penn

Flying back

I'm flying back to Ann Arbor today. I'm not going to get much sleep, sadly. Instead of going to bed at a sensible hour, I watched a movie with my brother & mom (Dog Day Afternoon), played guitar hero, and got all packed up.

It will be nice to get back to Ann Arbor and still have time before classes start. I'm not sure exactly what I'm taking yet next term, but I'll definitely be in ecosystem ecology.

Anyway, for any of those out there that are interested, I'm flying via Denver on Frontier Airlines. I'm leaving Seattle at 6 am and getting into Detroit at 3. I'm too lazy to go find the flight numbers right now.

It's been a good vacation at home. I finally got all the Europe pictures (so maybe I'll be able to share some pictures soon!). I saw some high school friends, went to the Nutcracker for free, and enjoyed lots of yummy food (and, unfortunately, the attendant waistline increase).

I'll try to be blogging more come the new year. We'll see how we do at that. But I have some exciting ideas to help the blogging. More on that in about a week, I hope.

Thinking of locations

In all this new "life is now an open book again" thinking, I've been deliberating over where I might want to move next. I certainly want to live somewhere walkable. I don't like sprawling suburbs or strip malls. I enjoy living near nature or being in the center of a city.

But, more than anything else, this vague image keeps popping into my head. During the summer, I love the Seattle days; they're warm, but it's not so hot and humid that going outside is a chore. The weather is lovely, and it's wonderful for getting outside. But Seattle summer nights are not so great. Rather, I am in love with the hot, humid, sticky summer night. "Hot town, summer in the city; back of my neck getting dirt and gritty" definitely describes my favorite summer nights. In thinking of this, I imagine a place I'd love to live sometime: a little house or trailer on some land, surrounded by trees. At night, I'd bang out the screen door, stand on the porch, and look up at the brilliant stars in the pitch black. And it would always be warm enough that a tshirt and light skirt would suffice.

More than anything else, when I think of where I'd like to live sometime, this image is the one I hold in my mind.

The whole "big news" thing

I've been meaning to write this huge pan-post about my life this semester. But in trying to think of what to write, I keep coming up with blanks. I'd love to write something eloquent that expresses my feelings, justifies my thoughts, and makes sense to all my readers. And the pressure of trying to come up with something has kept me from blogging other stuff, because I feel like I should make a massive update.

Well, I've decided to be done with the illusion of perfection on this post. There's no simple way to write all of this. So here's what I'll say:

I've made the difficult decision to not pursue my PhD at this time. I'm one credit shy of my master's degree in ecology & evolutionary biology. I love teaching, but I did not love doing research at my school. I still like research, but I didn't get along well with my advisor, and I didn't fit in well with the research goals of my department.

I might return someday, and I might not. That's an open path for the future. For now, I'm concentrating on finishing up my master's degree and finding a job in environmental education. I like the idea of teaching without having to grade.

Anyway, that's my big news from this semester. And it's a big part of why I didn't really blog much this semester. Between the stress of wanting to leave my program and attempting to do well on some massive school tests this semester, I wasn't doing too well. But I'm doing better now, and I'm quite content with my decision. Excited, really. One of my friends said that I now get a chance to be a real "ecologist-errant" (see Knight-errant). Sounds like fun to me.

I really am alive

Once I got back from Spain, I hit the ground running (literally). I flew back in on a Monday afternoon, and I had to teach Tuesday morning. I had tests to grade, papers to grade, and another test to grade. In between, I had "holiday" parties, a few gift exchanges, and a few dates. Life in general, really.

I turned in my students' grades tonight. I'm flying to Seattle tomorrow (okay, okay, today, since I am writing this after midnight). I'm looking forward to 10 days of a break from Ann Arbor.

I've got several things to say, but I'm still not well-rested enough to say them eloquently, so I'll just promise to try and post again later in the week. And, of course, I need to put up my Spain/London pictures so I can share my fabulous trip with everyone. Soon. I hope.