graduation

[the only masters students in our cohort to make it out by Spring]

 [the mountain I live on. and our backwards hoods...]

[would not have made it without this guy]

I am officially a Master of Science in Geography!

Grad school was hard, fun, stressful, fast, and intense, and I have seen myself grow up over the past 2 years.

I started this little blog to keep in touch with my family as I moved across the country to enter the Geography program at Penn State, and I will keep on chronicling the unknown life adventures to come (chronicle= one of those words that looks weird if you stare at it for a while). Part of me can't believe I am officially "done" with this step but a bigger part feels relieved and proud of myself! This has been a spring of major exciting changes, and I can't wait to find out what happens next! (aka, job....???)

p.s. Academic Regalia is ridiculous.

p.p.s. Thank you for all the sweet words on our engagement! Unfortunately the Great Blogger Crash deleted some of your comments but I have them saved in my email :)

a spring engagement story

This post is getting to be long overdue!

I thought that life was going to calm down a little bit after I finished the thesis....

Little did I know that the excitement and craziness was just beginning.

I turned 24 on April 26th. It was one of the first legitimately warm, sunny days of spring so Ben and I went on a birthday hike. We walked along a ridge line until we came to a huge overlook, where he knelt on the rocky trail and asked me to marry him with his grandmother's ring.

Yes, BEST BIRTHDAY PRESENT EVER!
I am still getting used to not having a "boyfriend" anymore, after four and a half amazing years.

And I am so excited to marry my best friend and the love of my life!

Seattle spring

 Flowers at Pike Place Market

 The Seattle aquarium in Puget Sound

 

 Colors at the Olympic Sculpture Park

 

 The Experience Music Project museum

 Views from a run to the top of the city

A secret garden in the hillside neighborhoods

I spent last week in Seattle as part of a national geography conference. The city was everything I imagined: amazing food, even more amazing coffee, cloudy skies, Pacific mist, and an amazingly casual urban vibe. Love the city, don't love the climate. I'll say I liked the weather though; it's very refreshing and much better than the dense overcast/pouring rain/ice/snowstorms of central Pennsylvania. It was a fun week and a great chance to catch up with friends and undergrad professors after the thesis maelstrom of the past couple months, and I can't wait to go back someday to explore a little more and make trips over to the rainforest and mountains. 

Now that I'm back at school, but with the purpose of my life (thesis) complete, I am at a strange limbo-esque stage and trying to juggle the new more relaxed schedule of my life back into a semblance of balance. I am not as excited and proud of myself for finishing my thesis as I probably should be. The stress and worry of finding a job is kind of overwhelming for now. 

However, (despite random lingering 40* days) spring is here, my birthday is next week, I am a diploma away from being a Master, and the future will work itself out.

almost done

I'm back, and as promised it is (sort of) spring, stress levels are slowly receding to normal, and my thesis is in the home stretch. It has been basically approved by my adviser and committee, and everything will be submitted by Monday. Yesssss!

To say that I am excited to be done with grad school is a big understatement. I am pretty burned out with school. Going straight from undergrad to grad school is maybe not the greatest idea ever, although it has worked out. Writing this thesis has been the most challenging accomplishment of my life so far, but I am happy with how everything turned out, and I'm glad to be done before the weather gets too nice out!

Speaking of which, is anyone else suffering from this extended winter? Like, seriously. Enough with the snow!!

Anyway, I am looking forward to getting my life back on track, since this thesis has become my identity and sole purpose of existence while everything else has been left behind in the meantime.

On Tuesday I'm headed to Seattle for a week to present my research at a national conference. 

Any tips on what to do in Seattle in early April?

The weather there looks just as gloomy as the weather in central PA. (Did you know that Central PA is the only mini-region in the eastern states with the same climate type as the Pacific NW? Except the NW is mostly spared the horrendous ice and snowstorms, and they get bigger mountains, lucky them.)

More pretty pictures, recipes, and happy posts to come!

make way for ducklings

There is a gorgeous garden behind the Alumni building on campus (...because that is where all the $$ comes from...)

including a little duck pond.

And there are TWO families of little baby ducklings this spring!

They are beyond adorable and hilarious.

Little duck family

Crossing guard

Oh my gosh so cute.

I WANT ONE!

They dart around in a single group and when one straggler wanders off and then realizes he's left behind he'll run SO FAST to catch up.

I don't know what's going to happen to all these ducks when they grow up...I mean, 45 ducks is a lot. I'd use my biology degree to say that it would exceed carrying capacity.  I guess they'll fly away to an amazing pond in the forest and live happily ever after ??  Yes, of course.

In other news, I have two papers down and two to go! I've been pretty successful so far at sanity maintenance so hopefully I can keep the motivation going...

I can't wait until Wednesday when I will be "done". Ohhh my gosh it cannot come soon enough. 

