Monday: This week a friend, let’s call him Socially Awkward
Math Gradstudent (Sam G for short) visited us for most of the week. It was a
great challenge and great fun to show him the sites here. Monday was pretty
cool to start with because it just so happened to be crystal clear skies nearby
but a lightning storm within 50 miles of us. We drove up to the top of the ski
hill and got to witness this pretty fantastic event. ^__^
Tuesday: I spent the day in a leadership assessment program
with about 15 other students. I got to meet some pretty awesome people and the
day was full of role-playing exercises that straddled my comfort zone. It was a
good learning experience and something valuable at the end of the day was that
they had a 1:1 with an assessor who suggested areas of strength and growth. She
pointed out two of my unique strengths are the ability to synthesize large
amounts of information into something comprehensive and my ability to include
members who are quieter and get them to successfully participate in a group.
That felt really nice.
Wednesday: Great news!! I am going to give a TEDx talk!! For
those of you who aren’t familiar with TED or TEDx, it is an organization (group
of organizations?) whose tagline is “ideas worth spreading.” Individuals
present ideas in 5-20 minute talks with few visual aids and are focused on novel
concepts or unusual perspectives. This is one the leadership folks
showed us and I think it really gets the point across succinctly, in addition
to being a really good talk. TEDx is institution or location specific and usually has to relate to that place or theme in some way.
I am going to talk about how TLoTH could use students in my
position in a more efficient manner. I will focus on how increasing students in
this position could increase national diversity at the graduate level and why
it is an appealing position to all sides involved.
Thursday: Sam G, PartnerPenguin and I went after work to a “hot”
springs. I have to say, after living in a similar (but larger and more active)
tectonic environment last year, this hot spring was a complete let down.
Geology aside, there were dirty diapers all over the place, which was gross.
The water was lukewarm and there was only one spot where it was warm enough for
my liking. Unfortunately that spot was in a creepy little cave. As soon as Sam
said “Don’t think of snakes” I could think of nothing else and that was that.
:P Anyway, it was still really lovely to soak and watch the mountains turn
pretty colors. Very relaxing after a stressful day of dealing with high
concentrations of nitric acid.
Friday: The three of us went to the nearby “city” and poked
around downtown a bit. Saw some really evocative artwork and some cool old
cars. Then we strolled over to the Greek festival because I really wanted to
check it out. The price was right ($3 admittance) and the food was decent. They
had dancers and merch and baklava. Much smaller than the Greek festivals of my
childhood that had carnival rides and was the first place I remember being
allowed to wander off on my own with a fistful of tickets. Regardless, it was
Greek and it was fun. And I love watching folk dancers, any kind. I can’t wait
until there is a public feast day here, then I can see Native American folk
dancing and singing.
Later in the evening I attended my first LAN party. What
fun! We played that game from Tron where you’re a motorcycle and you crash real
fast. Then we played a game called Drawful. It’s basically a high tech
Pictionary. Sam G and I played on a team together because we don’t have
smartphones and we made some very vulgar pictures. It was lovely.
Yesterday (Saturday): I drove the boys to the airport. I had
my first Waffle House experience. Their waffles were good, their salad was
shockingly decent and their customer service was sublime. We made it to the
airport in good time and I said my goodbyes. It will be a difficult time
without PartnerPenguin for a bit I hope it will be empowering.
Today (Sunday): It is so far not empowering. It is
incredibly boring and dull. I did obscene amounts of housework today. I also
prepared most of my food for the week, after buying all the groceries. There is
so much PartnerPenguin does that I take for granted. I really hope this will
strengthen our relationship to acknowledge these items and make sure I thank
him regularly for them.
In closing, this song encapsulates how I felt as I cleaned
the apartment today. I'm choosing not to show the music video because it's A LOT sadder than how I actually feel. If you're interested, it's kind of a dark/twisted video but it's ok.
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