What!!! Double Digits!?!

That’s right people. And not just for the week (which granted has been a bit of a stretch these last few weeks...and will be again this week)! Jason and I ran a solid 10 miles yesterday morning and felt great. We drove to the lakefront path at Montrose and started our run east of the golf course. When we got to the totem pole we met up with my Dad and the three of us ran together to Belmont. It was like we were our own little running group which was fun. From there we continued down stopping at the Fleet Feet aid station at North Avenue Beach which was nice. I love those aid stations as I refuse to carry water bottles in the summer but sometimes you want more than water and so it’s nice to get a cup of Gatorade before moving on. We went as far south as Navy Pier and then headed back. We ended at the totem pole where we met back up with Dad who was feeling some calf pain. We went to his apartment and had a nice big breakfast. From there we decided to go home since I am just about on the edge of explosion since my defense is this week (holy ass...this week...how is that right?!?!?!?) and I wanted to go home and just try and study a little. We had a great rest of our Sunday napping, watching the Cubs come back to life, making a quick dinner and finishing up with a walk to Piccolo for some ice cream and a walk around our neighborhood.

The weekly review in running is shown below. As you can see we are finally in the positive for our planned versus actual, and I had a nice week of running consistently getting in 5 days worth.


The rest of the weekend was just as good as our Sunday. On Friday we had Psych night (cause the new season is on and Jason and I are loving it more than ever) and had my dad and Sue over for some bbq, some Psych and of course some Pineapple for dessert. The episode was as quick as ever with LOTS of references to movies from the 80s: The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller’s Day off. After they left we discovered that we had recorded Pretty in Pink at some point on our DVR and so we watched that and caught some of the references from the show. On Sunday morning The Breakfast Club was on and we had our fill of 80s hair and Molly Ringwald.

Saturday we went to The Taste of Lincoln with my Dad. I found a super cool new necklace which was exciting, we listened to some good music, had some good bad food...corndog yum! From there Jason and I went home and I was exhausted and so I took a nap, and from there we headed to St. Charles where we met Jason’s dad for dinner. His dad was at a golf camp in the area and so we went to meet him. It was a really good time and we went to this really good Mexican place. For those of you in St. Charles, I think it was called El Puente and it’s right downtown. Really good stuff.

Thus we come back to Monday. I am going to the library today and locking myself in there to study. I know I know stuff, but I am so worried they are going to ask me stuff I don’t know, and they probably will and that’s probably ok, I’m just really nervous. I know I should treat it like, I GET to give this amazing talk and show off what I did for the past two years because my analysis is really complicated and I am really proud of it. But who the hell does that really? I mean who is ever that comfortable standing in front of people? In fact I was talking to my adviser the other day and he was going to California to give a talk at SLAC and he said, “I’m really kind of nervous because there will be a lot of big wigs there.” I laughed (to myself of course) as I think of him as one of the big wigs and I don’t know how he could be nervous as he is so freakin’ brilliant and gives really good talks...but I guess that never goes away.

This week will be lacking in running because we are taking today off and then tomorrow we’ll get something in, Wednesday we leave early in the morning for Bloomington and no running that day, Thursday is my actual defense and I am planning on running around the campus for a few miles in the morning, then Friday Jason and I are going to just enjoy Bloomington as we have spent 10 years of our life associated with IU and we heart Bloomington (especially in small doses). Then this weekend is my cousin’s wedding which should be a crazy good time. They are having their wedding reception where Jason and I had our wedding and reception, and then on Sunday they have a pack of Cubs tickets for everyone and we have that going on. In short. This week = awesome (should anyways).

Alright...well in less than 72 hours I’ll be giving my talk. That’s right, I have a countdown going in my head of the hours left. This chica cannot WAIT for that to be done!

Feeling Good for 5, Getting Excited and Why So Sleepy?

I have decided that I could just really put the subject of each topic in my posts in the subject line and then you don't even need to read this like today.....

Well nevermind, I'll just give the details.

Yesterday I took the train back downtown. There is something about those freakin' Metra trains that make my eyelids close on me. I'm all ready to get a lot of reading done and then my head is leaning on the window and the eyes are droopy. Anyways, went downtown and met up with Jason. We Bluelined it to Milwaukee and then walked home from there (I hate being on crowded buses and we are only about 2 miles from the stop so a walk it was. After we got home I tried giving the theory part of my talk to Jason. I was all excited about it, but as that was the first time I had run through it, it was pretty rough. But that's how it used to be when I have the analysis part of it which at this point I have down so I don't really even need to run through it (although of course I will).

After that and cooling down a bit we went out for a 5 mile run. Again, just trying to get the mojo back and so we started off really slow. We went for our usual 5 miler around the neighborhood and felt really good. No pain and the breathing was ok (my achilles has been feeling really good...most of the time. I am experimenting with lacing my shoes differently and it seems to be making a world of difference) and it wasn't as hot out as we thought it was going to be.

Ok...what's the next subject up there in the subject line. Right. Getting Excited. About what? Well everything but specifically these days, giving my talk next week. Jason took of Wednesday-Friday and so we will leave for Bloomington very early on Wednesday morning. While I am nervous for my talk, I also realized that I am going to get 3 great days in Bloomington and the defense part of it is only about 2 hours of it. That's right 6 years of work all wrapped up in a nice 1 hour talk with questions. I think my talk looks good and I have added in some slides from the last time I gave this talk. I will send my adviser a copy of the talk on Sunday and hopefully he'll get back with comments soonish. I am also supposed to expand on my conclusions section of my these as was requested by one of my committee members and I haven't done that yet.

This morning I took the Metra train back to the lab (probably the last time!) and I was again all set to read a bunch of my book (I'm reading Atlas Shrugged) and I sat down and I mean instantly I was shutting my eyes. What the ass? Is there some kind of something in the air on those trains that I am allergic to or something. Sheesh.

Today I am just at the lab and working on my talk and trying to "get my words down" as Jason says and then around lunch time (in about an hour) I am going to walk around the ring, stopping at the main building for lunch. It's about 4 miles around. The whole "leaving Fermilab and academia" is a post in and of itself and I don't want to really think about it just yet because while I know it's time to move on...it's still sad as parts of working here were really cool.

Alright, well that's all from these parts. Happy Friday all!

Spirit of Racine Photos

I took 250 pictures at the Spirit of Racine Triathlon on Sunday. That's right...250. Most of them are linked below.

Here's just one, showing the crazy that was the fog on that morning. Click on it for the full gallery on my smugmug account (I took a lot of random pictures and so there might be one of you ...you being a random person I don't know but might be reading this...of you in there). Enjoy!

Why So Serious?

oh yes. Go. See. Batman. Right now if you have to!

One of the best movies I have *ever* seen. It's 2 hour and 32 minutes long and it so doesn't feel that long. Totally action packed, great scenes of Chicago and I'll probably have nightmares of the Joker in the future.

Yesterday at the lab I got the tests done that I needed to get done and things worked out perfectly (hot damn is it nice when physics works...it's like I don't know real I guess ;-) ). I decided to come into the lab today and tomorrow for some time so that I can review my thesis (you know that 200 page document I have to defend in a weeks time...shit, in a week's time the talk will be done (I'll be giving it at 9am Chicago time) and I'll be trying to answer questions about it...to my thesis committee who don't read this...be nice ;-) ) and make any last minute changes to my talk that I think are necessary before I send it off to my adviser. Poor Jason is going to have to listen to practice talks starting tonight.

But after that. Wow. I'm going to be one happy LeahC....hopefully anyways.

Tonight Jason and I are going to run probably about 5 miles around the neighborhood. In 38 days we'll be able to do that run on the lakefront path as we'll hopefully be in our new digs at that point.

So that's it. Time to review!

WALL-E & Fermilab & New Running Plan

Two of the above make me want to cheer and the other makes me want to vomit in my mouth a little.

Yesterday theDad, Jason and I headed downtown to see Batman. We planned on going to the 7:30 show but when we got there all the tickets for all the shows were sold out! We decided to get tickets for tonight's 7:30 show instead. Dad left but Jason and I hung around to see WALL-E which was *fantastic*. There is so little dialog in that movie and they totally got away with it.

Right now I am at Fermilab. It seems like physics analyses are like Velcro, you can't easy pull away from them. I am here working on some tests of the analysis. Never. Ending. I am hoping *hoping* that I can get what needs to be done by next week so that I can have responses back to the reviewers and then defend my thesis and then really really be done. Oh yeah. A week from tomorrow at 10am, I'll be all, "blah blah blahing" my defense away. I'm really really nervous for that, and I'm just hoping I calm down in the next week before I give it. I'll run through some practice talks with Jason as that really helped last time I had to give a big talk.

