All posts in: life maintenance

grad school
17 Jun 2011

Summer 2011: goals * projects * trips

It took me about three days after returning from Michigan to fully recover from my flight nightmare and return to simply stressing out about nothing/everything.

This is my last full week sans classes, so I should be moderately chill. But no. I’m not. I’m standing here, in the first week of June, staring down the rest of the summer like I want to beat it up before it has a chance to start in on me.

My life doesn’t currently afford me a lot of uninterrupted free time for scheming and dreaming or pursuing any schemes and dreams. Or travel. So while I’m still working 1 or 2 jobs (I’m still not sure which) and waiting for July to kick my ass with two classes, I feel like I should take advantages of what free time I can muster while the getting is good, while the weather is nice, while my boy is out of work, while I’m still in battle mode.

However, I can’s seem to decide if I need that time to Do Serious Things or Do Fun Things. Since I have time for neither during the school year. So here’s what I hope my summer will look like in terms of goals, projects, and trips!

this awkward picture brought to you by Summer 2010

  • Sit down and do some long-term planning

I spend a lot of time during the semester in survival mode. When I get a little time off, it hits me like a ton of bricks that TIME IS PASSING and I DON’T KNOW WHAT I’M DOING and I NEED A FOUR YEAR PLAN. I’d like to deal with that in a productive manner and actually get things in writing in terms of money, moving, and other life goal-type things.

  • Make the most of all the local summer produce

I’m having a tough time with produce lately. My body says “eat me!” and my brain says “that bag of banana came from Calcutta, you idiot.” Farmshare and farmer’s market season is upon us, however, and I plan on turning all the fresh fruits and veggies into things that are super delicious. Spend more money at the market, less money at Whole Foods, and figure out how to preserve what I can. I am having fun finding delicious looking things on Pinterest. (btdub, I should really scratch all of these goals and write “Try not to spend your whole summer clicking on things on Pinterest.” Holy addictive, Batman!)

  • Read 30 books

That will keep me on pace for breaking 100 books in 2011. I’ll start with these and see where the summer takes me. Right now, I am reading All These Things I’ve Done by Gabrielle Zevin, Carrots ‘n Cake by Tina Haupert, and Birds of America by Lorrie Moore.

  • Be able to run 3 miles by the end of the summer

I was doing so well in October/November, but after a long, snowy winter, I’ve backtracked. Sigh. I am still not quite a runner. However, I would like to be able to run a 5k. And I think that people with missing limbs and club feet can run 5ks, so I don’t think it’s unreasonable to run 3 miles by the end of the summer. Because I am not a runner, running three miles may include walking, but not any more walking than I would do running just one or two miles.

  • Be social

This one is easy, but important. Go out and do fun things, Jessica! Be a “yes woman!” Get out of your apartment! Or get people into your apartment! Whatever! Just do it!

  • Floss your damn teeth

I just realized that I no longer have dental insurance. I am also prone to cavities. I guess it’s time for me to actually start flossing.

  • Do well in your summer classes

Enough said. Do your work. Don’t procrastinate. Stand by a little acronym I like to call “DFIU.”

  • Master Grocery Shopping

Oh, groceries. I spend too much on you. I am working on a series of elaborate spreadsheets to tabulate my grocery bills and decide what to make based on available money rather than whim. I feel like if I master grocery shopping, I will be able to A) stock up on things when they go on sale without starving that week B) use coupons more often C) spend more money at the farmer’s market without going over budget D) only have to go to one grocery store every week (Whole Foods) and stock up on Trader Joe’s things once a month or so E) knowing what is cheaper to buy or cheaper to make from scratch. It’s confusing, involves a lot of math, and makes Lance mad, but I think its important.

  • Master The Laundry

I don’t know why my boy and I are so bad at laundry. We can’t figure out the best permutation of doing and folding and putting away to actually keep our clothes off the floor. We are smart people! College educated! We should be able to handle this! Let’s do it!

  • Finish a writing project of some sort

I do not know what this project will be yet. Maybe a short story. Maybe an epic blog thing. Maybe part of a book. Maybe a whole book. Maybe an article for a magazine or journal. Who knows! I think August will be the time to pick this up, but I am missing serious writing a little.

  • Declutter apartment

Time for some purging. Let’s throw stuff away! Fun!

