2013 in Review

Wow! Cannot believe we are in the final countdown for this year. What a crazy year this has been. No really, even crazier than the other years I claimed were crazy. Looking forward to a productive, and hopefully calmer 2014. Big changes happened, and even more changes are on their way for the very first days of 2014. I think this is the earliest I've started writing the year-review. For a look at the last few years, see here and here and here. 
[I originally wrote this post the 24-25 of Dec. Then when I tried to publish it, I noticed that copying and pasting it somehow ended up with weird formatting. It's now Dec 28th and it just took me several hours to sort it out. And this is one of the reasons why I dont blog. How does text get formatted as black and small when it was never those things in the first place? I just dont get it.]

1. What did you do in 2013 that you'd never done before? 
Successfully worked from home, taught myself to use Adobe Illustrator and InDesign from tutorials on the internet, wrote and published a Book, carved linoleum and made prints, hosted a masquerade party, opened my own business (on Etsy).

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year? 
Well it appears as though I didnt really have resolutions last year, but I did accomplish everything that I set out to. So that was a win. 

For next year I want to get serious again about exercising (like I used to in the States 4-6 days a week). I also want to work on the 3 R's: reduce, reuse, recycle. Try to buy less; buy secondhand when possible, or buy handmade to support small artisans. Create less rubbish. Decrease our footprint.  

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? 
My friend Cat from Boston had a baby boy and my cousin had a baby girl.

4. Did anyone close to you die? 
This year was a surprisingly death-free year in terms of family. However, a collaborator of our group in Haarlem who was a very close friend to my professor was diagnosed with kidney cancer and it turned out to be inoperable due to having already metastisized. He died pretty quickly. Also both of Jamie's parents were diagnosed with cancer this year (I Know, Both! ugh) and were unable to make it to my promotion (defense/graduation) which was really sad. But they are doing well now so that is good.

5. What cities/countries did you visit?
No new countries for us this year :(        But we did take my parents to Amsterdam, drove to Brussels, drove to Disneyland Paris in Marne-la-vallee, France and then drove back to Paris. 

6. What would you like to have in 2014 that you lacked in 2013? 
Better health. Still not doing very well with the insomnia and migraines.

7. What dates from 2013 will remain etched in your memory, and why? 
October 29 - the day I defended my thesis and was awarded my PhD.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I had 3 major achievements that all tie together: finished writing my PhD thesis, turned it into a book in a short amount of time, and defended my thesis which all led to the bestowment of the PhD degree. I'm a doctor!

9. What was your biggest failure? 
Hmmm, I had a pretty good year this year so I would have to say all the typos, mistakes, and forgotten sentences in my book. I was so sleep deprived by the time I turned it in I suppose it's a wonder I managed to spell the title and my name properly.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? 
Somewhere in the spring I had an insane bought of some horrible stomach virus, but other than that I did pretty well this year. My bad ankle has been hurting a lot though in the rainy weather. It's probably arthritis (ugh).

11. What was the best thing you bought? 
My Olympus Pen E-P3 camera! Loving the mirorless! Now I just need to learn how to use it optimally.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? 
My paranymphs for helping with the promotion and making an awesome video, and all the people near and far who participated in the video. 

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? 
My siblings for never saying any sort of congrats to me for my PhD (only the biggest and most important accomplishment of my life). Esp my sister who is apparently not speaking to me and wont tell me why she's mad. She is however behaving like a petty child and complaining to my parents that I'm a horrible person for not mentioning her in my thesis. What the what??

Also the estate agents in Birmingham were pretty much jerks and made me cry. 

14. Where did most of your money go? 
Publishing my book, the reception after my promotion, the dinner for my promotion, the party for my promotion, flights for interviews, my visa to the UK, moving costs. 

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? 
Becoming a Dr; getting interviews; getting a post-doctoral position; going to Disneyland! 

16. What song(s) will always remind you of 2013? 
It's a small world. hahahaha sad but true

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer? 
Happier, fatter, way way poorer. (How can I be fatter every year and not be all that huge? Well, every winter I manage to gain lots of weight, and it seems to be a bit more every year. Then in spring/summer I lose some weight. Ugh vicious cycle). 

18. What do you wish you'd done more of? 
Exercise and sleep.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of? 
Lose sleep over stress.