As far as running goes... I ran 3 miles yesterday and I'm taking today off. But what about the future of the running plans around here? It seems that Jason and I really need to be signed up for a race to stay in that training mind set. We are not exactly out of shape, but not exactly in the place we were last year or the summer before that. This summer reminds me of the summer before our wedding, it just seems that as soon as we get into a little training grove something comes up that screws up the plans. Things like interviews, and getting new jobs, and new apartments and celebrating those things. SO I think we are going to do the Miami Marathon on January 25th. As our bodies won't be acclimated to the heat and we'll have to do some training in cooler months in Chicago this probably won't be a PR race, but it will be nice to get out of Chicago in January. I think we are going to follow a beginner program (Hal Higdon Novice 2 plan) just to get back into a rhythm. With me starting a new job we are going to have to figure out how to run around a 9-5 schedule and so I think an easier plan would be good for that. It's just 4 days a week and that will start towards the end of September.

Alright. Well I AM at the lab so I better get working on what I came here to do.

Hot & Humid

Yesterday after the JMan got home we went out for a neighborhood run with the intention of ending at the gym and doing some weight lifting. We did the running part going about 3.4 miles. The lifting heavy things part...hmm not so much. We started on the assisted dip/pullup machine and I got *really* lightheaded. The gym we belong to doesn't have the greatest cooling system ever as it was just as hot in there as it was outside. I hadn't eaten much during the day either which I'm sure didn't help. I grabbed a Gatorade but that didn't do the trick and so we headed back home.

I'm currently in my apartment. It's muggy in here and we already started to pack up our shit and so it's not the nicest environment to work in but physics must be done and so work it is :-). Yes that's right we aren't moving for another 5.5ish weeks, but a) I'm very excited to move and b) my Dad and Stepmom are around and offered to help with our basement storage area (read : area where we have a lot of shit which we haven't looked at in probably 6 years and I'm terrified of looking at) and so we started the process. Sue moved all the storage area crap out of cardboard boxes and into nice big plastic tupperware tubs that are now all categorized, which is exciting. I hope this move is better than the last few. It's so easy to go..."Oh it's not that bad to move, just put stuff in boxes" then you start and all of a sudden it's 3am and you are rifling through pages of papers going ... yeah...WHAT IS ALL THIS SHIT? So we are starting early to hopefully lighten our load a bit this time around.

I'm going to try and get a run in this afternoon/late morning and then tonight I think the plan is to go see Batman tonight. Yay!

Spoiled Beach Plans and a Weekend of Fun

On Friday, just as I sat down at the beach I had a call from my adviser. The reviews of my paper that had been submitted came back and to answer one of the questions there is quite a bit of work that needs to be done. My God this process is annoying. Now I am not being paid by my university and as my health insurance expired the second they stopped paying me I had to go out and find bridge insurance to get me from that point to when my new insurance will take over. I know it's not all about the money, but rather the pursuit of science...but it's always a little bit about the money. Had I chosen to stay in the field this wouldn't be a big deal, it would just be another little thing that had to be done. I will still do it, it's just that right now I have to prepare for my defense talk which is now in a week and three days, I have a new and super exciting new job starting in three weeks and so now this looks like it will have to be done in the evenings and on the weekends. I'm frustrated because of course I want all the work to end up in a publication, and it has to, I just wish that this kind of question had come up in the already long and involved review process so that I could get away from it. Anyways. frustrating to say the least. So I left the beach to start looking at that. I thought that the last month or so would be a relaxing break but it's been nothing of the kind. From job interviews, interview tests, studying for interviews (even though I know that's impossible), last Friday was the first "day off" that I thought I could have. Oh well.

Jason and I spent the rest of the weekend a) talking about our new apartment and b) spectating a half ironman competition in Racine, WI. This girl did the race and holy shit man, she's amazing. In fact everyone that day was awesome. Jason and I stood at the finish line watching people finish, and there were a lot of faces filled with determination, tears and laughter. Jason and I are more and more intersted in doing triathlons as they just look really really fun. After we got home I found out that my new boss's wife did the race that day too, which is quite the small world.

We drove Barb up there on Saturday to check in and to drop her bike off and then Jason and I had a barbeque and then tickets to the White Sox (I know I know...still an evening of baseball is fun) game. We had to leave the game early due to an early wake up call on Sunday. Jason and I got up at 2:30 in the morning and left at about 3:15 so that we could stop at the starbucks that is open 24 hours on North Ave. It's awesome when you are freshly awake and there are people that had yet to go to bed. Awesome. We picked up Barb right on time and headed north so she could get setup and marked up and all that good stuff.

The race started about an hour late due to fog. We walked with Barb to the start of the swim and stood among the masses of wetsuit clad folks. The water was a brisk 55 degrees yesterday! Just about when the swim started we headed back towards where the transition was so we could catch Barb between the swim and the bike and then her starting out on the Bike. She was a lot faster than we though she was going to be and spanked her goal out of the park. She transitioned fast and was on the bike.

While she was biking Jason and I walked around downtown Racine which was deader than a doornail. It was such a cute downtown and we thought that there would be a cafe or something and there was *nothing*. We headed back to just about the start of the bike where we had seen a restaurant. We had a great breakfast and then headed back to the race to watch the leaders finish up for the day. They broke a new course record finishing in about 3 Hours and 49 minutes. After watching them finish up we headed back to the end of the bike course to wait for Barb to finish up. We saw her and she mentioned that she couldn't keep any food down. We ran down to the transition area and saw her making her way out on the run. After seeing her start off we headed farter up the run course so we could see her at about the 6 mile mark of the run. I walked with her for a bit and the she continued on her way. We moved our spectating party to about the 7.5 mile mark saw her one last time before heading back to the finish.

We knew that she could break 8 hours if she kept moving. Other friends of Barb's were there too and so one of them went back to run with her. When we saw her coming we all starting screaming and cheering and she gave us a triumphant fist pump and ran through the finish line. The announcer said that she finishing in 7:59:30 making the 8 hour cut off by 30 seconds.

She was awesome and it was a really fun day. I took about 250 pictures and hopefully I got a few that work. I'll have a gallery up on SmugMug within the next few days/weeks depending on how much time I have to go through them. I'll have at least a few up soon though.

Alright with that, the duty of working on my talk calls and so I must go. Congrats again to Barb it was a really fun day!

Amazing.

Just got home from spectating Barb's first 1/2 Ironman.

Congrats girl. You are incredible.

Stay tuned for more spectating details coming your way tomorrow!

Good Apartments Do Exist

It's like it's all coming together. Like the plan we set in motion 6 years ago is finally coming around.

Yesterday after a day of looking at small, dark craphole apartments we found THE apartment. It has everything on our list: 3 blocks from a train stop, exactly in the neighborhood we wanted, 1 mile exactly from the lakefront path, central air, big bedrooms, WOOD BURNING fireplace, dishwasher, back deck...and even somethings we didn't care about like two bathrooms...one being off the main bedroom....YAY! no more hopping around in a towel or a robe trying to figure out in which bedroom is the outfit you wanted to wear all the while hoping no one is peeping through your windows. Oh AND FREE laundry (it's not in the apartment but just a few flights down so it's good)! We are going to be near Belmont & Seminary which is my favorite neighborhood in the city. After thinking about it a little bit we decided to forego Lincoln Square for awhile longer and stick to Lakeview which after a few moves in the city and lots of walks is still my favorite place to be. Plus the commute downtown to work will be shorter.

We won't get to move in until the end of August, but it was like the person living there currently was barely living there, there was no furniture, clothes or anything, so we might be able to work getting in there earlier.

It's a great place, and while it doesn't have stainless steel appliances or granite counter tops it's way an upgrade for us, and we don't own it so it's fine. And unbelieveably in our price range. I couldn't believe that that apartment was in the same range and some other ones I had seen yesterday. So yay! I cannot freakin' wait to get out of this apartment.

I still have this nagging dissertation talk that I am giving in now less than two weeks which I am just about sick about. But now that the job stuff and apartment stuff is all taken care of I can really concentrate on gettng that done and understood. I'm going to work on the talk this morning and then going to the beach in the afternoon. I mean I only get a few more weeks of daily freedom and so I should use them wisely.

Oh and no running yesterday because we celebrated the new pad with margaritas at El Jardin. whee! Thanks to Dad and Sue for going with to look at the apartment, knowing that there were four pairs of eyes looking at the place I know that we weren't fooled.

New Big News

Well. Yes, awhile ago I was all, "I got a job offer." I know right? no exclamation points or anything....very un-LeahC like. It was because I hadn't accepted it yet as while I had been waiting to hear from them another company had come around with an open position, so I wanted to see what their interview process was like so that I could have some comparisons since I haven't had a real job in 6 years and back then I just took the first one I interviewed with because I was 21 and needed a job. Holy ass...that sentence was *really* long.

So I went through the second company's interview and it was, I don't know.....fine...uncomfortable....I had to do some logic problems on the fly, which quite honestly didn't go so well. I walked around the offices and they were just kinda I don't know...not me I guess. The original company invited me to have lunch with them on Tuesday (that would be yesterday) and so I accepted because I really wanted to see how they rolled. And it was awesome. All the people that work there are really nice and seem really great. After talking with the HR woman and finding out about insurance and blah blah blah, I told her I was in and I signed the paperwork I needed to sign.

