So, following the security concerns over at LJ & a few other factors, I'll probably be doing my primary posting at DW & crossposting. (Same username on LJ & DW). I'll probably still read LJ for a bit, but trying to get in the habit of reading my DW stuff too. Let me know if you're on there?

( week of weird dreams )

I leave for San Diego in a week. What even is my life?

So, the life crisis seems to be on its way to resolution. Still a few conversations to have and details to sort out, but the potential is pretty amazing (even if it will make for a crazy two years).

But, today I discovered Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association. They have academic conferences! My brain is already bubbling with conference proposals especially since the SFF subject group is looking for Doctor Who or Buffy stuff in particular because of anniversaries and queer studies mentioned a focus on queers and the Star Trek franchise. (I really want rhipowered to submit something for this.) SO MANY CHOICES.

Popular Culture stuff, while a huge academic interest of mine, probably won't end up my main focus in successive graduate work, but it is something I want to stay involved in. So yes, academic bug has bitten me again.

There's been a fair amount of winter rain this week, which is hands down, my least favorite weather. It's also why I prefer to live somewhere winter precipitation is more likely to be snow instead of rain. Of course, it also zaps productivity which is not good when I have paper proposals due Friday.

I did have a great 2+ hour chat with the priest at the parish I'm shopping this past Sunday. She has a similar history to me (progressive Roman Catholic turned Episcopalian who once thought of becoming a nun). Very low key but with the high theology underpining it all. There's a good chance I might be able to find a community there. Which is promising. She also commented on my vocation in a way that's helping with my current disillusionment / reaching my rope's end.

Also, I have jobs! Two days a week, I'll be nannying for my cousin's youngest, Kiara, who is just shy of 12 weeks at the moment. Two days a week, I'll be working in Hartford for the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut doing communications stuff for them. I know my boss there wants me, even if she's worried about the commute and that the job will be too boring for me. But at this point, I just need a job to stay in Boston and to fill up the resume so that there's something besides 'freelancing volunteer stuff' over the last 9 months.

Started nannying this week, which is a bit rough since K isn't quite bottle trained yet, so it's touch and go and she's nursing a cold. Next week starts the job in CT.

The two jobs won't totally pay the bills, but they'll come close, which is good. And I'll have Friday's off. Still waiting to hear from some full time jobs (and have more to apply for) and should hear from grad schools sometime in March. (Doing my best not to be obsessive about that.

Anyway, ( to-do list )

[Intro about 101 in 1001 - begins on 1 january 2010 - ends 28 september 2012]
( 101 Things I want to do in the next 1001 Days )
last updated 3.I.2012

Well, my grandfather passed in his sleep last night. The end was quick enough and painless since they were keeping him doped up on morphine. He's been wanting to die since my grandmother passed two years ago, but I think it's good he had the two extra years - to reconcile with folks etc.

In the end, he left 4 kids, 12 grandkids, and 7 great grandkids (although the 8th is due in a month). He fought for the Polish underground army in WWII and was a tough man at times, but he loved his family and made huge sacrifices for them.



Albin Sypko
1920-2012

An update! *gasp*

Smith School of Social Work
-aced my first term courses. I love the pass/marginal pass/fail system, but wish there was a high pass. Yes, I'm that kid.
-Classes this term: Continuation of Social Work Practice with Individuals & Families, Continuation of Social Welfare Policy, Problems in Biopsychosocial Functioning, Agency and Community Practice, and Socio-cultural Concepts. So far I enjoy biopsychosocial because I like playing with the DSM, but it makes me long for more science /neurology and wonder if I should have gone the psych or Mental Health NP route. On the flip side, I love socio-cultural concepts because it's theory. Theory that I know and can push against and critical reading notes weekly at least give me some room to do reflection / push back against it.
-Break was good, but too short.
-Having a hard time getting back into classes.
-Three weeks left. Rather crazy.

Vacation
-spent three days camping in Nickerson State Park on the Cape. Biked a huge chunk of the Cape Cod Rail Trail, made s'mores & ice cream, swam in the ponds, waded in the chilly North Atlantic (how did I spend hours in that water as a child?), had a great time
-Harry Potter premier party was awesome that J's friend threw. Lots of planning evident, and so I've started thinking that J and I might do a joint birthday party in March (it's when we turn 30 after all) that's a costume party as long as I can do planning and stuff. Now to just figure out an appropriate geeky theme.

Condo
-Got new-ish appliances! Got a new stove/oven & dishwasher that are within 5 years old and pretty nice. Got them for free, so the only issue was moving them. I didn't realize how heavy stoves could be. Oi. Not moving that out myself if I can help it. They're both Bosch appliances, gorgeous (the dishwasher is woodpaneled and actually matches our cabinets) and a huge improvement over the appliances we had. Of course, the dishwasher is so quiet I often have to check to see if it's running. However, this meant I did plumbing, electrical, and a bit of gas work for the first time ever. (Though J's dad did most of the gas work)


In Boston for the weekend to catch up on some academic work, do a midterm, engage in self-care with roomie & kittens, do some tasks around the condo in preparation for bingblot's arrival this week, and attend a birthday party. Overacheiver much? me? Never.

I've got a fairly long to-do list percolating in my head and in various notebooks that I should get cracking on.. of course, it includes things like working on novels and writing little ficlets of things from character's povs that don't fit into existing rpgs... We'll see if I get to those or not.

Oh yes, and I have DW codes if anyone needs them, though for now, I'm not abandoning lj.

