Time for grad school recovery

The last few months have been all consumed by grad school. During that whole process I felt  like this:

And I had to see things like this, which I hoped to never see again.

Oh silly pre-grad school Ashley would probably see that stack of books and think, oh wow cool! I want to learn those things! Post-grad school Ashley mainly thinks, OMG vomit, get those out of my face.

Anyways as of yesterday all my paper work has been turned in and signed. I am done. D-O-N-E baby, yeah! Now I feel like this:

If you are wondering, yes that is my computer mouse in my hand. I am sure there is some fancy way to time photos with my webcam but I haven’t figured it out yet.

Please, stare at those for a long time. They get better the more you look at them.

Now that I am done with grad school I am left with the sad sack of human that was chewed up and spit out by the fine institution I attended. Needless to say during the process of …

• Getting a new job
• Fighting the federal government trying to take away healthcare from women
• getting another new job
• conducting and analyzing research data
• writing my culminating
• writing my culminating again after getting it chewed up and spit back in my face by again that fine institution I attended
• Doing other weird things – lobbying, testifying and so on

… there was little self care. I went from a 85% vegan to a 100% pizza, fast food and whatever else was cheap and would fit into my mouth kind of eater. I also went from 8 weeks into a marathon training plan to absolutely no exercise.

Correct, NONE. That is pretty impressive really.

Now it is time to pick up the pieces and make my next moves when it comes to self care. During this whole process I learned a lot. I have changed my views about healthy living, well really living in general, and thus also what the purpose of this blog will be.

I am off for a run to try to get myself back into some regular fitness schedule. Look forward to more posts about my adventures in trying to figure out how to live like a human being again.

And now your moment of Zen, a sparkly GIF in honor of my shiny new degree. PS – nothing says higher education like sparkly GIFs!

(source )

I am Still Alive

This has been a WEIRD year. 2011, what are you? Blogging is something that I WILL return to, once I am done with graduate school and have ensure Planned Parenthood is safe.

Until then, talk later gater, and follow my more reproductive justice/activist blog here.

Being an adult

Lately I have been trying to find comfort or acceptance during times of transition. I think that is a valid goal, and that patience is a skill worth learning.

But …

I start to wonder, will life ever feel more complete? I guess, what does that even mean?

I went to school, with the hopes of a pretty traditional future: school, work, family (I know the patriarchy, exclusive/flawed family values, but that is not the point here). In theory I could have graduated from school, found a job, did some type of 9-5 thing, had free time, and started a family.

Now, a lot of those pieces are there. I have a degree, like 1.85 as of now. I choose a career I am passionate about, and find incredibly reward. I met and fell in love with my amazing partner. The love was mutual, and we are engaged.

All the pieces were there, but I still feel like I am waiting.

I am almost done with school, but not quite. I am engaged, but am no where near a wedding, and the whole thing is still really over whelming. I have a job in the field I studied and that I love, but it is part time and temporary.

I am living in the training wheels of adulthood.

I don’t regret any of the decisions I have made about school, work, or love. While surely this post sounds on the “woe as me” side, I really am fortunate for all I have. In all that I do, I give my all and follow my heart, and that has brought me so many amazing things in life (oh, and I have massive amounts of privilege, but again, a different post).

During the journey, sometimes you just wish all the pieces would come together. When the future is fuzzy, it is hard to remain faithful and motivated.

In the end though, I continue to let my passion, dreams, and skills lead me. I have no idea when I will even set the date for my wedding, let alone the actual date of said event. I have no idea how I will be earning money in three months.

This is one of the times I tell myself to, buck up cupcake, and get to work. I try to stay focused and on point. In the end though, it is still always a little scary.

Oh my god, I feel like I will continually write this post throughout my life. Consider this time 1.

2010: Time for learning, time for change

2010 has been a CRAZY year for me. Lets take a look back …

(source)

Basically January till July I was exhausted from school and teaching group exercise. July till September I lost hope in my dreams of working in reproductive health advocacy. September through November my passion for advocacy was rejuvenated, but I was exhausted from the election, school, and being away from Kevin. November till now was all about wrapping up the loose ends.

At the beginning of the school year I had to make some difficult decisions. I had to decide to leave Columbus sooner than I originally planned. I had to quit my job, and begin trying to find something new. I was scared. I knew my way around Columbus, I had a job there, I had school, volunteer positions, and friends. In the end I had to decide what was important to me, and in the end decided the “easier” choice wasn’t the “happy” choice for me.

I hope to write a post about my experience with weight watchers and weight loss this past year. This was another point where I had to make a decision between what I was comfortable with, and what would actually make me happy.

I also will write a post on my engagement experience. It was an interesting transition going from girlfriend to fiancé, and it taught me a lot about myself, about my partner and my beliefs about relationships.

A lot of these experiences taught me to follow my heart and do what is best for me, no matter my own expectations.

