chimesblog

Today is my first day at ISU. Which means no more commute and oddly enough that I have to get up EARLIER than before to get to work. I was leaving Ames to get to Drake at 8:15ish but I have to be at work by 8 today. Let’s see how I do. Also, I’m biking. This should be interesting.

Oddly enough this post is going to be mostly about my last day at Drake.

Here is my super-empty cube. Bye bye cube!

And Shelly is really sad to see me go. Mostly because this is my list of jobs. I got everything done that I could on all of my jobs, except a lot of them were stuck in limbo (ie. proofing internally or with the client). It’s color coded so she knows where everything is.

Okay, so she might be a little sad that I’m leaving because I won’t be there anymore.

Also, I will miss the “Can’t Touch This Award” — the weekly award given to somebody who kicked ass the previous week. I got it before I left and I passed it on one last time.

Also … I ran out of stuff to do by 10 AM. So I may have played an hour of N64.

After work we met at Star Bar for drinks. I had a Dirty Blue martini (um stuffed blue cheese olives anybody?).

I’m excited to start a new chapter in my life at ISU: Hopefully getting my grad degree (paid for), getting to spend more time with Mark and my Ames friends (LUNCH anybody?), biking or bussing to work and best of all 2 more hours added to my day every day! I will miss most everybody at Drake and I will most definitely miss having design as my major responsibility. But, I need to hone some of my other skills in addition to design if I want to be a well-rounded teacher some day.

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So I promised big news last week and I was so busy I never delivered.

The big news is that I got a new job! I’m leaving Drake and heading to Iowa State University.

[goodbye spike, hello cy*]

Besides the obvious commute change (as in NO MORE COMMUTING) there’s another major change: I will probably not be designing so much.

My new job is Communications Specialist II for Student Recruiting in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. I’ll be doing social media, a bit of writing, a bit of design, student recruitment (so some travel) but mostly I’ll be in charge of the first-year student experience. So I’ll be planning events programming for first-year students to keep them engaged with not only ISU but specifically the college.

So are you freaking out? I’m kind of freaking out. I just realized last week I don’t get to pick paper anymore. Or print vendors.

Calm down. I’m planning to enroll in the College of Design MFA in Graphic Design program while I’m there. It’s not my TOP pick for MFA programs *cough cough* MCAD *cough cough* Yale *cough cough* … but it will be free. And really, I want to teach college students. So what matters is that I HAVE the degree. Not where it’s from. It’s not a BAD program either.  So I’ll be getting my design in as well as honing some other important skills.

*I realize that this is the OLD Cy ISU athletics logo … but I reallllly hate all the new athletics logos. Which is funny because I always bitch about Drake constituents that feel the same way about old marching spike that I do about old cy.

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Chobani!

Wait, Chobani?

Yes. Chobani.  Greek yogurt.  Of the frozen variety.

I’ve been toying with the idea of buying an ice cream maker for a VERY long time.  But I realized it would be a very bad idea.  That was until I saw a blog post about one-step frozen yogurt — ie. freezing Greek yogurt.

So I bought an ice cream maker.  And we’ve been experimenting with frozen yogurt.

Just so you know, if you put vanilla Chobani in the ice cream maker, it doesn’t miraculously turn into what you think frozen yogurt should taste like.  It tastes like vanilla Chobani.  However, that gives you an excuse to eat frozen yogurt for breakfast and impress your friends and coworkers.

After two tries, we came up with a recipe we like.

Vanilla Bean Frozen Yogurt

1 large container plain 0% Chobani yogurt
1/8 t vanilla bean
2 T honey
1 T vanilla extract
1/4 c sugar (or brown sugar for a carmely taste)

Mix yogurt, vanilla bean (the stuff inside the pod), vanilla and sugar vigorously until well-combined.  Turn on ice cream maker and pour in.  Ice cream maker will stop when yogurt is too thick for the bowl to turn anymore.  Freeze if the consistency isn’t hard enough for you. Top with whatever you please (we had chocolate chips handy!)

