Christmas update

The Royal Society mountain range.
It's been a while. I haven't been posting because I've been a little down and super busy.

I was busy because a number of grantees were ending their seasons and I was trying to spend as much time with my roommate, Meg, before she left town. She is finally back in the states with her dog Warren, boy Jaime, twin Mo, and family (maybe in that order). She is starting nursing school in January. I am now rooming with her high school classmate, Brooks, who is proving to be just as brilliant.


My last big run (photo compliments of Shuttle Jo, the oldest man on Ice, who turns 81 this year).
As for being down, I was missing my friends and I haven't been getting outside nearly as much as I should. I hurt myself by running twenty miles after taking some time off to be sick. After almost a month, I was finally able to run thirty minutes without pain yesterday. I'm pretty stoked about being able to run again, especially since I just got my team's training guide for WUCC.

For those of you who I haven't told, most everyone, I'll be playing in Prague in July with the mixed Christchurch, NZ team that I won NZ nationals with in December 2008. I'm really excited and honored to play with them. It should be a treat. They helped me remember why I love ultimate and kept me from retiring for a couple more years.


Attack Skua right outside my dorm!
Other things that have happened since Thanksgiving:

• Lots of smoothie mornings
• One skua attacked Meg and me five times on our way home from the galley. We, and our dinner, survived.
  
• Meg's going away party disguised as the Antarctic premier of her boyfriend's first ski movie
• I lost a great roommate.
• I got a new great roommate. We rearranged the room.
• I missed friends back home.
  
• I made new friends and connections here. I might have lost an old friend.
• I waved the 'Just say No to Grey Matter' flag to avoid wasting my time.
  
• I smiled.
  
• I started to make plans for when I leave the Ice (NZ until April, Australia/Hawaii through May 1st, Prague in July).
• I received fabulous gifts from home, including a grey hoodie I'm wearing all the time and video and ancestor info about my dog, Sabah!
• I rediscovered how much I enjoy crosswords.
• The Ob Hill Up Hill
  
• I skied with Becky who I haven't seen since I went to the field.
• A huge content update of the En Sabah Nur, my college ultimate team, website.
• I ate the last of my ice cream from my ice cream cake!

Ice cream cake on my birthday!