Squirrel!

Look how cute I am!

Ah, Michigan wildlife. As a birder, I am very excited for this spring season because, as I mentioned before, so many new birds! Since moving here, however, I've had some other wildlife moments apart from birding. Last fall during a hike in the woods, there were several white-tailed deer, which is very cool for me because in Oregon and Washington, we've got mostly mule deer. But really, one of the best things about Michigan are the black squirrels. I just thought they were cute, but Kevin decided to investigate. So, we learned (well, Kevin learned and told me) that they are a melanistic subgroup of grey squirrels. They are also more populous in the Midwest (thus why I'd never seen them before). But really, what's most important is that they are super cute.

Mississippi Flyway Zone

As I was reading this morning, I heard the rattle outside of a Flicker drilling into a piece of metal. It's an unmistakable sound, and something I just love to hear (and see - there is something hilarious about a bird drumming onto a metal telephone box or metal chimney just to make himself heard). This is exciting for me because it means birds are returning to the area, and what is even more exciting is that I live in the Mississippi Flyway Zone now so I can see a whole slew of new birds I've never seen before. There are excellent opportunities to do so along the shores of Lake Superior on the UP, and also closer to home for me along Lake Huron. I'm not sure I'll be able to get out too far this year, but I do have plans for some park walks near my home. And I may have to buy a new bird book - my Sibley guide is for Western North America which doesn't help much now that I'm in Michigan.

Tiny Air

It's wafer thin!

Before I started school (and had a decent job) I bought a new computer. I was advised to do so from someone who was a 4th year and has since graduated. She said, "If there is any tech you need, buy it before you start school because once you start, you will always be broke." I followed her advice, and bought a super stealth Macbook Air. It's tiny and wonderful. When I'm at home I hook it up to a large monitor so I'm not hunching over an 11 inch screen. Although not all the time, but sometimes I hook it up and it's so much easier. Anyway, I was thinking today that I always have my computer with me. It's weird. There are rarely any times when I do not have it on my person. I came up with a few times when I don't have it on me: when I'm grocery shopping, when I go for a walk in a park, uh, when I go to a movie. It took a while to think of times it's not in the same place as I am. This is weird to me. But, my entire academic life is on this tiny computer and it's very easy to carry around. So I guess, why not keep it with me all the time?

The Jungle

This is the small round table that I sit
next to, and perch my coffee on when
Jim and I get together to chat. This is just
a glimpse of the magical jungle.

Every other Wednesday I hop on a conference call for my assistantship. I meet in Jim's office for the call on campus. Some days I come to his office earlier if we need to go over anything, some days I just like going in earlier because I find so much joy in chatting with him. He is a wealth of knowledge, and in some ways has become a kind of mentor for me. He directs his advice to me not just as a graduate assistant, but also as a student, a professional, and to someone who has future goals. He knows what I'm interested in and is able to make connections for me, to people or to readings. In short, he's awesome. I will miss working with him because he is retiring at the end of the summer. But my future plans are for another blog post. (Don't worry, I have something in the hopper). Before I ever met Jim, the woman who was previously in my GA-ship was kind enough to email me and tell me a little about the work. I remember distinctly that she wrote "I left a folder of information with Jim. He should have it to give to you and hopefully he can find it. You will understand when you see his office." I didn't think much of it, until I walked into The Jungle. It is amazing and almost indescribable. Let's just say that when I scooch my wheeled chair (circa 1976) up to the phone on his desk so we can get on the conference call, I roll over several (and by several I mean 38) academic journals that are still in their plastic wrap. His desk is like a miracle of balance; there are several hundred pieces of paper stacked with books and dissertations in review, towering ever so precariously. In a world with gravity, they should fall. In Jim's office, they are just there. In perfect balance. Like Jenga. And every time I go into his office, nothing has moved, thus, nothing falls over. I am both in awe of his office, and also extremely comforted by it. I love every other Wednesday.