  • Strength train

It has come to my attention that maybe I suck at running because I am a weakling. It has also come to my attention that I am becoming too pudgy for my clothing again. Strength training, I reason, will help me run for longer periods of time (burning more calories) and will make my body a more efficient machine (burning more calories). And I will be able to throw large rocks at people and lift cars off of babies. Or just take the Kitchenaid off the top of the fridge without assistance. I’ll take that. The main problem will be getting myself to the gym regularly, since it is somewhat out of the way from my everyday jaunting. I went this morning, though! Success!

  • July 4 – travel/have visitors

Yay, Fourth of July! This is one of my only long weekends of the summer, so it would be fun to either make a quick visit to some friends or my grandparents, or to have some visitors stay and do fun fireworksy things. Raise your hand if you want to come to Boston!

  • June or July or August – Get out of town for the weekend

So I live in New England. And I have a car. So I should probably get in my car and see New England, eh? I’m thinking weekend trip, one night in a campy hotel or a cheesy B&B, or maybe NYC. Somewhere. Anywhere!

  • August – Make a week out of it

I should have time to take a longer trip in August, but probably keep it somewhat low-cost. That leaves a few options, though. Option A: Random road trip. Option B: Michigan. Option C: Grandparents in North Carolina Option D: a few nights in some resorty place with cheapo airfare and hotels. All of which are on the table, assuming our summer schedules align.

goals
19 Apr 2011

giving up sugar

Among my nastier personality predilections is the terrible combination of being both

almost completely resistant to any kind of change

and

unusually pessimistic about a perfectly good life.

So basically, it’s a chronic case of

Life sucks but I don’t want to do anything about it because nothing would help anyway.

(I am being dramatic. My personality is not that terrible. In fact, the above statement is not often true: usually I vacillate wildly between being ecstatic about my life and being despondent. Which is another sort of unpleasant, but I’m not walking around with a storm cloud over my head 24/7.)

Anyway. Some life events that have happened in the last week led me to a few days of deep thinking. I was thinking about ANOTHER annoying personality duality that I possess, one that is definitely related to the first:

1) I am a creature of habit.

I’d always suspected this of myself, but it became glaringly obvious when my Lance and I moved in together last fall. Take, for instance, a random Sunday. It’s time to do some grocery shopping…. but Lance doesn’t want to go. “I’m too tired.” “Maybe this afternoon.” “In an hour.” That kind of thing. I want to go because I am hungry and want to have time to cook something that evening, but mostly I just want to know that it is Sunday at xxx o’clock and that is when we buy food.

And I’m sure Lance remembers fondly one afternoon when he pulled out of his parallel parking spot and went straight through Bynner and Huntington rather than turning right… I probably screamed. He thought we could just go to the Stop and Shop in JP rather than truck it out to the Trader Joe’s, but failed to inform me that what I thought was a carefully laid routine was about to crumble.

Ahem.

2) I am a constant self-evaluator, lifestyle-manipulator, dreamy-dreamer.

I want a lot of things for myself, for my life, and I spend a lot of time trying to make them happen.

However, here lies the conflict:

I shy away from any change that threatens my routine.

I know, this is such a White Girl Problem, but it’s getting to the point of silliness.

Let’s say I read an article saying that eating a giant bowl of oatmeal is the Best Breakfast.

I like oatmeal. I can make oatmeal. I would like to eat the Best Breakfast.

But I probably won’t do it because if I ate oatmeal for breakfast, then I wouldn’t be able to eat any eggs for breakfast. And I love my breakfast eggs.

I love them so much, in fact, I’ve been eating eggs for breakfast practically every day for a year and a half.

I can’t even change what I eat for breakfast because I am such a mother$#&^ing STICK IN THE MUD!

It makes me kind of mad at myself.

But then, yesterday, while I was tidying up my kitchen, I had one of those still, small voice moments, when my best self – the self who is immune to personality dualities and other terrifying deficiencies – said to me:

You keep thinking that you will wake up one day and be changed, that it will suddenly be easy to be the person you want to be, to do the things you want to do, to make those hard decisions. You’ve got it backwards, my friend. If you just do the things you want to do, the doing will change you. The discipline gained, the results observed… the change will be your new routine.

Whenever I’m mired in that state of Life-Sucks-and-I-Can’t-Do-Anything pessimism, I feel like I’m waiting for a cognitive leap, for something to click in my mind that will make me understand my situation and what I need to do.

