(no subject)
I find my views on certain things are changing.
One is cities. I have not, generally, liked cities. I still don't think I'd like to live in a big one. However, I realized lately that I've generally navigated cities with my family - who get pretty stressed out about them. When I was in Paris? Fine. When Jill and I were in Dublin and Galway? Also fine! Visiting Chicago with my groomsmen for the bachelor party? Awesome! And St. Louis for HOP in the city? Also a great time. So while cities are big, noisy, expensive, and hard to navigate, they are also full of cool things. And some of those negative traits can be lessened with enough planning. I wish we'd had enough time to see more of Seattle, honestly.
Of course, some cities are better than others still. Maybe it's because I grew up so close to it, but I'm still not that crazy about Chicago as a whole.
The other is about what comes next. In a couple years I will hopefully be done with grad school. It's been something I've been trying not to think about what with the wedding stuff and various other stressors. But I was talking about it with some of the relatives at Angie's wedding and .. it is kind of a big opportunity. It'll be our chance to move all over the country or potentially even to another country. That's kind of major. And yeah, we'll be knocked out of our comfort zone for sure, but I'm not sure I want to stay in the midwest forever. (There's also not a tremendous amount of biology jobs here.) And it's also an adventure!
So the timing of Angie and Jim's wedding was kind of nice for that, to get to see another corner of the country that's really cool. I had honestly forgotten how pretty the pacific northwest was. It's so different. I'm still getting some of these ideas straight, in my head, but I think it will be better to go into it feeling excited instead of feeling dread and displacement before they even happen.
On less heavy notes:
Music:
One thing I like about Spotify is that you can see other people's playlists. I found a "Shadowrun Ambient" playlist that is just full of good background-y music from scifi movies and Daft punk. It's fantastic for writing at work.
Food:
We got a crate full of vegetables from Hunter yesterday. I made them into gazpacho, salsa, and peaches and cream. I still have green onions, broccoli, and summer squash to use up. No idea what I'm doing with the squash yet. Tonight I might make Korean squid. You can actually make so much food with vegetables, then add a little fat in the form of meat, oil, or cheese to make it filling. I'm not trying to eat more vegetarian, but it seems to be an interesting side effect of trying to fix our diets.
Weird:
Since playing so much Saints Row I have actually been noticing the different styles of cars more on the road. Normally I just kind of see cars as boxes with wheels with people in them. I don't think this is the start of me being obsessed with cars, but it's a detail I've never really paid any attention to before.
One is cities. I have not, generally, liked cities. I still don't think I'd like to live in a big one. However, I realized lately that I've generally navigated cities with my family - who get pretty stressed out about them. When I was in Paris? Fine. When Jill and I were in Dublin and Galway? Also fine! Visiting Chicago with my groomsmen for the bachelor party? Awesome! And St. Louis for HOP in the city? Also a great time. So while cities are big, noisy, expensive, and hard to navigate, they are also full of cool things. And some of those negative traits can be lessened with enough planning. I wish we'd had enough time to see more of Seattle, honestly.
Of course, some cities are better than others still. Maybe it's because I grew up so close to it, but I'm still not that crazy about Chicago as a whole.
The other is about what comes next. In a couple years I will hopefully be done with grad school. It's been something I've been trying not to think about what with the wedding stuff and various other stressors. But I was talking about it with some of the relatives at Angie's wedding and .. it is kind of a big opportunity. It'll be our chance to move all over the country or potentially even to another country. That's kind of major. And yeah, we'll be knocked out of our comfort zone for sure, but I'm not sure I want to stay in the midwest forever. (There's also not a tremendous amount of biology jobs here.) And it's also an adventure!
So the timing of Angie and Jim's wedding was kind of nice for that, to get to see another corner of the country that's really cool. I had honestly forgotten how pretty the pacific northwest was. It's so different. I'm still getting some of these ideas straight, in my head, but I think it will be better to go into it feeling excited instead of feeling dread and displacement before they even happen.
On less heavy notes:
Music:
One thing I like about Spotify is that you can see other people's playlists. I found a "Shadowrun Ambient" playlist that is just full of good background-y music from scifi movies and Daft punk. It's fantastic for writing at work.
Food:
We got a crate full of vegetables from Hunter yesterday. I made them into gazpacho, salsa, and peaches and cream. I still have green onions, broccoli, and summer squash to use up. No idea what I'm doing with the squash yet. Tonight I might make Korean squid. You can actually make so much food with vegetables, then add a little fat in the form of meat, oil, or cheese to make it filling. I'm not trying to eat more vegetarian, but it seems to be an interesting side effect of trying to fix our diets.
Weird:
Since playing so much Saints Row I have actually been noticing the different styles of cars more on the road. Normally I just kind of see cars as boxes with wheels with people in them. I don't think this is the start of me being obsessed with cars, but it's a detail I've never really paid any attention to before.