Tonight, as I was praying, I had a "step back" moment. I took a second to think about my life from the outside, from the future. It's so easy to get wrapped up in the day to day, working and trying so hard, to not really appreciate what I'm doing. Every day, I try to do my best and as much as I can, but I don't step back often enough. I have an amazing internship, and it turns out I'm actually doing something useful. I am a graduate student at Cornell University. I have finished my undergraduate degree, and have incredible friendships because of it. These are the days that some day I will say, "Well, when I was your age...". It's easy to look around me and see the 30-somethings and 40-somethings with their lives. But what I don't do often enough is realize that every day I'm putting another block into place on my life, creating the foundation and setting the course where it will go.
I thought to myself this weekend, "If in my later years, I decide to take an autobiography course, I don't want my book to be boring." (I saw an advertisement for just such a course while visiting my grandparents who are living in a retirement community now. If you've ever seen "In Her Shoes", it's something like that, except in the Midwest).
Monday, June 25, 2007
Saturday, June 16, 2007
As I sit and think over the events of the past couple weeks, I'm just speechless. I have learned, felt, understood, discovered, experienced, worked, developed, driven :-p, seen, and said so much.
Last night, I drove down to College Park for an evening of fun with new and old friends. After quite the dinner adventure, we headed to downtown DC (H street) to the Palace of Wonders, a recently opened bar whose decor features many real and not so real oddities. There were pictures/posters about a sword swallowing woman, a two headed sheep, a two headed bull, a turtle playing an accordion, an alien's skull, and other such oddities. But the real reason we went there was to see my fellow math girl's roomie spin fire. Yep, you heard me right. Fire. There was fire poi, a fire umbrella, fire hula hoop, fire fans, and someone even ate fire. It was incredible, and rather warm. It was a whole act. There were 5 performers and they each did 4 pieces each, music, dancing, and fire. A few of them did some things with a black light and UV stuff (a glowing hula hoop, glowing spheres inside amazingly stretchy elastic, so it looked like a two ended sock... clearly not easy to describe). It was pretty incredible to see what they could do while spinning fire around themselves. I couldn't stop saying, "Wow." I also got to see Chinatown for the first time, and drove past the Capitol building.
I've discovered a walking path that begins behind our house that leads to a path around a lake. It's a very nice way to escape from roads and cars and walk through the trees and around the lake. It's a nice blend of shade and sunshine along the path. One evening, while I was walking, I saw 4 deer, 3 rabbits, a kind of bird I've never seen before (a wading bird that was a dark grey with a white streak and a white plume), ducks, geese, and heard the crickets and geese and frogs calling to each other :). I'm definitely looking forward to spending lots of time on that path this summer.
Today I will not be in a car. I have been in the car far too much, in traffic, on highways, running errands, etc. I just need to slow down. And so I will.
Last night, I drove down to College Park for an evening of fun with new and old friends. After quite the dinner adventure, we headed to downtown DC (H street) to the Palace of Wonders, a recently opened bar whose decor features many real and not so real oddities. There were pictures/posters about a sword swallowing woman, a two headed sheep, a two headed bull, a turtle playing an accordion, an alien's skull, and other such oddities. But the real reason we went there was to see my fellow math girl's roomie spin fire. Yep, you heard me right. Fire. There was fire poi, a fire umbrella, fire hula hoop, fire fans, and someone even ate fire. It was incredible, and rather warm. It was a whole act. There were 5 performers and they each did 4 pieces each, music, dancing, and fire. A few of them did some things with a black light and UV stuff (a glowing hula hoop, glowing spheres inside amazingly stretchy elastic, so it looked like a two ended sock... clearly not easy to describe). It was pretty incredible to see what they could do while spinning fire around themselves. I couldn't stop saying, "Wow." I also got to see Chinatown for the first time, and drove past the Capitol building.
I've discovered a walking path that begins behind our house that leads to a path around a lake. It's a very nice way to escape from roads and cars and walk through the trees and around the lake. It's a nice blend of shade and sunshine along the path. One evening, while I was walking, I saw 4 deer, 3 rabbits, a kind of bird I've never seen before (a wading bird that was a dark grey with a white streak and a white plume), ducks, geese, and heard the crickets and geese and frogs calling to each other :). I'm definitely looking forward to spending lots of time on that path this summer.
Today I will not be in a car. I have been in the car far too much, in traffic, on highways, running errands, etc. I just need to slow down. And so I will.
Sunday, June 03, 2007
recent adventures of rinny the awesome
This week has definitely relied on the super hero in me. The grandparent visit was very nice, far too short (silly airplanes), but quite enjoyable. I must say it was weird saying goodbye to my mom in the middle of the Detroit airport. Just a strange place to be saying goodbye to her. The Odyssey of the Mind World Finals were held somewhere near Detroit, because the place was swarming with school groups from all over the world, and I ended up sharing my flight with several of them. I forgot how novel an airplane is when you're 10. :)
My very brief days of vacation were enjoyable, I got to know my city just a little bit better, and now work has begun. The first day was quite intense, all orientation and paperwork and stuff, but all done with much seriousness. But I met several of the people that I'll be working near or with this summer, so that was great :). We all had some fun together yesterday, with games and cook out and stories. I'm definitely excited about Monday.
I've been reading a lot this week, including Little Earthquakes, which I thoroughly enjoyed and it also helped me be very patient about becoming a mother and more aware about important factors when choosing a spouse. Extremely enjoyable to read, well-written, and good content = a very good book.
My sense of home is constantly changing these days. I go home to SC, but only the people seem like home. The boys are quickly getting bigger, but they still remember me which makes me oh so happy. My family has changed dramatically, and even the city is changing. The place that feels like home the most is now my apartment in NY. I walked into a Wegman's grocery store down here in MD the other day, and I was so excited to be there because it was such a familiar place. I could just feel myself relax a little bit by being there. Odd, very odd. I can't wait to go back to NY next weekend. See old friends and being back in my own space.
I keep having this line from Lion King run through my head: "Home is where your rump rests." - Pumbaa. Lion King was full of great wisdom :).
My very brief days of vacation were enjoyable, I got to know my city just a little bit better, and now work has begun. The first day was quite intense, all orientation and paperwork and stuff, but all done with much seriousness. But I met several of the people that I'll be working near or with this summer, so that was great :). We all had some fun together yesterday, with games and cook out and stories. I'm definitely excited about Monday.
I've been reading a lot this week, including Little Earthquakes, which I thoroughly enjoyed and it also helped me be very patient about becoming a mother and more aware about important factors when choosing a spouse. Extremely enjoyable to read, well-written, and good content = a very good book.
My sense of home is constantly changing these days. I go home to SC, but only the people seem like home. The boys are quickly getting bigger, but they still remember me which makes me oh so happy. My family has changed dramatically, and even the city is changing. The place that feels like home the most is now my apartment in NY. I walked into a Wegman's grocery store down here in MD the other day, and I was so excited to be there because it was such a familiar place. I could just feel myself relax a little bit by being there. Odd, very odd. I can't wait to go back to NY next weekend. See old friends and being back in my own space.
I keep having this line from Lion King run through my head: "Home is where your rump rests." - Pumbaa. Lion King was full of great wisdom :).
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