It's been an odd day, one of those where I go from having my blood boil to just laughing it off and shrugging my shoulders and realizing that I can't control other people. I can't control their actions so I might as well move on, cause I can control mine. I pray everyday to make me a better person, and I think slowly but surely, it's happening. I try to be more tolerant, to understand the other side. I try not to be too proud, and try to be more giving and more open. Each day is a conscious effort to apply these to my life. And somedays, obviously I succeed more than others. But I am trying, give me that.
The last few weeks in Boise have been pretty amazing, nothing big to write home about.
Adventures have included a keyboard purchase, as well as pawn shop purchases of 10 movies for $20, which led to 30 movies and a nice pile on the living room floor. You can easily pick out my half of the movie selection :)
A trip north to Idaho City, an old gold mining town was interesting and a small-town tourist trap. I thought it was hilarious. That night, a late fishing adventure along the banks of the Snake River led to someone's foot in the fire and a cell phone in the river, thankfully neither belonged to me.
An iceblocking adventure came next. And yes I said iceblocking. The hill in front of the governor's mansion in Boise is pretty darn steep, which leads people on sunny days to purchase blocks of ice and ride them down the front lawn. It took me a while, but eventually I rode it all the way down the hill :) I had fun washing those grass stains out.
Memorial Day was a celebration at Jeff's house. We ended up grilling out and even ended the evening with some marshmallows over the grill!
Took the 4- wheelers out on a little adventure, brought the guns and ended up shooting at some badgers. Turns out my daddy liked to take me shooting when I was younger, unbeknownst to me. Obviously, something stuck, not bad for a girl. 9m are loud, that's all I have to say.
We ended touring the Idaho State Penitentiary which was active from 1862-1973. It is a huge complex on the north side of Boise. While there, we found an arms exhibit that Jeff absolutely loved. Which even to me it looked like an impressive collection that spanded from the beginning of guns right through World War II. Needless to say, we spent most of our time there, which led to little time spent elsewhere and we almost got locked in, which would not have been good. Oh well, guess we will just have to go back someday.
Jeff's nephews baptism/birthday party was also that day so we went over to his brother's house for some good food and company before we were off to downtown for some Rollerderby! Yes, that's right, rollerderby. It was surprisingly entertaining, I found myself getting into it, as well as enjoying the people-watching aspect of the crowd. For this I made sure to get a front row seat on the second level so I could look down :) Afterwards we made an evening of downtown and even ended up at a little Basque place that I have been dying to try.
Jeff, finally, finally, got all the paperwork and everything completed for ECU. Which means come August, he'll be in Greenville. Needless to say this mades me happy. Of course we had to celebrate with some brownies, frosted with cream cheese frosting. Hey, we're young, let's live life, right? Which brings me to enjoying the tail-end of some festivities the other night for a certain bachelor party, obviously all had a good time.
So, that's it for now, just recapping on some good fun and I'm trying to work on the thesis, but it just keeps bogging me down. Too many what-if's, too many variables, too many details. But it will get done, as always. Hopefully, I have a job lined up at an extension office here, which will help me manage my time better. I always do better when I'm busy and crunched for time. Next week it's off to Louisiana and to Milwaukee which should be definite good times. I'm excited for what both will bring!
When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others.
Oh those pilgrims were on to something. Constantly striving, I like to think I have peace within myself, that I am grounded, that I am good with the person that I am. Which is why I don't bring conflict, I am at peace with others. Now only if others had peace within themselves.....
Friday, June 11, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Beautiful Boise
So, today marks two weeks since my arrival in Boise, and it has went by so fast. I haven't even had a moment to catch up on anything, let alone blog, even though I do want to recount my adventures of the summer.
I arrived here in Boise two weeks ago on a Thursday afternoon in the midst of some cold weather, similar to what I left in Pennsylvania. I flew from Pittsburgh to Phoenix, a five hour flight, and arrived just in enough time to walk off that flight and onto my next one to Boise. The two hour short flight up to Boise was made better by having all three seats in the row to myself :) which meant I finally got some sleep.
