diurnal disengagement

dance dance dance?
doubtful
dynamic daily disquiet
determined
disenchanted disturbances
disastrous

The Day House

Well, to state mildly, that was a rough semester! I managed to survive, but am now quite mentally deranged and somewhat unstable. There were quite a few bumps, snags, and forks along my path, and so far no thoughts of u-turns. A few highlighted moments include:

• Blew-up a vacuum apparatus in my research lab
  
• Attended THE energy conference for the planet, with speakers from Harvard, MIT, Berkley, Rice, Japan and others, including the Nobel Prize winners
• I attempted to find time to study really hard shit for more than one class within one semester for the first time since I became a mother
• Zuben turned 4!!!
• I dropped out of Grad School
• I decided I do not want to be a chemist at this time, but perhaps later
• I can no longer move back to Seattle when I graduate college

With so many things constantly going through my head, I decided to add a few more just for... fun?

To attempt to find more about me, away from all things already mentioned, I started to explore Springfield, alone. I grew up here, but I didn't live here for most of my 20's, and so many things are new and different than they once were. I found a cozy spot with Mudhouse awhile ago, and I just ventured somewhat radially from there, to seek and discover the unknown.

Reminiscent of my neighborhoods in Seattle, I went alone to wherever there was live music, of any genre. There is something very intimate and unspoken that occurs when a person plays music well; and when they're still new and slightly unfamiliar with all facets of their chosen instruments, it can still be a very enjoyable experience to see and hear them try their best.

I don't really like to speak with others that I'm not familiar with (stranger-danger), but over a few months, I have become accustomed to a few peoples' presence... Unfortunately, Downtown Springfield is not a busy spot like it could, should, and eventually will be. Most of the places I gravitated to were mostly filled with college kids, like me, possibly attempting to unwind, like me, but also somewhat new to going out and drinking because their barely in their 20s, unlike me. I abruptly discovered a flaw in this picture. That story ends for now.

A few people that I have been benignly chatting with along my bumpy journey have inspired many wonderful thoughts and ideas for how I should be spending my time, and quite a few are leading me cautiously toward a possible lifestyle for me and Zuby when I graduate in 12 months. I've had quite a few lunch meetings with friends and new acquaintances pertaining to me opening a cafe Downtown. The location was an easy decision, and I have also very easily visualized many of the broad and specific details:

• All local ingredients.
  
• Seasonally-driven daily dynamic menu.
• Soups, quiche, salads, sandwiches, simple.
• Muffins, and other such things that compliment the flavors found in coffee.
• Locally roasted coffee beans (can't grow them locally!!!)
• Locally microbrewed beers
• Local wines (Missouri is a great place to grow grapes!)
• Bookshelves everywhere stocked with used books (for sale or trade), with a Reference area for textbooks and such.
• All mugs and plates made by local crafters.
• Rotating local art.
• Light-fixtures made by local artists, and available for purchase.
• Sturdy wooden tables and chairs made locally from local timber (or bought used).
  
• HUGE comfy chairs and couches bought used and reupholstered to my liking.
  
• Open Monday-Saturday, with Sundays by reservation only.
  
• Food served til 6pm.
• Coffee & pastries served til 10pm.
• No smoothies. Go to Mudhouse.
• No paninis. They produce a certain aroma that I don't find pleasing that lingers within other establishments.
• No meat. I don't eat it, so I definitely shouldn't cook it. (If the business partner that I have in mind joins me, then she can provide this portion of the menu.)
  
• No fake meat. I don't eat it, and you shouldn't either.
• No tofu. I don't eat it, and you shouldn't either.
• Indoor and outdoor seating available.
• Weekly book clubs.
• Live acoustic, chill jazz, blues, and all other realms of casual local music.
• Poetry readings and such with regularly scheduled open-mic nights.

I have so many ideas and they just keep coming, until hopefully all the jigsaw pieces fall into place...

The big problem that I need to work through is, who will pay for this? I'm not certain that only one person (other than me) could pay for it all, so I'm seeking silent partners...

Also, if possible, I would like this to operate as a nonprofit. I would like my Board of Directors to be the other nonprofits from the Downtown Springfield area, and they would earmark the profits for helping to revitalize the area as needed.

The Day House will open its doors 369 days from today, and I certainly have a lot to do in the meanwhile...http://www.dnr.mo.gov/shpo/nps-nr/76001110.pdf

Zuben is ecstatic!!! :-)

I surprised Zuben with fantastic news! I didn't tell him what the surprise was, but just hinted that we needed to go downtown to the Mudhouse, then I'd tell him his surprise. We had to park a block south of the Mudhouse, which was very near to his school.

He guess his surprise!!! He is going to return to his spectacularly wonderful school beginning next week!!! He didn't guess the details of course, but oh goodness, was he so super excited! He could not contain his excitement and it spilled over into his brief playtime while at the mudhouse...

