IC Grad / Weekend of alumni mayhem!

Okay, so I went to Ithaca for the weekend to see Amanda and all my lovely graduates. There were SO MANY MORE alumni than I expected!! I spent the weekend with Emily, Fester, Amanda H, Amanda I, George, KEITH, JAY, and sooo many awesome people. We drank too much, remembered old times, hiked gorges, ate good food, drank too much again...hahaha.

I'm so excited for all of the graduates, but I remember how weird it felt to be...DONE with school. I mean, it's what we spent 16 years doing, now we have to go figure out something else to do! It's sort of jarring if you think about it too much. Kendra's got the best plan - she's staying in Ithaca for a year! Jealousssss.

I talked to Dean Lynch briefly. She was at St Mike's before going to Ithaca, so she actually knew my boss. I asked her why she hadn't warned me more strongly about him, and she replied, "Because then you might not have gone, and it's a really good place for you to be." And now it's all starting to make sense. No boss is going to be perfect, no job is going to be fun all the time. If I can live through this, I'll be that much stronger and smarter for it.

Come on, let's GROW

My parents came to the Bur for Mother's Day!! They brought the garden boxes I painted (I know, they look grey, but I swear they're blue and white), a bunch of compost, and seeds. We went to Gardener's Supply and bought tomato plants (2 types) and a red pepper plant. (Wow, look at how bright and green everything looks - this was the perfect lighting for these pictures!!)

In one box I planted the tomatoes, lots of lettuce, and chives.

In the other, I've got cucumbers (with a trellis behind for them to climb), carrots, peppers, and more lettuce! Basically I'm growing my own salad. Hopefully I'll get two rounds of lettuce in.

In separate pots I've got pansies on one step, and morning glory on the other that will theoretically climb the post and twist around the railing. Above it all, there's a hanging begonia. I'm so happy to have my garden started at last!!

Only problem is, I have no patience - I don't want to wait!! I wonder if I'll have any tomatoes when I get home from work tomorrow...

Let's cause a stir!

So, I was goofing off at work, and googled my name, just for fun...
www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1575845/posts

It's a repost of The Ithacan's article on National Condom Week, for which I was interviewed about ICFeminists' observances of the week. That's cool. But it's reposted on a republican site, and the comments that follow get pretty crude. First off, they insult all feminists as ugly man-haters with no need for condoms, keep referring to Ithaca as "The City of Evil," call IC women sluts, make assumptions about the intelligence and attitudes of ICF members, and then they get personal. They dug up an old picture of me, looked me up on the college directory, found a current picture, insult my body, my intelligence, and my assumed lack of kissing abilities (yeah, really). Then a poster calls the entire board cute, and suggests we'd be fun to invite out for lunch.

I think Dana said it best -
"Well, on the positive side, we must have done something right to be causing such a stir. If we made conservatives mad, then we were probably succeeding at sharing actual, worthwhile information that they'd like to deny. Yikes! . . . The amount of close-minded people out there never ceases to amaze me . . . ICF rocks. That's all there is."

She's right, of course. Basically, all I can do is laugh. I'm not going to change any of those peoples' minds about me or my beliefs through a republican chat thread, so I'll wear it as a badge of honor. I'll put it on my resume, and we'll add it to our war stories. Because that's all you can do when faced with something this ridiculous and small-minded. So thanks, Free Republic "freepers," for the reminder that I'm capable of causing a stir.

OH BABY!!

Haiden Fiore, in all his six-week-old glory!! OMG he is just TOO CUTE!!! Hmm...I think I'd buy baby food or clothes or tires or bubble bath from that face, wouldn't you? I see a career in baby modeling in his future.


He's five days old here, can't believe the difference!! I won't even recognize him when I see him in two weeks!!

Jess says his sleeping is getting more regular all the time, and he survived an entire errands trip with a good mood. OF COURSE Jess would have the perfect baby!! No one is surprised!!! <3

Never thought I'd say it...

I miss the Ithaca College Hammond Health Center. Yeah, you always had to wait forever, and they prescribe meds wa-a-ay to easily, but c'mon! Let's review:
1) Location - centrally located above Park, next to the campus center
2) Cost - Lab tests? Prescriptions? Well shit, I don't actually have money - charge it to my student account!
3) Walk-in - Sure, I carry a cell phone at all times, but who has time to call ahead and make an appointment?! I've got some free time *right now* so I'll go.
4) Prescription Room - If they don't have it, they'll get it. Prescriptions could be delivered up from the pharmacy down town so you never have to leave campus.
5) Waiting Room - okay, not necessarily key to quality health care, but the waiting room had a very strong offering for reading material. SKI, Skiing, People...it's all there.

Let's compare that to my current situation. I see Dr Baad at the GoodHEALTH Primary Care Center, and whoever at Planned Parenthood.
1) Location - GHPCC is in South Burlington, but not the end of SBur that I work in. Could be worse...could be better. PPN is near the UVM campus...also not great in relation to my office.
2) Cost - $25 copay per visit. At PPN, I'm getting the Gardasil shots, so that's three visits. At GHPCC, we're messing with my meds which means lots of follow-up appointments. This shit is adding up.
3) Appointments - I have to make one!! And I have to fit it into my work day!! What?!?
4) Prescriptions - Well, there's a room, but it's called Brooks Pharmacy and I have to walk there and then kill time until it's ready.
5) Waiting room - way to brightly lit, pharmaceutical brand placement everywhere you look, and let's face it - the magazine selection SUCKS.