Brew Time

I have mentioned our lovely neighbor in a few posts. The day we were moving in, he came over and offered to help, thereby moving all of the heavy furniture with Kevin after we had just driven 4 hours, and I could take breather and move some of the boxes against the walls of our house. He then asked, "do you guys like beer?" because he is a home brewer, and ever since then, we have wanted to take advantage of his knowledge. The time has finally arrived. Home brewing is happening! It's more exciting for Kevin than it is for me, but it is pretty exciting for me to see how excited Kevin gets. (because, it's the little things). The first batch is at our neighbors house, and will get kegged. The second batch is in our second bedroom closet, simmering with hops. This batch will get put into bottles. And speaking of bottles, our kitchen has been somewhat over-run with bottles getting cleaned and prepped for beer. All very exciting. I write boring research papers, Kevin makes beer.

The Kit. The Kit at work. (I hear the bubbles are good.)

Thank You for Being My Audience

When I figure out how to do a 3-D
presentation, I'll let you all know.

One of the things I'm incredibly grateful for is being able to try out my speeches and presentations on an audience. And by audience, I mean Kevin. I really dislike being in front of people and making presentations, and I spend a lot of time preparing for these kinds of things. When I practice with Kevin, I even get nervous sometimes, and start to stutter a bit. But really what I value the most is that he listens and provides feedback, despite the fact that I know the subject material is kind of boring to him. Most of what I study in school is kind of a snooze-fest, I know. So I can't say enough how much I appreciate that he is my mini-audience.

Looks Like We Made It

Unbelievable. Spring has made it to Michigan. And it's not just evidenced by the calendar. The birds have been singing away more often, the snow is virtually gone, and temperatures are almost always above freezing. Living in the Midwest, this is truly a miracle. Transitioning to spring here bears much more weight than the NW, where seasons tend to blend into one another and slide between minimal degree changes for months. The change into spring in Michigan is obvious, and I am thankful to have this kind of sign. Soon, the bulbs we put in the backyard last year will tell us if they made it through the winter too.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

That's right. It's the most wonderful time of the year. March Madness. Today, the games began (if you don't count the "first round") and already I was glued to my, er, phone. I have an app on my phone so that I can watch games, you know, while I do homework. Needless to say I had to take a couple of breaks because of the UAB / Iowa State game. But I've got my bracket filled out, and I'm ready to go. I was raised to watch college basketball, so I kind of can't help myself. Also, part of me kind of believes that if it weren't for March Madness, Kevin and I would have never met. (It's a long way around to explain how we met, but March Madness, specifically The Final Four play a key role in our meeting. I'll tell you sometime). Ah, the happiest season of all. And while I don't make all my picks based on heart, (Go Heels!) I do make some that way (I have MSU going farther than they should). But Wildcats, I'm picking you to take it all home.

Lansing Hipster

I can promise you I do NOT look like this

So something interesting happened a few weeks ago. I learned that many of my friends and classmates here at MSU and in Lansing consider me to be a hipster. This is weird for me. When I learned this, I wanted to blurt out, "Have you seen a hipster?!?" Then I kind of started to accept that there might be reasons why they see me this way. I started to scrutinize my appearance, then came up with a list of things. Maybe it's my glasses. (But I actually use my glasses because I can't see without them. And many days I wear contacts). Or maybe it's the bird thing. (But I actually AM a birder, I don't just put birds on things. When I do, 90% of the time I can identify what kind of bird it is. I mean, I used to listen to bird calls on CD so as to learn them better). I ride my bike, and yes, it has a basket on it. (But I wear a helmet when I ride, and it's one of those tech-helmets with a visor. And also my bike has more than one gear). Maybe it's the couple of sweaters I have that look like they are from the 80s. (I have no rationale for this). Or maybe it's because I roll my jeans. (But I do this because it's tiring to have to hem every single pair of pants I own). And, well, maybe it's because I have hot magenta streaks in my hair. (Although I did this because I thought a little color would get me through the rest of the Michigan winter). Whatever it is, I am now a hipster in Lansing.

The Great Melt

In winter, when the plows come at night,
they pickup carts. Then, when the snow
beings to melt, the great "grocery cart
emergence" happens.

