Deciding to Hit the Reset Button

I've been planning this trip since I graduated with my Baccalaureate degree in 2010.  At that point all I knew was that I had 3 years of graduate school still ahead of me and I'd want a serious vacation/reward at the end of it and boy, did I ever.  Somewhere in here I decided that I only needed 10 days time to graduate, move, unpack, repack, and leave for Mexico.

It all sounded simple enough.

Apparently I forgot to factor in the burnout that plagued me for two months after I defended and just how much energy is zapped by moving because the night before my flight came around and not only was I not mentally prepared for my trip, I wasn't even packed!

Trying to pack for 3 countries in a 50L rucksack

I'm still not entirely sure how I got my bag packed and a couple hours of sleep before my 4:15am ride to the airport. From the minute I locked my pack something felt off.  Like I was forgetting something. I later figured out that it was my hard drive with all the data I needed to finish my papers but the feeling of unease stayed.

Once I reached Mexico, I was greeted with a string of annoyances.  Constant rain in Cozumel maimed my diving books which I later forgot in my hostel. Persistent blood-crazed mosquitoes. Unpleasant immigration officers.  And finally someone stealing $45 out of my backpack.  All of these things are aggravating in their on right but nothing serious.  However when combined with my growing sense of unease and distractedness, I was heading down a road where I could make some serious mistakes.  When I finally arrived in Belize City, I didn't want to go any further. No more buses. No more border crossings. No more looming science.  No more feeling helpless about finishing these research papers.  I had little energy and could barely bring myself to find some sort of lunch situation despite not having eaten in 15 hours.

I was sulking in my hotel room, trying to figure out my next move and feeling like I was failing at the trip I had talked about incessantly for the last three years. Then I remembered my brother had recently posted something about leaving for his Michigan to California road trip which was starting about the time my current plans were ending.  That minute I really wanted to make the trip with him. How many people can say they've road tripped the American Southwest with a brother/sister?

How my mind felt with ticket to CO in hand

A few messages back and forth, and I was booking a plane ticket to Colorado.  A few more days and it was decided that I'd spend a week road tripping with my brother, then a week at my parents, followed by a week with the Boy before returning to Mexico.  The change in my attitude was remarkable.  I had gone from mental wading through the most dreary of bogs to being excited about adventures to come, organizing my things, and brushing off all of the annoyances that had been piling up.

Here I am a month after I initially left for Mexico, preparing to go back at the end of the week, and I am in an exponentially better place than one I initially left.  I'm not sure that my to-do list in any smaller but I feel like I have a better handle on it.  I've spent a bunch of time with family which was something I didn't feel like I had a chance to do in the chaos of graduation and moving.  I'm feeling more connected to what's going on around me, and super excited to go back to Mexico.

Hitting the reset button cost me financial.  Exact budget damage is still TBD. I didn't get to experience a huge chunk of Guatemala, and some of Mexico.  What I gained more than makes up for it though.  I got a week with my brother that I'll always remember. Time with my Mom, Dad, and other brother with nothing planned. And finally, some time with the Boy after a very sparse three months.  I've remembered that they entire point of this trip was to do what I wanted to do which includes changing my itinerary. Could I have worked through things in Central America and come out okay? Yes, but I saved myself a lot of angst and gained so much more by saying "start over."

Have you ever made the difficult decision to "reset"?

Keeping in Classy: The Nutcracker Ballet

 

 2011 Proctors Nutcracker Commercial

I can still remember the day when my mother and grandmother took me to see The Nutcracker Ballet as a little girl.  For over a decade, when the holiday football games started I would go in the other room and bust out our VHS copy of the New York City Ballet performance.  The last few holiday seasons I've wanted to see the ballet in theater again.  Last year I tried to get tickets in early November but all of the performances were already sold out.  So when Proctors theater released its schedule over the summer, I quickly sent out a message looking for someone to accompany me.  My friend Erica had never seen the ballet and volunteered to come along.  I bought our tickets in August and I was still pressed to find tickets in the sections I wanted.