The position is for a software apprentice where one (one being me) will learn how to develop software. They take people that probably have the ability to learn, but just don't have the skills right now to write software. So that's like the definition of me, and I hope that I can get a lot out of it and learn quickly. I mean whatever happened to apprentices? That's how people did anything back in the day and so where did that go? In graduate school it was kinda like, here, "Go do this. Go on go. What do you mean you don't know how to do anything? I don't care, show me some plots" Ok that's really an exaggeration as there is a lot of help in physics...but kinda only if you go after it. Anyways. I think the idea is fantastic and I'm really excited to start.

So. That's the big news. On August 11th, I will be one of a great group of people....oh yeah...and our friend Jake who I always talk about works there too so that's wacky fun. He's actually the one that led me on to the software apprentice position.

The scarier business on this end is that in two weeks from tomorrow at 10am I will be defending my thesis...meaning I have a talk to write! I mean it's written but lots needs to be added to it....AND it's already really long. Get ready graduate student committee, get comfy cause it's going to be awhile :-)

No running yesterday but we do plan on getting something in tonight.

Evening Running & Afternoon Walking

Yesterday after working on my talk most of the morning, I took all my heavy bags (computer bag plus I decided to reread Atlas Shrugged which is *giant* but oh so delicious inside!) all around the city with me. I stopped at a Panera for a salad and then headed down to Lincoln Park. I love living in a city where you can always discover new places. I have run on the lakefront for years and I never just saw what would happen if I tried to get off the path and got slightly west when I was south of Diversey. Go figure there is a lagoon type thing there with a nice path around it (took some pictures with the new hotness that is iPhone...although still not much signal indoors which is making leah frustrated...I think that's an ATT thing though) :


I am guessing the path around it is only about a mile, but it was really nice. I sat and read for awhile, talked to an older guy named Mike about the city in general, walked around the lake and just *really* enjoyed the day. Then I headed back north. On the way I stopped at the Lakeview Athletic Club to see what they were all about. Super nice and swanky. We don't know where we are going to move but after yesterdays walk I am rethinking Lakeview instead of Lincoln Square....we'll have to see what happens in the next week.

Jason and I met at my Dad's apartment and then we went for a run. We did 3.8 miles and we went back to the Lagoon because I wanted Jason to see it. We didn't go fast as our legs were a bit heavy from the day before.

Today I am still working on my talk (seriously, I can't wait till this is over. I don't know how much information to put in the talk and I'm getting frustrated in general), and then I have a lunch meeting. That's all that's on the schedule today.

New iPhone, Hellboy & Some Running

On Friday the nerd boy husband of mine and I got up early and went to the ATT store to stand in line for the new iPhone. That's right. We did. It was actually really fun. We stood in front of some really fun people and the time didn't go to slow. There was some slight anger because the phones couldn't be activated until Friday afternoon, but whatever, it finally started working that afternoon and we were happy. Although....I am having some really bad signal strength issues. When I enable the 3G network I get one bar or No Service. When I switch that off I get about 3 bars of service where I am sitting right now. In Evanston last night we had really strong 3G service, so I am hoping that the problem is the Chicago towers and that it will be fixed very soon...because damnit...a phone in the end should be able to be spoken on..and if you can't do that what's the point?

On Sunday we went to Jake and the Lovely LaurA!'s to watch Hellboy. Then from there we all went to see Hellboy 2 in Evanston. It was a really fun afternoon and as always, super good times with those kids.

We even did some running this week! Not enough I suppose, but when is it really ever enough. I keep saying this week, this week we'll get the mileage back to where we want it. I think we'll have to sign up for a marathon to really make that happen though because it keeps you honest. Last night after HellboyFest Jason and I came home and ran down to the lakefront path and finished our run out there. We did probably just over 7 miles. Then we walked back home....why? Because it was so freakin' nice outside! For the week...eh...but cest la vie :


This week, I have a lunch thing going on tomorrow (I think) but that's about it. Scarily my PhD defense date is rapidly approaching. The talk is *basically* written, but needs to be spiced up and some of the slides need to be changed so I have to do that. When I think about giving that talk I also think about throwing up in my mouth a little....very nerve wracking! Cause that's just about it with this crazy PhD train...crazy talk I know.

So that's it. Here's to Monday :-)

Test post

Sent from my iPhone

Still on Schedule?

Well, not exactly. The holiday put a little kink in our planned versus actual running distance :

The only good thing about last week was that I ran 8.5 miles around the lake at my Aunt's house. It's really hilly there and because I'm so brilliant I went at like 2pm with no shade, no water and no one coming to bring me water. I almost made it the whole way without walking but about 6.5 miles in I was pretty beat so I walked/ran the rest of the way back to the house. Then we enjoyed the lake house and then tried to run 4 miles on Sunday which was *hilarious* after skiing and playing for the previous 2 days.

Monday and Tuesday we ran 5 miles. We'll take today off and then see what happens for the rest of hte week. I would like to get 30 miles in which I think should be pretty possible.

I will leave you with a picture from Gay Pride 2008:

Yes! I'm still here!

but busy :-)

Lots going on these days with futures and families and so on and so forth. My Dad, Sue, Jason and I all went to my Aunt Donna's house for a vacation and it was really fun. The working man couldn't come until Thursday night but the rest of us went on Wednesday morning. They have a such an awesome house. There are about 100 different places you can hole up and read a book. Lots of swings and hammocks and porches to sit on. I did some wave boarding as well. I used to ski every summer but haven't since high school so it was nice to know I could still get up on the board. It's like snow boarding kinda but being pulled by a boat.

Alright, I have to do some reading.

Reflection

Weekend Review

A great/busy/crazy weekend. On the running front we were perfect for our weekend plans. On Saturday we did a nice easy 3 mile run around the neighborhood. After that we headed downtown to go to the Taste of Chicago. We of course had to keep buying tickets because the beer is so damn ticket heavy :-) We had a bum give us a little math puzzle and of course followed by, "If you are thinking of the number 4, and I think you are, maybe you have some tickets for me...?", so we gave him our last two tickets. From the Taste we walked to Burnham harbor and met up with the Dad and the Stepmom and their old Chicago sailing friends. From there we went back north to get our car, then drove home and hand a nice relaxing Saturday evening.

Sunday morning we got up early, I submitted the coding project I had been working on and then we dove over to the lakefront path to start our run. We did the full 9 miles even though neither of us were feeling it. Always nice to get through the runs where you don't feel so good, or more to the point not very motivated. I find it difficult to get pumped when there is no race in the future that we are training for. But either way we got through it. I don't know what's on the table for this week because we are going out of town for the holiday. I am going to try and do some runs around the lake at my Aunts house. It's nice and hilly over there so it might be more run/walking that pure running. Here's how our week ended up looking in my beautiful graph form:
After our run we headed down to Belmont/Broadway for the annual Gay Pride Parade. We ate breakfast at The Melrose diner and then to our Monsignor Murphy's, our old hangout. My Dad and Sue joined us as well as Jake and the lovely LaurA!. We had a good time as we do every year. I think everyone comes out of the woodwork for the parade and I always spend 5 minutes catching up with everyone that I haven't seen for a year.

This week should be one of the most relaxing in my life. I have *nothing* to do and so I taking the week of. I still have to write my dissertation defense talk although it's just about done and just needs to be updated a little.

Run, Projects & Taste

I have been working on a programming project since Wednesday and spent all day yesterday holed up in my apartment working on it. Needless to say I was itching to get outside for a run this morning.

I took music with which I don't do much anymore, but I do always remember how much I like the music once I have it with me. I chose some "running" mix playlist that I have. I think at one point I was very intune with picking songs that start off slow, picking up in the middle and then cooling back off in the end. True to form, I started off with some Colin Hay and hit up some California Love in the middle. I am having some shin pain which is usually a sign that my shoes are bad. These aren't that old though so I'm kind of surprised. I have been playing tennis in them though instead of keeping running shoes for running only so that might be a problem. I went about 3.9 miles and felt good otherwise throughout. I'm going to probably be short a few miles this week from my goal mileage, but that's ok.

After I got back from running, I fixed the final thing that had to be in place on the programming project I am working on. I had a flash when I was running (that happens all the time), and when I got home I tried it and lo and behold all 5 things work that needed to work. I'm pretty excited that that's done. I still have to fix how files are read in and the output and whatever, but the brunt of the project is done.

Since I am done with that for the most part, my dad and I are going to have a city day this afternoon and head downtown for the opening of the Taste and then maybe go see a movie. Tough times for my dad and his sister and well everyone in the family. My grandpa needs to move into an assisted living place and is refusing to do it. His wife has mid-stage Altzheimer's and he is 90 years old and can't really take care of her. But he's refusing to do anything about it. It got a little exciting at the beginning of the week because he was in the hospital and his wife was driving all over the place even though she shouldn't be driving anywhere. So we are all trying to deal with that the best we can.

So yes. Happy Friday all.

They Can't All Be Perfect

Well after a few good weeks of running yesterday didn't go so well. We did 5 miles but it was really slow and pathetic. I think we will take today off and try and get in 6 tomorrow morning just to give our legs a bit of a break since they were so tired last night.