20. How did you spend Christmas? 
In Utrecht with the cat packing boxes. First time ever I will be alone and not amongst either my family or Jamie's for Christmas. Kind of sad but I'm also super stressed over the move. 

21. Did you fall in love? 
I stayed in love.  

22. no question? 
23. What was your favorite TV program? 
Well we still love the same ones we loved last year. As for a new favorite, it would have to be Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? 
Hate is a strong word. I might consider removing this question in the coming years. 

25. What was the best book you read? 
I'm not sure if I read a book or not this year (edit - I completely forgot that I read the entire Dark Tower Series this summer! Book 3 was the best). I was too busy writing and doing the layout for my own book. Ohh but I did read part of a book for my review article (that was published by the Lancet Respiratory Medicine woohoo!) and my PhD supervisors managed to find a copy to gift to me when I promoted. The book is: Pneumonia: With special reference to pneumococcus lobar pneumonia by Roderick Heffron, MD. Originally published in 1939, but the copy that I have is the Harvard Commonwealth second printing in 1979. 

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I'm pretty sure I didn't discover anything musically this year. 

27. What did you want and get?
A first author publication (2 acceptances this year!), a PhD, a post-doctoral position in England. 

28. What did you want and not get? 
A post-doctoral position in a coastal city; the university to cover my visa application fees; a smooth and easy move to England; a sale on Etsy. 

29.  What was your favorite film of this year? 
Umm the only movie I can remember watching this year was Despicable Me 2. And we didnt even see it in the theatre.

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? 
I was 31 and invited friends over for a BBQ. It was cold, windy, and rainy, but gosh darnit I BBQ'd. Even did some smoking of meat which was tasty. And made my own BBQ sauce. --With blackstrap molasses, of course.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? 
Less migraines. Kind and supportive siblings. Definitely knowing that we are approved to rent the house we applied to rent in Birmingham. 

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2013?
Damask patterns! It was everywhere this year. So I bought a couple things.

33. What kept you sane? 
Knowing that the PhD had a very definite end in October.

34. Which public figure did you admire the most?
Well it was the 100 yrs anniversary of the death of Alfred Russel Wallace, so I suppose I learned about a person I should have known about.

 35. What political issue stirred you the most? 
No surprises here: Immigration rights and environmentalism. 

36. Who did you miss? 
My grandparents. And Jamie's parents. I wish they could have all been at my promotion. 

37. Who was the best new person you met? Why? 
My new boss! Because he hired me, of course.

38. Biggest discoveries for 2013 (vague on purpose) 
That I really enjoy printmaking. That I love wearing hand-knitted socks, but hate knitting them. That homemade pickles are delicious (esp from home grown cukes!). That spring onions are surprisingly easy to grow in small containers.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2014. 
Well I knew this one already but was painfully reminded of it: You don't get to choose your family. Or how they behave.

40. A quote or song lyric that sums up your year.          
I really like all the quotes I used in my book. I'll re-post them here:

"Though my soul may set in darkness, 
   it will rise in perfect light.
I have loved the stars too fondly
  to be fearful of the night."
       ~Sarah Williams

"Nature composes some of her loveliest poems for the microscope and telescope"
     ~Theodore Roszak

"And to our health we drank a thousand times, it's time, to ramble on"
   ~Led Zeppelin

August 2012 in pictures

Since I've been posting quite a bit lately (for me) I have decided that I dont like the look of my blog. So i'm experimenting with different layouts/fonts/cover picts/etc. I'm not sure that enough people actually read this blog to notice, but in case that you are out there and wondering what's up - that is the explanation.

I also noticed that I dont seem to post anything of substance anymore. Just pictures and random captions. Probably it's because things are not so great and I bitch enough in real life about them that if anyone is reading this who knows me might be so sick of all the depressing diatribe. Science is hard. Getting a PhD is hard. Northern European winters are dreary and depressing. It's gray and raining for an unbelievable amount of time in the Netherlands. I get a lot of migraines. I dont get a lot of sleep. I'm a grumpy-grumpatron. If science was easy, everyone would do it. I'm contemplating how much longer I can deal with academic science and I'm not even that far along in the game. I guess going back to school when you are older is a bit tougher. Long hours are a young persons game. A young person who doesnt have chronic headaches.