Rockies, the 50s diner in Boise, and I were acquainted soon after my arrival in Boise. Good food, good atmosphere, had the hockey game on tv, and a pretty nifty gum-ball machine :)
If anyone really knows me, they know my love of hockey. It's a by-product of growing up in the northeast and in the hockey town of Pittsburgh. So, when the opportunity arose here in Boise to watch their ECHL team in the playoffs on Saturday, of course I was game. The Idaho Steelheads were playing the Cincinnati Cyclones in the first round of the playoffs. They lost and eventually lost the series to Cincinnati 4-1, but it was a good showing of some hockey. Hopefully, this western state will finally gain some fans to the great athletic showing that is ice hockey.
Sunday we planted the garden. We'll see what starts to pop through here. The potatoes that he planted earlier are looking great. Hopefully, the onions, tomatos, peppers, lettuce, zucchini, cumumbers, and sunflowers, will do fabulous.
The next weekend started off great with an adventure that we took on Thursday. The options for His afternoon off were going for a drive or ice skating. Since it was such a nice day, we chose the drive in the mountains. All was going fine, we drove through some beautiful country, windy dirt roads, gorgeous cliffs, isolated areas. We were finally getting back to paved road and heading to the highway when there was this cutoff down to the reservoir. He decided to take it to look over the water. On the way back up to the paved road, the car just shut off. Lovely. No cell service. I just had to laugh. We were in Pine, ID. Try to find it on a map, go ahead, try. Luckily we were actually near a town and not in the middle of nowhere. We walked the half mile back up to the bar/restaraunt in Pine. The two wonderful ladies let us use the phone. He got to call his dad, tell him we were and hour on the OTHER side of Boise and then we waited. However, we waited in style. We ate supper at the restaraunt, had a few drinks at the bar, then he got to teach me shuffleboard. For such a small little town, I swear full-time population is like 75 people and half came through the bar that night, they had a sweet, very nice shuffleboard table. The locals all knew are story within five minutes. Eventually, his dad showed up and we loaded the car on the trailer and finally got home ten hours after our adventure began. I told him we should have gone ice skating :) Fun times.
Friday we got to show off our cooking skills for his mom's birthday. We were frying up some pork loin for sandwiches and making potato salad, lemon cake and vanilla ice cream completed the evening with some long talking sessions that lasted til well after 11pm.
Saturday we got to see his friend's new house, officially being the first house guests! We helped move some stuff over then went to Rockies for some good food.
Soon after, I had my first ever soccer experience! Friends needed some substitutes for their indoor team, so when asked, of course we volunteered. I surprisingly enjoyed myself. Actually, not so surprisingly, it's an athletic event where I get to be aggressive, so of course I enjoyed it. It's a beginning co-rec league, however, our opponents were anything but beginners. We made it through and had fun though, and that's what matters to me. I think there will be some soccer in my future now that I am armed with some cleats and shin guards!
My love of the zoo came through this past week. He had the morning off, so off to Zoo Boise we went. It's no Pittsburgh Zoo, but it's really nice and you can tell a lot of work went into it to make it what it is. There were a lot of school groups there, and it's always funny to hear the world through a child's eyes. However, a cavy is not a baby kangaroo, no matter what the chaperones might say.
My best news of all came yesterday. My journal article was accepted for publication, with only minor revisions! It will be out in July and revisions need to be done quickly so that will be on my plate first and foremost with the everlasting thesis and another research project for my boss coming in a close 2nd and 3rd. It's a busy summer so far and I haven't even started a job! Which by the way the hunt is still continuing....
That's all for now, this is entirely too long. But I will try to post more often so they are smaller and easier to read!
I arrived here in Boise two weeks ago on a Thursday afternoon in the midst of some cold weather, similar to what I left in Pennsylvania. I flew from Pittsburgh to Phoenix, a five hour flight, and arrived just in enough time to walk off that flight and onto my next one to Boise. The two hour short flight up to Boise was made better by having all three seats in the row to myself :) which meant I finally got some sleep.
