These next few weeks.

So, pretty much everything in my life is changing over the next few weeks. This is all sort of overwhelming, but it's also so exciting.

This week is a big one. Mainly because I'm defending my Masters thesis on Friday. Um, I'm a little nervous. I just practiced my presentation for Doug and Uta and got myself tied up in a "big ball of wool". This is not a good feeling because I have enough actual tangled balls of wool in my life and I don't need any extra metaphorical ones. I know I'll have myself untangled by Friday, but it's a bit unsettling this afternoon. Apparently, some people find untangling wool to be therapeutic and relaxing, though. There's a group of people on Rav you can send your tangled wool balls to. They will deal with the mess and send them back all skeined up. I'm not a member of that group and they probably wouldn't be able to do much with my thesis presentation anyway.

The weeks after will include the following events:
-making edits to my written thesis and preparing to publish
-visiting Warsaw, for one last relaxing weekend before I move
-traveling to Manitoulin Island for a roadtrip with Nat
-Hillside festival where I will be running a crafty workshop
-Wolfe Island music festival with Em
-moving out of our sweet little abode in Guelphtown and finding some place to stash all of my belongings
-perhaps (of course) a going away party for everyone

During this time I also need to pack for my trip. I'm taking one backpack for the entire four months. It carries 65L, or about 35 lbs. That's all I can comfortably carry for the day anyway. I've been collecting items to take over the past little while. I need a lot of multi-functional items because I'll be at an International conference, working in a forest, working in a rain forest, camping in the desert, flying on a bunch of planes, working on farms, swimming in oceans, the list goes on and on. So far, here are the items that I feel a little bit crazy about NOT taking:

-my hairbrush
-my laptop
-my wallet
-a pillow
-my running shoes
-a proper towel
-my jeans

These are all of the things that I want to take, but just don't have the space for (my hairbrush is really big and I chopped my hair off anyway). Everything else I've found suitable alternatives for except my jeans. I might end up wearing them, actually, but I'm trying to find another pair of pants that will dry more quickly, but still look fashionable. I'll have to come back here and post the few items of clothing I'm taking and amaze everyone with how many different outfits for different occasions I can come make with so few items of clothing (um, I still don't have that completely figured out yet).

Yeah, so busy busy busy, but a lot of fun too!

One of my favourites.

Every few days the banner on the University of Guelph website changes to show off an important event or information about the school. The most recent banner is one of my all-time favourites. It shows Doug and one of his bands, the GMO's, at the Make it Seven Rally in Hamilton. The GMO's wrote a song about the drive to bring a seventh national hockey league team to Canada and they were picked up by the rally organizers to play on the big day.

This is fun.

I found this computer program on the Internet that takes your name and some other information, turns it into Dewey Decimal System Coordinates, and then tells you what it means.

Cass' Dewey Decimal Section:

489 Other Hellenic languages

Cass = 31999012258 = 319+990+122+58 = 1489


Class:
400 Language


Contains:
Linguistics and language books.



What it says about you:
You value communication, even with people who are different from you. You like trying new things don't mind being exposed to unfamiliar territory. You get bored with routines that never change.

Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com

Cass' Dewey Decimal Section:

104 [Unassigned]

Cass' birthday: 1/21/1983 = 121+1983 = 2104


Class:
100 Philosophy & Psychology


Contains:
Books on metaphysics, logic, ethics and philosophy.



What it says about you:
You're a careful thinker, but your life can be complicated and hard for others to understand at times. You try to explain things and strive to express yourself.

Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com

Cass' Dewey Decimal Section:

081 Collections in American English


Class:
000 Computer Science, Information & General Works


Contains:
Encyclopedias, magazines, journals and books with quotations.



What it says about you:
You are very informative and up to date. You're working on living in the here and now, not the past. You go through a lot of changes. When you make a decision you can be very sure of yourself, maybe even stubborn, but your friends appreciate your honesty and resolve.

Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com

More than I ever imagined.

Last night Emily stopped by with treats from Paris. She just returned from her two week vacation on Sunday and was back in Guelph on Tuesday.

She had so many interesting stories about her travels through the belle city. Versailles sounds so unbelievable. Marie Antoinette decorated the palace with marble and gold and created acres and acres of traditional french gardens. She had a hamlet built on the property where the perfect little sheep were shampooed every morning. Of course, she didn't last long, but what a lavish way to live.

I also really enjoyed all of Em's descriptions of the french food. She says they likes raw things a lot and mould doesn't scare them away at all. Tartare is on every single menu. Everything was delicious and the grocery stores have giant pudding sections. Good to know.

Emily brought me a tiny black and gold box with six macaroons from Laduree. Laduree is a famous bakery that makes double decker macaroons with delicious fillings. Each one has incredible, saturated colouring that comes from the flavouring ingredient. I'd known about this place for awhile and have wondered what these little delights actually tasted like. I imagined they were tasty, but they were far better in real life. My little package had: vanilla, coconut, lemon, salted caramel, pistachio, and bergemot macaroons. Emily's favourite flavour is salted caramel and Gillian's favourite flavour is bergemot. I am quite partial to the lemon macaroon, but each one was fantastic. I HAD to eat them all as they had been purchased on Sunday and didn't have much of a shelf life left.

I took a picture, but they were half eaten and don't compare at all to the ones I found online. ha. Here's the little box which will be the future home for various miniature items:



And here's a cool little miniature someone made:

Good art.

Nat sent me this link to her friend's website ScheibStor. He makes cool sketches and you can have them printed on clothing and things. Everything is done in one colour, pencil and line drawings. I like it a lot.

This is one of his sketches of downtown Montreal:

Causes and consequences of biodiversity.

This afternoon the PhD student I've worked with for the past 3 and a half years is defending his thesis. This is exciting because I've had a bit part in his field projects. My Masters project is related to his work and we've worked together ever since I started here. Basically for my entire career outside of my undergrad.

We've spent long days out in abandoned quarries and taken care of zillions of tiny little rare alvar plants. I have great memories of lunchtimes under the little birch tree at the edge of Water's Quarry and dipping our feet into the water off the boardwalk at Fletcher's Creek. Working on his projects I had the chance to visit many parts of the Niagara Escarpment I would never have had access to otherwise. We drove long hours and listened to good music. For the past year or so, we've both been writing away and preparing to present out work. He's spent a lot of time away from the lab, but he's always quick to answer e-mails and he has been tremendously helpful with my work. I know he'll make a great professor and teacher and will probably have a really cool research program too.

I'm excited to see his presentation and listen to the question period. We'll celebrate afterwards and I made a small present for him to say congratulations and thank you for everything. I'll post pictures once I've given it to him.

Everything is wrapping up in the Cliff Ecology Research Group. My thesis is finished and only needs a few changes before I can have my papers signed and set-up a defence date. I'm planning a big trip, moving, and I have about a million other things to do before all of that. I'm planning on posting all of my Halifax stuff here once I have a few free minutes. I kept a few notes while I was there and want to include that all here.

Oh, uncertain world.

Neat.