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Porch-dwelling

Today so far – beautiful day! Started off with breakfast – eggs scrambled with green pepper and onion, toast, and slices of apple and peaches. Coffee too.

Then Jeff and I headed to the farmer’s market and stocked up on some great produce and supplies for tonight’s potluck dinner we’ll be going to.

Been working out on the porch …

with a friend planning how we’ll facilitate a class discussion on Weds for our climate change class. So far it innolves a role playing game that goes something like this  … “so you’re a subsistence farmer in Nigeria growing wheat, and the high emissions scenario happens (co2 emissions continue to rise, causing an increase in global temp averages of 5-7 degrees) what happens to you? how might you adapt?

Should be neat. Just ate a whole wheat cinnabon my housemate just baked, and a bowl of greek yogurt with berries and a scoop of PB. Gotta get to the gym soon tho!

c ya

TGIF

That’s Thank God I’m a Forester!! Well, I’m glad the week is just about over – a little break for all the class time. Yesterday was filled with classes, an energy club meeting, and finally … a fabulous dinner at Caseus. We were a group of 6 and split two amazing cheese boards, a few bottles of wine, and I had a small mac n cheese and a side of rainbow chard. This restaurant is so fantastic! Mmm Cheese!!

Lunch today was a biggg salad (tempe, spinach, lettuce, carrots, green pepper, mushrooms, corn, walnuts, cranberries – wow!) with a side of climate change reading.

Today – 2 classes, TGIF lawn games, and then a 5.8 mile run with Melissa! It got dark, but it was a great run. Came back and cooked up a spagehtii dinner with Jeff, complate with veggie meatballs and a side of broccoli. We split the last cupcake (shared many with housemates!). Now, on to some relaxing (still denying I have work to do…) with Jeff – maybe we’ll watch a movie.

Gnight.

Over the hump day

Today was another long one (just wait til the workload starts, oyve!)

Kicked off with sitting in on a behavioral economics class at 8:30am. It was a neat class so now I want to take it – only problem is I already have a full schedule, and 2 internships! Ahhh decisions …

I then did some reading til 12, went to a guest talk (ate a home-packed salad during this, and a cookie), then had climate change class 1-4. Next up was a welcome social event for one of my internships from 5:30-7:30. I didn’t know the event would have tons of food! Cheese, crackers, veggies, fruit, and PIZZA! From two of the best places in town – Pepe’s and Bar. Mmmm. Cookies too. Probs didn’t eat the healthiest at this as I mingled around… better next time.

Got home around 7:30 and cooked up a dinner Jeff and I had been planning, corn on the cob and kale. I had some corn, it was great! The rest will be for lunch tomorrow, due to the unplanned first dinner.

I arrived home to find a PACKAGE! From mom :) Inside was a celebration of everything wonderful about the season!!! I <3 fall!!! And this got me even more excited!! All sorts of goodies! Homemade cereal mix and Halloween themed baking supplies! Look at these nifty things! Stencils for decorating cupcakes! So cool! Thanks mom!

With that, good night!

Long Day

Well, ’twas a long day, as expected.

– class 10-11:30
– reading, finsihing a response due at 5pm
– interview prepping (eek)
– internship interview at 3:30
– meeting at 6pm (ditched due to pouring rain..)
– class 6:30-9:30

Interview went well – got the job! Now, just to figure out the heck I’ll have time for 2 research assistantships, a full course load, and maintaining some sort of sanity!! Ergh.

Here’s me being tired.

Lunch was a big tasty salad – spinach and lettuce, topped with tomato, mushrooms, green peppers, avocado, and a veggie burger. Here it is half eaten:After my interview I treated myself to a bag of peanut m & ms. Yum.

I biked home in the rain (thank goodness for rain pants!) after class ended at 9:30. I was hungry (I had brought yogurt but as I ate it in class I questioned its expiration date, which was today .. so stopped eating that..) I nibbled some kashi go lean cereal in class, and came home and had a big bowl of soup with toast on the side. Satisfying.

Now, trying to sort out life and get in bed. Still raining. At least it makes for good sleeping weather.

Gnight!

Cool mornings

I awoke to a cool breeze coming in the window – a crisp fall-like morning today! 60 degrees, cloudy, rainy on and off.

My friend texted at 7am asking about our tenatively planned run – I said yes as long as it’s not raining, and it wasn’t at the moment, so we hit the pavement at 7:30am. Did a nice 3 miles in the cool air.

Def a scarf and cardigan day!  {Yayy fall!!! :) }

Now having oats and coffee – OIAJ with half a banana, soy milk, PB and Kashi Go Lean for crunch. Coffee on the side

Now I’m showered and ready for the day:

– class 10-11:30
– reading, finsihing a response due at 5pm
– interview prepping (eek)
– internship interview at 3:30
– meeting at 6pm
– class 6:30-9:30

Oh boy! Gonna be a long one today.

Laborious 1.5 Labor Day

Labor day, in review:

8:50am hit the pavement, 3.6 mile run

read, read, read at school 10:30-3

meet with advisor

pedal back home

Also, 1.5 = Jeff and I have been dating for a lovely 1.5 years!! Wow!! To celebrate….

5pm, bake cupcakes!

go out to dinner with Jeff, to Rice pot – mm thai — red curry tofu, pad thai, spring rolls, and 2 singhas please!

Enjoy cupcakes :)

8:30-11pm read and write homework!

And now, beditme. Looks like rain for the next few days, argh!

G night!