I suppose it just proves I'm strange that I'm really missing Chicago during their blizzard right now. Chicago Public Schools are closed for the first time in 12 years. Even administrators (principals, vps, janitors, etc) have been told not to come in.

Update from my mom (who lives near O'Hare):

There are 4 foot drifts around the house, the stairs on both sides are snowed in. I am not sure how we will be able to dig out to the garage. The driveway has tall drifts than the snow plow can muster. The street is snowed in. Nothing is moving. They closed schools and told principals, assistant principals, engineers and lunchroom. I am unable to get out of the house. It is supposed to be snowing until 3 pm this afternoon. The city had plenty of warning, but some did not take it seriously. I think we all in Chicago forgot what a blizzard is. Babcia & Dziadzio called, they are snowed in, Tadek came last night and took the snow blower. Staszek called, they closed his factory for the day.

Actually, looking out the window, it is a white out at this moment, I cannot see the garage.

At least my mom has power even though she's a ComEd customer.

Here we don't have anything yet but some ice on the road. Most of the Harvard schools are closed. Seems everyone saw the midwest and panicked, even though the storm is fizzling.

Ah well.

Last year, when we first went to Acadia, I fell in love. This year, when we crossed the bridge onto Mt. Desert Island, it felt like coming home. There's just something about the ocean, the rocky & forested hilly islands, the granite cliffs.. it's just calming. Maine (at least Downeast Maine) remains one of those places I'd love to settle. (I've actually found my ideal house - a defunct lighthouse but I can't afford it, so I shall take photos of it and stare at it wistfully).

The goal is to make more shorter trips to Acadia - it's only a five hour drive so perfectly doable for a weekend. I'm hoping we can go out there again the second weekend in September, but we'll see. A lot depends on how cheaply we can do our Canada trip.

We're working on doing just a few things every time we go so that we can slowly chip away at the things we want to do there. Which works well with making more short trips.

This past weekend we climbed the beehive. My siblings did this last year when we all went to Acadia, but bad_influence and I did a carriage ride instead. I can't remember if we were intimidated by the beehive or what. All I have to say is it was awesome. There were a few moments of 'don't look down, just hold onto the cliff and the iron bars' but I'm glad we took the hard way up - it gave me that rock climbing / bouldering high that I haven't had in a long time. I want to do it again (and again and again). We ended up going down via The Bowl and next time we climb it, I will make sure to have a swimsuit to go swimming in the Bowl because it looked kind of awesome.

After that, we headed to Bass Harbor to check out the Bass Harbor lighthouse, which, sadly, was a bit underwhelming. But I feel like once you've seen Cape Hatteras, most lighthouses are. It was quaint, but all the "Department of Homeland Security / Coast Guard / No trespassing signs around the actual building took away from it a bit.

Sunday was our trip to Schoodic Peninsula, to see that part of the park. I kind of love it. Compared to the Mt. Desert Island section, it's nearly deserted. Lots of rocky cliffs to explore and climb and scenery for bad_influence to photograph. I definitely had the thought - 'This part is better - less park rangers to tell you to be careful.' Nearly every time we came across rocky cliffs, I scampered out as far as I could. There's something about standing on rock and having the waves crashing that is so calming and simultaneously invigorating to me. I might be a fire sign, but crashing waves like that is like a high to me. (bad_influence blames this on me being on the cusp of a water sign.)

We ended up heading to Little Moose Island, which is this adorable island accessible at low tide - so you have to know the tide schedule or else you get to swim back. We had lunch overlooking Schoodic Point, and then went exploring. Took the trail through an area that looked like Scotland (we joked) and ate quite a few wild blueberries (always delicious). When we got out towards the tip - the cliffs were amazing and I climbed down into one of the chasms for the rush of it.

Somewhere among the cliffs we lost the trail through the middle of the island and then had to follow the coast back which is where I slipped on a rock and bruised the back of my thigh. Apparently from where bad_influence was standing, it looked like I would have hit the family jewels.

After finishing up on Schoodic, we went investigating wineries, but both were closed that day, so we headed back, taking Coastal Route 1 until we got to Bath. I ended up reading up a bit on the shipbuilding history of Maine at our campground, which just makes me fall in love with the state more.

I cannot wait for the Canada road trip - still working on planning out the loose itinerary (which basically just means campgrounds) and a rough idea of the route. Deviations from the plan are always welcome.

Naomi Novik's post on pregnancy & uterine replicators might be one of the more amusing accounts I've heard in the past few years with all stories from the pregnant women in my vicinity.

So, yesterday afternoon might have been one of the most entertaining times babysitting ever. Sara (Fiona's mum) was going out of town on a business trip, so I had to drive her to Logan. We take her car since that's where the car seat is and then grab her keys. As we pull up to the airport, she takes the house keys off the car key keychain and leaves. I drive back to their house with baby in tow. I'm thinking, might be nice to pick up some food and swing by my house & surprise bad_influence. But I don't know when Marcin will be home, so I might as well head to their house. As I get off the highway, I realize that I managed to leave my set of keys in their house.

Luckily bad_influence was home, so I just came to the house and watched fiona & the cats interact for an hour. which was rather hilarious. they didn't know what to do with her and she didn't know what to do with them. It was kind of hilarious. I also realized that since my backpack was at their house, I didn't have any baby toys, diapers, etc with me (yes, I always have emergency babykit in my backpack. It makes sense. )

Harley didn't know what to make of Fiona and Fiona was just beyond confused at this furry thing that was moving and making noise. It was a bit hilarious.

Anyways, just an interlude from my non-hds life or what passes for it.