Sign #1 that I've been out of school for a long time:

Or, this is how my first day of grad school class went:

I go to the bookstore and buy a new notebook for my first day in class.  Look at me, all ready to take notes and rock this class:

Everyone else opens up their macbooks.  We then proceed to do an in-class assignment using the internet.

We can change our own flats thank you.

My roommate's tire was flat this morning...so she changed it and I helped:

Wait, did you get that?  In case you didn't:

In other car news...I bought one today! (Or, the credit union on campus is helping me buy one to be more specific.)

Ice cream-mmm!

Action shot of roommate-ice-cream night:

:)

Now this is the story all about how...

I moved to San Diego. (But pretend it fits in with the Bel-Air song anyway.)

I flew via Salt Lake, and this is gorgeous:

Since I've arrived I've been car shopping, taking pictures of our roommate after-church-visit-the-beach outing:

...exploring the desert shrubbery near my housing complex:

...and exploring campus.  This one is for you Mama. Do you know why? :)

So far so-lovely-San-Diego good!

It's almost California time!

I'm pretty much packed for Cali. (Can I call it that?)

I'm mailing some boxes: 

And I'm taking the rest of my stuff on the plane. (Yes I'm taking the guitar. No, I'm not taking the speaker.)

In other news, this is what my Sunday night looked like:

Peanut butter M&Ms courtesy of Rite Aid, Saturday night.  Harry Potter puzzle, free on the side of the road, courtesy of our couple-of-doors-down neighbors, on our drive back from church. 

And finally, my To-Do list before I leave wonderful Chicago:

1. Finish this Harry Potter puzzle, and maybe play a rousing game of "Mystery at Hogwarts, the Game." (Also from the neighbors.) Family Night anyone? 

2. Eat at Portillo's.

3. Sew up / hopefully finish my sweatshirt quilt.

4.  Meet up with friends!

5. Not sure what else.  This list's just off the top of my head.  

I have until Tuesday evening to get it all done!

Sailing? Don't mind if I do.

Oh you know, today was just another typical Monday-in-Chicago.

(On my brother's last full day at home) we ate breakfast at Walker Brothers Pancake House with Maria+her baby boy. Walker Brothers needs a cooler website to convey just how cute the place is and how amazing all their food is.  If you've gone, you know.

We went sailing with a few friends at Northwestern's Sailing Center.  (Thank you rented Hobie Wave for a lovely time.)

Not much wind, but really, we're on a lake in gorgeous weather on a weekday. A little wind is enough.

And to end the day, Family Night (the four of us) with lively conversation and too many fries at 5 Guys! (No pics of this, sorry. My phone/camera's recovering from sailing in a bag of rice.)

Anybody want some Chicago-home-baked pie?

I'm in Chicago visiting my parents for a few weeks.  I took the train from upstate-NY to Chicago.  It's an overnight train ride and I woke up to this:

My brother's also visiting Chicago and he decided to try his hand at making an amazing apple pie.  I emailed my friend Lily for her favorite recipe.  We ended up using a different crust recipe (What can I say?  Lily's directions called for overnight-crust-making and we wanted pie stat.) and an additional strawberry pie filling recipe.

Here are the results:

And here are results after 24 hours:

  Also of note are Lowell's apple peeling skills:

Mmm, pie! Thanks Lily!  I'd definitely bake with that recipe again. (And actually try the cream cheese crust next time.)

30-Day Goal #2: Run 30 miles

I've been running on and off the past few years - sometimes the "off" times are a lot longer than the "on" times.  I've run a 10K and a half-marathon (lets be honest, that last one kicked my butt.)  I took most of June and July off.  My goal for this month is to run 30 miles by running 3-4 times a week.  I want to build a good base of running a little bit but often so that I can improve from there.  Sometime down the road I'd like to do another 13.1 miles and finish well.

Here are a couple of the sights from my upstate jog this morning:

(narrow-ish bridge)

(pretty church)

This week I've done 5 miles.

City Girl's Back in the Country

Or is it country girl's back in the country? I don't know anymore!

Well I'm done with the 30-day goal!  I blogged a picture 20 out of 30 days.  I'm glad I got a little into the habit of blogging - I'm about 19 posts more than my other few attempts at starting a blog.  After 30 days I still don't have the ready-with-a-camera mindset. Going forward I'd like to take better pictures (duh) and more pictures of my friends and family.

August 1st was my last day in NYC - and I don't even have any pictures of it!  Now I'm upstate with my grandparents for 4 days and I've spent a lot of time reading:

(The corner bedroom - one of my favorite spots in the house. I always end up reading at least one Nancy Drew.)

And of course, berry picking:

Woke up early and went with my grandpa. We picked these for blueberry syrup and french toast for dinner:

Ahh, sweet upstate NY.  My home away from wherever else I happen to be living.

