Untitled thoughts are better than whimpering

I was going to write a whiny and whimpering post affected by the overall hazed stupor that proceeded the trip to Boston, mixed with feeling of sadness and ambivalence split between “I need to get out or Richmond” and “I wish I didn’t have to leave” (ambivalence indeed is a complete bitch, I have to say). However, after Tamara’s comment (and I greatly thank you for it) and receiving yet another small grant/award from my fellow Armenians who labeled me as “promising”, I am going to hold the whimpering and simply let myself be excited for having such an opportunity to experience something that I will never experience elsewhere in life – that of graduate school. I am, after all, a sucker for experience, if for nothing else, at least for the sheer sake of the experience itself.

So, no whimpering for now. Instead here’s miscellaneous “to-do” list for the next few weeks, until August and everything after comes.

• Blog a little more, sulk a little less…

• Try to eat better, and by saying this I do not imply eating more or eating less, or even healthier than I do now (ok, maybe, just a little bit). Despite the fact that I’m relatively more or less healthy eater, my diet of late has been so mundane and monotonous that the idea of food is staring to become tediously boring, while my attitude towards it is nothing but apathetic. Once a favorite activity, grocery shopping has become a chore, my past enthusiasm for cooking has sizzled down to almost non-existent, interesting dishes have been replaced with what- takes- little- to- no- time- to-cook meals consisting largely of pre-made and frozen i-wonder-if-its-even-food meals. For the past four months, I’ve been eating nothing but frozen waffles with peanut butter for breakfast, my fruit consumption has been reduced to a random apple or a banana every once in a while, and yes, I’m not eating enough of the “green stuff.” And if you let me, I will simply live off of Panera Bread, but that’s only because it’s within a couple of blocks from my house. Although I love the fact that I no longer have to do the extensive list making, planning, careful portioning and balancing my meals, and can intuitively choose what to eat and when, I do feel that a little variety in my overly repetitive “menu” would cheer me up, to say the least.

• Try to run more consistently, which given the heat and humidity of Virginia summer is much harder than it sounds. The only time I can run these days is very early in the mornings, and yes, I’ve been neglecting on sleep lately as well. The planned “I’ll run a 10k distance by the end of June” has to be delayed until a later date – either when Richmond magically cools down before August, or I move to much “cooler” but less pretty area.

• Try to find a water body body of water of some kind during this summer and see if I can remember how to swim – the irony being that I once was a long distance swimmer covering up to 6km a day, but honestly it’s been a very long time since I’ve done a full lap in a 50m pool.

• Find a new Dave Matthews song to fall in love with – something similar to Oh and Captain. As much as I like these two songs, I find most of Dave Matthews stuff a little too busy for me, but there’s got to be another song somewhere out there that is close to the sound and is just as melodic and summery as these other two.

• Find shoes for the wedding dress dress for the wedding, cause despite the ridiculous number of shoes sitting in my closet, none of them will do – ideas and suggestions are more than welcome.

• Upload pictures to a flikr, since lately I’m very dissatisfied with how The Tale of the Cities looks. It is getting way too crowded by pictures that make drastically different cities look almost alike and deviates from the original concept, which was simply to show snapshots with certain elements of urban living.

• Speaking of cities – start the city project and gather up the courage to ask the fellow bloggers if they’d like to contribute.

• Read less celebrity gossip (I’ve sunken this low – since when did I start to care?) and read the Economist! Yes, the Economist and read it as if my entire life depends on it. Because I cannot stress enough how important, vital and urgent reading this magazine is.

• Make a list of everything that makes me happy and everything that I am grateful for and hold on to the feeling of gratitude instead of whimpering. Cause seriously, it is very unsightly.