emilemur

Ahhhh. The mid-20's. Every year or so from now until...(?), I will be completely reordering my life. Yay!

Last year: High octane graduate school in awesome new city

This year: back in KS, back at the fossil prep lab, getting involved with local Science Fiction literature community, trying to be a grant writer, learning to live with a dog without tripping over her three times a day (poor Dinah-bear!). Oh yes...and once I find my rhythm...freelancing!

Bonus: Some of my wonderful friends live here.
Minus: mom wants to visit me all of the time
Bonus: I get along with my folks so well just having once-a-week visits. I am starting to really appreciate them.
Minus: Where are all the buildings?!?!
Bonus: Cows!!!
Minus: It's too bloody quiet here
Bonus: Turtles!!!

I'm done. Yay Kansas! I am needing to call Dolendae pretty soon...'cause I miss her! :)

One cannot buy a toilet plunger and walk three blocks home with it and expect to maintain one's dignity.

heh heh.

Classes are going well. I am in a natural catastrophes class taught by the geophysicist who discovered the mechanism in the geodynamo that generates our magnetic field. OOOOO.

Teaching a new class. I'm excited. We needed a bigger table, so I wrote an email requesting a bigger table to the classroom guru. This time of year he gets a lot of complaints from whiny teachers who don't like the smell of their room or something, so I thought I'd send him an entertaining email to brighten his complaint filled inbox. I realized the word "table" was in there like 15 times, so I needed a synonym something fierce. I turned to facebook received innovative suggestions, including, but not limited to, "food slab."

Mammalian Evolution tomorrow! Woo-hoo!

I'm in Red Emma's, a coffee house/bookstore in Baltimore near the Peabody music conservatory and there's this guy practicing classical guitar in here...it's so beautiful.

I've gotten to reconnect with Haley and a few other friends since coming back. This is a good group of people we've got. We're all really supportive and kind folks...if I do say so myself. Well, I should away. I am busy out the eyes!

I lost my phone, but fortunately Adam gChatted me and, as per my request, called me. It was in the fridge.

Funny thing 2:

In One World Cafe, they played Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" and 5 separate tables erupted into spontaneous song. "Just a small town girl...livin' in 'er lonely world..."

I love this town.

When I got my results, it said that the "How long will it take a T-Rex to digest you?" quiz is brought to you by an internet dating site. How romantic.

I had a fun encounter with a little kid today. I was walking to class when this random four year old with a mischievous grin runs up to me and stretches his arms out, blocking the sidewalk. I cock an eyebrow at him and move to the right...he blocks me. The same on the other side. Suddenly, I bolt. I run off the sidewalk and straight up a grassy embankment. The kid squeaks and gives chase, trying to cut me off. About that time the kid's dad finishes his conversation with a bicycle cop and nonchalantly calls for his son. The chase is over and I proceed, unhindered, to class.

Ack! I am suddenly, hopelessly busy. I feel good about this. Ack! I need Hermione's time turner, like yesterday!.

Well, I saw my first Baltimore Rat a few days ago while walking with some friends...They were disconcerted when I squealed "Oh! A rat" immediately followed by "how cute! I just love rats"

I discovered the farmer's market with delicious, organic produce. Yum. And a wine, cheese and chocolate shop. nice. Now if only I could afford either place. Sigh.

I attended a JHU vs. Buffalo soccer match with Haley. It was fun. I could grow to like soccer.

I learned that my adviser wrote a book called "when you lose a child" chronicling the experiences of several sets of parents who lose children. Then I found out that she lost a child in 1983. The book had so much of herself in it...I keep becoming more and more astounded by the great mind and heart that she has. I am very lucky to get to work with her.

The Science Writing brigade attended a grad student mixer and we walked out with several new friends from the Biology Department. They can give us ideas for stories...we can edit their lab reports for grammatical clarity. This is shaping up to be a successful couple of days. I just need to remember not to fill my social calendar at the expense of my academics. Somehow, knowing me, I don't think that will be a problem.

I miss all of y'all terribly.

Much love,

Emily.