Now, I'm seeing great doctors and I'm happily paying for affordable health care so all in all I probably shouldn't bitch too much, but it just occurred to me I took for granted all that is good about Hammond!

Make it count

I started this blog, in part, after a suggestion from my reality tv-lovin' coworker Jessie. And she IS my direct supervisor, so clearly I had to get to it! She also has a blog, Constant Variables (she's not actually obsessed with everyday math, she wrote it for a class). But look at this guy!! This is her 1yr old son, David. I don't have a picture of Jessie, so this will have to do. He doesn't appreciate math on the same level as Jessie, but just look at how ridiculously cute he is!! And we all know I'm not fond of small children, so the fact that I think he's great is pretty substantial. He's only visited the office a couple times, and managed to freak out Mike last time...maybe that's why I like him?

Snow dreams...

So! I think these are the skis I'm going to get, the K2 Lotta Luv. A size down from the biggest, Phat Luv, one up from Burnin' Luv. Should be good to rip it on the hard pack here in the east, as well as float the powder out west!! Just have to track down a proform and order them through the Alpine Shop. And I'm gonna use my entire tax refund to buy them. Hottttt.

This is Happy

(a bit self-congratulatory, but everyone needs this now and then)

This is Happy.

This is such an amazing feeling.

I'm totally happy with my body - I bike 7 miles a day; I beat 3 guys at arm wrestling last night and got called "pretty jacked for a girl;" I've got an awesome sex life, and lately several guys vying for my attention; my face, my hair - everything is working.

It's the beginning of summer. That means biking EVERYWHERE, that means swimming, it means gardening, it means cliff jumping, cookouts, fruity drinks, lighter hair, hiking, dog-walking, weekend road trips, sweaty nights, camping, DI camp?

I've got money in the bank and plans for the future (even if they do keep changing). I love my city, I love my apartment. I'm making a group of friends I care about, even though losing the guys will be a blow to that.

For once, for now, this girl is SO HAPPY.

email to my Mom

Hi Mom,
So crapola, I forgot to bring my bike rack back with me, and this is the only week to bring things in for the bike swap. I'm still going to check out the swap/sale to see if I can buy a roof rack for a reasonable price.

I think I like my plan of staying until September then heading west. That will give me the opportunity to build up my savings again (with the car maintenance expenses my bundle took a hit), enjoy the summer in Burlington, and have a more solid timeline to work towards. As we know, I'm an expert at finding ways to entertain myself, so even though I won't have the guys to fall back on, I hope I can make it a good summer. For example, I am totally IN LOVE with biking to work. My time is improving already! This plan also gives me plenty of time to get an apartment, job, etc set up in CO.

Just out of curiosity, I requested furniture moving/relocation quotes from a website. The one quote I got in so far was like $1,500...so, that's a bunch. Not that I have any point of reference yet - that might be fantastic. That's for door-to-door service from the Bur to Denver. The deal with this site is it'll send me up to 6 quotes from different companies so I can compare. Of course the best would be to fit everything intoy own car, but that clearly rules out my bed and chair...and I would probably have to leave much of my fabric. Of course it's just an IKEA bed and I could probably get the same one out there if I really missed it. I'll ask Meg, but just looking at the mileage it would be over $200 in gas for the trip, not counting food and lodging. So that brings the cost of just the move itself to $2,000. That's pretty much the extent of my savings at the moment.

On a brighter note, I did a little apartment hunting last night on craigslist Denver. Rents are a LOT lower in Denver. I know VT - Burlington in particular - is disproportionately high, but they had condo-like places twice the size of what I'm in now in the mid $500 range! Cool! I found several more house-like apartments on Capital Hill in Denver, the area I loved so much.

I guess my current issue is that I really love Burlington, like a whole lot. Last night I went out with Rachel to the Radio Bean, a bar/club a block from my apt for "Honkey-Tonk Tuesday." She goes every week, and introduced me to all her friends. There was a girl there I had met at Courtney's party, and a member of Mike's band I had met Friday at the Hot Buttered Rum show. Not that I think I'm destined to be life-long friends with any of these people, but I'm starting to find a network, make the connections among my friends, and friends of friends.

Why do I call this an issue, why do I see this as a problem? Because I want to give the Bur a fair shake. I want to fully enjoy my time here, and get all I can out of it. I guess I almost feel guilty for leaving too soon. That's how I feel about Boston - I can hardly say I lived there, because I was only there for...three months? And most of that time was spent in our apartment job-searching and researching compost. If I had known I would be there for such a limited time, I know I would have gotten out more, y'know?

So that's just some stuff that's on my mind these days. UVM has finals this week and next, then Johan's gone. Cliff is around for another week I think, then he's gone too. I guess that'll be the real test of...something.

Okay...back to work. I hope your day is going well.
Love
Lou