Random Dreams...
Last night I had the weirdest series of dreams in a while...I dreamed that I was dating some guy that I have never met before but he had a civil war battlefield in his backyard with little toy soldier dudes and there was some sort of reenacment going on...Bizarre, plus I had a hard time waking up...I have been exhausted constantly, most recently because I hosted our new postdoc from Fri-Tues at my place and helped her find a place to live. Although I tried to prepare her for how different LA is than small town New Hampshire, she was still shocked and unprepared for housing costs, LA city driving, and parking issues. We spent 7-8 hours a day driving around looking at places, it was really hard to be with someone who was so negative and complaining about everything. I had an adjustment period too after living in sleepy Tucson for so long but still, I have found so many more exciting professional and personal opportunities here and tomorrow marks a year that I have lived in LA. Anyways, she signed a lease on a cute place currently rented by a work friend of mine, and it's close to alot of good stuff and only a few blocks from the beach. At the same time, I have also been working like a maniac to get data collected for a Neuro abstract, I have one more week of pushing but it looks good! Frustratingly, I am still waiting for the re-reviews from my first grad school manuscript-the same one I submitted last August, waited 4 months to get the reviews back, resubmitted it in Feb, and now we're approaching 2 1/2 months of waiting.
On the bright side, after a bad grilling session a few weeks ago when I used too much lighter fluid and caused my coals to get too hot and burn all of my meat on my grill, I managed to grill the other night-fish, potatoes, eggplant, corn and it turned out great. It didn't stop me from craving a hot dog, rather having a foot long hot dog, the other night for dinner.
Also, UCLA was host to the LA Festival of books this past weekend-I only went to one panel because I was doing the apt hunting, but it was cool-it was on feminism, identity, etc and featured a few women journalists and some authors including Al Gore's oldest daughter whose new book profiles 9 courageous women in history, also Hope Edelman, whose book back in 1994 Motherless Daughters, had such a profound comforting effect on me. Authors are like celebrities to me-I get really excited about seeing them. Some of the discussion centered around whether we are moving backward rather than forwards-that the climate in our country as influenced by the current administration has become more conservative, that young girls are looking up to ditzy pop culture icons and not having the self-esteem to be proud of who they are but rather obsess about their own body image. Also that there's this idea prevalent more recently that there must be something wrong with being a single woman in her 30s, that it's weird she's not married, etc. That the young generation doesn't know what our mothers went through to get equal rights and to have careers. It was a really empowering discussion.
On the topic of books, my father recently sent me Eric Kandel's memoir which I have yet to start. I haven't had much concentration to read books lately although next week Augusten Burroughs authors of Running with Scissors and Dry will be reading from his new book at this Cajun cafe so of course I will go and get all giggly with excitement.
So California is a crazy place for cars-a friend recently had his parked car on the street hit by a drunk driver at 3am while sleeping, the car was totaled. A few days later my neighbor came to confess that he was a bit buzzed and hit my parked car on our street-there was no evident damage to my car, rather I told him that it was stupid ass to be driving (which he agreed of course). It just makes me wonder why people get in a car buzzed or drunk -things can get bad really fast.
In other news, I am desperately looking forward to some vacation time-I am trying to plan my trip to the east coast in late June, again a multicity tour, NY, Boston, etc to see family and friends that I haven't seen in a long time. Of course, my first break will come later in May when I go up to Oregon to see the ole' gang and go camping with the guys and mom Lisa and sister TJ.
TJ-I promise to try to enjoy "nature." :)
I cannot wait to relax this weekend, hopefully the weather will be nice and I can do some planting and biking to the beach. Tomorrow night I will have dinner with a gal pal-we try to meet up once a month and eat in a different place.
Julie
On the bright side, after a bad grilling session a few weeks ago when I used too much lighter fluid and caused my coals to get too hot and burn all of my meat on my grill, I managed to grill the other night-fish, potatoes, eggplant, corn and it turned out great. It didn't stop me from craving a hot dog, rather having a foot long hot dog, the other night for dinner.
Also, UCLA was host to the LA Festival of books this past weekend-I only went to one panel because I was doing the apt hunting, but it was cool-it was on feminism, identity, etc and featured a few women journalists and some authors including Al Gore's oldest daughter whose new book profiles 9 courageous women in history, also Hope Edelman, whose book back in 1994 Motherless Daughters, had such a profound comforting effect on me. Authors are like celebrities to me-I get really excited about seeing them. Some of the discussion centered around whether we are moving backward rather than forwards-that the climate in our country as influenced by the current administration has become more conservative, that young girls are looking up to ditzy pop culture icons and not having the self-esteem to be proud of who they are but rather obsess about their own body image. Also that there's this idea prevalent more recently that there must be something wrong with being a single woman in her 30s, that it's weird she's not married, etc. That the young generation doesn't know what our mothers went through to get equal rights and to have careers. It was a really empowering discussion.
On the topic of books, my father recently sent me Eric Kandel's memoir which I have yet to start. I haven't had much concentration to read books lately although next week Augusten Burroughs authors of Running with Scissors and Dry will be reading from his new book at this Cajun cafe so of course I will go and get all giggly with excitement.
So California is a crazy place for cars-a friend recently had his parked car on the street hit by a drunk driver at 3am while sleeping, the car was totaled. A few days later my neighbor came to confess that he was a bit buzzed and hit my parked car on our street-there was no evident damage to my car, rather I told him that it was stupid ass to be driving (which he agreed of course). It just makes me wonder why people get in a car buzzed or drunk -things can get bad really fast.
In other news, I am desperately looking forward to some vacation time-I am trying to plan my trip to the east coast in late June, again a multicity tour, NY, Boston, etc to see family and friends that I haven't seen in a long time. Of course, my first break will come later in May when I go up to Oregon to see the ole' gang and go camping with the guys and mom Lisa and sister TJ.
TJ-I promise to try to enjoy "nature." :)
I cannot wait to relax this weekend, hopefully the weather will be nice and I can do some planting and biking to the beach. Tomorrow night I will have dinner with a gal pal-we try to meet up once a month and eat in a different place.
Julie
posted by Julie Miller at 10:59 PM
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