sleepyhead, sleepypants, sleepy, sleepy, sleepy

this is so me this week, it's not even funny. i'm pretty sure that if i still wore glasses, this would be one of those weeks that i would be looking all over my apartment for them while they're still on my face.

it could be a LONG 10K on saturday. . .

long overdue, but comin' at ya, all the same

there's been a lot going on here (and in the ohio branch) lately. matt and i both have a list of personal and professional "to-dos" that need to be taken care of before we move. and we've both been traveling, of course (we fear a little bit for the economic security of the airlines, once we're in the same state).

in april, i went to seattle for the first time. i had a conference downtown. true to its stereotypes, it rained every single day that i was there. a cold rain, always hard enough to be annoying, usually for most of the day. so, when i finished my talk and had a message from briana that it was nice out and she was heading to the space needle, i was on board! in probably the most awkward part of my trip, the search through my bag before entering the space needle turned up a metal fork. one i had stuffed into my bag after lunch at work one day and failed to retrieve with the rest of my post-lunch items. even more awesome: it looked pretty gross. i knew that the icky, dried brown coating was sauce from the peanut noodles, but i'm not sure if the security guard believed me. in any case, he was a good sport about it, took my fork away, had me fill out a tag for it, and told me that i could come back and get it once our tour of the space needle was over. of course, a rush to get on the light rail meant forgetting it at the guard's stand. so, if anyone is ever in seattle and wants to retrieve my dirty fork from the space needle, feel free.

after seattle, i drove to iowa to see my cousin, jessie jo, before she shipped off to start basic

training. (that pic is her and i at the wedding. i don't know why it looks like i've never seen a camera before.)

then, i continued down the road toward home because it was gabe's junior prom. i don't know if everyone's high school does/did this, but mine has an event called the grand march, where each of the couples (or even just a group of friends who wants to walk together) is presented to anyone from the public who wants to attend. it sounds kind of funny, but it creates a nice opportunity for friends

after Gabe's Grand March

and family to snap some photos (without actually showing up at their kids' prom. . . which some parents actually might) and the people in the community love to see the dresses. obviously. i lived in pennsylvania during both of kassi's proms and we are obviously moving to montana this summer, so it was a lot of driving, but it was nice to get to see one of the kids during such a fun time.

and i'm going to put up this pic of gabe and me rather than gabe and his date. even though her dress was way cuter.

the following weekend, matt and i met up in chicago for yet another psychology conference. we obviously also took the opportunity to sample some chicago cuisine and spend some quality time with dj and laura. now, if you would've told me five years ago that we would be choosing sushi over deep dish pizza, i would have told you that you were crazy. but that is, in fact, what happened. and it was spicy and delicious. just the way that we like it.

that brings us to last weekend. my friend kristi came to madison for the glow run 5k. since

the race was an evening event, we took the day to hang out, get pedicures, explore h&m, and catch up as we haven't for quite a long time. the run was pretty fun. it's a cool theme. and we went for good, wisconsin cheese balls (or "cheese curds" as they're called here, which i hate saying because "curd" is a gross word), as kristi demanded it as a stipulation of her visit. these are stipulations that i can live with, to be sure.

that pretty much brings us to now. matt and i just got back home from a house-hunting trip to montana. we found a cute rental. i'll post pictures once we know for sure that it will be ours. we also did our share to sample the local cuisine. we're really willing to take one for the team in that regard. we loved the places that we found, which included this cafe, this pizza place, and an old train depot that has been converted to a bar and grill. not to mention, i was elated to see that many of the businesses have adopted my long-standing pragmatic approach to "one-seater" bathrooms being unisex, cleverly labeling them "either" and "or" rather than "men" and "women." gone (hopefully) are my days of having to wait for 15 women to go to the bathroom one-by-one while the men's room sits empty. that's all i've been asking for. and, luckily, it never got to this point for me.

next weekend, kara and my sister, dy, are coming for the twilight 10K, then i'm heading to ohio, to iowa to see jill and meet little elsie, then toronto, then we're on our cruise, then moving. pretty much like everyone else's summer, i think.  you think you'll have so much time and you really don't. and then before you know it, you're moving to montana. well, maybe that part is specific to us :)

two things to warm your heart as the weekend sets in.

     1. press play on the "listen to the story" player to get the full, heartwarming effect.


            note: One thing that I learned from Lacey during her dissertation work is that the   
           field of developmental psychology has generally asserted that children raised by 
           gay and lesbian parents are pretty much the same as children raised by 
           heterosexual parents. One of the only places it seems like there *might* be a 
           reliable difference is that children of same-sex parents are slightly less rigid in their 
           ideas about gender (e.g., stereotypes and roles). So - although we know that 
           research isn't meant to describe every individual situation - listen carefully when 
           this father asks his son if he would prefer to be described as "beautiful" or 
          "handsome."

