Sorry for the long hiatus, but this is supposed to be an upbeat, sarcastically happy-ish blog and that was not happening during finals crunch time. And then I was lazy over the remaining few weeks. Sorry.
"Quick" Recap:
November was awesome. It was great testing my personal character with people asking me over and over if I was going home for Thanksgiving when, for the first time in my life, I would be spending it without family. I can confidently say I am a strong individual who can repress those negative emotions like champ. I think this is a principal skill of all grad students.
Luckily, I knew someone who was also not able to spend Thanksgiving with her family who graciously invited me to dinner with complete strangers from the anthropology and psychology departments. And you know what? It was a blast. Dinner was fantastic, the conversation was great, there were cats in boxes and a happy dog eager to play. Thank you, everyone. If you, for some reason, read this, you know who you are, and you hopefully love comma splices as much as I do. :)
The only reason I left early was because I was still training Zoe to be out of her crate while I was gone and we were pushing the time limit.
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| I destroyed the house while you were gone. Then I took a nap. You mad? |
Then came December! With December came deadlines. Turns out the first semester of grad school wasn't so bad until it was almost over. I don't think it ended badly, but I'm still missing one grade, so we'll see.
December started off with a bang as we celebrated Ora M. Baker's 117th birthday party. There were bagpipes, a drunk Santa, and a tombstone, make of that what you will. It's anthropology, we do weird stuff.
I'd like to give a shout out to my neighbors, who will probably never read this, for taking care of Zoe for the 18 days I was gone. You are amazing and the main reason I'll probably renew my lease here. Please don't leave.
I was told as an undergraduate that grad students don't really get breaks, because they are working on school projects or school stuff over the weeks off. They have a much smaller window of time to go home or relax and celebrate whatever holiday they choose. Apparently, this applies much less to terminal Master's students. No thesis, no dissertation, nada. I guess crushing debt when I graduate isn't so bad if I get to go home earlier and save money on plane tickets, right? RIGHT?
But seriously, going back to Arizona--where the sun shines all day, it's less cold, and the food is free--was exactly what I needed. I got to join in for the first time the event of Festivus. There was a great dinner which we ate during the Airing of the Grievances, which I found fascinating. It's rare you meet a group of people who can openly do such a thing without ruining their friendship (completely) and I'm glad most of my Arizona friends are like this. It started out funny but certainly was not for the faint of heart by the end. Luckily, I was gone half a year so the grievances against me weren't too bad, if fully justified. >.>
The following events included feats of strength and throwing a microwave until it was in pieces. So, in Binghamton I went to a birthday party for Ora M. Baker and in Phoenix I threw a microwave. Different brands of crazy, but crazy fun all the same.
An afternoon and night of hanging out and gaming with two of my closest friends, which culminated in us being destroyed by a Lovecraftian monster then going home was fantastic. A trip up to Flagstaff so my parents' dog could be unimpressed by snow but love to play with the other dogs was great. Hanging out with a few Ju-jitsu peeps for the New Year was also great. The whole trip was great. I loved being home with my family and most of my AZ friends and to all those I wasn't able to see--next time! Probably.
I apologize if you've read this far and thought, "Gosh that's a lot of text!" to that I say, "I have a lot to catch up on and share!" to which you should say, "Give me pictures of puppies!!" to which I would say, "Certainly!" Because, let's face it, that's why you're really here.
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| Peanut butter? |
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| OHMYGODPEANUTBUTTER!!!! |
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| Does this footrest make my butt look fat? |
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| This is not the owl you're looking for. Move along. |
For those who don't know Sam, he is a former foster dog my parents rescued last summer, when Zoe and I were still in Arizona. We know he's part Aussie Shepherd, we think he's also part Newfoundland. But really, he's 100% Adorable. Hilariously, even though he was much smaller than Zoe when we first got him, he would chase her and boss her around. Sam went through a little Puppy Boot Camp while I was home that hopefully got him started on the right track to being a little more better behaved. Both Sam and Zoe are future therapy dogs, although I think we'll see pictures of Zoe in her official vest and patch first.
And now it's January. I'm back in Binghamton--so if anyone wants to come over to play with Zoe, let me know!--and gearing up to make some money at the library! Yay money! Boo three week pay delay! There is snow up here and Zoe loves it, so maybe the next blog will include fun pictures of Zoe playing in the snow. I guess you'll just have to read it.
Finally-ish, my New Year's Resolutions (because I have a blog and can do this) include making myself a better person by:
Learning to forgive
Learning to be patient
Being thoughtfully compassionate
Incorporating new communication styles and adapting to the styles of others
Nixing the laziness (except when I have time for it)
Feel free to share your New Year's Resolutions in the comments because most of Facebook doesn't care, but I do. :)
Stay happy,
Jessica
P.S.
I did not know where to put this, so I'm putting it here. DISCLAIMER: Sad things to follow.
Another
reason I put off making this post is because I wasn't sure if I should
touch on some of the tragedies of 2012. This thing is about living life
on the funny side, but I have decided it would be remiss to ignore these
things altogether. So, let me just say my hopes and prayers go out to
all those who have been directly touched by one of the many tragic
things that happened in 2012.
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