But I’m not sure I’ve ever received one, until now.

So my first battle,

Jessica vs. Her Crippling, American Sugar Addiction

Take a look at this cake.

I MADE that cake!

But I don’t need to be a SLAVE to that cake.

I’ve taken notice of how excessive sugar effects my mood and physical well-being for quite some time now, but some of my “routines” have been standing in my way to making any significant changes.

Then I read this article about how sugar is, apparently, going to kill me.

This may or may not be true, but I am still a hopeless slave and would like to be released from my shackles.

So here’s my game plan to, over time, shift away from these routines and maintain a more-or-less sugar-free lifestyle.

~

Routine #1: Breakfast

It’s my favorite meal of the day. I’m attached to my eggs… but I’m also attached to something sugary:

cereal, honey, preserves, maple syrup, that cinnamon-raisin bread from Trader Joe’s that’s so good it makes my teeth hurt.

I’ll even munch on a cookie or a leftover dessert. If I have to.

Changes:

– Appeasing morning sweet tooth with fruit. This morning, I had a half a banana with a little peanut butter for protein and flair. It was completely satisfactory

– Sticking to natural sugars, like honey, if they are absolutely needed. Honey is still as sugary as white/brown sugar or maple syrup of my favorite raspberry preserves, but if I limit myself, then I’ll have have less opportunities to sweeten things up. Plus, it’s easy to drizzle just a little bit over something I would otherwise not want to eat, like boring old peanut butter.

– Increase non-sugar breakfast foods to make up for lost calories. I’m not trying to diet here, and cutting out my bowl of yogurt (with jam and honey and fruit) is going to create a serious calorie deficit. I don’t want to fall prey to the perpetual box of cookies in my office because I didn’t eat hearty enough in the a.m. So where I was eating 2 fried eggs with cheese for the past few weeks, I am now eating an egg sandwich – three scrambled eggs, cheese, and two slices of sprouted whole grain toast.

Routine #2: My On-The-Go Lifestyle

This isn’t so much of a routine as a condition… but my techniques for feeding myself during the day often falls back on sugar, sugar, SUGAR.

Changes:

– Evaluate those “healthy” snack bars you are always eating. I can eat 2-4 “health bars” a week, depending on how busy I am. I like to toss them in my bag in case of a low-blood-sugar emergency in class or on my long days at work. However,
I noticed last week that my Odwalla Bar had a first ingredient of ORGANIC CANE JUICE and had too many grams of sugar for comfort. I will be trying not to rely so heavily on these guys for regular sustenance and making sure that the ones I choose are natural and fairly sugar-free.

– Resist the Siren Call of the Diet Coke (or, who are we kidding, The Afternoon Energy Drink). I’ve been getting tired lately around 2 or 3 p.m. This is unfortunate, since three days a week, I have either class or 7 more hours of work ahead of me at that time of day. I need to stop indulging my urges. Energy Drinks – especially those emergency cans of high-fructose-corn-syrupy Monster – are not necessary, and Diet Coke supposedly makes you crave sugar more. Plus aspartame is bad for me/makes me feel kind of crappy, and Lance is worried it might kill me.

– Be adequately prepared for the day. The days I’m sneaking cookies from the box or Riesens from the basket (that is currently 2 feet from my head… yuumm) are the days I forgot my lunch, didn’t pack enough food, or don’t want to eat the food I packed. Try to avoid the office-sugar-pitfalls by packing that lunchbox full of tastier, healthier options.

Routine #3: Sweet, Sweet Caffeine

This has been the big problem keeping me from quitting sugar altogether. I have a major caffeine addiction, fueled entirely by Starbucks mochas, Doubleshots in a can, and the occasional fruit-juice based (but still hella sugary) energy drink from Whole Foods.

I haven’t felt prepared to battle two major addictions at once.

But I’m trusting that the doing will make me change my mind about my worries, and maybe I’ll find a compromise along the way.

Changes:

– Learn to love the latte. Today, I skipped my usual mocha and ordered a double-shot latte. I sprinkled it with cinnamon for flavor and grabbed a Sugar in the Raw packet in case it was totally undrinkable. It wasn’t… but I’m still working on it, two hours later. Not delicious, but not totally disgusting.

– Mix it up. I also bought a Doubleshot. I will drink it tomorrow. I don’t want to rock the boat too hard. I will probably alternate these two for a few weeks, then maybe try making coffee myself at home.