Happy End-of-the-Day Diversion

I had a long day at work. It was good to get a bunch done, but it was long.  Until, on my way out of the building, I happened to see this:

8pm-ish: I see a bright orange balloon in the women's bathroom. My thoughts: 'Whaaaat? Sweet!  Hmm, I could carry it back to my aunt's house. [10 seconds visualizing myself toting a balloon around Manhattan like a little kid]  Noo.  I'll leave it to surprise the next lucky ladies room visitor.'

"I'm here can you pick me up?"

I'm like a little kid again! Or a teenager without a license.  While I stay with my Aunt she's dropping me off and picking me up from the train station every day.  Here's my view as I get off the train and look for my Aunt's car.  You can't tell but there's a rabbit in the grass.

9:17pm:

Moved (temporarily) to NJ!

I moved in with my aunt and cousin in NJ! (For my last week working in Manhattan.)

3:45pm-5:30pm: Try so hard to pack. Pack most of my stuff. (Thank you roomie for letting me crash at your studio this past month...even though I brought the total occupancy up to 4 girls. Crazy.)

5:45pm: Head to Penn Station with two very heavy suitcases in 90+ degree weather. Lug the suitcases down 5 flights of stairs. Drag them over to the subway station and down more stairs. Lug them over to the elevator. It's hot. It takes a lot of effort. You get the picture.

The awful suitcases themselves:

6:40-8:00pm: Wait at Penn Station for the next train out to my Aunt's. I fall asleep for a bit sitting underneath this piece of wall-poetry:

There's just something about staying with family. My stress level has plummeted. (Hee, well at least this first evening.) Thank you Auntie for letting me stay with you!

Apartment-Limbo

12:15 am: I walked past the street that I'd turn down to head toward my old apartment:

Sometimes I still walk toward my old apartment on accident.  I won't live in a really permanent place until September and I can't wait!  Not only will I feel settled, but I'll have access to some not-so-common-in-NYC-when-you're-living-on-a-budget amenities, namely a washer and dryer, kitchen counter space, and a patio.

Wednesday Mets Game

They won! We didn't stay to see the 10th inning, but they won.

I have to admit I feel like people go to Yankees games to see the Yankees win and people go to Mets games to eat Shake Shack and Blue Smoke.  So I was happy to be proved wrong! (Sort of. The food was good too.)

Sometime Wednesday, June 20 between 8pm and 10pm:

We--the Mets--get a home run and the home-run-apple (who knew) makes its appearance:

Also sometime between 8pm and 10pm:

A kid jumps the fence and runs around the field.  He gives the security guys a really long chase--this kid is good--before he gets tackled and cuffed.  Here he is with four security guys trailing him:

What an eventful game/great evening!

Cat Walk

It was HOT out today! On my way to my church class I saw a cat in the doorway of a closed up shop.  I've noticed a bunch of stores with cats (mice? or they just like cats?).

Between the time that I noticed the cat and about 1 minute later when I took a picture of it, the cat acted pretty catlike.  1) A bulldog came up with its owner and freaked out--barking pretty desperately--until its owner dragged it away a few seconds later.  The cat responded by rubbing its side up against the bars and staring steadily at the dog.  Ha.  2) A little girl came up and crouched down to wave at the cat.  She wasn't as exciting as the dog, so it looked at her a few times and then lay down.  3) It almost completely ignored me.

Brooklyn!

5pm: Falafel in Brooklyn w/ coworkers. Mmmmmm:

I'm starting to realize that I'm actually moving.

Gaaaaaaaa...the going-away parties are starting!!

My boss threw a going-away party for me/housewarming party for him for me and my coworkers at his home in New Jersey.  I had a lot of fun and forgot to take pictures the whole time.  Actually I thought about it once but I was too busy to grab my phone (camera.)

No pictures aside, I felt really appreciated and happy to get out of the city.

Also, my company loves me and will miss me, and I know this because they scheduled Staff-Appreciation Week for 2 weeks before I finish working.  Here's us being appreciated (with lunch) last Tuesday at 11:45am:

I probably won't post a pic of it but next week we can pick up our free umbrella. Woo! My coworkers and I agree - and this isn't sarcastic - that, assuming it isn't too flimsy, an umbrella is a great appreciation-gift choice.

Harry Potter!!!!

Apparently I lose a lot of sanity whenever I think or talk about Harry Potter.  For example, I decided to dress up to see the last Harry Potter movie tonight with friends.  But it wasn't the midnight showing.  And I went on a last-minute shopping spree after work like this:

4:45pm: Take the M31 to FAOSchwarz and breath a huge sign of relief because they still have plenty of Hogwarts house ties.  I buy two and some Harry Potter glasses:

5:00pm-ish: Walk and take the M31 again back to TJMaxx and don't find anything. In between a bunch of these stops I duck into drugstores looking for a big fancy box of chocolates because I wanted to be Romilda Vane. But I don't find any that are good enough.  I mean, no love-potion of Whitman's sampler is going to cut it for Harry Ron, let's face it.

