Happy Thanksgiving from SUNNY San Diego!

My parents drove to California from Colorado to celebrate Thanksgiving with my kid brother and me. This year was special, as the past two years I was living in Europe where Thanksgiving is nothing but another work day. Therefore, the home-cooked turkey dinner with mashed potatoes, stuffing, and green beans cooked by none other than the spectacular cook--Mama Weimer--was a long-awaited delicious meal. Not to mention, it was just simply brilliant to be in the company of my loving (and wacky...see fountain photos) family. Before eating we walked down to the beach for my last sunset. After dinner I bid my goodbyes and begrudgingly jumped onto a red-flight to Atlanta. In all of my travels, this was perhaps the first time I struggled to board the plane. If I had my druthers I would have reverted back to my childhood years and thrown myself on the floor in a wild kicking and screaming tantrum. But, tantrums at my age are a bit inappropriate. I guess it's time to go back to reality...Georgia.

To San Diego: La-La Land!

After a 4.5 hour flight to San Diego, I wasted no time and allowed vacation mode to kick in and consume my physical and mental being. Woohoo! After four months of a rather difficult transition back to the motherland (USA) coupled with the mixed emotions of PhD life…I find myself in the nurturing space of la-la land. What exactly is la-la land, you ask? Well, let me tell you…
1.) Yoga on the grassy knoll overlooking Pacific Beach (serious),
2.) Tequila, pictionary, silliness, and yoga at 2 a.m.—and a brutal hangover the next day,
3.) Soul searchin’ conversation with my little kid bro,
4.) Daily walks at 4:30 p.m. just in time to catch the Pacific Beach sunset,
5.) Hot yoga with my cousin (Corepower),
6.) Fish tacos and margaritas with my parental units and bro,
7.) No alarm clock,
8.) Contemplating where I have been and where I am going,
9.) Enjoying the eye-candy of beautiful & fit California people,
10.) And, just enjoying the moment.

No writing, no articles to read, no academic profile to sustain, just me, my heart, and a beautiful week in San Diego. Let's not talk about how I SHOULD be studying...which will make for a hellish week when I return to Georgia.

20-page Paper DONE...Time to go Hiking!

After 20 pages of blood, sweat, and tears on the cost and affordability (or lack there of) of higher education, it was time for my Adidas trainers to hit the trail. I seriously thought that paper would never end. On Sunday, my two friends from the clinical psychology department and I piled in the car and drove 1.5 hours to the Bavarian town of Helen for some hiking. We all needed a little mother nature to nurture our souls and clear our heads for the upcoming Thanksgiving break (classes are cancelled for the entire week). There was a chill in the air and most of the leaves had fallen, but the sun was shining...

A Conference & a 20-page Paper!

The day after elections, I schlepped my sleepy self from bed and piled into a University of Georgia van with seven of my classmates. The euphoria from the elections was still running through my blood as we drove to Jacksonville, Florida (see photos) for the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) conference. This is an annual conference where students and faculty in the field present their work for critique and discussion. The highlight for me was meeting up with two old friends from my years in student affairs. Both of them jumped off the student affairs ship and joined the academic world just as I have...so, we had a great deal to talk about. From student affairs to the academic world is quite a change and can be quite cold, lonely, and cut-throat. I suppose I am slowly becoming socialized to this side of higher education, but truth be told...there are days when I miss the nurturing environment of student affairs. Plus, it is extremely difficult when my student affairs experience is dismissed as fluff. Nonetheless, the conference was refreshing and my friends were inspirational.

I came home just in time to slam out a 20 page paper on the debate surrounding college affordability. This was anything but an easy paper. You don't want to hear the real words I would use to describe this assignment! But, today I finally turned it in and now I am catching up on my blog and reflecting on the hellish week.

Obamaliscious!

As the polls came pouring in Tuesday night I was running back and forth from the living room, where CNN illuminated the space, to my bedroom, where my paper on the commercialization of academic research danced on my computer screen. Living in the eastern timezone proved for a long and late night...as the west coast polls did not close until 11 p.m. my time. Truth be told, I was most anxious about the Colorado polls, as that was where I voted and Colorado historically votes red. Plus, I have been the biggest skeptic about Obama taking this race...as I had lost all faith in the American people after the second Bush election. When the Colorado polls closed at 9 p.m. my time, I was glued to CNN. Colorado continued to favor Obama, and so I rallied my roommate and we quickly walked up the hill to the Georgia Theater for the Obama elections watch-party. The Theater was packed to the gill with loyal Obama supporters and the buzz in the air was electric as Obama's lead increased. Every time CNN announced another state had gone blue the crowd went wild. COLORADO BLUE! I went wild!!! I called all of my family members back in Colorado (and San Diego) and yelled with joy across the cell phone waves. A huge victory for Colorado.

In no time...this flashed across the big screen, "CNN Projection: Obama elected President!" Oh my god!! Everyone was going wild, screaming, clapping, stomping, crying, laughing, and sobbing. Such a historical moment in my life.

Election Day!

A few photos from election day in Athens, Georgia...









It was a beautiful, sunny day with colorful leaves falling from the trees.

