Truths.

Healing.

Week of Crazy Cool

I’m trying to stay positive about the two public presentations I have to give this week. One is tonight and it is on a quantified-self project I did last semester. My teammate and I made a video and apparently the Chicago QS MeetUp group wants to hear more. Seeing how David will be out of town, that leaves me to ramble through some slides in front of 50 people at the Merch Mart. Woo! Thankfully my prof helped me refine my presentation and now I just need to practice and put my speaking-in-public skills to work! Will have to post on how that goes later…

I’m also presenting at the 15th annual Ethnography Conference at the University of Chicago on Saturday. Also nerve-wracking. I’ll be sharing my paper on primate stimulus and socialization. I love talking about my gorillas, but man, there are going to be a crap ton of people there, my mother included in the crowd.

Deep breaths. Confidence. Hot outfit. 

Should be fun.

Counting the days down to spring break where I will officially be taking a break from any sort of presentation, but may face some Zumba, Miami style. 

Morning

“Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could.”

― Louise Erdrich, The Painted Drum LP

Drawing.

Do you sometimes sit and realize that what you’re doing with your life and where you’re going couldn’t be a more beautiful thing? My homework tonight got me noodling on this little nugget. I have to sketch out some product design ideas and honestly, I couldn’t be happier. I get to draw things that I will get to make and maybe even sell to the world. How crazy is that? Being able to get covered in pencil and marker and work with my hands to create something? It’s nuts if you ask me. And what’s even crazier is that I am aiming to do this for a living. And soon.

 

This year has brought some heartache, more than I could have imagined even, but it has also brought some sunshine.

 

I will be spending spring break in Miami with one of my dearest friends. I will be presenting a paper at a conference (yikes!). I will be making a product and, fingers crossed, getting it funded on Kickstarter. I will graduate, start work, run my first organized run (it’s a 5k, so no big deal just yet), and make lots of art and take lots of pictures in the meantime. 

 

Sometimes I wish I could hurry up and accomplish these things, but the journey really is the fun bit. I thought my life was headed in a different direction, but maybe this one isn’t so bad. 

 

Now for a glass of wine and a lovely mess at the drafting table.

 

Sunday

It is nearly the middle of February, how did that happen? I am sitting in my living room listening to Taylor Swift and contemplating a shower vs homework. Also contemplating life. Gosh. Is there a greater plan out there? Does everything just fall into place as it should? Breaking and bending along the way? I sure hope so. It’s been hard to deal with the questioning and the not knowing lately. I suppose it goes to show that right when you think you have it all figured out, someone changes your plans. I hope to figure it out before it eats me alive.

Fin.

Tuesday

Today feels a little blah. I think it is due to waking up with a sore back and nothing to wear. Such dilemmas. Gorilla class this morning was lovely, but a little long, and a little cold. I am not sure how they felt about my hot pink sweater. 

I am in my communication workshop now and we are working on mapping out Big Data. It’s such an interesting topic and so daunting to tackle. I am getting a taste for QS by wearing a Fitbit and tracking my goals on 42goals.com. 

Anyways, dinner at home tonight after a quick meeting for school improvements. Can’t wait!

From Erin’s Wedding

Most fun photo booth ever! 

 

Last night’s dinner

Quick and easy meal for Matthew and I on the first night of NFL football. Geesh. I was much more interested in cooking that in spectating.

Shopping around town

Waiting for the bus at Newberry Library to get home after a day of back-to-school shopping this past weekend.