– Get more sleep… drink more water, eat healthier, etc. Basically, consider kicking the caffeine habit to the curb. Maybe I’ll try after finals are over, and I have a month or so without academic pressures. Although we’ll see how this goes as I will also be spending a week with my Caffeine-Fueled-Family in May…

~

So cheers to readjusting your baseline,

building new routines,

and cognitive leaps.

I’ll be posting about this more in the coming weeks.

grad school
28 Mar 2011

twenty-something success

The hardest part about being in my twenties is trying to figure out if I’m doing things right.

I mean, it’s pretty clear when I’m doing things wrong. Usually, failing-at-life is accompanied by some kind of daily dread, a feeling of imbalance, self-doubt, stress, and other objective measures of things-are-just-not-right.

See: last semester.

But it gets confusing when I start feeling good about myself only to realize I’m REALLY not paying attention to all the balls in the air.

Case in point:

This semester, I am doing a REALLY good job on…

  • Not being such a basket case.I am not-so-stressed out all the time, I seem to have enough hours in the day to do most of the things I want/need to do, I have time for relaxing and playing with friends, I am not crying a lot, et cetera. Mood, on most days, is high.
  • Academics. I have caught a Good Grade Wave this semester. Part of the time, I’m thinking, “Damn, my professors are on crack this semester,” and part of the time I’m thinking, “Hey, Jessica, you are finally catching on here!”
  • Keeping the apartment from being completely filthy. My living quarters are still messy most days, but I don’t walk around feeling like a live in a hell-hole, so we’ll call it a win.
  • Keeping in touch with friends and family at home. Maybe because everyone just had babies, but I’m hearing from my friends with some regularity, which makes me happy. Maybe because my sister just got a job with a commute, but I talk to her a few times a week, and my mom.
  • Feeling on top of things at work. I’ve been at one job for almost 2 years now and the other for over 6 months. I feel comfortable and confident with my abilities and don’t ever dread showing up to make my 12/hour.

So I live most days feeling like a successful human being. I’m twenty-six now, isn’t it nice to feel so in control?

Until something happens – something small, something large – that reminds me that I’ve been too busy feeling great about myself to notice the balls that are dropping.

  • Fitness/Health. Remember that Holiday Weight? Still there. Remember that giant bag of barbecue chips you bought on Saturday? And the one you bought last Saturday? And all that cheese you keep throwing all over your eggs every morning? And running, whatever happened to that?
  • Money. Savings haven’t been great this year, we stopped putting extra $$ toward Lance’s loans for some reason, my personal spending coffers seem to always be running dry…. and don’t get me started on what happens next year with financial aid/potentially losing a job/living situation. I have a 300 dollar plane ticket on a credit card with no immediate 300 dollars to pay for it… that kind of thing keeps popping up.
  • Planning for the future. Speaking of which, what are we doing when, in a year, we are done in Boston? And do we have enough money to make whatever-it-is happen? And why haven’t I thought about that at all in the past six months?
  • Having some kind of meaningful chats with your boyfriend. Sure, we eat dinner together, but now that we aren’t Two People Trapped in a Tiny Apartment with nothing better to do than spill our guts, shouldn’t we be having some scheduled gut spilling? Or at least a date once in awhile?
  • Sleep. Remember when I used to go to bed by 10 and wake up refreshed without caffeine at 6? Yeaaaah, about that….
  • Immune System. I think you’ve heard enough about that lately.

I know that it’s impossible to juggle everything all the time. Most of the time, it’s nearly impossible to do anything other than Finish My Schoolwork, Show up to my Places of Employment, and Not Kill Myself or Anyone Else. And I know that, in a way, focusing on my academics is also a way of focusing on future plans (I need a degree so I can get a job), which will help the financial situation (Job = money!), and planning for the future.

But it’s still shocking to feel so on top of the heap in some ways

and then, when I least expect it,

so buried.

life maintenance
10 Mar 2011

twenty-six

I think I feel less old than I didlast year on this particular date.

Maybe because I’m, god help me, busy.

When you are busy, you don’t have time to sit around and think about how when your mother was your own age, she had a one-year-old baby named Jessica.

When you are busy, you don’t fret over your stupid gray roots – you have places to go, so you figure out where that magic place is to part your hair, and you get out the door.

