsterhood, but maybe one day (hopefully soon) I can start my new exercise regime???  To give you taste of what this book is all about I will now open to a random page and share ...

Page 85 

Consequence of Premature Ejaculation for Male (I swear this is the first page I opened up to)

Activity.................................... Calories Burned 

Cursing...............................................10

Apologizing........................................3

Sniveling.............................................5

Pleading for mercy............................8

Begging for another chance .............15

Haha, this book is filled with other wonderful gems ... and now when someone searched "premature ejaculation" on the internet, my blog will probably show up ... 

I dont really have all that many blog friends ... so Anna and Pete you are it.  

freezing freaking cold

So last week I accidentally left my oven on broil for 13 hrs ... I woke up to an 80 degree sauna in my apartment and it felt great.  I am a little scared to see my next electrical bill ... but i am 99% positive I will never do that again.  

I have been avoiding turning on my heat this year ... but tonight when I came home it was only 57 degrees so I finally caved in and turned it on ... unfortunately other than making my apartment smell funny for 10-15 min ... nothing happened ... the heating vents did not warm up or send any heat into my apartment and it is still 57 degrees.  It is hard to type/work because my hands keep getting too cold.

To make myself feel better I made stuffed bell peppers, home made mac and cheese and a salad for dinner ... no wonder I gain weight during winter :)

I am getting excited about spending thanksgiving in a yurt with everyone ... look for some pictures later this week!

I'm Back!!

So a whole lot has happened since I last posted in August.  I don't really have the time or want to go over it all right now, but I have decided that its about time I start blogging again ... to recap the past 3  months.

1.  I finally defended my Masters on September 9th.  Everything went amazingly smoothly, and I am almost (finally) starting to be proud of my work.

2.  My new apartment has finally stopped smelling funny.  My bathtub was leaking into the apartment below me, which was a problem since I have started taking baths 2-3 times a week.

3. I turned 25 on Nov. 2.  I have decided that this is going to be the best year of my life as of yet, and I am going to work hard to make it come true.

4.  My cousin got married (my cousin i have talked to exactly three times in my life).  He works for AIG, AIG collapsed (or whatever happened to AIG) the day he left for his honeymoon.

5.  I visited Laura in SF and had the most amazing time.  I can't wait to go back in December

6.  I have a hectic winter season coming up: 

AGU in SF Dec 14-20

HOME in LA Dec 20-30

FC for New Years Dec 30-Jan 3

NY for CMMAP Jan 3-10

Israel for meeting Jan 11-19

7.  I am going to be teaching a climate course at Colorado College in the Spring .. YAY

8.  I am just starting to get out of my post masters depression funk ... now its time to find a date!

Thats all for now, will post something more exciting later

Ohh also, I got into a yelling/screaming fight with someone about climate change at the trailhead last week ... it was quite a scene i've heard :)

why today ROCKED!

1) Anna defended today and did an amazing job, I am totally proud of her

2) I submitted my abstract to a drought conference today ... hopefully I get funding to go!

3) We went to the Rustic Oven for Anna's defense and somehow Dave ended up paying for my dinner... who knows how that happened

4) I had Sangria, a Rio Marg, and a Martini

5) Anna Defended today :)

6) Atmos friends ROCK!

7) I am kinda drunk, eating potstickers and posting on my blog

... need i say more??? 

Its been a while

With the ever increasing stress and chaos involved with finishing my masters thesis, I've forgotten or avoided posting on my blog, but I think that its finally time to start up again.  Lately the only things on my mind have been "must finish masters", "must not fail", "must not burn out" but now that I finally have a date set i feel like I can finally take a step back and breath a little ... even though I still have half of my thesis to write and i am still not sure what the whole point of my thesis even was.  

Getting in touch with old friends from college has its plusses and minuses ... on the plus side you get to see what crazy things your friends are up to now and you get to reminisce about good times ... on the minus side you start to realize how potentially boring your life is compared to your friends from college and you remember all the bad/awkward things that happened in the past.  I can't decide if the plusses out weigh the minuses yet ... well see!

Explosions in the Sky

I sometimes miss living in a big city ... I miss being able to get lost in a crowd and feel pleasantly or secretly alone even though you are surrounded by hundreds of other people.  

This week in brief.

Work has been stressful.  I spend most of my time "writing my thesis" but so far I am very unsatisfied with the product I have produced.  I want to give Dave my climatology chapter sometime early this week, so I have been working my ass off, but I am still pretty nervous about what he is going to say.

On Tuesday our softball team "the snoweaters" won our first game of the Spring season.  We beat the other team 17-0 ... go us!!!

