Sleepy September

My sleeping patterns have been way off lately. They started out relatively normal. Obviously, by NORMAL, I mean, I was sleeping way too much for the average grad student. I'd go to bed by 10 and then get up around 7. I don't know anyone who does that voluntarily. I figured that I'd eventually hit the wall of needing to get less sleep to do more work. That's sensible. Right? Right.

Well, I've found myself getting less sleep for sure. I'm probably down to 7ish hours a night, which I realize is still quite a lot, again for the average grad student. But it makes me cranky. I require a lot of sleep to be a functioning human being. Non-functioning Amber is a lot like messing with a very short fuse. One wrong move...KABOOM! That was me this week. Anyway, to add another piece to my sleeping puzzle, I've been sleeping away my Sundays. Last week I took 3 naps. I kid you not. And today I slept until 11:15. So my body realizes I need to function on a longer fuse and therefore attempts to catch up on the Lord's day. My body is smart.

And that lit review that was ruining my life last week? It's done. Well, a very rough draft is done. I can't look at it again for awhile, so it's just sitting right now. Ugh. My brain. My poor, poor brain.

But in happier, non-school-related news, it is the perfect fall day. I'm sipping coffee and thinking about how if I don't take advantage of it and go for a run, I'm an idiot. So, in a bit, I'm gonna suit up with Glenda (my Garmin) and go enjoy it.

Fall has sprung.

Or something like that. It's the second day of fall, but the temperatures around here haven't really gotten the memo. At least not yet. Tomorrow morning it's going to be crisp, and I can't wait. I think my favorite days are when it's cool enough for a jacket in the morning, but you can shed it by noontime. Love love love. And I just purchased a new fall hoodie from Lululemon, which I already ADORE. I will most likely live in it. And die in it. And be buried in it. And...I think I just grossed myself out. But whatever.

And is it really almost October? This baffles me. I don't get baffled easily, other than when I say I'm baffled but I'm really not. This isn't one of those times. October means it's REALLY fall. It means pumpkins and leaves and cinnamon. I mean, it's practically Santa time. For the record, this is going to be the year I finally invest in a giant inflatable holiday character for my balcony. I'm turning it into a freaking wonderland. It will be epic.

I'm supposed to be writing a lit review right now. I obviously have something useful I'm supposed to be doing; hence, this post was born. Something else that's baffling: how I can type so fast on blogspot but not in Microsoft Word. Must be a programming glitch. Mr. Gates?

I burned my arm last week trying to pull a spaghetti squash out of the oven. Instead of pulling the rack out of the oven, I instead tried to shimmy my arm in there and grab the pan. Big mistake. The burn swelled up and made a mark, and now I will surely have a disgusting scar on my forearm for the world to see forever.

I suppose it's time to get back to the paper. I now remember why blogging was so popular in undergrad.

This is the story of 8 strangers.

Not my most fabulous week. I've felt more than a little overwhelmed this week by all the tasks I have coming up. So much to read, so much to study. It never ends. And a Sunday where all I want to do is sleep is NOT conducive to me accomplishing any of those said tasks. I took about 3 naps today. Seriously. Three naps. Who does that? Probably someone whose brain has pretty much reached capacity I suppose. Or someone who had a little too much Patron last night.

I did enjoy the season finale of the Real World New Orleans. This is the first season I've ever watched, but man, I loved it. For some reason, I took a serious liking to those people. Well, save a few, but that's to be expected. Lucky for me, I can still follow all of them on Twitter.

Speaking of TV, all my fall shows are coming back this week. I took a few minutes out of my day last week to confirm the start dates and times of all of the winners I have decided to keep up on this season. Glee, The Office, Desperate Housewives. Anything else is icing on top of the cake.

And...I should probably go study. I need to get that printed on a t-shirt.

Squashes

Going into the 4th week and I think I finally see some routine in the chaos. I really can't believe I'm almost a quarter through the semester. Time flies when you're having fun. Read: Time flies when you have your face in a book for 23.56 hours of the day. I really am enjoying it though. And I'm finding that I'm becoming more interested in public administration/politics too. I realize that's backward. Aren't you supposed to pursue a career in something you already like? Well, probably. The point is, I was watching the Today Show this morning, and they were talking about Keynesian strategies and the state of the budget. And I didn't mute it. I find that the more I learn about something and understand it, the more vested I become.