When you are busy, you have the following to-do list:

  • Make onion dip
  • Shower
  • Get coffee
  • Return library books
  • Clean the litter box
  • Get a tiny bit of work done on your as-of-yet not started paper
  • Send back Netflix movie
  • Fancy lunch with fancy friends
  • Pick up more lime juice and confectioner’s sugar
  • Take out the trash
  • Once-over the apartment
  • Figure out how to make simple syrup without burning anything or anybody – see this failure
  • Figure out how to make a margarita that doesn’t taste like watery tequila
  • Entertain those friends you keep trying to tell yourself you don’t have, but YOU DO and they are coming over.

So there you have it. The secret to feeling young: don’t give yourself room to feel like an old granny.

Plus, you’d have to have children to be a granny.

And you had a dream last night that you were pregnant and also drinking a large glass of wine, telling your friends how you couldn’t possibly be actually pregnant, because you had the flattest stomach ever, even though the doctor DID do a blood test, and even if you were, isn’t that just one of those old wives tales? You can still have a large glass of wine every night with a flat-stomach fetus, right?

So let’s take it one step at a time.

Margaritas first,

then we’ll think about getting old.

grad school
25 Feb 2011

the slippery slope of the caffeine addict

First, you are letting yourself have a second can of Diet Coke on some afternoons, to stave off or recover from a nap.

Then, you are feeling like you might die at 10:00 a.m., or like you might kill something… and you realize that you’d put off your Diet Coke, and once you have it, the world rights itself again.

And then, you are just getting up early, so you need a little pick-me-up, to go from Asleep to AWAKE!!!! with enough time to get your work done.

Then, you’re back to coffee every morning.

Then, you’re up to two shots of espresso every morning.

Then you’re up to two shots of espresso every morning, and an energy drink in the afternoon, occasionally, as a pick-me-up, on those long and draggy days, when you need to get things done.

And then, you’re just drinking it because… you can. And because it feels good. Until your heart starts to palpitate. And your pocketbook bleeds out on Starbucks. And you’re back on that dark, twisted spiral that leads you into the abyss….

libraries
26 Jan 2011

Library (Student) Day in the Life, 2011 edition

It’s that time of year again… time for…. Library Day in the Life!

6:30 a.m. “Jessica!”

“What are you doing here? How is it possible for you to have ANOTHER snow day?”

“I’m sick! I’m taking a sick day!”

“—-”

“What! I get 20 sick days a year.”

“I hate you.”

7:00-9:00 a.m. A little alarm clock snooze, followed by an egg sandwich, shower and blowdry, and generally readying myself for the day. Boyfriend wakes up too and insists upon driving me to Starbucks before work. Well, I mean, if you REALLY WANT to, I guess we can go… Am very excited to avoid taking the damn 39 bus. Every day, I leave earlier and earlier and the bus gets later and later, and – of course – the temperature outside gets colder and colder. The day before, I shivered for so long – knees locked – at the zero-degree bus stop that once I boarded, I had to ask a lady to let me sit down before I passed the heck out. And the bus died. I hate the 39.

9:00-10:00 a.m. Boyfriend texted his friend saying, “Hey, I’m home today if you want to hang out later,” and he of questionable sleep habits replied, “Do you want to hang out right now?” Swing by his apartment on our way, debating whether he actually went to sleep the night before or not. Park in front of the Starbucks – have to shimmy over to the driver’s seat to get out of the car because of severe snowbankage. Order my usual – double tall two pump mocha with skim, and sip while we talk about circular time.

10:00-noon Job #1. Sent about 50 emails, made a few phone calls, and listened to two undergraduates debate where you should and should not study abroad and what majors you should or should not attempt. Briefly discussed Eyes on the Prize and how once you’ve seen the whole series and read the reader, it’s pretty much impossible to speak about race to anyone who hasn’t done the same.

noon-2:00 p.m. Job #2: Reference Desk! The desk is double-staffed at this time of day, so while the library foot traffic is heavy (never fewer than 5 girls huddled around a Laser Printer for two straight hours), I have few questions. I help a student from the Massachusetts School of Pharmacy get set up to search for and borrow books and help a GSLIS student find our secret gratis databases over chat. My boss then puts me to work looking up Choice‘s Outstanding Books of 2010 in the library catalog, and making a list of what we don’t own in Books In Print. Which is exactly the kind of busy work that soothes my soul. Ahhhh. And a friend came to visit me at the Ref desk, too, and we exchanged strategies for pub trivia that evening.