One of the hardest things about this winter was having a simple pleasure stripped away from me. Walking. Who knew that when I am unable to walk from Point A to Point B I become extremely grumpy? Walking is how I got around a lot in Seattle. My little rule was that if a place is 3 miles or less than where I am headed, then I can certainly walk there. (Of course, riding my bike is also an option, but not in winter). Plus walking allows for time to listen to the world around me, or a podcast. Now, the great melt is happening, and I am beside myself with joy. The front lawn is visible, we can use our entire drive way now, I don't have to dig a little cubby for the garbage can, and the sidewalks are clear! They are beckoning me to walk! Let's go Emiko! Walk to campus! You love this! They are telling me how dry they are, and that there is no fear of slipping and falling. I am so happy. Just as soon as I get over this flu... Sidewalks, it's just you and me.

Friendsgiving

I'm not sure what you do on the weekends, but here in Lansing my weekends mostly consist of 1. homework & reading 2. grocery shopping 3. watching TV (I'm 9 seasons into Murder She Wrote) 4. thinking that it just feels like any other day. Although I should add, that on Sundays we often get together with our neighbors to play games. This Sunday, however, they had a Friendsgiving. That is to say, they had a bunch of friends over and cooked a Thanksgiving meal just for the heck of it. Unfortunately, I was not able to go because I've fallen sick again. I know, AGAIN. And it's bad, real bad. So, Kevin went across the street for Friendsgiving while I stayed home and did homework (while watching Murder She Wrote). He popped back home after about 30 minutes with a big plate of home-cooked food, and I have to say, there is nothing more healing than gobbling up Thanksgiving food in March when one has the flu. It was so comforting. For dessert, a steam bowl for my nose.

GIRLS

I knew there was another reason why I liked the television show Girls so much. It's not that I'm embarrassed to admit that I watch it, because I find it rather smart and funny. (Maybe the end of season 2 was kind of weird, and season 3 was starting to get aggravating) but now season 4 is here and it's really quite good. And as I was watching it the other day (because even though it's on Sunday, I rarely get around to it until a few days or sometimes a week later) I noticed that in a scene with Hannah's parents, they were driving a car with a Michigan license plate. Why I didn't realize this before I'm not sure. I remember some mention of her being from the midwest, but I figured it was Minnesota or something. Come to find out - thanks Wikipedia! - that our protagonist, Hannah Horvath, was born and raised in East Lansing!! And her parents are professors at (we can only assume) Michigan State University! This is so brilliant for me. I do promise, however, not to get into any mellow-dramatic story lines while I'm at MSU or start thinking about moving to NYC.

Returning

My little visit

I arrived back in Lansing on Thursday evening after being out of town for a few days for spring break. During this break, I had a lot of time to sit and think, one of my favorite activities. I really needed some space to process things, and have some elbow room for my thoughts and feelings. Coming back, I felt a little swell of happiness, because I knew Lansing was my home, and I was coming home. It hasn't been easy to accept this, however I think it is time. It would be distracting for me to constantly be thinking of some other place. Hidden in this other place is my inability to live in the present, so that means I am also constantly in the past or in the future, making things up about what might happen.

I feel a great deal of relief to know that Lansing is my home. I've been here for 7 months now, and have had my ups and downs. Now, however, I think it's time to put some of that to bed, tuck it in, and say, "It's okay to just nap, and dream. Ups and downs, you can sleep now." I've always had a hard time figuring out how my environment connects to who I am. I haven't moved a great deal in my life, or at least, I have moved a lot but it's always been around the northwest. Being in Michigan has been an awakening of trying to learn how this landscape settles inside of me because it is so completely foreign to anything I have ever lived with. But I'm finding peace now, and as a mentioned earlier, a little swell of happiness.

