Snow in the Morning

Can you believe November is in full swing? I swear we just celebrated Halloween. Time moves way to fast for me nowadays. Well, I guess it's nice in some ways. You see, I'm so anxious for school to be out that I don't sleep most nights anymore. I just sort of rest in small bits between stress-out sessions. On the other hand, I have much to accomplish before the end of this month and it's getting down to the wire. My proposal is officially in to my committee now (yay times a million), but no word as to when I'll defend or when I can defend my thesis...or if the draft I sent my adviser was any good. The main trouble is that I feel like the writing has been such a solitary task, and so I'm never really sure if it's good or if I'm just tired of writing. but whether or not I officially graduate this semester or next, the idea of graduation is real now. I know I will make it through this experience called graduate school. 

But for this last month I'm spending a lot of time in my office. It's not as cozy as I'd like it to be because most of the time it's been overtaken with the chaos of research. But these are some of the images I see the most:

The candy that's supposed to be for my students, but on really long days just goes to me. Also, why are there never enough pink Dots? They are the most delicious by far. 

The skylight over my office mate's desk. It helps me tell whether it's day or night. You can't actually see the sky, but it does make the room less gloomy.

Books! This is the stack I reference the most frequently. And so many more articles. Also, I realize there are two of the same book there...a mistake in ordering online, oops.

The carpet and my feet. My feet get cold a lot so I sometimes put on my office slippers, which are not pictured here.

The dots on the ceiling I begin to count when I'm already going crazy. Also that box keeps the cold air from blowing directly on me. Hey, it's a system that works. 

Really, I didn't mean to write for so long about school. New topic, promise. 

Neal and I have been trying to cook together more often, instead of going out. I remember now how I love to cook and how I don't have to cook gourmet all the time. Sometimes Ramen or Spaghettios is acceptable. It certainly takes less time and creates less of a mess to clean up. All around Neal and I are simplifying. The tv finally kicked the bucket. It was taking longer and longer to turn on and one day I turned it on at 1:30 and by 5 it still hadn't 'warmed up' so we just gave up. Now we watch on out laptop, and we watch less television altogether. We wanted to spend less time with tv, so I guess this was a grand opportunity to make that happen sooner rather than later. 

None of these thoughts really fit together today. But there was a reason I wanted to blog today. It was because I woke up with Neal at five and decided I wasn't going to campus today. So I went back to bed. Well, sort of. I sneezed for a half an hour. It's this strange new habit I've taken up. For the last few months every morning I have to sneeze as soon as I wake up. Not just once, but several times. This morning it was snowing, not exactly allergy season, but still the sneezes come. As soon as I get about four out of my system I'm usually fine for the rest of the day. Weird, I know. But also hilarious. When the sneezing finally settled down Neal was about to leave and let me know it was snowing! 

Now I'm no winter fanatic. I guess I'm just more of a seasons fanatic. Each time there's a change in the way the breeze feels or the sound of crunchy leaves under my feet, I just get excited. this morning's snow was one of the first, and the first I really got the enjoy from home. So I started the day with some dishes to warm the house up...and because there were a lot of dishes. The steamy water really made the place feel homey. Then I made some cider and sat on the porch watching the snow fall while reading the scriptures. It was early enough for silence and the snow actually made it warmer than the last few mornings. 

It was peaceful.

That's a big deal, because so little of life has felt peaceful as of late. Too many deadlines and responsibilities have filled my hours and minutes. Even when I try to relax I've felt guilty for doing something other than homework. This morning was the exception. For those few minutes, I just breathed in the steamy smell of apples and listened to softly falling snow. Just writing about it makes me miss that moment. But if I can find those kinds of moments, then I know life is alright. I'm going to be okay. 

This morning, much later than my morning reading, but still beautiful. I had to just enjoy it some more through my front window and play, yes, Christmas songs, on the piano. Hey, if I'm 'practicing' it's totally acceptable.

Halloween and other Scary Stories

I really need to start taking pictures again. My phone was my inspiration. Now all I've got is my brain, which lately has trouble keeping up. There have been major changes in the Whitlock household lately.

1. We moved our only living room chairs so we can look out the window and at the television at the same time.
2. The tv now takes about 20 minutes to turn on. Poor feller is gonna kick the bucket soon.
3. I wore makeup for the first time in over a month. This is especially funny since it was just to stake conference, where no one even saw me because it was a broadcast. Hey, I put on makeup when I want to!
4. Neal and I realized that cooking together really was fun and began making an effort to do so again (with delicious results, I may add).

So when I said major changes, I really meant minuscule ones that make a big difference to me.

Since before we were even married, I have been planning different awesome couple Halloween costumes for this year. Unfortunately, my planning stayed entirely on paper, which means that a couple weeks before the date, Neal and I defaulted to Inspector Space Time and Constable Reggie as depicted by Troy and Abed from Community. How's that for an incredibly obscure reference? We gathered the necessary constable costume and a robe and bowler hat. And then we just didn't dress up. You have to understand. At five in the morning, putting on 'real people' clothing is already a stretch for me sometimes. So instead Neal wore a sort of orange shirt and I wore my orange dress with black leggings. I tried to put on some costume makeup (it doesn't count as real makeup, okay) but it just made me look more haggard than normal.

We did, however, have some friends over to celebrate the holiday. We ate some award-winning chili (based on results from 2012 Bowden Family dutch oven cook off) and cornbread. We watched the ever classic film Blackbeard's Ghost. If you haven't seen it, by the way, it is definitely worth the time to find a copy. I want to be amazing like those aged "daughters of the buccaneers" someday. There was one hitch in the plan. I forgot to buy candy for trick or treaters. Well, I remember three days before but Neal was concerned we would just eat it all. I saw some children down the street coming my way and had a mini heart attack. What does one do when there is no candy to be found in the house? They had already seen me through the window! I scrambled and found two options: two ring pops of unknown age (they don't go bad, they're sugar!) and several Kool-aid packages. Yah, pretty wretched pickings. Luckily, they didn't actually stop, but after the second scare I made a friend bring some over as part of her party contribution. In the end we only got a few, but the robot dance from a darling neighbor made my night.

So now, Happy November! This is one of my favorite times of the year. It isn't yet Christmas season full on, but since I am a musician I can begin singing and playing Christmas songs on the piano as "practice." It doesn't even matter that I no longer perform in choirs...I don't skip to Christmas, no way, I just enjoy it for longer.

In truth, I love the way a month of thanksgiving coincides with the most stressful month of the semester. Just when I think school is going to turn me into an insomniac sugar addict, I see an influx of gratitude on via social media. My mother always encouraged us to celebrate Thanksgiving, so I continue the tradition with a thankful chart. I usually gather autumn leaves, but the early snow means my chart may be more freestyle decor this year. And when I wake up at three (as I have consistently for the last two weeks) I will try to see the joy. I mean, I am grateful that I have a cozy bed and we have a bedside table which holds my water bottle so well. That way I'm never too parched.

Well, that's all for this Sunday evening folks. I promise I'll take some pictures before I post next time. Those pictures really keep me on track.