here we go, where do i start?
the last posts on here were from college when i got foot surgery and was miserable. my memory is not shit yet because i do remember that time pretty well - i was so annoyed being stuck in bed during my winter break that i took it out on everyone, especially steve. we got into some stupid fight the night of his 21st birthday and i was bitter he'd be celebrating/having fun (without me). pity me, selfish me!! thankfully that time has passed, steve still likes me even if i'm a little selfish sometimes, and i'm back on my own two feet (literally). that was like four and half years ago! i was a baby. but i still feel like a child sometimes, even though i now have a real job and people are supposed to take me seriously (are they though?).
grad school - what, why?
i like my job, it's been 3 years - which is crazy. also in that time, i made the somewhat rash decision to go to grad school part time while working full-time and be miserable for two and a half years. sometimes i think i like making myself miserable... really though. without fail, i will always find something to worry/stress about if life is becoming too easy for me to handle - hate it, but kinda have to accept it by now.
and speaking of making myself miserable, as if deciding to torture myself with more school after i just finished four years of engineering undergraduate classes and began working at an engineering company wasn't enough... i somehow turned my "zero-credit thesis paper requirement" into a 20-page research paper that was submitted for publication and got accepted into the largest transportation research journal. this meant spending another 9 months editing/revising this paper, on top of my day job and the other silly grad classes i was enrolled in. this ALSO meant i had to present my research at this conference. when a professor asks you to submit your paper to a journal/conference/etc and it seems like "why not?" just please give it some thought before saying yes, unlike me. it. truly. never. ends. (side note - i then re-presented this research at another related conference for my job... lesson here is that rachel has a problem saying no and she loves being stressed, apparently).
grad school wasn't all bad - while suffering through some tough classes and research papers (that also taught me nothing helpful for my day job), i met a few great people who made suffering together sometimes enjoyable. but happy to say, now when i get together with these people - it's not at school and drinks are always involved. school is over, forever.
moving out, yay!?
other life events include moving out of mom and dad's house, bye bye park ridge and hi hi hoboken. this girl can't get out of jersey, apparently. moving out seemed like a no-brainer after living at home for 1.5 years and doing the hour-long commute to and from work every day. looking back on it now though, that was the good life... when i could blame NJ Transit's train schedule for why i couldn't stay late or come in super early for field work. now, i have no excuse really and sometimes i work too much... but that's adulting, i guess?
moving out also meant that i had to learn how to cook... which i still have not mastered at all. no more getting diner food/pizza/chipotle/you-name-the-takeout-food with the parents after they picked me up from the train for dinner. this has probably been the hardest adjustment and you know it's bad when co-workers start to refer you to cooking recipe blogs/give you cookbooks they had "laying around the house" and christmas gifts revolve around cooking recipes. even grandma gave me her old crockpot (which has still not been used, i know i'm dumb - i've heard great things about them though). i blame it on the fact that my dad never, ever cooked and my mom only did it when she "had" to. i grew up eating (no joke, seriously) pizza, burger king, wendy's, chinese take-out, taco bell... the remaining nights would include "slop" (pasta with sauce and hamburger meat) or some other simple pasta dish. you get the picture. my mom justified this by designating every night an "apple" or "carrot" night, which meant that after dinner we had to have five carrots or slices of an apple... to be healthy? i honestly had and still don't have any problems with this, both of my parents worked full-time and didn't want to waste time in the kitchen. but because this was what i saw growing up, i kind of have a negative attitude towards cooking and would much rather resort to buying prepared foods or going out to eat (but i'm also cheap, so this is where the dilemma kicks in).
presenting my research (pictured here with my professor and Jen) at the transportation research conference this past January. you can't see it here, but during this photo i am screaaaaming "i can't wait to EAT!!!" i didn't eat anything this entire day before my presentation because of my nerves lol.... oops
my first instagram inside the new apartment... couldn't get over the view, still kinda can't sometimes...
one meal that steve and i made that was surprisingly pretty enough to take a photo of. i'm still struggling though, don't be fooled by this photo (we used too much ginger during this time, so it looks better than it tasted)
here's to hoping i'll post more frequently? bye!
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