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.