Sunglasses

http://picasion.com
This one is for BrieAnn and Colleen.  Photos by Thatcher Hayward.

Post Photoshoot

I have a bazillion photos to edit after a photoshoot that my friend Thatcher did with me this weekend.  As usual, I embarrass myself with how difficult it is for me to be serious and not goofy.  But thank goodness if you take enough photos there's bound to be a few that hit the mark.
In the meantime, here's a little gif for fun:
 
picasion.com

PTSD sneak attack

I'm glad that I don't frequently experience the effects of PTSD anymore.  But jeez.  When it does sneak up on me, WTF. 
I'm sitting at work, doing market research for seafood restaurants around the country.  One of the 300 national chains I'm researching is Bertucci's, so I look up its menu and am recording the contact information for headquarters, and it's in Northborough MA, on Otis Street.  And immediately (unconsciously), my shoulder muscles flare up, tense and painful, and my blood runs cold, my hands get clammy.  I have a flashback to the location: I lived in neighboring Westborough my first year in MA, and my bank was on Otis Street, next to the Bertucci's and I had a terrible experience there too, not just at vet school.  God damn, that place was trying to spit me out from the get-go. 
I am so glad to be away.  I am so glad to be doing meaningful work in a beautiful place where people appreciate me.  I just wish my past would just stop haunting me and sneaking up on me.  I'm over it.  I have moved on.  Why bother bothering me!??

Envelopes from Old Calendars

I had a pile of pretty Thank You cards, but they didn't have envelopes.  Even better!  I just wrapped them (similar to a present) in old calendar photos.

Post Graduation

Aside from all the fun I had with my parents, in the past week, I have:

• gone boogie boarding (clearest bluest water I've seen yet...it looked like the Bahamas!)
• gone horseback riding at Pebble Beach
• secured not one but two interviews for next week
• sewn a button on a sweater
• organized all the cards, correspondence, and memorable ephemera since my house burned down, by year
• done 1.5 months worth of laundry (embarrassing, but there you go)
• organized my digital life a bit more (started using evernote, & deleted a bunch of files from my computer)
• switched from safari to chrome (because I finally didn't have a million tabs open for school projects)
• enjoyed hot chocolate every night
• slept in every day
• played trivia
• enjoyed going to work at Seafood Watch without schoolwork breathing down my neck

Basically, I am trying to take my friend Mira's advice, "enjoy it."   Not only am I not in school, but I'm not even on 'summer vacation,' really, since I'm not going back in the fall.  This is new territory for me.  Though I had 2 yrs not in school between Tufts and MIIS, I was lost, poor, working 4 jobs, and didn't have much time to enjoy my life.  I forced myself to dance so that I would have something to enjoy (dance is truly a lifesaver, many times over) during that time.  Anyway, here I am. Yay.  Enjoying the fact that I can pretty much do whatever I want to do whenever I think of it.  Instead of having to focus on a single project, or prioritize things, I can spend 20 minutes on one project, then when I think of something else I can pop up and start on that.  It's super fun.  

Ah, yes, what interviews, you ask?  One is for the Digital Coast Fellowship through NOAA, with the National Association of Counties and the National States Geographic Information Council, located in Washington DC, and the other is for the position of Program Manager of the local NGO (Monterey), Friends of the Sea Otter.  I won't bore you with the details, but here are the wordles of the job descriptions, and they do a pretty good job summing up what the jobs would be like.  I had a practice interview which was very helpful, and I'm looking forward to both interviews.  Very different but equally awesome potential positions.  Wish me luck!