Not much else new. Just working on some work stuff and Jason is enjoying the yearly conference activities at his company and that's just about it.

Late Night, Early Morning

Jason had a work function last night and so I hung out with my Dad and Sue until after the cubs game. I ended up picking Jason up at about 11:30 and we weren't in bed until about midnight. Finally got to sleep around 12:30 and up bright and early at 6:30.

For the rest of the week/weekend I am working on a little coding project, I can't have nothing to do you know. Heaven forbid I take a day off, but ah well I'd get bored anyways. Tonight we have 7 miles on the tap, but we won't be on the lakefront path and so I have to go back through all my old neighborhood routes and find a 7 mile loop.

Alright, well I gotta get back to work. Time it is a tickin' you know.

5, 1, 6.

This morning Jason and I woke up with the sun and drove down to the lakefront and did a 5 mile recoveryish run.

Then my dad came downstairs and he and I played tennis for 1 hour.

Then I came home and submitted my thesis officially. 6 years of work in 208 pages.

I'm so happy. It's been a long road with a few detours, but hot damn I'M DONE! Who knows what happens next, and there were times when I was so close to throwing in the towel, but I just kept thinking about this feeling of accomplishment. It's not everyone that gets a PhD in high energy physics, gets the opportunity to work at the biggest physics lab in the world, travel overseas for conferences, travel to Washington D.C. two years in a row to represent physics graduate students to their congresspeople and all the other cool shit that goes down in a PhD program....all before their 29th year. I mean it's going to be close...but I will be done with all this before that scary fucking age hits :-). Anyways. I will defend the thesis on July 31st and then it will really be done and a new page will be turned.

Today I have some work to do on some other stuff and my Dad, stepmom and I are going to try and get tickets to the Cubs game tonight. (Jason has a fancy dinner thing for work tonight).

So yep. June 24. A good one.

Good? No Great Weekend.

So here we got with our my usual weekend roundup!

On Friday I met up with Jason for lunch as I was back from the lab early enough to make that happen. I spent the afternoon hanging around downtown and just fucking enjoying being mostly done with my thesis, which is the culmination of six years of work. I finally broke down and bought myself a pair of nice sunglasses (they are seriously awesome, I think I could work for the CIA perhaps...and if there are any CIA people reading this I'm still available for any spy work that might be needed). Following my walk I met my dad and sue at a bar near Chicago Ave and then we walked to Jake Melnicks where we met up with Jake and the lovely LaurA! and Jason. A quick dinner there and then it was off to 600 N Michigan for opening night of Get Smart. It's so funny and we all highly recommend it. Ok, well I can't talk for everyone but I highly recommend it, and it's not just because I less than three Steve Carell.

Oh yeah and on Friday afternoon the Cubs won in highly dramtic fashion with a 9th inning walkoff homerun. The Cubs ended up kicking some White Sox ass all weekend, which of course this family loved.

On Saturday Jason and I came down to the 3600 apartment and went for a quick I would say about 2.5 mile run. We hung around here, watching the Cubs and chilling at the lakefront until about 5pm when we headed back to the west side for a relaxing evening in.

Sunday morning we woke up bright and early and headed down to the lakefront at Montrose to get our weekly long run in. These have been around 6 miles for awhile. That was the plan for Sunday but we just felt so damn good we decided to go an extra mile out meaning we ended up at 8 miles. It rained like crazy in the middle of our run which was actually ok because it was still really warm out. I love running in a summer rain storm. I wore my new sunglasses and while I have tried to run in sunglasses before but they always bounced all over the place or just annoyed me, these were just great. They didn't move at all or bounce or anything, so I'm deeming them a good purchase. Now I just have to not lose them.

So ok, nerd girl that I am has a lot of graphs to show you all. Hint Hint...Apple...you need a GPS program....hire me to organize the output of the data! OK, so here we go. First off, the first two on the left are the same that I showed you last week. Simply showing what mileage we planned and what mileage we actually completed and then the total yearly mileage to date, week by week. The new one on the upper right is showing each week what the difference between the Actual Distance-Planned Distance is, granted this one is kind of stupid as there isn't a lot of data right now, but I think the idea of it is good as it's much easier to see how well week by week we are doing keeping above, equal or below our planned mileage (when the bar is above zero = good). Then the final one in the lower right hand corner is showing for each day of the last week how well we did for the planned daily mileage and what we did that day. You can see last week kind of was bad on that front as only one day actually matches up. Click on it to see all the graphs in full size.

Well....Almost

I handed Adviser the thesis this morning. All 206 pages of it. Hot Damn. Of course....as always with this field, there are a *few* more miner things to change. I have gotten up at about 4am the last three days and worked hard on getting that done....but you know...4am is fucking early. By 10am, I've been awake for 6 hours and, in that time (today for example) drove to Batavia, printed out 206 scintillating pages of physics analysis, dropped off some paperwork at another building on the Fermilab campus, played tennis with my "coach" and by "coach" I mean my Dad who really was a tennis coach back in the day, drove to panera, ate breakfast, dropped off said scintillating pages at the hotel where Adviser is staying, back to Panera, worked on getting Dad set up with C++ compliers on his little laptop, and drove back to the city.

Yikes. So I'm just hanging out while my dad naps and wondering if he really wants me to put the Xcode tools on his laptop since it's such a big program. He doesn't have much space left because it seems that he has 10GB worth of pictures on his laptop. So as soon as he wakes up I can talk to him about what he wants to do with that. Maybe it's time those crazy sailor kids got an external harddrive.

Yesterday we ran 4 miles around the neighborhood. So the plan then for the weekend is to do some studying stuff that we have to do, play tennis early tomorrow, and get just a short 2 mile run in. Then Sunday pull out a 6 mile run...bringing us full circle to Monday. Oh...and I have to write the acknowledgments still for my thesis. Thank you to everyone for not killing me over the last 6 years? Maybe just a Fuck this shit, I'm outta here. Nah, I can be more elequent than that...I hope. I actually did start writing it but I ended up starting it and starting to talk about my adviser and how awesome he is and blah blah...and suddenly I was that creepy girl who had written two pages about one person. So I stepped away as the total length for that should be about 2 pages and I have lots of other people to thank!

Alright, so Happy Friday everyone and GO CUBS! They had a stinky series in Florida and so here's to hoping they pick up the pace against that other Chicago baseball team. Alright. LeahC needs to end this post already.

Today is Thursday

Wow. Brilliant title if I do say so myself.

But it's a big day. Well not TODAY. BUT, if today is Thursday, that means tomorrow is Friday which means the day after that is Saturday. The Adviser is going on a 3 week bike trip which starts on Saturday meaning that a final copy of my thesis has to be done by then since I have to turn it into the committee July 1st (one moth before the defense). Needless to say I have been super busy this week getting everything in order with that.

On Tuesday we went to see The Swell Season with a Fermilab friend of ours which was a really good show. We didn't get home until 11:30 or so and I ended up waking up at 3:14am. I remember because it's pi-o-clock. I feel that I frequently wake up at this time, but I think I probably don't really but rather just remember it more when it's 3:14 because I always go, "Wow, look at that, I woke up at pi-o-clock" If I were to wake up at say 3:27, I wouldn't remember because that's just a random time. Anyways. So I dozed on and off until 4am and left at 5am to go to the suburbs. I had to print out another draft of some chapters for the Adviser and then meet him to give him that. Needless to say I was a little tired and out of it yesterday.

I'm back in the burbs today to get some more marked up copies of my thesis. Probably the same deal tomorrow....BUT then...after a final read through of it myself......IT WILL BE DONE. Well that part of it will be done. The defense and the actual degree would still be to come but this is the biggest and hardest part....sorry...I gotta do it.....That's what SHE said!

Running, yes....still going. We went 6 miles again yesterday. While we were out there we ran into this boy playing catch and so chatted with him a little bit. I love living in a city of 3 million people and randomly running into friends. Felt good on the run too which is nice. Same plan tonight, but probably just about 4 miles, then maybe 2 on Saturday and then 6 on Sunday which will bring me to my planned distance for the week.

So yes. That's all from here. Happy 3 days before my thesis is done!

Wait...WHAT...19.5

Yes. I ran 19.5 miles last week. You know. That rounds up to 20. Hot Damn. The woman is getting her running groove back. Hopefully anyways.

I also played tennis four times last week. Starting this week I'm going to play a bit more, doing more training with my Dad rather than just hitting it around. Hopefully I can start to keep it in the court better. Maybe the plan will be to play tennis, take a break and then run with Jason when he gets home from work. This week is also the last week I have to work on my thesis. My adviser is going out of town for three weeks starting Saturday and my thesis is due on July 1st....aka right spot on in the middle of that...meaning that my thesis needs to be done by Saturday. Awesome. It's fine though, I don't think it will be a problem. SO I'll be back at the lab from about 6:30am-2:30pm or so starting tomorrow, then back to Dad's apartment for tennis, running and general fun :-).

