Joy, Joy, Joy!

Hello, all.

I know it's been forever, or so it seems, since I last updated, but...well, you know the next line: TIGS!  Even when classes aren't in session, there is SOOOO much to do!

Last week was wonderful in that respect, though - I didn't have any classes to worry about and I got to just work in the lab and meet with SW and figure out where we are going just what I am doing over the next 2.5yrs (yes, that sounds like a long time...but when you have the to-do list that I have, it seems like that is absolutely NO way I will get all of it done - I will, don't you fret..).  I've decided!  I'm doing a monograph for my thesis work!!  I'll do a post a little later on about what a monograph treatment is.  It's the part of taxonomy/systematics that I love, I'll just say that for now.  All in all, it was a great week.  And I closed it feeling satisfied and accomplished...it's been a while since I've felt like that at the end of a work week.

The 3-day weekend that followed that productive week was pretty grand, as well.  The first half of Saturday was full of Skyping and relaxing, the second half consisted of a ton of fun with Meg and Markster.  Markster picked me up and we grabbed Meg.  We grabbed some lunch at the Mall of America (seriously, there's like a bazillion restaurants in there...and we had some stuff to return and some gift cards to try to spend).  While at the MoA we saw this epicness:

The WHOLE ENTIRE thing was made of LEGOs...I. Want. One!

After running around MoA we continued on our path to REI so The Markster and I could procure our new parkas followed by the 3 of us trying on the most ridiculous winter hats in the clearance bin...oh man...we should have taken pictures.  It. Was. Epic.  And!  We all came away with a new hat that made each of us rather cheery.  After running home to let Jakers out the three of us went back to Meg's to work on....drum rooooooolllllll.....A GINGERBREAD HOUSE!!!  SO FUN!  The house had been constructed a few days earlier and the decorating had begun, but the bug dorks tricked that house oooooout!

Markster working hard on the roof.

 Meg and Markster working hard on adding our Harmonia infestation...that's right we are true dorks and added the tell-tale sign of fall/winter to the lovely little gingerbread house by adding and infestation of ladybird beetles - epic.

Ta-da!!  I was in charge of the icicles and filling in the gaps on the roof - I'm not gonna lie, I'm way impressed with my icicles...like, considered for a split second that I should change careers and be a gingerbread house decorator or something  :)

 See all those little pink clusters?  Those are our little Harmonia!!!  It looks just like a real infestation!  Little aggregations and all!

We didn't finish the backside of the house, the front and sides look pretty darn awesome, we think!

Sunday was a nice chill day...Skypage, church...it was a pretty good day.  I was especially blessed at church Sunday night, and it was wonderful.

Monday was awesome!!  We bug dorks plus a few other friends made brunch and had an absolutely lovely time together.  Everyone brought something to share with the group and we all just sat around with some nice folksy music in the background while we chatted, ate some delish food, sipped on coffee/tea/mimosas...mmmmmhmm!  We closed out our brunch time with some Strong Bad and Teen Girl Squad.  It was glorious.

Post brunch, was positively delightful, as well.  The Markster, Meg, Christine and myself went back to REI so I could exchange my parka for a different size - the sleeves were like half-way up my arms when I put the hood up on the first one...that's something I definitely should have checked at the store.  Oh well, REI makes it super easy for co-op members to make returns/exchanges.  We next ventured to a Starbucks for some coffee (we were all spent) and freaking awesome conversation.  Man, I love these kids so much!  After a couple hours there we went to TJMaxx so Meg could make a return and decided to kickoff our semester with a steakhouse dinner at Timber Lodge.  Oh my goodness, y'all, it was amazingly delicious.  And!  They messed up my order so they brought us a ginormous piece of whipped cheesecake.  Ummm...amazingly tasty.  Soooo grood  :)  We really had an awesome Martin Luther King, Jr. Day...it was incredible.  I can't wait to continue building and strengthening my relationships with my bug dorks here...seriously, such blessings to my life.

