Begin Again

Perhaps, this meandering blog needs dusted off and placed back on the shelf.

hoo boy

Well, I'm averaging about a post every 2 months or so! yikes! Then again, I'm perpetually blathering on about my leetle 14 month ball of joy over at the peanut blog, so I suppose that makes me slightly less of a slacker.

I'm trying to gear up for NaNoWriMo in a few weeks. 2 years ago, roughly, Diane and I made a valiant attempt at jumping in and trying to finish National Novel Writing Month. HA! hahahahaha! Not as easy as I thought. However, I will not be deterred. This year my goal is simply to write all those words, not necessarily in a cohesive fashion, just write short stories and poems and random text until somehow I've managed to yank 50,000 words out of my noggin. It's going to be a giant pain in the ass, but hey...fun too! Yes, I'm a nerd.

Movin

I'm in the midst of packing up all our belongings for the big 2-bedroom upgrade. We're t-minus 10 days from starting life in the new apartment. I'm beside myself with joy at the idea of having 2 bedrooms and 2 whole rooms of living space AND a dishwasher (*GASP*).

Other things:
*About to send in my Biomedical M.S. application. I'm just all about this grad school thing, huh? Hell Yes. There will be more learning.
*Peanut is growing like a water loving weed living in a tropical climate! (Or a draught loving weed living in the desert, whichever you prefer) And her tastes in food and life in general are ever evolving. It's amazing to watch. Every day I get this cool sensation of "wow, my life is good". In most ways my life is so very simple, but just so good. I guess all you really do need is love.

peace out :oP

Feel the burn

I've been mountain biking every saturday. Prior to having Katelle, we used to ride almost every weekend, but at times there'd be lulls. A month of not riding here and there. No wonder my leg muscles never really stepped up to the challenge! For the past 2 months I've ridden every saturday (well, with the exception of one). And today I can feel the muscles in my calves. It's amazing that though life is chock full of so much more now, I'm riding consistently. It rocks. I'm one of those people that has pretty good ideas about what I want to do in life, but often lets those ideas slide by. I've wanted to be a better rider, but never really put the work in. Yesterday I climbed the same hill 3 times. Not a huge hill, but it was a hill that used to trip me up half way through. I'd put a foot down and take huge gulping breathes before continuing the climb. Yesterday, I owned that hill.

In other news. I'm reading The Fountainhead right now (Ayn Rand). It's been a long time since I've read anything in the realm of classic literature. Moby Dick may have been the last, and that must have been more than a year ago now. I've read plenty of good books, but reading The Fountainhead, I'm kicking myself for not reading more of the really good old stuff. Lately, I'd like to jump into each page and become part of that literary world for a moment or two. Everyone has different tastes, so I'm sure I'm exaggerating the weight of the book. But for me, it's a sort of holy grail. It reminds me of the times when I was a kid and would get so excited to run to the bookstore for the latest babysitters club book. Yes, it was the babysitters club. But I was so invested in those characters. I rarely get that excited about a book anymore. Or if I do, I have no problem forgetting that world a month later. I doubt I'll forget this one anytime soon.

Sunshine in my heart

AND SUNSHINE IN THE SKY!!!!! Wow do I love sunshiny days. I love a cool breeze and the sensation of your skin gently warming under the rays of the sun. And of course the sweet swell of sunscreen emanating from my body preventing me from turning into an overripe tomato.

I'm ecstatic that spring is here. I used to think I was primarily a winter person. I love snow and hot cocoa and big warm sweaters and cuddling under mounds of blankets. I still love all those things, but lately I'm more in love with warm weather. The breezes, flowy skirts, flip flops, iced tea, picnics, farmers markets, walks outside. The idea of summer has me all wound up. The places I'll be able to take peanut! Maybe being a mom has transformed me into a more spring loving person. Maybe it's living closer to the coast. I'm not quite sure when the transition occurred. At any rate, it's a good day.


ps...the pens were ousted from the stanley cup playoffs in game 4 :o( Sad though I was, they're a young team with a world of talent among them. It was a FANTASTIC regular season, and a good learning experience in the playoffs. Ottawa really played their hearts out and earned the series win. The pens were gracious in their loss. What a great group of guys. I can't wait 'til next season. GO PENS!

Current Events

Two things for this dreary cold April morning in New Haven (some form of ice/rain hybrid was falling from the sky this morning!!!). The first, Kurt Vonnegut Jr is no more. He died yesterday. In college, Diane wrote something clever in my bio at the end of our student literature publication. I can't recall it exactly, but Vonnegut and Trey Anastasio were mentioned. The 2 biggies from that time period in the life of Shannan. Farewell to one. How odd. The second thing for this morning would be that the Pens just lost game one of their playoff series to the Ottawa Senators last night. It was ugly. The Senators came out FIERCE. It looked like someone had stuck a few goldfish in a shark tank. BUT, I predict a comeback. This is a tough team with a tough coach. I think they needed game 1 to work through the nerves of being a young team and really get mad about what the Senators managed to throw at them. Yes. I predict some seriously gnarly penguin antics in game 2. We shall see.

the art of time suckage

Some days, I feel like there's a little troll chasing me with a siphoning hose trying to steal a little time off the top. Before I know it, he's made off with a couple hours and some minutes of my time. DAMN TROLL! Isn't it fun to fabricate creatures and blame your lack of time management on them?? But seriously. Working full time and being a mom and trying to do all the little side things I used to accomplish with ease is tiring. I love it. I love it all with every breath in my body. But it definately feels like time passes by so quickly. It's gone before I even knew it was there. hrm.

woe is me

My maintainance of this blog has been absolutely abysmal. The ever exciting land of child-rearing just won't let up long enough for me to peel my brain away and entertain the thought of posting something with a semblance of cohesion at this little old blog. Time to try again. Third try a charm maybe?

people-cicle

It's 7 degrees outside, with a high of 19 expected for the day. Could someone pass me the hot chocolate? And a goose down comforter? Maybe draw me a hot bath with some nice smelling soap? Oh wait. What's this computer doing here? Oh. Right. Work. hrm.

A thought

You know, most graduate schools require students to maintain atleast a B average in their courses. The consequence of falling below that criteria could be loss of funding or worse...getting kicked out of the program. Logical, right? If ya can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. It makes you wonder how in a country such as ours it's possible to have such a terrible president. Couldn't we enact some form of "lose your funding" approach to the presidency. It doesn't have to be stringent, but maybe something like if you're approval rating stays consistently below 50%...your butt can be kicked out of office. Or atleast put him on some sort of probationary period. We ask alot of our academic sector, can't we ask just as much from our President?????

End of Rant. This whole state of the union always gets me riled up.