5:30pm-ish: Almost out of time! Walk to NY&Company and spend way too much on 2 white button up shirts:

6:15pm: Home and dress up. Learn how to tie a tie - thank you adorable-inflection how-to-tie-a-tie guy for teaching me the Windsor knot. Run out the door...

7:25pm: Arrive at the theater.  Realize that the Harry Potter spirit is only alive at midnight on opening day. Am still (40%) glad I dressed up. As my friend at the theater put it, this is the last time we can dress up for a premier.  There won't be any other awesome ones soon and by the time there are I'll be old and hopefully have kids and they'll think it's lame for me to dress up. So I most likely won't costume-it-out unless I feel like embarrassing them. Which I will probably do enough without dressing up for movie premiers. But I digress.

8:30pm: Movie! Not the best ever, but definitely wonderful. I need to do a HP book reading/movie watching marathon sometime.

Awesome night!

Kindle for PC: The Room

I spent most of my evening (6pm-10pm and 11:30pm-2am) reading The Room for my first ever book club meeting this coming Saturday. I bought it through Amazon's Kindle for PC:

Impromptu Evening Walk

9:30pm-ish: Tonight a friend knocked on my door...well, buzzed the apartment...and we went on an impromptu Pinkberry-run and city walk. (I loved this. It felt a little more like suburbia. The surprise neighbor visit part, that is.)

Sightseeing highlights from the walk include the only remaining original 1930-something lamp in the Tudor City garden:

...and these life-size statues:

Also: my new mantra for impromptu walks is "walk somewhere new." I led us to Tudor City because I'd been there before on a walk and liked it, but tonight wasn't the same. Don't get me wrong - the walk was enjoyable - but a different evening deserves a different experience don't you think?  There's something to be said for keeping enjoyable memories and still letting each new adventure actually be something new.

Christmas in July

Well, all year round.

Ordering supplies at work is kind of like Christmas or my birthday, but all the time.  When it's my turn to order I get stacks and stacks of boxes, someone has me sign for them, and I get to open them.

11am-ish: Today the new (autoclave mitts?) that my boss ordered came:

...and they kind of look like them came from Williams-Sonoma which is great.  I tried them on a bunch of times today.

Jazz is best in person.

Anyone who knows me knows I might not put jazz at the top of my music-listening-list. Let's just say I don't have a jazz-flavored Pandora station.


BUT, I like jazz in person. I like how Jazz is instant Mood and how it has a texture that's easy to feel from three feet away in a small lounge.  So, I loved Pascalito's Bastille Day Jazz Show at Opia tonight. (Thank you Scott R.)


8pm-ish: Here's my view from behind the bassist:

I actually brought my old camera around with me today, but I ended up being too embarrassed to pull it out - it's quite old and clunky.  It's funny that I was more shy about wielding my ancient camera than I am about blogging 2.0 megapixel camera phone pictures.


On the Menu:
Perrier
Warm Apple Tatin Dessert
Chamomile Tea


Mental Dessert Afterward:
Checkers in the hotel lobby.

Bluegrass Ramble, whaat??

So, in honor of Sunday nights in Upstate NY spent listening to Bluegrass Ramble I tuned in to the Bluegrass Pandora station at work tonight.

9:22pm (I checked the clock):

Can you see it very well?  I needed peppy but not pop-type music, so my go-to stations (Vivaldi and Third Eye Blind respectively) were out.  My new love-it song for the evening? Sierra Hull's Pretend. It's so good!  I don't usually listen to Bluegrass but I will probably check out more of her songs.

Also, (from the walk home) I'm excited (!!) for this:

Pinkberry on the Roof

Around 9:45pm: Had yogurt and ice cream on the roof tonight with some friends. Although a real camera would be better for this shot, here's the (only semi-city-crowded) view:

Lost my Keys, went on a shopping spree at Duane Reade.

9:00pm-ish: lost my keys. On the bus I think.  I had them when I left work. I had them when I pulled them out on the bus.  I did not have them when I went to unlock my front door.

9:02pm-ish to 11:20pm ish: Walked around looking for my keys on the street. Went to Duane Reade to buy "camping out in NYC" essentials:

...and hung out in the food court at the Citygroup Center.  Did you know that people like to play speed chess there late on Friday nights?  Well, they do.

Home Again

9:30pm-ish: I finish up with my Thursday evening church class and spend a while talking to a friend outside on the street.  I love summer evenings like this - it's been hot all day and it's still a little humid, but now it's cooled off and turned into perfect NYC-night walking weather.  I talk on the phone with my Grandpa for about 18 blocks and then catch the bus the rest of the way home.

10:05pm-ish: I start to unlock the downstairs door to my building and remember that I haven't taken any pictures yet today!  What's a 30-day-picture-blogging-challenge-taking-girl to do?

Document my final trek of the day of course!

1st flight:

 2nd flight:

 3rd flight (almost there):

 4th flight:

...And finally I'm there!

Unlock the door, walk into the air-conditioning...and now I'm home.  (And now I can't use the stairs as my picture of the day again.)