Week one (or rather, the first 4 days) of semester two was pretty decent, all-in-all.  Nothing went wrong or poorly...always a nice way to start a semester.  I made some more headway on my semester docket as far as what I need to do for my research/thesis stuffs - I still have a lot to do for this semester yet, but I'll get there.  Classes will be quite enjoyable, I think...just a lot of work...and I mean a LOT of work.  My museum studies - practices course will be especially heavy on the work load.  Yikes...papers and projects due every week!  Most of which require going to museums and writing papers and things about exhibits, pieces, etc...time consuming, to say the least.  Not hard or tedious, just time consuming...busy work.  I am excited to have an excuse to get out and see the museums around the area, though, that will be nice.  Time is just so lacking...oi vey...I so need more hours in the day or another day in the week...something, anything!

I'm trying to remember if there was anything super important that happened this week, or if it everything was just same ol' same ol' in the land of grad school...hmmm.  Well, I'll let you know later if I forgot anything.  Oh, we had our first Pig's Eye of the semester tonight.  I left pretty early, I'm just beat - I've fallen into another bought with insomnia...yay, no sleep!  No worries, though.  This happens from time to time, and it always passes with time..sometimes it takes a few months, but it hasn't killed me yet!

Ok, enough about school and work.  I'm sure you're all familiar with my friend Katy, over in Africa, who I've mentioned a number of times.  Well, if you aren't pay her a visit - her blogging is honest, fun, colorful, exciting, broken for the Lord, encouraging, pretty much just all around awesome.  One of her resolutions was to find joy in every day, whether it be in the little things or in big things.  I really like this idea - I think it will serve to help keep each day in perspective; so, even though I'm a few weeks behind, it's never too late to start, right?  I'll start with last Saturday.

Saturday, 15 Jan 2011:  (<-- it's still really weird for me to write 2011) Fun adventures around town with a couple of my favorite bug dorks.

Sunday, 16 Jan 2011:  Made some new friends at church - a lovely young family with two little boys.  Such a blessing!!

Monday, 17 Jan 2011:  Beautiful, real conversation with 3 of my absolute favorite bug dorks.  SUCH A BLESSING!!

Tuesday, 18 Jan 2011:  Meg and I trying to keep our snickers below audibility during insect behavior...it's going to be a gooooood semester  ;)

Wednesday, 19 Jan 2011:  DAY ONE OF INSECT TAXONOMY!!!!!!!!!!  This class = me.  Oh!  And lunch with some of the bug dorks I hadn't seen since being back.  Oh!!  And surviving the campus connector bus!  (I totally felt like a freshman all over again...)

Thursday, 20 Jan 2011:  First Frenatae meeting of the semester = seeing just about eeeeveryone I hadn't connected with since the break.  I love them  :)  Plus, departmental potluck lunch day...so grood.

Friday, 21 Jan 2011:  Catch up chat on the phone with SW...I am so blessed with two incredibly amazing advisors.  Like, really.  SW + RH = advisors extraordinaire  :)

So, yeah...it was a super blessed week, full of joy, joy, joy  :)

And now, my loves, I am off to bed.  Lots to do tomorrow before Meg's big start of the semester potluck bash tomorrow night.  And so, I will leave you with this:

My sleepy, super, super spoiled Jakers dog  :)

Praying all is well in your worlds.

Much love!

Shalom!

~MW

P.S. - it is officially cold, y'all.  This morning it was -18 degrees F...without wind chill...neeeeeeat!

Phone Sorrows

Hello, lovelies!

Well, first I must inform all of you that my cell phone has gone on the fritz. Therefore, if you have texted me at all today...I cannot open your messages. Lame, I know. I will be visiting AT&T tomorrow to see what they say. {**new phone?!** I can dream...}

Today was...an interesting day.