Right before opening curtain

Two weeks before Christmas, we put on our nice clothes and set off for the theater.  This was one of the reasons I was psyched to go to the ballet.  With my lack of natural grace I avoid wearing clothes I like to lab for risk of acid stains, and make-up is a big no-no in the clean room (rouge and lithography don't go together).  As nice as we looked, we had nothing on the young girls in their Christmas dresses.  It's really hard to beat the excitement of a girl in a velvet dress with a big ribbon at her first ballet.

Theater draped in garlands

Proctors is an ornate old 1920s theater which vividly reminds me of the Auditorium theater in Rochester, NY. The walls and balconies are decorated with red seats reminiscent of skinnier days.  We had awesome seats in center orchestra about half way back (buy holiday show tickets during the summer!).  We had a perfect view of the stage but we weren't going anywhere quickly.  The Northeast Ballet Company with Wendy Whelan and Charles Askegard  from the New York City Ballet preformed the classic childhood tale.  It took me a minute to adjust to the director's vision of the ballet which differed from the 1993 VHS of the NYCB I grew up watching. The Nutcracker character played a fairly minor role, compared to other versions I've seen, and only appeared during the opening scenes.  One especially nostalgic thing for me was watching Wendy Whelan as the Sugar Plum Fairy.  She was Arabian Coffee in my trusting recording and one of my favorite dancers.  To see her preform live after all of these years was a really treat.  The kids throughout the performance were adorable. This one little boy, who couldn't be more than 4 years old, was completely adorable.  He was tiny compared to the rest of the kids and always appeared the be where he was supposed to be but in that clumsy grace of very small child.  He easily could have stolen the show.

                                                                                              

Keepsake from the Ballet with my Grandma

After a two hour ballet highlighting the sweets of the holidays, the only logical thing to do was go to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. It's like of law of the Cheesecake Factory that if you eat there you much order cheesecake.  So after a decent-sized meals, we both ordered chocolatey cheesecake and managed to take about two bites before admitting defeat and wrapping up the rest. At the end of the day we felt like happy, well-sugared munchkins excited for the Christmas season which is all I could ask for on a Sunday two weeks before Christmas.

Lights in the Park

Every businesses in the Capital Region sponsor an all-out display of Christmas lights in Albany's Washington Park.  The week before Christmas, my old roommate, Gracie, and I wet for a  boost of "good will" after several frustrating work days.  Two peppermint hot chocolates and a few dollars later, we driving down the enchanted trail with the rest of the minivans, SUVs, and a party bus(!?!) admiring the giant displays.  During the weekend the line of traffic is bumper to bumper.  However, things were moving along at a good clip making it really difficult to photography the displays. Here are some of my favorite shots that came out - ish:

Santa's workshop

Horton helping to pass out presents

Friendly Dragon

Snow Palace

Demonic Hockey Players

Life Lessons in multicolored LEDs

Places I Would Rather be on Monday Morning: Manhattan Sunset

Hudson River Greenway, Manhattan

12 trees of Christmas

Chemist-tree, C60 Christmas Social 2008

Hall Hall 212 Tree, Freshman Year RPI (2006)

Christmas tree at Brighton Pier, 2008

De Delftse Pauw Christmas Ornament tree, Delft 2008

Dam Square, Amsterdam 2008

Trafalgar Square Tree, London 2008

Delft City Hall, Netherlands 2008

My first real Christmas tree, 2011

Pantheon, Paris, Christmas Day 2008

Christmas in the Alps, Geneva 2008

Piazza del Duomo, Milan 2008

Notre Dame, Paris, Christmas Eve 2008

Places I Would Rather Be on Monday Morning: Chilling with Christmas Spirit

My favorite place during the holidays: Close to the Christmas tree with a blanket and hot cocoa

Foliage Findings in Wine Country

Seasons are built in changes in scenery.  I was once told that the four seasons in New York State are: almost winter, winter, still winter, and construction. Despite the tales of never-ending winter, there four distinct scene changes in Upstate. Over the last two weeks the trees have started to change colors.  We're approaching peak leaf-peeping season, or, for those not from the northeast, driving out to the country and to look at the pretty colors. In Upstate New York there are untold numbers of roads, parks, and trails to admire the technicolor forests.

