Back after a long hiatus

Well, well... It seems I haven't lost YOU, loyal reader. ;)

There was a moment, about a month ago, when my work was suddenly interrupted by the thought, "Holy crap, I have a blog out there that I haven't even THOUGHT about for months."

Here is the brief catch-up...

More...

1. I passed my Oral Exam. I am now officially a PhD candidate. Just have to finish research and write up the dissertation. Oh, how I wish that my To Do list were only two lines long... Unfortunately, each of those two tasks is comprised of perhaps 100 separate tasks...

2. I went to NCAR's Summer Colloquium on Marine Ecosystems and Climate: Modeling and Analysis of Observed Variability. It was a great experience. It built my confidence and stoked my fire for being a graduate student in oceanography. I also met some fantastic people there. And Boulder, CO is a beautiful town!

3. I took a week long writing class that was really intense but also built up my confidence. It was excellent! I wrote over 45 pages. I think only a few of those will make it into manuscripts, but it was wonderful to see that I could actually produce pages.

4. The man and I have been regularly attending Bikram's Yoga. Talk about kicking your ass... the 90 minutes in a room heated to over 100 degrees is tough enough. Trying to perfect postures in 26 poses really adds a challenge. But the more I go, the more often I want to go. My hope is that I will stick to it through the fall and winter and come out the other side, in Spring, with great posture and a sculpted body. =) Just sticking to the practice would be accomplishment enough for me, though.

5. The best part: The man bought me my very own BEAUTIFUL surfboard when I passed my Orals. He is so wonderful, and the gift was so thoughtful. We were finally able to take her out recently and catch a few waves at Pacific City and she is just PERFECT for me. I don't have to think about where to put my body, my feet and arms and chest just KNOW where they are supposed to be. It's like she and my body are old friends.

6. The man and I have been going to some writer's meetings lately. Last night was a great one, where the speaker, Bill Cameron, gave tips on writing rich characters. It was fascinating and really piqued my desire to write fiction. Not that I need another distraction from my dissertation, but... gotta feed that creative spark!

I think that's it for now. Pics to come soon.