Updates and relocations

I re-invited Amy and Brian to join the blog. Now that they've conceded that "Rock on WM '04" is actually the coolest thing to happen to the virtual world since Napster, I feel we can graciously allow them to participate. ;-)
I also went ahead and made everyone who has signed up an "Administrator," meaning you can invite people to the blog and change the settings and whatnot. At the risk of proving the old adage "too many administrators spoil the blog," I thought we all deserved to have the same amount of control in this little community.
In other news, I have moved to beautiful Sarasota, Florida to pursue my career in hospitality services and am now working at Outback Steakhouse. Since I don't eat steak and am one of two people working there with a college degree, I don't know that I am going to fit in very well with the Outback crowd. Plus I refuse to fake an Australian accent. (I am just kidding about the career in hospitality services thing, by the way.)
What I am actually excited about is my writing career, which is starting to take off. I'm still only writing for one publication, but my editors have given me a lot of good feedback about my writing. They seem impressed, and say they'll give me as much work as I want to take on. (Three cheers for an outstanding WM education!)
My new house is incredibly interesting, and I would love for any and all of you to come visit me! Right now we officially have 4 1/2 people living here. The half person is aspiring archeologist Bill, who will be staying here until he leaves on Feb. 1 to work on a dig in Mexico. We also have Erika, a thesis-writing senior at New College who speaks Spanisih and lives in the garage; Guapo, who makes his own bio-diesel fuel, loves Macs and works in I.T.; and Mary, my friend since 6th grade who is now working in waste-water management but wants to get a job on the beach.
My room is the sun porch, and it is absolutely beautiful, though I can't wait to get some curtains up. It has a view of the canal behind our house where we keep our sailboat. The bay is just across the street. Our yard has several citrus trees, a swing, a hammock, high-speed wireless internet, and some friendly cats who like to visit.
We do not have a T.V., which means that I have one fewer thing to do when I want to procrastinate writing articles! It's nice not to have that distraction, but I miss TLC and Degrassi. Someone will have to keep me updated.
We do have a projector, which we use to play movies on our wall. That's pretty fun.
My housemates and I like to cook together in the evening, so we have been eating very well. They have a penchant for organic vegetables, which is fine by me--I can feel my immune system surging with all the vitamins! I'm still not a fan of vegan cooking though. Tofu is not an acceptable substitute for eggs.
I will try to post some pictures soon. I really want to get a digital camera!

Reinvite?

Brian and Amy need to be reinvited to join, I think. They clicked it once to see what it was but were busy or something so they didn't sign up. But now when they try it won't work - it says something about being good for one time only. I don't know how to do that (or if it is possible for me to do it), so here are their e-mails: Brian is bkbake at gmail.com. Amy is amding at gmail.com.

Also, is there a way to change the default time & date? It always comes up as Pacific time, and I think most of us are in EST.

I'm cold, can you tell?

Seriously. Aside from saying that it is -7 with windchill outside right now I won't mention the weather anymore. Oh, and the fact that I'm under a weather advisory that reads in part "THE WIND CHILL WILL NOT BE A FACTOR TONIGHT... BUT RATHER THE BITTER COLD. " (caps are theirs, not mine) And yes, I realize it could be worse. It could be -58 like it is in the midwest. And yes, I know it was worse here last year. Heck, it was -6 in DC last winter. However, I think I have some sort of thermoregulation problem. I just don't thermoregulate. I see people walking around who are not bundled up to their eyeballs and I wish I wasn't such a weeny. But the truth is, I just am. A big can't-take-the-New-England-weather-and-it's-only-January weeny.

So what have I been up to besides complaining to anyone who will listen that I am cold? Well, recently absolutely nothing. This weekend I watched a lot of TV and stayed in my pajamas all day Saturday. Last week is another story. I had all of my final papers due on Friday. So I spent Tuesday-Friday writing about 40 pages of papers. The assignments ranged from 40-50% of my grade. No pressure or anything, but each grade counts for about 1/7 of my total GPA at Harvard. (8 class= EdM degree, but I had to take one class P/F.) So it was an interesting and mentally draining week (don't you guys miss papers and homework?)

Now I'm working 3 days this week for a grand total of 15 hours (talk about a shortened week, eh guys?). We're finally writing a piece I've been researching for all semester. It's nice to finally be producing something, but I don't particularly care for collaborative research. It's hard to write different pieces to fit in with things other people are writing several states away. I also feel like sometimes they tell me they want it done one way and then after I've researched and written it all up they're like, "No, actually I think our audience...blah blah..do it over the way you wanted to do it in the first place." At any rate, it will be exciting to be published as a member of the research team and it'll be online, so I'll let you know when that's up so you can kill time at work reading it. Not that I do that at work. Or open facebook. Or check out amazon.com. Not me.

I'm heading to New York to visit Caitlin this weekend, then to NYC to see Eric and go to some career day stuff set up by the ed school. I don't have any desire to move to NYC, but it's an excuse to go to NYC and I can go to the Seasme Workshop. :-D

Oh, and you might expect me to weigh in on the Steelers-Patriots debate. But if you are you will be disappointed. I really couldn't care less about football or really the Patriots. I mean, it'll be nice if the Pats go to and win the Superbowl because it'll make people happy and celebratory here, but whatever.

Feburary in Illinois

Oof, sounds like I'm going to be spending much of my Feburary in Illinois! I hear it can get cold there. Something about some sort of lake. I dunno. But, I have to be there the first week in February, again the next week for three days of training, then I am here for the week, then I have two weeks of more training going into the first week of March. Lucky me!

Also, the AFC Championship game is this week. I am a huge Steelers fan, who, coincidently, happen to be the greatest sports team in the history of this planet. For some reason, Josh likes the Patriots. So make sure you tune into the game this week - then, when the Patriots lose, create a mental image of Josh suffering terrible emotional pain. Then laugh. Because I sure will be.

Actually, the game will be a great one, as the Steelers went 15-1 and the Patriots 14-2. Both teams feature excellent defenses, punishing running games and QBs of remarkable efficiency with ice water flowing through their veins. I think it will be one of the best games we've seen in a while, and it actually isn't looking as rosy for our Steelers as I may have alluded to in the paragraph above. So watch. Because between Josh and I, it will be the only thing one of us talks about for weeks.

-Rit

wanna do something? I'm in town until Thursday morning....call me! 703 967 9203