so it's been awhile, once again. figured i'd give a brief update while i'm sitting in the airport. adventures of the last couple of months include standing up in a friend's wedding, visiting hawaii, and the whole holiday shabang. so here you go! enjoy some lovely pictures from my recent travels :)
the bridesmaids and the bride:

on the plane coming in to kauai.. this picture is through my sunglasses. the water had a rainbow sheen to it the whole way in :)

from our hike to waipoo falls. dangerous! the falls were 800 feet high. this is me going closer to the edge so i could see them better:

and finally.. our little christmas card picture. the boys and i.. brave souls went out in shorts! i got to wear my jacket because i was taking some of the pictures!


they're telling me my plane is almost here. time to go line up!

party in my mouth.. or not..
summary of my chip eating experience this weekend: triangle man, triangle man, triangle man hates person man, they have a fight, triangle wins, triangle man..

and a couple hours later i bit a huge chunk from my lip. it was *awesome*
/story time

last night i dreampt that i was wearing a glorious scarf.. it was wrapped around my neck and i was cuddling into its warmth. i walked down the street and received many complements on the beauty and practicality of my accessory.. it was a very fulfilling dream.

..when i woke up this morning i found i had the leg of a pair of flannel pajamas wrapped around my shoulders. sometimes we find comfort in the most interesting places.

well... shit. it's been a long time.
so i survived my first year out of grad school. survived being very intentionally used. ..it's been kindof a rough year. lots of ups and downs. but survived it i have. and come out stronger, i hope. still not sure. i think the strength and the learning might take a little bit to show up. i haven't really had time to think enough to cause fortification. not sure what i should be eating to help with that :P

not really too much to say though.. am kindof waiting for stuff to gel before i can even feel like i can share. hence not posting much. i am spending all of next week off, in miami, with lots of outdoors time and me-time, so hopefully i can figure some stuff out.

sorry to be so vague. such is the way of things.

sometimes i wonder if you ever turned into a decent human being.

happy valentine's day.. and stuff.. today is one of those days that throws being in a long distance relationship into sharp relief. we watched a movie 'together' (knocked up, which i don't think either of us particularly enjoyed), but beyond that... i find myself just thinking a lot about how nice last weekend was, and looking forward to next time. *sigh*

anyhow.. also pressing in my thoughts is the NIU shooting. we were just talking yesterday morning about how college shootings are something to keep as a 'back burner fear'.. in order to keep our sanity and not feel terrified at work. NIU is awfully close to here, and i think we're going to be dealing with some after-effects from this. there have already been emails going out about making counseling available to our students, and i think i will be in close contact with my RAs to see if anyone needs anything. it's going to take a little bit of self-talk to keep focused for a while i think. and also, i'm on duty, so if anyone really needs anything, i get to be first response. heh heh..

i find myself wondering how Virginia Tech folks are doing with this. seeing all this stuff in the news.. will it cause flashbacks? are they going to offer extra counseling on campus? every time there is a big college news item, both my academic and empathetic interests are piqued and i find myself with a million questions; not all of which i really even want the answers to.

anyhow.. i was really sick last week, and i'm not healthy yet. so i'm going to go curl up and talk about the stupid movie for a while, and then get some sleep.

i am.. really.. quite sick. i've been hovering at a 100 degree temp since i woke up this morning (shivering, under a down-filled blanket), with coughs and chills and sore throat.. good fun.

except for the part where it's not.

something about me getting fevers, is that my skin gets really sensitive. and by really sensitive i mean it pretty much hurts to wear clothing. and while i enjoy being naked as much as the next person, not wearing clothes causes some trouble with other temperature regulation things, which really doesn't make things much better. especially when i am supposed to be working. can't really be nekkid in my office - it's so cold in there i'd probably get pneumonia on top of everything else.

anyhow, the adventures with the new car have continued. i went to transfer my old plates/registration, and first of all, i have to give kudos to the DMV guy. he was the coolest DMV guy i've ever had to work with, so that was really helpful. the way the registration thing is supposed to work: i bought my car in WI, so have to pay the difference in tax between WI and IL. well, i got there, and showed him my bill of sale, only to realize that i was never charged WI state vehicle tax. so the difference, instead of being between 5.1% and 6.25%, was 0% to 6.25%. the grand total: $968 to the IL Dept. of Revenue. all. at. once.

thank god i had money in my checking account (yes, mr. klumb, b/c of the $500 from the old car. thanks for at least letting me keep it for a little while ;) ).

anyhow, after i got over my initial shock, i decided to look at this positively - it's a grand they can't charge me interest on in my payments. i revealed this to the DMV guy and he said: 'wow, you are a glass full type of person'.. my response: 'at this point, the glass better be filled with something sparkly and alcoholic' which made the guy laugh, which made me laugh, which took some of the edge off.

i have to start making payments soon. that should be a whooolllllee 'nother adventure!

happy new years, happy holidays and all that jazz.. wow has a lot been going on!

i completed my first semester working at the U of I, which i am pretty proud of, really. also survived a semester of long distance with my meteorologist, which was both very difficult and very rewarding. toward the end of the semester i got the exciting news that i will be teaching a class this semester! it's a 2 credit class all paraprofessional staff (read: multicultural advocates and resident assistants) are required to take in order to be employed by the department of res. life. the course covers things like group dynamics, TONS of social justice stuff, and making a plan to help create a community on your floor. pretty much it is all stuff that i love thinking and talking about. so that should be super busy, but also super awesome!

after the semester ended i went up to wisco to hang out with the family, including my big bro! it had been over a year since i'd seen him and it was really really good to spend time together. us kids made dinner and cleaned the house for our christmas celebration. it was a lot of fun to see mom's face when she walked in after work to a spotless house and dinner on the table. it's nice to get to do stuff like that for her once in a while.

then it was off to florida for a bit over a week. i got to hang out with my meteorologist and his family on marathon key for 6 days - fishing, snorkeling, kayaking and eating lots of good food. i also got seasick for the first time, so that was an interesting new experience.. his grandfather said he, 'didn't want to get ahead of' himself, but welcomed me into the family - awkward but well meant. while in FL, i found out that the transmission had died on my car. BOOO.. the repairs would have been extremely expensive, so it wasn't worth it to fix it.

and sooooo... i bought a new car! it's a fabulous dark'ish blue nissan versa. for those Heroes fans out there, it's almost the same car as Hiro and Ando drive. so i got the car on jan 2, and then drove down a ways into IL for a retreat, back to WI to sell my old car (i got $500! not bad!) and then finally back to UIUC.

this semester will be.. very interesting.. to say the least. i think there are definitely ways that i am going to be pushed outside my comfort area in the next few months. but i am looking forward to the growth that comes from it. i just hope that i have enough time to recover and process in between each spurt of crazy activity.

and with that, it's time to go cosmic bowling with my staff :)