Preparation Time
Nov. 30th, 2014 08:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vintagewitchToday was the kind of morning where I didn't feel like a person until I had my coffee. Now, coffee in hand, I'm getting to writing this journal entry.
NaNoWriMo was a bit of a bust this year. I never did get back into the habit. But I got 25,000 new words, so that's good I suppose. I'm not really beating myself up about that at all. This was just a very busy year to do that, and grad school comes first.
The Thanksgiving weekend has been fantastic for me. Of course, Thanksgiving day is always amazing, and having an extra day out at the farm was wonderful. I played games with Matt, talked with my parents, went on a hike in the woods with dad, ate good food, and got some good peace and quiet.
I'm really excited for a time when I live in a rural area. It's in my bones - I miss the quiet, solitude, the woods ... I've wanted to for so long, and I finally have a plan for doing that - and a partner who's also interested in it. I'm making connections again in the environmental movement, and starting to edge my way into potential contracted positions. I have a limited amount of time every week that I can currently dedicate to the movement, but I'll have more time once I have my application complete and I'm waiting to hear back. And in the mean time, I need to save as much as possible.
Things with Matt have been fantastic lately. We've been doing a lot of movie nights, and yesterday we had an unexpectedly romantic day. We were both getting sick of sitting around working on things, and decided to grab some lunch out and go for a walk. It was a beautiful day, so we ended up walking all the way down West 7th looking for that good Chow Mein place I remember. It ended up being too far, so we ate out at a nice Italian restaurant. We headed back, and I worked on things for a bit, then we watched The Maltese Falcon.
Laughing, happy, fun. It's been like that constantly in our relationship. Pretty much since the decision that I would only apply for the U of MN, and our conversations at Lutsen about moving North together, it's been good. It's been better than good - it's been a dream.
This has been a very strange week. I'm not sure how I feel about going back to work tomorrow- on the one hand, I'm dreading it, but on the other hand I haven't actually had to do much work this week, so it would be good to get back to it. I'm sure I'm dreading it more than necessary. Marian has been a pill lately, not to mention actively racist. So I'm just sitting there, biting my tongue almost constantly. Anyway, I was horribly sick for two days earlier this week, and then I took Thursday and Friday off for the holidays. So I only worked one day last week, and it's probably time for me to put in some dues.
I need to seriously get down to work today on my Statement of Purpose. I took a bit of a break yesterday to work on some cover letters. I'm planning on applying for jobs outside of the Whittier Alliance, because even if I don't get into grad school I want to leave my position there. So I don't want to let any opportunities pass me by. There happen to be a lot of jobs in the environmental field available right now, including one that is with the MN Center for Environmental Advocacy that lasts only the legislative session. Which would give me time in the summer to get a part-time job, or just relax before school officially starts. That's my ideal right now, but the Will Steger Foundation also has a part time admin assistant position that I could do while still in school. That would also be great because, even though it's admin, I would have contact with people in the climate movement, so I could make a move when I finally do graduate and use my network.
No one who's reading this will recognize the userpics that I'll start using, but it's pretty fabulous. My dad got my old (very first, giant 17" Toshiba) laptop working, and asked me to pull any files I might want. Well, let me tell you - it was definitely a trip down memory lane! I found all my old LJ userpics - so of course THOSE will now be a part of the rotation here.
Seriously, they bring back so many memories. I'm glad that even if I can't access my old journal entries, I can still see the images that accompanied them.
NaNoWriMo was a bit of a bust this year. I never did get back into the habit. But I got 25,000 new words, so that's good I suppose. I'm not really beating myself up about that at all. This was just a very busy year to do that, and grad school comes first.
The Thanksgiving weekend has been fantastic for me. Of course, Thanksgiving day is always amazing, and having an extra day out at the farm was wonderful. I played games with Matt, talked with my parents, went on a hike in the woods with dad, ate good food, and got some good peace and quiet.
I'm really excited for a time when I live in a rural area. It's in my bones - I miss the quiet, solitude, the woods ... I've wanted to for so long, and I finally have a plan for doing that - and a partner who's also interested in it. I'm making connections again in the environmental movement, and starting to edge my way into potential contracted positions. I have a limited amount of time every week that I can currently dedicate to the movement, but I'll have more time once I have my application complete and I'm waiting to hear back. And in the mean time, I need to save as much as possible.
Things with Matt have been fantastic lately. We've been doing a lot of movie nights, and yesterday we had an unexpectedly romantic day. We were both getting sick of sitting around working on things, and decided to grab some lunch out and go for a walk. It was a beautiful day, so we ended up walking all the way down West 7th looking for that good Chow Mein place I remember. It ended up being too far, so we ate out at a nice Italian restaurant. We headed back, and I worked on things for a bit, then we watched The Maltese Falcon.
Laughing, happy, fun. It's been like that constantly in our relationship. Pretty much since the decision that I would only apply for the U of MN, and our conversations at Lutsen about moving North together, it's been good. It's been better than good - it's been a dream.
This has been a very strange week. I'm not sure how I feel about going back to work tomorrow- on the one hand, I'm dreading it, but on the other hand I haven't actually had to do much work this week, so it would be good to get back to it. I'm sure I'm dreading it more than necessary. Marian has been a pill lately, not to mention actively racist. So I'm just sitting there, biting my tongue almost constantly. Anyway, I was horribly sick for two days earlier this week, and then I took Thursday and Friday off for the holidays. So I only worked one day last week, and it's probably time for me to put in some dues.
I need to seriously get down to work today on my Statement of Purpose. I took a bit of a break yesterday to work on some cover letters. I'm planning on applying for jobs outside of the Whittier Alliance, because even if I don't get into grad school I want to leave my position there. So I don't want to let any opportunities pass me by. There happen to be a lot of jobs in the environmental field available right now, including one that is with the MN Center for Environmental Advocacy that lasts only the legislative session. Which would give me time in the summer to get a part-time job, or just relax before school officially starts. That's my ideal right now, but the Will Steger Foundation also has a part time admin assistant position that I could do while still in school. That would also be great because, even though it's admin, I would have contact with people in the climate movement, so I could make a move when I finally do graduate and use my network.
No one who's reading this will recognize the userpics that I'll start using, but it's pretty fabulous. My dad got my old (very first, giant 17" Toshiba) laptop working, and asked me to pull any files I might want. Well, let me tell you - it was definitely a trip down memory lane! I found all my old LJ userpics - so of course THOSE will now be a part of the rotation here.
Seriously, they bring back so many memories. I'm glad that even if I can't access my old journal entries, I can still see the images that accompanied them.
