eowyn

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 18:43:19 GMT

I'm back in San Diego. Apologies to those I didn't have time to see - there just isn't enough time in a trip like this. It was really wonderful to see those of you I did. Now back to bed as I seem to have gotten Angie's death flu.

Boston plans

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:04:34 GMT

In other planning - anyone interested in trying to go see this show: http://www.americanrepertorytheater.org/events/show/sleep-no-more on Tuesday? A friend posted it on facebook and it looks really fun. Tickets look to be $25 ea. Let me know and if there's enough interest I'll try to organize/get tickets. (And feel free to pass this, and any other livejournal-disseminated information on to friends who might be interested but I'm failing to get in touch with...)

Boston planning

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:44:56 GMT

I was planning to be back in Boston on Friday for hanging out/games with chenoameg and ringrose but they're calling that off on account of desperate need of sleep (yay having a baby!). Does anyone else have games/food plans for Friday? (And want to invite me).

And for those interested in fabric shopping in Boston - when would you like to go? I was thinking about Saturday during the day but I can easily alter these plans. I'd really like to go to the fabric store that's near where Mars music used to be (oh the new england way of giving directions...). I think it's called (looks up on Google) Sewfisticated Discount Fabrics - and google gives the address as on McGrath. Last time I was there (3+ years ago) they had some great deals on wool, which is what I"m really in the market for. I remember there also used to be some fabric stores in the downtown area (which would be nice to walk through just for the nostalgia, too). So who is in, when can you go, and where do you want to go?

Boston!

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:59:50 GMT

I've made it safely to the east coast, and caught up on my sleep! Except for already missing my cat, life is good.

San Antonio and arm pain

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:50:35 GMT

I've made it safely to Texas (San Antonio to be specific) with enough time to catch up on sleep and wander around a bit before the conference starts tomorrow morning. So I checked into the hotel, dropped my stuff, and wandered around a bit seeing the Alamo and a bit of the Riverwalk. Despite being told by the cab driver that the cost of living here is low I notice that the restaurants around here are a bit pricier than I'd normally go to. If anyone has recommendations of restaurants in downtown San Antonio please let me know (there are a *lot* of restaurants around here, and I'm around for another 5 days/ 4 nights).

In unrelated noticings something is apparently wrong with my shoulder. I think it was fine this morning when I left San Diego but I was so tired I might not have noticed. Walking around this afternoon I was starting to have trouble with any motion in my right arm (even with no weight on the arm and the hand not doing anything but hanging down). Some limited mobility tests seem to tell me that pain happens more acutely when the arm is rotated backwards or too far up and forwards. It hurts enough that if I were in San Diego I'd go to the urgent care at Student Health, but I"m not there at the moment. My current plan is to ignore it (well, try to not do anything with the arm and hopefully it won't hurt more and I won't be doing anything to damage it). This is made harder by just now being woken up with arm pain. Does anyone out there have medical experience and want to let me know if there's something you think I should be doing? I'm getting more worried that something might be broken - does this mean I should find a local emergency room or something? Is there anything they'd do other than put it in a sling and tell me not to use it? I've never dealt with something like this (by which I mean anything being wrong with my body) when away from home so I don't know what to do... I'd really appreciate some advice.

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 17:58:07 GMT

maybe I'm actually not feeling well and that's why I'm not getting anything done. I do seem to be sleeping too much and my throat is feeling scratchy this morning... but I'm really afraid I'm just making excuses for myself.

craftiness

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 21:52:22 GMT

It feels like it was ages ago that I posted about the 'sign up and I'll make you a gift' meme (or something like that). I've finally finished (well, mostly - at least the hard parts) of the projects I decided to do for the two people who signed up. I'll be bringing the things with me when I go to Boston to visit in November. So kelkyag and lokiect, you both need to make sure to see me when I'm in town!

While I'm on a roll, would anyone else like to sign up for a mystery gift? I may or may not get things done by the end of this calendar year - but I've been having a great time learning some new crafts and I'm happy to find excuses to try something new! And if you think I'm supposed to be making something for you already - please remind me! My brain isn't the stable of things around, you know...

Actually - would anyone be interested in forming some sort gift exchange circle for the holidays? I'm happy to deal with organizing if there's enough interest...

up and down

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 19:47:42 GMT

I woke up this morning feeling happy and well rested (yes, I slept in - but the excuse was that I'd been out late last night at a friend's thesis defense party). Pet the cat for a bit, then got up and got dressed and ready for school, and had breakfast. Since then I've been feeling steadily worse - centered around my tummy feeeling unhappy. Grump. Why can I not seem to have a healthy Tuesday? I've been fine followed by increasingly sick Tues-Wed, recovering Thurs, and okay again on Fri. for the past _3_ weeks. This is ridiculous!

For San Diego locals

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 22:52:05 GMT

Planning a part for Saturday late afternoon/early evening. There will be wine, and food-stuffs, and hopefully people and good times. If I'm forgetting to invite anyone let me know.

If any non-SD folks happen to be in town this weekend you're definitely invited - just let me know!

Back in San Diego

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:12:29 GMT

I'm back from my workshop at Stanford. It was nice to get to see a few friends up there and certainly interesting to go to a workshop on solar physics (and filled with solar physicists). Still, I am incredibly happy to be home!!

And in other news...

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:32:36 GMT

Completely unrelated to this workshop - it looks like I may be getting a floor loom from someone giving away theirs. Loom! (The weaving kind here, but the tone of voice still applies!)

Loom!

Stanford - 7/19-7/22

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:46:53 GMT

Apparently I'm going to Stanford for a workshop early next week. Hey people in the bay area - is this close enough for me to be able to see you?