I took Thursday off to go skiing with my friend Jamie at Copper.  It was a blast ... I think that I am right where I was when the ski season ended net year.  Next year I am going to get a pass and ski a lot more :)

Today Anna and I swam for 2 hours straight.  I swam a total of 4400 yards (exactly 2.5 miles!) and Anna swam 5500 yards (3.125 miles).  After swimming we had breakfast at Luciles ... it was amazing.  We had beignets, breakfast burritos, coffee and amazing buttery biscuts.  I love working out and then getting to pig out!

After swimming I came home and wrote a little before heading over to Katies house for a softball bbq.  All and all it was a good time and we came up with names for the backs of each of our team t-shirts.  We thought it was too boring to use our actual names so we came up with some pretty dorky nick names ... here are some examples:

Rachel (me) - "rmac", like bigmac i guess??

Jim - "Lord Kelvin"

Katie - "Perfect 2" - she is #2

Michelle - "Michilicious"

Kazuyo - "choo choo" - something funny that came up when playing train dominos

Nick - "sequesterer" - as in carbon sequestration!

I know this makes us pretty dorky ... but I think we are freaking awesome!

Tomorrow I am going to spend the whole day working... trying to finish up this chapter so that I can finally move on and do some more analysis!!

@ The Bean Cycle

The Bean Cycle is a local coffee shop here in fort collins connected with your everyday anarchist used  bookstore.  I discovered it on a random date I went on the first week I lived here in CO ... and well lets just say it was the best thing that came out of that date.  I've spent many a morning/afternoon/night working there, drinking coffee and hanging out with friends.  All and all I love it.  It is owned by two sisters and their brother ... I think (don't hold me to that) and everyone there is into riding bikes and hanging out and spending time outside.  It has a good vibe.  But as always, there are two things that really freaking piss me off about the Bean Cycle ... and I just need to vent.

1) Sometimes their service just sucks.  They don't really seem to have any policy on how much time people are allowed to spend randomly talking to people rather than making my coffee.  There have been many occasions where I have stood in line for over 10 min ... while they make one persons smoothie and I have just left because I don't think that they will ever get to me.  Not so good for business if you ask me.  They need to make a list and write down people's names and then call them up to the counter when their drinks are done ... I HATE WATING IN LINE!!!!  There is also this one girl who works there who drives me nuts ... mostly because she is very slow and she always tries to have these weird/random conversations with every single person who she makes coffee for.  Whatever ... maybe I am just a bitch.

2)  I am worried that I might die from drinking the water there.  Their tap water tastes like their bathroom smells... which I realize is totally gross, but it is also true, and I am not the only one who feels that way.  I always make sure to bring a big bottle of water with me when I go to the Bean Cycle ... because well I can't drink the plain water they provide.  It has a metallic, moldy dingy gross taste and I am pretty sure its because the building is over 100 years old and the pipes have never been changed.  If I had children .. I wouldn't allow them to drink things made with the water from the bean cycle for fear of lead poisoning.  Funny how I don't really notice this taste when I drink the coffee there ... good thing :)

But after all my moaning and bitching ... I still end up at the bean cycle at least once a week ... if not more.  It's awesome :)  Fair Trade coffee makes me happy!

weekend recap

So I just posted a blog 2 min ago, but it left me feeling unsatisfied.  It didn't say all that I wanted it to say and I am only leaving it up, because I think that this post will probably also miss out on a few points that I possibly made in the previous post. 

I have mixed feelings about this weekend.  It started out pretty good when I went to Melissa's birthday party on Friday night and had a good time!  Then Saturday morning I woke up and went to my yoga class.  I've been going to this class since the semester started, and I love it.  Going to yoga regularly has been amazing.  I am really starting to get back into the swig of things and this class energizes me for the weekend.  I am starting to remember why I used to love going to yoga and it is helping me to focus on the more spiritual aspects of my life.  Sometimes, not really being a particularly religious person, I feel like I don't really know how express my more creative side, but going to yoga really opens up a whole new/more interesting part of my life.  I also love how the instructor really emphasizes "honoring your practice" and "honoring yourself".  It helps remind me to value the good parts of my life, and to appreciate the person that I am.  

After yoga I went home and made the most amazing chicken salad sandwich ever ... I am obsessed with chicken salad especially when I put grapes and cashews in it :).  After that I headed over to the bean cycle to get some work done, and I was amazingly productive.  At this point of my weekend, I thought ... nothing could really go wrong and I was going to have the best weekend ever, ... but then I went to softball practice.  

Practice was really not the greatest, and it reminded me of why I quit playing at the age of 13 (when I had only started playing when i was 12).  To start, I was trying to break in my new glove ... and I couldn't catch the ball if my life depended on it.  Then about 15 min into the practice I got hit with a line drive right on my kneecap.  I really really had to fight the urge to cry and throw up, lay down on the ground and give up immediately, but I "manned up" and finished out the practice.  And let me tell you ... I felt like crap.  I couldn't catch anything, and Jim (the nice guy he is) kept trying to give me pointers/help me out, but mostly I just felt really really bad every time a ball went past me and I just wanted to go home and cry ... which is exactly what I did.  After biking home, I walked into the door, walked up to my roommates room and FELL APART.  So of course to make myself feel better ... I went to McDonalds.... a not so good move when you are trying to loose a little bit of weight :).