Rockies, the 50s diner in Boise, and I were acquainted soon after my arrival in Boise. Good food, good atmosphere, had the hockey game on tv, and a pretty nifty gum-ball machine :)
If anyone really knows me, they know my love of hockey. It's a by-product of growing up in the northeast and in the hockey town of Pittsburgh. So, when the opportunity arose here in Boise to watch their ECHL team in the playoffs on Saturday, of course I was game. The Idaho Steelheads were playing the Cincinnati Cyclones in the first round of the playoffs. They lost and eventually lost the series to Cincinnati 4-1, but it was a good showing of some hockey. Hopefully, this western state will finally gain some fans to the great athletic showing that is ice hockey.
Sunday we planted the garden. We'll see what starts to pop through here. The potatoes that he planted earlier are looking great. Hopefully, the onions, tomatos, peppers, lettuce, zucchini, cumumbers, and sunflowers, will do fabulous.
The next weekend started off great with an adventure that we took on Thursday. The options for His afternoon off were going for a drive or ice skating. Since it was such a nice day, we chose the drive in the mountains. All was going fine, we drove through some beautiful country, windy dirt roads, gorgeous cliffs, isolated areas. We were finally getting back to paved road and heading to the highway when there was this cutoff down to the reservoir. He decided to take it to look over the water. On the way back up to the paved road, the car just shut off. Lovely. No cell service. I just had to laugh. We were in Pine, ID. Try to find it on a map, go ahead, try. Luckily we were actually near a town and not in the middle of nowhere. We walked the half mile back up to the bar/restaraunt in Pine. The two wonderful ladies let us use the phone. He got to call his dad, tell him we were and hour on the OTHER side of Boise and then we waited. However, we waited in style. We ate supper at the restaraunt, had a few drinks at the bar, then he got to teach me shuffleboard. For such a small little town, I swear full-time population is like 75 people and half came through the bar that night, they had a sweet, very nice shuffleboard table. The locals all knew are story within five minutes. Eventually, his dad showed up and we loaded the car on the trailer and finally got home ten hours after our adventure began. I told him we should have gone ice skating :) Fun times.
Friday we got to show off our cooking skills for his mom's birthday. We were frying up some pork loin for sandwiches and making potato salad, lemon cake and vanilla ice cream completed the evening with some long talking sessions that lasted til well after 11pm.
Saturday we got to see his friend's new house, officially being the first house guests! We helped move some stuff over then went to Rockies for some good food.
Soon after, I had my first ever soccer experience! Friends needed some substitutes for their indoor team, so when asked, of course we volunteered. I surprisingly enjoyed myself. Actually, not so surprisingly, it's an athletic event where I get to be aggressive, so of course I enjoyed it. It's a beginning co-rec league, however, our opponents were anything but beginners. We made it through and had fun though, and that's what matters to me. I think there will be some soccer in my future now that I am armed with some cleats and shin guards!
My love of the zoo came through this past week. He had the morning off, so off to Zoo Boise we went. It's no Pittsburgh Zoo, but it's really nice and you can tell a lot of work went into it to make it what it is. There were a lot of school groups there, and it's always funny to hear the world through a child's eyes. However, a cavy is not a baby kangaroo, no matter what the chaperones might say.
My best news of all came yesterday. My journal article was accepted for publication, with only minor revisions! It will be out in July and revisions need to be done quickly so that will be on my plate first and foremost with the everlasting thesis and another research project for my boss coming in a close 2nd and 3rd. It's a busy summer so far and I haven't even started a job! Which by the way the hunt is still continuing....
That's all for now, this is entirely too long. But I will try to post more often so they are smaller and easier to read!