 

Sunday Funday

Last night was very fun, we had a great mexican dinner, I had enchiladas that were unfortunately too spicy. We also enjoyed some margaritas, and then headed to our local hangout bar for a few pitchers of Oktoberfest!! So good. Tho, it did cause a bit of a headache this morning … nothing I couldn’t sweat out at the gym tho!

Today was a full on socializing day! I’m pretty exhausted from it all, I must say. Today included:

– a 9:30am workout at the gym, biked there and back
– brunch with the housemates and one of their visiting parents at the Pantry (a super yummy brunch place!) I had an omlette with spinach, feta, and olives, came with home fries, and the table shared a huge stack of peach pancakes — so goo!
– a quick trip to target
– a block party on our street, chatted with neigbors
– a dinner parts at our freinds hosue – yummy pasta with eggplant topping, salads, wine, mm!

Just arrived home to a kitchen covered in trash! The dog we’re sitting got into the garbage :( Boo.

Here’s a picture of my bike, since I have no other pictures to share right now! 

I’m super tired, so taking care of some admin things, then hitting the hay! Tomorrow will kick off the start of homework — oh boy!!

 

Labor Day Weekend

Well it’s been a flurry of a few days! Yesterday I went for an early morning run with Melissa. We covered about miles! Great way to start a Friday, and good to get into a running groove here in New Haven right off the bat. (I’ve also got that 10k fast-approaching on 9/18!)Breakfast was more OIAJ of course. With banana and PB. Mmm.

I then worked on our sunny porch and did some course applications and had lunch. The afternoon consisted of a failed meeting with my advisor (rrg) and a student group fair. I then drove (not biked, ops) over to Edge of the Woods, a neat little grocery store across town. It reminded me a miniature Whole Foods – pricey, but full of awesome natural foods. I picked up supplies to cook Jeff a yummy stir fry. I biked to his place and found him walking his roommates’ dog, Captain Wilson!

I got a new sort of tofu, sprouted! I think it actually ended up giving me a huge stomach ache. Maybe it was just too much soy in general. We had some white wine, too. Just good ol’ 3 buck chuck. Nuthin special, but tastes good on a summer evening. After eating we headed to my school’s first TGIF! (Thank God I’m a Forester!!) The theme was endless summer, so people were decked out in summer gear, bathing suits, and hawaiin themed clothes. There were kiddy pools and floaties! It was a lot of fun and everyone was really excited to be back and hanging out. It was also a beautiful night out! We caught up with people and headed inside for the dance party later in the evening. Fun times!

Today has been fun too – kicked off with an egg on toast with a side of local blueberries, mm. Coffee on the side, of course. I then headed to the farmer’s market with my housemates. It’s such a great Saturday morning activity – walk around in the fall sunshine, run into lots of people to chat with, and pick up locally grown tasty produce! We headed back in time to get ready for a cookout! We had a lovely cookout in the park down the street for our mentees (new first years we’re assigned to to help out with course selections, and just to be a buddy to). It was a fun time and we all sorts of yummy food – veggie burgers, potato salad, corn on the cob, chips, watermelon, mm!

I fit in a run today with Melissa again and we did our same course, this time about 5 miles. I followed it up with 3 sets of 20 leaning leg lunges, 30 tricep dips, and 2 sets of 10 push ups. Woo woo!

Now I’m getting ready for a little girls’ night action — going out for Mexican and margaritas!! :) 

 

SO excited for FALL!

Happy September!!!

I am SO excited that it’s the start of September, which means that fall is in the air! It’s my favorite season of all time and I am so excited for fall foliage, apples, pumpkins, crisp mornings, sweaters, apple cider, and halloween! There are just so many wonderful things to do in the fall weather, I just love harvest time!

But first, breakfast, on the porch of course!Overnight oats in a jar, mixed with frozen berrier, fresh blueberries, a drizzle of honey, and a sprinkle of go lean crunch! Annnd coffee of course!

I didn’t do too much to celebrate the start of September and autumn today because I was sitting in classes from 10am til 5:30pm! I scoped out some classes, but think I’ll just stick with one of the 4 I ended up sitting in on. The others just aren’t quite what I’m looking for. From yesterday’s listing, I’ve ruled out

• Management and the Environment
• Statistics
• U.S. Climate policy (I’ll take yesterday’s climate change course instead)
• Life Cycle Assessment Practicum

But I will take LCA! It’ll be a tough class, it counts as a capstone which means it’s like a master’s project course, but it’ll be a really valuable skill to have, so it’ll be worth it for sure. Hopefully I’ll come out being able to use the software to do life cycle assessments on different products for companies. And I really like the professor, he’s young and enthusiastic, and I took a class with him last spring.

Lunch was leftover yellow curry from the other night, over rice, mm!

After class I met up with some friends for a drink downtown and then headed over to Jeff’s cuz he cooked me dinner! Corn on the cob, kale chips, and baked eggplant with tomato sauce. It was delish!

But didn’t quite fill us up, plus we knew there was pizza arriving at my house soon for the big gathering of dudes for a fantasy football draft (I still don’t really know what this means). Either way, I had some pizza and another beer when we got to my house after dinner. And we might have topped off the night by getting rid of eating some leftover pancakes, smothered in PB!! Ooooh grad school and college-style eating! So hard to avoid. Ah well.

Us ladies sat out on our porch chatting away while the dudes did their football thing. It was lovely!

Now for some relaxation and perhaps a viewing of the daily show (still haven’t accepted that I need to start doing work!! argh) before bedtime! Everyone else headed out to the bar, butttt I’m good with staying in tonight :)

On the docket for tomorrow: an early morning run, a meeting with my advisor, some course applications, student group fair, and TGIF party tomorrow night.

Gnight!