2:00-2:30 p.m. Wait in the interminable Laser Printer Line for some articles to spit out, then headed over to my First Library Class of the Semester! Chat with a few friends before class started, mostly about how much work we will have this semester, how little time, how little money, and how little health insurance.

2:30-5:00 p.m. Programming for Young Adults. The second class of the semester that opened with the question “So what exactly IS a young adult?” Uhhhhhhh. Went over the syllabus – booktalks and observing teens in their natural habitat and critiquing teen library spaces – then went over a brief history of adolescence and library services for teens. Feeling like a bit of a seasoned pro when I can identify the name drops – G. Stanley Hall, anyone? – and random Printz and Newbery winners.

5:00-5:30 p.m. The godforsaken 39 bus…. a;sij;ansdjfkljngksdfa. Call my best friend who I haven’t spoke to since she had a baby last week, and try not to speak too inappropriately while she recaps labor and other gross baby things. Have to squeeze myself out of the bus like a sausage at my stop.

5:30-7:15 p.m. Help my Delinquent Boyfriend make the chipotle corn chowder from Mark Bittman’s Food Matters cookbook, although he took his friend and our roommate to an Indian buffet for lunch and isn’t even hungry enough to eat. Chill out on the couch for a bit before bundling back up and out into the cold for a little pub trivia.

7:15-10:00 p.m. The Brendan Behan is packed. We can’t get a table – just a few bar stools – but with a seven-person entourage, we put up a damn good fight, and answered some seriously obscure questions about weird Coen Brothers films, European explorers and Sailor Jerry’s rum. We were in third place at the final round, and we decided to just bet 10 on both questions… and if we’d got both right, we would have tied for first! However, we got one wrong: apparently The Color Purple was the Steven Spielberg flick that earned the most Oscar nominations without any wins… not E.T. Ugh. We are annoyingly Gen X (or are we Millenials? I’ll report back after a few more classes)

10:00-10:30 p.m. Frosty cold walk home, sleep in a nice warm bed, dreaming of… the 10 to 12 inches of snow on their way to Boston.

Oh, wait. Those are nightmares.

Maybe a few Library Day in the Life’s from now, I’ll be posting from somewhere a little more temperate.

life maintenance
13 Jan 2011

how to travel by air (or not)

Step One:

Somehow manage to completely delude yourself into thinking your flight is on Monday, when in fact, your flight is on Tuesday.

–

Bonus points if the person who informs you of this error is a surly Southwest customer service agent behind the baggage checking counter.

Bonus bonus points if you printed off your flight confirmation email before walking out the door and still neglect to notice the JANUARY 11 staring at your face

Bonus bonus bonus points if your sister had to drive you an hour to the airport.

Step Two:

Put yourself into a mental and physical funk over this misstep.

–

Spend all of Monday working yourself toward a migraine and spend Tuesday morning sleeping in. You will wake up well-rested, albeit rather groggy and in a certain amount of pain, at 10 a.m.

Step Three:

Have the good fortune of attempting to fly home during a week where there is snow in 49 states.

–

The second leg of your flight will be canceled at about 10:15 a.m. Talk to oblivious Southwest customer service agents while you shove down your only meal of the day – toast with peanut butter and jelly – and force your groggy brain to figure out how you are going to get back to Boston A) in time to work on Thursday morning and B) without financial penalty.

Step Four:

Be reckless. Be wild! Be totally insane!

–

Throw caution to the wind. Sure, you could bet on Wednesday’s weather holding out, or even the good graces of your employers, if you happen to end up flying on Thursday and cannot make your shift at the Reference Desk.

But why do that when you can book a 12:40 flight at 10:30, when you are both in your pajamas, half-packed, without a car or a ride, and an hour away from the airport? Oh, and a plane that is flying into a city Southwest has labeled with a weather advisory so severe they are offering free flight transfers ahead of cancellations, and then from there into a city that is expecting 1-2 feet of snow starting in the evening?

Rely on the following for support:

– your tireless mother who leaves her cell phone ringer on during meetings expressly to answer “yes” when you call and ask her if she can drop everything she is doing, come home, and drive you to the airport.

– the fact that because you are an idiot and thought your flight was yesterday, your bags are already 95% packed and your suitcase will only require ten minutes of sitting and stomping and zipping.