As beautiful as this time of year is, I find myself the most frustrated when trying to pictures of the dramatic scenes around me.  I am by no means anything more than a shutter-happy amateur when it comes to photography.  Just the same, I always feel like the detains are lacking in my attempts to capture the elaborate color palette of the fall.

Mountain overlooking Warwick Valley Winery

With the threat of all the leaves disappearing and particularly stressful work weeks behind us, my friend Erica and I set off through the woods, literally, to Warwick Valley Winery and Distillery.  Depending on which way you come from there are some seriously winding roads to get there but the view is fantastic.

Road to the winery

Cayuga Lake was my first wine tasting experience back in September and I underestimated how busy the winery would be on a Sunday afternoon.  The tasting bars did a good job keeping the masses in order and happy.  The tasting itself was a good deal ($5 for seven samples of wine and cider plus a souvenir glass) but it was obvious that the main reason you go to Warwick Valley is to spend the day.  Everyone from the locals to Manhattan escapees were claiming tables and blankets on the lawn armed with a bottle from the winery/distillery shop and munching on food from the cafe.

Back garden of Tasting Room and Shop

It was sweater weather at its finest as Erica and I enjoyed hard apple cider and baked brie surrounded by orange and yellow maples.  I got out my trusty point-and-shoot, and tried to snap some decent pictures but they still don't do the colors justice. The relaxed and picturesque environment was just what we needed and the cider didn't hurt either.  I can't wait to go back for an artisan pizza and wine, and maybe attempt some more artistic photos.

Autumn Pastimes

This past weekend felt more like June than October but I'll take any nice weather I can get after Labor Day.  With the sun out and the leaves changing, it was the perfect weekend to head to the corn maze.  One of the nice things about being in Upstate New York is there are dozens of apple orchards, corn mazes, pumpkin patches, and haunted hayrides around.  The farm we went to featured a corn maze (with evening haunted options), hayride to the pumpkin patch, and a petting zoo.  I was more excited about the latter two.  I do not like not knowing where I am in a maze or otherwise.  We didn't break and records going through the corn maze but we made it with me getting too anxious.  That's a lot better than I can say for the solar system corn maze from Earth Science.

Can you see the way out?

No surprise to anyone, I liked the petting zoo.  To be fair is was a little weak.  One calf, a few goats, two piglets, and some poultry.  Poultry is a petting zoo? It still seems a bit risky to me.  A dollar bought you a bag of feed which the goats were not shy about trying to steal.  The star of the set up was the calf.  He was just as content to try to nurse from my thumb as eat the feed.

So cute!

Being a country girl I was really hoping for a horse-drawn hayride.  Motorized hayrides tend to bring back memories of filling the barn with hay bales in the heat of the summer.  Alas, I couldn't find a farm offering horse drawn rides.  There were several toddlers on the wagon with us.  I was smiling while listening to the parents tell their kids to choose a pumpkins they can carry and remembering how well that worked when my parents told me and my brothers to choose our pumpkins carefully.  Sure enough, the tots all came shuffling back to the wagon struggles to hold their bright orange trophies. The Boyfriend and I picked our own pumpkins and headed home to prepare for phase two of pumpkin picking.

Extreme pumpkin carving had been on television so we had big plans for our pumpkins.  After an hour of careful carving, Our jack-o'-lanterns were complete!  I'm still impressed by how well they came out.  It was so much nicer not trying to carve a large squash in the biting cold like some jack-o-lanterns from Halloweens-gone-by.

The Boyfriend's Jack-o'-Lantern and My Jack-o'-Lantern

The fall harvest creates many fun activities for farm visitors.  Not only are corn mazes, apple picking, and pumpkin patches quintessential autumn pastimes, they are also excellent ways to support local commerce.  Check your local listings and gather the troops for a day of low-cost seasonal festivities.

