My favorite things...

So last weekend (or well two weekends ago) ... I kinda sorta had a panic attack at 8:30 am Saturday morning and started crying in my shower because I hate my life and I hate gradschool ... So I made a whole plan for quitting gradschool ... how I was going to tell my advisor (and make him feel real bad about it) and find a job sell my car to live my life etc. ... but then well I went down to denver to see my friend Mimi and I realized that this was stupid and what I really wanted to do was study something in Africa ... and well my research/school life is a whole lot better :)

Ok ... but the point of this post is really this ... when I realized how completely and utterly unhappy I am here I started to think about what makes me "happy" ... and while none of the things I thought of will really help me figure out what I want to do with my life ... I have realized that there are a few things out there that I really do enjoy

1) I get super happy/excited when I am driving in my car when the following are on the radio

a) This American Life

b) Car Talk

c) Wait Wait Don't tell Me

Last night I was heading home from Denver and This American Life came on ... I was so excited that I got to spend an hour in my car listening :)

2) I love reading for fun ... Its been a very very long time since I actively read books just for fun, but this year I've been reading a ton ... my new favorite things are to

a) read a book in the bath tub

b) read a book in a coffee shop in a comfy chair while drinking coffee

c) read a book on my new balcony :)

3) So this one is probably not super healthy ... but I love buying new things ... especially clothes which make me feel good/cute/hot/amazing. There is nothing like buying a new shirt/pair of pants and feeling like a million dollars...I recently bought this jacket and I feel great every time I wear it :)

4) I love it when I randomly start talking to someone ... and they dont look at me like I am a crazy person ... I swear I am just nice and chatty ... and some people really respond well to my complete and total weirdness ... I do not feel happy when people act all uncomfortable when I try to talk to them ... case in point that stupid lady in Israel to who totally fed me to the dogs at the airport she was a BITCH

5) I have started working out in the mornings ... and while I hate waking up early ... I really love the fact that I now have time to cook/eat/clean when I get home in the evenings, having free time in the evening is AMAZING :)

6) I also love to daydream about traveling ... more on that later!

funny emails

So today I got this email at work

From: Bill Jack

Sales,

I am Bill Jack, I am mailing you to order some of your products and I will want it shipped to our place as follows :


Shipping Address:
341-45, Dangni-dong,
Saha-gu, Busan 604-831
Republic of Korea


So i hope to hear from you soon regarding my inquiry and to know where i can view your products you have presently in stock and if there is any special pricing i need to know about. Lastly

regarding payment i will be sending you my credit card to charge for my order to avoid delays but can you let me know the type of credit cards you accept?

I hope to hear from you as soon as possible.
Regards.

NOTE IN TERMS OF SHIPPING THAT CAN BE ARRANGED WITH THE RIGHT SHIPPING COMPANY AND PAPER WORK

Since I clearly don't have anything better to do ... i looked up the address and it turns out to be a real place ... at a university. So I can't figure out what the scam is ... they are going to send me their credit card info ... so that I can send them "supplies"???

What is going on???

The home stretch

I am *almost* done with my paper.

I have officially spent approximately 12-15 hrs a day in my office for the past two weeks ... not only is it a disaster but I think it is starting to smell funny (that probably means that I am starting to smell funny).

Last week, while frantically trying to remember how to write a coherent sentence, I also gave a few lectures at a week long summer course we offer for local K-12 teachers ... the class is called "Weather and Climate for Teachers" ... so you know we teach them about weather and climate. This is my third year working with the summer course ... and for the first time ever I was not nervous to talk in front of a room full of 40 wide eyed teachers. Maybe I am finally getting the hang of this whole teaching thing!!

After my lectures, one of the teachers came up to me and told me that I am a "natural" and that I should really consider going into teaching ... this comment pretty much made my day :)

Back to the home stretch ... I am turning in my paper and my responses to the reviewers tomorrow ... then I am going to get stinking drunk with Michelle :)

Tuesday starts the Gradstudent colloquium ... where I have to give a talk about my "current research" ... I am thinking about showing some pictures of the new purse I want to buy from this site ... http://www.1154lill.com/home/ ... because this is the only interesting research I have been doing lately :)

Life lessons from When Harry Met Sally ...

I was watching When Harry Met Sally last night ... and in the book store scene when Harry and Sally meet for the third time I noticed that on the table of "self help books" that Sally is looking at there is one titled "Making Life Right When it Feels All Wrong". 

The first thing I thought was ... I wonder if the first sentence of that book is "If you are in graduate school, quit!  Your quality of like will improve dramatically."

Soon my paper will be done and i will get to sleep again.  I can't wait!

Life list #4

Ride my bike from Fort Collins To Estes Park :)

Life list #3

Learn to scuba dive and dive in the great barrier reef.

Life list #2

Backpack California's Lost Coast