– the assurance that even if you are stranded at BWI for anywhere from a few hours to a few days, you have a friend, a cousin, and an uncle who all live nearby and might offer refuge.

– a sister who remembers your energy drink in the fridge and brings it to you for the car trip to the airport.

Step Five:

Open your karmic doors to airport miracles.

–

Repeat to yourself:

“Traffic and weather will not impede my journey down I-94 in any way.”

“I will successfully check two bags and pose for a naked security photo in 20 minutes or less.”

“I will not be randomly selected for a full-body pat-down cavity-check terrorism search.”

“My gate will be preternaturally close to the airport entrance.”

“My connecting flight will be not be cancelled.”

“My boyfriend will eventually pick up his phone or read any of my frantic text messages and know I will be at the airport about 5 hours ahead of schedule.”

“This whole ‘de-icing’ the wings process will not be so prohibitively slow that I will miss my connecting flight.”

“The gate for my flight transfer won’t be too far from my departing flight, or too difficult to locate.”

“My bags and I will make it to the same location at the same time, and if not, my panic-attack-handwriting on my luggage tags will be legible enough for someone to leave my bags at my apartment, eventually.”

“The zipper on my suitcase that popped open in the middle won’t slowly unzip while in transit, my every belonging spilling into the abyss of airplane cargo.”

Step Six:

Don’t be afraid to run.

–

The gates might be close, but you don’t know that for sure and yes, your plane is already boarding, so if you get a move on, you might even have the chance to pee before your flight leaves.

Step Seven:

Be prepared.

–

Carry, on your person:

– Two Touchstones of Young Adult Literature, for productive entertainment (when you control that panicky-fuzzy-brain, finally)

– Gum, for ear poppin’

– Chapstick, for lip glossin’

– Excedrin, for aforementioned migraine

– Three Driver’s Licenses (two expired, one current), because last year you tried to fly with none, so you might as well be cautious

– Headphones and Kanye, for the inevitable chatty passengers who distract you from your riveting Touchstones

– Laptop, for accessing free wi-fi when you are stuck between departures and baggage claim at Boston Logan, due to some kind of security breach, and entertaining yourself while your boyfriend drives all the way from Southbridge after missing all of your frantic calls and texts until after you’ve landed.

Step Eight:

Do not cross your apartment’s threshold before acquiring the essentials.

–

– Groceries for that pesky snowstorm you barely averted

– Three bottles of wine and a case of Sam Adams

– Take-out pad thai, to make up for a pathetic daily diet of toast and airline peanuts.

Step Nine

If at all possible, schedule a day for recovery immediately after arrival.

–

Bonus points if you have snow outside and a boyfriend inside.

Bonus bonus points if you play over 2 hours of video games on your brand new HD-TV.

boston
01 Jan 2011

2010 Retrospective

In January, I spent two weeks in Michigan, a weekend darting in and out of ALA Midwinter, and started my second semester of grad school with a great deal of vigor and energy. Or at least I think I had a great deal of vigor and energy. If I didn’t, I certainly should have.

In February, I wrote 50 two-page papers about 50 picturebooks.

That was about it.

I also stopped eating meat for the foreseeable future. That required considerably less energy than the first task.

In March, I became a Theater-Girlfriend, and spent a lot of nights and spring breaks alone with my kitty while Lance prepared for his directorial debut: an all 4th and 5th grade version of Seussical Jr. We entertained Lance’s mother during a massive Nor’easter – sightseeing = umbrellas, restaurants, and woohoo, a The Giant Whole Foods in Dedham! I also bit the bullet and replaced my cell phone. Woohoo, texting!

In April, things started getting more fun. I visited David Macaulay’s studio in Vermont, which was equal part childrens-lit-nerdgasm and funky-crazy-roadtrip. And then… AND THEN!! MY FAMILY CAME TO VISIT ME IN BOSTON!! Later, I celebrated 7 years of blogging, got hired for my second job, survived a week in Boston without Lance, and memorized all 151 first-generation Pokemon.

It’s like I KNEW I was boring for the first 3 months of 2010.

May began with signing the lease on a new apartment for September and conquering yet another harrowing finals week. Earlier in the year, I thought finals would bring me unemployment and a brief respite from schoolwork. However, my boss scrounged up some summer work to occupy my time, I landed a swank publishing internship for the summer, and then class! Glorious, class!

The weather also became quite nice – I started running after work with Lance, and walking to and from most places.