Intro to NYS Wine Country: Cayuga Wine Trail

On my way home from Ithaca, I had to drive from the southern tip of Cayuga Lake to the north end in order to hop on I-90. It a beautiful day out and I'd never been to any of the Finger Lakes wineries so I took the more scenic route along the Cayuga Wine Trail.  Before I reached the wineries I stopped off at Taughannock Falls.  Pictures of this waterfall are all over brochures for attractions in the area and I was driving right passed it so after nearly hitting a couple of deer I stopped off for a breather and some scenery.  Looking up at a waterfall in excess of 200ft tall is awe-inspiring in it's own right.  Add in the fact that you're at the bottom of a 500ft chasm that dwarfs not only you but the waterfall and you're reminded pretty quickly of how big the world is.

Taughannock Falls

After a few pictures, I was ready for a different kind of scenery involving bunches of grapes.  I think I passed a sign for a different vineyard or winery every other mile before settling on two neighboring lake-front wineries. Both Cayuga Ridge Estate Winery and Thirsty Owl Winery boast many award-winning white wines and picturesque locations.  Going to a winery to do wine tasting is definitely the best deal. Two dollars buys you 5 samples of wine off of a description sheet. At Thirsty Owl, they gave you the two dollars back in the form of a coupon.  Wandering the shade of rows of grapes between vineyards and looking out to the lake I can understand why wine tours are so popular.  The wine doesn't hurt the cause either. I will definitely be exploring more of NYS wine country.  Anybody want to come with me?

Cayuga Ridge tasting room

Ready for harvesting

Thirsty Owl wine room

View of Cayuga Lake

Grown Up Field Trip to Ithaca

Last week my lab sent me to Cornell University to shadow a lab and learn some cool tricks with DNA.  Like many old towns, Ithaca has a lot of character.  During my visit I learned that Ithaca used to be the "Hollywood of the East" in the days of silent movies.  Nowadays the cinema history has all but disappeared, save a few blurbs in restaurants.  I spent most of my week in the lab but I was able to escape early a couple of times to do some exploring.  Cornell's campus in huge. I could have spent the better part of my free time just exploring the botanical gardens and the older buildings overlooking Cayuga Lake.  The aesthetic appeal of Cornell definitely rivaled good ol' RPI.  Ithaca is a mix of charming corners and struggling areas.  One of the more charming corners I visited was Ithaca Commons, a pedestrian only street with small shops, restaurants, and modern art sculptures.  There's a range of restaurants there, but I was only able to sample a couple: The Ithaca Ale House and Kilpatrick's Publick House.  They're both pub-style establishments that served delicious food and had decent beer lists.  I'd recommend either.  The eatery that stood out the most to me was Shortstop Deli, a deli counter hidden in the residential are of downtown.  It's been features on the Food Network and in Gourmet magazine, but the highest praise I can give it is that it ranks in the top three delis compared to my hometown sub shop, Aunt Cookie's.  Where I come from there is no higher praise than that.

Garden at Cornell

Old Cornell Campus

In addition to the dining options, Ithaca is surrounded by the natural beauty of several state parks and Cayuga Lake.  I visited two state properties while I was in town.  Buttermilk Falls State Park has the characteristic gorges and waterfalls that Ithaca is known for.  Unfortunately, Ithaca experienced a lot of flooding from recent tropical storm rains so the gorge trail was closed which meant that most of the waterfalls were accessible.  Buttermilk Falls had calmed down but during the height of the flooding it had washed out one of the creek overpasses.  Allan H. Treman State Marine Park in on the shores of Cayuga Lake.  The park is fairly small but includes a big dog park and has a pretty view looking across the lake.  It's easy to forget how big the Finger Lakes are when you live so close to the Great Lakes.  But standing on the shore looking out at the length of the lake with the hills raising up on either side, there's no way to mistake Cayuga Lake as little.  I saw a Bald Eagle fishing one afternoon which only added to the ambiance of this giant peaceful lake.

