The Daily Commute

Another Rainy Day in MN

But that's not a bad thing. I saw some green shooting up in the woods today. 

Still no word on the job front. But we've moved out of the freak-out phase and into the just-see-what-happens phase. The rain is helping. 

Busy Weekend

Well somehow one of my coworkers convince Joe and me to finally leave our apartment. Last night we went downtown for a concert.

 

 

And tonight we are getting out again. ARCC is having a faculty reading, and I'm making the cookies. Then it's back to grading!  

Bad Phone Pic Update

I got this in the mail yesterday. 

For the last year or so my migraines have become an issue. Before then, I would have one every four months so, but something happened last spring. Suddenly they were coming three or four times a week, starting with the aura (blurred vision) and numb body parts, and then moving on to a throbbing headache. The pain isn't as bad as some people describe (except for one terrible night last summer), but the blurred vision is a bit of an issue--English instructors sort of need to be able to read.The next day leaves my head sore, feeling like a bruise and throbbing when I move or bend over. 

Sometimes I wake up in the morning, like today, and feel like I must have had one in my sleep. The bumpy bike path on the way to school make for a painful ride. 

And the rain, made for a wet one. But I love a rainy day--so calming and gray. Another effect of the migraine: trouble thinking. So if you see any typos here, or if it gets off track, let's blame it one the migraine. 

Anyway, I started tracking my diet a few months ago to try and detect some migraine triggers, and one morning, I finally found something. Before leaving for school, I ate one thing: a prune. Later on into my 35-minute walk to school, the aura started. When I got home later, I read the packaging. The only other ingredient, other than the actual prune, was potassium sorbate. I went back to my food journal and realized that a lot of what I ate before past migraines included this preservative: a maraschino cherry, an olive, bread, a pickle, a granola bar, etc. 

I wondered if it were a coincidence, but since I cut it out of my diet, there have been a few times where I got a migraine, and double checked what I had eaten, and there it was. 

There are obviously other triggers that I'm avoiding too, but this one seems to be a big one. I just wonder why it all of a sudden became such an issue. It makes things like eating out or at other people's places risky. I hate to be difficult. 

Excuse me, is there potassium sorbate in this? Chances are, if it came out of a package, there is. 

Last Few Weeks

There's three more weeks of classes! I actually have a few spare moments this weekend (or at least I'm taking some whether I have them or not). 

Today I met a friend downtown for coffee. Even though we live 20-25 minutes away from each other, we hadn't seen each other in three months. We both agreed to be better friends once the semester ends.

Joe's been working hard too--driving to St. Cloud four days a week and applying for all the teaching jobs in world. He also shaved his beard. It's shocking every time he does. But eventually he looks like himself again. 

We haven't had much time or energy for cooking, but every once in a while we stop working long enough to eat. Here's a coffee cake I made one morning. 

We also made corned beef brisket one night. The next night we used the leftovers, and a homemade pizza dough to make Rueben pizza. We agreed it was good but needed more of everything on it. 

A chickadee finally moved in to my birdhouse, but now a robin has been terrorizing the balcony, so I think it moved out. 

It's been snowing. I know, shocking. 

But there were a couple days (including today) that allowed for bike rides.

A doughnut shop opened up down the road from us. Good thing the line wraps all the way around the place, otherwise we would be there way too often. 

Back to Zero

...degrees.

We have returned to the cold. Minneapolis welcomed us home by warming up to an almost tolerable 0 degrees.

The last few days at AWP in Seattle have kept us busy. Here's me working hard at the Sundog Lit table at the book fair.

The conference center was only about an eight minute walk from our hotel.

And it had some pretty views of the city, which is good because we didn't get to do much exploring. 

And there definitely wasn't enough time for an adequate amount of seafood eating. 

But that's okay. We had a good time, reconnected with so many old friends/colleagues/professors, and are now extra inspired to get back to work on our writing.

Writing Conference

It's so nice to see the mountains again.

Yesterday we flew into Seattle, took the light rail downtown, and pulled our suitcases up a series of very big hills.

Here's our first view of Seattle through the train window.

 

And here's Joe saying hello to Washington.  

And here's our delightful hotel room.

 

And now it's time to lug bags and bags of promotional bookmarks, booklets, coffee mugs, and banners to the convention center.

But first, I think I saw a doughnut shop down the street!

For Josh and Grace, the Hockey All-Stars

It took him long enough, but Cedric recently took up playing hockey.

 

 

Here he is, waiting to be put in the game.

Like Spring

It was 21 degrees when I walked to school on Tuesday.

It felt so warm that I unzipped my coat.

