Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Let’s get personal”
Wow! It’s been a hectic semester for me. I have a ton of things I want to write about and have fallen behind on my blog. Oh well – life happens. The good news is that the things that have made the semester hectic are generally good things. I’m feeling really lucky with how wonderful my life is right now. I’m a bit overloaded with work (in exchange for a light spring semester), but other than that, there is absolutely nothing I can complain about. So with that, on to my life update.
Back in May, the week after I finished the spring semester of teaching, I saw my chance to do something fun and ran with it. The result: I spent a week doing activities in my discomfort zone.
Back in December when I went to Hawai’i, I did something really stupid. I wasn’t paying attention while taking underwater photos, and got stung by a sea urchin.
A tenured male engineering faculty member matter-of-factly told me recently that “it’s easier for women in engineering because they get awards and things.” I have a few questions.
Last June, under a bit of peer pressure and during a momentary lapse in sanity, I signed up for my first half-marathon, the Sedona Half-Marathon. Sedona is stunning, but it’s also at 4,500 ft elevation and very hilly – not exactly a bright choice of location for my first try. Last weekend, nearly 8 months later, it’s finally over. I made it!
It’s been WAY too long since I’ve written a life update. I’ve been meaning to for a while, but every time I think about it I decide it’s not interesting enough. However, today I decided that’s stupid. I don’t really care if it’s boring. So here we go: an update on what I’m doing for work and how I’m doing with my depression.
The majority of my posts over the last few months have been scuba-related. I’ve written a lot about what I’ve done, but not a lot about why I’m doing it. I have a couple more posts about my PADI Divemaster course in Australia planned (here are Part 1 and Part 2), but before I fisnish those, I wanted to reflect a bit on what scuba diving means to me.
I’m really bad at falling asleep. This has been the case ever since I could read. When I was 6 or 7 I’d go under my covers with a flashlight and read after my parents tucked me in. I thought my parents couldn’t see it but of course they could. They didn’t mind though since they knew I was reading.
You may have noticed that I haven’t been writing much lately. I have plenty of material for What’s in that hole? but haven’t written any of it up or posted it. I’ve also been up to some interesting things this summer, but the only thing I wrote about was my trip to Belize, and that was two months ago. And, maybe most noticeably, I haven’t written anything on a truly personal level since… actually I don’t remember. (Edit: turns out it was this post five months ago.) But enough is enough. I promised to write not just when things are …
As I’ve mentioned in a couple of previous posts, part of my funemployment has been spent starting a small business. This business centers on adult novelty items (think things people buy for bachelorette parties or fun gag gifts) and the concept was the brainchild of my sister.
In the 7 months since I quit my job, I’ve taken an array of rather interesting measures in order to reduce my spending (more on this in a future post). Last week, I tried a new money-saving tactic: I cut my own hair.
February 18, 2015 is the day that I checked into the hospital. I was partway through a fellowship in Washington, D.C. and when I went to work that day, the fellowship director (let’s call her AM) could tell something was wrong. It was a Wednesday, but it was the first day of work that week because Monday had been a holiday and Tuesday was a snow day. By that point, I hadn’t slept more than a few hours in 3 or 4 days and was in the midst of a full on breakdown.