Fortunately, Saturday night ended up being pretty good and it turned my weekend back around.  I went over to Katie's house for a "girls night" of laughing and drinking.  We talked about the most random things like porn, climbing, crushes...and a few girls even dressed up in hot denim one-piece outfits that I will post as soon as I get my camera back.

And this morning I woke up a little beaten and brused, but emotionally in a pretty good mood.  I made another chicken salad sandwhich and headed to a coffee shop to do work.  And to finish out this somewat weird weekend I plan on going to a relaxation yoga class that Anna has been trying to get me to go to for a while.  My knee is pretty sore so I might just end up doing "child's pose" for half the class, but hopefully It will be restorative and I'll be ready to tackle yet another hectic week :)

random observations

I have finally started getting to know some of the people in the classes below me in the Atmos department at CSU and I have to say ... they rock!

Going to a friends birthday party on a Friday night, drinking some good beer and talking with friends is probably one of my top ten ways to spend an evening out. 

Waking up on a Saturday morning at 8:30am and heading to an amazing yoga class at 9:30 is the best way to start out the weekend.  

Breakfast has become my favorite meal of the day.  I wish that I lived in Boulder so that I could go to Burnt Toast or Sunflower every single weekend.  I love going out to breakfast, ordering a huge cup of coffee, eating an amazing European style breakfast and reading the paper.  I wish that there was a good crepe place in Fort Collins ... or a place where I could get a breakfast quiche and a salad :)

I tend to be very loud when I am in a group of people and sometimes I feel like I monopolize the conversation.  The sad part is that I really don't want to monopolize the conversation, because most people have significantly cooler/more exciting things to say that I do ... I just like to talk and I get over enthusiastic.  I have been trying to work on this ... but so far I have pretty much failed.  

I don't think that I could survive grad-school (and I know that I wouldn't have survived undergrad) without coffee shops.  Its one of my favorite ways to spent time working on the weekend. 

People watching is awesome.  I sometimes wonder if people ever get tired "trying" too look a certain way ... don't they feel like they are constantly playing the part of a hippy or punk rocker etc.   I don't think that I really have any specific style...I don't think that dressing a certain way actually defines my identity ... talking and laughing defines who I am :)

Girls like to gossip. 

A few of us got together last night to drink, play games and gossip.  Lets just say that drinking and gossiping won out ... although we did play catch-phrase for about 15 min.

Climbing people really only talk about climbing and they really only have friends who climb or they try to get their non climbing friends to start climbing.  I will never "fit in" to the climbing community ... but I really do enjoy doing it.  I am trying to figure out a way where I can climb, have fun, and not be horribly intimidated by other climbers.  

I should climb outside more this summer.  I should also climb more peaks :).

It's almost summer in Fort Collins.  I can't wait!

I put up with Fort Collins in the winter, because I know how amazing it is to live here in the summer.  

tuesday night embarrassment

For the past year or so I have been playing poker at a local bar every Tuesday night.  At first I was really bad ... because I had no idea how to play poker.  I would joke around with everyone at the table, and they would give me pointers and help me figure out how I should have played my hand.  It was nice ... no expectations for being good allowed me to really just enjoy playing poker and hanging out.  Then randomly, after a little experience I started playing pretty well...I would make it to the final table and a lot of the guys were "impressed".  But recently ... I don't know what happened, but I have started to play like crap.  I am super unconfident about my playing, I over analyze every move and even when I get cards I don't play them strong enough so I end up losing on the River.  To be honest ... I don't even know if I like playing poker at this bar anymore, yet for some reason I keep going week after week. 

What I really want to do is get a weekly (or maybe a twice monthly) game going with some friends.  It would be fun to just drink, hangout, and possibly win some money :) ... I think I will more actively recruit people to play poker and hopefully sometime soon I will get my game back and start to enjoy playing again.

3rd person commentary

So I spend too much time on facebook.  I spend so much time on facebook, that I now can only think it terms of status messages:

Rachel is pretty sure that Gilmore Girls gives her a false sense of how the world works.  She is pretty sure that she will not fall in love with a Diner owner from a small town or marry into a rich family so she should probably start working on her thesis so that she can support herself.  She is also pretty sure that no one is quite that honest or witty ... ever.

Rachel is grumpy today because it was cold and windy.  She also had to work on a project for her writing class, which went surprisingly well.  

Rachel is a perfectionist and is annoyed when other people are not.

Rachel maybe isn't as happy with her life right now as she would like to be.  

Rachel has doubts about grad-school.

Rachel is thinking it might be a good idea to delete her facebook account so that she might get back to being a normal person.