So what the hell happened the past few months? Well the Achilles Disaster of 2008 happened. Then thesis work happened. Then severe panic attacks happened. No where in that did running happen. I had started keeping very good track of my mileage and the graphs just have a big sucky flat line in the middle of them:

But I'm getting there. The graphs are starting to turn back up and if you look carefully I ran 6 miles this morning. You know that's over 5! I know CRAZY. So I have a plan to get over 20 miles this week and of course I have started this during the busiest week of probably my life I am guessing, but cest la vie...I'm always fucking busy and running keeps me balanced so I have to try and not let that slip again. I think a lot of the problems that arose aside from being so stressed with work and trying to get a new job and blah blah blah was that I had stopped running. I didn't stop because I wanted to though but because of my Achilles and so now that seems to be better and so I'm going to try and go slowly this time. I made a mistake training for that half marathon as I wasn't ready for that kind of training because I went from zero straight into not necessarily high mileage but hard consistent work outs. And my old lady body apparently revolted. SO. Right. That's the analysis, hopefully that graph has more than 6 miles on it next week.

So ok, Happy Monday everyone. OH and congrats to everyone's favorite Kansas Fans Displaced in Chicago (:-)) for getting through their HIM. Well....yes I know, the weather didn't allow them to finish, but they were almost done with the course and they both were on the run portion of the race and so they got through those horrible sounding hills on the bike course (and of course the swim which when I think about I want to throw up a lot in my mouth). Congrats Kids.

Back to AM running!

This morning Jason and I got up at 5am with the intent to go play tennis. Actually we did that yesterday as well but someone (not me) said, "I'm just going to lay back down in bed and see what it would feel like to go back to sleep" :-). But this morning we were up and on it. Only to find drenched streets and sidewalks from storms during the night. We still headed to the courts thinking maybe they weren't too wet and we could play anyways. They were completely soaked and so we just went and ran instead. We went about 4.5 miles and I felt great. Farthest we went in awhile and pretty smooth sailing for all of it.

Yesterday my stepmom and I lucked out and got some not too pricey tickets to the Cubs game. They won in 11 innings after Reed Johnson got hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. That sent their home win streak to 11. It was awesome. They could do it this year. After the game Jason came over to the Dad/Stepmom apartment and we had some pizza, watched some Law and Order and then headed back to the good old Uki-Village.

I am still waiting to get some revisions back from my adviser. I have about a week left to finish my thesis as he will be gone a bike trip the last week of June and completely out of contact. My thesis is due July 1st though so I guess I'll get extra time to make corrections even if he can't take a last look at it. So since I haven't heard from him Sue (that's my stepmom) and I are going to go downtown and hangout. Tonight we are going to hang with Jake and LaurA! to celebrate the fact that I got a job and the thesis is coming to a close. We are going to go get yummy burgers at Blackies and then go see The Incredible Hulk. I saw a preview and noticed that Tony Stark (aka Ironman) has a role it it. It makes Jason wonder if there is going to be an Avengers movie on the way. So that should be fun. Tomorrow is the Wells Street Art Fair which we are going to with Sue's sister Andrea which should be fun.

So yeah, that's all from here. Go go fun times!

Getting Closer to the Next Thing

Last night I found out that the company I interviewed with a week and half ago wants me to join their group. So hell to the hizzah on that one. I still have to find out about salary and benefits and whatnot as that is still a question. But they like me, so that's good and very exciting.

This morning I sent a full draft of my thesis to my adviser. That's right...full draft. Not a section here or there.

That's right. It's all coming to a close.

I didn't play tennis this morning because my Dad went to Florida with his sister to visit their Dad. I might play tonight with Jason though if the courts aren't too crowded. We are going to run for sure. This morning I'm going to work on helping a graduate student in Bloomington get some code to run in batch mode and then this afternoon my stepmom and I are going to go walk around the neighborhood that Jason and I want to move to and get a sense of where exactly we should want to live and were we for sure don't want to live. So that should be fun fun as it's a beautiful day in Chicago!

So yes. Oh...and only 30 days until the 3G iPhone is out!

Tennis, Running & Thesis

Yep. That's all I have been doing. I wish I could be all, "LOOK AT ALL THE FREAKIN' COOL THINGS I AM DOING!" But I'm not so much. My day is usually getting up early, driving to my Dad's apartment and having breakfast. Then my Dad and I go across the street and play tennis for about an hour. Then I go run. I started with just going three miles (it's hard to run after crossing training...and by cross training I mean, shagging tennis balls as I don't so much hit them back). I'm up to 4 miles though and feeling better. After tennis I work on my thesis getting those last few details in place. My Dad coached tennis back in the day and so he has some tips for me. I'm getting better for sure. We are going to do more with the coaching as we are going to get a bag of balls and do more repetitive forehand/backhand/serving type things. But either way I'm getting better.

The thesis is almost done. I have to find a *few* annoying details about things which is taking all the time. But as far as the sections they are all done and written and whatever which is exciting.

Oh yeah. And Jason and I are perhaps planning on getting in line early for the new iPhone. Yes. We are just that nerdy. But whatever, we would totally have one before those who chose to not wait in line...although those smart people will probably be able to walk into the Apple store later in the day and buy one, sans sleeping on the sidewalk on Michigan Ave. As Jason said, "There will be other people in line right? Because if not, then we aren't so much wacky as homeless".

That's all from here. Things are easing back into normal, I'm getting better and starting to actually like tennis, and I'm going to Doctor Leah soon enough!

Running...and Tennis?

I LOVE to play racquetball. Well I really started to love it when I stopped losing every game 15-2. It seems that racquetball has kind of gone away in popularity as it's been tough finding gyms that have nice courts. Jason and I played 2-3 times a week in graduate school and I contend it's one of the best cross training exercises you can do. Anyways, with my dad staying in Chicago he is staying right across the street from some tennis courts and so we thought we would try. We played the last two days. As I have only played racquetball for about 10 years, I tend to try and play tennis that way and get the ball all up in my kooaid. It was a bit too windy today though, but I think I'll get there. If any Chicago people know any racquetball courts let me know in the comments! Either at a gym or if there are courts that you could just use by the hour.

I have run about 16 miles since Monday. I KNOW!!!! I have run the last three days and then on Monday as well. Today was tough as I have been running after we "played" tennis and it was about 90 degrees and it was just tough. I didn't stop though so that's good. I'm going to take tomorrow off and then possibly Sunday as well as we have a pretty packed weekend.

Alright, well all is good here. Have a great weekend all!

Longer Run

Well I'm sans Garmin, just cause I want to be for awhile not because it's broken. Jason and I did go for a longer run yesterday because we lost track of where we were. I was just looking for the next mile marker that is North of Montrose and we never saw and we were all talky talky and so we ended up way past Lawrence and who knows where we were. We never run that far north and so I don't remember where we got to. I'm guessing we went for about 4.5 ... probably more like 4 miles. I know right..funny that anything over 3 miles is an accomplishment.

My thesis work is going well. There are words for everything....whether or not Adviser thinks that the words are good or bad is still to be questioned. I am also helping a new graduate student who is at IU. I wish I was there or he was here because so many of the things he's doing is so much easier to do with someone to just go walk to and ask. Jason and I had that for all stages of our analysis and so I wish he had that. Ah well, I'm doing my best via e-mail.

My dad and I are going to go play tennis here in a bit as soon as the courts dry and the man wakes up from his little cat nap. Until then I'm going to keep plugging away at the thesis.

Happy Thursday.

What's New

Wow, when you get out of the habit of writing everyday it gets hard to think of what you want to say.

So yeah, things here are pretty good. My dad and I went to the Cubs game last Thursday which was just about the most exciting games I have ever seen. Over the weekend we had a wedding shower for my cousin...moved my dad into his swanky new place on Sheridan and Addison on Sunday and for the rest of the time we just relaxed. My Dad's place is right across the street from the lakefront path which is awesome. We went running Sunday and Monday...oh yeah and on Saturday too..wow....three days in a row. Go figure.

Yesterday I went to my Dad's in the morning and we noticed that the tennis courts by the totem pole are empty during the week in the mornings....my dad and I tried to play tennis once when I was a kid and I ended up throwing the brand new racket that he had given me at his head because I got so frustrated. That is the one and only time that I have ever played. But I figured it might be fun to try again, so we bought some tennis balls and Jason has some racquets that we can use. That is on the table for tomorrow morning or Thursday morning.

I guess that's about it. I heard back from the company I interviewed with and they said that they were excited that I was interested and that I'll hear from them soon with next steps. I am excited to see what happens with that.

Alright, well that's all from here. Seems that the dark cloud is lifting.

You Know You Want a Pair!

Interview Done & Done

So I had my interview yesterday which I think went pretty well. It would be working with a small consulting company and starting in an apprenticeship role to learn how to do things correctly instead of my current stream of conscience method of programming. All the people there were really nice and I was surprisingly not as nervous as I thought I would be.

After the interview I got a super cool pair of converse that are white with silver stars on them. Everyone should be jealous of them.

