april showers and new beginnings

(I WISH the magnolias were blooming already...but they're not. This picture is old but isn't it pretty?)

First of all, I just heard about the Boston Marathon bombing and am shocked. Tens of thousands of people worked so hard to make today one of the best days of their lives, a crowning achievement, and instead an incomprehensibly sick person/group turned it into their worst nightmare. My dad is heavily involved in the running community, so I grew up spectating at races and now casually participate in them as well...what an unbelievable attack on such a positive, happy, driven, and integrity-filled community of people. My thoughts and prayers are with everyone involved.

On an opposite note, how is it already mid-April? I knew that this spring was going to pass before my eyes and it sure is, even though it is slowwwwwly starting to feel more spring-like outside. AKA 60* rainy days instead of 40* rainy days. This weekend Ben and I laid low, cleaned the apartment, and watched 180 Degrees South (which was bad-ass but reinforced my certainty that I will NEVER be a rock climber) and Life of Pi. We had listened to the Life of Pi audiobook on one of our cross country road trips, and I think that the movie did an excellent job in bringing the story to life. The special effects and ocean scenes were spectacular, although the graphic visuals made the movie more sad for me than the book, and was probably not the best thing to watch the night before I started a new job at a zoo.

Yup, you read it. I am SUPER excited to say that I've landed a full time job in the Education Department at Lincoln Park Zoo!!!!!!! Today was my first day! (All the papers I just signed require me to state that the opinions and views I express on this blog are mine alone, not necessarily held by my employer). 

You know your job is going to be fun when the first day orientation includes a comprehensive zoo tour and collecting behavioral data on gibbons. And no, I doubt that I will ever get to handle the animals (sorry), but that's actually ok with me, although I would love to hug a fluffy lion (maybe someday in heaven??). I feel incredibly lucky and blessed to have found this opportunity, since I haven't had full time work in SIXTEEN MONTHS. Finding and landing a conservation science job in the city is a dream come true.

This week also marks "birthday season." Three of my best friends and I were all born a little over a week apart. It's my golden birthday this year, so I'm going to have to quickly come up with some way to celebrate!

I hope the sun is shining where you are this week!

(if you live in the Midwest, I sympathize)

book review roundup

I've been doing pretty good lately on the reading front (taking a week long vacation without internet access or TV helped a lot with that). I gave up on Anna Karenina a while ago, but all the books I've picked up since then have been really good. Here are brief reviews of the two fiction novels I've just finished. I recommend them both!

1. The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

I read this for my book club, and really enjoyed it. In one sentence: it's a well written coming of age story about a baseball prodigy and the people connected to him during his time at a small liberal arts college on the shore of Lake Michigan. The character development is good and there are multiple protagonists, although it's one of those books where it's kind of hard to really like any of the characters in particular. There is only one main female character and I don't think that Harbach wrote her in a completely convincing manner...it's like he was really trying to get inside the female psyche but ended up creating just an object to be used by the male characters. My only other criticisms are that the names of the characters are borderline cheesy and unbelievable, and that although the book is not really a happy book at all, it still comes off with a brightly colored/saccharine/bubble feel. Other than that it really pulled me in and taught me about baseball. It kind of reminds me of a masculine version of The Flamenco Academy.

2. Nightwoods by Charles Frazier

I checked this book out from the library to bring on our trip to Arizona. Charles Frazier also wrote Cold Mountain (the Civil War book which was turned into a movie with Nicole Kidman) and I've been wanting to read that for a long time but I chose Nightwoods instead because it was shorter and lighter to take in my carry on. The jacket says that it's set in the 1960's (although I don't think the book actually discloses a date) in a very small mountain town in North Carolina. I finished this book in one day, and it's one of those novels that's described as "taut" and "fast paced" because the plot doesn't cover much chronological time. It's about a young woman named Luce who has run away from her childhood town due to some heavy traumadrama and is living hermit like in an old Victorian-era vacation lodge. She finds out that her sister has been murdered and Luce becomes the guardian to her young and psychologically damaged niece and nephew. The book follows them as all three work through their deep rooted issues while at the same time good and evil characters break into their peaceful seclusion of the lodge. It's a fast and exciting book.

Have you read anything recently that you would recommend?

spring break in Arizona

I'm back! 

And I can't believe we're already a week into April! I know for sure that this spring is going to fly by.

Last week was Ben's spring break (perks of teaching=free vacation!) and we spent it in warm and sunny Sun City, Arizona. It was a fun trip but the purpose was kind of emotional and sad. We met up with Ben's mom, sister, and her boyfriend to clear out his grandparents' house since his grandmother has passed away and his 96 year old grandpa recently moved into assisted living. I'm really glad I got a chance to see their house, because Ben spent most of his childhood spring breaks there and it's full of memories.

Hello, palm trees!

Sun City is a retirement community, so we all (including my mother in law) felt conspicuously young everywhere we went. There are serious golf cart crossing signs and people drive their golf carts on the main roads and to the shopping centers. It's kind of hilarious but you really have to watch out for them!

We spent most of the trip going through cupboards and sorting out family heirlooms, but made sure to take a break everyday to hit the pool or go for a hike. The majority of my pictures are of flowers in the desert from our short hike into the nearby White Tank Mountains because my camera battery died soon afterwards! 

 I was sooo happy to see some mountains again!

 Spring in the desert is gorgeous, even in a drought.

 Flowers are rare, but extra bright to compensate!

 Ancient petroglyphs

 Gorgeous spring!

 This is a "waterfall" we ended up at which of course the boys had to climb. The white granite rocks form canyons and hold water when it rains, give the White Tank Mountains their name.

 Group shot!

 It was so nice to see some GREEN after this endless winter we've been having in the Midwest!

After several days of dry, sunny 85 degree weather, it's pretty difficult and disorienting to try and settle back into the normal routine here. Even though we had tough work to accomplish I think we all had a good trip, and I feel like I know that side of Ben's family a lot better now after spending more time with his grandpa and sorting through all their old photos and family artifacts! His grandparents traveled all over the world and we ended up inheriting some pretty awesome things, including silver serving utensils, cookbooks, some furniture, tons of sewing thread (exciting for me) and a granite cheese slicer (exciting for Ben). Now it's back to school for him and back to field trips at the Arboretum this week for me.

I hope your week is off to a great start!