Although I am still working in the lab and have to finish and defend my thesis proposal.

It's hard to believe I'm almost done with my first year of grad school !!

It has definitely been a crazy intense but happy year.

the world needs more magnolia trees

My favorite thing about college campuses are the FLOWERING TREES!

Unfortunately they are already starting to drop their petals, and it's not even May! Freaky weather.

I had a great birthday on Monday, and am now stuck in paper purgatory.

aaaaaaaa

I am looking forward to being DONE and sunny relaxing fun weekends coming up so soon!

But for the next week I will be stressed and frantic and will probably drop off the face of the earth.

That's just the way it goes.

right now

It is pouring rain.

I am faced with a ridiculous amount of work to get done this week.

My birthday is tomorrow but I really miss my family and friends and feel a bit alone.

I'm trying to keep looking on the bright side.

So here is a little list of things that make me happy right now.

-a weekend with Ben! even though these weekends are always too short.

-eating fudgey chocolate cake with sprinkles right out of the pan

-getting a food processor from the best boyfriend in the universe (!!!!!) I am so excited about this. I feel like my life has changed forever with so many new food opportunities opened before me...seriously. Even though I know I am probably the only person ever who would love to get a food processor for their birthday. ;)

-hanging out with ridiculous friends who wear brown velour jumpsuits, plaid pj pants with olympic hockey jerseys, American flag headbands, and have talented hockey-playing sisters who bring their silver medal when they visit so their brother's friends can play with it.

-finally seeing the end (though still too far away) of this blasted long-distance thing. I am sick of saying good-bye all the time. 

-downloading crazy mash-ups 

-knowing that I will be DONE with my first year of grad school in 10 crazy stressed-out sleep deprived days.

For better or for worse.

earth day

Happy Earth Day !

I celebrated by going for a mid-morning run in the sun

(that was kind of an energy zapper...)

Working on fire scar data (from trees) for a climate project

and also on my nature reserve paper

I am exhausted.

If you are in the mood for some earth-ish chill folky music,

you should check out Patchouli

Julie and Bruce are amazing people. 

Back in my college environmentalist days we would get them to play an outdoor concert at the end of Earth Week.

As we tie-dyed shirts with dye that we convinced the art department to give us for free.

Oh, the days.

p.s. I put wayyyy too much chili powder in the chili. That I still have like 5 servings left. oops. But it is still edible. I know this because I have eaten it four times this week, and have survived.

springtime in Baltimore

I have spent all day today driving home, running errands, restocking my sad neglected refrigerator and trying to put some order in my life and get back into the swing of things after a beautiful beautiful amazing weekend that included

-delicious Greektown dining (pretty much obsessed with Greek food)

-Panera work marathon

-runs in the hot sun

-randomly running (literally) into a Privateer Festival complete with pirates, ships, and cannons in the harbor

-Saturday night homemade pizza and wine tradition

-GELATO!! 

Baltimore is only a three hour drive south from me, but it is seriously in a completely different climate zone. The MOMENT you leave Pennsylvania, the sun emerges, the temperature spikes up at least 10 degrees, and the trees all have their leaves already.

Proof: scenes from the park

sunset is my favorite time of day when it is warm and green out

awesome old twisty tree

the last daffodils clinging to life in the summery heat

fun paint-by-numbers sycamore bark

 

Cherry blossoms EVERYWHERE!

When I have a yard I want to plant it full of cherry trees.

Ben makes me run super fast and then overheat.

but I still love him because he is cute and buys me food.

CAUGHT YA! hehe.

Ships!

 Now it is time for a Reality Check for Anna.

Back to the school grind. Tomorrow.

narcissus sunset

When the sun sets it slants across my front yard and lets a tiny bit of light into my cozy cave apartment.

I like coming home to all the flowers glowing.  My landlords are from Alaska; when they moved here they let their suppressed inner-gardener selves go wild and planted up the whole front yard and backyard with vegetables, herbs, and flowers. I think I convinced them to string lights in the walnut tree over the picnic table in the front yard for amazing al fresco dinners. [Yes, I have the best landlords ever. Yes, we are probably "those" neighbors.]

I am so happy that things are starting to grow again!

The front yard is looking like a Breck's advertisement. The only thing missing is a Dutch flag flying in the background...

I like Wednesday nights because I finally have a chance to relax and breathe after the mad-dash stressful rush of the first part of the week.  I'm starting to get that spring-induced calm that everything will work out.  Even when there seems to be way too much work to fit into the last four weeks of the school year,

It will always all get done.

Keep that in mind if you feel like you are losing it :)

So I'm just trying to appreciate the blast of warm hot weather we've been living through lately.

Even if it is maybe a bit TOO hot and dry.

I love opening windows and smelling fresh air indoors.

And taking outdoor lunch breaks.

Hello, freckles!