will i survive it??

doomsday has arrived. went to my first physics class tonight. uuuuuuugh. i understood nothing after the syllabus. wtf? dan's in the kitchen right now working through my homework because he enjoys it. my hope is he'll be able to explain it to me so i can do it. if only i'd taken this class 10 years ago when the algebra & trig were a little fresher... keep your fingers crossed that somehow all this stuff clicks & i suddenly understand velocity, force, vectors, newtons & all this other b.s. :)

i'm not going to an 80's party, so stop asking me what i'm wearing

got word today that the brother of one of our folks who just finished their service hours was killed a few days ago. at this point, i don't know what happened. but i do know that he survived growing up a black male in baltimore city - which is huge in & of itself. i also know he was an activist in his community & strongly disliked by the dealers in the neighborhood. on top of that, he survived 2 tours in iraq. just got back last week to surprise his parents... on his travels back to duty in georgia, he was killed while checking on some car trouble he was having. what the hell??? this makes me so sad. his family must be devastated. this could've easily been my brother, who also came back from serving in the middle east to surprise my parents.

nothing worth writing about

not much to write. took a shit-ton of photos at the garden this weekend with my new work cell phone & the bluetooth doesn't seem to work. so, some things are growing & other things are dying... there's your picture.

this laptop is hot on my lap.

the weekend was way too short. i went to an amazing yoga class on saturday - seriously amazing. it was great. hung out w/ dan for a bit, went to the book thing w/ my friend david & then to the garden. had a milkshake in the middle of the day & realized milk & i don't get along.

dan & i walked to the farmer's market on sunday & treated ourselves to felafels. they were ok but not worth $8 each. black beans are in season again, yeah! we're fools for the black beans.

i met up w/ one of the new recruits sunday afternoon & took her on a short driving tour of our construction sites... she was pretty cool - i think everyone will enjoy her. funny how i create these pictures in my mind of what everyone looks like - for the 3 folks i haven't met anyway. this was the first of the 3 that i met & she looked nothing like the picture in my head. but i'm glad cuz that would be too wierd.

got a ridiculous excuse for a haircut on friday. the woman used some wierd razor to make spikey ends on all the hair on the very top of my head & ignored all the rest of it. i've been here way too long not to have found someone i trust to cut my hair.

i'm in

will i or won't i?

so, i think i'm gonna do it. sign up for physics, that is. it's been a long time coming. an entire year, in fact... since i attempted to sign up last year & it turned out i needed my transcripts, blah blah blah. eternal procrastinator, i am. but seriously, does physics sound like FUN to you? HELL NO! i mean, unless you're an idiot - or super brilliant with math. it freaks me out, taking a class. i was never that great at math & i don't know anything about physics (that would be the reason for taking the class...) plus, who wants to go to work & then to school? not me. NOT ME!!! ...but i'm gonna give it a try - just in case it works out.

i've been tossing the idea around (going back to school) for about 9 years now. been pretty non-committal about it for the reasons stated above. but i realized this past week that going back to school might make me happy. or, the results could make me happy. i was watching a second season episode of paul & jaime (mad about you) this past week where jaime decided to go back to school at 30 & i thought, maybe i can do it too. isn't that lame? if this tv character can do it, so can I! but it worked. until that point, i'd kind of given up. i'd already checked the city community college & physics was full... same shit as last year. but i kept at it & found a community college with some spots.

what the hell am i talking about? anyway, physics. signing up tomorrow.

not much else going on. the 8 new folks start in about 2 weeks & that freaks me out quite a bit. had a decent week at work - lots of good conversations. had a follow-up w/ the doc about the mri. turns out it's just bicep & rotator cuff tendinitis. good that nothing's torn. bad that it still causes me pain. oh well. he said i may never be able to resume all the activities i was doing before. that puts a damper on things...

celebrated d's birthday earlier this week. fancy italian dinner that ended with a roach running across our table and up the wall. pretty awesome. happy b'day, d.

sorry this is lame. all i can think about is finding some good ice breakers for the newbies. got any ideas??

umbrellas as far as the eye can see

it was a beautiful & crowded day at rehoboth beach, delaware. sun, sand, & freezing cold water. a little strange for august... spent most of my time under the umbrella, enjoying delicious people-watching that the beach always provides & reading Dead Man Walking, which i just started yesterday. it's pretty darn good. it's not even wierd that i saw the movie & know he dies because the author acknowledges his death in the very beginning. anyway, i highly recommend it so far.

my handsome husband sporting some shiny red shades

wacky beach-cops wandering around like goons amidst the umbrellas

bringing the sexy back

it's been a good, lazy day. actually, it wasn't that lazy. i started off with an hour and a half of yoga, which was nice. made me miss the days when i did yoga 3x a week. i plan on taking it up again that regularly as soon as the shoulder's better. (i have an MRI this coming week, so we'll see how that goes.) there were a few lazy hours spent laying around the apartment after lunch, listening to This American Life... spent the rest of the afternoon & evening at the garden cleaning the place up until i was chased out by a thunderstorm.

it was a gorgeous day - blue sky, fluffy white clouds. there was a crazy thunderstorm sans rain early on. the wind picked up, storm clouds blew in along w/ a lot of thunder. it came & went pretty quickly. tore out the cucumber & pumpkin vines. the cukes were dead & the pumpkins were looking bad & taking over. now my trellis is bare... is there a plant that vines in the fall? the few ripe-ish tomatoes i had were rotten... i think that particular plant is diseased cuz the tomatoes are also a bit deformed.

i amassed a tremendous compost pile with what i tore out & some bags of weeds from the old lady who "takes care of" our front yard. i chatted with her for a bit this afternoon - she's kinda cute. never gave her a second thought before because she never acknowledges my presence. she works real hard on our front yard but it doesn't look so hot. she said she really enjoys it & that's probably all that matters.

made some refrigerator pickles the other day & they turned out alright. a tad too vinegary but otherwise, not too bad. i was able to use some fresh dill seed from my garden too! (yes, i'm a nerd. i was totally excited when i checked out my dill clippings & saw seeds.)

had a pretty good week at work. think i mentioned this before, but i completed recruiting & we got grant funding. i was acknowledged for doing a great job w/ recruitment and for writing a good grant - it's being used for a case study on national service by a large corporation... hm... and yet, i can't tell if my supervisor thinks i'm doing a good job (in general) or just being an idiot. it's probably a mix. one of these days soon i'll have my review/evaluation & i'll have a better idea. i know it seems silly but he's so hard to read. seriously.

me & the d-bone got new contact lenses & we can see outtuvem! feeling younger already... :)