This is one of the polling stations at 12:30 p.m. (lunchtime)...where is the line of people? Hmmmm...







Here are a few Obama supporters (see sticker on laptop) hanging out at Starbucks. Starbucks offered FREE coffee to customers who voted today.





The sun was shining...a good sign that hope prevails.

Many people were wearing these stickers today. After you vote, you get a sticker.

This is a poster of Obama on a local shop owners window.

Will the American people prove me wrong and vote for hope and change rather than resentment and arrogance? All day, my heart has been beating with fear, anxiety, and excitement. Let tonight be historic and auspicious!

Happy Halloween!

The past two years, I lived in countries that had not embraced the Americanized wacky celebration of halloween. In Portugal, we ran across a group of children throwing eggs...they thought that was scary and hence deemed it "Happy Halloween" (with a Portuguese accent). In Norway, I motivated my international friends to dress up and attend a campus Halloween party...it was quite an event for my Ethiopian friend to wear a mask. Even though I couldn't see his face, I knew he wore a BIG smile all night. This Halloween instead of dressing up I joined my professor, Dr. Slaughter, and classmate, Stephanie, in the annual trick-or-treating ritual. My professor lives in the hottest trick-or-treat neighborhood in Athens. Parents drive there children to this neighborhood and the sidewalks become a Halloween superhighway of little goblins, superheros, witches, and pumpkins. Over a 2-hour period, we sat on the porch, drank wine, and gave out about 10 bags of candy. This is Halloween in America!!

Clocking My Hours...

Another take-home statistics exam. I have a brilliant idea, I will clock my hours. I am awfully curious how long 14 questions will take me and this is what PhD students do...they research (even when the research subject is the researcher!) 1 hour. Clocked. 2 hours. Clocked. Dreams of Chi-square test dance in my head. 5 hours. Clocked. Fun with T-statistics. Time for a glass of wine. 7 hours. Clocked. Oh my, this may take longer than I expected. Time for a BOTTLE of wine. 9 hours. Clocked. 12 hours. Clocked. Ok, this is getting ridiculous! 13.5 hours. Clocked. Another BOTTLE of wine with ANOVA. I now have so many equations and statistical inferences in my head, I have forgotten who is running for president (ha, ha...if only I would be so lucky!) 14.5 hours. Clocked. It's official...I officially suck at statistics and any dream of becoming a quantitative queen has been ripped from my existence. 15 hours. Clocked!

My test was turned in Thursday...and now for a moment of ZEN. Photos are from the fall wine festival at Ashford Manor B&B in Watkinsville, GA. All you can eat food from local restaurants and all you can drink wine from local vineyards and local "bottle shops" (translation: liquor stores).

The Statistics of Studying Vs. Hiking?!

Do I stay home and struggle through another take-home statistics exam or do I accept an offer to go hike the Georgia mountains?

I think you can guess how I chose to spend my saturday on this beautiful sunny day in Georgia. My friend Sarah and I drove about 2 hours to Amicalola Falls State Park in southern Georgia, where the Appalalachian Trail (AT) begins at Springer Mountain. How cool to be at the start of the AT? After reading numerous heroing adventures about life on the AT...I have always dreamt about hiking the 2,175 miles from Georgia to Maine. Someday!

It was a colorful day with an ocean blue sky contrasting against deep red and gold leaves changing with the

season.

You can take a Colorado girl out of the mountains, but you cannot take the
mountains out of a Colorado girl.

Yoga in Athens, Georgia!

I am teaching hatha yoga at a local studio in Athens, Rubber Soul Yoga Revolution. I love the ethics and energy of the studio. It is a donation-based studio, which means the classes are cheap (suggested donation of $3-5/class) and the teachers are volunteer. Normally, a drop-in yoga class in the U.S. is anywhere from $10-20/class, so this is a screamin' deal for all of us yogis in Athens. The basic idea behind a donation-based approach is that it allows more community members to experience yoga. Right now, I teach a 1.5 hour class on Friday which is simply a perfect way to end the week. Plus, teaching yoga unleashes my creative juices, as I build a new sequence of pranayama (breath work) and asanas (poses) coupled with an overall theme (balance, opening, breath and movement, core energy, etc.) every week.

I have always been a visceral being, as I experience life through emotions. For me, this means that I find joy in life through the five senses: the smell of rain, the beauty of the leaves changing colors, the taste of an exotic food, the feel of the earth beneath my hiking boots, laughing with friends, and the melodic sounds of Tibetan chanting. Yet, as a PhD student, the visceral is overtaken by a powerful cerebral work-out. And the only visceral experience to be had is the feel of the keyboard on my fingertips, the flow of words dancing on one page after another, and the mind shifting information from one location to another. Finding balance between the mind/body has been an elusive journey in this process. Yoga allows my mind and body to work in tandem (ok, it's not as great as skiing--balls to wall--down a steep mountain with champagne powder lightly dusting my face...but, it will do for now).

PHOTOS: Top Left- Yoga in Slovenia. Top Right- Artwork hanging on my wall painted by my friend Bret. Others: Rubbersoul Studio photos.