Isn't it about... Time?

Guess what? 

I SUBMITTED my thesis last week!!!!!!!  I have one more paper and a portfolio to put together, and then I am home free.  That means there are only 25 pages still standing between me and my degree!  It almost feels like this day was never going to come, and it's still a little surreal.  But it's here!  And when I actually graduate, you will hear all about that too. :)

In the meantime, I have a decision timeline.  If it's on the June list, you might as well give up asking me about it until then, because I'm not even thinking about it and will have no updates. ;)  Believe me, I will be shouting it from the rooftops when I am even 70% certain of what I'm doing after August 31st.

May:

• Wedding arrangements (dresses, tickets, ideas for B's reception)
• Parents' visit!  Where to go, what to do
• Singles' ward vs. family ward for the summer
• Getting a gym membership since I'll no longer be a student with free access :(

June:

• Adopt a tomato plant
• Hopefully extend my lease (since it ends at the end of the month and I don't want to move)
• Becca's wedding
• PhD vs. 2nd Bachelor's vs. Move somewhere random (i.e., What in the world am I doing with my life?)
• Start freelance writing

July:

• Finish bridesmaid dress (sleeves on a dang strapless dress... grr.)
• Final decision on the PhD/Career/next steps  (Does anyone have a dartboard I could use?)
• Ashley's wedding

August:

• Hopefully pack up for the next chapter of Rachel Voss: A True Story
• Publish a couple of articles I will have finished at work (I hope!)
• Move to...??????

I'm also hoping these months will include lots of adventuring-- Red Sox (or Paw Sox) games, hiking, and general running-amok of the Rhode Island variety.  Come join me if you can!  :)   

Things I loved about today

1.  Some cinnamon cooked into my spicy black bean burrito.  Yes, it was fabulous.
2.  Itty bitty toddler footprints in sidewalk chalk.  It was obvious that some adorable child used chalk to cover an entire panel of sidewalk, walked in it, and then danced all over the sidewalk back toward the house, leaving a concrete reminder of how much we all LOVE the amazing weather (80 degrees and sunny)! 
3.  Yoga DVDs.  I'm slowly working through the entire available collection in the Providence library system in a quest for one I love and have ruled out quite a few.  I'm excited for the new ones I checked out because they supposedly incorporate body sculpting and Pilates.
4.  Swimming.  I love Wednesdays when the stars align and I can actually use the pool, which is only open for about 10 hours a week.

Chi Town Part I

I never posted about my trip to Chicago to see Becca, so here you go! It was a fun trip, and I always love seeing my sister. :)

First of all, the buildings in Chicago are tall-- but there's so much space in between them!


Much to Becca's chagrin, I couldn't get over how many parks there were and how much of the sky you could see between buildings. We did a cool boat tour of the city's architecture, in which I found out why there's so much space between buildings: Because that's how their zoning laws are written! I guess Chicagoans don't like to be cramped.

I also managed to be there for the one week of nice weather they had had all "summer" long, so it was almost like being outside of the city. (Kind of.) We did lots of picnics in the park.

Just in case the picnics and parks weren't enough to ease my city fatigue, we went to the botanical gardens, the Shedd Aquarium, a museum that was really like an indoor botanical garden, and the zoo. It was pretty cool. We even got to see a butterfly being born! The butterfly house had a whole bunch of chrysalises (?), and one butterfly finished breaking out as we watched. Sweet.


On top of all that, we had a lot of excellent eating adventures... Which I will detail in my next post. Becca, you're so good to me. :)