1 Said goodbye to mom
2 Danced around apartment singing "free at last" (simultaneously being thankful for such good
parents)
3 Course planning
4 Talked to sock puppets
5 Got creeped out by "the Joker" puppet...had to put him in a box away from the others
6 Talked to Nat
7 Ate asparagus
8 Tried to open pickle jar...couldn't...no one here to open it for me...:(
9 Went to check email
10 Distracted by livejournal
Next: Groceries
Later: More Course Planning

So...had a nice day with mom.
We did the inner-harbour. We ate delicious crab (in cake and avocado roll forms) and we had a Bloody Mary and a scotch or two. This seemed to help us get along better.

Then we took a tour on an amphibious vehicle called a duck. It was cheesy, but useful. Cheesy because they give you duck call whistles shaped like duck bills and this hyper guy in a Hawaiian shirt and hat tells you to quack at people while he plays the Beach Boys and makes bad jokes. Useful because I got to see Fells Point, Little Italy, Edgar Alan Poe's grave (!) so that I can orient myself better in the city. Also I learned interesting tidbits of information like :

The first Catholic Cathedral was built in Baltimore...and it's kind of ugly.

The city was named after this guy called "Lord Baltimore" who decided not to make the colony Protestant or Catholic but to allow freedom of religion for all (Christians), which was pretty forward-thinking for the time I suppose.

The standing and putting your hand over your heart for the Star Spangled Banner thing was started at a baseball game in Baltimore; the Cleveland Indians vs the Baltimore Orioles. What happened was that, at some point during the game a massive brawl broke out between fans and fans and players and players...so the band, doubtless fearing for the safety of their instruments, played the Star Spangled Banner...everyone stopped fighting and a few people put their hands over their hearts...soon everyone in the stands did it. So that's where that national tradition came from...a sports brawl. Nice.

Whaaaaaaaaah!

Clarissa and Amy and I traveled to the Nelson art museum today to check out the new addition. I quite like it and its cubular goodness. There will be some fun pictures pretty soon. It's nice to have friends you can just pick up with like you've seen each other yesterday and no time has passed.

Talking to Clarissa, who is moving to Shanghai, makes me want to take up Chinese again. It's such a pretty language.

After the museum we adjourned to Westport, a part of the city I wish I'd visited more, and ate at a nice hamburger place. I enjoyed a mahi-mahi burger and some sweet potato fries. How nice!

I have been walking/jogging with Dinah quite alot. Except for the whole not being able to go out and kill their own darn dinner, I find I quite like dogs.

Last night it poured buckets around 4 or so in the morning, causing my cat to skitter around the room, knocking over my Donner Party Snowdome and an ink jar from China 200 AD. I'm glad I put Dinah inside last night or she would have been one soaking wet pooch.

I must away.

On Sunday, I viewed an exhibit called "bug town" in which there was a display done up like a 50's style diner with "menus" highlighting different insect mouth parts and what foods they were suited for. I was unaware that, a mere hour before, I had happened to sit on a patch of grass that was home to the Trombiculid mite, or chigger, and further, that I would soon be feeling the effects of the insect mouthparts I had so recently learned of.

Adult mites are actually harmless vegetarians who lay their eggs on the tender undersides of the grass blades they eat. The microscopic larvae that hatch from those eggs feed on the skin cells of their hosts by injecting digestive enzymes into the upper layers of the skin, creating a small hole in the skin and resulting in a prominent red bump or papule.

"Amazing!" I think, as I scratch my butt.

1) The Moon formed in only 1 month!

2) My uncle Tom and cousin Jeff should not be allowed around bottle rockets

3) Bottle rockets are illegal in Minnesota

4) Andromeda and the Milky Way will eventually collide and form one super galaxy!

5) My grandma has a crush on the weatherman

6) Chicago is such a beautiful city (but I already knew that)

7) You can measure a fine instrument with a pair of calipers and replicate it, millimeter for millimeter, using finer wood...but the artistry is all missing and it will not sound the same. The best sounds come from an instrument created from the soul and the imagination of the maker and not from science.

8) I learned how high I could jump if I were on the moon.

		I will marry A Conjoined Twin.
		After a wild honeymoon, We will settle down in A boat in our fabulous Apartment.
		We will have 0 kid(s) together.
		Our family will zoom around in a orange orange vw bug.
		I will spend my days as a Minor Diety, and live happily ever after.