     2. pure loveliness.

mindfulness and missing tickets

seemingly random post: i cannot get over how many things are being benefitted by mindfulness programs. the waisman center houses the center for investigating healthy minds. if you get a chance to peruse their website, i really think that what their doing might blow your mind.

i watched richie give an informal talk yesterday in the psychology department. he presented some results from the intervention that they are doing with very young children (either kindergarteners or preschoolers, i forget which) in the madison schools. essentially, kids spend 90 minutes a week learning techniques associated with mindfulness meditation. there is an adorable video floating around that i haven't been able to relocate that shows teachers saying things to little, upset kids like, "how does your tummy feel when you are this upset?" and then taking them through (simiplified) guided breathing and asking them to recognize the difference ("how does your tummy feel now?"). it's crazy cute. you can also see some of it in this trailer for a documentary that is following some of this work.



anyway, kids who go through this training not only appear to be able to do what is implied in the video - to mitigate some of the harm that can be done by stress (which, hello, couldn't we all write 100 blog posts about how bad stress is for you?) - but they do things like distribute resources (prizes, stickers) more equitably (kids they like, don't like, and/or don't know) and improve control of attention. in adults, we even see physical benefits like improvements in the immune system associated with regular practice of mindfuness meditation. amazing right? it makes me really sad that some of the parents in this california school have already started movements to do away similar types of program (yoga) because they're rooted in Buddhist tradition. it just reminds me - again and again - that it's SO important to find out all we can about things that we don't really know about. and we live in an age where doing so is probably easier than ever.

[don't even get me started on how easy it is not to fall for those hoaxes on facebook. if you know how to copy and paste, you should be googling all of those to see if they are real. end rant.]

plus, how cute is this little thing doing yoga? hello! get on board, fans of adorableness.

however, not wanting to end my post seeming like a grumpy gus, it makes me very excited that the Dali Lama will speak (with Richie and others) here in Madison about some of this work, the differences they're making, and where they might be going next. for some reason, i didn't get my e-mail about the presale and it looks like only the really expensive tickets are left, but i'm hoping something magical happens and i end up getting to go. wouldn't that just be amazing?! i caught a good glimpse of the Pope when i was in Rome. i'd like to add the DL to my list as well. especially when he's talking about science and happiness.

heart = warmed.

oh, neglected blog. . .

it's 3:08 am. i got up to go to the bathroom about an hour ago and have been wide awake ever since. for something like the last 30 minutes, i've been ruminating on how neglected this blog has been. in some ways, it seems a little self-absorbed to have a blog at all. and in many ways, i think i struggle a bit with this blog's identity. i have so many blogs that i like that can be topically summarized in a a word or two. i've got more of a hodgepodge of recipes, wedding, travels, job search, and just general goings on in the life of me. it doesn't seem like a topic that would typically fly. but, i have to say, that it has been a nice way to keep in touch with people who don't live nearby any more. i'm not sure if it's something that will come with us to montana or not.

the last two months have been a whirlwind. i know that i say it all the time, but it really is a bit disturbing how quickly time passes by anymore. i'm back to running three times a week. two with my new running group, one on my own. it's a different group than i was in before, mostly because it is a 10K rather than a 5K training plan. i actually miss the old group, which was much smaller and much more diverse in its participants' ranges of experience, ability, and goals. but i'm learning to adjust. i never claimed to be good with change, after all. dy and kara have both agreed to join me for the goal race, which will be fun. last month, kristi contacted also me about doing a 5K together, which i'm pretty excited about. it will be a fun race and i'm genuinely looking forward to having some 1-on-1 time with her in madison.

matt and i visited one another over our respective spring breaks. both of those weeks went so quickly i can hardly remember what we did. went out for dinner, watched movies, ordered pizza, and got through another wisconsin snowstorm. looked at a lot of potential places to live in bozeman. wondered when we would fit "looking at homes" into our schedules. . .

kassi also paid a visit to madison over her spring break. it may have been the first time that she and i have had some quality alone time together since she's been an adult and it was much appreciated. i tried to show her some of madison's finer points, although it was complicated by some really cold temps. nonetheless, her visit produced this awesome replication of an infamous photo from jamaica. time well spent, i say.

we got word last week, while i was in ohio, that my grant would start this past monday. good news, of course, though so far things don't feel that much different. we'll see if that changes sometime soon. so far, the support staff in the psych department here has made transitioning pretty painless.

now i'm gearing up for a visit from karen, three conferences in the next month, and more pre-move planning.

well, and hopefully some sleep. . .

just a short share

i found this today and i really like it. i think that it sounds like something that my grandpa would have said :)

quick post to share

i'm in my second day post surgery - doing well, but still trying to limit my time in front of a computer screen. it's amazing to be able to see without glasses or contacts.

anyway, in the wake of Newtown and all of the impending legislation re: gun violence, this article just came out in one of our relatively high-profile journals. it's a pretty interesting discussion of some of the different factors that have been proposed to contribute to gun violence in the US. it covered a lot of things that that i'd been wondering about and i thought it was worth a share.