June was just a mess of early morning Starbucks trips, 9 to 5’s, and CSA vegetables. Literally.

So in July, we hit the road. Boston to DC. ALA Annual Conference. DC to Myrtle Beach. Myrtle Beach to DC. Pick up passengers. DC to Boston. When I returned, there was some entertaining (Whale watching and fireworks and heat wave OH MY!), and then back to the internship/part-time job grindstone.

Lance began his first teacher’s summer vacation, and quickly took up a part-time job scouring Craigslist for free and cheap goods. When he brought home a window air conditioning unit, I cried tears of joy.

In August, there was work, packing, a weekend in Maine. A trip back to Michigan, packing, and an extended “I’m moving to Boston and I’m crashing on your couch until I find a place” houseguest.

In September, we moved.

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I am so going to have to move again in September 2011 and it makes me sick to just think about.

Anyone I know want to move into my roommate’s bedroom so we don’t have to move?

Seriously.

In October, I went out on Halloween, under duress and in costume.

November was pretty crappy.

I tried to write a novel.

I tried to not have any nervous breakdowns.

I didn’t try hard enough.

Whatevvverrr…

I did get to go to two Thanksgivings, visit my aunt and uncle and cousins, ran three times a week (before daylight savings hit…) and I’m sure some other redeeming stuff that I’ve forgotten.

And now, December has ended. This month, I wrote two 10 page papers, read 17 books, and made it home for Christmas.

Hello, 2011.

How are you?

Are you going suck a little less than 2010?

books
09 Dec 2010

strange things are happening to me

1. I just realized that in 2011, my youngest sister will get her driver’s license.

2. The judges kicked off the flippin’ Whiffenpoofs last night!

!!!! !!!!!!!!!!

I am majorly offended and am considering retracting my previously pronounced love for The Stupid Sing Off.

I reacted by impulse-buying their latest CD on iTunes.

Which was probably not the best idea for my finances, and reinforced my indignation.

Bah humbug!

~

3. I finished reading a book yesterday that left me with that “No, no, no this CAN’T be the last page! Let me savor you a little longer!” feeling.

I’d forgotten about this book, and I’d forgotten about that feeling.

~

4. This morning, I ran out of money for Christmas shopping.

My bank account isn’t at zero, but 69 dollars will not go particularly far when I still have gifts to purchase for Dad, Best Friend, and Boy friend. Not to mention my weekly intake of caffeinated beverages, impulse purchases of mp3s, and the fact that payday is still a week away.

I started to brainstorm: baked goods, combined birthday/Christmas gifts, praying to the USPS gods to send me my replacement credit cards posthaste, an offer to Clean My Dad’s Car (he seems to like this better than presents).

My mind wandered. “Is there anyone who owes me money?” I thought. “Am I waiting on any checks that I’ve forgotten about?”

This was silly, obviously. There are Christmas checks from the Grandparents to look forward to, but no guarantee they’ll be here in time to shop, and what’s sadder than spending your own Christmas gift buying presents for other people?

I sighed.

And then three hours later, remembered that yes, somebody does owe me money. Somebody owes me A THOUSAND DOLLARS and if I don’t get it by the end of next week, shit’s going DOWN!

(Somebody = my school. I’m not a loan shark, people!)

When does that happen? Ever?

life maintenance
23 Nov 2010

michigan bound

I am thankful that I only have a (small) paper and a class standing in between me and Michigan.

Well, not including half of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.

I am thankful for parents who raised me on The Road Trip. I’ve dropped quite a few jaws lately discussing my whirlwind holiday plans, but thanks to you guys, 32+ hours in the car over a span of 5 days doesn’t really faze me at all. Hey, at least I don’t have a paper due on Monday like I did LAST Thanksgiving!

I am thankful (and incredulous) that the semester is actually winding down and that I have a manageable amount of work ahead of me, some of which can be done during those 32+ hours in the car.

I am thankful for the seemingly endless amount of opportunities that keep falling into my lap.

I am thankful that after December 3rd, I can read books that were not published in the 19th century.

I am thankful for the little excitements of the holidays: baking, parties, twinkly lights, carols, gift buying, 2011 planners, etc

I am thankful to be continually employed.

I am thankful that I get to spend 2 weeks at home over Christmas. Oh goodness… so, SO thankful.

I am thankful for those who are waiting for me there.