So there is some substance. Back to the cat pictures!

Islay discovered that she could watch birds out of our window. 
We call it her TV.

Awwww

This stuff is great!

We bought her some cat grass at a local pet shop and she absolutely Loved it. Too bad she ate too much (every damn time) and vomited. Considering that she was quite the sickly kitten we took the grass away from her after the 2nd vomiting episode - we really didnt need any more sickness and vomiting than she was already having due to teething.

One of her favorite things to do at this time was to crawl into tiny s

paces in shelves and such, push whatever was there out, and take a nap. 

Here she is after pushing out knitting stuff.   

  

Another favorite activity is to tackle the laundry bags and tip them over 
so that they can become forts. Cats love forts!

Sleeping on feet and legs! It's awesome! 

the needle tears a hole

I hurt myself today
to see if i still feel
i focused on the pain
the only thing that's real
the needle tears a hole
the old familiar sting
try to kill it all away
but i remember everything

Pain and I have a funny relationship. I've had migraines for nearly all my life (diagnosed at age 9) and so pain, excruciating want to die pain, has been more a part of my life than the average person. For some strange reason I think this has actually caused me to like some kinds of pain. It kinda feels rewarding to endure self inflicted pain , I almost want to shout "I win!" I'm not saying I go around cutting myself or punching myself (that would be altogether weirder than I can handle) but I have a long history of piercing and tattooing my body. I've been quite introspective about my migraines and pain lately, mostly because there is a new blog on the New York Times discussing migraine and issues around it. I think its great that this neurological disease is finally being accepted as a major issue by doctors and the general public, even if I don't always agree with what the bloggers are saying. For instance, several contributors to the NYT blog make it seem as though they are grateful for their migraines, and espouse all the wonderful things resulting from them (ie: the feeling of euphoria, clearheadedness, refreshment, and creativity that often comes after a migraine has successfully ended). I'm sorry, but I'd give that up in an instant if I could just never have a migraine again.

So that's my long winded explanation of my weird relationship with pain. Now why am I discussing this today? Why do I have Trent's wonderful voice singing Hurt stuck in my head?

Because last night I got my rook pierced. I haven't had anything pierced in 8 years and ever since I saw a girl with her rook and conch pierced I've been itching to pierce something. So I did my research and decided to go to Stingray Body Art over in Allston, hoping that I could get Abbey Z since there were so many raving reviews of her online. Just my luck she was there last night. I went by myself since for some reason it HAD to be last night and no one was available to accompany me. Well, its a good thing Abbey was so awesome b/c I did end up getting dizzy when she was putting the ring in. The actual piercing didnt hurt that bad and was quick, its always after that I get the spins. So she sat and chatted with me until I felt better. Also, major props to the studio - they were super clean, everything was autoclaved, and they understand sterility. As in, you change your gloves if you touch something unsterile. So I would def recommend going there for any piercing you are thinking of getting.

Now this would be an awfully boring post if I didnt actually include pictures, right? (:
Here we go, side by side before and after pics of my left ear.

More birthday goodies

Here is the necklace that Emily gave me for my birthday. I love necklaces. I was worried at first b/c its red, but since I actually dont own any red clothing besides my old BU stuff (worn only for hockey games of course) it wont clash with anything. And it draws attention to me, which, in a crowded bar is a good thing (well this kind of attention is good, not the look at the drunken idiot kind).



And here is the bouquet of flowers that my roommate Lindsey bought for me. They are so beautiful! I went all crazy with the camera on saturday morning, and I have to say, the pictures came out amazing. I have a couple for you here. It was hard to choose which to show since there are about 40 that are my "favourites," but as time goes on i'll probably insert one here or there in a boring blog moment (:{ But for now, enjoy these.






And why am I up so late blogging and not working on my 5 knitting wip's? b/c of a random full-on migraine today ugh. Couldn't even make it to the gym. I just slept the afternoon away and now that i woke up I feel the usual post migraine queasy-out-of-sorts-hungover feeling. And I cant concentrate on knitting when I feel like that. Ugh, now I'm going to have to overload on benedryl or I wont be able to fall asleep after the nap. Stupid migraines.
Hopefully this weekend will bring serious progress on the wip's and maybe even some pictures o:{