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!!