So after hearing about me making a couple batches of Chobani frozen yogurt, my coworker, Brianne, saw that Chobani was having a promotion on twitter and started a conversation with them.  After a few tweets back and forth, we ended up getting some frozen yogurt shipped to us.

It’s yet to come, but I promised the office frozen yogurt.  So I better deliver!  I can’t wait!

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It’s Drake Relays time!

That means … I’m really busy.

But seriously. It means streetpainting, Beautiful Bulldogs and lots of races. I’m not running in the Drake Half Marathon this year — no way am I going to top shaving off 20 minutes from my PR —  but I am going to go check out some of the fun events this week. And you should too!

Here are some of my favorite photos from Drake’s flickr galleries.

The winner of the Beautiful Bulldog Contest was Lucy Brown! (the ! is part of her  name) and she is suuuuuper adorable. And probably pretty slobbery.

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Oh boy.

In case you didn’t know, I hate the fair. It is absolutely NOT super-magical. Honestly, if I didn’t have to go for work, I wouldn’t go.  And I really should play state fair bingo when I do go (after my shift) because it would make the day so much more exciting.

Regardless: it’s over.

Well, my day there is anyway — the fair is still here for a few more days … blech.

First off, I must mention that I parked in front of the Slaughter residence. Yes. That is an epic last name. I wonder if they have a son around my age …

I got there and ran my shift at the Drake Day at the Fair tent. Check out the cool pix on our facebook! That was a lot of fun. My shift was slow, but we had a few awesome alums come through that made it totally worth while. Our theme this year was “Capture your love for Drake” and we were handing out pennants with a contest for the best fair photos with the pennant.  What a cool idea. Yay Drake!

I also worked at the VI building earlier that day and met a lady who graduated from Drake in 1930!  NINETEEN THIRTY.  She was amazing. She was an art teacher and a counselor for years. She also apparently has a golf cart with a bulldog on it that she wants to paint blue. Not just any blue, DRAKE BLUE. How cool!

Also, let me just say, I hate temporary tattoos. Most of my day was spent putting these on kids. Every time I put one on a kid, I felt like his mom was going to kill me. I had this one kid that asked for it on his FOREHEAD.  Seriously? I put another kid’s on the back of his neck. Honestly, he was out of room everywhere else. These kids went around to every station and got temporary tattoos. I’m sure to the delight of their parents.

Regardless. Adorable photo op!

Between my two shifts, I kind of geeked out over the quilts. I’m more of a fabric-a-holic than anything and the quilts at the fair never pique my interest as far as fabrics go, but damn. There is a lot of stitchery that goes into those quilts!

This one had a few fabrics I like and was a cute pattern.

Seriously. Look at that stitching!

All I have to say for this one is: wow. Those are a LOT of little tiny squares. This was a huge quilt. It didn’t even get an honorable mention. Really? Really.  I want to find out who did this so I can make him/her a ribbon because this is amazing.  Not as beautiful as some of the other quilts, but super amazing nonetheless. Can you imagine how much time and effort went into this? Seriously. CRAZY.

Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh. Wait.  I almost finished my post here, but then I realized I didn’t mention food. You can’t blog about the Iowa State Fair without food, right? Yeah. Okay, so I’m a health nut. I found the ONE thing that probably won’t kill me (and it was cheap too!). I had an apple with caramel and peanuts. OM. NOM. and only 2 bucks! That’s cheap for fair food.

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It’s time for my favorite work-related thing ever … Drake Day at the Fair!

You should stop by and say hi. I’m working 6-8 at the Drake Day tent and 1-5 at the VI building.  We’re doing a photo contest this year — pick up a pennant and spread your love for Drake.

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On Sunday, Kelly and I took Barney for a walk.  She’s trying to cross off as many items on her 30-before-30 list and walking a dog was one of them. She’s always had cats, so she never had a chance to walk a dog. Plus, I think she might be scared of bigger dogs (as am I — only when I’m running or when they run up to me out of nowhere — hey, I’m tiny).

So, we went to Wal-Mart and got Barn a sweater (not as fancy as the coat I want to get him from Noodle and Friends).  Then came home and suited him up.