 On the way home, I found someone I know bringing out the recycling.

I think we've officially conquered our new-place slump. It seems like every time we move to a new state, we spend the first months being lazy and apathetic. And we always blame it on being busy.

It took a while, but we've stopped with the excuses. We've started working out, cooking meals, writing. There still isn't anything on our walls, but now that we're half way into a lease of an apartment we won't be staying in, it's hard to justify hanging anything.

I've finally found a coffee shop I like. Too bad it's 25 minutes away. 



Still, I think the neat loft building it's in might be worth the drive.

And I'm pretty sure this is the best latte I've ever had. 

Also, every time I climb out of the car, I get to try and determine what cereal the parking lot smells like. 

 
Speaking of food: This weekend we've tried two new recipes out of a cookbook I got this Christmas, Pasta e fagioli (delicious) and pancetta and sweet corn risotto (also delicious). We've also discovered that you can successfully substitute crisco with coconut oil.

Nothing says weekend like homemade biscuits. 

Clear a Path

 You know what that is?

It's the beautiful sight of a freshly plowed bike path. It's been weeks of stumbling through feet of snow (except for the -26 degree days that Joe won't let me walk to school) but finally, there is a path!

There's not much else to report.

Go to school.

Hang out at home under blankets.

Move our car so they can plow the parking lot.

Start again.

We've started the job application process again. Who knows where we'll be in August?

Coon Rapids?

Ohio?

Michigan?

Bahamas?

You never know.

New (Cold) Semester

We're just starting week two of the semester, and things around here are still pretty icy. 

All of our windows look like this:

Even the inside of our slider door looks like a freezer that needs defrosting:

But I love the cold, and snow, and new semesters. All, last week Joe and I spent our evenings sharing stories about our new students, where they're from, what they said, things they wrote. It's exciting to get to meet so many different people from so many different places. 

It's nice just switching up our class/work schedules. Soon we'll fall back into a routine, but for now things are fresh, like when you first rearrange your living room. 

But our daily treks are looking pretty close to the same. 

Joe on his way to school:

Me on my way to school:

Home Again

After a one-night stop in Marquette, we came home to a chilly Minnesota last night.

We took a different route home from Marquette this time, heading down 77 through Northern Wisconsin, and found some really beautiful sights. These monster trees almost made us feel like we were back in Washington for a moment.



We wound our way through so many neat little towns. I think this one with the festive wreaths was Montreal, Wisconsin. If not, it was Hurley, or Iron Belt, or Upson, etc.

And now we've got about five days left to relax a bit and prepare for next semester. This morning, I made waffles so we could use the maple cream from American Spoon.

Now to conquer the laundry pile...

To Travel!

Joe and I are wrapping up our holiday visits, and we've decided to take the long-ish way home to Minnesota, crossing the Mackinaw Bridge, driving up to Marquette, and saying hello to Lake Superior.

Today was a snowy drive through the lower peninsula. This photo isn't black in white; it was just that gray.

We're staying the night in Mackinaw City, and over dinner, we thought about how little traveling we did when we lived in Michigan, how much of this beautiful state we still haven't seen. We thought about how we lived in the upper peninsula for four years and never even made it to Copper Harbor.

So, if we're talking New Year's Resolutions, I'm thinking we need to get traveling.

Even today, when we tried to take this shot in front of the Mackinaw Bridge, we realized this was the first time we stopped to really look at it. For four years, we drove back and forth across this bridge, and never stopped to say hello.


So that's my goal this year (among others). Wherever we are, wherever we end up, we won't settle for the thirty familiar miles around us.

Happy new year, everyone. Let's find some great views this year.

Cedric's Page

One more quick thing: Cedric's started his own site, so he can keep better track of his photos.

Visit him here: http://cedricthegnome.wordpress.com/

Frostbite

It was -13 with the wind chill today, but Cedric still insisted on shoveling. 

Snowy Days

Today I woke up to a winter wonderland. Joe offered to give me a ride to school, but I couldn't resist stomping around in the snow.

Here's a few pictures to document my daily walk to school.

Lots of curly branches.

One mystery trail that I'm too afraid to take, even though I suspect it might cut down on some of my walk time.

One cool sign.

One building-to-building tunnel.

One dreamy campus-view of the Mississippi.

I made a similar snowy walk to school yesterday before reading a few of my essays in an on-campus faculty reading. It seemed appropriate since one of the short pieces I was reading was about walking in the snow. Maybe I'll post the link to the video when it's ready.

Better hit the sack early. There's a new onslaught of grading, and Cedric's got some serious shoveling to do tomorrow.