SW and I had scheduled a meeting for this morning at 9. I'm thinking, sweet, I can test the bus out and not have to worry about if I'll make it to class or something. Well, it's a good thing I did! The stop for the bus I catch to campus is about a 10min walk {and that's at a brisk pace} from my apartment. Not awful, just wish it was a touch closer {I'm thinking about the windy winters...}. So, I get to the corner where the transit site said my bus would pick up {and I'm even a minute or two early} to see my bus zooming past. I'm not entirely sure it even stopped at all. "Crap. Now what do I do??" There was another bus pulling up across the street, so I ran over and asked the driver if his bus could get me to campus, even with a connection or something. What did I get in response? A blank stare followed by, "Yeah, I don't know..." Neat. Next mode of action: call dad! "Dad, when is the next time that bus 61 comes through this area?" "Not for another 45min..." So, then, all I had left to do was to run back to the apartment {OK, so I walked even more briskly...it was already warming up for the day} grab the car, and pray that I can find some public/pay parking somewhere within a 10min walk or so.

Finally found a pay lot, conveniently right behind my building (!), and made it up the insect museum where I was to meet SW, and I was only 2-3min late. I was impressed, I'm not gonna lie. I was not, however, impressed $7 I had to pay to get out of the lot...weak sauce. SW ended up being about 30min late, so, as it turns out, I could have waited for the second bus and made it in time...cest la vie. She and I ended up having a nice visit, none-the-less. Got some specifics loosely laid out for what my course work will look like this fall and in the spring.

SW and I also got to chat about my actual research and some of the things it will entail. I'll be honest, I'm in a bit over my head right now...I know nothing about leps {Lepidopteran = moths & butterflies}...nothing. Give me my parasitoid wasps any day of the week and I can hold my own, but leps?! Now they are something I'm only familiar in hating {when they are dead, at least}. Every hymenopterist {Hymenoptera = wasps, ants, bees} hates dead leps...they get in our traps and their wing scales muck everything up so we can't see our wasps. Very frustrating. But now I get to look at them not in my etoh traps :) I am rather excited about learning all about a new organism, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't terrified out of my mind to start something so new and foreign to me.

But! SW is awesome and lent me some of her "moth bibles" so I can start familiarizing myself with them - particularly the arctiids and even more particularly, Eucaetes. I'm way excited to start paging through these books

SW helped write both of these!!

So that was productive. I then made my way over to Rainbow Foods...which, may I just go on a little bunny trail with you for a moment? K, good. Rainbow Foods just might help to make the next three years survivable. I walked through those sparkling automatic doors Sunday afternoon into what I thought was Heaven. Beautiful produce, beautifully displayed. CLEAN floors...they were practically gleaming! CLEAN smell. Marvelously organized. I was home. There will, most likely, be no more Cub Foods runs...unless it's an emergency or something. But, I digress. Today, I made my way over to Rainbow {p.s. - I can't help but hear the, "double rainbow allll the way" guy in my head every time I go/think of Rainbow...makes me chuckle every time...I don't think it will ever get old} and picked up a little pre-paid bus pass to get my by over the next few days 'til my student ID gets issued. {However, I spoke to non-profit guy about the buses today and he had some less than comforting things to say and suggested that I stay away from the buses...sigh.}

I rearranged some of my living room furniture into a position I think I am pleased with for the moment...still have lots to do...sorry this whole setting my home thing is taking me so long...I've had to stop and do other things here and there, which makes for slow progress.

Oh! Big news, though: I got my interwebs today!!! Guy was super nice and we had a nice chat. He lives in Chicago, but is here for a few weeks helping out the Twin Cities crew with their increased work load. Cool.

Mmm, I made some of those frozen-allow to rise-then bake rolls with my dinner tonight...SO worth waiting for them to rise. They are delish. It's like I made them myself...only with 1/4 of the effort! WIN!

Well, I think that's all for now. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about my "things I love about my apartment" post. It's in the works :)

Shalom!
~MW