And we’re off. Well. Kind of. Somebody had to sniff everything and pee first.

This photo caught me pulling my shirt down and caught Barney at the beginning of a shake. He likes to shake off. A LOT.  He stopped several times during our short walk to shake.  Propeller ears!

Yay!  Kelly walks a dog for the first time ever! 

Proof that Kelly likes dogs. Well, at least this one.

We took Barney over to the Drake Stadium and had him meet up with the giant bronze bulldog statue.  He was pretty scared at first (that’s a HUGE bulldog!), but I got him to stand on top of the bulldog for a few pictures.

I’m not so sure about this, mom …

All in all, it was a pretty productive dog-walking Sunday.

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It’s the 100th Drake Relays this week…and I can’t run.  Oh the irony.  I had planned on the Drake Relays on the Roads Half Marathon to be my “comeback” race. Now I’m not sure when that will be if ever.

My hip had started to get better…but suddenly it relapsed a few days ago and it’s really sore.  I don’t know what I did…other than the fact that I have a hard time sitting and I like to sit and chill and sew/crochet/knit/surf the webs at night on my couch/futon/bed creation in my living room.  Two nights ago I sat for 3 or so hours and helped Kasey with his resume/cover letter (consulting my friends… consulting).  

And here I am. Bitching about not running…again.  I saw several clusters of high school kids (college maybe…they all just look so young anymore it’s so hard to tell the difference) out running today  in preparation for the Drake Relays. 

Not only that, but the two girls I work with are running the race (not the 1/2 marathon, but the 8K) on Saturday and keep talking about it. Don’t get me wrong… I’m excited for them, but it’s so hard because all I want to be doing is running right now. NOT sitting here being sore and bitching about it. 

Yeah. I can bike. But I don’t own a GOOD bike, so I’m stuck indoors. Really? BORING. 

I can swim. I hate pool water. It’s gross. Also, all the lanes are always filled up at the pool at the Bell Center…so I can never water jog like I’d like to do. AND pool water makes me into an itchy lizard.

Elliptical? No. I can’t add resistance right now so elliptical is kind of worthless.  I’m not one of those sorority girls with full makeup and a cell phone glued to my ear. I want a real workout. 

This seems like the longest time ever…this time I’ve been “on the bench”.  I know that it’s for the best. It’s torture now, especially since I was out there in full-clad underarmour ALL WINTER LONG in -20° temps, snow, ice, hail and sleet.  It’s gorgeous outside and all I can do is walk (barely) a few blocks and wish I was running. I can nod an smile at the runners as they pass…and hell, I’ve even felt like clapping for a few that looked especially worn out. 

Bottom line: THIS SUCKS. 

It’s a learning experience I guess. I’ll come away with good habits and skills to avoid another injury. Big thing: maybe I should have stretched?  I can touch my right toe again. I’m getting closer to my left one (left leg is the one that’s not good).  

On the bright side, I’ve gotten into crafting lately and will probably post more about that until I’m able to hobble back out there. That’s why I changed my header AND why I haven’t been blogging lately b/c I’ve been wayyyyyy to into crafting for that.

My goal is to get into a craft Saturday and hopefully sell some stuff. I’ve got a list of stuff I’m going to make in the next month to get rid of a LOT of my supplies that I’m sick of moving back and forth whenever I move.  :) 

Okay. I’ve got a glass of Lucy Lane going..so I’m going to get back to that.  Watching the office, salvaging some scrap fabric (cutting into 5-in, 4-in, 3-in and 2-in squares to start a collection for random scrap quilts — that will be my quilting indulgence).  

I suck at closings. I feel like I’m writing a paper and need to recap or something.

Oh shoot!  I forgot to mention. My friend Steph (who is totally awesome, btw — and that is NOT the wine talking) knows some of the peeps from The Envy Corps and pulled some strings so I’m getting to use their new single for our Drake promotional video. How cool is THAT?  I had to mention it, cuz I kinda feel like a rockstar. 

ok that’s it. back to cutting fabric.

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