Prairie Home

One of my classmates mentioned Garrison Keillor the other day, and I couldn't help but feel much closer to Mr. Keillor these days. (I also confess that half of the people we were chatting with didn't know who he was and I suddenly felt like a 54 year old savings and loan officer at the local credit union who also volunteers to help people register to vote). I've had a long history with Garrison Keillor. During my late teens and early twenties I was an avid Prairie Home Companion listener. Every Sunday at noon during college, I could turn on NPR and he was there, singing a little off key and telling me stories. He was part of my sabbath. As the years went by, I listened to the show less and less, but could still hum along to Ketchup and the Powdered Milk Biscuit song. Then about 5 or 6 years ago, I realized that sometimes it was actually kind of annoying. All of the weird skits and sound effects, and loud nose breathing in a microphone started to drive me crazy. However, since moving to Michigan, I feel a kindredness with Mr. Keillor and the stories he tells about how cold it is in the Midwest. Because I too, live that cold. I find myself wanting to listen to the show more these days because there is a camaraderie I feel with him, and everyone in his audience in Beautiful Saint Paul. I have a greater understanding for butterscotch pudding and the humor that is evident here, which oftentimes didn't make sense to me in Seattle. Maybe by this time next year I'll be able to call myself a true Midwesterner.

The Paper was Written in Passive Voice (by Zombies)

I'm going to use this trick the next
time I write a paper

This week I got my first graded assignment back for the semester. You may be thinking, "But the semester is over half way finished and you're just now turning in assignments?" Well, kind of. I turned it in a while ago, it takes a couple of weeks to get it graded. Anyway, I got it back. I did just fine! (Even though grades don't matter). And even though I did just fine, one reason I didn't do great is because I have an issue with passive voice. Don't let this be confused with passive aggressive voice, I'm very good at that. No, it's simply passive voice. During my master's program, it was drilled into me to use passive voice. I don't exactly know why, but whatever the case I was never allowed to use "I" in any papers and had to focus on the result, rather than who made it happen. Basically, my writing was rather dry. Now that I am in an education department, the opposite is happening - my professors are asking, requiring, me to use active voice. This is hard, because I have to re-train my brain how on to do this. I often have to go back and switch all of my sentences around once I've finished a paper. This also deletes about half a page because passive voice is just so darn wordy. It is a good exercise, and I'm glad to be able to write in a way that is more to the point and insert my own voice into my papers. However it is also trying sometimes. And annoying when in one week I have three professors tell me not to be so passive.

Mojo

My man Bob Dylan is pretty excited
that I have my study groove on.

Last night during my marathon Tuesday I commented to a classmate that I finally feel like I have some of my mojo back. "At the beginning of the semester I just felt like I was always waking up on the wrong side of the bed" I reflected while we stood in the hall during our break. He laughed and also nodded his head in agreement (not because he thought I was always a grump but because he too, was slightly disoriented during the first month of the semester). I'm glad to say that I feel that I have some of my mojo back. This could be for several reasons: 1) I have made it through 22 of 29 Tuesday nights (7 more left!!) 2) I know what my topics are for all of my papers that I have to write 3) Spring break is next week. I also haven't had a major malfunction, i.e., slipping on ice and breaking my wrist, crying in front of my advisor, or burning any of my textbooks because I just hate some of them. So, all in all, the mojo is back. It's these little things that I can look to in order to give me some spirited encouragement.

Bathrobes and Snow

The weirdest things happen on my street in Lansing. First, I was not prepared for it be snow today. I was just looking at the temperatures on my phone this morning, and was very happy to see a high of 38 degrees. Unfortunately, THIS IS A LIE. Maybe this isn't all that weird, but I just don't like it when I think it might be "warm." But what is weird is when my neighbors re-arrange their cars in their drive-way in their bathrobes at 8am. This is very odd. I was saying good-bye to Kevin as he went to work, and putting the garbage can out (of which we had to shovel out a little cubby in the snow) and then, there's a guy in his bathrobe and slippers getting into one car, then leaving it running, then into another and pulling in and out of the driveway. ??? I get it, it's another wintry mix today, and maybe this kind of stuff happens. But this is just weird.

Sick Study

I've never been more tempted to buy
an ostrich pillow

I discovered there is something worse than having to do homework all weekend. It's having to do it while sick. I had been priding myself on not getting sick since moving to Lansing. I think this is in part due to the fact that I don't work around people who insist on coming into the office sick and blowing their germs all over my desk. It's also because I'm only on campus a few times a week, so I shelter myself in my little health-home bubble. Unfortunately, I was around a few people last week that had some kind of icky cough or congestion, and I blame this on them. And if you're wondering, yes, I did get a flu shot. And yes, my head cold isn't nearly as bad as it could be.