Some of my good fortune this year was luck. Getting my job was part luck, but it was part me too. I can’t control what jobs are out there, but I can control my background of experiences, and the connections I have. I think if you work hard, the luck/being in the right place at the right time all comes together.

Also I had to take risks this year, I had to do something with out being certain what would happen. I am a girl who likes to plan, so doing something with out a plan scares me to DEATH, but I took a chance and everything turned out great.

In the end, I am so happy. I really do feel like the girl who has it all. While there are new challenges ahead, I just want to take this moment to feel completely and utterly thankful for all that I have in my life, and the amazing journey I have taken the past year to get here.

2011, here I come!

Last Day

What a day! I woke up around 6am to start my LAST day of work! I spent most of the day in basically Kentucky/West Virginia Southeastern Ohio checking posters. It was long, cold and terrible, as usual. I just felt so tired by midday.

Then, when I got back to the office at 4:30 I realized, oh my god, this is my LAST DAY! From then on it was all adrenaline baby! I got my last bit of paper work completed and I was outta there!

Good bye work! You were an interesting learning experience, thank you and good bye!

While I have been working my little heart out, Kevin has been doing a great job packing/cleaning. Just look at the cleaning job he did on this bathroom. It is amazing, I didn’t know he had such mad Mr. Clean skills.

 

Kevin v. Mr. Clean

 

(Mr. Clean source)

Yup, I’ll still take the fluffy one. On an unrelated note, the picture above is form the most disappointing Costco trips ever. What a retail FAIL on their part.

All in all, packing has been coming along smoothly. Things are getting done.

And other things haven’t gotten done.

Our plan is to get the truck tomorrow and start packing up. As of now we aren’t sure if we are driving up Saturday or Sunday. I am taking it one step at a time, and taking the night easy/resting.

All I know is, I am done! For the first time since school ended I finally feel DONE. I have completed my job, am starting a new one Monday, and am 75% ready to move! This is how I feel:

Now you might ask yourself, Ashley what is that hairy growth coming out of your head? Well, when one is truly relaxing, one puts their bangs in a pointy tail, making it appear as if your head is sprouting a small hairy tree, or a tail. Either would be interesting.

Weird pony tails is how I let loose. I eat Mexican food too, and maybe have a beer, or two. Don’t worry I still think most beer taste like socks, but this is blueberry flavored! Doe that even count as beer anymore?

Alright, bed time for me, and early to rise for these things tomorrow:

• Truck
• Packing
• 4 mile run (wait, what?)

Oh my, what a day!

Long time, no blog

It feels like forever since my last blog! Well here is a little recap of my life.

These past few months of life has been school, election, and driving back and forth to Cleveland. I found myself phone banking, organizing my first phone bank in Bowling Green, and helping with the One Bowling Green campaign. We lost, we won, but I found myself in some funny places along the way.

I had a second home with some friends at BGSU. They like puzzles. There is a very important dance that happens when a piece is found. I also found myself wandering near Kevin’s old apartment. Ah yes, fond memories!

This fall had a lot of car disasters as well. First, someone decided to randomly back up into my car then drive off, not cool. Second, I was harmlessly driving back to Columbus from Cleveland and the rubber on my tire just fell off. I was driving along, heard a weird sound, looked back, and saw the remains of my tire roll down a hill. What is my life? I missed class, and had to turn in my paper late. I got an A still, so take that karma!

  

Speaking of school, I spent a lot of time doing this.

This is me studying environmental health at the law library. I think when people saw me making millions billions of note cards about asbestos they were confused. I am not officially done with ALL my classes and practicum for graduate school! Now all I have left is my culminating project. For that I am working with a research at Kent State to write a funding proposal for a survey project. I am really excited about the project and will write more about it later.

Also, I got a new job as a School Health Educator with Planned Parenthood Northeast Ohio! I am so excited to be educating and working with young people. I love young people, check it out here.

With school done and a new job starting in a few weeks, I am working on getting my hours finished at my current job. Therefore, I am on the road again checking posters. Sometimes I run into posters that are NOT public health, such as the one on the left.

  

I haven’t had much time for cooking these days but I have learned a few things. Below is my ode to squash. I love squash and can’t wait to learn how to do more with it. On the left we got acorn squash, and on the right spaghetti squash with a little tomato sauce mixed it. It is WONDERFUL.

 

Here is some other nom noms I have been digging. Grilled pepper and hummus on toast and rice, tomato and chickpea bowl. YUM!

    

I have been doing some more research on vegan lifestyles and marathon running.

 

Marathon training has been going great so far. This is the first week I really feel like a runner again! I ran 2 miles yesterday with a 9.52 min/mi pace, with is basically LIGHTINING SPEED for me. I was way impressed.
That is my update so far! The next month will be CRAZY and can’t wait to fill you in on all the fun. Here are just a few of the up coming events …

• New job
• Moving
• Xmas
• Wedding!
• FRIENDS from across the states and world reunited!

Yeah, I am really excited for December! Before the fun starts I got to get through this move and finish my Columbus. This is my mantra … YOU CAN DO IT!