29 january today

sunday

yay, it's today.
i'll try to go back and fill in some details of thoughts and whatnot, but at least that's a brief calendar catch up.

went to the gym today for a bit. it was apparently the scottish indoor rowing competition so it was weirdly full or people in singlets walking around. tried to get some work done on campus but again my brain wasn't up for cooperating.

did plan my tutoring lesson and a groundhog craft for work. but then actually didn't get to tutor. did vaccuum and clean some things in my room though which is good. and was able to recycle the glass bottles which is always an accomplishment. and have laundry so i guess that should count as a bit of productivity - now if only my brain could function to re-write my new analyses. so much starting over on that i think may be at the root of feeling like it never moves forward. but it has to this week. going to try to do it early tomorrow morning before pottery. if i can.

just talked to mom on the video chat. looks like i'll get to go home for my birthday/lizzy's wedding which is really an awesome gift. as long as i can work all the travel out. yay

23 - 28 january

23 monday
- pottery started. yay. a few people have stayed. new random possibly racist guy. may be interesting.
- work at the new, after school club
- orchestra

24 tuesday

25 wednesday
-met with adrian briefly
Burn's Night
- went to the pub with jane-marie and had haggis, neeps, and tatties
photos: http://blogographannex.blogspot.com/2012/03/haggis-neeps-tatties.html

26 thursday
- went to the opera with brittany. saw betroyal in a monastery. sung in english with english supertitles but it takes place in spain. was done by the conservatory uni students. was good. slow at some points, but that may be how it was. glad to get to see opera

27 friday
-met with adrian for a good hour or so and he was more like himself. was good. but the progress i felt i finally made kind of was taken away. lost some of that momentum for sure. janemarie had her last meeting with adrian as the handover to terry was made. crazy.
-went to the gym but didn't feel so great
- went to the blind poet pub with janemarie and ian. had some cider. had some banter with ian. discussed trying to do some outdoorsy see scotland stuff with them

28 saturday
- didn't feel great.
-watched tv for a good portion of the day
-had a pizza dinner with brittany

craigmillar castle

22 january
sunday

craigmillar castle afternoon excursion.

took a bus over to the royal hospital and then walked through a field to get to the castle. castle was neat. great views. was cold but sunny and lovely to walk around. lots of spiral staircases to go up and down and around.

photos: http://blogographannex.blogspot.com/2012/03/craigmillar-castle.html

15 - 21 january

15 sunday
- elliptical
- tutored, first one back. love the family. talked about africa and djembes and cutting my hair and things.

16 monday
- skype meeting with adrian
-work, orchestra

17 tuesday

18 wednesday
-online matt nathanson concert

19 thursday
- went to the gym
-quick chat with adrian
-work
-went to tex mex with brittany and jane-marie for margaritas and mexican food
photos: http://blogographannex.blogspot.com/2012/03/tex-mex.html

20 friday
-met with adrian and discovered i would have to re-do all of my analyses starting over. not happy. quite frustrated.

21 saturday
-went to the cafe to do some work with brittany
-went to the pub with jane marie and brittany and had some ice cream in this awesome chocolate covered waffley bowl thing
photos: http://blogographannex.blogspot.com/2012/03/blueberry-beer.html

9 - 14 january

9 monday
- elliptical work out

10 tuesday
-went to the us consulate to get pages added to my passport
-first day back to after school club

11 wednesday
-had to go back to the us consulate to pick up my passport with cellotaped in pages that cost 82 dollars

12 thursday
-went to a disappointing doctor's appointment where i got a handout on sleeping and nothing of substance
-meeting with adrian was moved to friday
-went to the gym

13 friday
- went to the gym
-had a good meeting with adrian
with honest discussion about what i should do with the future of my degree

14 saturday

stirling

8 january
sunday

day trip to stirling. was fantastic.
took the train.

photos: http://blogographannex.blogspot.com/2012/03/stirling-1.html

went to stirling castle. had this awesomely accented scottish tour guide. complete with random obnoxious american couple on the tour.

photos: http://blogographannex.blogspot.com/2012/03/stirling-castle.html

caught the city bus and were the two obvious out of towners on it. to the fact that everyone told us when it was our stop in a really nice old people way.
went to the wallace monument.

photos: http://blogographannex.blogspot.com/2012/03/wallace-monument.html
had a meal at a cafe.
took the train back to edinburgh.

1 - 7 january 2012

had a pretty terrible migraine for about two weeks, this week included. was supposed to go to stirling with brittany but the weather was terrible so it got postponed. i read two books looking for inspiration for my degree and a bunch of articles too.

did go attempt to get pages added to my passport. took three trips in total but did take these photos (4 january):
http://blogographannex.blogspot.com/2012/03/edi-in-morning.html

new year's eve 2011

a low key new year's celebration.

had pizza and beers at the flat. marek came over and we played a haiku game that was pretty fun. and went to the pub - lebowski's caught some of the fireworks reflected in the building above sainsbury's outside the pub.

super chill evening.

photos: http://blogographannex.blogspot.com/2012/03/nye.html

DC round two

28 december
-flew from MKE to DCA to go back.
- metro'd to dave and autumn's
- hung out for awhile and then metro'd back into the city to meet up with VA and heimy
- had a delicious pupusa
- stayed with heimy and va on the hill. really strange to see so much of my old stuff.