Thursday, April 29, 2010
All who wander are not lost
I've decided to change this blog from it's original purpose for a graduate course to my own personal use, especially to relay my travels for the summer and all that jazz. I also wrote this post about three weeks ago and just never posted it.... oops :)
With that being said, it brings me to the name of my blog and more specifically, this post. Many have heard the expression that all who wander are not lost. I think that expression decidedly fits my personality. To wander: 1.) to travel about, on, or through 2.) to ramble without a definite purpose or objective. I love to travel, and lately I have been very lucky to have had the means to do so. When I travel I really do hate to have an itinerary. Some sort of a game plan, sure. A mental list of some of the highlights I want to see, ok. But a detailed, laid out plan of every single thing to do, timed out? No thank you. I love to take opportunities, try things out, take things as they come, which is incorporated into my traveling and seeing the world. I want to see the world, but I want to see it on my own time and in my own way. If I go to Rome, of course I want to see the pantheon, colliseum, st. peter's in the vatican, but I also want to take in the atmosphere. Get a vespa, find a local cafe, chill by a piazza, walk under the street lamps, party with some natives. That being said, I've traveled some recently with strict itineraries and some a little lax. Savannah, Orlando, Boise, Washington D.C. , Outer Banks and my million trips back and forth from little Fayette County, Pennsylvania to Raleigh. In my structured trips, Conferences in Orlando and D.C., I found myself looking forward to the "free time" that I would have to try to do something different. I think because of my "wanderings" I am not lost, in fact I think it has made me find myself even more. Every time I see something new, something different, it just makes me reaffirmed in my beliefs, values, morals.
I wander, and wonder, alot. There is a song that this woman sings every Christmas Eve service in my hometown entitled "I Wonder as I Wander." So, from now on, I'll be wondering as I wander. Stopping to take in all the good things. After the fact of an event, I always kick myself for not taking pictures. Then, I realized that it's because I would rather live in the moment, take it all in, instead of worrying about stopping to take pictures. So, from now on, I won't worry about whether I get the picture or not, I am going to take it all in, and live for that exact moment in time.
With that being said, it brings me to the name of my blog and more specifically, this post. Many have heard the expression that all who wander are not lost. I think that expression decidedly fits my personality. To wander: 1.) to travel about, on, or through 2.) to ramble without a definite purpose or objective. I love to travel, and lately I have been very lucky to have had the means to do so. When I travel I really do hate to have an itinerary. Some sort of a game plan, sure. A mental list of some of the highlights I want to see, ok. But a detailed, laid out plan of every single thing to do, timed out? No thank you. I love to take opportunities, try things out, take things as they come, which is incorporated into my traveling and seeing the world. I want to see the world, but I want to see it on my own time and in my own way. If I go to Rome, of course I want to see the pantheon, colliseum, st. peter's in the vatican, but I also want to take in the atmosphere. Get a vespa, find a local cafe, chill by a piazza, walk under the street lamps, party with some natives. That being said, I've traveled some recently with strict itineraries and some a little lax. Savannah, Orlando, Boise, Washington D.C. , Outer Banks and my million trips back and forth from little Fayette County, Pennsylvania to Raleigh. In my structured trips, Conferences in Orlando and D.C., I found myself looking forward to the "free time" that I would have to try to do something different. I think because of my "wanderings" I am not lost, in fact I think it has made me find myself even more. Every time I see something new, something different, it just makes me reaffirmed in my beliefs, values, morals.
I wander, and wonder, alot. There is a song that this woman sings every Christmas Eve service in my hometown entitled "I Wonder as I Wander." So, from now on, I'll be wondering as I wander. Stopping to take in all the good things. After the fact of an event, I always kick myself for not taking pictures. Then, I realized that it's because I would rather live in the moment, take it all in, instead of worrying about stopping to take pictures. So, from now on, I won't worry about whether I get the picture or not, I am going to take it all in, and live for that exact moment in time.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Leadership
The end of this semester is just jam-packed with a lot of stuff. I finally, finally, finished a paper to take to a conference and am just crossing my fingers that it gets accepted (eek!). My friends and family just don't get what I have spent the last month of my life working on non-stop and to be honest it's just really hard to explain.
