Look, a post!

blogging every six months means that you have to fit a lot into each post, so here goes: short updates on various happenings.

I’ll start with my usual refrain, which is that in combination with a full time job, graduate school sucks the life (literally, I lose lots of weight) and free time out of you, and the time pressures of work make it impossible to put more than a token, last minute effort into your studies. But that don’t mean I can’t still pull of A’s.

Megan and I bought a house a few months back, after a few months of looking. Romanticism about more historic neighborhoods gave way to concerns over taxes, renovations, affordability and convience, but those worries largely faded once we found our place in Solon. Cutting down our commutes and being walking distance from the gym, library and two (TWO!) ice cream parlors helps. So does not having to drive 40 minutes each way to do laundry.

Modest renovations have begun, although we are still somewhat occupying the old apartment. Flowers and vegetables have been painted, bushes have been pruned, chimnies have been tarred. Inside, attempts at painting have been stalled by the necessity of removing layers of paint, wallpaper, adhesive and more paint.

For the past two years, we had 4 channels of tv, all of which were fuzzy. As of May, we have 300+ channels, all available at our convience thanks to the miracle of DVR. Its amazing how quickly a luxury turns into a necessity, although our views differ on the subject. Megan watched a lot of tv for a few weeks and has since retreated back to her evening pursuits of making dinners, reading and staring at the cat. My more easily seduced brain has left me staying up to all hours, sitting at attention captivated by the sheer maginitude of options vying to command my attention. Deadliest Catch is the clear winner, although I’ve become somewhat numbed to the potential dangers and drama faced by Alaskan crab fisherman, and have taken to spending a fair amount of my evening hours watching bad movies, fast forwarding through dialoge to view implausible action sequences accented by dubbed in exclamations of “shoot”, “darn” and “crap”.

My  littlest sister is all graduated from college now. I’m very proud of her, and the graduation day/ceremony was lovely. Although after brunching on the lovely lawn of the university president, watching her walk onstage, and talking with all of her very complimentary professors, I think that the one indelible memory of the day will be watching my well-educated sibling, in full graduation regalia, ordering a round of late morning shots in little plastic cups at what was probably one of the least sophisticated bars I’ve ever set foot in. And this is from someone who has spent a lot of time in some pretty shitty bars.

My other little sister is getting married. I guess I need to get a tux. And start planning all of the wonderful ways I’m going to trash the newlyweds’ car. I used some firecrackers and a toilet plunger on Melissa and Nick’s, but I think I can easily top that now.

I’m typing this while enjoying the panoramic view outside of my 17th story hotel room (free upgrade to deluxe king suite!), partly cloudy skies topping the chaotic skyline of Southern Bangkok. Pink Mitsubishi taxis flit around closely packed detached houses and small apartment buildings, punctuated by 20-story glass and concrete  office buildings and hotels. The sheer volume of greenery is incredible for a city. Megan is sleeping off the cumulative effects of a 13 hour time change and 36 hours of travel, while I’m grogging but not quite able to get much sleep. I’m spending the weekend preparing for some client meetings and finalizing a looonnngg presentation I have to give on Tuesday morning to a client, while Megan relaxes and explores, and then we’ll have a few days to play full time tourist before heading back to Tokyo, Chicago and home.

Working with companies on getting into the “green economy”  was always something I had hoped to do years down to road after finishing school and gaining a lot more experience. I never expected to be sent on a solo business trip to the other side of the world to do so this quickly. I’m very excited about this trip, which is, minus a few smaller projects, the first time I’ve been able to put my international studies, economics and environmental background all together in a big way. I’m a little nervous too, in part because I really want to do well on this – if I can pull it off, I may just have a good future in this sort of green business consulting gig.

I guess I’ll close on noting that if you ever want to catch someone by surprise, send someone completely unsuspecting a plane ticket to a trip to the other side of the world a few days before their departure. Megan was somewhat flabbergasted.