We went to dinner with Jake and LaurA! and my Dad at good old Miller's Pub, which is one of my favorite places in Chicago. It hasn't changed ever and all the old men that seat you are the same. I love when things don't change.

After dinner Jason and I and Jake and LaurA! went to see Kids in the Hall at The Chicago Theater. It was a really good show. It looked like the guys were just having a great time on stage so if that comes to your town I would say check it out.

So yeah. Thursday = Pretty good.

A Week Later....

Well ok.

Ok.

Well I have my head kinda back in the game. Enough anyways that I can make some progress on my thesis during the days. My interview is tomorrow which I'm a little nervous about but hopefully I can rally to be myself by 1pm. I think I should be fine. I would like to give Adviser something from my thesis to read by Friday. It's in better shape than I had thought so that's good.

I have to say that I have just about the best support system ever as my parents, step parents, in-laws, cousins, aunts etc have been all up in my kool-aid to see things are going around here. So a big thank you to them. Looks like my dad and stepmom are going to be around for the next few months which is awesome and will be nice to have them here.

Not much else to update. I have been getting out for a 3 mile run here and there but nothing consistent. That obviously needs to change.

Alright, well back to Thesis.

Just because...

I don't want yesterday's post to be the top post.

Yesterday we did go running. We ran to the FedEx building to pick up an envelope and then ran/walked back. It felt good to be out there.

Also I had ordered these Tootsie Pop Drop candies online and they happened to show up on the first day of the delivery estimate...and they are delicious. Highly recommend to anyone.

Yeah. Not much else. Just trying to keep on breathing and hoping that the saying, "this too shall pass" is going to be true here.

I'll Be Ok

So I've not completely disappeared.

I've been trying to be busy with thesis work amid daily panic attacks about my own mortality. This has happened to me in the past, I just can't seem to get out of the fog this time around. I am sure running has something to do with keeping me level, and as I'm not running maybe things are getting a bit unbalanced. As an atheist.....well it's hard. It's hard to think about, and then quite rightly it's hard to not think about. Like if there is a big pink elephant in the room...ok don't think about it. But how can you not? It's days, or apparently weeks, like this, that I have such jealousy for those with beliefs of higher powers.

I don't know what brought this on, a favorite professor of ours passed away a couple of months ago, friends have recently lost those who are dear to them. The pressure of finishing up this thesis and starting something new I'm sure has something to do with it.

I don't know, but I can't get out of it and the days until the thesis are due are counting down quickly. I am going to go run tonight, maybe start to pound things back into control.

LeahC is Everywhere

So I'm reading The Chicagoist this morning and I see a post giving the CTA closures and track reroutes and with the post is a picture that looks familiar, I scream at Jason to get in the office. They used a picture I had tagged with 'Chicagoist' on my flicker account months ago! They gave me a credit along with the title I had given the photo "CTA's new Motto".

Anyways, it's really not that big of a deal, but just nice to see something I took somewhere else in the internets. I was going to try and post one chicago picture post to that flicker account but as with most stuff of mine it ended up being 3 pictures. Anyways. Very. Exciting.

Eddie Izzard, Brother-In-Law & an Interview

Ok, Eddie Izzard was awesome. For those of you that have never heard of him, he’s a transvestite standup comedian. He’s also on a show called The Riches which I haven’t seen yet. Jason’s brother, Jamie, gave us a DVD of his show Dress to Kill a couple of years ago and it is hilarious. An old friend e-mailed me about tickets to his current show, Stripped, and would I be interested blah blah. So I was and so we went and it was Fantastic. His topic this time around was religion and talked about/made fun of that. Just more like, "Wait, really? Every animal on a boat? Didn't happen. How do I know? Go try and put every animal on a boat and see how it works out". Good good stuff and given that our views and his views seemed to be just about the same we especially loved it. So if his show is coming to your town go and see it. You will LOL.

After the show we met up with Jason’s oldest brother, Andy at a bar downtown. It was fun to see him as always. He was just in town for about 12 hours so we were happy that we were able to hook up with him.

So blah blah about the stuff up there....looks like I have an interview in about 2 weeks. Yes I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. Actually while I am very nervous, I’m also really excited. I will obviously know more in a few weeks, but it is a software consulting company which has an apprenticeship program for those of us that are pretty smart and know how to program, but probably don’t know how to program cleanly, or smartly. Sounds perfect for someone like me who has been trained to be a physicist that computer programs, and not a computer programmer who knows a lot of physics. This would for sure be taking my career out of academia, but that really has been the plan for the last few years anyways. High energy physics is pretty spectacular, but well...I don’t know....high energy physics as a career and I don’t quite mesh. It’s like those breakups where you’re like what happened there? We both liked each other....but it just didn’t work out. So ok, are we don’t with the analogies now? I think so. I’m really excited to be seeing where my career is heading since it’s been a question for awhile :-)

Alright then. Today is more work on my thesis, I have to finish this one section, then it’s back downtown. I have some non-thesis physics work to do that I want to get started on tonight. There is a new graduate student at IU that needs some guidance on getting started and so I am going to write up some instructions for that. I love helping new students, I just wish I was in Bloomington so I could work more one on one with him, ah well. I obviously like to write a lot and so hopefully I can help.

So that’s it. Happy Friday!

Feeling Good

Well yesterday I sent Adviser the theory chapter from my thesis along with a short introductory chapter. Today I’m working on a short section about particle reconstruction and Monte Carlo. If all that gets done I’m free and clear to work on the last part which although is partially done, needs to be expanded on and reviewed and whatever. It just feels good to get parts of the thesis done like this.

Also my publication is out for final approval which should happen by 4pm tomorrow...which is awesome. With that submitted and off the table, there will only be thesis to work on and no more distractions. Today is May 15th. In about a month I’m guessing, I’ll be down to only revisions and not any more writing.

It’s so exciting and feels so good to be seeing an end point. I don’t have a new starting point yet for a job but I’m working on that too. I am hoping to start a new job around August 10th or so, giving me a week after my defense to not have to think about anything. Of course that’s not really how I roll as I’m sure I’ll find lots of stuff to worry and stress over....BUT it won’t be physics. I could wait until September I suppose...but I’m getting antsy! I think I would get a bit bored waiting around for that ninth month to roll around. So August is the plan.

Last night Lisa and I went to see Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantamano which was pretty funny. I think it might have been written for 18 year old boys....but still funny. No where near as good as the first one but of course it couldn’t be. Tonight it’s Eddie Izzard and then drinks at Rockit with a bro-in-law. I have no siblings (which.....kind of sucks, everyone out there with single kids, try and have another :-) ) and so I always have fun hanging out with Jason’s brothers. It’s weird to me because they are all so much alike. Jason is *a lot* younger than his brothers and yet, they all have the same sense of humor and the same general interests and whatever. So that should be fun.

No I haven’t gone running...although, I might work at home tomorrow and so maybe I’ll go to that Pilates class that is at 9am at my gym and then run with Jason when he gets home. The title of this blog should changed to No Marathon Running....we’ll get back there soon enough I suspect.

I Miss Him & Why at 5am?

Jason and I worked together for the last 6 years...well I mean I guess it was about 5 years in October before Jason started his new job. So many people would say to us, and still do, how could you stand seeing your spouse 24/7? I wouldn’t ever really know how to reply, well...I mean he’s like my best friend....we work well together...blah blah blah. I don’t know, I guess it just worked for us. He was always there when things got stressful or just to laugh with me or whatever.

I knew the days where that went away was going to happen. The real world isn’t as casual as graduate school and us laughing loudly in our cube wouldn’t really go over as well. Mostly I’m ok with it, but I don’t know....today I just miss him. I miss seeing him all day long and now I only get a few hours with him. Now that I am working crazy hours it’s even worse because I come home and crash on the couch. It will be better when we are both working downtown because I’ll see him for the entire commute and we might be able to get lunch together or something. It doesn’t help that my in general freakout level is relatively high because this just adds on. My job search is starting though and there has been talk about his company as a possibility.

Or, maybe we’ll win the lottery and then we wouldn’t have to work and could just play all day. sigh. or not.

Anyways, I guess the good thing is that I miss him now. When you see someone 24/7 there is never a chance to miss them and when you say, “OH MY GOD! The funniest thing happened at work!” they say, “Yeah I know. I was there.” So now at least we have stories to tell each other about our day and we don’t have to pretend we weren’t already there for.

This morning our cat gave us a 5am wake up call. I mean just sat outside our door and screamed. What the hell, she had food and water and her box was clean...well ok relatively clean....but sheesh, give us a break cat. The alarm went off at 6 and the only reason I’m really annoyed is that I just didn’t get up at 5 and go out for a run or something. The running train needs to get started again. We have things happening the rest of this week, so maybe next week either a few miles in the morning can go down or something in evenings. Tonight Jason has a work party (open bar, free food and bowling for 4 hours...pretty sweet!) and so I am going to a movie with the cousin Lisa. Tomorrow night we are going to see Eddie Izzard with some old friends at The Chicago Theater. Then after the show, Jason’s oldest brother happens to be in town and so we are meeting him out for some drinks which should be a good time.