29 december
-spent the day with heimy before going to dulles to fly back
-went to target, heimy's school, our old giant has been demolished, had chipotle, joked with tommy, had lunch with a kipp student = all in all a pretty typical day had i been there still.
-pretty sad to have that again only to leave on the same day

photos: http://blogographannex.blogspot.com/2012/03/dc-outbound.html

holidays at home

MKE

14 - 28 december

- zoo (17 december)

- marquette basketball game

- chinese christmas dinner

- christmas at walters

- lamp crafting

- uno attack

- scrabble

photos: http://blogographannex.blogspot.com/2012/03/home.html

12-14 december

DC

12 monday
-had a burrito
-met annaleigh
-got to hang out with dave and autumn

13 tuesday
-went into dc
-went to the mall -american history museum, art museums, took myself to a movie in chinatown
-went to alero :) and got to hang out with brandi, cait, hayley, and anne
-met up with va and heimy in chinatown

photos: http://blogographannex.blogspot.com/2012/03/dc.html

14 wednesday
-went to busboys and poets for brunch
-went to capcs and hung out for the afternoon.
-metro'd to the airport
-had to break my taj mahal snowglobe after they took apart my luggage as the liquid was not allowed

flight home

12 december
monday

left suuper early in the morning to take the airport express bus to the airport, where i promptly checked in and went through security without any delay. but better to be early than not. flew from edinburgh to amsterdam.

went to the museum and saw the library and walked around the amsterdam airport. got myself a ham and cheese croissant with random euro change i brought with me.

flew from amsterdam to dulles.

dave picked me up from the airport. noticed the giant sized trucks as a give away for being in america again while waiting.

4 - 10 december 2011

4 sunday
-went to the gym
-tutored

5 monday
-last pottery class. got almost all pieces back. made new pieces as i didn't have others to do knowing i'd be back for the spring term to keep working.
-street art on walk back from pottery class (outside edinburgh college of art): http://blogographannex.blogspot.com/2012/03/street-art.html
-oscars and orchestra - rehearsal for the next day's concert

6 tuesday
-orchestra concert

7 wednesday

8 thursday
-christmas in edinburgh (me and brittany).
photos: http://blogographannex.blogspot.com/2012/03/edi-christmas.html
9 friday

10 saturday

27 nov - 3 december 2011

27 sunday
- tutored

28 monday
-pottery
-work and orchestra

29 tuesday
- met with adrian

30 wednesday
-st andrews day

1 thursday
-went out with some post grads for drinks. jane marie and i had to represent psychology against all the marine biology folks, but it was nice to hang out with them

2 friday
- meeting with adrian

3 saturday
- went to the german market in town
-met up with morag, brittany's tutor doctor lady and her husband. they're really nice. we had mulled wine. weather was pretty bad. nice to see the market and the lights. didn't go on any rides. did have a delicious german sausage though.

photos: http://blogographannex.blogspot.com/2012/03/winter-market.html

20 -26 november 2011

it was my theme week at after school club so i did american week so that i could have everyone celebrate thanksgiving.

21 monday
- pottery, work, and orchestra

22 tuesday
- had a meeting with my supervisor

23 wednesday
- had a meeting with my supervisor

24 thursday
thanksgiving
- had pizza in celebration with brittany. (she was nano-ing) and i enjoy a pizza for thanksgiving celebration. better than being at a monkey bizness staff meeting like the year before.

25 friday
-ellipticaled 7+ km at the gym

26 saturday

always with the catch up

you'd think that maybe i was doing exciting things or making great progress writing chapters of my thesis if blog posts weren't being written, but sadly that's not the case. it's just fallen away. or maybe since it was such an effort to play catch up with the photos and all that i didn't establish a great reuptake on the posting. i dont know, except for there isn't a great reason.

i wish i was more productive. i wish my academic writing was stronger and that i didn't feel as though i can't write sentences. i feel like i lost almost this entire month due to migraines and fuzzy head feelings and uncertainty of what i should do with the future and starting over with the data analysis multiple times. where is the proper motivation and resultant work? that's a great question to which i feel lost in a fog searching for the answer.

training

dailymile sent me a 2011 report:http://www.dailymile.com/people/gizmoteaches/training/2011/summary

i just found out the other day that they won't be doing a goodwood roller marathon this year. that is sad news.

i would like to find a race or two to do this year. and have a tangible goal to work towards with skating. to hopefully push myself. i'd like to be able to go to those fitness classes i did last spring term again too, but sadly the time conflicts with work.

i'd also like to sleep and not have headaches and feel like my vision is normal. so hopefully i can get my health all under control and skate a race or two in the future.

goals, not resolutions, as mandi put them. she's got a great list of fitness goals. the goodwood was going to be mine, but now i'm going to have to find something else. also the gym the other day was social hour with all the resolution people. they'll probably mostly go away, but i do need to be better about going and not have a girl kick my elliptical while on it (i suppose that's a goal for her not me).

eek

november 20th - that's worse than i thought. that's quite a distance back, with it being january and into the new year and all.

guess i should work on that.