Rachel loves neutral milk hotel and joanna newsom.

Rachel wishes that she spent more time doing the things she likes to do only she can't really remember what it is that she likes to do so it is kinda a catch 22

Rachel really didn't like reading catch 22.

Rachel really wants a beer and to be skinner, but the former really doesn't help the latter.

Rachel should be cleaning the kitchen, but she would much rather blog.

Rachel is wishing that the piles of crap in her room, her office, her car (ie her life) would just clean themselves up because she doesn't have the energy to deal with them.

Rachel is worried that she identifies with the Tegan and Sara song "You Wouldnt like me" a little to much lately

Rachel is wondering where her self-esteem went lately and wants to know how she can get it back.

Rachel hopes that she will go to Europe this summer or fall

Rachel plans way to much of her life and wants to be more spontaneous, can you help her with that?

Rachel hopes that at work tomorrow she will be productive and not go on facebook, randomly talk to people in the hallway for hours and feel happy when she goes climbing.

Rachel regrets eating an entire box of mac and cheese yesterday ... and today

Rachel thinks that if she had worked out today she might have been in a better mood

Rachel overall is a happy person, she is  just experiencing some turbulence today.

Ok the third person thing has finally gotten to be a little annoying, maybe I am done thinking that way...

Caffeine is my friend and I am darn proud of it!

So today has already been a pretty freaking awesome day and its only noon!!!!

I think my day actually started last night when I decided that I was no longer going to be sick and I was going to stop being super lazy and get my ass to the gym to go swimming in the morning.  So I woke up 6a.m., which under normal circumstances would have been a super pain in the ass, but for some reason it was really easy for me to get up today.  Since waking up was a breeze I also got to eat some breakfast, make a salad for lunch and get to the gym to meet Anna a few min early (something that almost never ever happens!)  I thought my swim today was going to be complete crap because I had slacked off all week, but it turned out to be pretty good and I even swam 1200 yards, 200 of which were pretty fast/hard intervals.  After my swim I was feeling pretty jolly (haha jolly!) so I decided to do a few handstands and front/back flips in the water which totally took me back to my summer camp days at Young Set Club, man I miss being 10 sometimes.  

Anna and I finished swimming pretty early which was good because I had to take my car into the shop to get the oil changed and get my brakes checked out and I wanted to stop and get some food on the way.  Excitingly, the shop I went to today is right next to Panera Bread and so I got to eat a cinnamon crunch bagel and drink a huge cup of coffee which I "accidentally" put half and half in ... so it was an extra wonderfully good cup of coffee.  The shop told me it was going to take about an hour to check out my car, so I spent that hour at Panera Bread "writing my thesis" which really does need to have quotes around it because I don't even really know what it means to "write a thesis" i just kinda aimlessly wrote down some stuff about precipitation and call it "work".  Unfortunately (but well actually fortunately), when I got to the shop they had "forgotten" to even look at my car ... at first i was pissed because I had to sit there for an extra 45 min waiting for them to check out my car, but then they told me that they were not going to charge me for the work ... so for an extra 45 min I got a free oil change and let me tell you ... it was worth it (I don't make 35 dollars an hour!!!) so to celebrate I took my car to the car wash to have a shower ... which i realize is not so environmentally friendly, but then again I am pretty darn lazy :(

So now I am at work, blogging instead of "writing my thesis" and soon I am going to leave work to check out the new Mountain Shop which is opening next week.  My friend Seth is going to give me the grad tour before it even opens!!!  Also it's something like 55 degrees outside today, and it's possibly going to be in the 70s tomorrow so it really does seem like spring is almost here!!!!

Bridget Jones anyone?

I've been thinking about this quote from Bridget Jones' Diary lately...

"At times like this, continuing with one's life seems impossible ... and eating the entire contents of one's fridge seems inevitable.  I have two choices: to give up and accept permanent state of spinsterhood and eventually be eaten by wild dogs... or not, and this time i choose not.  I will not be defeated by a bad man and an American stick insect!  Instead, i choose vodka. And Chaka Khan."

Only in my case it reads:

"At times like this, continuing with one's life seems impossible ... and eating the entire contents of one's fridge seems inevitable.  I have two choices: to give up and accept permanent state of poor graduate studentness and eventually be eaten by wild dogs... or not, and this time i choose not.  I will not be defeated by my advisor and an awful thesis topic!  Instead, i choose vodka. And Andrew Bird."

Ok so maybe that is a little extreme, but lately I have been feeling like eating the entire contents of my fridge ... only I really don't have any food.   And I really would rather be drinking than thinking about drought over the Great Plains, but probably I would choose a good stout or porter.  And my love life is pretty much nonexistent, unless you count cuddling with my roommates cat and having a 2 hour allergy attack.  So, Bridget Jones, I totally understand you!!!