Enough about that.

The weather today is a huge downer. I was going to hit up the 8a CF WOD, but I had no desire to go out in the rain. Although, now it's kind of died down. What a lose-lose situation. Because now I have to go run.

Win-win situation: Me making friends with the squash man at the north side farmer's market. Every week, I go see him, because he gives the best deal in town on winter squash. He charges not by the pound, but by the whole squash. $2 apiece. Squash peeps, you know how awesome this is. Butternut, acorn, spaghetti. You name it. Last week I bought 5 squashes. (Squashes? Really, is that how you write it?) Then he went on to tell me that at the end of harvest season, he's going to unload all he has left on me if I want it. This probably means I'm going to turn my balcony into some sort of cave-like squash menagerie. Hell, I might do that even without the squash Christmas that's about to come to me.

With that, I'm out.

Bring it, Tuesday.

2 for 2.

Two posts in as many days. Shut the front door. It's true.

I've had a really great day today. I woke up on my own at 7:15. This tends to happen when you're in bed by 10:15, but whatever. I am going to rejoice regardless. I got up and made a pot of coffee and then started doing some homework. That simple. It's so weird. When I'm on a mission, there really is no stopping me. It's just the getting onboard that mission that's the problem.

Anyway, I got a decent amount done before I headed to church with my parents. That was nice.

By the time the mid-afternoon rolled around, I decided I wanted to head downtown to check out the Bistro Market that I've heard so much about. Oh my gosh, that place is amazing. A Godsend if you will. If that means that God sent it. Does it? Anyway, God sent that place to make me happy. If you haven't been there, it's on the corner of Walnut and South, and it has this wonderful big-city feel. There's a hot food bar and a salad bar, a Starbucks, a gelato bar, a wonderful glass case filled with treats of all kinds, and then a grocery store on the other side. The actual grocery store part is filled with a huge selection of organic and locally grown produce, which is pretty freaking sweet if you ask me. And the meat counter. Holy mackerel. Fresh fish and seafood. Free range meats. It was beautiful. I ended up a beautiful pecan-crusted pork chop and a bacon-wrapped turkey filet. I also bought some grass-fed beef that I'm pretty stoked about. The pork chop was delicious. I had it tonight for dinner.

Going primal really is delightful.

I liked it so much I made my mom go back with me for a second trip. No kidding. Then we played a little show and tell, and she showed me her downtown office, and I gave her a tour of the poli sci department and my GA office. Overall, a fun day. Now I'm back, with a tummy full of pork chop, and I'm about to start in on round two of Study Sunday. God bless three-day weekends. I teach Attack tomorrow morning, and then it's more downtime. Holla in the streets of Springfield. I love downtime.

Peace out, peeps.

I feel fall.

I just might live in my VS sweats this year. I'm in some right now, and it is the best feeling ever, although the lounge effect may be working too well, seeing as how my studying has gone from not-so-motivated to not-at-ALL motivated. I went to bed at 9:00 last night and slept through for 10 hours. That said, I just woke up from a 1.5 hour nap. I'm totally living up my Labor Day Weekend.

My blogging regularity is non-existent. This makes me sad, but it's also nice to be busy again. I don't remember the last time I was in this sort of frantic schedule, when I was planning every hour and wondering where the hell I was going to find one more. Wait. TEN more. I love it and I hate it. Go figure.

Focusing on the best part of today, the weather is absolutely gorgeous. It was probably just under 60 degrees this morning when I headed out to Crossfit. I adore the beginnings of fall so much. Really any transition into the next season. It just makes me feel like I can move on, from what I once was to what I'm about to be. Whoa, Amber. Deep. But true.

Maybe I've watched Inception too many times. I went 2 times in 5 days last week. Once with friends, and then once with my parents. I liked it. I like thinking.

But not about public administration obviously.