When it is all said and done, I have a 14 page paper, including references, to show for my mountain of research. And, when talking to other, non-graduate students about this paper, I don't think they realize that it's not just a 12 page research paper that I b.s.'d my way through. This is 12 pages of my sweat and tears, literally. This paper is my quality research, a study that I performed, and just because it wasn't performed in a lab, doesn't mean it's not important, or credible.
The research I performed, was in the form of interviews, of a specific population to realize their perceptions and how that can be utilized. The paper then utilized previous research, methodology, results, and conclusions and implications to produce the final result. All in all this paper has consumed my life but I know it will be worth it. Hopefully, this paper will be accepted into conference and then hopefully, (fingers crossed), published in a journal. Then, maybe my friends and family will realize the dedication I made to this project.
When it is all said and done, I have a 14 page paper, including references, to show for my mountain of research. And, when talking to other, non-graduate students about this paper, I don't think they realize that it's not just a 12 page research paper that I b.s.'d my way through. This is 12 pages of my sweat and tears, literally. This paper is my quality research, a study that I performed, and just because it wasn't performed in a lab, doesn't mean it's not important, or credible.
The research I performed, was in the form of interviews, of a specific population to realize their perceptions and how that can be utilized. The paper then utilized previous research, methodology, results, and conclusions and implications to produce the final result. All in all this paper has consumed my life but I know it will be worth it. Hopefully, this paper will be accepted into conference and then hopefully, (fingers crossed), published in a journal. Then, maybe my friends and family will realize the dedication I made to this project.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
The End is Near
So the end of the semester is drawing near, and I have been filling out applications for jobs like no other for the summer. As part of one of the applications I had to explain my experiences with multi-tasking. Ummmm.... I literally laughed out loud. I thought about simply writing "graduate student" to accurately answer the question. How do you explain to someone that by simply being a student, you have learned to master the art of multi-tasking? Just this afternoon, I sit on my couch, taking a quiz for an online class, tv on, cell phone beside me, facebook chat open, and simultaneously reading an article from an online journal. I think that technology has forced a new generation into being great at multi-tasking. Stimuli are needed at all times and because of that, we (Generation X) do multitask. Now the argument can be made at whether this is truly PRODUCTIVE multitasking, but at some level it is. By mixing personal and professional lives, one can accomplish a great deal. And how, pretell, do I, personally keep everything straight? It's not some fancy online schedule, no palm-pilot type planner.
A list.
Yes, that's right. Nothing is more refreshing than taking out a blank piece of paper and writing down my goals. It can be as narrow or broad as I want it to be. Sometimes they are lists for the day, week. Currently mine is everything to do before the end of the semester (yay!). Through all this technology, I know of one thing that will never fail me, and that is my list of accomplishments. Something about that sense of fulfillment when you get to cross something off that you've completed. Call me old-fashioned. But I don't care. A list has done me good so far, and I think the lists will stay.
A list.
Yes, that's right. Nothing is more refreshing than taking out a blank piece of paper and writing down my goals. It can be as narrow or broad as I want it to be. Sometimes they are lists for the day, week. Currently mine is everything to do before the end of the semester (yay!). Through all this technology, I know of one thing that will never fail me, and that is my list of accomplishments. Something about that sense of fulfillment when you get to cross something off that you've completed. Call me old-fashioned. But I don't care. A list has done me good so far, and I think the lists will stay.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Wordle- A great invention
I am hooked, on what you may say? Besides my love affair with coffee and mashed potatoes, not together of course, I am in love, with wordle. Yes, the world of technology has sucked me in this once. Not that I'm resistant to technology, but I use what I have to and that's about it. However, this neat little gadget has won me over, falling head over heels in love.So here's what you have to do:
1. Go to Wordle.net
2. Enter in any body of text or insert a URL to pull text from. This can be anything really, I used the 4-H pledge and welcome off of the program book for National 4-H Conference for the link below and the USDA mission statement for the one above. Have fun with this!
3. Watch your cluster of words be created into something truly spectacular. All it takes is once.
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