I was giving a friend some tomatoes from our garden, but zuben was too excited to wait at the mudhouse any longer... He was ready to go to school! Haha! :-)

Blog from an iphone???

How fantastic is this new technological age we are in, that I can not only type up the most mundane and trivial things to present to you on your own screen of choice, but I can now do all such things from my phone...?

With this app, I can really become trivial with my packets of info that I share. ;-)

My First Chemistry Conference

BCCE - 21st Biennial Conference on Chemical Education University of Northern Texas, Denton

Since I am an undergraduate chemistry student, it is a very good idea for me to attend lectures, symposiums, expos and conferences, as often as time and money will allow. I am in a current state of self-discovery, and I like exploring my options. Some may already know, I had planned on becoming a high school chemistry teacher, but have since made other, more fitting, plans for my college career. This week there was a Chemical Education Conference that I was asked to attend by one of my professors. A faculty member had paid for everything but was unexpectedly unable to attend. Obviously I jumped at the opportunity.
Although it was to be a conference for Chemical Education, I knew that I could get something out of it. Let me tell ya...

The two other faculty members attending the conference needed to be there on Saturday, because one of them were speaking at a symposium Sunday afternoon (I thought it was Monday...), and I was having a BBQ with friends, so I drove to Texas alone.

I LOVE SOLO ROAD-TRIPS!!!

I had almost forgotten how much I love driving across the country, exhausting myself with my best karaoke performances, and no one to have immediate reactions to my behavior. Solo road-trips would definitely be in my top-five most enjoyable activities, and I hadn't done this since I was 3.5 months pregnant with my son. I had a BLAST!!!

I arrived to the University of North Texas campus with almost the perfect amount of time to get checked-in for the conference (lots of name changing was supposed to have already been completed before I arrived), checked into my dorm room, and showered, to only end up about 5 minutes late for the opening ceremonies (which began at 6:02pm).

The rest of the day & all of the next day and a half were filled with all things Chemistry, and more specifically, Chemical Education...

Since this was my first conference, I was not fully prepared for what I was to experience. The symposiums were over-crowded, there were many lost and wandering visitors (myself included), and the vendor's area was highly over-whelming. I wasn't alone the whole time, but a majority, and I attempted to hide in plain sight by wearing headphones and trying to not make eye-contact, as I looked through the HUGE room of tables filled with displays. The headphones didn't prevent their intrusion into my bubble, and I was trapped and sucked into their spiels and misguided attempts at a sale. I may well have been the only attendee that was not an educator, and just a lowly undergraduate. Conferences are expensive, so the typical student would rarely attend... After they lassoed me in, and I had removed at least one of my earbuds, I had to attempt to make them pause, so I could explain who I really was, and let them try to reconfigure their business tactics to apply to me. Goodness. It was a difficult room to get out of...

The positive side to my conversations with these people came in the form of information to share with my fellow chem majors at MSU. These vendors loaded me up with pamphlets and brochures to spread their message, and I walked away, 3 hours later, with a very over-stuffed goodie bag.

Also, due to the over use of my iPod playing, my iPhone battery died midway through the day,and well, I was a bit more than antsy...

Overall, attending the conference was an eye-opening experience for me that I may not possibly have the ability to fully express on the emotional level, but maybe one day I will be a pro at hanging out at conferences, and there's only one way to do that....

Next conference on the books is this October, in Houston.....

I got an iPhone!!!

I love my new phone so very much. I'm not sure why I didn't get one sooner. Oh, yeah, too expensive!! I became eligible for an upgrade, and they had an instant rebate that made the phone, and a cute case on clearance (that almost perfectly matches the green color of my netbook) for$150! Hello!

My mom is becoming irritated with how much of my three scholarships I have already spent (ahem, that I won't receive til the fall term begins...) but my netbook is ridiculously s . l . o . w, and with all the emails and social networking I have been doing all day everyday (I'm strangely so very busy), that I NEEDED a smart phone badly. :-)

I'm so HAPPY! :-D

A friend of mine gave me a visual through text about a happy moment he was having, and related it to the Snoopy dance. I do believe I will steal this analogy and apply it to myself.

Summer School is OVER!!!

Final Grade = 93%

(and I tied for the high score on the final!)

This morning I completed my last organic chemistry lab (with enolates) and this afternoon I took my last organic lab exam. It hasn't fully sunk in yet, but it is a bittersweet victory. I will not take another organic chemistry course until I am in grad school, and that may be too distant. I thoroughly enjoyed learning as much as they could throw at me (some stuck), and I hope I have similar feelings for my upcoming sequences.

I'll be taking:
Inorganic Chem this fall, with Adv Inorganic & Synthesis in the spring
&
Biochemistry I this fall, with Biochem II in the spring

I think the two-semester back-to-back course was one of the reasons I loved organic so much, and hopefully this rings to be somewhat true with the other chemical disciplines...

YEA!!!
:-)