Buttermilk Falls

Sneaking on a section of the Gorge Trail

Harbor of Allan H. Treman Marine Park

Cayuga Lake

The Finger Lakes wine region is definitely present in Ithaca.  There's only one winery in the immediate area but there's a wine bar in town, Corks and More, which is the next best thing.  Corks and More features some local wines along with wines from California, France, Australia, and more.  This is a great place to go if you want to try a variety of wines without buying tons of bottles or going on extensive wine tours.  You can choose a taste, half-glass, or full-glass from on of the dozen wine 'vending machines' the line the walls.  They also have a full bar and tapas menu.  If the science thing doesn't work out, opening a place like this is firmly on the back-up plan list.

SD in Washington D.C. a.k.a. Blisters and sunburns

During our Labor vacation Dave and I went to Washington D.C. for the day.  My family lived outside of D.C. when I was very young so I've been the Mall more times than I can remember.  I always like going back to see the monuments and the Smithsonian. The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial had been unveiled the weekend before so we met up with two of my sorority sisters, Heidi and Jess, to go see it. I was psyched to see both of them especially since I hadn't since them since they graduated the year before. 

All three of us girls showed up in cute thong sandals to walk around the National Mall. Unfortunately, I had forgotten how far apart the monuments are.  Walking from the MLK memorial to the Jefferson Memorial we realized our feet were in trouble. 

Across from the Jefferson Memorial

 Walking back around to the Lincoln memorial I began wondering why I thought those sandals were so comfortable in the first place.  Aching feet and all, our crew hiked roughly SIX miles to see most of the classic sites of D.C. By the time we passed the White House and turned to Capitol Hill, the major source of motivation was dinner at La Tasca so we could soothe our blisters and darkening sunburns with tapas and sangria. 

SD at the Capitol*

Me and Dave*

Much happier after dinner*

It's been over a week since this trek, and my feet and the back of my neck are finally recovering.  I definitely will not be going to D.C. without sneakers and sunscreen anytime soon.

* These pictures are from Heidi. I really like the one she took of me and Dave.

Labor Day Weekend in Charm City

Dave relocated to Baltimore for work back in July.  Over Labor Day weekend I was finally able to venture south for a weekend.  Here's that four days off that felt like a big deal.  In addition to Labor Day, it was also the Inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix which added a lot of traffic and excitement to the city.

Thanks to an awesome Southwest sale, I flew in Thursday night and flew out Monday night for way less money and time than it would have cost me to drive. Dave had to work on Friday so I was exploring the city on my own.  Walking around the city I felt increasingly carefree and excited to find out what was around the next corner.  I paused to get a map and a snack, and realized that I hadn't felt like this since I was in Europe last summer.  I didn't realize how much stress was weighing me down until it started to lift.When I saw the two-story Barnes & Noble next to the National Aquarium and the Panera across the street I was ready to stay. 

My favorite square in Baltimore.

I found a spot facing the harbor to sit and finish my snack.  The qualifies for Sunday's big race had already started so the harbor was echoing with the revving of racecars.  I could see the jumbotron of cars accelerating back up to race speed after making a hairpin turn.  If I turned the other way I saw sailboats gliding out to the main harbor.  The combination of speed and leisure hit me funny. My everyday life has resembled a racecar as long as I can remember, slowing down only when in imminent danger of crashing.  This weekend I wanted to be the sailboat; to go with the flow and try to keep that weighty stress off my shoulders as long as possible.

If I had to pick one word to describe this weekend;  It would be fun.  We ate good food and wandered around the Inner Harbor.  We watched part of the Grand Prix. Dave even got me to go on the dragon-paddle boats after going to the aquarium.  By my standards, I did pretty well.  Only a couple isolated high stress episodes.  It was so difficult to come back to school and my to-do list on Monday night.

All-You-Can-Eat-Crab-Legs at Phillips Seafood Buffet!

National Aquarium - Still like those stingray

Calypso - The Green Turtle

Paddle boating with tired legs in the Inner Harbor