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:29:39 GMT

I just ordered 17 books. All craft related, but goodness... what happened to my self control?

For anyone into that sort of thing this is a very dangerous link:
http://www.interweavestore.com/Hurt-Book-Sale.html

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:48:03 GMT

Back from Spain. It was lovely. More on that later; the priority right now is sleep (after just a few more cuddles with the cat).

I kid you not

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:27:11 GMT

San Diego. June. HAIL???
what the...?

EDIT: and the hail was about the size of peas.

Qualifier:

Wed, 27 May 2009 20:46:35 GMT

Passed!

twitching about

Wed, 27 May 2009 16:56:18 GMT

My qualifying exam is in 2 hours.

Sun, 10 May 2009 04:08:29 GMT

I haven't updated in a while and since I"m trying to let my brain rest between bouts of editing my proposal... here you go. The big thing in my life right now and for the next 18 days is that I'm scheduling my qualifier on the 27th. I should have a draft of my thesis proposal more or less done to send to my advisor tomorrow. By Monday I hope to have a rough ppt outline and most of the slides (at least all the old ones I"ll be re-using or just altering a little) to send to him too. There will be a bit of back and forth then, followed by obsessive preparation for my talk and examination. Hosed hosed hosed hosed hosed hosed hosed hosed... Oh yeah, and I need to send the proposal to the rest of the committee 'officially' by Wednesday (they may not get it by then - depends on my advisor's response times).

On Friday afternoon I had a 2 hour meeting with a colleague and professor who both gave me a number of really amazing/useful/fun/interesting ideas to think about and try. Gah! I want to do that fun stuff - not this stupid writing up and preparing a presentation.

I really like everyone on my committee - at least those I've actually met (which is 4 out of 6 of them). They're all helpful, friendly people who are very committed to teaching students. And all people I feel comfortable knocking on their office door or dropping them an email asking for help. I think this is a win. The other two people who I admittedly haven't actually met (or met officially) yet have reputations for being friendly and helpful as well.

So despite the stress right now, I like this a lot more than those times I'm frustrated. I see an end in sight and have a plan that will hopefully become a thesis. And my work is *fun*. Admittedly, this is a very biased opinion, but really I'm the one person who has to think that this is fun! :)

My brother!

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:22:45 GMT

'Cause I'm really proud of him!

Passover

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:32:18 GMT

Last night I had my Passover Seder. Since I'm still recovering from my crazy-wonderful weekend at the tournament I knew I wasn't going to be doing as much this year as most, and I welcomed people bringing food to share. I also didn't have the energy to revise my haggadah (and I'm mostly happy with how it is now so that isn't too bad) or look up the music for various songs - so we only sang the one I remembered (how can you forget the tune to dayenu?). For various reasons of business/unwellness there ended up only being five people there which makes it my smallest seder ever. Overall I think it went very well, though, and I'm glad I had one again.

My Passover seder has picked up a increasingly UU tinge over the years, and one of the things I really like that I tried last year was to start off with everyone there lighting candles and sharing thoughts (generally things you're happy/grateful about). Last night I found this is what got me into the right mindset for Passover (instead of my earlier utter exhaustion 'can we eat so I can go to bed now' mood). And the truly amazing thing was that the entire seder, including dinner, ended up being only about 2.5 hours long. We'd started early - since it wasn't on the first night I figured that would be okay - around 6:30pm. And after blowing out the candles realized it wasn't yet or was barely 9pm!

So anyway, I'm feeling all religious-ish for another year.

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 04:36:45 GMT

Last post before heading up to Berkeley tomorrow morning. Wish me luck at the competition!

productive +1

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 15:57:33 GMT

Yesterday: emailed the last two professors I wanted to ask to be on my committee - already heard back from one of them. Started cleaning the kitchen. Used up the last of my fresh veggies from CSA (new box tomorrow) to make a soup-type-thing (came out yummy, too) except for a little of the dill which I saved to make another loaf of lemon-dill bread tonight. Did a little pleasure reading and got 8 hours of sleep.

Didn't deal with taxes, or work on silks, or go to taichi. But today (at least now in the early hours of today) I feel like I can tackle these things. I'll take a break midday to go to the bookstore on upper campus to get some tax prep software and the ipod charger.

randomness

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 22:41:17 GMT

so I realized a while ago that I don't really like wearing t-shirts. In winter I want long sleeves (3/4 are okay but I tend to get cold wrists) and in summer I like sleeveless. So why did I just buy 22 t-shirts in 2 days? I do like t-shirts layered over long sleeve shirts (warmth, and getting to have cute shirts I guess). maybe I'll finally figure out how to alter standard t-shirts to a cut I like more (I keep meaning to but never quite have). Anyway, threadless.com is having a sale thru Monday, and I like offworlddesigns clearance shirts too. So 22 shirts was less than $160 including shipping, but still...

travel plans

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 19:34:24 GMT

It looks like I'll be flying up to the bay area the 2nd weekend in April. I'm busy all day Saturday with a taichi competition, but I can push back my return ticket til later Sunday if there are any folks up there who'd be interested in seeing me (don't know if any of you read livejournal, though). So drop me and email.

Meme!

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 19:46:46 GMT

From firstfrost:

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
- What I create will be just for you.
- It'll be done this year.
- You have no clue what it's going to be. It might be a photo, or a short story, or a covered dish. I might finally learn how to knit and foist my learning projects off on you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you have to put this in your journal as well. We all can make stuff!

Depending on motivation and how complicated I end up making things (and who responds) I may be up for making more than 5 things to give away...

I missed this last time it came around and ended up wishing I"d actually done it. If you don't feel like signing up to make 5 things for random people I'm open to 1 for 1 'mystery' trades too :)