No big plans this weekend though which is good after the last weekend we had. Big goal is to get Adviser the first two chapters of my thesis by tonight, then the 4th chapter by Friday. (Already gave him chapter 3) THEN I will only have the Analysis part to go. Breathe. Breathe.

Being Busy

In general I’m a busy girl. I love being busy. Lot’s happening at work means the hours fly by. Usually I am in some kind of fitness program which keeps me on my toes for the non-work hours. Add in random city events, and dates with friends and city walks and whatever most days of the week are packed to the brim.

However, this thesis writing AND getting my publication approved and out is too much. Because now in my non work hours I am stressing out about it. I have nightmares about bugs in the code. Last night I work up at 2am and just about every half hour after that until the alarm went off at 6am. Crazy dreams, and bad sleep and I feel ok today, but it’s always there.

I realize that I am not talking about much else these days. But this thesis is the culmination of 10 years of my life. 4 years of physics undergraduate work and 6 years of graduate work. So even though my career might not being staying in the physics/academia tract, this thesis is the most important thing I have ever done. Hell I have spent over a 3rd of my lifetime associated with Indiana University and studying physics. Think about that...a 3rd of a lifetime is a lot! Thus I can’t stop thinking about it/worrying about it/talking about it/writing about it. I just wish that I wasn’t *so* stressed out about it, but I guess that’s not really my style and I know that so I should just go ahead and accept the stress so I can stop saying, “I’m so stressed out.”

I am looking forward to expanding my horizons in whatever my new path/career might be and I know I will stay just as busy, I’m just hoping a little less busying in my head in the wee small hours of the morning.

Let’s Walk Some More!

Our weekend can be summarized with, “Well we could just walk there, I think”.

On Friday night I met Jason downtown and we walked North to meet Jake and LaurA! for drinks and a movie at Century theater. On the way we stopped for dinner at one our favorites, The Wiener Circle. This is THE place to go for Chicago dogs and they didn’t disappoint as usual. The food is always just as awesome as the atmosphere and Friday night was great as usual.

Saturday we walked to the library in Bucktown and did some work. Jason was able to read through my theory section and had some organizational suggestions. I think the Adviser is going to be happy that Jason is taking a first look at everything before he gets his hands on it. I’m happy that he read it and I think his suggestions will make it so much clearer and more understandable. I should finish the theory section and the introduction in the next day or so, making me about two weeks ahead of schedule. Even though I’m ahead of schedule I’m still so stressed out, especially on Mondays. I look at the calendar and go, “There is no way, it’s all due like right now” Of course it’s not due right now, it’s due in a month, but I get antsy and nervous. But anyways. It’s getting exciting. I worked on my resume as well because there is a job on the horizon (so. exciting.) and even if that doesn’t work out something has to happen this summer and so the resume needs to be done.

On Saturday evening we went out to dinner with everyone’s favorite Kansas Jayhawk fans at Vong’s Thai Kitchen which was amazing. They have a way that you can order family style and thus get to try more things out. If anyone goes there get the passion fruit suffle for dessert, it was worth the price of dinner.

On the walk back to the bus, Barb and I were squealing like little girls talking about a musical coming to town and the girl in front of us turned around, put her fingers to her lips and went, “SHHHHHHHHH”. Barb and I looked at each other, then back to the girl and were like are you kidding me? It’s 9:30 pm, downtown chicago and you’re shushing us? Seriously? Well of course Barb and I then just rode her all the way until she went into her restaurant. Go back to the burbs lady, sheesh.

On Sunday I got up early to work on my resume and read the paper. Jason got up a few hours after me. At about noon we headed to lincoln park to get some lunch and drinks with other Chicago running kids. A good time was had by all and we started walking back to the bus and soon enough just ended up back at our apartment near Western/Chicago. We started from the middle of Lincoln Park so that was pretty awesome although my legs are surprisingly tired today.

So today is Monday. I have thesis work on on the table today, sending in my resume and finishing up with my publication (seriously...it’s *never* fucking ending and making me crazy every night...sorry Jason.)

Running & Cross Training

oooh what happens when a Mrs. LeahC gets her groove back? She runs again! Another 1.5 miles. Oh that's right.

This time we ran to our weekly kickball game. Yep, Jason and I are on a kickball team and yesterday was the first time I had gotten enough work done that I could actually go to it. Jason and I ran into each other in the field when the ball came our way...totally not my fault as I actually called for it...but whatever :-) I'm kidding. I didn't kick the ball very far on my one and only attempt and thus I didn't really play that much at all. The team that we were playing were big cheater cheaters. They were really good and all kind of big assholes, but whatever still a good time.

Today I'm working at home. I think I have the first two sections of my thesis done. I mean "done". The first section is a 2 page introduction which I have to admit I was able to add some flair to (I know, who would have thought physics could have flair?). However, the second section is the theory section and I have 35 pages on that...now that doesn't mean anything as I don't know what my adviser will think about it. Tomorrow Jason is going to read through it and since he already has a PhD might be able to give me some suggestions. I am about 2 weeks ahead of schedule which is awesome.

So today I am going to work through that section one more time so I can give him a good copy. Then I can start in on the analysis section of the paper, although it's almost all written but just needs to be reorganized a bit.

Alright, so it's Friday and we have a busy weekend coming up. Yay for Friday!

Chicago 5/08/08

What a difference five minutes makes! My commute is pretty long in general. I don’t mind it as it’s just all a part of the routine. I start by taking the Chicago bus to Milwaukee, followed by the Blue Line to Clark/Lake followed by a walk to the Metra. Then Metra to Wheaton, and a car to the Lab.

Fine.

Let’s just talk about the first half or rather first 1/5 of the commute. The bus ride.

Does everyone on the west side of Chicago get up at the same time. And is that time five minutes later than my preferred awaking time. I like to be up and out of bed at 6am, that gets me out of the house at 6:40. There is a bus that gets to my stop at about 6:45 and it’s just about empty. I mean I have an extra seat for my bags kind of empty. I would say I got this routine down and for the past week or so have been sticking to it.

This morning however, in some kind of fog I got up exactly five minutes late. Meaning that I was out the door at 6:45, and thus missing by 6:45am bus. I even looked east and saw the butt of the bus a few blocks away. Damn. So I wait a little bit and about 5 minutes later here comes another bus. I’m not kidding, so crowded I was squeezed on there like....like.....a single sardine in the middle of a can (bad analogy right? I’m not on my game this early).

There are all kinds of people on the bus, pushing and shoving and vying for space. Of course there is no space, and my two bags are taking up their own kind of space. I push my way to the back. Then there is the issue of someone needing to get off the bus, I’m climbing onto people’s laps to get out of the way so they can get to the exit door, as there is no where else for me to go.

The train is still relatively empty, and when I get downtown, five minutes later than I have been...it’s SO busy. Usually I can just jaunt across the street because there is no traffic. This morning the cars, delivery trucks and the bike messengers are all whizzing by me, my hair blowing in my face as they go by. Chicago is a busy bustling town and it’s one of the things I love about it. I am just in awe of the difference a few minutes makes in where the people end up. Instead of finishing off a breakfast meal or whatever, they are pushing and shoving their way into town.

People will read this and think to themselves, “How can you stand it?” All those crowds, being pushed onto people’s laps just to get to work? Everything is easier out of town where you don’t have to deal with that!” To which I would reply, because in the end it’s actually always easier. I would rather have an annoying 10 minute bus ride (sometimes) than be stuck in the suburbs where you HAVE to have a car to get around. Everything in the city is accessible on a bus line, a train line or the two footed motor...a walk away. For example, there are three different grocery stores in my neighborhood, a big Dominicks (which is funny already because to a Suburban it’s very small) a half mile away, a Ukrainian deli next door, and a small grocer two blocks away. All of those are within walking distance and thus I don’t need to drive to the grocery store. I will admit having a car in the city is useful at time. However, what makes the deal for me is that I don’t HAVE to drive anywhere to do anything. Ever.

A ten minute annoyance does not make a lifestyle. My lifestyle is all of Chicago and you have to take the good with the bad. In this chosen life, the good far outweighs the bad.

From now on, though I’ll just try to stick to my 6am wakeup call.

Wait what?... Running?

That’s right people. After so many weeks off I ran last night. My achilles has been feeling better for weeks now and I just need to get out there and run, my body was starting to ache from being so damn static for so long. So I got home threw on running clothes and ran. We ran ALL the way to the gym. That’s right, a whopping 1.5 miles. I don’t care how far it was (or rather how not far it was) because I know that this recovery is still going to be a long slow process. Build up slow. yadda yadda. Plus I don’t want any kind of fake optimism of “now I am going to run everyday or 4 times a week or whatever” Having time to run is still going to be based on how well Thesis is going and as it’s going relatively well these days a run was in order.

So we ran to the gym and then the plan was to do our normal weight routine and then run home. Oh right...but we probably got to the gym at 7:45pm meaning I hadn’t had anything to eat for about 6 hours. So we did a few things but in the middle of some assisted pullups I got pretty light headed and so decided to quit and walk home instead. Which is fine. I should have known better and had a granola bar or something before leaving the house.

