I am, yet again, very behind in blogging. I assume that most of you have probably given up on me by now. These last two months have been very travel intensive and I have barely been home enough to finish work deadlines.

Some of the places that I have visited:

Utah (camping, slot canyon and sandstone structure hiking)
Idaho (work meeting)
Pittsburgh (bachelorette party)
Virgin Islands (vacation!)
Hawaii (another vacation!!)

and now I am back but am moving to Boise in less than three weeks. Unfortunately, I am so behind in blogging that I am not going to write about the last two months. I have posted pictures from most of the trips (still posting more Hawaii pics, I just got back on Saturday) though....

http://picasaweb.google.com/emyager

I doubt if I will post much before the move but hope to get back into blogging after I am settled.

falling in the water, "climbing" again, Idaho

Well, a great deal has happened since I last posted. I haven't really felt like writing and have been waiting until I made a big decision to write anything.

A few weeks ago a bunch of geomorphologists went rafting down the Salt River. The river was really low and we spent a good deal of time trying to get the boat unstuck from rocks in rapids. It was still really fun. However, I was somehow the only loser that managed to fall out of the boat. I really don't know what happened. We went over a big drop and I was trying to reach out of the boat to paddle. The next thing I knew, I was moving in slow motion and remember thinking "I am going to fall into the river head first" and then I did. I was wearing a helmet and life vest and came right out of the water and grabbed onto the boat and was pulled in. I mostly just felt embarrassed.

The next day I hiked to the top of the one of the Four Peaks (highest mountains near Tempe). Part of the hike was off-trail and involved class 2-4 scrambling/climbing. It was my first time "climbing" since I hurt my arms over two years ago. I was nervous doing the class 4 without ropes but overall it was fun and my arms felt alright. I still don't think that I am ready for real climbing yet though. baby steps, I guess.

Finally, the real BIG news that was just finalized last week. I was offered a tenure-track faculty position at U of Idaho! The offer was really great with a reasonable teaching responsibilities, good start-up, lots of great shared equipment and many, many people that I can collaborate with. Plus, it is in Boise, which is a decent sized town that is close to mountains. I don't know how many people would be excited about moving to Idaho, but I sure am! They wouldn't let me keep my postdoc in Wales, unfortunately.

So that is the last month, I guess. Oh, the flowers are blooming in the desert right now!

I've posted new pictures at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/emyager

homesick

I just returned from a trip to Idaho. I had never been there before and saw Boise and Moscow. Boise seems like a really cool town, actually. I only have 1.5 months left at my job here and am beginning to worry about everything that I need to get done! more pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/emyager/IdahoAkaIAlwaysSitByTheWindow

I've been missing my berkeley friends and the bay area quite a bit. I haven't talked to some of you in forever!!!! I really miss my apartment on Euclid despite all the noise in the middle of the night, the roaches and the crazy manager. For some reason that place really felt like home even though I didn't even have any furniture to make it cozy. Even though I love my job and have great friends here, Berkeley somehow became my home over the course of eight years. I never thought that I would say that...

sick

My running into 40 mph winds has helped me to become sick. I started feeling crappy around 11 pm last night and couldn't fall asleep until around 4 am. Headache and nasal drip. Sometimes I can be so stupid.

running in the wind

I went running today by Tempe Town Lake. It is really windy here (weather forecast said up to 40 mph winds). I barely moved forward when I was running into the wind. It was pretty comical for anyone who was watching.. My eyes and mouth have a ton of dirt in them from blowing sand. The lake had really great waves on it and I couldn't help but think of standing waves and Froude numbers. Then I realized that grad school has ruined the simple appreciation of nature that I had at one time...It was that appreciation of nature that motivated me to become a geologist. Kind of ironic.

Some crazy guy came to my office yesterday. He was looking for someone to let him into some room in my building. I think that he is crazy because he came to my office a few months ago and we had almost the exact same conversation. I am not exaggerating either. He seemed to have no memory of our previous conversation or of me.

A lull

I went out dancing with some girl friends on Friday night. It was pretty fun. On Saturday a bunch of friends and I went to a Spring Training Oakland A's game. I think that was the closest that I have ever been to the players. I went on a hike by myself on Sunday. All of the desert flowers are starting to bloom and are pretty.

I'm reading Norwegian Wood (Haruki Murrakami) and can't put it down. He is becoming one of my favorite authors. Still listening to S. Stevens with some Andrew Bird mixed in.

A Bird sums up things pretty well for me right now:

being alone it can be quite romantic
like Jacques Cousteau underneath the Atlantic
a fantastic voyage to parts unknown
going to depths where the sun’s never shone
and i fascinate myself when i’m alone
so i go a little overboard but hang on to the hull
while i’m airbrushing fantasy art
on a life that’s really kind of dull

oh, i’m in a lull

i’m all for moderation
but sometimes it seems moderation itself can be a kind of extreme
so i joined the congregation
i joined the softball team
i went in for my confirmation
where incense looks like steam

i start conjugating proverbs where once there were nouns
this whole damn rhyme scheme’s starting to get me down
i’m rambling on rather self consciously
while i’m stirring these condiments into my tea
and i think i’m so lame
i bet i think this song’s about me
don’t i don’t i don’t i ?

justin to sufjan

I've switched back to wonderful depressing music.
Sufjan Stevens: Seven Swans on repeat.

Vegas, canceled trips and general malaise

Last week was spring break, which means absolutely nothing to me now. Not that it ever really meant anything when I was a graduate student either....A friend and I went to Vegas for one night. Vegas is about 6 hours away from Tempe so we spent most of our two day trip driving and were only in Vegas for 23 hours. I had never been before and I think 23 hours was enough for me even though they were a great 23 hours. We gambled at the nickel slots (we are both cheap), ate at a good restaurant and then spent the rest of our time dancing at Studio 54 in the MGM. We both wore really high heals and walking back to our hotel was extremely painful. I think it took us around 45 minutes and at one point we both took off our shoes and walked barefoot on the strip (GROSS!). We finally broke down and got a cab a few blocks from our hotel. The cab was immediately pulled over by a cop for picking us up in a restricted area. Fun times!

more pics here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/emyager/OneNightInVegas

I went to Renaissance festival last weekend. It was insane. I don't even know where to begin describing the culture of this event. We lasted 2.5 hours and then bolted.

My friend Amy and her husband were supposed to come out to visit last weekend. The snow/ice storm unfortunately kept them on the east coast. Lame. It was almost 100 degrees here though.

I am pretty sure that I didn't get an offer that I wanted and am pretty bummed. Many of my friends seem to have had something bad happen to them recently. It seems like these things go in cycles. Or maybe we only really notice trends when they have negative consequences? I don't know. For the most extreme example: In the past year, three people that are significant parts of my friends'/family's lives have died. Many other smaller (but still significant) things have happened recently. Sometimes I am overwhelmed by feelings of sorrow. Such is life, I guess.