The achilles didn’t hurt much, I would say...probably about 99% pain free. Just felt some twinges when we got back to the house. Not so much the pain I was feeling previously, but just more a stiffness type of thing. No running and lots of icing...maybe that could happen.

Who cares. I RAN A MILE AND A HALF BITCHES.

Oh, the glory of small victories.

Oooooh July 1st...It'll be happy hour all Day!

Like a Slug

Although, maybe that’s not fair. I don’t really know how active a slug is in general. Maybe they do more than just ooze around. I don’t know, but it sounds lazy and thus I use it.

I work pretty hard during the week these days. I’m up early and home late and I only think about my thesis. (I know right...talk about something else already!). So the weekends come around and I have the *best* intentions to work on my thesis. Maybe work with Jason on some theory problems. Maybe do some editing of things I have already written. Maybe (maybe!) write a whole new section. That’s always the plan. And not that it falls apart because I’m not out there doing other things. I just end up doing nothing. I still get up early in the mornings thinking that I can get some work done before the JMan gets up...but then I just have a cup of coffee and watch a movie or read the paper or whatever. And I think it’s ok. I think my brain needs the break so that when the week comes I can be charged up and ready to get back on it. Until I absolutely have to work on the weekends I am going to stick with being lazy. I go into Mondays with more gusto (that’s right, I said “gusto”) and in the end I think I get more done.

In the end we had a great weekend. On Friday night we went to see Iron Man with Jake and LaurA! and it was so so so much fun. I think everyone should go see it immediately. The theater that we were meeting them at was about 2 miles from our house. I leave my car in the burbs on the weekend (I’m trying to make my carbon footprint smaller) and so we are carless on the weekends. We decided to walk to the theater since I sit on my ass all day and I just wanted to get my legs moving. We walked all the way there and the great news is that I had no achilles pain. This is the most annoying injury I have ever had but I think it’s come at a good time since I don’t really have time to run anyways. So it looks like there is some progress on that front and I’m hoping that in another few weeks I’ll be really all better and can start slowly adding some runs back in.

On the walk home after the movie we walked right by Margie’s Candies. This place is about a mile from our apartment and we keep saying that we have to go in there but we never do. We noticed a lot of people hanging around outside and then noticed that they were open until one in the morning so we went inside to get some ice cream cones to go. The inside of this place has not changed, I’m guessing, since they opened in 1921. It’s one of those old Chicago places that has stood the test of time. We got giant ice cream cones and walked the rest of the way home feeling like little kids on a warmish spring evening.

We woke up early on Saturday morning and met up with the Lovely Cousin Lisa and her her hubby for breakfast at the Bongo Room on Milwaukee. I am way an eggs and bacon kind of girl, but Lisa gave me a heads up on the pancakes at this place. I took her advice and ordered some oreo-raspberry pancakes. I could have died right after eating them because it was one of the most delicious things I have ever had. Apparently the menu changes and so my mouth is already watering to go back.

After breakfast we headed to the library to work. For 5 minutes. Then we walked home and napped instead. After a lazy day around the house we got dressed and went out to Aki Sushi on Division for dinner. We went there a couple of weeks ago and I wasn’t sold on the sushi, but this time I got some specialty rolls and for the second time that day I was in a state of yummy tastes in my mouth.

Sunday I got up early and did do some edits on my thesis....six whole pages at that. I KNOW! I’M AWESOME. The rest of the day we didn’t do much of anything. We went to the grocery store, took a nap, I went to target with Lisa came home...took another nap....watched the Cubs...I screamed at the TV announcers for their obvious hatred for the Cubs (seriously...we get it. Albert Pujhols is awesome. He’s not batting right now though, so maybe we can not talk about him for the 8th time. Great. Thanks). Went to bed early, was asleep by 10 and as I have been doing recently had dreams about being back in gymnastics (I was a gymnast for 7 years...yes I’m 6’ tall...no I didn’t play basketball...yes I was the tallest person on the gymnastics team). What are those dreams about. I’m like out there and I have to do my floor routine, and tumble and I have no idea how I am going to do anything. Recurring dream....what does it mean!?!

And so I come into Monday refreshed and rejuvinated. I left the house 10 minutes earlier this morning and I was downtown by 7:10 in the morning. I got all the edits done that Jason had for me on one section of my thesis, and half the corrections I had done myself on another section. So yep. Here we go. The rest of the day includes more work on the theory section. Yay!

Happy Monday!

Go See Iron Man

...that is all.

Lincoln Square & 5 IS better than 3

Last night I left the lab around 6:30 or so. I got one small tiny section of the theory section of my analysis done. It's a part that's not super relevant to my analysis, but important none the less. I had to do some drawing in EazyDraw for a figure and that took up the last hour or so that was here. I love drawing things (easy (!) things) on a computer so the time flew by pretty fast.

I drove home last night because we needed to drop our rent off and the office is up north in Lincoln Square. I picked Jason up at the kickball field where the team lost 2-1...although apparently Jason got a hit and then subsequently got picked off first. Yes. I think he should post about kickball too. I'm kidding.

So then we drove up north and decided to park and walk around and find somewhere to eat. It's such a great neighborhood and last night just propelled us to want to live there even more. We are looking forward to the day we can move out of our shitty apartment and be up there. We went to dinner at an Irish bar and had beers and sandwiches. All good things. Wow this post is just about as exciting as eating burnt toast.

On the way home we stopped at a CVS because I needed razors, and here is where the 5 is better comes in. I got the new Venus whatever razor that haas 5 blades on it. I'm telling you, even though I felt ridiculous and like I was in that Saturday Night Live skit where the guy has the really big razor on his face, it's the most amazing thing I have ever used. So there. There is me buying into advertising. And I love it.

Alrihgt. I have a talk to give in about 2.5 hours. No I don't know why I get to the lab so early when I have to give talks because it just makes me more geeked out than usual and then I'm all nerved up and then I talk to fast....AND ... AND....and now I need to calm down.

Happy Friday All!

Mediated by How Early the Doors Open

Every morning I write blog posts after I get on the train and before it leaves the station. The doors to get on the train usually open twenty minutes before the train leaves. Twenty minutes is the perfect amount of time to spend writing this. Hence I get mad when the doors open late...cause 15 minutes is just a bit rushed. Anyways.

I know, right? My posts lately have been *fascinating*

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The guy in front of me is sitting funny...like he’s pushing so hard into the back of the seat that it’s pushing up against my knees. What’s up with that!
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So yes, I would say that I am a routine driven kind of person. I think that’s what makes me love marathon training so much, because it’s pretty mindless. You run when the schedule says to run and you don’t when it says to rest. Now that I’m not running, I have a whole new routine...not a *rut* and yes...it’s *very* exciting...and yes you are very excited that you found this blog today! yay!

6:00 - Alarm goes off
6:09 - I get out of bed after hitting snooze once
6:09-6:50 - Shower, breakfast, quick check of e-mails
6:50 - Out the door.
6:50-7:30ish - Bus/Train downtown - Grabbing a Red-Eye paper if they refilled the box by my apartment
7:30ish-8:15 - Fat-Free latte, return e-mails, work on publication at Cosi on Washington & Franklin (Um..yeah they kind of know me know as instead of me saying “Medium fat-free latte”, the see me and go “medium fat-free latte?”...yes please!)
8:15-8:20 - Walk to Ogilvie
8:20-8:40 - Write posts here!
8:40-9:35 - Read a non-fiction book (this is my new thing, I carry two books with me, non-fiction something in the morning as I am alert and ready (! exclamation point) to work and learn stuff...and then a somewhat trashy easy fiction book for the ride home.) on the way to my stop
9:40-9:55 - Drive to the lab
10-5:15 - Work on Physics stuff. Mainly thesis, a couple of hours for my publication (that fucking publication is why I am going to have to work on weekends)
5:15-5:30 - Drive back to Wheaton to get back on the train
5:30-5:50 - Walk to caribou close to the train station, get a Orange Zest Iced Tea...medium! The staff at this place changes every day so they don’t quite have my order down when I walk in. Who knows I might change my mind anyways...or not.
5:55-7:30 - Commuting back home
7:30-9 - Lay on the couch like a slug, these days so nerved up not hungry enough to eat dinner.
Asleep by 10.

I mean. It doesn’t change, which is good because I tend to work better with a definite schedule (probably the same reason I am a better runner when I am training for something instead of just “running when I feel like it”). Yes a lot of the time up there is commuting, but way worth it as I am getting so much reading done, and I loathe driving anywhere so it’s a nice calm way for me to end or start the day.

Yesterday I came up with an outline of sorts for the theory section of my thesis which helps because now I can put words down on paper sooner than I thought. My adviser is going to get busy at the end of June (of course) and so I have to make sure I don’t miss any of the deadlines I set for myself because there is really no extra or late time.

Well the train is moving and I am now over my alloted blogging time, and thus The Plan of Chicago awaits.

Tomorrow is Friday!